Witting School

Witting School. . In the 1870s to 1880s a considerable number of German-speaking immigrants migrated to northwestern Lavaca County. One of them was George Witting, who was a wealthy commission merchant originally from Columbus, Texas. Witting became a large landowner in the area and in September 1880 he donated an acre of land to Peter Pundt, Gerhard Boening and Fritz Gehrles as trustees of the German-English non-sectarian school association for the purpose of building a school., That year a single-room wood frame building measuring 20 x 40 feet with a small storeroom in the back was constructed at a cost of $540 and named after Witting. By 1890, enrollment had ballooned and forced the district to drill a water well and to erect a new three-room schoolhouse with a long porch, a windmill and a cistern house. Before 1919, the Witting School was maintained entirely upon tuition which was $2.00 per student per term., The Witting schoolhouse served the little community as a place for public meetings, gatherings and some social events. The local Evangelical Lutheran congregation also used it for more than 40 years as its temporary church for Sunday services and bible study groups. The Lavaca County School Board closed the Witting School and consolidated it with two other schools in 1969. Witting School was one of the oldest rural schools in Lavaca County and one of the last to close. With its sale, the long, proud history of the Witting School came to a close and ended 89 years of service as a focal point of rural education in northwestern Lavaca County.