Friendship Methodist Cemetery Historical Marker, Friendship, Milam, TX

Site of Friendship School

From Davilla, FM437 towards Rogers; turn right

on FM1915 - 4.0 miles to School

Friendship School

Erected 2003

Site of Friendship School

In 1846, John Marsden Graham of South Carolina

settled in this area. After he died of typhoid

fever, his brother, Edward Wesley Graham, came in

1856 to take over his estate. By that time

Edward Hampton Ross had also settled here.

He came from Mississippi in 1852 with his family,

including his father, the Rev. David Ross, and

his siblings. E. H. Ross's land adjoined the

Graham property.

The families built a wooden schoolhouse on the

southern border of the Ross property. The children

began attending classes, and the Rev. Ross held

Sunday Church services that October. The

families called the school "friendship" based on

the close ties they had formed. The Friendship

Methodist Church developed from these early Church

services , and the school became Granger Common

School District No. 1.

In 1874, the W.T. And Margaret (Madison) Walker

family arrived in the area and soon bought a school

for the younger of their nine children who could

not make the trip to the Friendship School. In a

riverbank shack, Margaret's sister Fanny Madison

taught children at what became the Lilac Common

School No. 2 also known as Aplins Chapel or the

Clay Creek School. Common School No. 3 began in a

Church of Christ Tabernacle on the Davilla to

Cameron Road. It was referred to as "who'd-a-thought-it", reportedly because it was in

an unlikely place for a school.

In 1914 Friendship School District opened a larger structure to accommodate the growing

population. The building also served as a Community Center. In the 1930s, the

Friendship School merged with the Sharp School District which consolidated into the

Rockdale District in 1964. The Building continued to serve the Community for many

years.