In celebration of the nation's birthday, the Archives is sharing an artifact from our collections that is appropriately patriotic! This American flag used to hang at the Berryhill School in Shackelford County.
For those who might not be familiar, Berryhill was a small community on a country road just east of Farm Road 142 near the Ivy oilfield in the northwest corner of Shackelford County. The community of Berryhill was named after land agent J.B. Berryhill, who purchased a large tract of land (about 3 square miles) from the Swenson Land and Cattle Company in the late 1800s. Mr. Berryhill in turn sold parcels of the land to ranching families who moved into the area and named the community after him.
The first Berryhill school was originally made of wood and was located on the Cyrus Reves homestead. It burned early on and so the community decided to rebuild the school - this time moving the location about a mile north and using much hardier limestone. In 1938 the Berryhill school served 39 pupils and had three teachers. Most students would attend through the 4th or 5th grade before moving on to the Lueders school for the rest of their education. In fact, the Berryhill school was later officially consolidated with the Lueders school in the 1960s, but the old stone school building remained standing and was occasionally used for community functions or even local family reunions through the 1980s.
Portions of this blog are courtesy of Jewellee Kuenstler, whose family originally homesteaded at Berry Hill and still live there today.
Molly Sauder
Archivist and Librarian