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PETER'S PRAIRIE SCHOOL MARKER
Marker Text: During the 1850's and 1860's Mason County landowner "Major Joshua Peters" supplied cut prairie grasses from here to Fort Mason for their horses. The coommunity which developed took the name of Peter's Prairie. In 1877 John Roades and W. H. Morris petitioned county councilmen to open a community school on land deeded by Larkin Morris, south of the present sites. Rhoads, W. H. Morris and C. Coalson were named trustees and $147.60 was raised locally to fund the new picket schoolhouse, which opened with 59 students. Miss Jane Hurley was one of the earliest teachers.
In 1894 J. W. Henry bought four acres from J. H. Tabor to build a frame school at the current site. Citizens showed their commitment to education by raising their advalorum tax rate from 20 to 50 cents per 100 dollars valuation in 1913.
After Peter's Prairie and Pike's schools consolidated in 1921, a new 3-room school was built from masonry blocks poured and formed on Mrs. Anna Martin's property on the Llano River and hauled here by wagon. The grounds included a water well and courts for basketball, volley ball, and tennis. Mason County's championship tennis tradition started here, introduced by Walter Adkins. Helen Sell Tallent who played here was an inaugural inductee at the Texas Tennis Coaches Association Hall of Fame. Peter's Prairie taught grades one through ten and the high quality of education was confirmed by numerous academic and athletic awards won by students in rural school competitions. Although Peter's Prairie School consolidaed with Mason Schools in 1946 the schoohouse continued to serve as a center of local activity and as the heart of the community. The school has hosted such community functions as dances, lunches, showers, musical performances, Christmas parties and a quilting club. (2013)