Fairplay School
(Note: The heart of this community is at the intersection of U.S. Highway 79 and FM 124 in the western part of Panola County)Primes Williams gave the land for the first Fairplay school, church and cemetery, about three fourths of a mile west of the present center of Fairplay. The log church was there in 1841 according to old settlers. The History of Panola County published by the Carthage Book Club stated that the location was bout three miles from Rev. Isaac Reed's church at Clayton. And goes on to further describe the building.
The first school house was a log house with a dirt chimney (that was later replaced with a brick chimney) and a plank floor was added. The boards for the floor were hand riven and so were the boards for window and door shutters. Split logs with pegs for legs were the seats.
New settlers would be allowed to live in the church and school house until they could get land and a house The house was already being used for a church and school before the Gentry family came to the area in 1847 because they lived in it. Mrs. T.G. Allison, born in 1835, went to school there earlier than 1847. The house served as a church and school until it was destroyed by fire in 1868. According to local historian S.T. Allison, Mattie Trigg was the teacher at the school when the building burned during the night.
After the building burned in 1868, a vacant negro cabin near the school location became the school for the rest of the term. After the term ended the hut was torn down and another log house was built on the spot. The new house served as a school house plus the Methodist and Baptist congregations worshiped there for the next few years. The Methodist congregation built a church building in 1882.