Alla Hubbard grads remember school days at reunion

Alla legacy kept alive with scholarship

Penny Rathbun

prathbun@starlocalnews.com

The last class to graduate from the Alla Hubbard School held commencement exercises in 1957. The Alla School consolidated with the Celina Independent School District in 1958.

Since then Alla Hubbard alumni have been gathering for a yearly reunion held in June, usually at Celina High School.

About 50 Alla Hubbard alumni members met for this year's reunion. Pastor Jerry Jones traveled the farthest of any of the attendees. He came 650 miles to get to Celina from Parsons, Tennessee where he is the interim pastor at Crossroads Baptist Church.

An Alla Hubbard School superintendent, Miles Murphy had a major impact on his life.

“He taught me how to live life,” Jones said.

Jones would have graduated in 1953 had he not gone to work for the railroad before he graduated.

Alla School graduates and alumni carrying indelible memories of their years there, enough that they come back every year for the reunion.

The Alla School educated Celina area students from first grade through 12th grade from 1884 to 1957. The school building was on property where the new Celina High School now stands. After consolidation the building served as the Celina Junior High for many years until it was destroyed by a tornado.

In 1866, Dr. Moses Hubbard and wife Mary Jane came from Missouri to Texas along with their six-year-old daughter Alla. They bought a farm east of Celina. Hubbard had success with the farm and purchased more land.

His daughter attended Cross Roads school east of Celina. At 16 Alla then went to a private school, Pritchett Institute, in Glasgow, Missouri. She was an excellent student and became a writer. She continued to write essays and poems after she returned home after graduating.

Alla married Dr. B.F. Spencer, a Weston doctor, who also had extensive land holdings. The doctor and Alla were married in 1884. They honeymooned in Denver, and while on this trip, Dr. Spencer discovered a severe lump in Alla's throat. Both her husband and father tried to cure the ailment, but Alla died in 1889.

Dr. and Mrs. Hubbard wanted a living memorial for their daughter. In 1895 they proposed to the Emerson and McWhirter schools a plan that, if they would consolidate, they could have an eight-month school term and Dr. and Mrs. Hubbard would pay for a building, equip it, and pay for its support. He also promised that his estate would be given to the school for its support at Dr. and Mrs. Hubbard's death. Dr. Hubbard died in 1897 and Mrs. Hubbard in 1914.

In May, 1896 some 20 wagons went to Sherman and hauled the lumber to erect a new four-room, two-story school building in a nearby town that no longer exists, Roseland. School opened in the new building in September, 1896. There was no age limit and no tuition. Nine grades were taught with three teachers and 108 pupils.

A will was written in January, 1897, leaving 1,000 acres of land to the school, setting up a permanent estate board to oversee the use of land and money.

That building was used until 1923 when the estate board provided money for a new building at a cost of $25,600 and also purchased equipment for the new building. This was a two-story building with six rooms and an auditorium. The building was used until it was torn down in 1981.

Alla School started with nine grades, added the 10th in the 1920s. Eleventh grade and commercial classes were added in 1935. Later the State of Texas added the 12th grade. A gymnasium, homemaking and shop were added in 1941.

After the Alla School consolidated with the Celina ISD the Alla school building was used as Celina Junior High until 1977 when Celina built a new high school and moved the pupils to Celina. The old Alla school building was destroyed by a tornado in the late 1970s.

In 2003 the Celina Area Heritage Association had the statue of Alla Hubbard that had stood at her grave restored. It had suffered weather damage and had been broken into pieces by vandals. It took about a year to get the statue repaired.

Once restored it stood in the Celina Museum in downtown Celina for a few years. When the new high school was completed the statue was moved to the library in the new school. Alla Hubbard's statue now presides over activities in the school library.

The Alla Hubbard School bell is also preserved at the high school. It now stands in front of Celina High School. Now retired science teacher Rick Carey made a point to have Beta Club students ring the bell every morning during the school year.

Alla graduates keep the Alla Hubbard legacy alive with a scholarship fund that is administered by the Celina Association of Renaissance Excellence. This year the fund provided a $600 scholarship to John Ford, coach Butch Ford's son.

At the reunion Alla graduate and longtime Celina resident Jimmie Hollandsworth asked for donations for the Alla scholarship fund.

CISD Superintendent Donny O'Dell spoke to those at the reunion. He attended first grade at Alla School the year before the school consolidated with Celina.

“I'm glad that you still choose to come to the reunion and you keep the memory of the Alla Rural School District alive,” O'Dell said.

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