Although private schools were in operation in Independence as early as 1835, tax-supported public schools were not established until the 1870s. In September 1870 the county court ordered that each of the five precincts in the county be divided into two school districts--one for white students and one for black students. The first county school tax was levied in 1874, paving the way for schoolhouse construction. Classes for white students were conducted in a small frame building and in former facilities of Baylor Female Academy until the first public school building was erected on this site on the town square in 1889. By 1937 an average of forty-four students were attending the school, taught by three teachers. The 1889 schoolhouse was destroyed in a 1939 fire, and another building was erected on the same site. Passed by the State Legislature in 1949, the Gilmer-Aiken Law had far-reaching effects on the boundaries and funding of school districts in Texas. Because its enrollment did not meet the new minimum requirements, Independence School was closed in 1953. The last school building later became a private home. (1989)