RUSK COUNTY, Texas — A vacant East Texas school, that once was a place of prosperity during the oil boom in the 1930s, caught on fire Sunday morning.
The fire started in the school’s gym. Nine fire units responded to the blaze and extinguished it..
Pastor and owner of the school, Dr. Leland Burkett and his wife Donna, live right across the street from the school.
"Just total shock and devastation,” said Dr. Burkett. "We appreciate the firemen who helped to put the fire out. We appreciate the law enforcement who has [sic] done their job to have this investigation be solved.”
Leland and his wife have been living in Rusk County for about 20 years and have kept up with the property since then.
“We brought the school over in 2001," said Dr. Burkett. "Church Fellowship International is our organization and we've done our best to keep the property up as best as we could with the limited funds that we had."
Luckily parts of the school still stand, continuing to enhance the importance of the school.
Director of the Gaston Museum, Stephanie Osteen, says this school not only signifies history but prosperity.
“When the Daisy Bradford #3 was created when they struck oil, this part of the country grow leaps and bounds,” said Osteen. "They with from a four-room school which combined several community schools to the largest rural school in the world by 1932."
Later, that history was stored in the Gaston Museum.
“This museum is here to tell stories of how life was before the oil boom," Osteen said. "Timber, cotton and farming. And then we share the history of the school, the community, the massive grocery stores, churches, and all that what it did for the community when oil hit."
Despite the loss of the school’s gymnasium, an alumni reunion is still set for Saturday, but will be held at a different location as the fire still remains under investigation.
