First Tyler School

The Stevens School District #19 was established in 1880. The school held 1st through 8th grades. The district was renamed to Tyler along with the renaming of the town in 1892.

Directors of the school in 1904 were Henry Boston, James E. Carmen, James Abbott, and John Moreland. In 1911 the school board was advocating for a new school at a new site or extensive remodeling of the current site. The board gave its reasons,

First, the sanitary conditions demand it, there being two barns and four outhouses within fifty or one hundred feet from the school building, with two manure piles and a cesspool drained through the school yard. Second, the school grounds are small, so small that there is not room for play, without using the street on two sides. Third, and most important, the building must be enlarged to accommodate the high school for the next year or a room rented somewhere else and furnished for school use.

The board and citizens did decide to erect a new, larger, schoolhouse for their students at the north end of B Street.

Image caption: Students and teacher of the first Tyler school, located at 2nd & B, have their photograph taken at Christmas time 1899. A few of the students are identified. Front row 3rd from right is Luther Harris. Second row far right is Mattie Moreland; 2nd from right is Sylvia Moreland; 6th from right is Edith Moreland. Back row at far left is teacher Scott Tucker; at far left is Stella Bennett; 2nd from left, Percy Moreland; 6th from left, Leroy Moreland; 7th from left is Frank Moreland.