AS TIME GOES BY
Wood County History
By LOU MALLORY - Chairperson, Wood County Historical Commission
Ed. Note: The following is taken from a talk that Margaret Bray delivered before the Northeast Texas Genealogy Society some time ago. No date is available.
According to Mrs. Bray, Professor Benjamin Stafford, who spent 20 years teaching in Mineola, was a truly great man in education. Mineola's first public school had been in use for only four years when he arrived on the scene in 1885.
He was born at The Rock in western Georgia in 1861. He received his B.A. and M.A. degrees at Emory University at Atlanta, Georgia. He was sometimes referred to as a classical Greek scholar due to his proficiency in that language. He taught both Greek and Latin while he was serving as superintendent of the Mineola School.
Prof. Stafford was married to Octavia Simmons on April 5th, 1886, at Rusk, Texas. He had formerly taught there at the Masonic school. Their first child, Florence, died at an early age. The second child, Ruth, married Charlie Coleman and they spent many years in Mineola where they raised three children - Marjorie, Charles and Benjamin. The other children - Benjamin Alvis, Jr., Ara Virginia, and Frank Simmons, made their homes elsewhere.
One of Prof. Stafford's brothers, Robert N. Stafford, practiced law for many years in Mineola and also served in the Texas Senate. He did much to help the city and its schools. He also deeded two acres of land in the 700 block of South Street to the City of Mineola. A school for the black community was erected there in 1902. The city council served as trustees for the school from 1881 until 1911. Prior to 1881, there was a "pay" school at the First Baptist Church in the 200 block of North Johnson Street.
The first public school building was a square white frame building on West Blair Street, one block west of North Johnson. When a picture of Prof. Stafford and the 1892 graduating class was taken, there was a brick building. It was eventually condemned and replaced by a white frame structure in 1902-1903.
Records indicate that at time, the school needed to purchase more desks. One time when Prof Stafford hauled 50 desks from the rail depot and assembled them, records indicate he was paid $9.50 for his work.
He was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church South (First United Methodist) where he served as a board member, a teacher, Sunday school superintendent, and, on occasion, filled the pulpit when the pastor was away.
Prof. Stafford was a strict disciplinarian but also possessed a keen sense of humor. Two boys in his Latin class, fearing to simply cut class, asked if they might be excused that day on some important business. He replied, "Yes, yes, boys, just leave a stump in your respective seats and I won't know the difference."
On leaving Mineola in 1910, he became a professor of Greek at West Texas State Teachers' College at Canyon. A quotation hung over his desk. It read, "After all, there are only three things that are worthwhile: To be good, to do good, and always to smile." In honor of Prof. Stafford, these words, beautifully framed, still hang at West Texas University: "Beloved, respected, and honored by his students and countless friends, no man ever held a more benign influence over the lives of those he touched."
Much of this information was furnished by Benjamin Alvis Coleman, the son of Charlie and Ruth Stafford Coleman, a pastor at the First Methodist Church in Crockett, Texas, who helped to shine a light on his illustrious grandfather.
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