Paint Creek is on Farm Road 600
seven miles southeast of Haskell in the southeastern corner of HaskellCounty. It was formed as a result
of the consolidation of five school districts-Post, Howard, Weaver, Rose, and
McConnell. Wayne Perry suggested in 1937 that the new school district be named
after Paint Creek, a local stream. The first action of the school board was to
sell bonds in order to purchase two six-acre pieces of land. Construction of
the school began in 1937 and was completed in the summer of 1938. Ten faculty
members were hired, and the first day of class was September 5, 1938. The school became an accredited
institution during the first year of operation. Fourteen individuals composed
the first Paint Creek graduation class. The school obtained electricity from a
gasoline-fired electrical generator. The Rural Electrification Association
began supplying electricity in 1939. The water supply came from a well on the
northeast corner of the campus. During the 1941-42 school term a fire destroyed
the original homemaking and agricultural building. In 1945 the relocated
homemaking building was again destroyed by fire, and the new agriculture
building was destroyed by fire in 1953. One additional fire in 1967 destroyed
the classrooms on the west end of the building. Between 1938 and 1941 five
additional small school districts-Plainview, Ward, Rockdale, Ericksdahl, and
Cobb-entered the Paint Creek district. The community also had a church and five to ten houses. The mail was delivered
through Haskell. In the late 1980s Paint Creek had the school, two churches,
several houses, a football field, and a covered barn in which the school buses
were parked.
