Museum to present program Sunday reflecting on district's first 100 years

Education was a priority of any new town in the Texas frontier, and Edinburg was no exception. In 1908, Chapin, the new county seat for Hidalgo County, was founded. It would be renamed Edinburg three years later. Since building its first school in 1909 for early residents, the Edinburg Consolidated Independent School District (ECISD), organized in 1926, has grown to more than 50 schools and established the foundation of a junior college system that would become The University of Texas- Pan American.

The Museum of South Texas History and the Edinburg Consolidated Independent School District’s Centennial Committee present Reflections on Edinburg, The First One Hundred Years on Sunday, Jan. 31, from 2 to 4 p.m. Dr. Francisco Guajardo and Dr. Beverly Ashley-Fridie will speak on the history of the ECISD.

Dr. Guajardo and Dr. Ashley-Fridie will discuss the history of the school district and the Centennial Committee’s project to collect oral histories. A short video of two of those oral histories with Estella Trevino and Dr. Lucas Hinojosa will be presented. The Centennial Committee would also like to invite those with unique stories about their experiences in Edinburg schools to share their stories at the program. Dr. Beverly Ashley-Fridie has lived in the Rio Grande Valley for 20 years. She received her doctorate in education leadership from The University of Texas- Pan American, and is an adjunct faculty member at UTPA.

Dr. Francisco Guajardo is a Rio Grande Valley native and received his doctorate in educational administration from The University of Texas at Austin. He is currently an associate professor in the Educational Leadership at UTPA.

The Museum of South Texas History was founded in 1969 as the Hidalgo County Historical Museum. Originally housed in Hidalgo County’s 1910 Old Jail, a Texas Historical Landmark, the museum has since expanded to three main buildings, providing visitors a full understanding of regional history from prehistoric times through the twentieth century.

The Sunday Speaker Series program is included with regular museum admission. FRIENDs of the Museum are admitted free as a benefit of FRIENDship. For more information on the program or becoming a FRIEND of the Museum, call 956.383.6911 or visit www.mosthistory.org. The Museum of South Texas History is located at 200 N. Closner, on the Courthouse Square in Downtown Edinburg.

Story from Edinburg Review.