Ranch Schools

Education on the frontier was never an easy task for the largely isolated San Pedro River community of homesteaders and their children. The area surrounding the Soza Ranch was in School District #24, and Antonio Campa Soza served as Clerk of the Board of Trustees of the Pool School in 1901. His son Manuel, likewise served in the same position.

The school location was described as being "down river from Benson in Cochise County. This is the earliest record of this school, other records having been destroyed...."

" Jose Maria Acedo was the first teacher to teach in the first schoolhouse ... and only a few pupils attended, mostly the family children. My sister did not go to school because there was a man teacher....

The school was abandoned and moved from Pool to our ranch, so we had a school and a church. Then they persuaded my mother to sign a permission to move the school to Cascabel, because settlers had come and wanted a school, so we lost the school and children too, as buses have been operating for five or six years. Jose Maria Acedo and Jennie Wilson Pool were the first teachers at the ranch."

Two images of students at the Ranch Schoolhouse, District # 24

[AHS 44K]

#54648 Ranch Schoolhouse, District #24 c. 1905
Back row: Vicente Manzo, Enrique Moreno Soza, José Moreno Lopez, Benito Moreno Soza Carlos, Moreno Soza, Rita Vasquez, Edovina Valdez, Estafana Valdez, Juan Moreno Soza, Benito Moreno Soza
Front row: Carlos Vasquez, Francisco Manzo Soza, Alberto Moreno Soza, Celso Sierra, Francisca Moreno Soza, Magdalena Sierra, Guadalupe Sierra, Sofia Vasquez, Jesus Salas, Juan Salas

[AHS 39K]

#6907 Ranch Schoolhouse, District #24 [n.d.]
Front: Carlos Soza, Benito Lopez (cousin), Juan Soza, José Lopez (cousin), Antonio federico Soza, Alberto Soza, Benito Soza, Roberto Federico Soza, Enrique Soza, Arturo Alvarez (Indian)
Rear: Julia Vasquez, Francisca Soza, Estafana Valdez, Sofia Vasquez, (unidentified Indian), Rita Vasquez

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