Bethany
The Commissioners' Court for January 11, 1848, appointed Mallory Conner as Overseer of the Shreveport road from "the County Line near Steele's School House to said County Line." This was the first mention on official records of a school in the vicinity of Bethany.The Commissioners' Court Minutes for May 1854 read, "School District #1, to commence on the State Line, near William C. Barnes and bear due west to East Socogee Creek, thence north with said creek to the Harrison County Line, thence east along the line to the NE corner of the County, thence south along the State Line to the beginning".
Early travelers considered Bethany to be one day's travel from Shreveport and about a day's travel from Carthage. Bethany was the overnight camping area for shopping trips from Carthage to Shreveport. "Mrs. White, wife of a doctor, taught the first school, before the private tutors were used," according to legend.
A deed dated January 15, 1883 reads, "We, A.L. Davis, Andrew Davis, Hiram Perkins, Thack Anderson and Orman Harris ... in consideration of one dollar in cash to us paid and for the further consideration of a desire to promote free education, do by these presents donate ... Unto Thomas E. Boren, County judge, and his successors in Office, in trust for Public School Purposes, the west half of the following described land ... on the east side of the Sabine River and part of the Jerry White Survey ... containing about one acre of land.
Superintendent Holmes said in 1912 that two new school houses had been built and painted. One was Bethany. Teachers and pupils' desks were also supplied. Bethany boasted a good library. The County Board classified is as an Intermediate School in February 1912. The next year, 1913, the Board re-classified Bethany as a three-year high school. It grew to be a four-teacher elementary school by 1935. Soon after that, it became a part of the Deberry.