This Fort Worth leader had a road, school and community named after him

If you had said the words “John T. White” to Fort Worth folks 75 years ago, those folks might not have known if you were referring to a man, a road, a school, or a community.

John Thomas White was born in Keller in 1889, son of farmer Charles and Frances White.

He attended public school in Keller and later graduated from North Texas State Teachers College (now UNT) and Cordell Christian College in Oklahoma.

About 1912 he began teaching and spent 14 years in the Keller and Smithfield school districts as teacher and administrator.

In 1926 White ran for the office of county superintendent of schools. Well into the 20th century Tarrant County was still largely rural (with the exception of Fort Worth). In 1926 Tarrant County had 56 rural schools under the supervision of the county through a board and a superintendent. Tarrant County would maintain its county school system into the 1970s.

White was elected and took office on Jan. 1, 1927.

In 1927 two county school districts northeast of Handley-Ederville and Wheeler, each with a two-room wooden schoolhouse, were consolidated to form a new district. The new district was named in honor of Superintendent White.

Voters of the new John T. White School District approved bonds to build a new schoolhouse to serve Ederville and Wheeler.

A community named “John T. White” grew up around John T. White School. And the country road that the school was located on—Isham Chapel Road—came to be known informally as “John T. White Road.”

(White was at least the third county school superintendent to have a school named after him, following George T. Bludworth and Duncan McRae.)

By 1933 the John T. White School would offer a four-year high school curriculum.

The John T. White School, like other county schools, had its own school board.

After four terms in office, in 1934 White ran for the office of county judge. But he was defeated and returned to teaching. He also returned to studying law. Earlier he had attended law school for two years and had taken law school correspondence courses for three years.

In 1935 he received his law degree from Jefferson University in Dallas and began practice in Fort Worth.

In 1953 the county made it official, renaming Isham Chapel Road “John T. White Road.” Actually the road was misnamed to begin with: The chapel founded in 1872 by the Rev. Washington Marion Isham was two miles north of Isham Chapel Road. But the road does lead to Isham Cemetery. The Rev. Isham, who lived nearby, donated land for the cemetery.

The late 1950s brought a double whammy to the John T. White school district and community. First, in 1955 the city of Fort Worth annexed the land that contained the John T. White community as Fort Worth acquired land on which to build the turnpike (Interstate 30 today) and Village Creek sewage treatment plant.

Second, in 1959 the Fort Worth school system annexed the John T. White School district.

Today the John T. White School lives on, now as a Fort Worth elementary school. The school opened in 2011 on John T. White Road a quarter-mile east of Isham Cemetery.

John T. White would not live to see his second namesake school. He died in 1961.