This page provides a list of the yearbooks from Chapel Hill High School that are available in our archives. Copies can be ordered at a rate of $1.00 per page. Please email us for instructions on how to order and make payment. We can copy any pages you request, and you have the option to pick them up or have them mailed to you.
You are welcome to visit our archives to research the yearbooks. Please contact us via email or call (903) 592-5993 to let us know when you plan to visit and what you are researching. We will do our best to have relevant materials prepared to make your trip more efficient and productive.
We are collaborating with the East Texas Genealogical Society to index the yearbooks. We will upload the indexed records as they become available. If the year you are interested in is not currently listed, please check back later, as we appreciate any donations of yearbooks and other materials related to Smith County. Click here for more information.
We have the following years:
1951
1958
1969
1970
1971
1976
History of Chapel Hill Schools
“The first mention of an actual school building is a deed record of July 4, 1872, in which Reuben Clark deeded to Pickens Caldwell, Sr., Thomas M. Weaver, and R.M. Wright an acre of land ‘west of the center of the school’. This deed infers that a school building was present prior to 1872. The location would coincide with the land deed, in a wooden building surrounded by heavy woods. It was a one-room schoolhouse, with plank seats, one teacher and a dozen or so students. Teachers at that time were Thomas A. Pinkerton, George W. Galbraith, and Mit Adams.” – Andrew Leath
“In about 1890, this school building was moved across the road to a location adjacent to and just south of Garrett’s store. Within a few years, the school was relocated just north of the upper cemetery. This was the site of the school in 1901 when Archie Evans was teacher.”
“With the turn of the century and establishment of the Smith County Common School District, Bascom School District #32 was formed.”
Bascom School went to the eighth grade and then sent students to Tyler Schools for ninth, tenth, and eleventh grades. Students learned the basics – math, history, English, spelling, and reading. In the year 1941 the Murph-Bascom Consolidation occurred. This new school, called Chapel Hill Consolidate Rural School, had a Superintendent by the name of D.T. Craver.
A new school was in the planning stage and Bascom School site was used until it could move to the new site. The main building was completed in 1942 with the gymnasium, and a second classroom unit was ready in 1943. In 1950-51, Chapel Hill had its first graduating class, a small but proud group of twelve. The school had football, baseball, basketball, and volleyball teams. Also, the first band was added that year. CHS had several campus clubs including: Future Farmers of America, Future Homemakers of America, Paper Staff, Shorthand Club, and a Student Council.
Jackson School was incorporated into the Chapel Hill Independent School District in 1945.
Lamond Dean, CHISD Superintendent of Schools; https://www.chapelhillisd.org/page/superintendent-s-message