Founding the City
The early Mansfield community started as a bustling, small town, built around a mill in the midst of the Civil War with a population of less than four hundred people. The area, known as the Gibson Community at the time, originally served as a food source for the Army of the Confederate States of America. After the completion of the mill, travelers and mill customers started calling it the Man & Feild town after its founders. As the town got older and more people passed through, it took on the name of Mansfield, Texas.
“The history of the town is really rich and it’s fascinating the way it all started with the Civil War,” Mansfield Historian Vern Raven said. “That’s why I like living here.”
Since the founding of Mansfield, the population has soared to 59,317 people. From the 2000 census, the population has increased by 111.6 percent. In 2017 the population is expected to reach 70,019.
“In a few years the total population is going to be too big for the city,” Raven said.
The Early School Years
The first school in Mansfield was originally Mansfield Male and Female college, which opened in 1870, according to mansfieldhistory.org. By 1909, they established Mansfield Independent School District, and the land turned into Mansfield High School, which later changed into the administration building on Broad Street.
“The only grade schools at the time was Erma Nash and Tarver Rendon for the kids that lived the other way,” Principal’s Secretary Barbara Chambers said. “They moved Mansfield by RLA Stadium, then to Wester and the ninth grade center at Summit while they built the new high school.”
Growth of MISD
Mansfield High School currently houses 2,432 students, according to education.com. In 2002, the building housing Mansfield High School opened as the district’s second high school – Summit. The newly built high school became Mansfield High School. The district also created the policy to name high schools from geographic locations rather than names of MISD educators. Timberview opened in 2004. Legacy High School opened next in 2007 and currently has 2,032 students. Second to last came Frontier, which has a much smaller student body because it requires an application to attend. The most recent high school is Lake Ridge, with a total attendance of 1,662. It opened in 2013.
“The size of the school district has exploded,” Raven said. “It”s grown so much in the last few years.”
Legacy’s History
Legacy was built on the former land of Kow Bell Rodeo Arena. William H. (Bill) Hogg founded the rodeo, one of the longest running indoor arena, in 1959. Every Saturday night the arena hosted rodeos and became one of the most famous rodeo arenas in its time. Cowboys would travel down US 287 (now business 287 and Main Street) to go to the Stockyards in Fort Worth and stop by the Kow Bell Rodeo. Although Hogg died in 1961, his widow and her new husband carried on the weekly rodeo until it shut down, and MISD bought it in 2004. In 2005 the district named the new building Legacy High School after the arena with the Bronco as their mascot, according to mansfieldhistory.org.
“The students that were going to feed into Legacy and the parents, they chose everything,” Chambers said. “That’s how they found the name.”
The Future of MISD
If schools continue to grow, some students may be rezoned and new schools may be built. MISD plans to build new schools in the future and they already purchased land south of downtown and near Tarver-Rendon.
“The district does own land for future high schools, but currently there are none funded by bond money,” Superintendent Secretary Liz Wright said. “The district would need to pass a future bond to build the school.”
The town and the school district have grown immensely since the Man and Feild Mill. VarTex Properties listed Mansfield as one of the fastest growing school districts in the state of Texas and named one of the “Best Places to Live” by Money Magazine. Within the next ten years, the population of the town will grow and expand even further.
“The district has taken great care to grow the right way,” Chambers said. “I’m proud of Mansfield, and I’m proud of how the district has grown.”
