Avondale, Tarrant County
The Dido community was one of the first established in Tarrant County. In 1848, settlers homesteaded in this part of Peters Colony, establishing a community along a stage route from Fort Worth to Decatur. Dido School organized in 1854, with A.C. McCanne of Missouri as the first teacher. His wife Margaret Caroline (Fulton) taught here in the 1860s while A.C. served in the Confederate Army. Classes were sometimes held in church buildings, and later trustees built a schoolhouse adjacent to Dido Cemetery. Regional development from the Rock Island Railroad (1892), Eagle Mountain Lake (1931) and a Marine training base (1941) caused school attendance in Dido to decline. The Tarrant County School Board closed Dido School in 1947. (2008)