A 20‐foot by 20‐foot single‐room school building and Methodist Church was built in 1857 near the Clear Fork Trinity River by Edward Willburn. The structure was made of concrete and had a dirt floor, but apparently collapsed (after years of disuse) due to the poor quality of the concrete in 1865. Classes were held during the winter months and had apparently ceased during the Civil War. A new school and church known as ʺOld Rawhideʺ was built of lumber in 1872 by the Chapman, Edwards, Ward, Majors, and Willburn families. Newspaper accounts indicate that the school had 27 students in 1877 and 48 students in 1879. This building reportedly burned down in 1879. The school was re‐established in 1880 near the intersection of the present Mercedes Street and Winscott Road. It was called the Miranda (or Marinda) School (or ʺMarinda Academyʺ), named after one of the Willburn children, Mrs. Marinda Snyder, who donated five acres of land to the ʺMarinda Seminary School Communityʺ for the school. The site reportedly included a cemetery which probably was the beginning of the present Benbrook Cemetery later established in 1885. The building continued to double as the Methodist Church. The community was known by the name of the school during its early years. A post office was established at Benbrook in 1880. In 1884, the Marinda school (and Church) was relocated again to the intersection of Winscott Road and Old Benbrook Road (where the present day Weatherford International building is located.), again on land donated by Mrs. Marinda Snyder.