The Van Dyke community and school were named in honor of Van Dyke Frost who gave the land for the school in the 1870s.   N.V. Frost donated an additional 2.5 acres to the school in 1911. 

   The real story is the name Frost.  Thomas Claiborne Frost held title to land in the Van Dyke area and N.V. Frost ultimately inherited the land.  It is unclear  whether N.V. is N. Van Dyke Frost or whether Van Dyke Frost is from an earlier generation.  T.C. Frost’s life will be detailed later but he was an early resident of Comanche County and is credited for providing Cora as the name of the first county seat of Comanche County.  He also was the land agent when the county seat was moved from Cora to Comanche.  T.C. represented Comanche and Coryell counties at the Convention of Succession when Texas withdrew from the Union just prior to the Civil War.  He later went on to found what became Frost National Bank in San Antonio, now a part of Cullen-Frost.  This is sole remaining banking group of those that originated in Texas prior to 1980, having survived the “banking depression” of the 1980s.  Neither N.V. nor Van Dyke Frost are direct descendants of Thomas Frost.  T.C. did have one brother, John Morrison (1943-1874) who survived to adulthood and served with T.C. and served in the Civil War.  John came to Texas in the 1860s when T.C. was in Comanche County and N.V. or Van Dyke may be descendants of John.

Van Dyke

Van Dyke school students on an outing at Lake Eanes in the mid-forties.  Photo courtesy of Dulan Hendrix.

Van Dyke students 1947-1948.  Top:  Jo Ann McGuire, Evelyn Burgess, Dulan Hendrix, Dorothy Wilkins, Annette Burgess.  Middle Row:  Audie Lee Spivey, unknown, unknown, Harold Fritts, Bonnie Starks.  Front Row:  Wesley Spivey, Glen Doyle Wilson, Wilford Ray Schultz, John Mark Spruill.  Photo courtesy of Dulan Hendrix.