As population increased in south central San Patricio County in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, independent schools were established in a number of communities to serve students in isolated areas before a good road system allowed easy travel between towns, and these schools played an important role in county history. The Meansville school, 3 miles southeast, opened about 1860 and continued in operation in a combination school, church, and lodge hall building until 1881. A school near the Baylor ranch, 5 miles southeast, variously called Bonnie View, Valley, or Fair View, operated in the 1880s and 1890s until it was consolidated with the school at Kaleta, 7 miles southeast, which was established in the 1880s and also served as a Baptist church. Opened in the 1870s, a one-room school served children in Sharpsburg, 9 miles west, and the citizens of Angelita, 4.5 miles west, established a school in a building shared with a church and community meeting hall in 1904. The first school in Odem opened in 1911 in a warehouse. Improved county roads brought about a number of school consolidations, and by 1916 the schools at Kaleta, Sharpsburg, and Angelita merged with the Odem school to form Common School District No. 7.