Almost from the day that Stephen F. Austin’s colony settled along the Brazos River in 1821, a variety of schools and colleges were planned for the new republic by different religious denominations.
By Milton Jordan
Opposite page: Fall foliage frames the Cullen Building on the Southwestern University campus in Georgetown. All images are courtesy of that institution.
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utersville College in the Fayette County settlement of Rutersville was the first religiousaffiliated school to gain recognition from the Republic of Texas. The college was named for Martin H. Ruter, the former president of Allegheny College in Pennsylvania and one of the first Methodist clergymen sent to the new republic. Ruter died before the college opened, but the Rev. Chauncey Richardson—another early Methodist minister in Texas—obtained a charter for Rutersville College signed by President Mirabeau B. Lamar on February 5, 1840. The school enrolled 61 students in the first year, and that number grew to 100 the following year. In 1844, six students finished their studies. They were the first students to graduate from an institution of higher learning in Texas. From 1844 to 1856, Rutersville College awarded diplomas to 32 individuals, more than the total from all other colleges in Texas at that time. Although some in the Rutersville community sought to keep the institution going in one form or another, 1856 was its last year of existence. In the years that Rutersville College existed, a Methodist effort to establish a university had come and gone in San Augustine. From early pre-Republic days through the first decades of statehood, San Augustine County was the scene of numerous and often violent feuds. Denominational conflict between Presbyterians and Methodists was often a factor in this violence.
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When the Wesleyans heard that the local Calvinists were planning to open San Augustine University, they quickly announced the founding of their own institution of higher learning. Wesleyan University received a charter from the Republic of Texas signed by President Sam Houston on January 16, 1844, and the school was officially opened on March 1 of that year. But the competition between Presbyterians and Methodists, which had never been friendly, soon escalated into open, armed conflict. Each group for a time published rival newspapers in the small community. In August 1847, the editors of these competing papers, Presbyterian James Russell and Methodist Henry Kendall, fought a duel in the San Augustine streets. Neither was able to wound the other, but the following day Kendall shot and killed Russell. These events effectively brought an end to the effort to establish Wesleyan University in the East Texas city. Even before these events, Methodist clergyman John Witherspoon Pettigrew McKenzie had begun a school on his plantation, Itinerant’s Retreat, near Clarksville in Red River County. In the fall of 1841, classes were held in a small log structure attached to the side of his home. The school grew steadily, and by 1845, 63 students were enrolled in three departments−elementary, female, and college. Two years later, McKenzie College received a charter from the Texas State Legislature,
probably in the name of McKenzie Institute. A second charter was granted to the school in 1853. By then, the campus had grown to four large buildings, and courses in Latin, Greek, moral and natural philosophy, chemistry, and math were offered, in addition to electives in music and modern languages. In his study The Development of Education in Texas, Frederick Eby considered McKenzie College to be the most successful institution of higher education in the Southwest. The school had campus newspapers and journals, debating societies, musical groups, and other extracurricular activities similar to those in the East. By 1854, McKenzie had nearly 300 students taught by a faculty of nine—surely the largest school in the region. Students came not only from Texas, but also Arkansas, Louisiana, the Territories (now Oklahoma), and even Missouri. These years were the high water mark for McKenzie College. The Civil War brought an end to that successful era. It emptied the school of male students, reduced the number of females enrolled, and severely depleted the faculty. Reverend McKenzie tried to keep the college going on a smaller scale through the war and for a few years after, but by the end of the decade, he had given up. During the years of McKenzie’s greatest success, Methodists began another undertaking to establish a university more than 200 miles to the south. In the early 1850s, Chappell Hill was a growing community
of mostly Methodist residents in Washington County. Leaders of the town were committed to establishing a university of the highest rank along the lower Brazos River. Their first step was to obtain a charter for Chappell Hill Male and Female Institute, which was granted in February 1852. In its inaugural years, though the governing board and leaders were Methodist, the institute had no denominational affiliation. In 1854, however, the children of Martin H. Ruter took over control of the Institute and began to formalize its Methodist connections. Two of the Institute’s early presidents were brothers Philander S. and Alexander Ruter. Their sister Charlotta was one of the teachers. The siblings and the school’s trustees worked to gain the support of the Methodist Texas Annual Conference. In 1855, the Annual Confer-
Opposite page: A vintage aerial photograph of Southwestern University in Georgetown. This page, left: In 1910, male students posed in front of Southwestern’s Mood Hall, which served as a men’s dormitory. Right: The main building of Soule University in Chappell Hill, chartered in 1856, demanded constant repair, adding to the school’s early financial instability. Vo l u m e 4 2 0 1 4 |
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M. B. Lockett and Southwestern University In the summer of 1888, 42-year-old Melville B. Lockett sold his business in Bertram and moved 20 miles east to Georgetown, Texas. He and his wife, Annie Johnson Lockett, were committed to providing a quality education for their daughters. Southwestern University, established in Georgetown 15 years earlier, promised an opportunity to do so. For the next 25 years and beyond, the lives of M. B. Lockett and his family were closely interwoven with the school. They purchased a home from Professor H. A. Bourland near the main university building. A year later, Lockett acquired a commercial property on the Courthouse Square in Georgetown. He bought out a general mercantile operation and began his own successful career as a businessman. After five years, he built and soon completed a new structure to house his mercantile venture across from the northwest corner of the courthouse. The building, now a restaurant, with the name M. B. Lockett on its façade, remains there (see photo below). In 1894 Lockett was selected to serve on the Executive Committee of the Southwestern University Board of Trustees. He remained on the board for nearly 20 years, spending 12 of those as the chair. During Lockett’s time as committee leader, the university planned and completed a new main building on a second campus three blocks east of the original. That site was also near the Lockett home, which enabled him to keep a close eye on construction. Completed in 1900, the Cullen Building continues to function as the university’s administrative center. During these years, each of the five Lockett daughters entered Southwestern and completed degrees. Three of the sisters married Southwestern professors, and all were involved in university life after graduation. In the years following the completion of the new building, attempts were made to relocate Southwestern to a more urban setting in Fort Worth or Dallas. However, a group of Georgetown citizens, led by Lockett, organized to keep the school in their community. With his fellow Georgetown leaders A. A. Booty and E. G. Gillett, Lockett published a small pamphlet stating the case against relocation. In June 1912, the board of trustees defeated, with approximately a two-thirds majority, the proposal to move Southwestern to Dallas. Melvin Lockett was a major force in that effort.—Milton Jordan
Francis Mood was president of Soule University and founding regent at Southwestern University.
ence gave up on the struggle to keep Rutersville College open and began an official relationship with Chappell Hill Institute. Working with some of the local administrators, the Conference reorganized the operation and named the newly formed school Soule University in honor of Bishop Joshua Soule, a leader of the southern branch of Methodism. The Texas Legislature granted Soule University a charter in February 1856. Almost from the beginning, the school found itself facing multiple problems. The main building was always in need of repair. Other facilities and equipment were never completely adequate, and payment of the small faculty salaries was sometimes late. Then, as some stability seemed to develop in 1859 and 1860, the Civil War broke out. Soule University was able to survive the loss of students and faculty, but what little financial support they had dried up. In the aftermath of the war, severe economic distress throughout the South made recovery nearly impossible. A yellow fever epidemic along the Texas coast and subsequent medical scares reduced the population. On more than one occasion, the university was forced to suspend operations entirely. Several faltering efforts were made to stabilize the situation, but with little success. At least three, perhaps five, persons were named as president or offered the position. After twice turning down the proposition, Francis Asbury Mood accepted the presidency of Soule University and assumed his duties in November 1868. Following a year of mostly futile attempts to re-establish the school on a solid footing, Mood suggested to the board of trust-
Left: Southwestern University faculty members gathered in 1881 for this photograph.
ees that they turn their energies toward a united undertaking by all Texas Methodists to form one new university for the Southwest. On October 4, 1869, this proposal was adopted by the trustees. The majority of the board likely expected the school to be located in Chappell Hill. The efforts that resulted, however, led to the opening of Southwestern University in Georgetown four years later. Mood immediately began to travel across Texas to gain approval for his plan to form one central university. Because Texas now had five Methodist Conferences representing competing regions of the state, most thought his chance of success very small. He visited sessions in Henderson, Paris, Weatherford, Goliad, and LaGrange. After these arduous journeys, Mood received approval from all the conferences, establishing a Joint Education Convention involving delegates from each of the five regions. That group held its first meeting at Galveston in April 1870. J. W. P. McKenzie was one of the early supporters of these efforts. As the dean of Texas educators and a highly regarded leader in North and East Texas, his support was essential to Mood’s success. McKenzie was an alternate delegate to the first session of the convention. At a later meeting in Waxahachie, he was a delegate and elected to preside. At that time, the Education Convention named the planned school Texas University and formed the Texas University Company in Corsicana in November 1871. TUC elected F.A. Mood as regent (or president) of the school on December 21, 1872. He did not, though, resign his position at Soule until three months later. In the interim, between April 1871 and summer 1872, Mood sought out support for the new institution and considered proposals for its location from several Texas communities. Georgetown was one of these and may
have already been Mood’s choice. The city’s proposal included the deed to a large two-story building designed as a school structure. Construction of the facility was already completed, and the community contributed additional property and gifts. The strength of this offer eventually enabled Mood to convince the Texas University Company to name Georgetown as the site in August 1872. Texas University opened its doors to 32 young men in October 1873. They were instructed in that first term by three male faculty members, including Mood. The two-story building was adequate for this number, but the equipment, especially for science classes, was not, and the library was far short of satisfactory. However, Mood had laid the foundation for this institution. For two-and-a-half years, the school operated as Texas University. Though this founding name was used in the Company’s proposed charter as submitted to the State Legislature in 1872, that governing body sought to reserve that title for an anticipated state-supported institution. Therefore, legislative approval, which was granted on February 6, 1875, came with a name change to South Western (originally two words) University. In section seven of the new charter, the Legislature officially recognized the Georgetown university as the successor to its four predecessors: Rutersville, Wesleyan, McKenzie, and Soule. During the interval between opening and gaining the charter, Southwestern University survived its birth pangs and began a period of stability and growth. Enrollment increased, the faculty grew in number, and the school was accepted across Texas (except possibly in Chappell Hill) as the central university for Methodism. Within 10 years, the teaching staff was increased to nine from the original three, a third story was added to the main building, and a Female Department was built on a site a few blocks to its west. Additionally, a home was purchased for President Mood and his family, freeing up space for the growing student body. In one decade, Mood developed a unified educational effort among often competing Methodist factions and overcame attempts to derail the work and remove him from its leadership. His determination, though, likely caused irreparable damage to his health. He was often bed-ridden or at least homebound in the late 1870s and early 1880s. In November 1884, Mood died in Waco while attending one last Methodist Conference session. He was 54 years old. + Milton Jordan is a retired United Methodist minister and a 1962 graduate of Southwestern University. Vo l u m e 4 2 0 1 4 |
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