Texas A and M University - Aggieland Yearbook (College Station, TX)

Page 21 text:

A. J. Rose, President of the Board of Directors of the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas, was born in Caswell county, N. C., September 3d, 1830. A month later his parents settled in Macon county, Mo., then a frontier county. His father, Howell Rose, died in 1846, leaving- a widow and five chidren, of whom the subject of this sketch was the oldest, and was at the time away from home at school, which he left for the purpose of helping- to support the family. In 1849 he start¬ ed with a party of friends overland to California, and reached the destination after one hundred and thirty-four days of weary and hazardous travel. The next year he re¬ turned to his Missouri home, and was married to Miss Austin in 1854. In 1857 he moved to Texas, and settled in San Saba county, then one of the outposts of civiliza¬ tion. About the beg-inning- of the civil war he left the frontier for safety from savag ' es and settled near Salado, where he still resides. In 1873 Salado Grang-e was or- g-anized, and A. J. Rose was soon thereafter elected Mas¬ ter. In 1875 he was elected State Lecturer, and in 1887 Overseer. In 1881 he was elected Master of the State Grang-e, in which capacity he served ten years ; became a Director of the Agricultural and Mechanical Colleg ' e in 1887, and was made President of the Board in June, 1889. Major Rose is an exalted Mason, having- served as M.W. Grand Master, and is now Secretary of the Grand Lodg-e.

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feated them with terrible slaughter, capturing- their prin¬ cipal villag-e and stronghold, captured over 400 head of horses, and rescued Cynthia Ann Parker. In this battle Ross killed in a hand-to-hand combat the big chief Peta Nocona; and was soon afterwards, by special order from the War Department at Washington, commended for his bravery, and offered a commission in the United States army. Entering the Confederate army as a private, he rap¬ idly rose to the rank of brigadier-general. His many deeds of valor throughout that war are too numerous to mention here, having participated in 135 engagements of varying importance. Perhaps the most memorable in¬ stance of his gallantry was at Corinth, in his famous charge on battery Robinett, where he lost 150 men of 350 in going a distance of 300 yards before the fort was reached and taken. He here won the distinction of “ the hero of Corinth,” and was named by Gen. Dabney A. Maurey, as displaying the most distinguished bravery on that memorable occasion. After the war, left penniless, he went to farming, and in 1873 was elected sheriff of his county—thus inaugurat¬ ing a brilliant era of public service to the State, marked by firmness, conservatism, honesty and patriotism. A service so well known that it is here only necessary to mention it. Retiring from the Governor’s chair in 1890, he became President of the Agricultural and Mechanical College. He has met with the same success here as in other lines of public service ; the growth of the institution has been rapid and continuous under his guiding direction. Five new residences have been added—a commodious brick dormitory, a brick wood shop, blacksmith shop, electric light and ice plant, steam laundry, water works and natatorium. The departments have received new equipment, and the grounds transformed under his imme¬ diate direction from a prairie waste to a flower garden.

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John Adriance, of Columbia, Texas, was born at Troy, New York, November 10th, 1818. Was a clerk in the old house of John Hagfg-erty Sons, New York, and left there the 25th da} of October, 1835, on schooner Ju¬ lius Caesar, eng-agfed as a clerk for Townsend Jones. Bell’s Landing-, Texas, sub¬ sequently named Marion, and for many years past known as Columbia, has been his home since he landed there, November 25th, 1835. Is a Texas veteran, serv¬ ing- in Capt. Jacob Lberly’s volunteer company of thirty- five mounted men, detailed by General Houston before he crossed the Brazos at Groce’s, to remain at Marion until all the families fleeing- before the enemy had crossed the river. Being-cut off from reaching- the army across the country, made their way to San Luis, where they crossed the Pass with the aid of a yawl ' from the steamer Yellow¬ stone, and by nig-ht march reached the east end of Gal¬ veston Island. The following- morning- the steamboat Laura started with provisions and volunteers, with the hope of reaching- the army, when Capt. Lberly and six¬ teen of his men (including- the subject of this sketch) vol¬ unteered as part of the gmard on the steamer, and the balance remained as a corps of observation on the island. At Red fish bar met steamer Cayugfa with Mexican pris¬ oners, and the g-ood tiding-s of the battle of San Jacinto. Was one of the most earnest workers and contribu¬ tors in building- the Houston tap and Brazoria railroad and