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

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1908 THE LONG HORN 7 Captain Andrew Moses, U. S. A. X X IGH honors usually come to a man, either after long service, or through some happy or skillful actions that reveal his power. The greatest compliment the students can pay to any one is to dedicate an issue of The Longhorn to him. Captain Moses had been in the service of the College for only a few months when he was selected for this distinction. He has not earned the place by length of service, or by exceptional actions that have placed him in the limelight of student popu¬ larity. So, the truism with which this article begins isn’t true at all, at least in this instance. Nevertheless, this is Captain Moses’ Longhorn. There are other reasons for his choice, and one or two of them will be set down here. First, however, it would perhaps be of interest to sketch briefly his history. He was born on a farm in Burnet County, Texas, where he lived until his eighteenth year. His ancestors have always lived in the South. His father, Colonel Norton Moses, was born in Georgia, where he lived until he attained his majority. Coming to Texas in January, 1846, he suffered many of the hardships and privations incident to a life spent on the frontier. Colonel Moses has always taken great interest in public affairs and on two separate occasions served Burnet County in the Legislature. He is also promi¬ nent in Masonry, being a Past Grand Master and Past Grand High Priest. He is still living and reasonably vigorous for his eighty-four years. Captain Moses’ mother was born in Washington County, Texas, in 1833, an d spent her whole life in Texas. She was a woman of strong character and left a price¬ less heritage to her children in the characters she moulded by her pure Christian life and excellent teaching. Captain Moses spent his earlier school days in the country schools of Burnet County and in the high school at Burnet. He entered the State University at Austin in the Fall of 1892, where he remained until May 1, 1893, at which time he received

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8 THE LONG HORN Vol. VI an appointment to the Military Academy at West Point from Ex-Governor Joseph D. Sayers, then a member of Congress from the ninth district. Captain Moses graduated at West Point in 1897, and was assigned to the Eleventh Infantry, stationed at Whipple Barracks, Prescott, Arizona. Early in 1898 he was assigned to ’the Artillery Corps and was stationed at Fort Slocum, New York, and afterwards at Fort Preble, Maine. During the latter part of the Spanish-American War he was detailed as a recruiting officer with headquarters at Philadelphia. During this time he is said to have recruited the largest number of men of any officer in the service. Later he was stationed at Fort Riley, Kansas, and in October, 1901, he received his commission as a captain and was ordered to Havana, where he remained for over a year. During most of this time he was on staff duty. His next assignment was Fort Preble, Maine. In 1905 he, with ten other cap¬ tains of artillery, was ordered to Fort Totten, New York, where he took a special course of one year in sub-marine defense of coast artillery. From this post he went to Fort Moultrie, S. C., where he remained until September 1, 1907, when he was ordered to report at the A. and M. College as military instructor. Captain Moses in September, 1897, was married to Miss Jessie Fisher of Austin, Texas. Their little daughter, Kathleen, is a popular member of the Beb Francis Society set of the campus. It is thus seen that Captain Moses has never been on the firing line, save perhaps when he charged on the Mess Hall tables at West Point. He has never written a book. He is only reasonably enthusiastic on the subject of Napoleon. There are other things he likes better than making a speech. He has never said and never will say, “Young gentlemen, this is your College.” He realizes that this is one lesson that the Agricultural and Mechanical College Seniors have learned and learned with startling thoroughness. Captain Moses tries so hard to be fair and square,” said one cadet, “that I get almost embarrassed. I’ll be blamed if I don’t think he is a gentleman.” Ah, there is the secret, all let out in a word,—the gentleman, with a cool, clear head and a heart to which tenderness is not a stranger; in whom the stature of mankind has not brought forgetfulness of how a boy thinks and feels,—who is, in fact, very much of a boy him¬ self. What wonder is it that Captain Moses so quickly fell heir to the favor of the cadets. It is the old, old story, so hard to learn if your good angel did not imbue it