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

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Silver Taps John Francis Monaghan Bobby Neil McLarty

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75 Years of Progress It seems highly probable that only a few persons on the campus this last year could compare 1950-51 with any other one session. Aggieland celebrated seventy-five years; the campus was alive with activities, and many times, the past was brought to the limelight. Our history seldom seemed on the verge of triteness or dull. It is a healthy, robust past, the only type from which our present heritage could be derived. We are proud of these seventy-five years, and proud of the strong pioneers, whose ideals moulded A M into the institution as we know it. And we of the Aggieland staff are proud to present it again . . . IE IGHTY YEARS AGO, the present site of A M College was merely a wild dewberry patch located in the flat terrain of the Brazos River bottom near the booming railroad town of Bryan, at the time only nine years old and already boasting a “roaring” reputation. The Southern Pacific Railroad in 1866 had constructed the town after the old county seat, Booneville, refused to allow the blares of engineers’ whistles and the rumble of boxcars to disturb the tranquil area. And here to Bryan in 1871, a special committee from the Texas legislature came to investigate sites offered by Brazos County for the newly authorized Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas. In spite of the fact that Brazos County was considered one of the poorest in the State, commissioners were pleased and impressed by the centrally located, well-drained position about five miles west of the city and, especially, by the fact that a railroad already ran by the site. When the bid of $22,000 and 2,416 acres of land, offered by Brazos County, was opened, the commission quickly awarded the location of the College. By the Fall of ’76, the old dewberry patch was flourishing less and showing definite wear and tear under the feet of contractors and workmen. Something of a campus had been constructed, but not without difficulty. The entire building appropriation had been spent on foundations alone, without any bricks being laid above ground. As foundations insisted upon sinking into the quagmire ground, they were condemned and the whole project started over, from a new appropriation. Eventually two permanent buildings were completed—one, an administration building, boasting twin towers from the spiked summits of which floated U. S. and Texas flags, and the other, a combination mess hall and dormitory closely resembling a stucco castle of the modified Italian style. The first Board of Directors of A M College met in Austin, of all places, on July 16, 1875, and elected Jefferson Davis president of the institution. Davis, however, had other plans, noteworthy among them being rest and relaxation, whereupon he suggested his good friend and fellow Mississippian Thomas Gathright for the position. Gathright accepted, and the stucco mess hall was christened with his name. Although to moderns Gathright seems like an architect ' s nightmare, the structure in 1876 was considered quite beautiful. The artillery outfits can trace their ancestry on the campus back to the eighties. One of the cadets above is still living. Along with the president were elected four professors, a physi¬ cian, and a steward. Plans were made for four three-year courses to be offered: (1) a course in agriculture, (2) a course in mechanics 13