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Page 17 text:
“
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
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Page 18 text:
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The cadet corps of 1890 sfands-by ready for inspection. By this period, Sully had given the College a good name and established her militarily. Uncle Dan and his mules were a familiar sight on the campus in the nineties. As college janitor, he was respected, and all knew “Dan.” A corps review is still a corps review—the size and number of cadets have just changed. This picture was taken in 1894. and engineering, (3) a course in language and literature, and (4) a course in military tactics. Since no arrangements had been made for any engineering shops, a farm, or an engineering or agriculture professor, these first two courses amounted close to nothing. In its infancy, the school was primarily a literary institution of the old type. The professor of Chemistry, no doubt, burned the midnight oil many times preparing himself with a knowledge of agriculture, which he had been called upon to teach. September 17, 1876, must have been a disappointing day to those pioneers whose efforts led to the establishment of the College. Only six students appeared. The ratio of faculty to student body pro¬ voked comment that the new “Main” would be nothing but a build¬ ing in which tutoring was done. The opening of the College was therefore delayed until October 4 when forty boys enrolled. By January, the student body had grown to more than 100 cadets. By spring, the number totaled( L) fJ D oCp , Accommodations were not sufficient for anything like this num¬ ber. The second and third floors of Gathright, and the second, third, and part of the fourth floors of the Main Building were used for barracks. So crowded were existing conditions that some students were even placed in the president’s office, some in the hallways, and a few in the tower rooms. During cold winter months, students kept these rooms warm with wood fires. Each student had his own axe, cut his own wood at the common wood pile, and carried it up to room quarters in his arms. Wood piles were kept outside each building with the owners’ names above each, roughly on this order: “This is John Jones’ wood pile. Keep your hands off it!” The water supply, in those days, was not “piped-in.” When there was a rain, it drained off the roof into cisterns, the ruins of which can still be seen. The first floor of Gathright was used as a mess hall, and the first floor, only, of the Main Building was available for class rooms. Robert Smith, an A M professor in 1915, tells of early rustic conditions on the campus: “The campus was such a wild waste that it was not considered safe for children to be out at night. The howling of wolves furnished an every night and all night serenade. On one occasion, a wild ani¬ mal wandering over the campus threw the whole community in a frenzy of excitement. An alarm was given and the whole battalion of some thirty students and professors turned out to kill it, but in the high weeds of the campus, it easily escaped.” Other sources explain that deer frequently were seen on the campus, and that wolves some¬ times stuck their noses in the doors of Gathright at dinner time. For social life, the Stephen F. Austin Literary Society was organ¬ ized, and in 1878 began publication of a literary monthly, “The Collegian.” To what extent meetings were literary is speculatory. Get-togethers of the group were of such a nature that members barred their sponsor from attending meetings lest his presence em¬ barrass them. The group split in ’88, and a Calliopean Literary Society grew side by side with the older one. Historian of the Cal¬ liopean in 1895 states: “Not more than ten years ago, the societies were noted for 14
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