Southwest Texas State Teachers College - Pedagog Yearbook (San Marcos, TX)

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MAIN BUILDING 1904 College Historq In 1899 the Legislature voted to establish a Normal school in San Marcos, a measure vigorously sponsored by Fred Cocke, repre- sentative from the Ninety-eighth District, and Senator J. B. Dibrell of Seguin. This law specified that San Marcans should donate land for the new school. The city council in special session on Oct. 16, 1899, voted to give an 11-acre tract which the city had acquired in the mid 1890's when the San Marcos Chautauqua collapsed. The Chautauqua had purchased the hilltop site from Judge W. D. Wood in 1885 for s5,ooo. Capt. Ferg Kyle, Civil War hero, had suggested the Hill as an ideal college site forty years earlier and was instrumental in locating the Normal here. On March 28, 1901, members of the Texas Senate passed Sen- ate Bill No. 142, accepting the gift from the city of San Marcos and appropriating 335,000-825,000 for the erection of buildings and 310,000 for the maintenance of Southwest Texas Normal School. The bill was sponsored and pushed through the Senate by J. B. Di- brell of Seguin. Dibrell, a native of Kentucky, was a member of the House of Representatives for 2 years, served as state senator for 8 years, and served one term in the Supreme Court. One of his sons, Walter Di- brell, and five of his grandchildren have gone to school on the Hill. In the House, S. B. No. 124 was proposed by Captain Ferg Kyle. Official state approval, therefore, of the Normal School was given in 1901 and it is for this reason that the College celebrates its Golden Anniversary in 1951. Work on the Main Building was begun in 1901, but con- tractors were already having trouble with the Main Building. Load after load of cement was poured into the foundation forms at the Northeast corner of Main only to disappear into the earth. It was with difficulty that workmen finally plugged what appeared to be a deep cave in the Hill and managed to keep the concrete in their forms. Recently, maintenance workers rediscovered and again closed another opening to this cave. In spite of this difficulty the College was ready for its September opening in 1905. Three hundred and three students enrolled when the College opened its doors. A faculty of seventeen persons, headed by Principal T. G. Harris Csee The First Seventeennl dispensed History, Civics, Geography, Professional Work, Vocal Music, Physical Sciences, Physiology, Botany, Physiography, Zoology and Latin, but only to those persons desiring to become teachers. The maximum salary for these first faculty members was 851,500 for nine months. The princi- pal received 3B2,000. Salary complications resulted, however, when a secretarial error misplaced a decimal point on the legislative appro- priation and changed 518,000 into S1,800. Faculty members had to discount their paychecks at 6 per cent through local merchants. Each student had to sign an agreement to teach as many ses- sions in the public schools of Texas as he or she attended sessions at the Normal. Cost of attending the new Normal School was reasonable. Each state senator and each representative could authorize two .scholarship students. After paying fees Claboratory 53, 318.75 board fee per session, 352 incidentalj, scholarship students received books, other board costs, and tuition free. Estimated costs for attending school were S5100 per session for scholarship students, 3150 for others. EARLY RECREATION For entertainment these early students made up parties, went on hiking trips to the head of the river, on Sunday afternoons went rowing or Kodaking, and everyone went to church. Most of the faculty taught Sunday School. More adventurous souls explored Wonder Cave or took the day-long jaunt out to Jacob's Well in Wimberley. Only a daring few, and those in the privacy of their boarding houses, dared to dance. For picnicking Thompson's Island was a favorite spot. Literary clubs and debating societies took up a large share of spare time. Two of the clubs organized during that first year of school, the Shakespeare and the Harris Blair Literary Societies, are still in existence. The Idyllic Literary Society, organized in 1905, is now the second oldest girls' club on the hill. Most of the older clubs for girls that ex-students will remem- ber, the Comenians, the Pierians, the Every Day, have disappeared, and their place taken by the Shakespeare, Idyllic, Allie Evans, Charles Craddock, Sallie Beretta, Aonian and Philosophian Literary Societies. DISCIPLINE STRICT Principal Harris was a stickler for discipline and spelling. Chapel was held weekly and roll call was checked under the elab-- orately-carved beams of the old auditorium that once took up most of the top floor of Main. Spelling lessons and diacritical marking took up part of the period. Time and chapel wait for no man, the 1906 Pedagog attributed to Mr. Harris. Students who missed chapel were certain of swift punishment and failing a spelling lesson meant staying after school week after week until the test was finally mastered. In 1905 Principal Harris published a list of Regulations for the Guidance of Students of Southwest State Normal. Strict though these rules seem today, they were in keeping with the educational discipline of the times and when Mr. Harris resigned in 1911 students and faculty alike mourned. Faculty members met in a classroom to give Mr. Harris a loving cup. He iMr. Harrisj was a very strong man, but he couldn't keep back the tears, recalls Mrs. Charles Crawford, the former Helen Hornsby and one of the first faculty members. Faculty members made short speeches 'andf most of them cried also. FIRST PRESIDENT RESIGNS That 'same year that Mr. Harris resigned, ex-students organized the All Students' Association of the Southwest Texas State Normal, ' and held the first Homecoming. One hundred and ninety-eight ex- students met on the Hill May'15-15, 1911, to elect W. W. 'Jenkins of Georgetown president, to thank the retiring first principal and to pass this fresolution: Be it resolved, That we pledge our heartiest support and extend our good wishes to Mr. C. E. Evans, and hope for him the same success that has attended our retiring principal. It was a growing campus and Normal School over which Presi- dent Evans assumed control in the summer of 1911. In addition to the Main building with its offices of president and registrar, the auditorium and ten recitation rooms, there were the president's home, the first Science Building, completed in 1908, and the Li- brary, now the Language-Arts Building, which was Completed in 1910. A gravel road extended up the walk which now leads to the Quad between the Library and Science Buildings, and wagons and Captain Ferg Kyle

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AEKNDWLEEEMENT5 One of the College's most valued friends is a former member of the Board of Regents, Mrs. Sallie Beretta. Within the past year she has done much to help the school. An outstanding example of her generosity is the beautiful 125-acre campsite -near Wimberley on the Blanco River. This rolling land, which is framed with mountains and the river, fits well into the school's pro- jected educational and recreational program. Our campus became the site of an outstanding work of art this year when Mr. and Mrs. Archer Huntington donated the world-famed aluminum statute. entitled Fight of the Stallions. This work, seventeen feet in height, depicts two huge stallions in combat. It has been called One of the most wonderful things that has ever come to Texas. Appreciation also is expressed to the thousands of students, ex-students. and friends of the College who have been so generous in contributing the means to help build a truly great institution of higher learning in San Marcos. To Llew Wayne Kellerman, a true friend and loyal staff worker, we dedicate in memory this 1952 Pedagog. Hisndeath last May shocked the cam- pus and he has been greatly missed by the staff as well as the student body this year.

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carriages used the space in front of Main,- and L. A. for a turn around: Horses, as many as 30 or 40 each day, were tied down the slope where the I. A. Building now stands. English teacher Gates Thomas parked his little bay pony and buggy there each morning' after giv- ing students a lift halfway up the 'back of the Hill, which was as high as the road went then. Early roads around the Hill were built largely of adobe, which turned into a fine dusty powder in dry weather and into slippery mire in rainy seasons. Visitors often had to walk up the Hill in rainy weather when Mose Cheatam's team couldn't pull the slope. Captain Fred Coche With the coming of cars, Dr. Evans bought the first one, a Dodge. In 1916, the road up to the Quad was enlarged so that two cars could pass. - HILL RACE TRACK Unfortunately this widened road became a proving ground for San Marcos motorists, who didn't feel that their car had been tested until it had shown that it would pull Normal Hill. Gay young blades drove up to Main Building to whistle at co-eds until President Evans called in maintenance worker Rufus Wimberley, told him to close the road'to the Quad 'and build a road around the Hill. Building problems were nothing new to Wimberley, who has been shifting rocks, dirt, and former dwellings since 1915 to make room for the expanding college. Hill roads were built with picks, shovels and wheelbarrows. On the day of a big debate against the school's arch rival, Denton, the student body and faculty paraded to the station to meet the Denton debaters. A float with decorated chairs for de- baters and coaches was fixed on a wagon bed, and the contestants hauled in high style to the Main Buildings where immediately an assembly was held with rival teams boasting from the stage of what they would do to their worthy opponents that evening. William A. Rasco and R. H. Porter in 1916, debating the af- firmative side of Resolved--That immigration into the United States should be further restricted by the imposition of a literacy test licked their North Texas opponents by 3-0. Such a victory called for a torchlight parade around the square and a series of parties of dances. Beginning in 1912 another attraction was the Senior Play. Mem- bers of the German Club, Germanistiscbe Gesellschaft, also presented a play each spring. A Lyceum course, with season tickets for one dollar, entertained students and townspeople. Dramatic ,work in 1919 was largely taken over by director G. H. Sholts and his Rabbit's Foot Dramatic Club, which presented The Admirable Crichton, The Rejuvenation of Aunt Mary, and Seventeen. Educationally the Normal was making great progress during the war period. The Science Building was enlarged in 1915, a Manual Arts Building, now the Student Union, erected in 1912, a brick Pow- er House in 1915, and the Education Building, an 385,000 building, completed in 1918. President Evans was in the middle of his long campaign to raise the status of the Normal Schools to the position of colleges. CSee Guidepostsl . FIRST PRACTICE TEACHING At the beginning of 1914 a Training School was opened to give practice teaching to students under the supervision of A. W. Bird- well, W. I. Woodson and A. C. Burkholder. The practice school bears the same relation to the profession of teaching as the laboratory does to science, or the work shop does to Manual Training, stated the Normal catalogue of 1915. For training rural teachers an ar- rangement was made with one-room school in the Westover sec- tion to take practice teachers. One other project dear to the hearts of College students was begun during the World War I period. In 1916 D. S. M. tAffedtionately known as Froggy behind his backl, Dr. C. S. Smith, then coach and science teacher, P. T. Miller, chemistry teacher, and Dr. Evans agreed to locate a new college swimming pool on four acres of land west of the fish hatchery. College workers with mud scrapers and mule teams, again under the direction of Rufus Wimberley, cleaned the river. Rock and grav- el and cinders built up the banks and by the summer of 1917 the College had its Riverside Park. Later this name was changed to Sewell Park in honor of Dr. Sewell. Land has gradually been added to this, both from private sources and through purchase from the government, until now the park contains almost 23 acres. Concrete retaining walls were built and the island, low and marshy, was filled in with soil. Regulations that would seem strange to present-day swimmers were strictly enforced at the opening of the pool. No white or light colored suits were permitted. A matron was hired in 1917 to see that bathers met all requirements of decorum. Shoulder straps on bath- ing suits had to be wide enough to hold three buttons. Hose were sewed or pinned to suits, and girls' suits had to have skirts or bloom- ers. The matron also checked on male attire and made certain that boys and girls swam in different parts of the pool and did sit to- gether on the grass while clad in swimming suits. Even these clothing regulations were not modest enough for some. Friends recall that Dr. Sewell cut the legs off a pair of trous- ers and sewed them to the bottom of his suit for more protection. One event in connection with Sewell Park that has become traditional is the annual Water Pageant, which got its start on the 4th of July, 1920. Several students wanted to go swimming on that holiday so Dr. Evans gave permission for the pool to remain open for a swimming-diving show to be staged. From this has grown the annual pageant which now attracts thousands of visitors. 1 FIRST DEGREE AWARDED Miss Mamie E. Brown made Normal history in June, 1919, when, clad in the first bachelor's rob and cap to be used at a Nornfill commencement, she received the first bachelor's degree to be issued on the Hill. Daughter of J. S. Brown, teacher of mathematics, Miss REGULATIONS OF NORMAL i l. School will be in session from 8:45 1-LM. t.l1 2 P.M. on each Tuesday. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Home study periods will be from 3:30 P.M. till 5:30 P.M. and from 7 P.M. till 10 P.M. each Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, From 2 P.M. on Saturday till noon Monday students may devote their time to rest, ap- propriate exercise and recreation, attendance on Sunday School and Church services and other duties. 2. The hours designated above as study periods are to be spent by all students in their own rooms, or in the library, or in the laboratory, in the prosecution of school work . . . 3. In all boarding homes the use of the telephone by students must be limited to the giving or receiving of important information in regard to school work, or to communication with parents, guardians, or mem- bers of the faculty . . . 4. Students will not without special permission from some member of the faculty, go to the post office either to post or to call for mail or for any other purposes . . . 5. During the afternoons and evenings of Saturday and Sundays. stu- dents may, within proper bounds, make and receive social visits, but such visits may not extend later than 10 P.M. and the proprietors of boarding homes are directed to see that their parlors are in all cases vacated by students not later than this hour. The purpose which justifies the existence of the Normal is the preparation of young men and women to teach, not to afford opportunity to marry. Any marked indica- tions that students are spending their time in courting, or in being courted, or in trifling about such matters, will be deemed sufficient for the prompt removal of such students from the Normal. .U