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

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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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To the three men who have guided Southwest Texas State Teachers College through many fruitful years we dedi- cate the 1952 Golden Anniversary edition of the PEDAGOG. 7711. 7. 141164 Our first president, MR. T. G. HARRIS, organized the facu- ty of the Normal and led the school through those important first years. Principal Harris served as head of the college from 1903 to l9ll. Dz. ' Eugene Solano DR. CECIL EUGENE EVANS, our second president, served the school for thirty-one years, from 1911 to 1942. It was under Dr. Evans that the school's name was changed from the Nor- mal to Southwest Texas State Teachers College. The Hill en- joyed tremendous expansion, both in enrollment and in physi- cal facilities during his tour of duty. Dz. lah Qmland 'Wowae Under DR. IOHN GARLAND FLOWERS, the College has continued its expansion until now it has one of the most beau- tiful campuses in the state and many fine classroom build- ings and dormitories. Dr. Flowers began buying land during World War ll in preparation for a Greater College Building Program. Through his presidency of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education and his active participa- tion in numerous state and national educational organizations, he has brought the College national prominence. This has led to the affiliation of campus organizations with national educa- tional associations.

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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