Southwestern University - Souwester Yearbook (Georgetown, TX)

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Southwestern University Fifty Years of Service IT has been more than fifty-four years since Dr. Francis Asbury Mood came from South Carolina to Chappell Hill, Texas, as President-elect of Soule University. This institution had been pro- jected by the Texas Methodists in 1856 and operated with growing prosperity and great promise until it succumbed to the disasters of the Civil War. Dr. Mood was expected to resuscitate this institution and to this end he opened the first term after his arrival, January 2, 1869, closing with appropriate exercises the following June. The opening of the second session the following September was encouraging, but in a week or two Yellow Fever appeared at Galveston, soon extended to Houston, and because only two years before Chappell Hill and other towns in that section had been decimated by this fearful epidemic, Dr. Mood, the students and citizens were in the greatest anxiety, and when the report came that it had reached Hempstead, only seven miles away, the community and school were thrown into a panic. It was in the midst of these conditions, while Dr. Mood was constantly in prayer, that a plan, which ultimately became South- western University presented itself to his mind. He carefully committed his plan to paper and at once called a meeting of the Trustees of Soule University. The Board met October 4, 1869, an unusually full attendance being present, and he laid his plan before the Board. The paper began by setting forth the vital importance to Southern Methodism as well as to the general interests of religion and education in Texas, of establishing an institution of learning that would command general confidence and patronage. The paper invited the Conferences of the State to call an Educational Convention to which should be committed the duty of arranging for the organization, location and endowment of a university for the Southwest, to be under the patronage and control of the Texas conferences and of such other conferences as may hereafter desire to co-operate with them. Under existing conditions this paper meant the death of Soule University, but under Dr Mood ' s elequent appeal it passed the Board of Trustees with only one dissenting vote. Dr. Mood attended each of the Texas annual conferences that fall and presented the call for the Edu- cational Convention and it was approved and endorsed by each of them in turn. The Convention, which was to consist of the delegates elect to the ensuing General Con- ference, met at Galveston, persuant to call, April 20, 1870. Rev. Robert Alexander was called to the chair. His commanding form had led the hosts of Texas Methodism for a third of a century, and by his person this movement was connected with the heroic days of the young Republic. This convention moved carefully and therefore slowly. The conferences called it to meet next at Waxahachie in April, 1871. Here it was favored with the presidency of Bishop E. M. Marvin, which as a benediction to the movement. This Convention appointed a Board of Commissioners of Location and finally adjourned to meet at Corsicana, November 1, 1871. Bishop Marvin, who had remained in Texas throughout the year, also presided at the Corsicana meeting. Page 1

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The University Qhurch

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Bishop J. C. Keener, who presided over the Texas Conferences in the fall of 1872, suggested two distinct Boards of Control, a Board of Trustees and a Board of Curators. The Trustees to be made up of laymen who were to have oversight of the property and all financial matters. The Curators, composed of an equal number of ministers from each of the five Texas Conferences, to have charge of the internal affairs, the election of professors, and conferring of degrees. Bishop Keener had appointed the Curators while presiding over the conferences and the first meeting of the Board was held in Galveston, December 21, 1872, and Bishop Keener presided over this meeting. Rev. F. A. Mood was elected Regent at this time. This meeting marked the first official acts of Southwestern University and this explains why the shield on the seal bears the date 1872. At first the institution was named Texas University and after operating two years under that name it was changed to Southwestern University. Dr. Mood says of the Committee of Location: They visited in person, several points, but agreed quite unanimously, that George- town, possessed by far, the greatest advantages presented by any of the competing points; while the subsidy offered in buildings, lands and money was also in advance of all others. It was publicly announced August 21, 1873, that the institution would be located at George- town, and the town was formally called upon to present its subsidy in legal and authenticated form. Methodists have always recognized it as a fact that higher Christian education is a necessary part of church work. As soon as the battle of San Jacinto threw Texas open to Protestant en- deavor, steps were taken by the Methodists to plant their standards in this land. Rutersville College began operations in January, 1840, nearly a year before the Texas Conference was or- ganized, and the thirty years that intervened, until the educational movement of 1870 that re- sulted in Southwestern University, the Methodists of this state projected some twelve colleges and a University. But at the close of thirty years of struggle, this church had nothing in the way of permanent operations to show for this great outlay of men and money. Dr. Mood selected four of the most conspicuous of these ventures and neglected no step to make his enterprise the legal successor of these defunct institutions, and as many of their alumni and former students were yet living he desired to tie all such to Southwestern University. In preparing the charter for his college Dr. Mood made the 7th section to read: The right to confer degrees, regular and honorary, in the arts and sciences, heretofore conveyed through the Legisla- ture of the State of Texas in charters of Rutersville College, Rutersville; Wesleyan College, San Augustine; Soule University, Chappell Hill; and McKenzie College, Clarksville, Red River County, are hereby transferred and perpetuated and retained to said Curators; and the graduates of said colleges and University shall be entitled to all literary privileges and honors inuring to the other graduates of Southwestern University. The seal of Southwestern University had the names of these institutions interlocked, with the dates of their charters, and as long as Dr. Mood lived the names of the graduates of these old schools appeared annually in our catalogues. The subsidy that Georgetown gave for the location of the University included a plain but capacious stone building having six large lecture rooms and a chapel that couid seat four hundred persons. Having these accommodations at hand, Dr. Mood, the Regent, opened the first session, October 6, 1873, and he was assisted by Professors B. E. Chreitzbert, A. M., and H. M. Reynold, M. D. There were 33 young men who enrolled the first session. Their average age was a little over 17 years, and they were classed as Freshmen and Sophomore. There were no graduates the first year, a sermon from the Regent on Sunday, July 19, 1874, closed the year ' s work. The next session opened favorably with the accession of P. C. Bryce, A. M., called to the chair of Ancient Languages, and W. W. Lewis, A. M., to the chair of Mathematics, vice B. E. Chreitzberg, resigned. A fine religious feeling developed among the students during the year, followed by several conversions. At the close of the session three young men received certificates of gradua- tion in certain schools, and a number of ministers from the conferences came to rejoice with the Faculty, the Trustees, and Curators over the measure of success achieved. Dr. J. H. McLean of the North Texas Conference preached the Commencement sermon to a large congregation. Page 18