University of Texas Austin - Cactus Yearbook (Austin, TX)

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JT DAVID FC

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S residont 2)avid U ranlilin iouston. FTKK six yi ars of as devoted service as ever man gave to institution President William L. Prather died yV on the :;4th oi July, 1905, in the fullness of manhood, suddenly, as he desired, his lite shortened by the strain of a new and laborious task. The University paused fi ' om its work to lay his body to rest and to honor his memory, but then its work must needs go on. The Dean of the Faculty took the reins for the j time, many supposed for a year at least, but the Board of Regents at its meeting on the 16th of August decidcil that an interregnum was harmful and needless and proceeded at once to the election of a now President. A number of names were considered. In the end the unanimous choice of the Board rested on President Houston, of the Agricultural and Mechanical College. He was then at Beverley, Massachusetts. Being informed of his election by telegram, to the great gratification of the University he accepted the position, and on the tirst of September assumed its duties. President Houston is no stranger to the University, but his return as President renders appropriate a review of his life and work. In the first half of the eighteenth century three Houston brothers, of Scotch descent, came from Ireland to Virginia. There they separated, one going north to Pennsylvania, the second settling in North Carolina, the third pushing still further south. All three are represented l)y a numerous band of descendants. Among the Pennsyl- vania Houstons the most noted is perhaps the late Henry H. Houston, the well known philanthroiiist of Chest- nut Hill, Philadelphia. Among the representatives of the third brother is to be counted Sam Houston, the most famous name in Texas history. The second brother ' s descendants, living for the most part in Mecklenburg County, Noi-th Carolina, and the neighborhood, have been foremost among the citizens of that sturdy Scotch- Irish community. Prom this stock comes our new President. David Franklin Houston was born in Monroe, Union County, North Carolina, on the ITtli of February, 1) (36, the son of William Henry Houston and Cornelia Ann Stevens. When he was six years old his parents removed to Darlington, South Carolina, and there he was brought up, in the simple life of an old Southern town, where if money was scarce standards were high. Young Houston was prepared for college at the old St. John ' s Acad- emy, a school that even yet lie looks back to as the best preparatory boys ' school he has known. It was not a public school in the ordinary sense, for there was a tuition fee of forty-five dollars a session, but it was k-ei)t up by the better class of citizens, who believed that a thoroughly good school was a necessity to the wellbeing of

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tlH comimuiit.v. 0 vnin r no in-operty, save its buildini;s and };-rounds, it luid ;i better endowment in its trustees and teaoliers. In recent years the Academy has been transformed into a pubHc graded school of the usual type, to the advantage, perhaps, of more chikh-en, but to its hurt as a preparatory school for college. Young Houston ' s studies at St. John ' s Academy were interrupted by a year ' s teaching in a country school at Dovesville, undertaken from the necessity of contributing to his own support; but when, in 1884, he left the Acad- emy, he was so well advanced that he was able, even after a year ' s w ' ork i n a drug store, to enter the South Car- olina College at Columbia witli sufticient credit to enable him to graduate with honor after two years in the class of I ' - ' T. During liis college course he was editor of the college magazine, the South Carolina Collegian; Captain in a volunteiT military company, holding a conmiission from the Governor in the Palmetto Regiment, and finally Pres- ident of the Senior Class. He was a member of the Euphradean literary society and of the Phi Delta Theta fra- ti ' i-nity. )r. J. M. McBryde was then President of the South Carolina College, and his faculty contained such men as .laiiK ' s Woodrow in Geology and Benjamin Sloan in Matliematics. men whose superiors in the essentials of useful manhood President Houston has never found. After graduation ' Sir. Houston was appointed to a tutorship in Greek and Latin in the South Carolina College, and for a year taught freshmen classes in these languages, doing at the same time graduate work in History and Economics. Reappointed for a second year, he resigned to accept the superintendency of the Spartanburg city schools. In this position he ser ed with great acceptability for thi-ee years. In l ' .ll he went to Harvard with the idea of entering the Law School but decided to continue his studies in economics, history, and government. The character of his work at Harvard is shown by his being given a five hundred dollar Morgan fellowship in the spi-ing of 1892 and his being reappointed to the fellowship for the two following years. In 189 ' 2 he received the degree of Master of Arts. During that summer he was employed to write a leading chapter for the Democratic National Campaign Textbook on the repeal of the ten per cent tax on State Banks, and in 1S94 he edited the Doc- uments of Ordinances of Secession for the American History Leaflets. Yet Mr. Houston was, while at Harvard, in no sense a grind. He saw life broadly, acquiring that knowledge of men and things that has meant so much in his later life. An evidence of his standing among his fellow stijdents, men gathered from over all the United State and Canada, may be found in his election as President of the Graduate Club for the year 1893-94. Leaving Harvard in ls94 Mr. Houston came to the University of Texas as Adjunct Professor of Political Science, a subject now for the first time separated from Philosophy. As Adjunct Professor in charge of the School he developed a work so strong and sound that at the end of his three years ' appointment he was as a mat- er of course advanced to Associate Professor. In l!-i96, on the coming of President Winston to the University,