The establishment of Southwestern University

The establishment of Southwestern University

By Ellen Davis Friday, 13 June 2008

Starting a college in the early days of the Texas Republic was no easy task. Many attempts failed due to lack of funds and epidemics such as yellow fever. When the Civil War came, many schools had to close because all their male students went off to war.

Early attempts by Methodists to establish institutions of higher learning in the new Republic were no different. Four schools started by individual conferences (regional governing bodies of the church) failed before Methodists in Texas decided an institution of higher learning would have a better chance of success if all the conferences in the state supported it.

The only question became where to locate such a school. Francis Asbury Mood, the president of an early Methodist college in Chappell Hill called Soule University, led a committee that was charged with selecting a location for the new school. They had two criteria: The school had to be located in one of the four Central Texas counties (Bell, Burnet, Travis or Williamson), and it had to be located “upon a large body of land accessible to railroad.”

At about the same time, the citizens of Georgetown, which had been established in 1848, were interested in having a college in their community. Construction on a building for Georgetown College began in 1870 on the present-day site of Williams Elementary School. On Aug. 18, 1871, the trustees of Georgetown College voted to turn their building over to the Methodists on condition of their “establishing a first-class university here.”

Their wish was granted on Aug. 21, 1873, when the 10 “Commissioners of Location” for the Methodist Church in Texas announced that Georgetown had been selected as the site of their new college. Mood proposed that the institution be called “South Western University,” but in a move of expansive pride, the majority of delegates voted to call it “Texas University.” The university later had to relinquish this name to the state, and the college reverted to being called South Western University.

Mood was named the first regent (now known as president) of the university, and classes were set to start Oct. 6, 1873. Thirty-three students enrolled the first day, and three teachers were on hand to receive them.

In its early years, Southwestern had a Preparatory School, which was later called the Fitting School. This remained open until public education came to Georgetown. The Young Ladies School for women was formed in 1878 and later changed its name to Ladies Annex in 1884.

The first building constructed on the present-day Southwestern University campus (eight blocks to the east of the original campus) was a new Ladies Annex Building, which was constructed between 1887 and 1888 at a cost of $50,000. This was a spectacular four-story, Italianate structure with a Mansard roof and tall tower. As soon as the loans for that building were paid off, trustees began planning for the erection of a “magnificent university building.”

In 1898, the trustees accepted a $50,095 contract from the firm of Flume and Waterson, which had built the state capitol in Austin. The ground-breaking ceremony for the new building took place following graduation on May 30, 1898, and the cornerstone was laid Sept. 8. When completed in 1900, the building now known as the Cullen Building was said to be the finest educational structure in the South.

While Southwestern University faced many challenges in the years that followed, a dedicated core of supporters was determined to see the college survive. Over the next 100 years, the campus would grow to more than 30 buildings, and Southwestern University became one of the country’s leading liberal arts colleges.

For more on the history of Southwestern University, read “To Survive and Excel: The Story of Southwestern University 1840-2000” by Southwestern University historian William B. Jones.

Student life in the early days of Southwestern was much different than it is today. When the college first opened in 1873, there were no dormitories on campus. Students had to get room and board from local residents. Joining a literary society was one of the most popular extracurricular activities for students.

“Students identified more closely with their literary societies than with any other institutional group,” according to Southwestern University historian William B. Jones.

The first literary society for men, the Alamo Society, was organized at Southwestern in 1873. A second literary society for men, the San Jacinto Literary Society, was organized on April 25, 1875. The first female literary society, the Alethean, was founded on April 28, 1881, and the second, the Clio Literary Society, was founded on Feb. 22, 1885.

Each group met regularly during the week, and intrasociety debates were held on Fridays and Saturdays. During the 1890s, the societies worked with faculty members to bring speakers, humorists, musicians, poets and singers to campus.

Interest in the literary societies began to wane in the early 1900s, and the final one voted to disband in October 1929.

Fraternities, or Secret Societies, were originally banned from campus, but the administration finally voted to allow them in 1887. The first sorority on campus was formed in 1903.

The first record of an intercollegiate athletic contest at Southwestern was a baseball game against the University of Texas that occurred in 1884. A football team was first mentioned in 1895, but official intercollegiate play did not start until 1908-1909.

Southwestern actually became a football powerhouse during World War II when, thanks to the assistance of then-Congressman Lyndon B. Johnson, Southwestern secured a Navy V-12 training program. Students who had been attending schools such as the University of Texas, Baylor, Rice, SMU and TCU came to Southwestern for military training.

The 1943 the Southwestern football team lost only one game, and on Jan. 1, 1944, Southwestern defeated New Mexico 7-0 to win the Cotton Bowl. However, once the influx of naval trainees left in 1946, the football program started a downhill slide that eventually brought about its demise in 1951 due to budget difficulties.

All photos from the special collections of Southwestern University

A photo slideshow from a recent Sountwestern University historic roots tour