lic, and the first resolutions ever read in Brazoria county were
written by him.

But these men were not only educated men, but they
planned for education. Scarcely had the smoke of battle
cleared away from San Jacinto, scarcely had they got through
driving the Mexicans out of Texas and scaring the red men
from the frontier, when they assembled and resolved that
Texas should have a grand University, and they donated fifty
leagues (222,000 acres) of land for that purpose. They met,



384 The Life and Writings of

those men, there without money enough to buy sugar to put in
their coffee, and many of them with brogans and unblacked
shoes on, yet they formed the phan for a grand University.

Look at it from a denominational standpoint. For I lay
down this as a grand principle — that God is wise, all wise, and
that he never expects, never intends, to achieve any great end
that he does not select suitable agencies; and every Texan
knows that this is to be the grandest State that the sun in his
long journey round the globe looks down upon.

When Jesse Mercer in 1838 said: ''Texas is to be the
grandest State on this continent and we must send men and
women there to take and plant the standard of the cross or it
will be like a millstone on the moral agencies of this country."
They raised $2500 to start the mission, and that sent the mis-
sionary here who baptized the first couple ever baptized in the
Gulf of Mexico — Gail Borden and wife, who was the niece of
Jesse Mercer. And not only Jesse Mercer, but George Pea-
body was interested in our great State. He said: "Dr.
Sears, at your age I want you to canvass but one State. I
want you to look well to the great State of Texas. Found
well and thoroughly, a system of public free schools. I give
it to you as my last and perchance my dying charge." Well,
if this is to be a grand State — and all know this to be its des-
tiny, and as the good Mercer and Peabody said it would be —
would not God select grand agents to prepare it. Why, it
would be an impeachment of the wisdom of the Almighty not
to understand that these pathfinders of the greatest State be-
tween the oceans were grand men. They were. Look at it.
The Methodists, who were the pioneers of civilization every-
where on the Western Continent, in 1837 sent Dr. Martin,
the first D. D. it is said ever made on this continent, to Texas
as a pathfinder, to lay the foundation of Methodism; and in
1837, one year after the battle of San Jacinto, he came in
the greatness of his integrity and the order of his piety, and
the first thing he did was to write and obtain a charter for the
college that was after his death named for him, and in that
college he began to instruct many of the leading men of Texas.

In the strange providence of God he died but his work
will never, never die. Three years later a man came to Texaji
broken in health, J. B. McKenizie, who had been a circuit



Dr. Eufus C. Buklesox. 385

rider among the Choctaw Indians. He had been educated in
one of the leading schools in Tennessee. That grand old
leader and general, for he was a general — a great many men
are educated but not generals — came to Texas, believing, as
Mercer, Peabody, and all the leaders did, that it was to be a
glonous State. He did not see much prospect, and went out
four miles south of Clarksville and opened a little school.
The work enlarged upon him, enlarged until it became
McKenzie Institute, McKenzie College, and on that very spot
between 3,000 and 4,000 young men have been instructed,
men who have been the grand men of Methodism, the banner
bearers of the great civilization of Texas.

Well the Baptists, they sent two grand men that old
Jesse Mercer selected, William M. Tryon and James Huckins.
They came and gathered a little feeble flock on Clear Creek.
Of course you can't get Baptists far from where there is much
water. In 1842 they went there with only six hundred of
them and formed an educational society and resolved to found
a great university. Think of six hundred men starting at this
and having to keep the savages off. In those days preachers
went armed, not only in Texas, but in Georgia and the other
States. In Georgia they went with a Bible and hymn book
in one hand, and in the other — no, in their saddlebags —
something, I am ashamed to tell what it was, but instead of
carrying that in Texas they carried in the other saddlebag a
shot gun. Well, some of them may have been like one old
Hardshell. They said to him : "Brother Doodlee, don't you
believe that everything is ordained, and that it will be just
as it is ordained ?" ''Yes." "Then, what do you always cany
your gun for ? If your time has not come the Indians can not
kill you." "Well," he says, "I know that is the way, that my
time is fixed, but now, brother, what if I should be going to
an appointment and meet an Indian and I did not have my
gun, and his time had come; what a great pity that would be."
So these brothers who carried shot guns for fear they might
meet an Indian whose time had come to die, met on Clear
Creek and resolved to found a grand university, and that re-
sulted in the founding of Baylor University four years after-
wards. It has gone on from 1846 to 1890 without ever slack-



386 The Life axd Writings of

ing the traces, and in that University have been educated be-
tween five and six thousand voung men.

Well, this is the beginning. Other denominations acted
wisely. Dr. Daniel Baker, a worthy compeer of Huckins,
Try on, and McKenzie, came and said, "What is the matter
with you Presbyterians? The Baptists have the rich lands
where there is much water and we do think the Presbyterians
ought to have the cities and schools." He got the charter for
Austin College, located first at Huntsville, aftenvards at
Sherman. He traversed not only Texas, but this continent,
and every^vhere he stirred up the sons of Calvin to act in
founding a great University in the Empire State of the world.
And the Episcopalians, under the leadership of my dear friend.
Dr. Charles G. Gillette, founded their school at Anderson —
St. Paul's College. They struggled nobly, but circumstances
of an untoward character occurred, which resulted in the fail-
ure of their effort. But these were the early movements. I
am talking about the early history. And the Cumberland
Presbyterians have their schools and colleges, and a school of
w^hich any people, any denomination, might be proud. I have
thus briefly given an outline of the denominational work in
the State. I glory in the State University, and I glory in our
Agricultural College, and our JSTomaal School; but that
agency upon which three-fourths, if not four-fifths of the
youth of Texas will depend, is the denominational colleges,
and woe be the day when there shall be a conflict, a collision
between State institutions and denominational colleges. They
ought to be parts of one perfect whole, and hence I have re-
ferred to the work of the denominations in the early history
of the education of Texas.

As I have said the early leaders determined in 1837 to
have a grand university and appropriated fifty leagues of land.
In 1858 the Legislature of Texas set apart $100,000 in State
bonds, derived from the sale of Santa Fe territory, to the Uni-
versity fund. In 187G the State donated 1,000,000 acres of
land more, and to-day the lands unsold amount to 2,022,978
acres; in State bonds $523,511 ; land notes $106,810, with an
actual annual income of $47,942 — a sum amply sufficient to
educate a thousand young men and young ladies. The State
University has been inaugurated and in active operation, and



Dr. Rufus C. Burleson. 387

I rejoice to say, from annoimcements made by one of the offi-
cers, that that school is to-day doing a noble work, and I wish
it God-speed and abundant and glorious success.

But the Agricultural College deserves notice. You are
aware that in 1862, when the terrible battle of Bull Run, the
terrible battles of the Confederacy were being fought, tho
United States Assembly appropriated an amount of land, I
believe 180,000 acres to each state to found an agricultural
college, for they found, as all educators did, that there was a
great tendency to make education impracticable; and while I
never had a particle of patience with this idea of saying every-
thing must be utilitarian in the sense it is understood, and it
was a fearful mistake that cut hono was not written on nine-
tents of the curriculums in use. But some went to the other
extreme, and the agricultural colleges were a grand desider-
atum in the educational wants of the country, and the State
of Texas has appropriated until this institution founded near
Bryan at College Station has $225,000; other stock, $35,000;
permanent fund from sale of United States educational lands,
$200,000. Thus our Agricultural College is upon a basis and
foundation of future and glorious prosperity.

Then there is the colored college; for whoever shall
ignore the colored man, is not a patriot, or if so he is fearfully
misguided. The colored man is here, was brought here in the
wise providence of God for his good ; and if we had had sense
enough to have taken it right, and like Washington and Jef-
ferson, accepted the fact that he was placed here for his chris-
tianization (he is to be christianized) and christianized him,
by that time Stanley would have discovered that immense
country and sent them all back there, but we have defeated
the plan. But we are to educate the colored man; we are to
take him by the hand and help him. But I will never ask
him to sit down at my table or to come to see my daughter;
never in the world. I will take him by the hand, provide
him with his college, and help to educate him. You will
say, "that is cheap talk." I will tell you what I did. When
in E"ew York I went to Judge Jessup and said : "We want
a grand college for teachers and preachers of the colored race.
Can not you give us $25,000 to start the enterprise?" He
sat down and figured it up, and said I, "if you will, I promise



388 The Life axd Wkitixgs of

you before God that every true Texas Baptist will see that
your fuud is not squandered;" and after a few weeks he said:
"Wife and I have decided to give $25,000 for founding a
college for colored education/' And that college is founded,
and whenever I have heard of their being in trouble — there
are grand and noble men at Marshall, men who can be relied
upon — and whenever they are in trouble, I don't care what
evils, what mistakes they make, I have seen that they got out
of that trouble. I promised Judge Jessup and his wife that
I would look after them. And I ask you, Mr. President, and
every brother and sister here to educate the colored man and
get him wise enough and good enough to go back to Africa
and civilize that country; for there won't be room enough
for him in this country Then we have Prairie View College,
risk University, Tillotson College, and this is what we are
doing for the colored man, and let us push on and press on.
jN'ow I come to Paul Quin College at Waco. They are of a
different denomination but educators should always work
together and should all go the same road. I want you to come,
and will not insist on your coming into the water. I am going
certain, and if you want to take less water in yours, why come
that way; but for the glory of Texas and the uplifting of
Texas for the colored man let us stand as a glorious unit.

When Judge Roberts was nominated for Governor he
wrote me a letter as president of this convention (I was then
president of the meeting at Mexia), and he said : "Will you
call a convention of your wisest teachei*s ? I want the wisest
heads and the most comprehensive brains in Texas to help us
in recommending a school law for Texas." I read his letter
before the convention of school teachers in Mexia, and accord-
ingly we assembled there and wrote out a report like school
masters often do, and it sounded well; would have sounded
well if put to music, and if it had been played and sung on
water it would have sounded beautifully. I did not know-
much about law, and do not now, but I did know something
about a system of public schools, for I had gone to Boston and
Rhode Island and almost every place on this continent where
they had grand free schools and colleges; and I said, "Let us
cali in the lawyers and see if it is in accordance with law."
I said, "I will never sign my name to that document unless one



De. Rufus C. Burlesox. 389

of tlie supreme judges or the attorney general comes in and
says it is according to law." And we found where it was in
conflict with about eleven points of the Constitution. I am
a Democrat, understand, I did not go down when the Democ-
racy went down into that sour mash, but I will stand by the
edge of the bucket and when the Democracy comes out I will
be there. But there were enough mistakes there to horn oif
the free school in about eleven diiierent ways. There was not
a point where you could run a free school that it did not
horn it. We saw it. Dr. Sears hung down his head and says,
"This is a failure." AVe went up to the elegant home of IVLrs.
Anderson, where we staid, and he said, "This is my third tri})
to Texas and it is a failure." I have been married 36 years,
and I write a letter to my wnfe every night when I am away
from home. So Dr. Sears laid down, and I went to write to
my wife, 'like all good husbands do, for I tell you that a good
husband must next to God worship his wife, and you good
ladies a^^II please take note of that, for of course it is a mutual
affair. Well, the Doctor was lying there groaning, and I said,
"Doctor, I am sorry you can not sleep." "Oh," he says, "it
is a failure." "Why," says I, "a failure? I have heard you
say, and your old president, there never was a grand thing
that there was not seven ways to do it if you were smart enough
to find it out." "Well," he said, "what way is there to do
this?" "'Why," says I, "the most beautiful way you ever
thought of." That was midnight, and I was writing to my
wife "and he was groaning. I said, ''If we had a million dol-
lars we have no teachers to carry the schools on to-day — ^that
is, teachers who know how to teach school. 'Now, we will
have that constitution changed; and if you will give us
$6,500, Governor Roberts will give $6,000, and we will found
a normal school and prepare teachers for Texas." He said,
"Will your Governor do it? He is not heartily in favor of
a free school system, and I know it, but he is a grand lawyer
and will carry out the constitution or die. The constitution
says, it sliall be the duty of the Legislature to inaugurate an
efficient system of free schools, and I will risk my life on Gov-
ernor Roberts carrying out that very thing." He raised up
and said, "Bless God, there is daylight ahead."

Right there in the hour of defeat, the hour of midnight,
this grand normal of Texas was conceived. I saw the Gover-



390 The Life and Writings of

nor aud it was all right. I am giving history just as modestly
as if I was neither here nor there. Thus we organized our
denominational schools, our State University, our Agricul-
tural school, our Normal school, and our teachers convention,
and Texas is organizing for grand work. I might say a few
sad things on the other side of it. Well, now, I am afraid
this will spoil it, and I am ashamed of this part of it. Do
you know that Baylor University is ihe only college now in
existence and I am the only li\dng man that was roa-r^hing in
1851? The colleges are all dead and the teachers are all dead.
There have been fifty-seven colleges chartered, and military
schools, great brass buttons all round the arms, and they have
passed away like shadows on the lake. I am a little more
ashamed that our Baptist brethren have wasted $157,000,
upon a grand college at Benton, Red Sulphur College Insti-
tute in Tarrant County. We have a grand college at Baylor
and $157,000 has been wasted; and how much. Brother
McLean, you Methodists have wasted, I do not know. I hope
you have been wiser than we. The Episcopal college that
friend Gillette organized at Anderson — and they boastfully
said that St. Paul's College would turn all the other colleges
into village academies, that the wealth and intelligence would
flock to St. Paul's — three years after it was a grand stack of
fodder. St. Paul had departed and the fodder had entered.
I could tell you some worse things than that on the Baptists.
But what is the point of giving this? Why these mistakes?
Alas ! alas ! we never counted up the cost. Why when Judge
Baylor, and Judge Horton came to me and said, "We have
elected you president of Baylor University, and it is a dreary
prospect just now; but in ten years you can build it up
grandly, and you will have nothing to do through your life
but to fold your arms and sit down and live at ease." I looked
at them to see if they were trying to fool me or were fooling
themselves. They did not count up the cost. I could give
instances of how Ave toiled and fought. Why a man came to
Waco and representing five men he said, "If you adopt co-
education we will break you up. We have got the money
and the men." I said, "My friend, you can't break me up;
and all I ask of you is, when you fail don't get mad, just come
into line and come back," And they got their school and



Dk. Rufus C. Bukleson. 391

their teacher, and elegant man with brass buttons, and my
brother was a despondent man, and said, "Brother Rufus, we
may as well give up; we can't compete." I said, "We stand
upon the eternal rock." And in three years there was not a
brass button or a stripe there. I say nothing against military
colleges, but that was not the way to build up a college.

A college is like a live oak; it must grow and grow, and
when it has defied the storms of 500 winters, when it is once
established, it is the most indestructible thing under the sun.
If the State of Massachsusetts were to grapple with Harvard,
or Rhode Island with Brown University, the State would go
down in the struggle. And if to-day the State of Connecticut
was to say, we will wipe out old Yale, Yale would wipe out
Connecticut. And the college is established and it takes what ?
—a lifetime ! Yes, a lifetime to lay the foundation for it.
I shall begin my fortieth annual session next September, and
we have been going steadily on. Last year we had 685 stu-
dents, and next year, by the help of God, we intend to have
815, and here is a head that is always thinking, a hand that
is always executing, a tongue that is always explaining. I
have visited and preached in every old town in Texas except
Burksville, and I am going there before the summer closes.
And this is what it takes to build up a college, and if you are
not willing to pay the cost, do not waste your money; and
when you have built it up, build up a thing of glory forever.
I have seen the colleges all die, seen the presidents all die —
and now, if it is the will of God, I want to outlive this old cen-
tury, and at the end of the century I want to see the magnifi-
cent building, and stand upon the grand tower there, and if
the angel chariots will meet me when this old century dies, I
am willing to say, "Come, Lord Jesus; my eyes have seen
it." x\nd then I have only laid the foundation, and other
men, wiser and better men, must carry it on. I must make
one other point. I glory in every institution that has for its
end education in Texas, and in connection with this is another
mistake. Colleges think to build themselves up they have
got to tear each other down. That is one of the terrible mis-
takes. God is my judge that I have never laid the weight of
that little finger on any college or teacher in Texas, but you
had better believe I am going to build up what has been left



392



The Life and Writings of



in my charge. But we are not in each other's way. Brother
McLean, if you have 1,000 students help me to get 1,500.
There are to-day 6,000 young men and women in Texas who
ought to be in the Texas colleges, and we want to work to-
gether, to encourage each other, to stand by each other, and
if you fail, try, try again. If you are pressed to the earth or
ever overwhelmed, say "God is overhead," and glory will
follow.




•^.v



Dr. Eufus C. BuRLESOJf.



CHAPTER XLVI



Progress of Education in Texas — Development of State
Institutions — Dr. B. Sears' Keport for 1879 — Estab-
lishment OF State University — Corner Stone Laid
^vTovEMBER 17th, 1883 — Educational Measures Passed
During Gov. Roberts' Administration — Prairie
View Made a Branch of the University— Medical
University at Galveston Opened October 1st, 1891
— Summer N"ormals — Value of School Property —
Charitable Institutions — Generosity of the People
IN Eavor of Education.

['T^IhE culmination of all the trials and conflicts of Dr.
LiJ Barnas Sears, Agent of the Peabody Eund, and Dr.
l^^j Kufus C. Burleson, his faithful representative and
coadjutor in Texas briefly recited in the last ten chapters,
forms a story of much value, and possesses much interest to
the student of the educational history of Texas. Some other
facts will be merely touched, and then the results of their
labors given.

Dr. Sears in his report to the Trustees of the Peabody
Eund in 1879 says, ''We learn from a special paper prepared
by the Secretary of the Board of Education dated June 2d,
1879, that the expenses of this Department were for the year
1874, $703,117; for 1875, $767,052; for 1876, the office
was closed and there was no report but they were not less than
$500,000; for 1877, the amount paid to teachers was
$500,000; for 1878, it was $750,000. Of the children of the



394 The Life and Whitings of

State, only those between the ages of eight and fourteen were
enumerated. The whole number is 194,353, of whom 149,-
719 are white and 44,G36 colored. There were enrolled in the
public schools in all 146,936. Of this number 111,038 were
white and 35,898 were colored.

Since the opening of the year 1879, there has been in all
Texas a constant contention in regard to school funds. The
general assembly at its last session, early in the year, passed
a law making very liberal provisions for schools. The Gover-
nor vetoed the act and there was an adjournment leaving the
whole question of finance unsettled. All parties plunged into
the controversy. The men who secured the passage of the
law and their numerous sympathizers commented on the
action and views of the Governor in no gentle terms. The
supporters of the veto pleaded the financial embarrassment
of the State, and the prior claims of its creditors, and those of
the Departments of the Government for their expenses. A
third party smaller in numbers, but louder in utterance, de-
nounced the whole theory of public education as unwise and
unjust. A special session of the Assembly was called, and the
Governor in several messages, explained his view more fully,
and endeavored to correct the impression that he was not
friendly to free schools, adding that the existing schools were
of little value, and that they could not be much improved
until the I^ormal Schools should train a better class of teach-
ers. The advocates of the bill that was vetoed argued that the
constitution was mandatory, making it the duty of the Leg-
islature to maintain an efficient system of free schools, and
that the pressing necessities of the people in regard to the edu-
cation of their children, the swelling tide of immigration of
mixed races, the dangers of barbarism, and the immense un-
developed natural resources of the State, rendered it doubly
unwise and unjustifiable to evade the plain meaning of the
constitution.

The present school law is indeed defective, and most of
the public schools, except those of a few cities, are of an in-
ferior character. Of those who claim to be friendly to free
schools, one party admitting the imperfections of the law,
desired, nevertheless, to work under it as best they might till
they could improve it; the opposite party objected to this



Dr. Rufus C. Bukleson. 395

course as a waste of the public money, and insisted on waiting
till a better system could be devised and put in operation.

After a setere and protracted struggle the party lead by
the Governor prevailed, and only one-sLxth of the general rev-
enue, instead of one-fourth, was appropriated to schools.

The most hopeful step that was taken by the Legislature
at its regular session, was that of establishing two Normal
schools, one for each race. I visited the State last winter, and