THE BATTALION.
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endowment fund of this institution and the starting point of
its rise and the germ of its growth.
This state taking this beginning has by successive stages
of development, and after many years of “trials and tribula
tions” established and builded an institution that is in the
true sense of the term, a great one.
In 1871 the Texas legislature passed an act establishing the
Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas in pursuance
of the act of congress and made an appropriation of $75,000
for the erection of suitable buildings. The act provided for
the selection, by the commissioners appointed by the governor,
a location. This point was selected the next year and this
has become a Mecca towards which many a young Texan has
already, and more will hereafter turn their faces and band
their steps in search of knowledge, and what is more it has
and will be found here. It has become a great gateway
through which young men of the state yearly pass into active
life armed and equipped for life’s demands and opportunities.
After those preliminary mishaps and adventures, that pe
culiarly beset and befall public institutions, buildings were
erected and ready for occupancy in the fall of 1876. These
were the Main College building, the Mess Hall and five pro
fessors’ residences. In the mean time the interest of the
college and its well being were safely imbeded in our new con
stitution by the people, in that it was made a branch of rhe
University for instruction in agriculture, the mechanic
arts and the natural sciences connected therewith, and also
the right to levy taxes for its support and maintenance was
expressly conferred. When ready for organization the presi
dency of the college was tendered to a man beloved by all
Texas and known throughout the globe, Mr. Jefferson Davis.
His health did not permit him to accept. It may be a coin
cidence worth mentioning to recall that the act of congress
was signed by Mr. Lincoln and became a law at a time when
Mr. Davis was the president of the Confederate States of
America. Courageous blood ran high and flowed freely and
the civilized world watched the mighty and Titanic contest
between the North and South. When this was all over and