THE BATTALION.
2L
such chairs as are usual to literary institutions, except there
was a professor of agriculture. I trust that I will not be
considered as disparaging their successors, to say that this
old faculty was a collection of mental giants, strong in per
sonality and individuality and each capable of leadership.
With this able faculty there was soon attracted hither many
bright young men, and no students ever learned faster or
better. So rapid was its growth that at the close of the
second year there were eight professors and 341 students,
while upon Oct. 2, 1876, the date of its opening, only six
students were in attendance. At that time Texas had many
excellent colleges, this however was the only state institu
tion. Our University was not then organized and there
seemed to be a demand for literary instruction largely and
such was the course pursued. Indeed the means for practical
instruction in agriculture and the mechanic arts were not
provided for by necessary appropriation. The agricultural
appliances consisted of a wagon and two mules, which were
soon sold upon the ground as alleged by some of the news
papers that none of the professors knew how to harness a
team and therefore they could not be used. The meenanical
department was also unequipped, except we had a grind
stone to grind the axes. It is true that some attention was
given to both these branches in the class room and from text
books but this was unimportant and unsatisfactory. The
authorities of the college and the people of Texas, however,
never lost sight of the true purpose for which the institu
tion was founded and the importance to the state of securing
its benefits and carrying out that purpose. That is, the
establishing of an institution for the training of young men
in agriculture and the libelal mechanic arts. Time and
effort and means, those great insurers of the success of all
great enterprises, were required. It was a new field in
Texas, and in fact, in the country at large. Plans were to be
matured, methods to be devised and tried and ripened by ex
perience and usage. With these objects in view this institu
tion has traveled along with the progress of the state during
the twenty years of its existence. Successive legislatures