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The
East Texas Historical Association has "lived" on the campus of Stephen
F. Austin State University since its birth in 1971. In fact, the University
was the delivering physician because President Ralph W. Steen and
history department chairman C.K. Chamberlain were among its founders,
and Chamberlain became the Association’s first director and editor
of its Journal. The Association is only one of a host of positive
things spawned by SFA since its founding in 1923. The legislature
first authorized a new "teacher’s college" for East Texas in 1917,
but World War I got in
the way of funding as well as manpower. The process had to begin anew
after the war ended, although A.W. Birdwell, a history professor at
Southwest Texas State Teachers College, already had been designated
president of the college that not only did not have a campus, he did
not know where the campus would be located.
Leaders in a great many communities in East
Texas candidated for theirs’ to be the host city. The committee
that worked for Nacogdoches
was known as The Citizens Committee; it soon became known as the Nacogdoches
Booster Club, and still exists, the longest-tenured civic organization
in the city.
The committee prepared an illustrated pamphlet for state officials
who would decide on the host city of the new school. Its titled promised
"Twenty-three Reasons Why The Stephen F. Austin State Normal Ought
to be Located at Nacogdoches." Nacogdoches should be the place, said
the pamphlet, "Because Nacogdoches is the center of the section to
be served...; is the most accessible city...; has 5,000 people in
the city and 32,000 in the county who would be proud...; its schools
rank among the best in the South...; guarantees 250 children for a
training school...; once hosted Nacogdoches University...; has high
moral tone...; the jail is empty; is a city of refined homes...; has
nine churches...; has a delightfully mild climate...; is a city of
good health...; has a well-equipped light and power plant...; the
electricity is cheaper...; has a good sewage system...; has pure artesian
water...; and three, two-story hotels...; has 22 boarding houses...;
has rare natural beauty...; has a progressive business spirit...;
has ample entertainment facilities...; offers superior [building]
sites...”is "the Cradle of Texas Liberty”..; and, No. 23...Nacogdoches
links Old Texas With The New."
Obviously, the Locating Committee was persuaded. |
© Archie
P. McDonald
All
Things Historical
September
28, 2005 column
A syndicated column in over 70 East Texas newspapers
(Distributed by the East Texas Historical Association. Archie P. McDonald
is director of the Association and author of more than 20 books on
Texas)
See Nacogdoches,
Texas |
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