contributed from $1,000 to $3,000 each, are F. R. Smith, John W. Goodwin, T. C. Yantis, Brooke Smith, and Mrs. M. A. Martin. A large number of others have contributed from $250 to $1,000. Dr. Robnett gave the college about $10,000, besides giving his entire time for five years without salary.

The college was the outgrowth of a desire on the part of the Baptists of central Texas to be at work in the cause of Christian education. They wished especially to educate the young ministers and to offer the advantages of a collegiate training to young men and young women generally in central and western Texas. It has from the first maintained a course of study equal to the average college, and has averaged an enrollment of 225 students annually. The faculty has consisted generally of 10 or 11 teachers, and each year among these have been several graduates of the best colleges and universities in the land. Besides the classical course, the facilities in music, art, elocution, business, and normal instruction are of high grade. Instruction in shorthand writing is an important feature.

The college building (three-story stone) with campus of 5 acres of ground in the heart of Brownwood, and furniture and equipment are worth, at a reasonable estimate, $45,000.

In the spring of 1898 Howard Payne College, for financial and other reasons, became affiliated with Baylor University and passed under the control of the Baptist General Convention of Texas. One-third of the board members are now appointed annually by the Baptist General Convention of Texas instead of by the Baptists of Pecan Valley Association as formerly. By this affiliation the college agrees not to do post-graduate work at present, but to recommend its graduates to go to Baylor University for further instruction, provided Baylor University complies with her agreement to equip itself so as to do work equal to the best schools in the State.

SOUTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY.

This institution, which is located at Georgetown, is the property of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. The origin and history of the university is carefully presented in a publication by Rev. F. A. Mood, D. D., its founder and first regent, graphically picturing the difficulties of early educational movements of the church in Texas, and furnishing so interesting and instructive an account of the inception and progress of the university as to justify its reproduction here, with but little omission from the text or addition to its statements:

The 20th day of April, 1870, marked the formal inauguration of the postbellum movement of the Texas conferences of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in the matter of advanced education in Texas. Since that time very great changes

have taken place in the number and character of the ministry and membership of the church, as well as in the status of the movement then projected.

As early as July 25, 1837, Rev. Martin L. Ruter, D. D., was appointed a missionary to the Republic of Texas, and reached his field of labor October following. He had been president of Allegheny College, in Pennsylvania, was the first Methodist preacher of America honored with the title of Doctor of Divinity, and on one occasion received a large vote of the General Conference for the bishopric, being at the time its secretary. Entering upon his new and arduous duties, likely with too consuming zeal, he suddenly succumbed, May 16, 1838, to disease entailed by imprudent exposure in a strange climate. In the seven months of labor, however, that he gave to Texas he left one thought deeply impressed upon many minds, and to which he made impressive allusion in his last illness, viz, his anxiety to see an institution for advanced education established by the Methodist Church which should make its impress upon all the coming generations of the new Republic.

It is surprising, therefore, that cotemporaneous with the movement to organize an annual conference was a movement to establish a college. Indeed, the college, in some sense, antedated the conference, for Ruterville College was chartered by the Congress of Texas and endowed with 4 leagues of land-about 18,000 acres-January 25, 1840, while the first conference did not assemble until December 25 of the same year. Ruterville College, therefore, was founded as the fitting memorial of the distinguished man whose name it bore, and was intended to embody in active form the great idea that filled his mind from his arrival in Texas to the day of his death. Rev. Chauncey Richardson, a gentleman of fine abilities as an administrator and preacher, was called to the presidency of the institution.

For some years the college had a prosperous existence. Its printed catalogues show a large attendance of students, and, at this distance, it looks as if all the conditions for enlarged and permanent success were at hand. It seems clear to the writer that those in the lead of the enterprise yielded too readily to discouragement. That it did much and excellent work has never been questioned, but it seems from the final disposition of the property that local influences became more powerful than connectional control, for August 6, 1856, Ruterville College, with all of its property, was consolidated by the legislature of Texas with the "Texas Monumental Association," and this, too, in the face of the express provision of the original college charter, "that the lands donated by the State should be applied to education, and for no other purpose whatever."

Very few, at the time of the foundation of Ruterville College, had any adequate conception of what was demanded to establish and carry forward to success an institution of learning of high character. This was strikingly shown in the terms of the charter granted to Ruterville College, for while exceedingly liberal in many important respects, the charter said, "Provided, The amount of property owned by said corporation shall not at any time exceed $25,000," and limited its corporate life to "ten years." If these were the limited views of the legislators of the Republic of the conditions for the success of a college, it is not surprising that the church should share the same error. As a consequence, Ruterville College had been in operation but four years, had scarcely got well to work, and was struggling with the difficulties incident to a new enterprise, when it was proposed to build, equip, launch, and man another college.

The General Conference of 1844 divided the Texas Conference into the East Texas and Texas conferences. Ruterville fell within the limits of the western section. At the first session of the East Texas Conference, held January 8, 1845, we find that again the college enterprise had antedated conference existence; for the Texas Congress, January 16, 1844, granted a charter to Wesleyan College, San Augustine. Rev. Lester Janes was appointed president of the college, Rev. N. W. Burks, principal of the

preparatory school. To this new educational center a number of the young people flocked, and everything seemed again to promise great success. But under the difficulties and discouragements usual in such matters the hearts of the leaders failed, and, with it, the institution declined. The terms of the charter of this college, however, reveal a greatly enlarged view of what was demanded in the case, so that the effort at Ruterville was working out both direct and indirect results. The limitation of its corporate existence was "fifty years," the property limitation "$100,000, over and above the buildings, library, and apparatus necessary to the institution." About the time that these public and more pretentious enterprises were being started, an unassuming Methodist preacher, whose health had failed from excessive ministerial toil, settled in Red River County, Tex., and opened a private school. This modest little movement by Rev. J. W. P. McKenzie, D. D., in 1841, at first scarcely attracting the attention of the neighborhood, began from its incipiency a slow and healthy growth. Its projector had no lofty aims or extensive plans. He taught a school, an unpretending school, which he conducted in the fear of God, under distinctly religious influences. The solid attainments of his pupils, their high moral tone, the positive and evident influences of a religious character that were soon seen emanating thence, began to attract the attention of the county, of the neighboring counties, and finally of the whole State. It made not only reputation, but character. Its numbers grew and additional teachers were employed. It rose to the dignity of "McKenzie Institute," and finally, with continued enlargement, in response to what seemed an imperative demand, it applied for a charter, and became "McKenzie College," having 4 large buildings, 10 professors and tutors, over 300 matriculates per annum, and an aggregate of more than 3,000 students during the thirty years of its existence. What a glorious work for one man to accomplish in a short life!

Meanwhile Texas, having been admitted into the Federal Union, had progressed rapidly in population and material prosperity. The lower counties particularly, where flourished the sugar cane and cotton, increased greatly in wealth. The church made corresponding progress, and in these lower counties were found a large body of wealthy Methodists seeking the best educational advantages. "Ruterville" had lost its prestige, the temporary prosperity of "Wesleyan" had declined, and though "McKenzie" continued the even tenor of its useful way, it was so far removed from the centers of wealth and population as to be practically inaccessible to many. The demand for an institution projected by the church for advanced education appeared to have been increased by the seeming failure of the first attempts, and in 1855 a convention of delegates from the boundaries of the Texas Conference, embracing the central and southern portions of the State, assembled in Chapel Hill to consider the question. By its action an entirely new enterprise was again launched upon the uncertain sea of Texas education.

Soule University, located at Chapel Hill, in Washington County, was sustained by some of the most enterprising and wealthy citizens of the State. A large and commodious building of stone was built, costing some $37,000, and two of the chairs of instruction were well endowed with $25,000 each-one by Colonel Felder, the other by Colonel Kirby. The halls were opened in 1856, to which a large number of students hastened. No educational enterprise of the church had been before projected under more favorable auspices. The mistakes and miscalculations of former attempts were vividly in memory to warn its leaders, and the wealth at its command promised an assurance of a material character necessary to secure great success. Scarcely, however, had its routine been fairly established and the graduation of two promising students given bright forecast of the coming greatness of its mission when the bugle blast of war summoned the South to arms. President Jefferson Davis in vain protested against the colleges of the country emptying themselves into the army, declaring that "we were grinding up our seed corn." Presidents, professors, and students in many cases rushed to volunteer for the conflict. The president of Soule Univer