A Short History of a Special Place
By Marc Parrish ’92
Austin College celebrates its 175th year in 2023-2024. AC’s longevity is one that few Texas institutions of higher learning can match. Indeed, the average age of all Texas colleges is barely half of the 175 years Austin College has witnessed since its 1849 founding by Reverend Daniel Baker.
Two hundred years ago, Baker was a national pastor in Washington, D.C., at the Second Presbyterian Church. His flock in 1824 included two Americans who would compete for the U.S. Presidency that year: John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson. Adams became “one of the best friends [Baker] ever had;” Jackson spoke admirably of Baker’s “piety and zeal.”
That zeal brought Baker to Texas, where he established Austin College in Huntsville, Texas, in 1849. The charter approved that year by the Texas Legislature remains in use today, making Austin College the oldest institution of higher education in Texas operating under its original name and charter.
Civil War, stagnation, and pandemics took a toll on the school in the first 25 years. The Board of Trustees met in 1874 during somber 25th anniversary celebrations and “determined that the best interest of the college required its removal” to a more prosperous location. Sherman, Texas, was selected two years later.
Gilded Age prosperity combined with relocation to Sherman finally brought the stability AC had long sought. The Chromascope yearbook celebrated the school’s “semi-centennial” in 1899, noting that, “Austin College feels that the pioneer days of struggle are passed. With cheerful hope, the face is turned to the future.”
By 1924, that hope had transformed to elation as the College celebrated its 75th birthday with a Diamond Jubilee. As the country basked in the “Roaring Twenties,” President Thomas Clyce remarked that “the future is exceedingly bright.” The women of Kappa Gamma Chi gifted a fountain to close the festivities.
The lively AC Centennial in 1949 took place with Depression and World War in America’s rearview mirror. House Speaker Sam Rayburn delivered remarks during the three-day celebration. Thousands of Presbyterian ministers chose Sherman for their annual conference to honor the first Presbyterian school in Texas.
Austin College Trustee Ginger Rogers led the 125th Anniversary festivities in 1974. As the country endured the aftermath of Vietnam and Watergate, the American dancer and entertainer inaugurated new AC sporting venues and attended Ida Green anniversary performances.
In 1999, AC celebrated a milestone 150th birthday. With prosperity at home and Cold War peace abroad, the future never looked brighter. Austin College: A Sesquicentennial History was written by Dr. Light Cummins to mark the occasion. This column relies heavily on this seminal AC work by Dr. Cummins.
Henderson Yoakum, an original AC trustee alongside Sam Houston, wished at the school’s founding in 1849 that as the years progressed “our children, and children’s children will have cause to
rejoice over this noble institution.” The 175 years since those remarks surely confirm Yoakum’s belief in the noble status of Austin College.
Marc Parrish is a 1992 graduate of Austin College, where he majored in International Studies and won the award for most valuable tennis player. Marc is an Assistant Director of Information Technology at The University of Texas System in Austin, where he and his wife Dianne raised two children, Alex & Malia.
Marc has written four Roo Tale books about Austin College, devoted to the topics of football, athletics, rival AC schools, legends in the Hall of Honor, and perhaps not surprisingly to readers of this column—AC history. He is proud to call himself an alumnus of one of the most historical colleges in the state of Texas.