Duty and Doctrine: The Origin Story of Southwestern University

sought to keep the institution going in one form or another, 1856 was its last year of existence. In the years that Rutersville College existed, a Methodist effort to establish a university had come and gone in San Augustine. From early pre-Republic days through the first decades of statehood, San Augustine County was the scene of numerous and often violent feuds. Denominational conflict between Presbyterians and Methodists was often a factor in this violence. When the Wesleyans heard that the local Calvinists were planning to open San Augustine University, they quickly announced the founding of their own institution of higher learning. Wesleyan University received a charter from the Republic of Texas signed by President Sam Houston on January 16, 1844, and the school was officially opened on March 1 of that year. But the competi- tion between Presbyterians and Methodists, which had never been friendly, soon escalated into open, armed conflict. Each group for a time published rival newspapers in the small community. In August 1847, the editors of these competing papers, Presbyterian James Russell and Methodist Henry Kendall, fought a duel in the San Augustine streets. Neither was able to wound the other, but the following day Kendall shot and killed Russell. These events effectively brought an end to the effort to establish Wesleyan University in the East Texas city. Even before these events, Methodist clergyman John Witherspoon Pettigrew McKenzie had begun a school on his plantation, Itinerant’s Retreat, near Clarksville in Red River County. In the fall of 1841, classes were held in a small log structure attached to the side of his home. In 1872, the Texas Legislature officially recognized “… the Georgetown university as the successor to its four predecessors: Rutersville, Wesleyan, McKenzie, and Soule.” [1]; therefore, today Southwestern celebrates Feb. 5, 1840— the date Mirabeau B. Lamar, president of the Republic of Texas, granted the original charter to Rutersville College—as the foundation of the Southwestern Experience. From those humble beginnings on the frontier, the University and its founders have envisioned a place to engage the minds and transform the lives of those who seek to embrace the challenges and opportunities of the future. In 2006, Southwestern Professor Emeritus of HistoryWilliam “Bill” Jones published To Survive and Excel: The Story of Southwestern University 1840–2000, a 600+ page tome on the history of Southwestern University. [2] More recently, in celebration of the 175th anniversary of that original charter, the Rev. Milton Jordan ’62 summarized the University’s storied history for the Texas Historical Foundation in an article titled “Higher Education on the Texas Frontier” which follows in full. Almost from the day that Stephen F. Austin’s colony settled along the Brazos River in 1821, a variety of schools and colleges were planned for the new republic by different religious denominations. Rutersville College in the Fayette County settlement of Rutersville was the first religious affiliated school to gain recognition from the Republic of Texas. The college was named for Martin H. Ruter, the former president of Allegheny College in Pennsylvania and one of the first Methodist clergymen sent to the new republic. Ruter died before the college opened, but the Rev. Chauncey Richardson—another early Methodist minister in Texas—obtained a charter for Rutersville College signed by President Mirabeau B. Lamar on February 5, 1840. The school enrolled 61 students in the first year, and that number grew to 100 the following year. In 1844, six students finished their studies. They were the first students to graduate from an institution of higher learning in Texas. From 1844 to 1856, Rutersville College awarded diplomas to 32 individuals, more than the total from all other colleges in Texas at that time. Although some in the Rutersville community PART DUTY, PART DOCTRINE AND ALL DRAMA, SOUTHWESTERN’S STORY OF ORIGIN BEGINS BEFORE TEXAS BECAME A STATE.  A portrait of Martin H. Ruter, former president of Allegheny College in Pennsylvania. Courtesy of Allegheny College Archives, Wayne and Sally Merrick Historic Archival Center, Pelletier Library, Allegheny College. 6 Southwestern MAGAZINE 1840 Answering the call of Col. William B. Travis that a Methodist presence in Texas was needed, Martin Ruter set about founding a university in 1837. Ruter was a prominent Methodist and former president of Allegheny College in Pennsylvania. Rutersville College received its charter in 1840 and was located in La Grange. At the same time, Methodist clergyman J.W.P McKenzie operated a preparatory school out of his home in Clarksville. 1844 With the support of the Texas Methodist Annual Conference, Wesleyan College was opened in San Augustine. 1846 McKenzie added a collegiate department and a department for women to his prep school named the Itinerant Retreat. The school had one of the most complete campuses in the area after McKenzie built a second and third building to accommodate the size of the student body.