 small
five-inch wide gray box on a shelf in the University Archives
contains four file folders. Some two dozen letters in these
folders detail the innermost thoughts of Thomas S. Gathright,
Texas A&M's first president, during his last months in office.
History can place a heavy burden on those who are first in any
undertaking and one reading these yellowed pages can almost feel
the trials and tribulations swirling around the campus in those
early years. The strife and political conflict of simply
locating the site and of building and organizing the school had
carried over into Gathright's administration. He was keenly aware
of this burden and his responsibility for getting the college off
to a good start.
Thomas Sanford Gathright was born in Monroe
County, Georgia, on January 5, 1829. His family moved to Alabama
in the late 1830's and Gathright attended school at Greensprings.
In 1854, he opened a private boys school, Summerville Institute in
Gholson County, Mississippi.
Poor health and the responsibilities for the
boys placed in his care were said to have prevented Gathright's
service in the Civil War. In truth, as Texas A&M history
professor Henry C. Dethloff points out in A Centennial History of
Texas A&M University: 1876-1976, Gathright was, at best,
"lukewarm in his support of the Confederacy." However,
he must have kept his thoughts to himself for he remained on
excellent terms with ex-Confederates and was able to secure an
appointment as State Superintendent of Education in Mississippi on
April 3, 1876.
As further evidence of his stature in the state,
he had served in the prestigious position of Grand Master of
Masons of Mississippi from 1868 to 1869. When the Texas A&M
Board of Directors offered the first presidency of the school to
Jefferson Davis, former President of the Confederacy, Davis
declined and recommended Gathright for the position.
At the inauguration of the Agricultural and
Mechanical College of Texas, Gathright announced to the assembled
throng that he had "found a good home and a glorious
work." Prophetically, he pledged: To the full success of the
college, I can promise the best efforts of my colleagues in the
faculty, as I pledge my own.
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They may not be the proper men to
work out success, and may be called to give place to others. I may
not be suited to my place, and may retire; still this great work,
in which all the people of this good state are interested, must go
on and must succeed.
With this speech Gathright officially launched
the great experiment in Texas public higher education.
Unfortunately for Gathright, he had not been allowed to select his
own faculty or recommend the course of instruction. This had, with
all good intentions, been accomplished by the Board. Sadly, it
assured the failure of Gathright's administration.
The faculty chosen by the Board were all men of
distinction and scholarly ability. Most, however, had been in high
administrative positions and were not used to taking direction
from someone else. Thus it did not take long for Gathright to
discover that there were strong opinions among his faculty that
ran directly counter to his own.
The curriculum chosen by the Board consisted of
traditional scholarly courses rather than the more practical form
of instruction in agriculture and mechanics called for in the Land
Grant Act. Gathright was soon under fire from the agricultural
interests of Texas. By November 21, 1879 the squabbling among the
faculty and the outside criticism had become so severe that the
Board had little choice but to remove President Gathright along
with the entire faculty and start over.
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