James Lowry Smith
Salado, Bell County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Salado college professor and principal James Lowry Smith was a progressive leader in education. He received degrees at Baylor and served in the Civil War before beginning his tenure at Salado College in 1863. Despite challenges, including low enrollment during the Civil War and the financial panic of 1873, Salado College achieved high standards during Smith’s tenure. He first served until 1874, and then again from 1879-80 in the college’s final year of operation. Married to Julia Catherine (McDowell) and father to seven children, James Lowry Smith, in words carved at his grave monument, is remembered as “an epitome of those blessed humanities of life, virtue, honor, and truth.”
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
A Baylor-educated Confederate veteran, James Lowry Smith took up the professorship and principalship of Salado College in 1863 and became a driving force for rigorous education in central Texas. Despite Civil War-era enrollment losses and the financial panic of 1873, he held the college to high standards through two terms of leadership, the second ending in 1880 as the school closed. His grave monument remembers him as an epitome of virtue, honor, and truth.
Why it matters
Smith represents the educators who kept the ideal of higher learning alive in the war-torn and cash-strapped postbellum South.
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Related people
- · James Lowry Smith
- · Julia Catherine McDowell Smith
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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This burial ground came into use around 1852, about the time a post office opened at Salado Springs. In 1854 Col. Elijah Sterling C. Robertson bought a large tract that included the graveyard, part of the 100 acres he had donated to create Salado College and the town of Salado itself. Enlarged over the years through purchase and gift, and now supported by a permanent endowment, it has served generations of Salado's citizens.
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Salado
Salado, TX
Salado was formally laid out in 1859 when Col. E. S. C. Robertson donated land for a townsite and a college, though travelers had long passed through its spring-fed land. By the 1860s it thrived on farming, ranching, milling, mineral baths, and education, with Salado College opening in 1860 and the first Texas chapter of the Grange organizing here in 1873. The town nearly emptied in the early twentieth century before retirees and the arts revived it, and it re-incorporated in 2000.