Southwestern University
Georgetown, Williamson County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Mother of all Texas colleges and universities. Absorbed charters of Rutersville College, Fayette County (1840), and Wesleyan Male and Female College, San Augustine (1844), chartered by the Republic of Texas; McKenzie College, Clarksville (1848), and Soule University, Chappell Hill (1856). Georgetown citizens offered land, money and moral support when about 1870 it seemed wise to supplant the several pioneer Methodist institutions with a single church-related university. The community's work with church leaders resulted in location of "Texas University" here. A distinguished and devoted educator, Dr. Francis Asbury Mood (1830-1884), was the founding regent (or administrator). The Georgetown College plant (7 blocks W) was donated by the city. Classes began Oct. 6, 1873. Upon ceding the name "Texas University" to the state, Southwestern University was chartered on Feb. 6, 1875, and specifically granted all rights and privileges given earlier to Rutersville, Wesleyan, and McKenzie colleges, and Soule University. Women students were first admitted in 1878. The "Ladies Annex" was opened (1889) on present campus. This became permanent site of Southwestern University with construction of present Main Building, 1898-1900. (1973)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Southwestern University traces its roots to a cluster of pioneer Methodist colleges chartered by the Republic of Texas and the early state, whose charters it gathered up when Georgetown citizens offered land and support around 1870. Classes began in 1873 under founding regent Dr. Francis Asbury Mood, and the school was formally chartered as Southwestern University in 1875 after ceding the name "Texas University" to the state. Women were admitted from 1878, and the campus took permanent form with the Main Building completed by 1900.
Why it matters
As the "mother of Texas colleges," it embodies the roots of higher education in Texas, reaching back to the days of the Republic.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Francis Asbury Mood
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
The Woman's Club of Georgetown
Georgetown, TX
In 1893, Lula Holland Leavell and her daughters hosted a literary reading that grew into a women's club, formally organized as the Initial History Club in 1897 to pursue literature, history, music, and civic affairs. In 1917 it merged with two other local groups to become the Woman's Club of Georgetown. More than a century on, it continues its work of civic enrichment and support for the arts.
Iota Chapter, Kappa Sigma Fraternity
Georgetown, TX
In the autumn of 1886, a handful of Southwestern University students founded the Iota Chapter of Kappa Sigma, at first an unofficial band that would wait until 1887 for the university's blessing. It was only the 27th chapter of the fraternity in the country and the second in Texas, and over its first century more than 975 young men wore its star and crescent. The marker was set during the Texas Sesquicentennial celebrating 150 years since independence.
Xi Chapter, Kappa Alpha Order
Georgetown, TX
The Kappa Alpha Order was founded in 1865 at Virginia's Washington College, where Robert E. Lee then presided, by young men shaped by the recent Civil War. Its Xi Chapter came to Southwestern University in Georgetown in 1883, meeting in secret until the school lifted its anti-fraternity rules in 1887. The chapter built its first house in 1895.
Amos-Godbey House
Georgetown, TX
Built in 1909 for Southwestern University's German professor Martin C. Amos, this Georgetown house passed to another faculty member, chemistry professor John Campbell Godbey, who made it his home for decades. Its gambrel roof and stone-piered inset porch mark the comfortable domestic architecture of a university town in early-twentieth-century Central Texas. The dwelling ties together two generations of Southwestern's teaching faculty.