Texas School for the Deaf
Austin, Travis County, Texas
Marker Inscription
In 1856, the Texas Legislature established the Texas Deaf and Dumb Asylum, which became the Texas School for the Deaf (TSD). Gov. Elisha M. Pease appointed a board of trustees, which rented land at this site. By January 1, 1857, the first day of school, no students had arrived, but by summer of that year, 11 students were enrolled, including Emily Lewis, whose account of the school's early history portrays a life of hard work and self-sufficiency under school matron Josephine Snyder. New Yorker Jacob van Nostrand, with 19 years of deaf education, became the school's first superintendent in 1857. In 1875-76, he returned to New York, and Gov. Richard Coke appointed Gen. Henry McCulloch as superintendent. McCulloch's leadership caused the faculty and staff, including then-principal Emily Lewis, to leave. During the tenure of the next superintendent, Col. John Salmon "Rip" Ford, Lewis returned to the staff, where she stayed until her retirement in 1914. In 1887, the state created what became the Texas Blind, Deaf and Orphan School, which served non-white students. From integration of the schools in 1965 until 2002, its campus in east Austin remained part of TSD's facilities. The 20th century brought many changes to the campus facilities, administration and curriculum, including status as an independent school district. Newsletters and yearbooks document an active sports program over the school's long history, and alumni and staff fondly recall the long-standing, twin-towered main buildilng, and the significant leaders who provided support and education to the school's students and families. (2006)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
The Texas Legislature founded the Texas Deaf and Dumb Asylum in 1856, and the school opened in 1857 — with no students on the first day, but eleven by summer, taught under a demanding regime of work and self-sufficiency. Emily Lewis, whose memoir records those early years, served the school across four decades until her 1914 retirement, through a turbulent succession of superintendents including the frontier figure John Salmon 'Rip' Ford. A separate school for non-white deaf students was created in 1887 and remained segregated until integration in 1965.
Why it matters
One of Texas's oldest public institutions, the Texas School for the Deaf reflects both the 19th-century movement to educate deaf Americans and the long shadow of racial segregation that shaped who could learn where.
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Related people
- · Emily Lewis
- · Jacob van Nostrand
- · John Salmon 'Rip' Ford
Themes & tags
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