William Rees
Tehuacana, Limestone County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Born in Castletown, Marshfield Parish, England, of Welsh parents. In youth spent several years as an apprentice stonemason in Liverpool, England. Came to America in 1870, and to Tehuacana in 1872. In 1873 William Rees was given the contract for the construction of the wings of this stone building. At that time, Trinity University (under the auspices of the Presbyterian Church) was short of funds. Because he had a love for the cause of higher education and a love for Trinity, Rees, a skilled craftsman, did much of the stonecutting-- a chore usually left to laborers. Always interested in education, he was a member of the local board of education and in his turn its president. He was a staunch supporter of Trinity University, and later of Westminster college. Dr. Beeson, first president of Trinity, performed the ceremony when on Jan. 3, 1875, Rees married Georgia Ann Sanders. They had six children. The life of Rees proved the truth of the proverb: "A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches." He was honest and humble, and had a keen appreciation for the finer things of life. He is buried in the Tehuacana Cemetery. 1967
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
William Rees carried a Liverpool stonemason's training across the Atlantic in 1870, arriving in the tiny college town of Tehuacana two years later. When Presbyterian-backed Trinity University ran short of funds in 1873, the skilled Welsh-descended craftsman took the contract for the building's wings and did much of the fine stonecutting himself—labor usually left to hired hands. A devoted champion of education who served on and led the local school board, Rees embodied the immigrant artisan who helped literally build the institutions of a young Texas.
Why it matters
His story shows how skilled European immigrants and frontier faith in education combined to raise permanent institutions of learning on the 19th-century Texas frontier.
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Related people
- · William Rees
- · Georgia Ann Sanders
- · Dr. Beeson
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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Tehuacana
Tehuacana, TX
Perched on one of the highest points between Dallas and Houston, Tehuacana was home to the Tehuacana Indians, a Wichita people who farmed here until Cherokee raids destroyed them in the early 1830s. Settler John Boyd secured a Mexican land grant in 1835, and the town he built even vied to become the state capital in 1850. Its Presbyterian academy helped spark the founding of Trinity University in 1869, and later colleges kept the hilltop a seat of learning for generations.
One Half Mile North to the Site Once Occupied by Trinity University
Tehuacana, TX
In the years after the Civil War, the Cumberland Presbyterian Church founded Trinity University at Tehuacana, opening its doors in 1869 to both men and women—a notably progressive choice for the era. Chartered in 1870, the school offered instruction that reached even into law and theology. In 1902 the institution relocated to Waxahachie, continuing a life that endures elsewhere today.
Tehuacana Cemetery
Tehuacana, TX
Tehuacana grew up around John Boyd, a Republic of Texas congressman who moved here in the 1840s and opened the town's first post office in his store in 1847. His gift of land and money brought Trinity University to the hilltop town in 1869, and the cemetery's oldest documented grave belongs to his infant granddaughter, who died in 1850. Among the many small headstones testifying to the frontier's harshness lie college founders, a state comptroller, and Boyd himself, a roll call of the town's rise as an early Texas education center.