Lon Morris College

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Lon Morris College, up in Cherokee County. Now settle in, because this one's got some miles on it. We're talking about the oldest junior college in Texas, and if that doesn't make you sit up a little straighter, just wait.

The story starts with a man named Dr. Isaac Alexander, a pioneer educator who founded the school in Kilgore. That was the seed of something that would outlast just about everything around it.

Then, in 1875, the East Texas Conference of the Methodist Church, known today as the Texas Conference, took the school as its own property. Already this institution is picking up history the way a road trip picks up miles. But it wasn't done moving yet.

In 1894, the whole operation pulled up and relocated to Jacksonville. New town, same stubborn determination to keep the doors open and the lights on. By 1912, it had settled into its identity as a junior college.

Then came 1916, and someone decided to give it a name with some weight behind it: Alexander College. A nod, you have to figure, to that founding educator who started the whole thing in Kilgore. But the story takes one more turn.

In 1924, the college was retitled again, this time to honor a Pittsburg, Texas banker by the name of R. A. Morris, known to folks as Lon Morris.

And that name, Lon Morris College, is the one that stuck. Now here's where the bragging rights come in, and in Texas, bragging rights matter. This school became the first junior college in the entire state of Texas to have a Phi Theta Kappa scholarship fraternity.

First. And on top of that, it held membership in the Southern Association of Colleges longer than any other junior college in Texas. Longest-running.

Oldest. First. Some institutions spend their whole existence chasing a legacy.

Lon Morris College just kept building one, one decade at a time.

What the marker says

Oldest junior college in Texas. Founded in Kilgore by Dr. Isaac Alexander, pioneer educator. In 1875 it became property of the East Texas (now the Texas) Conference of the Methodist Church. It was moved to Jacksonville in 1894. A junior college since 1912, renamed Alexander College (1916), it was retitled in 1924 to honor Pittsburg (Tex.) banker R. A.(Lon) Morris. First junior college in Texas with a Phi Theta Kappa scholarship fraternity; Also member Southern Association of Colleges longer than any other junior college in the state.