Site of Andrew Female College

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, Walker County holds a lot of stories, and this one starts in 1853, which is early, friends. Real early, for Texas, for women's education, for just about anything you'd want to build in this part of the world.

That was the year Andrew Female College was established and chartered. The Methodist Church founded it, and they weren't shy about ambition. This was an influential institution, the marker says so plainly, one of the early Texas colleges for women at a time when such a thing took vision and conviction in equal measure.

They named it for Bishop James Osgood Andrew, and whoever made that decision made sure the bishop's name would outlast him in stone and story. Now, nothing lasts forever, and Andrew Female College was no exception. After about twenty-six years of service, it closed.

That's the whole of what the marker gives us on the ending, no drama, no scandal recorded in the inscription, just a quiet accounting. About twenty-six years. You think about the young women who walked through those doors, the first ones in 1853, and all the ones who followed, getting an education at a time when Texas was still figuring out what it wanted to be.

That college helped answer the question, at least in part. And Walker County remembers.

What the marker says

Site of Andrew Female College; Established and chartered in 1853; An influential early Texas college for women founded by the Methodist Church; Named for Bishop James Osgood Andrew; Closed after about 26 years of service