DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, Waller County has seen its share of bold ideas, but few as ambitious — or as ill-fated — as the South Texas Baptist College. It starts around 1895, when a group of Baptists pulled together and formed something called the South Texas Educational Conference.
They had a vision: a real college, right here in this part of Texas. And they worked at it. By 1898, they'd secured a campus site from a local landowner by the name of C.C.
Waller, and they were ready to open their doors. Fall of 1898. The trustees were in place — J.C.
McGaughy out of Hempstead, James F. Duncan from Houston, C.W. Matthews from Montgomery, W.J.
Durham from Richmond, S.A. McCall from Willis, and several more from Waller itself: J.E. Boulet, E.J.
Matthews, J.L. Miles, and J.T. Sanders.
Leading the whole operation was W.E. Clark, a man holding an A.M. from Georgetown College of Kentucky — the president. His wife, Matilda Shannon Clark, served as college matron.
Teachers Annie Black and Bellie James were in the classrooms. Thomas Shannon held the position of secretary. They had the people.
They had the place. Now they needed students. The first session opened with three.
Three. You could seat them in a large closet and still have room to pace. But here's the thing — that session closed with thirty-three.
Something was working. The second session opened with fifteen and closed with one hundred and two. One hundred and two students.
Courses ran the full range, from primary subjects all the way up through college-level work, and tuition ranged from ten to twenty dollars a term. This college was growing, and it knew it. Then comes the third session.
It opened on a Monday — September 3rd, 1900. Five days into that session. Just five days.
On the night of September eighth going into September ninth, the great 1900 storm blew in from Galveston. Now, if you know anything about that storm, you already feel what's coming. It severely damaged the college building.
It wrecked several churches. It demolished the public school. And though — and this is the part that matters to say plainly — though no lives were lost in this town, the damage throughout the section was so great, so complete, that the college never reopened.
Never reopened. All that momentum, all those students, all that ambition the Baptists had poured into one ambitious institution — stopped cold by a single night. The campus didn't sit empty forever.
Since 1916, it has served as a public school site. The ground still doing the work of education, just under a different name, a different roof, and a very different story than the one those trustees imagined back in 1898.
What the marker says
An ambitious institution chartered by Baptists who formed South Texas Educational Conference about 1895 and in 1898 secured campus site from a local landowner, C.C. Waller. Trustees serving when college opened in fall of 1898 were J.C. McGaughy, Hempsted; James F. Duncan, Houston; C.W. Matthews, Montgomery; W.J. Durham, Richmond; S.A. McCall, Willis; J.E. Boulet, E.J. Matthews, J.L. Miles, and J.T. Sanders of Waller. W.E. Clark, A.M. Georgetown College of Kentucky, was president; Matilda Shannon (Mrs. W.E.) Clark, the college matron; misses Annie Black and Bellie James, Teachers; Thomas Shannon, secretary. The first session opened with three students, closed with 33; Second opened with 15, closed with 102. Courses of study covered primary through college subjects; Tuition ranged form $10 to $20 a term. The third session opened on Monday, Sept. 3, 1900. On the night of Sept. 8-9, the great 1900 storm blew in from Galveston. It severely damaged the college building, wrecked several churches, and demolished the public school. Although no lives were lost in this town, damage throughout the section was so great that the college never reopened. Its campus has served since 1916 as a public school site.