DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now settle in, because this story starts with a woman who had already spent twenty-three years running someone else's school before she decided it was high time to run her own. Rebecca K.
Stuart Red — born in 1826 — had given two decades and then some as principal of Live Oak Female Seminary up in Washington County. Twenty-three years. That is a long apprenticeship for a woman who clearly had bigger plans.
In 1875, she founded her own school. Her husband, G.C. Red, M.D., saw to it that a two-story stone dormitory and academic building went up right here on this site, and the Stuart Female Seminary opened formally in January of 1876.
Stone. Two stories. January.
Rebecca wasn't thinking small. Presiding over the board of trustees as its first president was Ashbel Smith, M.D. — a past board member of the United States Military Academy, no less. The institution had serious people behind it.
When Smith's turn ended, his successor in 1886 was D.F. Stuart, M.D. — and here's a detail worth noticing — D.F. Stuart was the brother of Mrs.
Red herself. Another brother, R.C. Stuart, also sat on that board.
This was, in the finest Texas tradition, very much a family undertaking. The board further included State Legislator J.N.P. Cramer, Judge Z.T.
Fulmore, the Reverend Josephus Johnson, and the Reverend J.W. Miller. And on the faculty?
Dr. G.C. Red — Rebecca's husband — alongside their children: William, Clark, Lel, and Harriet, who would go on to become Mrs.
S.W. McJunkin. Also teaching were Miss Janet Downie and three women listed with that old formal courtesy — Mmes.
Fannie Speed Davies, Anna Ritz, and Margaret Stiles. It was a school built out of one woman's vision and held together by what looks like just about everybody she had ever loved or trusted. Then 1886 arrived, and it brought loss.
Rebecca K. Stuart Red, the founder, died. She had lived sixty years, and she had spent the last decade of them building something that outlasted her — because the moment she was gone, her daughter stepped forward.
Miss Lel Red, born in 1859, became principal. She had grown up in that school, taught in that school, and now she would run that school. In 1889 Miss Red married the Reverend J.M.
Purcell, and the two of them kept the seminary going together, year after year, all the way until 1899. That is when the Red heirs deeded this very site to the Presbyterian Synod of Texas. The land passed from family hands to ecclesiastical ones, and in 1902 the Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary began its work right here.
It didn't stay forever — by 1907 it had moved to the University of Texas area — but the site, this ground, has remained in public usage ever since. One woman's school. One two-story stone building.
And a piece of ground that has never quite stopped being useful to somebody. That's Rebecca K. Stuart Red's doing, and this marker says so.
What the marker says
After 23 years as principal of Live Oak Female Seminary, Washington County, Rebecca K. Stuart Red (1826-1886) founded her own school in 1875. Her husband, G.C. Red, M.D., had a two-story stone dormitory - academic building erected on this site, and the Stuart Female Seminary opened formally in January 1876. Ashbel Smith, M.D. (past board member, United States Military Academy), was first president of the board of trustees. His successor (1886) was D.F. Stuart, M.D., brother of Mrs. Red. Board members included another brother, R.C. Stuart, State Legislator J.N.P. Cramer, Judge Z.T. Fulmore, the Rev. Josephus Johnson, and the Rev. J.W. Miller. On faculty were Dr. G.C. Red and the Red children, William, Clark, Lel, and Harriet (Mrs. S.W. McJunkin); also Miss Janet Downie, and Mmes. Fannie Speed Davies, Anna Ritz, and Margaret Stiles. In 1886, at the death of the founder, her daughter "Miss Lel" Red (1859-1946) became principal. In 1889 Miss Red married the Rev. J.M. Purcell, and they continued the school until 1899, when the Red heirs deeded this site to the Presbyterian Synod of Texas. Here in 1902 the Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary began its work. It moved to University of Texas area in 1907, but site has remained in public usage. (1973)