A New School in a New Town

On February 18, 1891 Abilene Baptist College was officially chartered.

Hardin-Simmons University has gone through a handful of name changes over its 125 years (read about that here), and its first  name was Abilene Baptist College.

The fact that this school was opened in 1891 is a huge testament to the people and priorities of this area.

The city of Abilene was incorporated in 1883, just 8 years before this school was established.

That means eight years before the school was opened, there was no city of Abilene.

Let that sink in for a few moments.

Taylor County, the county in which Abilene resides, was organized in 1878. By this year, the Native American population had been driven out, white cattlemen ran their herds across the land, and Buffalo Gap was named county seat. The town of Abilene did not exist yet.

1880 Land Survey of Taylor County

This was cow country: no paved roads, simple houses made from local rock or reused wood (lumber was in scarce supply), and more cattle than man.

Fast forward to 1880 and we find the Texas and Pacific Railroad beginning to expand its tracks westward. A local group of cattlemen and landowners from Taylor County petitioned the railroad lay its tracks and build a station in Taylor County. These cattlemen knew that if a rail line ran through their land they would prosper immensely for multiple reasons:

1. They would make money either leasing or selling their land to the railroad to lay track
2. They would make money moving their cattle north on the railroad, rather than on foot
3. They would have access to more and better goods transported via train
4. The population (of people and basic goods) of the area would grow, building up the county and its economy

Map of Taylor County with railroad

And so in January 1881 the railroad was laid just north of Buffalo Gap, and with it, the money, people, and goods came streaming in.

The land where the railroad came through was named Abilene, after the successful cow market and rail station in Abilene, KS.

Abilene began as a tent town. Just think, the train brought in a sudden influx of people to a land where there weren’t houses to purchase, no lumber shops to buy building supplies, and no official land lines to know who owned what property.

That is until March 15, 1881.

On March 15, 1881, Abilene held a town lot sale: an auction, essentially, where new community members had the ability to purchase different lots in town. An estimated 2,000 people gathered for the sale and at the end of the day, 178 lots were sold for a total of $27,550.

Shortly after the sale ended, the trains came in, hauling building supplies and other goods to turn Abilene from a tent town into a state of the art city.

Ten years later, the citizens of this new town saw the need to establish a Christian college.

1891, Construction of Old Main- the first building on campus

 

Pretty fascinating, right? In what feels like the blink of an eye, Abilene grew out of dust and rail, leading to the development of the college we now refer to as Hardin-Simmons University.

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Quick Timeline Recap:

1878: Taylor County organized

1880: T & P Railroad agrees to lay track in Taylor County, just north of Buffalo Gap. The train stop is called Abilene, named after the cattle town Abilene, Kansas.

1881 (January): Railroad is opened, bringing new inhabitants

1881 (February): Abilene Post Office opens

1881 (March): Town lot sale

1883: The city of Abilene is incorporated

1891: Abilene Baptist College is chartered

 

 

Familiar Musings From 1917

These pages from the 1917 Bronco were too funny to not share.

Doesn’t it make you appreciate being a part of a community all the more when your feelings and sentiments are shared across decades?

Pranks at HSU

College is a time of testing limits: How many all-nighters can you pull in a row before your body deteriorates? How many dirty dishes can you stack in a sink before your roommate sends you a passive-aggressive text? Can you really get away with blowing up the school’s toilets?

Wait…what?! Blowing up toilets?

There are many phenomenal resources that depict student life at HSU over the years, and one reoccurring theme over HSU’s 125 years is student pranks.

Stay tuned for the Top Three Most Destructive Pranks Performed by Former HSU Students:

Disclaimer: Do not attempt to recreate any of these pranks. You will get arrested.

3. In 1989, former student Charles Pond admitted that 50 years earlier he and other members of the HSU football team “captured Texas Tech bandsmen in order to brand HSU on their foreheads with silver nitrate.” [1]

Yes. You read that right. Hardin-Simmon students wrote “HSU” on the foreheads of Texas Tech band members with silver nitrate. “HSU” was essentially burned into the foreheads of those students.

And it gets better.

As the Tech students were leaving Abilene the following morning, their bus was pelted with eggs by HSU students, causing a brawl to break out in the street between the two schools.

2. In the 1950’s there was a dormitory director (the equivalent to today’s Resident Director) who was unaffectionately named “Professor Horsefeathers” by the students. The students claimed that Horsefeathers demanded they always keep absolutely quiet when in their rooms, to allow for optimal studying.

As I’m sure you can understand, the students did not like this. So, they decided to make Horsefeathers’ life unbearable.

Here is the prank, according to one of the participating students, which ultimately caused Horsefeathers to leave HSU:

“Workmen had been replacing many windows on campus, and had happened to leave a large pile of glass outside the dormitory. One boy was stationed at a top window above the glass to drop bricks down on to the pile at the same moment as some others were stationed at each hall light bulb. On a signal, all the bulbs were unscrewed as the bricks dropped on to the glass making a huge clatter.”

“Horesfeathers raced out of his room but the halls were darkened and the boys had disappeared. When he found them, he accused them of shooting out the lightbulbs—which they stoutly denied.”

Horsefeathers took the matter to President Sandefer, accusing the students of shooting the lights out, when in reality they only unscrewed the bulbs. The sound of bricks dropping on the glass below gave the illusion of the lightbulbs breaking.

Sandefer believed the boys and did not ask them to apologize, ultimately causing Horsefeathers to leave.[2]

Drum roll please…

1. Simmons College was not connected to the city sewer system until more than a year after World War I. The slow transition over to the city sewer system left many of the buildings on campus (especially the male resident halls) to use outdoor facilities, also known as outhouses.

During the post-war years (after 1918), certain (ahem…male) students grew frustrated and felt the college was moving too slowly towards indoor bathrooms. Taking matters into their own hands, these students decided to speed up the desired construction by blowing up the existing outdoor toilets.

It is believed that students who served in WWI with explosives used dynamite and skills acquired in the war to cause the explosions.[3]

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And with that, I leave you with this delicious quote about pranks at HSU:

“Some undergraduates have little sense of the majesty of the law, and it is easy for college pranks to lap over into the realm of lawlessness. They are disposed to excuse almost any sort of skullduggery as a means to a worthy end.” –Rupert Norval Richardson

[1] Stackhouse, A. Yvonne. Hardin-Simmons University, A Centennial History. Abilene: Hardin-Simmons University, 1991.

[2] Stackhouse, A. Yvonne. Hardin-Simmons University, A Centennial History. Abilene: Hardin-Simmons University, 1991.

[3] Richardson, Rupert Norval. Famous Are Thy Halls, Hardin-Simmons University as I Have Known It. Abilene: Abilene Printing & Stationary Company, 1964

Military Service

Hardin-Simmons University is a community based in service. Just look around the campus for visual cues and you will be reminded of the philanthropy and sacrifice of current students, faculty, staff, and past alumni and donors.

Just think: It is the nature of all non-profit organizations to rely on donors for development and growth. Every building on campus, whether still standing or gone with time, was built because someone donated the funds to do so. Each tree and flower, sidewalk, and the pond where the turtles and ducks frolic were added to campus because past community members (typically the wives of past presidents) wanted to create a beautiful campus for students, and as such, they raised the funds for these projects.

Service isn’t just measured monetarily, but with time and devotion. How many students have left the 40 acres to be ministers and laypeople, stationed around the globe? How many students have graduated to become teachers, to educate the next generation? How many faculty and staff have gone above and beyond the call of duty to ensure the success of their students? What about those who have joined the military, in times of war and peace, to serve and protect the country?

On campus you will find memorials dedicated to students and faculty who served and gave the ultimate sacrifice during wartime.

Here is a quick look at the different ways HSU has served her country over the years:

Student Army Training Corps

The Student Army Training Corps was created in response to WWI. Due to the growing conflict overseas, young men needed to be trained and prepared for war in large numbers.

The military base structure we are familiar with today did not exist at this time, and as a result, the War Department took the army and its training to colleges across the country.

Beginning in 1918, Simmons College, along with hundreds of other institutions across the United States, joined this program and military training became a common part of the college culture. Simmons students weren’t the only members of the SATC. Men from Abilene Christian College (now Abilene Christian University) and non-students from the local area slept in makeshift barracks on campus and trained in preparation for war.

World War I (1914-1918)

Both student and faculty left to volunteer or were taken by the draft during WWI. More than 400 men from Simmons served, and thirteen gave their lives. One woman is listed for her service to the Red Cross, named Mildred Cross.

The thirteen who lost their lives are memorialized with the Fort Babe Shaw Memorial, the cannon also known as Arizona Bill, located on the front lawn of campus. Their names are etched in stone for all to see:
                

 

 

 

Chester A. Adams, Jack Blount. Kenneth Burns, Ennis Camp, Robert Embry, Aubrey Fisher, Allister Goodnight, O.A. Keele, Reed Morris, Frank Martin, Dennis Pumphrey, Stephen Dupree Rainey, and Clyde Shaw

Those who remained at school during this time contributed to the war effort by collecting books, blankets, medical supplies and more to send overseas.

World War II (1939-1945)

There isn’t a memorial dedicated solely to those who participated in WWII on campus, but there is a visual reminder at the HSU Alumni Wall, located behind Sandefer Memorial.

Look at the plaques representing the war years. Notice how small the graduating classes are, and take note of the male to female ratio. It’s apparent the majority of the student body was off serving the country.

In comparison to the war years, look at the boom in graduating numbers once those soldiers came home and returned to school. The GI Bill caused an influx of student enrollment, forcing the school to take drastic measures to accommodate the expanding student body (we’ll discuss that exciting time in another post).

HSU Alumni Wall

ROTC 

ROTC (Reserves Officers’ Training Corps) is a college-based officer training program that trains and produces commissioned officers of different military branches.

In June 1952, the college established an Army ROTC program. Students could participate in the program at the start of the 1952-1953 school year, up until its disbandment in the spring of 1997.

1996 Brand

Students who completed the program would be commissioned at the rank of 2^nd lieutenant and begin military careers.

Vietnam War (1955-1975)

In 1969 a flagpole was erected in front of the old ROTC building as a memorial to Major Albert G. Maroscher, who was killed in action in Vietnam April 15, 1968. Maroscher had been an assistant professor at HSU from 1964-67. (This flagpole and commemorating plaque are now on the front lawn of the campus next to the cannon.)

At a time when college campuses across the county were protesting and rioting the Vietnam War, HSU was growing its ROTC department. In 1971 construction on Mabee Hall, a state of the art military science building and the first of its kind in the nation, began.

Construction of Mabee Hall

Protest by community members at the dedication of Mabee Hall

All Conflicts

In 1981 the HSU Student Congress dedicated the large tree on the front lawn to all students who lost their lives serving their country since World War I.

 

How will you continue the tradition of service after leaving HSU?

Beanies at HSU

Colleges and universities across the globe have participated in different forms of hazing to separate the incoming freshman class from upperclassman.

While today, the term “hazing” carries a very negative connotation, if we travel back 100+ years, we’ll encounter a different, more playful, style of hazing. Read through old copies of The Brand and The Bronco; you will come across the most outrageous and funny stories of upperclassman battling underclassman with pranks, a forced dress code, and campus rules.

Today we are going to investigate HSU’s use of the Freshman Beanie, also known as a Slime Cap.

The purpose of wearing a beanie was/is to identify and separate underclassman from the self-professed wiser and more steadfast upperclassmen.

We all know this mindset to be true. Those of you who are upperclassmen, think: in a non-aggressive way, you look down at the latest addition to this campus. They don’t understand your oasis yet. They don’t know the cheers out on the football field; which professors to take classes from; nor do they have a stockpile of free t-shirts highlighting the many events you have attended while here. They are newbies, with lanyards fresh from the bookstore, who have yet to understand how magical and important this campus is.

Freshmen: you may take offense to this judgement by your fellow Cowboys and Cowgirls. You have a crisp student ID, have avoided locking yourself out of your room, and affectionately provided Gilbert with table scraps. Congratulations. This is nothing personal against you; you just haven’t had as much time here as your older classmates.

And that is why they look down on you. They are envious of you. You have something they don’t: more time here at HSU, and without realizing it, you are taking it for granted.

Illustration of a beanie-wearing-freshman from the 1924 Bronco 

Now, back to the Beanies.

The first mention of freshmen having to wear beanies can be found in a 1909 edition of The Corral. Rather than the purple and gold beanies you are familiar with today, the beanies from the early 1900’s were green.

They were green for two different reasons:

1. Freshmen were referred to as “fish,” “slime,” and conjointly “slimy fish”; and slime is thought of as green, hence the moniker, Slime Cap.

2. Funnily enough, in this small piece from The Corral, it’s inferred that the caps are also bright green because the president did not trust the students if he could not see them. So the obnoxious color allowed President Sandefer a watchful eye over his younger students.

The freshman’s graduation year was stitched on the front of the beanie, with the bill left blank for the freshman to write his name (along with the identifier “Slime”). Today, the graduation year has been replaced with “HSU,” but the bill is still left blank for the student’s name.

HSU beanie showing Slime Edmonds will graduate in 1938

In 1920, the beanies were still green, however, enforcement of freshman wearing them had gone down. In an article from The Simmons Brand (now called The Brand), it is noted that students have not been wearing their beanies when off campus and that it is requested they do so.

Over the years, the tradition of the freshman beanie continued to change: the stark divide and competition between classes along with the enforcement to wear/punishment when not wearing beanies diminished with each class. This is probably due to the changing demographic of the student body. The 1900’s were riddled with catastrophic events, including The Great Depression, World War I, World War II, and other conflicts. These world events created “non-traditional students:” a student body that was older, matured, diverse and with different priorities.

In the spring of 1954 the Freshman Beanie went up for a vote among the student council. In the editorial section of The Brand, a student, named David McPherson, broke down the pros and cons of continuing the tradition and urged the rest of the student body to express their feelings with their student body representatives.

1954 The Brand

Pros:	Cons:
Inclusion of freshman in campus activities	Creates a “persecution complex”
Create class unity	Some may not be able to afford the beanie
Help with learning names, since one would write his/her name on the bill of the cap

It becomes evident, in the following 1955 fall semester, based on an article in The Brand, that beanies are no longer mandatory for the freshman class, but strongly encouraged for school spirit.

By 1959, the beanie changed from green to purple and by the early 1960’s the class year was replaced on the front with “HSU.”

1963 The Brand

Today the beanie acts as an induction to the HSU community. New students receive their purple and gold beanie during orientation, and wear it proudly with goofy grins, excited to begin their college adventure. Once orientation is over, however, the beanies go away.

Long gone are the days where freshman are singled out on campus by their headgear.

Poll Taxes

The other month we sent a few boxes of the Legett collection off-site to be digitized and uploaded to the West Texas Digital Archives. They came back this week.

Whenever objects leave their home, we keep detailed lists and records to double check whatever is sent off is returned in the same condition it left.

Think of Santa making his list and checking it twice. We don’t want anything to fall through the cracks.

Today’s post is inspired by papers read while in-processing the Legett collection:

Poll Tax Receipts

Poll Tax Receipt for K.B. Legett, 1919

Poll Tax Receipt for K.B. Legett, Jan. 19, 1929

 

Wait a minute…you had to pay to vote? How is that legal?

Poll Taxes emerged in the United States in the late nineteenth century as an extension of Jim Crow Laws.

(For those who need a quick recap of U.S. history: Jim Crow Laws developed to prohibit the recently emancipated African American population from participating as full, free citizens. These laws allowed, and in some instances, encouraged segregation and racism.)

Poll taxes mandated that anyone who wished to vote had to pay a tax before receiving a ballot. This monetary restriction kept poorer individuals away from the polls, and turned voting–a U.S. citizen’s right–into a privilege for only those who could afford it.

As I’m sure you could imagine, preventing certain demographics from voting kept opinions from being heard and legislature from changing. And as as result, any time the poll tax was on the ballot to determine whether or not to keep it, those who would have voted to disband the tax, could not afford to vote, thus allowing the cycle to continue.

Now, take a look at those receipts above. In 1919, K.B. Legett paid $1.75 to be able to vote. This may not seem like a lot of money today; however, if an individual is making 20¢ per hour, that poll tax is a significant percentage of that salary, making voting a nonstarter.

In Texas, poll taxes were in effect from 1902-1966.

So, the next time you have the chance, go out and vote!

 

 

Allow me to reintroduce myself

It’s been a while since we’ve posted anything here on the blog, so to those who are no longer with us from holding their breath…our bad.

To recap the purpose of this blog for those who are new, or have forgotten, the HSU Richardson Library is home to a diverse and amazing collection of personal letters, photographs, memorabilia, and more from the leading individuals, families, and organizations of HSU, Abilene, and surrounding area.

Posts on this site will allow us to crack open the vault and share these delicious tidbits of history and drama with you, and the rest of the public.

If there’s a topic you’re interested in, don’t hesitate to reply in the comment section, and we’ll be sure to cover it in a future post!

So, stay tuned for the next exciting installment of The Vault!

The Corral

Hardin-Simmons students have left their mark on the campus in more ways than one. Over time they created several different student run publications: the yearbook – the Bronco, the newspaper – the Brand, the alumni newsletter – the Range Rider, and the literary/art publication – the Corral. Of these four major publications, the oldest is the Corral, published beginning in 1902.

1906 Corral

The Corral started out as the only source of news on campus for students (other than gossip). The first few editions contained short stories and poems, along with information such as: Board of Trustee decisions, community news, and anything related to campus life. This early production also had advertisements for anything a college student could want including a bank, furniture, clothes, and even several photography studios. In 1933 the Corral ceased publication for the next 18 years, due to the fact that Simmons students didn’t fit with the writing of the time period (protest literature), so nothing was submitted. It resumed in 1950 with gusto.

1962 Corral

By the 1960s, the Corral began to include more than just the literary arts. In the fall of 1962 one of the first drawings is presented in the Corral, and by the mid-1970s, the content was predominantly visual art and poetry. Another leap forward occurred in the 1984, when color was introduced to the publication.

Currently the Corral is in its 94th year of existence (or somewhere close), and shows no sign of slowing. Today, the Corral can be found numerous places every spring available for free. The HSU Library has also digitized past volumes and can be seen along with the Bronco, Brand, Catalogs, and many other items on the West Texas Digital Archives.

1984 Corral

Arizona Bill

Not many people recognize the name Arizona Bill anymore. The name has disappeared from the consciousness of people walking the campus, but the symbol remains. Arizona Bill is the name given to the cannon that sits between the Old Main bell and the pond, on a stand of built up earth and rock named Fort Babe Shaw. Both names are tributes to students who gave their lives fighting in World War I, along with eleven others–

Chester A. Adams | Jack Blount  | Kenneth Burns | Ennis Camp | Robert Embry | Aubrey Fisher | Allister Goodnight | O.A. Keele | Frank Martin | Reed Morris | Dennis Pumphrey | Stephen Dupree Rainey | Clyde Shaw

Over 400 young men (and one young woman) from then Simmons College played a part in World War I. Although many of them never graduated, they are a part of the tradition of HSU.

 

The anonymous poem below first appeared in the 1921 Bronco and paid homage to those who lost their lives in World War I.

Chants and Yells

Supporting your university sports teams is a time-honored pastime for generations of college students. Few things on campus bind students together like sitting/standing in the student section with their classmates shouting the chants and yells of their college. Hardin-Simmons, through several name changes was the recipient of many created yells.
Dr. Julius Olsen, science professor and Dean, created a yell for Simmons around 1908:

Rah- hoo-rah!
Sis-boom-ah!
Yah-Wah!
Sim Sim
Rah, rah, rah, rah, rah, rah,
Rah!
Simmons! Simmons! Simmons!

Quickly this yell fell out of favor, as it needed intricate timing, so much so that even those who knew it often yelled in the off-beat.

A small pamphlet was later published entitled “Official Songs and Yells of Simmons College” which include such yells as:

Wild and woolly, wild and woolly
Bust a broncho, beat a bully;
Hootin’, tootin’, cuttin’, shootin’
We’re the bunch that do the rootin’!
Zip Spang Simmons

Hay-seed, hay-seed, punkin, squash
Simmons, Simmons, yes by ———–.
Strawberry shortcakes, gooseberry pie,
V-i-c-t-o-r-y-!
Are we in it? Well, I guess,
Simmons! Simmons! Yes! Yes! Yes!

Gone are the days when ________ had a team;
Gone are the days when ________ was supreme;
Down in defeat before the purple and gold,
We hear their gentle voices calling:
“Take us home!”

In the present day, chants and yells have mostly gone away, and have been replaced by songs performed by the Cowboy Band. The camaraderie and school spirit remains, however, and will continue as long as there are students to yell.