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Hawkins-Holly Lake Ranch, Texas - GAZETTE ARTICLE ONLINE

WOOD COUNTY HISTORY - AS TIME GOES BY

 

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AS TIME GOES BY

Wood County History

By LOU MALLORY — Chairperson, Wood County Historical Commission

 

The early days of Jarvis Christian College  2-3-07

 

In recognition of Black History Month, the following is a compendium of historical notes about some of the personalities who were instrumental in the establishment and early operation of Jarvis Christian College.

 

Among the early trailblazers was Mrs. Mary Alphin, who was born in a log cabin near Murfreesboro, Tennessee on July 10th, 1868. Her father, a former slave, was a farmer who actively sought a better education for his two daughters. The family eventually got to Topeka, Kansas where Mary graduated from high school. She taught school for 15 years. In 1906, she married William Alphin who took his new bride to Waco, Texas, where he pastured the Clay Street Christian Church. Two years later, Mary was elected State president of the Womens Missionary Society.

 

A goal of $3,000 was set to build a school for African-American students in Texas but it proved to be a difficult goal to reach. Eventually Elder C.C. Smith who was at the time the superintendent of Negro Missions out of Fort Worth, heard that Major and Mrs. Ida V. Jarvis, who were members of the Christian Church in Fort Worth, were considering deeding some land in east Texas near Hawkins, as an aid to the Texas school effort. Further contact by Elder Smith, Mrs. Alphin and Mrs. Anna Atwater persuaded the Major and his wife to make the gift of 456 acres in 1910. The land was valued at over $3,000.

 

Shortly after the land was donated, the Negro Disciples of Christ in Texas, largely through the efforts of the church women, completed the fund-raising campaign. The $1,000 collected by the churches was augmented with $10,000 donated by the Women’s Board of Missions.

 

According to an account by C.A. Berry, the school opened in January 1913 with 13 students. The building, according to Berry, contained 12 rooms which included classrooms, a chapel, the dining hall, a kitchen, the girl’s dormitory and rooms for the family of Prof. T.B. Frost, the head of the school.

Berry, a teacher, arrived early on to help with construction. In an account likely written in the mid to late 1940s, Berry states, “It has been my privilege to observe the constant growth of Jarvis from a one-teacher, thirteen pupils, unclassified, one-building remote school in the woods to a senior college, nationally known, with modern buildings and an excellent faculty of 20 or more teachers and a spacious campus with 20 or more buildings overlooked by 16 oil wells.”

 

Today, Jarvis Christian College has a division of arts and sciences offering programs in science and math, religion, biology, chemistry, criminal justice, English, the Fine Arts, history, literature and languages, music, social science and sociology. The college also has an education division for future educators and a division of business administration. An honors program is also available and Upward Bound.

 

In the words of President Sebetha Jenkins, Jarvis is now known as “one of the best liberal arts institutions in the country.”

 

 

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