Opening Day in Waco, April 4th, 1882

The following was found through the Chronicling America project, a joint effort by the Library of Congress and the National Endowment for the Humanities. It is clipped from the Waco Daily Examiner, 4 April 1882, page 4.

A few facts about the people on the program:

• Richard Harvey Cain, twice elected U.S. Congressman from South Carolina, became Bishop of the Texas-Louisiana A.M.E. Conference in 1880. He was President of Paul Quinn College at the time of the move and also one of the original founders.
• Edwin A. Sturgis,  an influential early mayor of Waco, was a former sergeant in the Confederate Army.
• W. R. Carson, a prominent minister in the Northeast Texas A.M.E. Conference, was another of the 1872 founders.
• H. T. Kealing later served as President of Paul Quinn College, and was widely known as an author and editor of the A.M.E. Review.
• R. C. Burleson was the second president of Baylor University and a vocal supporter of African American colleges in Texas.
• J. M. Brown was the presiding Bishop of the Texas A.M.E. Conference at the founding of the future Paul Quinn College in Austin, Texas in 1872, and was our first President.
• J. C. Embry was the A.M.E. Church's first Superintendent of Education, and would later become its 25th Bishop.
• Mrs. N. T. Jones was Principal of the Female Department of Paul Quinn College.

Quinnite: What's in a Name?

One of the changes you may have noticed at Paul Quinn College is the frequent use of the term "Quinnite." Yes, our sports teams still proudly wear the name "Tigers," but President Michael Sorrell has brought this new designation to the fore as way to describe the type of person who belongs at Paul Quinn College, whether as student, staff, faculty, or community partner. A summary of this ideal is stated in the Quinnite Creed:

THE QUINNITE CREED

As a Quinnite, I promise to embrace the ideals of servant leadership and will, at all times, display only the highest degree of ethical practices, spiritual faithfulness, and financial responsibility.

As a Quinnite, I believe in the “Four Ls of Quinnite Leadership”: Leave places better than you found them; Lead from wherever you are; Live a life that matters; and Love something greater than yourself.

As a Quinnite, I believe in making no small plans. I will be bold, fearless and relentless in the pursuit of my dreams.

As a Quinnite, I believe in being both a speaker of words and doer of deeds.

As a Quinnite, I believe that life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage. Therefore, I will always be courageous.

As a Quinnite, I will never allow a stumble to become a fall. I will always keep my eyes on the prize and continue to march forward.

As a Quinnite, I believe in the beauty and strength of families and vow to always be a respectful mate and a loving parent.

As a Quinnite, I believe in the words of Isaiah 58:9-12 and commit to feeding the hungry, taking care of the needs of the troubled and rebuilding old cities, roads and houses.

As a Quinnite, I accept that greatness is the goal for myself, for my school and for my community, now and forever.

- Amen.

As with anything new, it has taken time for the Paul Quinn community to adopt this designation, but it is now firmly implanted as a part of who we are. What is ironic, however, is that the name Quinnite is not new--Paul W. L. Jones, covering the HBCU football season in The Crisis, used the term "Quinnites" back in 1926. The official team name, of course, was "Tigers," going back at least to the first season of the Southwestern Athletic Conference in 1922 (and probably earlier).(Houston Informer, 28 Oct 1922, cited in Black College Football in Texas) But the "Quinnite" moniker was actually used, at least informally, 86 years ago. In its current revival, as a shorthand for a set of transformative principles that define who we are, we expect it will continue many more decades to come.

Triple Threat: Ray T. Sheppard, the Player, Coach, and Mentor

In 1922 football was young. It had been only 16 years since the introduction of the forward pass. Only three years had gone by since the rule change that allowed receivers to catch the ball anywhere on the field, rather than just in designated zones. During that season the fledgling American Professional Football Association would change its name to the National Football League; Pop Warner was still writing his monumental Football for Coaches and Players; and Knute Rockne, in his fifth year coaching the Fighting Irish, would field the fabled “Four Horsemen” for the first time.

Two years earlier, representatives of six Black colleges in Texas--Bishop, Paul Quinn, Samuel Huston (today Huston-Tillotson), Prairie View, Texas College, and Wiley--had met together to form the Southwestern Athletic Conference. Of the six, only Prairie View A&M continues in this conference today, but for the first decade of its existence these schools were the Southwestern Athletic Conference, one of the most loyally supported conferences in the nation and a proven incubator of professional talent.

Raymond Theodore Sheppard, born December 10th, 1902, to Jim and Edna Sheppard of San Antonio, played football for Paul Quinn from fall 1922 to the spring of 1926. A standout athlete from the beginning, his freshman year was spectacular--Paul Quinn went undefeated through the regular season, and faced the undefeated Bishop College team in a New Year’s Day showdown in which Sheppard played quarterback. Bishop scored a field goal early, but the two teams were locked in a scoreless defensive struggle for the rest of the game. In one last drive, with just seconds to go, Sheppard maneuvered his offense into range and kicked the tying field goal.

In the freewheeling offense of the day, rushing, punting, and even passing might be shared among the quarterback, halfbacks, and fullback. Under these circumstances it was hardly a demotion for a player to move from quarterback to halfback, and Sheppard was obviously Paul Quinn’s biggest “triple-threat man,” capable of moving the ball by all three means. His natural talent was at fullback, and it is likely he played there during the rest of his college career; the 1923 season featured another outstanding Paul Quinn quarterback, “Hub” Tinsley. They closed the year with a Christmas Day rematch with Bishop, which they won before a crowd estimated at 3,000.

During the 1925-26 season, his final year, Sheppard was named first-team halfback on the All Negro American list. Spalding sports reporter Paul W. L. Jones had this to say:

“Sheppard is the greatest Negro back in the game today. He is the most accurate punter in foot ball. A great open field runner, he can twist and squirm, dodge and duck and stiffarm as can few players. His punting brought his team out conqueror in many contests. Opponents of Paul Quinn start worrying whenever the Quinnites get within thirty-five or forty yards of the goal posts, for Sheppard’s toe seldom fails to send the ball straight through the uprights. His field goal record is one of the most remarkable in foot ball history.”(The Crisis, v.31 n.5, March 1926, p.224)

In 1932 Jones still felt the same, placing Sheppard as halfback in his “All-Time Negro Football Team.”(The Crisis, v.44 n.1, Jan 1927, p.16) Sheppard’s final season as a Quinnite was as dramatic as his first, if not as satisfying in outcome. Bishop College won the conference, having lost only to Wiley; Wiley in turn had been beaton only by Paul Quinn. The Tigers’ post-season game on New Year’s Day 1926, against Straight College (a predecessor of Dillard University), was a 33-0 shutout that must have provided some consolation.

Sheppard had more on his mind than football that January; on the 24th he married Frankie Betrice Freeman. In the fall of 1927, he returned to Paul Quinn as football coach, succeeding his own coach Harry Long. In his first time to coach against his old rival, Sheppard proved that he would still bedevil the Bishop College Bears; the Houston Informer sports page reported the game with the headline, “Paul Quinn Eats Bear Meat.” Revenge was sweet for Bishop, however, when they defeated Sheppard’s Tigers 14-0 in 1928.

(Ironically, these ferocious rivals would one day call the same campus home. In 1961 Bishop College moved from Marshall, Texas to southern Dallas; then in 1990, following Bishop College's closing, Paul Quinn College moved to the Dallas campus where, as one alumnus put it, "Bishop ghosts still walk the halls.")

In 1929 Paul Quinn College withdrew from the Southwestern Conference, and by 1930 Sheppard had moved on to coach at Wiley College, where he and Frankie both taught. He spent a much longer part of his career coaching for Central High School in Galveston, Texas, the oldest Black high school in the state (both in founding and in its facilities!), and made the transition in 1954 to the new Central High facility. (In 1968 Central High merged with Ball High to create an integrated institution.)

Sheppard was a founding member of Galveston's Rho Nu Chapter of Omega Psi Phi, and was known for his good works in the community. His legacy lives on through the Ray T. Sheppard Youth League, a non-profit organization that provides Galveston youth with summer athletics and “year-round mentoring,” very much in the spirit of its namesake.

---

For more about HBCU football in the Lone Star State, see Robert Fink's excellent doctoral dissertation, Black College Football in Texas (Texas Tech University, 2003).

The Internet Archive has a 1922 NCAA Football Guide online.

Paul Quinn When... On Campus, 1886-1892

The history of a college is usually told in terms of the big events--a founding, an expansion, a relocation, a change of focus. It is harder to discover the ordinary events that make up so much of the life of a school. Who were the faculty in that year? What courses were being offered? Who was the head of that department? Who were the staff? The Waco City Directory, available from 1886-1892, provides year-by-year snapshots of people connected with Paul Quinn College. By piecing together the description of the people who worked at the College, we can get a glimpse of campus life during the presidency of Rev. Isaac M. Burgan, more than 110 years ago.

Paul Quinn College, 1886-1887

Rev. Isaac M. Burgan was President, also serving as Professor of Theology and “Moral Science”, or ethics. He served as President from 1883-1891, served again from 1896-1904, and yet again from 1911-1912. True to the Quinnite spirit, he was also the business manager of the Paul Quinn Monthly, and even served as an arithmetic instructor in 1890-91. His degree (listed in 1890-91) was a B.D., or Bachelor of Divinity. He achieved this at Wilberforce, where he was valedictorian of his class, but his college training began in the field of education at the Indiana State Normal School (today Indiana State University at Terre Haute). In the 1927 Paul Quinn College yearbook he was still listed as academic dean.

Mrs. Anna H. Coleman served as “principal” (equivalent to a dean) of the “normal department” (teacher education) in 1886-87, and at least in 1888-89 was principal of the female side of the industrial department. She also taught the “English branches” (probably the primary-school curriculum of reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, and history). Additionally, in 1888-89 she followed Mrs. Mary J. Pogue (1886-87) as the matron of the boarding students.

Noah Anthony Banks taught mathematics and languages (1886-87), and higher mathematics and sciences in 1890-91. His degree was a Bachelor of Science (listed 1890-91) from Wilberforce, where he was acquainted with Isaac Burgan. He took over the Presidency from Burgan for 1891-1892 before the arrival of Hightower T. Kealing. While serving as President he also was Professor of psychology and sciences, and editor of the Paul Quinn Monthly. He would serve as President again from 1926-1928. He was elected to membership in the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1917.

Paul Quinn College, 1888-1889

Moving forward to the 1888-89 City Directory, we get a fuller picture of activities at Paul Quinn College. Adele B. Banes (1867-1959) is listed for the first time, serving the College as teacher of instrumental music and assistant in languages. The 1890-91 directory specifies that she taught both piano and organ. She continued in this position through at least 1893, after which love led her elsewhere--more on which later.

Miss Grace G. Sampson appears as teacher of higher mathematics and sciences, and also assistant teacher of the “English branches,” perhaps to relieve Mrs. Coleman of some of her load since she had assumed duties as matron. Miss Sampson had just graduated from high school, and Paul Quinn College was her first position. In 1889 she became the first African American woman to pass the Dallas teacher’s examination. She left Paul Quinn after a year to teach in the public schools.

The 1888-89 Directory also gives an early look into the staff side of Paul Quinn College. Mr. Henry (sometimes “Harry”) Delay appears in the Directories from 1888-1893 with the simple job description, “works”--a title to which our present facilities staff can certainly relate. The 1892-93 Directory gave his residence as “rear 1120 Elm,” about six blocks from the College. John K. Williams is also listed as “foreman of the printing department,” and served as editor for the Paul Quinn Monthly.

Paul Quinn College, 1890-91

In the 1890-91 Directory we find that an “Anna R. Patterson” was matron, principal of the normal and female industrial departments, and teacher of English branches. This is suspiciously similar to the duties of Anna H. Coleman in prior years, and leads to the surmise that they may have been the same person with the change of a last name (the middle initials “R” and “H” are easily misread). Whether she gained a husband or lost one is not known.

Another new teacher was quite definitely added by marriage--Mrs. Cora Burgan, the new bride of President Isaac Burgan, also taught the English branches during this period. They married on September 4th, 1889. From the 1890-91 Directory we also learn that John K. Williams, previously listed as the foreman of the printing department, was professor of mathematics--but his occupation is also given as “farmer” at the D. R. Byrum farm. He turned over the editorial duties of the Paul Quinn Monthly to Daniel A. Banks.

Mrs. Clara Sears and Mr. Joseph S. Powe joined Harry Delay in carrying the job description, “works.” We are unable to say what roles they filled. Mr. Powe lived at 1113 Renick Ave., just a few blocks from campus, and across the street from an address that gives us our first view into student life of the 1890s.

1114 Renick Ave. was home-away-from-home to six young Quinnites--Thomas D. Beatty, Joseph Dobbs, Harman McDaniel, and three students who were likely brothers or cousins: Henry A. Guess, James E. Guess, and Laban F. Guess. (We can only imagine the jokes they heard about the “three Guesses!”) The City Directory of 1890-91 also mentions William Cain, possibly boarding with Clara Sears, and Alice Walker, a student boarding with John Monroe.

Paul Quinn College, 1892-1893

In the last year for which we have City Directory information, there were a few new faces among the faculty. Frederica F. Jones, B.A., came to teach Greek and Latin, serving also as principal of the female department in place of Anna Patterson. Elnora D. Owens took over the matron’s duties and taught reading and elocution. Amanda F. Woodard taught grammar and history, and the versatile James L. Randolph served as principal of the normal department and superintendent of carpentry. John K. Williams, in addition to teaching mathematics, is again listed as superintendent of printing (if indeed he ever left the position).

Wiilliam E. Day, a principal in the public schools, served as business manager for the Paul Quinn Monthly during this time, and it is through him that we get a final glimpse of the lives of these faculty and staff of long ago. Whether they met through their work at the College, or Day came to the College because of a prior interest, the fact remains that Miss Adele B. Banes, the music teacher, became Mrs. Adele B. Day!

Happy Founders' Day!

Paul Quinn College Founder's Day is Saturday, April 4th, celebrating 137 years of existence. It is time to think about what 137 years means, and it is time for some bragging: Paul Quinn College is in sixth place!

Bragging about coming in sixth? In this list, it is a point of pride:

Southwestern University, 1840
Baylor University, 1845
Austin College, 1849
St. Mary's University, 1852
Mary Hardin-Baylor University, 1866 (obtained separate charter from Baylor)
Paul Quinn College, 1872

Paul Quinn College is the sixth-oldest institution of higher education in the state of Texas. It was also the first college or university established in the aftermath of the Civil War (Mary Hardin-Baylor University was already in existence as part of Baylor University).

137 years of existence means that Paul Quinn College has a longer history than any of the state's fine public universities--Texas A&M was established in 1876; the University of Texas in 1883.

Paul Quinn College has a longer history than any of its neighbor institutions of higher learning in the Dallas-Fort Worth area--Texas Christian University was established in 1873; the University of North Texas in 1890; the University of Texas at Arlington in 1895; Dallas Baptist University in 1898; Texas Woman's University in 1901; Southern Methodist University in 1911.

Paul Quinn College is the oldest historically Black college or university west of the Mississippi--older than Wiley College (1873), Prairie View A&M (1876), Huston-Tillotson (1877), Texas College (1894), Jarvis Christian College (1912), Texas Southern University (1947), or Southwestern Christian College (1948), our esteemed sister institutions in the state of Texas.

But more importantly, 137 years of history means that Paul Quinn College began less than seven years after the abolition of slavery in Texas, only two years after the state was readmitted to the Union, during a turbulent and violent period when the gains achieved with Emancipation were already visibly slipping away. It was not an auspicious time to start a school, but need does not wait upon convenience, and neither do leaders. A group of African Methodist Episcopal clergymen established the school in a building in Austin on April 4, 1872; ten years later the school, newly chartered as "Paul Quinn College", moved into a building in Waco that was built by a "ten-cents-a-brick" campaign held throughout the A.M.E. churches in Texas.

Most colleges are founded by the vision of a small group of individuals, and Paul Quinn College certainly has individuals to thank--men such as the Bishops William Paul Quinn, J.M. Brown, and R.H. Cain. But when we think of the founders of Paul Quinn College, we should remember also those unknown churchgoers, former slaves, who saved their hard-earned pennies to place brick upon brick in faith that their "labor was not in vain," and that education would be the road to a brighter future. We owe it to them, above all, to keep that faith.

Happy Founders' Day!

Paul Quinn When... Dr. Solomon Porter Hood, U.S. Minister to Liberia

Did you know a Quinnite was once the U.S. minister to Liberia? Dr. Solomon Porter Hood, who would serve as the Academic Dean of Paul Quinn College during the early 1930s, was appointed to this post by President Warren Harding on October 26, 1921.

Hood was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania in 1856, but lived most of his life in the area of Trenton, New Jersey. An 1876 graduate of Lincoln University, he divided his career between ministry and education, serving as a teacher and administrator in the public schools and pastoring churches.(Padgett,87ff.)

His missionary years in Haiti no doubt gave him a first-hand perspective of the challenges faced by the independent states among the African diaspora. His tenure in Liberia was defined by the controversy surrounding the Firestone Company's interest in developing Liberia's rubber plantations, and Hood may have in fact worked against Firestone's interests through advice he gave to the Liberian government.(Chalk,24) It was perhaps not a coincidence that he left his post in 1926, the same year the Firestone concession was granted.

Though he only served as Dean for a few years, retiring in 1933 at the well-seasoned age of 77, Dr. Hood was a very popular figure at Paul Quinn and in the Waco community generally. He continued to speak out on political subjects, delivering lectures and writing occasionally for the local African American newspaper, the Waco Messenger. His editorial of April 14th, 1933 on the growing shift of African American party loyalty from Republican to Democrat reveals a shrewd political mind and is an interesting window into a historic time in American politics.

Dr. Hood's distinguished career as minister, educator, and political leader strikes a chord with Quinnites today, who likewise look to extend their service to their communities, their nation, and their world.

References:

Image from Centennial Encyclopaedia of the African Methodist Episcopal Church ... by Richard R. Wright, originally published 1918, digital copy hosted by University of South Carolina, c2004. Used according to principles of fair use for limited non-profit educational purposes.

Padgett, James A. Ministers to Liberia and their diplomacy. Journal of Negro history 22/1 (January 1937): 50-92.

Chalk, Frank. The anatomy of an investment: Firestone's 1927 loan to Liberia. Canadian journal of African studies 1/1 (March 1967): 12-32.

Paul Quinn When... Old-School Engineering

The September 1892 issue of Hampton University's Southern Workman contained the following letter to editor General S.C. Armstrong, from a Hampton alumnus recently hired to teach at the new Paul Quinn College in Waco, Texas:

During the past year I have opened a mechanical department at Paul Quinn College known as the industrial annex, which consists of one large frame building, benches and tools to accomodate fourteen persons. And for next year we are preparing to enlarge by building a brick shop and putting in steam power and wood working machinery. Thus you see, General, and it is true, I am trying to operate my work down here on the same plans I was taught at dear old Hampton. The change in my work is because there are better chances for development in every respect at Paul Quinn, the college being in Waco, a large city, while Prairie View is seven miles from any town.

Our course of instruction covers a period of three years, as at Hampton in the "Huntington Industrial Works." This annex will make it possible for many poor persons to get an education and a trade at Paul Quinn College as at Hampton.

It is a fact, General, that there is not another school in the state that gives such chances for an education through industrial avenues.

As the one in charge of the Industrial Annex of Paul Quinn College, I ask for your assistance in any way you can give it. Now we want to raise this summer and fall about $3000 to pay on the building, additional tools and machinery, which will cost $6000.

Yours sincerely, J.L. Randolph

(Southern Workman, vol. 21, issue September 1892, p. 142)

Today's Paul Quinn student can major in engineering technology or computer science, and take courses that Professor Randolph could hardly have imagined, such as Assembly Language Programming, Operating Systems, Digital Logic Circuits, and Advanced Microprocessors. But much of the foundational coursework--algebra, trigonometry, and calculus--would be familiar to him, as would the aspirations of today's instructors to prepare our students for relevant careers with a solid future.