The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1886-07-29
DEoAruR, July Il, 1856.
To the Messen GER.

To the Messenger:
Having been repeatedly called upon fl l
statement of the facts as to the connec
tion of Prof. John Collier with the North.
western university, and feeling that the
subscribers to the fund.- and the public
are entitled to know all the facts, we beg
leave through the medium of your valu-
able paper to give a brief history of the
rise and fall of the enterprise.
In the first place, Prof. Collier came to
Decatur and represented to the people
both publicly and privately, that himself
and seven other professional educators
were DESTROYS of building up and estab-
fishing in northwest Texas an institution
of learning that should be a credit to the
state and an honor to the orignators, and
those who should lend aid to its upbuild
ing, and that he had been selected by the
other seven to select the most desirable 10
calty for the institution; that Fort Worth
Dallas, Gainesville, Weatherford and Other
places were anxious to have their respec
tive places selected and would contribute
literally towards the building and endow
ment funds; that he preferred Decatur to
any other place on account of its beauti
.
climate and for the further reason that il
was easy of access to the wealthy cattle.
men of the northwest, from whom, he
said at least $250,000 could at once be Sc
cured as an endowment fund; that he was
then receiving kilograms from various
places and from men of capital, inquiring
if the university was located here, and if
SO, they wanted to buy property here at
oace that he already had one man who
would give twenty-five thousand dollars to
the endowment fund and would place the
money in the hands of our board of direc-
tors just as soon as an organization was
effected and a charter obtained; and that
he knew of Others who would also con
tribute large sums towards the endowment
and building funds; he said he had $780,
0J0 worth of property at Mansfield, in
Tarrant county, which he would dispose
of and move with his family to Decatur
and that he could bring a large number of
students with him from the institution he
had at Mansfield, and could open school
at Decatur, the first of September, 1885,
with at least 300 boarding students. He
then proposed in our public meeting of
citizens, at the court honse, that if the
citizens of Wise county would donate the
necessary ground, and give him bonus
of $4,000 and get up $4,000 additional
towards the building fund, he would locate
it here. And upon resolution being
adopted accepting the proposition, he de-
clared it located at Decatur. A board
of directors was then elected consist
ing of A. H. Shoemaker, II. ID. Don
aid, j. w. Cartwright, Amos Finch, g
Murphy, Sam Levy, l.. A. Crane, j. j.
Lang and j. G.. Halsell, of Decatur; w.
X. Curtis of Henrietta;J. X. Stephens, of
Gainesville, and j. F. Evans of Sherman,
and Morgan Jones, of Fort Worth.
At meeting of the board Of direct, r.,
A. ii. Shoemaker was chosen chairman, II.
ID. Donald, secretary, and j. j. Lang,
treasurer. Mr.. Collier was appointed
chancellor. He then said that he was ow-
ing some debts and in order that he
might devote his time to procuring sub
scription to the building and endowment
funds, he wanted some money as soon as
possible. We then raised and paid him
$1470 cash, and agreed to pay him the
balance of $4,000 as soon as collected
He agreed to at once begin canvanssing
for subscriptions and said he could soon
raise the balance of the $4,000 himself
And said he knew he could raise $250,000
endowment, and would put up his prop
erty worth 100000 guarantee. We then
at his suggestion agreed to rent some
room and open school September 1st.,
and he was TO canvass until that time,
and then come here and take charge of
the school here. He then left for home
and we neither saw nor heard of him for
a long time. He sent no subscriptions
made no report, and so far as we have
been able to discover made no effort
to do anything in that direction.
Becoming suspicious, that there was
something wrong, we wrote him and he
came here and told us he could do moth
ing until we commenced the building.
We then concluded land he approved it)
that we had best abandon the idea of
commencing the school in the fall of
1885 and wait until we could build suita-
BILE building, and upon our expressing
some dissatisfaction with his course in
the matter, he said he had not been well,
but would go to work at once, and if we
thought that we could not succeed in
carrying out the enterprise, that he would