The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1913-03-08
UNIVERSITY INTERESTED IN
NAME OF HOUSTON.
Member of Class OF 1887 Now I'm Cab
fnet-Iienry Il. Thompson Relates
incident i'm Darlington I'm 1880.

Columbians felt q personal interest
yesterday in the semi-official an
nouncement published Of the person
mel of President Wilson's cabinet
David Francis Houston, who was
named as secretary of agriculture, is
an alumnus Of the University Of
South Carolina of the class Of 1887.
In college Mr.. Houston was affec-
tionately known as "Donk" by his
classmates and was very popular both
with his instructors and his fellow
students. Prof. A. c. Moore, dean
of the university, was a roommate Of
Mr.. Houston during his college days.
Henry T. Thompson spoke very in
terestngly of Mr.. Houston's early
youth in Darlington.
II was delighted" he said, "to
learn Of the appointment of David
Francis Houston as a member Of
President Wilson's cabinet
His father moved to Darlington
from North Carolina in the fall of
1880, just as the time that I, when
scarcely more than a boy, went there
as principal of st. Johns academy,
and Frank as we called him then,
entered the school as a pupil at the
beginning of that session.
During the years 1880, 1881 and
1882 / taught him the first lessons in
Latin and Greek he ever learned.
"As the most trivial anecdotes are
Of some interest when they relate to
one who is as much in the public
eye as is Secretary Houston today, I
don't mind telling you the following:
One afternoon, while 1 was running
over the lessons which had to teach
the boys on the following day, l en-
countered problem in algebra which
gave me great difficulty. 1t was cam
paign day somewhere in the Pee Dee
section of the State on that day and
the candidates for State offices, in
Guiding my father, who was then a
candidate for State superintendent of
education for the third time, were
to spend the night in Florence, ten
miles from Darlington. My father
had quite a reputation as a math-
ematician, and knowing that it would
never do in the world for me to go to
school the next day not knowing how
to work that problem, l decided to
run down to Florence and secure as
sistance from him. To my intense
surprise and considerably to the re-
storation of my somewhat impaired
self-esteem, l found that for some
reason this problem gave my father
more trouble than any l had ever be-
fore seen him undertak to solve
and ! have seen him undertake q
good many in my time. When the al
zebra lesson came up the next day in
school, l inquired whether there was
any boy in the class who could work
tHdt particular prODlem. Inc only
one who answered in the affirmative
was Frank Houston. / sent him to
the board and in very few moments
he had the problem, which was not
long, correctly worked out
II will never forget the thrill of
pleasure l experienced when l looked
up at the black board and realized
that this was the case. / asked young
Houston whether he had worked out
the problem for himself without any
assistance, and he said that he had.
In my admiration for the boys abil-
ity, ard thinking that he deserved
some word Of commendation, / relat-
ed to the class how ! had called on
the State superintendent of education
the day before to work out this prob
lem for me and how much trouble it
had given him. THE State