History of Texas, Together with a Biographical History of Milam, Williamson, Bastrop, Travis, Lee and Burleson Counties. Page: 134

13i HISTORY OP TEXAS.

public free schools of the State. Tile teachers
are all colored people, who have thus far
governed the school with credit to themselves
and the entire satisfaction of the Board of
Directors. The institution is supported by
direct appropriations from the general revenuCts
of the State, and one State student
from each senatorial district and fifteen from
the State at large are admitted and taght
free of charge. A limited number of pay
students are admitted, and receive books and
tuition free. Pay students are charged $10
per month for board. All students are rerequired
to pay a matriculation fee of $5, and
a fee of $2 for medical attention.
The regular course of sttidy covers a
period of three years, and leads to a diploma
which, in addition to evidencing tile holder's
literary attainments, has the value of a teacher's
certificate of the first grade. Certificates
of competency are issued to such students as
do satisfactory work in the middle classes,
entitling them to the compensation of second-grade
teachers in the public schools.
The continued growth of this school, and
demand of the colored people of the State
for opportunity to secure agricultural and
mechanical education, induced the twentieth
legislature to make an appropriation of $10,000
to enable the Board of Directors to inaugurate
the industrial features of the school.
Accommodations have recently been provided
for thirty-eight students to receive
instruction in carpentry under a practical
teacher. Theoretical and practical agriculture
form an important branch of study, aind
the farm and garden worked by the students
in this department contribute largely to the
needs of the mess hall. A sewing-room,
provided with the latest improved sewing
machines and other equipments,/ has been
placed in charge of a competent instructress

in the art of cutting, sewing and fitting, and
such of the young ladies as desire a practical
knowledge of this art have an opportunity to
acquire it during their course of study.
The institution is open to both sexes.
Applicants must be sixteen years old and
residents of the State, and are required to
sign a pledge to teach as many sessions in
the free schools as they may attend the Normnal
School.
State students must sustain-a satisfactory
examination in arithmetic as far as decimal
fractions, orthography, English grammar, English
composition and history of the United
States.
Students furnish their- own bedding, except
mattresses and pillows.
Value of buildings and grounds... $100,000
Value of library and apparatus.... 7,000

AGRICULTURAL AND MECHANICAL COLLEGE OF
TEXAS.
This institution owes its foundation and
endowment to the act of the United States
Congress, approved July 2, 1862, amended
July 23, 1865, and to a joint resolution of
the legislature of Texas, approved November
1, 1866, and an act of the same body approved
April 17, 1871. Under these acts
and the special laws of the legislature growing
out of them, the Iirst board of directors
met at Austin, July 16, 1875, and proceeded
to organize the college. Finally the constitution
of 1876, article VII, provided that
the Agricultural and Mechanical College of
Texas, established by the act of the legislature
passed April 17, 1871, located in the
county of Brazos, is "hereby made and constituted
a branch of the Univorsity of Texas,
for the instruction in agriculture, the mechanic
arts, and the natural sciences con.
nected therewith."

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MISTORY OP TEXAS