Historic Walker County

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Top: The Austin College Building on
the campus of Sam Houston Normal
Institute, c. the 1880s.
COURTESY OF THE SAM HOUSTON STATE
UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES.
Middle: Joseph A. Baldwin,
Sam Houston Normal Institute’s
third principal.
COURTESY OF THE SAM HOUSTON STATE
UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES.
Bottom: Old Main on the campus of
Sam Houston Normal Institute.
COURTESY OF THE SAM HOUSTON STATE
UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES.
established normal institutes around the country
and was tapped to become SHNI’s third principal
while on a Texas lecture tour. He not only enjoyed
the cooperation and respect of the faculty, but also
a level of freedom not seen by his predecessors.
Under his leadership, SHNI expanded its faculty
from four to ten members, increased the course of
study to three years, and renovated buildings and
infrastructure. 53 Baldwin steered SHNI toward a
decade of explosive growth and a reputation for
excellence. The 2,650 graduates that attended
during his administration proved their
effectiveness throughout the state and inspired the
creation of both a summer training program for
county teachers and the position of chair of
pedagogy that he occupied at the University of
Texas from 1891 until his death in 1899. 54
The success of SHNI drew the attention of
prospective students, competing institutions, and
several advocates. Although enrollment was
booming, the increasing number of students
made the inadequacy of local facilities very
obvious. Superintendent Oscar Cooper, a former
faculty member, and Huntsville’s own State
Senator L. A. Abercrombie, an original SHNI
trustee, lobbied for the appropriation of
renovation funds. The state awarded Sam
Houston $40,000 for the construction of a new
“Main” Building, which was nearly double its
1879 budget of $22,000. The new Main structure
was completed by the 1890-91 school year; it
housed “classrooms, offices, a library, and a grand
auditorium” which accommodated more than
twelve hundred students. 55 Indeed, Old Main
stood as a testament to the tenure of Joseph
Baldwin until its fiery demise in 1982.
Henry Carr Pritchett, Baldwin’s successor,
was married in a local Methodist church in 1876
and had long standing ties to the community. As
a Sam Houston faculty member, “Pritchett had
prepared over two thousand students to teach
mathematics to the schoolchildren of Texas”
from 1881 to 1890. 56 After holding the post of
Superintendent of Public Instruction for a year,
he resigned to become SHNI’s fourth principal.
He continued the policies of the previous
administration, dutifully observing his
responsibilities as principal and teaching until
his death in 1908.
Community leaders in Huntsville had always
supported institutions of higher education.
2 4 ✦ H I S T O R I C W A L K E R C O U N T Y