Fort Worth University

{{Short description|Methodist college in Fort Worth, Texas (1881–1911)}}

{{for|the university known as Texas Wesleyan College from 1934 to 1989|Texas Wesleyan University}}

{{Infobox university

| name = Fort Worth University

| native_name =

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| image = Fort Worth University (20106720).jpg

| image_upright =

| image_alt =

| caption = 1908 postcard of Fort Worth University

| latin_name =

| other_name =

| former_name = Texas Wesleyan College (1881–1889)

| motto =

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| type = private

| established = {{start date|1881|6|6}}

| closed = 1911

| founder =

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| affiliation =

| religious_affiliation = Methodist Episcopal Church

| city = Fort Worth, Texas

| country = United States

| colors = Gold and Blue

}}

Fort Worth University was a private Methodist Episcopal Church in Fort Worth, Texas. It was chartered and opened in 1881 as the Texas Wesleyan College. Its name changed to Fort Worth University in 1889. It merged with the Methodist University of Oklahoma (now Oklahoma City University) in 1911.

History

Texas Wesleyan College was chartered on June 6, 1881, and opened in Fort Worth, Texas on September 7, 1881.{{cite web |last=Sandidge |first=Clay |title=Fort Worth University |url=https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/fort-worth-university |work=Handbook of Texas Online |publisher=Texas State Historical Association}} The university was affiliated with the Methodist Episcopal Church and was a member of the University Senate of the church. The first president was William H. Cannon; later presidents included William Fielder and Oscar L. Fisher.{{Cite book |last=Knight |first=Oliver |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Fort_Worth/KWUgwtMh6iUC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22Fort+Worth+University%22&pg=PA152&printsec=frontcover |title=Fort Worth: Outpost on the Trinity |date=1990 |publisher=TCU Press |isbn=978-0-87565-077-7 |page=152 |language=en |via=Google Books}}{{Cite book |last=Nichols |first=Mike |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Lost_Fort_Worth/Cu92CQAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22Fort+Worth+University%22&pg=PT56&printsec=frontcover |title=Lost Fort Worth |date=2014-02-04 |publisher=Arcadia Publishing |isbn=978-1-62584-712-6 |pages=59–61 |language=en |via=Google Books}}

When it opened, the college had 123 students.{{Cite book |last=Rich |first=Harold |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Fort_Worth/Yx2nBAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22Fort+Worth+University%22&pg=PP25&printsec=frontcover |title=Fort Worth: Outpost, Cowtown, Boomtown |date=2014-09-29 |publisher=University of Oklahoma Press |isbn=978-0-8061-4718-5 |language=en |via=Google Books}} In addition to its college program, it had a conservatory of music and a four-year preparatory academy.{{Cite web |title=Fort Worth University |url=https://www.lostcolleges.com/fort-worth-university |access-date=2025-01-25 |website=Lost Colleges |language=en}} Under the leadership of Fielder, the college was recharted as Fort Worth University in June 1889. A new charter authorized a School of Law in August 1893, followed by a School of Medicine in July 1894.{{Cite web |last=Waters |first=Rick |date=2013-09-01 |title=Long ago, the TCU School of Medicine |url=https://magazine.tcu.edu/fall-2013/long-ago-tcu-school-medicine/ |access-date=2025-01-25 |website=TCU Magazine |publisher=Texas Christian University |language=en}}

In 1903, tuition was less than $200 a year, with board being $3 a week and a room costing fifty cents a week. The tuition at the School of Medicine was $75 a year, including lab fees.

The Fort Worth School of Medicine moved to a new building in downtown Fort Worth in 1905; its growth was no surprise as this was the only medical school in an area of 380,000 square miles with more than 4 million people. In 1908, Fort Worth College's total enrollment was 871 students, including 108 medical students and 163 university and academy students.

The university made an unsuccessful attempt to consolidate with Polytechnic College in 1910. Fort Worth University merged with Methodist University of Oklahoma (now Oklahoma City University), in Guthrie, Oklahoma in 1911. Its liberal arts department moved to Guthrie, while the School of Medicine, which was separately chartered, continued to operate as the Fort Worth School of Medicine until 1919; it merged with Texas Christian University which had moved to Fort Worth in 1910.{{Cite book |last=Youngblood |first=Dawn |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Fort_Worth/lkSrDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22Fort+Worth+University%22&pg=PA61&printsec=frontcover |title=Fort Worth |date=2019 |publisher=Arcadia Publishing |isbn=978-1-4671-0384-8 |page=61 |language=en |via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite book |last=Hall |first=Colby D. |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/History_of_Texas_Christian_University/Qqk5BAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22Fort+Worth+University%22&pg=PT272&printsec=frontcover |title=History of Texas Christian University: A College of the Cattle Frontier |date=2014-03-31 |publisher=Texas A&M University Press |isbn=978-0-87565-589-5 |language=en}}

In 1913, the former campus was used by Bryant School, a boys preparatory school. The Fort Worth School District purchased the campus in 1915 and demolished the buildings the next year.

File:Fort_Worth_University,_circa_1910.png

File:Fort_Worth_University_School_of_Medicine.png

Campus

After five years at a temporary location at Jennings and Thirteenth Streets in Fort Worth, the university moved to a ten-acre campus located south of the city in 1886. The campus included three newly constructed stone buildings. These included the three-story University Hall, Science Hall, and Dining Hall. A fourth building, Cadet Hall, was added at a later date. All four buildings included dormitories. The campus included a football field, a baseball field, a croquet lawn, and lawn tennis courts.

The School of Medicine was originally located on the main university campus but moved to Commerce and Seventh Streets in Fort Worth in 1896.

Academics

Fort Worth College A.B., B.S., Ph.B., B.Lit, D.D., and Ph.D. degrees in the arts and sciences.{{cite news |last=Nichols |first=Mike |date=February 24, 2020 |title=College Avenue in Fort Worth has no college. It wasn't always that way |url=https://www.star-telegram.com/news/local/fort-worth/article240510596.html |work=Fort Worth Star-Telegram}} Classes included traditional arts and sciences, including astronomy, Bible, biology, business, calculus, chemistry, Christian ethics, drawing and painting, economics, elocution, French, geology, geometry, German, Greek, history, instrumental and vocal music, Latin, literature, mathematics, pedagogy, philosophy, physics, physiology, psychology, sociology, and Spanish.{{Cite book |url=https://www.fortworthtexasarchives.org/digital/collection/p15461coll3/id/468/rec/1 |title=Twenty-Ninth Catalogue of Fort Worth University 1909-1910 and Announcements 1910-1911 |publisher=Keystone Printing Co. |year=1910 |location=Fort Worth |pages= |language=en |via=Fort Worth Public Library Digital Archives}} It also includes a four-year preparatory academy and a military school. After the cadet corps was added in 1890, military training was required for male students.

Other programs included the Department of Oratory and Elocution, the Conservatory of Music, and a School of Commerce (later known as the Brantley-Draughon Business College ), with the latter being its most popular program. The university also offered advanced degrees, including an LL.B from its law school, and an M.D. from its medical school and school of pharmacy.

Student life

Students were required to attend chapel and church. Fort Worth University had both a YMCA and a YWCA. The university's four literary societies were Kappa Gamma Chi and Phi Lambda for men and Alpha Theta and Zetagathean for women. The college was a member of the Texas State Oratorical Society and competed with seven other colleges. Its yearbook was The Lasso.

The Fort Worth School of Medicine had chapters of Beta Omicron Alpha, Delta Omicron Alpha, and Kappa Psi medical fraternities.Anson, Jack L.; Marchenasi, Robert F., eds. (1991) Baird's Manual of American Fraternities (20th ed.). Indianapolis, IN: Baird's Manual Foundation, Inc. p. V-24–25. {{ISBN|978-0-9637159-0-6}}.Shepard, Francis W., ed. (1927). [https://www.google.com/books/edition/Baird_s_Manual_of_American_College_Frate/Z1vOAAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=%22Fort%20Worth%20Univeristy%22 Baird's Manual of American College Fraternities (11th ed.)]. Menasha, Wisconsin: George Banta Publishing Company. p. 411 and 535 – via Google Books.

Sports

Fort Worth University's colors were gold and blue. Its athletic program included football, baseball, and track. Its teams played against Austin College, Baylor University, Carlisle Military Academy, Dallas Medical College, Fort Worth High School, Polytechnic College, and Texas Christian University.

Notable people

= Alumni =

Frances Daisy Emery Allen (M.D., 1897), first female physician to graduate from a Texas medical school and the first licensed female physician in Texas{{Cite book |last1=Silverthorne |first1=Elizabeth |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aaSE7amZK6MC&pg=PA78 |title=Women Pioneers in Texas Medicine |last2=Fulgham |first2=Geneva |date=1997 |publisher=Texas A&M University Press |isbn=9780890967898 |page=78}}
Hazel Vaughn Leigh (Piano), founder and longtime director of the Fort Worth Boys Club
William Duncan MacMillan (A.B., 1898), professor at the University of Chicago and is noted for research on physical cosmology and advanced textbooks on classical mechanics.{{Cite book |url=http://www.fortworthtexasarchives.org/digital/collection/p15461coll3/id/276/rec/1 |title=The Lasso (1898) |date=May 1898 |publisher=Fort Worth University |page=34}} MacMillan was the secretary of the class of 1898 - and simultaneously an adjunct professor of astronomy.{{cite journal |last=Schlegel |first=Richard |date=1958 |title=Steady-State Theory at Chicago |journal=American Journal of Physics |volume=26 |issue=9 |page=601 |doi=10.1119/1.1934713}}
Walter Elmer Pope, Texas House of Representatives and owner of the Corpus Christi Democrat newspaper
Samuel Murray Robinson, United States Navy four-star admiral
Houston B. Teehee, Oklahoma Supreme Court Commissioner, Register of the Treasury, and Oklahoma House of Representatives
George Whitaker (M.D.), president of Wiley College, Willamette University and Portland University