TILLOTSON COLLEGIATE AND NORMAL INSTITUTE, AUSTIN, TEXAS.
This school was founded on the same comprehensive scale as the other chartered institutions of the American Missionary Association. In 1876, a beautiful site of eight acres, overlooking the valley of the Colorado River and the mountains beyond, was secured in the city of Austin, the capital of Texas, and subsequently paid for by the originator of the enterprise, Rev. Geo. J. Tillotson. Efforts were commenced at once to raise the funds for the first building, which is to serve all the purposes of a boarding school until the growth and ability of the institution shall necessitate and provide others. Dea. David Allen, of Connecticut, headed the subscription with $1,000, and to this amount has since added $250. David Banks, of Stanwich, Conn., a gentleman over 80 years of age, raised $1,200 more, subscribing one-third of it himself. The remainder of the amount we now have on hand was collected for the most part by Mr. Tillotson, who has kindly added the gift of his services to the enterprise founded by his liberality. The principal benefactors of the institution are all over seventy years of age.
Work on the new building was commenced last summer, and is still going on. It is being constructed of brick, with some trimmings, and will have accommodations for seventy boarding students. The funds at our disposal for the object are barely sufficient to inclose the building. We need $7,000 additional in order to finish and furnish it for occupation by the 1st of October. The money already given, amounting to about $11,000, exclusive of the $5,000 paid for the site, was subscribed largely in sums of $400 each by persons who are to have the privilege of naming the students’ rooms, of which there will be thirty-five. A grand example has been given. Are there not others ready to follow?
The burden of debt, and the struggle required to maintain the institutions already under way, has deterred this Association, during the past three years, from pressing the claims of this, our only school in Texas; but we believe the time has now come when we should earnestly solicit the gifts needful for its speedy completion. Already we have received the written indorsement of seventy-six of the leading citizens of Austin, saying, “We believe that such a school is very much needed, and that the enterprise will be hailed by very many of our best citizens as of great importance to the welfare of the State.” Texas has a territory larger than France, and constitutes no mean part of “the whole world” where we are commanded to go and teach. Will our friends aid us to go up at once and possess the land?