History
The college was founded on October 13, 1849 in Huntsville, Texas by Princeton-educated missionary Dr. Daniel Baker.
The college moved to Sherman in 1876 and became co-educational in 1918, merging in 1930 with the all female Texas Presbyterian College.
Baker named the school after Texas historical figure Stephen F. Austin. Another important figure in Texas history, Sam Houston, served on the original board of trustees for the school, and the former site in Huntsville later became today's Sam Houston State University.
On September 20, 1973, musician Jim Croce died in a plane crash in Natchitoches, Louisiana on his way to perform the next night at Austin College. Six people perished in the crash.
Read more about this topic: Austin College
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“All history becomes subjective; in other words there is properly no history, only biography.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The history of every country begins in the heart of a man or a woman.”
—Willa Cather (1876–1947)
“The history of his present majesty, is a history of unremitting injuries and usurpations ... all of which have in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world, for the truth of which we pledge a faith yet unsullied by falsehood.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)