Less than a decade after its founding, Stephen F. Austin State Teachers College faced one of its most serious challenges during the Great Depression of the 1930s.

The financial crisis that followed the stock market crash of 1929 eventually reached every corner of the nation. Although slow in coming to Texas, the Depression brought wide-spread hardships to the state. East Texas, still largely dependent on row-crop agriculture, particularly cotton, had been in its own depression since the Civil War. But the difficulties of the 1930s further threatened the region and its institutions, especially SFA.

As the newest teachers college in the eastern half of Texas, SFA did not have much of a reservoir to draw upon. Both Sam Houston State in Huntsville (est. 1879) and East Texas State in Commerce (est. 1889) were well-established institutions at the onset of the Depression, while SFA had existed for only a few years. Consequently, Dr. Birdwell faced a difficult time maintaining state support and keeping up the morale of his faculty and staff. The 1930s was a dark time for SFA.

Thanks to a number of oral history interviews conducted in the 1970s, we have a better view of that dim period. Among those who commented were Dr. Hazel Floyd, an original member of the faculty; Dr. William T. Chambers, who came to SFA in 1926; Sugene Spears, who served as Dr. Birdwell’s secretary throughout that era; and Edwin Tillery, who represented the East Texas area in the state legislature. Other comments from SFA graduates and local citizens fill in the story.

When 21-year-old Hazel Floyd was hired (over the telephone) to teach in SFA’s new training school in 1923, she brought a B.A. from the teachers college in Denton and a suitcaseful of clothes designed to make her look older. In addition to supervising in the training school, she also taught in the department of Education, where some of the students were older than she was. It was common for students to take time off to teach in public schools throughout the area, thereby creating a gap between their entry into college and graduation-- sometimes as long as ten years or so.

Such practices also indicated the poverty of the region. When the Depression hit, rural teachers found themselves in still greater economic peril, because most school districts had a hard time maintaining schools. Shortened terms and low teacher pay were common.

Two SFA graduates who experienced such hardships were Roy L. Self and James A. Bowlin. Both men taught and served as administrators in this period, Self in Nacogdoches County and Bowlin in rural Shelby County.

“I remember that many of the children who came to school were definitely hungry and there were people in the community who were hungry,” Self said. He also recalled children who would not accept donated clothes because of pride. When he offered one youngster a nickel for helping him with a task, the boy replied, “No, you keep the nickel, Mr. Self. You probably need it worse than I do.”

Bowlin recounted similar circumstances. Because of financial problems, some districts were hard pressed to pay off their vouchers at 100 per cent, so some teachers had to take a 10 per cent discount, Bowlin said. “You could either take that 10 per cent discount or hold your voucher until such times as the money became available and that was an unknown factor at that time. Most people sold their vouchers discounted,” he said.

One person quite close to the situation was Sugene Spears, a 1929 graduate of the college who began her duties as secretary to Dr. Birdwell in 1930. She remained in the president’s office throughout the decade and later worked in the registrar’s office.

Interviewed in 1974, Ms. Spears testified to the hard work that Birdwell performed in keeping SFA afloat. He made numerous trips to Austin, working with the legislature and other state agencies, she said. If a hero emerged, it was Dr. Birdwell, she concluded.

The greatest indicator of SFA’s plight lay in its enrollment, according to Ms. Spears. Although the student population actually increased in the early years of the decade, it fell below 500 in l933-34, down from a fall enrollment of 632 in the fall of 1931. Statewide, declining enrollments and financial shortages had already triggered criticism of state institutions, particularly teachers colleges.

When Edwin Tillery of Nacogdoches assumed his position in the state legislature during that period, he faced a movement to reduce SFA’s status to that of a junior college or perhaps even to close the institution. In their efforts to keep the state solvent, the legislature had to cut spending, Tillery said. He admitted that there was “ not much money to help the colleges and schools.”

“We just had to spend what we had and come back; that’s all we could do down there,” he said. Re-elected to a second term, and with good support at home, he was able to forestall the downsizing of the college, but it took a big effort on the part of SFA to justify the college’s continued operation as a regional institution vital to the entire area.

At this point, Dr. William T. Chambers continues the story. A native of Indiana, Dr. Chambers was a fresh Ph.D. from the University of Chicago when he joined SFA as a professor of geography in 1926.

Interviewed in 1974, Dr. Chambers drew upon his geographical training to evaluate the plight of East Texas during the Depression. He cited the agrarian nature of the area as both its strength and weakness. In view of the financial collapse, “those cotton farmers could sort of make a living on the land,” he said, “but they couldn’t get the money they needed to pay taxes with, to pay a doctor with, to send the children to college, to buy clothes with, and other things.” In fact, the First Methodist Church had a problem paying the preacher while cotton sold for five cents a pound, he said.

Nacogdoches had a population of about 3,000 in that difficult era, and the “people down on Main Street,” as Dr. Chambers characterized them, were having a hard time. He detected some resentment of those on the state payroll, despite the fact that SFA employees also took a 10 per cent discount on their vouchers. One state newspaper labeled public employees as “tax-eaters,” he noted.

Realizing the seriousness of the problem, Dr. Birdwell undertook a campaign to show the importance of a state college to this area. Chambers recalled that Birdwell called him and two other faculty members, Drs. T.E. Ferguson and W.R. Davis, into his office one Friday afternoon and asked them to prepare statements for use in a brochure to be distributed throughout the area.

“The argument was that this region in central eastern Texas, with Nacogdoches about the middle of it, was a good place to have one of the state colleges,” Chambers said.

In reading that publication today (a copy is available in the University archives at SFA), one still senses the vigor of their argument.

Entitled “A Defense of the State Teachers Colleges Particularly from the Standpoint of East Texas and the Stephen F. Austin State Teachers College,” the 1933 brochure stressed SFA’s contribution to the educational needs of a broad region whose population exceeded that of several states. Moreover, it pointed out the potential value of SFA in the future. In short, the brochure, which clearly stated that it was “prepared and printed by citizens of Nacogdoches,” made the case for SFA.

Although it would be difficult to show the actual impact of this brochure, it is clear that Dr. Birdwell and his supporters achieved their goal. SFA did not become a junior college, nor did it shut its doors.

Meanwhile, the college--and the nation-- went on. Those students who remained lived out their school days, which, as Ms. Spears recalled, included recreational events sponsored by the physical education department, and athletic and social events. One former student told me that sometimes she and her date might have only a pack of gum to enjoy or perhaps a Coke.

As the nation tightened its belt, President Franklin D. Roosevelt launched his New Deal, a giant program aimed at getting the country through the Depression and restoring prosperity. One program that aided students was the National Youth Administration, which, among other things, assisted college students. One recipient was Sam W. Sitton, Jr., who worked as a lab assistant while attending SFA. Numerous other students doubtless benefited from other government projects, as did the college, which received help through other aspects of the Works Progress Administration.

Perhaps the most poignant story in this respect concerns a young man who did office chores for Dr. Floyd. One day he told her he would be unable to continue his studies because his money had run out. When asked how much money he needed, he replied: “Well, my shirts are getting worn, but it’s warm and I can roll my sleeves up; I work for meals. I could get by with twenty-five dollars.” She promptly “loaned” him the money and he continued in school. Years later, she received a letter from him containing twenty-six one-dollar bills.

To say that all of East Texas was impoverished during this period would be incorrect, however. Indeed, the great East Texas Oil Field, primarily in Rusk and Gregg Counties East, brought considerable wealth and economic growth to the area after its discovery in 1930. But it also brought one of the most heart-rending events ever experienced in this nation: the New London School Explosion of 1937. This tragedy, which took the lives of about 300 persons, mostly students, killed at least eleven teachers who had attended or graduated from SFA. Writing soon after the disaster, Dr. Birdwell noted: “They were our children. I had seen them grow. I was proud of them. I loved them. We are all poorer because of their untimely death.”

Poverty in one form or anotherseemed to be SFA’s fate during that eventful decade.