colleges; the Sam Houston Normal Institute (1879) at Huntsville, the North Texas State Normal (1901) at Denton, the South-west Texas Normal (1903) at San Marcos, the School of Industrial Arts for girls at Denton, and the Prairie View Industrial and Normal School (1876) for negroes near Hempstead. The system is not unified or organized: the university's department of education, the school for girls at Denton and the negro normal school all issue teachers' certificates, but are not under the control of the State Department of Education or the State Board of Education. The state library and museum are a part of the Department of Banking, Statistics, History and Insurance. Denominational schools are: Baylor University (Baptist; 1845), at Waco, with a medical department at Dallas; the East Texas Normal and Industrial Academy (Baptist; 1905), at Tyler; Trinity University (Cumberland Presbyterian; 1869), at Waxahachie; Austin College (Presbyterian; 1850), at Sherman; South-western University (Methodist Episcopal; 1873), at Georgetown, with a medical department at Dallas; the Polytechnic College (Methodist Episcopal, South; 1891), at Fort Worth; Texas Holiness College (Holiness; 1899), at Peniel, near Greenville; Texas Christian University (Christian; 1873 until 1895 at Thorp's Spring; until 1902 Add-Ran College), at Waco; St Edward's College (Roman Catholic, under the Congregation of the Holy Cross; 1885), at Austin; St Mary's University (1854; since 1884 under the Society of Jesus), at Galveston; St Basil's College (under the Basilian Fathers; 1899), at Waco; for girls, Baylor Female College (Baptist; 1845), at Belton; San Antonio Female College (Methodist Episcopal, South; 1894), at San Antonio; North Texas Female College (Methodist Episcopal, South; 1877), at Sherman; and the Academy of Our Lady of the Lake, under the Sisters of Divine Providence, at San Antonio; and for negroes Paul Quinn College (African Methodist Episcopal; 1881), at Waco; Tillotson College (Congregational; 1881), at Austin; Samuel Huston College (Methodist Episcopal; 1900), at Austin; Bishop College (Baptist; 1881), at Marshall; Wiley University (Methodist Episcopal; 1873), at Marshall; and Texas College (Coloured Methodist Episcopal; 1895), at Tyler.
Charitable and Penal Institutions.—Texas has done more than any other Southern state for the humane and scientific treatment of its dependent and defective classes. There are insane asylums at Austin (the State Lunatic Asylum), San Antonio (the Southwestern Insane Asylum), and Terrell (North Texas Hospital for the Insane); the Texas School for the Deaf (1857), an institution for deaf, dumb and blind coloured youths (1889), a School for the Blind (1856), and a home for dependent Confederate soldiers, at Austin, a state orphan home (1889) at Corsicana, an epileptic colony at Abilene, and a state reformatory (1889) for boys under seventeen years at Gatesville. A statute of 1899, authorized by a constitutional amendment of 1897, instituted a system of pensions for Confederate veterans. For this purpose $200,000 was appropriated during the fiscal year 1902-1903. The maximum permitted by the constitution is $250,000 per annum. The penitentiaries are at Huntsville and Rusk, and there is a reform school for juvenile offenders at Gainesville. The convict lease system in its most objectionable form was abolished in 1883, and convicts are now employed on state account or by private contract. There are several state farms in successful operation. Each of these institutions, penal and charitable, has its own superintendent and board of managers, appointed by the governor.
Finance.—The heavy debt incurred in the struggle with Mexico was paid out of the $10,000,000 received from the United States government under the Compromise of 1850. New loans were made during the Civil War, but they were repudiated by the constitution of 1866, and were made void by the Fourteenth Amendment to the Federal constitution. The extravagance of the Reconstruction governments resulted in the accumulation by 1876 of a debt of $4,792,394. The constitution of 1876 forbids the borrowing of money except to supply casual deficiencies of revenue (amount limited to $200,000 at a time), repel invasion, suppress insurrection defend the state in war, or pay existing debts. The nominal amount of the public debt on the 1st of September 1908 was $3,989,400, but the figures are misleading, because, with the exception of $22,000 (held partly by counties), all of these obligations were in the permanent school fund or in funds for the University, the Agricultural and Mechanical College, and the various charitable institutions. Owing to a clause in the constitution forbidding the issue of bank charters, the financial business of the state was controlled by national and private banks until 1904, when the constitution was amended and provision was made for the incorporation of state banks under a system of state supervision, regulation and control, deposits being guaranteed as in the Oklahoma banking system.
History.—The history of Texas may be regarded as a step in the great struggle between England, France and Spain for the possession of America. The earliest explorations were made by the Spaniards, Cabeza de Vaca, 1528-36, and Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, 1540-42, but the first colony was that planted on Matagorda Bay in 1685 by the French under the Sieur de la Salle. This was, however, soon abandoned, and the field left to the Spanish. Beginning in 1690 they established several ecclesiastical, military and civil settlements known respectively as missions (Franciscan), presidios, and pueblos. In or near the city of San Antonio are the ruins of five missions built of stone; and missions were more numerous in east Texas, but they were built of wood and nothing remains to mark their location. In 1727 the territory, with vaguely defined limits, was formed into a province and named Tejas, or Texas, after the tribe or the confederacy of Tejas Indians. For more than a century the conditions were favourable for colonization. The French in Louisiana proved to be peaceable neighbours, and that province, both under French (to 1763) and under Spanish rule (1763-1803) served as a protection against the English. Spain failed to take advantage of the opportunity, however, and it was lost when the United States purchased Louisiana in 1803. Three abortive Anglo-American invasions during the first few years of the century indicated the future trend of events. The first, under Philip Nolan, in 1799-1801, was poorly supported, and was crushed without difficulty; the second, under Bernardo Gutierrez and Augustus Magee, 1812-13, captured San Antonio and defeated several Mexican armies, but was finally overpowered; the third, under James Long, an ex-officer of the United States army, 1819-21, was less formidable. The year 1821 marks a significant turning-point in the history. By the Florida treaty, finally ratified at that time, the claims of the United States to Texas, based on the Louisiana purchase, were given up, and the eastern and northern boundaries of the province were determined. They were to be, in general terms, the Sabine river, the 94th meridian (approximately), the Red river, the 100th meridian, the Arkansas river, and the 42nd parallel. So far as Spain was concerned this was only a form, inasmuch as Mexico, of which Texas formed a part, was just completing its long struggle for independence (1810-'21). In that year also (December 1821) Stephen F. Austin established the first permanent Anglo-American settlement at San Felipe de Austin on the Brazos river. This was followed by an extensive immigration from the United States during the period of Mexican rule (1821-36). It is estimated that the population, exclusive of Indians, increased from four thousand in 1821 to ten thousand in 1827, and nearly twenty thousand in 1830. Most of the settlers came from the southern section of the Union and of course brought their slaves with them, but there is no evidence to show that their object was the territorial extension of slavery, or that the revolt against Mexico was the result of dissatisfaction with that country's anti-slavery policy. Texas was joined to Coahuila in 1824 to form a state of the Mexican federation. Although the attempt to force the Roman Catholic religion upon the people, the federal decree of 1830 forbidding further immigration from the states, and the reckless grants of land to Mexican favourites aroused some ill-feeling, the government on the whole was fairly liberal. The peace party, led by Stephen F. Austin, was able to restrain the more warlike followers of William H. Wharton and Henry Smith (1794-1851) until 1855, when Santa Anna overthrew the federal constitution of 1824 and established a dictatorship. A consultation of representatives from the various settlements met at San Felipe de Austin, October to November 1835. Under Austin's influence the delegates rejected an independence resolution and recommended a union with the Mexican Liberals for the restoration of the constitution of 1824. A provisional government was organized with Henry Smith as governor and James W. Robinson (d. 1853) as lieutenant-governor, Sam Houston as major-general of the armies of Texas; and Austin, Wharton and Branch T. Archer (1790-1858) were elected commissioners to seek aid in the United States. Hostilities had already begun. The Texans routed the Mexicans near Gonzales on the 2nd of October. About a hundred men under Colonel James Bowie and Captain J. W. Fannin defeated a Mexican force near Mission Conception on the 28th of October; and after a campaign of nearly two months Béjar was surrendered to them on the 11th of December.
