Austin College Presidents in Sherman, Texas

	Austin College Presidents *From the College's relocation to 1900*

	Reverend Samuel Magoffin Luckett 1871-1878 & 1887-1897
	Samuel M. Luckett was born in Logan County, Kentucky, April 9, 1835. He completed his B.A. degree at Center College in Danville, Kentucky in 1859. After the Civil War, Luckett finished his course at Danville Theological Seminary and preached in Kentucky until elected to the presidency of Austin College. He assumed his duties January 1, 1871. During Luckett's first administration, Austin College, staggering under a heavy debt and the depletion of the student body, moved to Sherman at the urging of the Synod. After overseeing the closing of the Huntsville campus, Luckett devoted most of his time and energy to traveling, soliciting financial support. Despite the severe depression gripping the nation following the Civil War, Luckett managed to considerably reduce the College's debt. Luckett resigned in April of 1878, but returned to the presidency in 1887 to find one instructor, twenty-five pupils, and a debt of several thousand dollars. In the fall of 1889, Austin College adopted a military program which lasted through the spring of 1897. During that time, the College made swift advances, establishing a strong faculty, a growing student body, a YMCA chapter, intercollegiate athletics, Greek fraternities, and adding two wings to the college building, one of which was funded by the President's wife, Jewel Link Luckett, and her family. Samuel Luckett himself donated land he owned for the college's first athletic field. Luckett left Austin College in June of 1897 to pastor the First Presbyterian Church in Beeville. He died in San Antonio in 1905.

		Reverend Henry B. Boude 1878-1881
	Henry Boude was born in Mason County, Kentucky, August 20, 1833. He received a B.A. degree from Center College in Danville, Kentucky in 1857 and completed his seminary work at Danville Theological Seminary in 1860. Boude served as a Captain in the Confederate Army, Second Batallion Cavalry, until a broken leg forced him from the saddle. He then served as chaplain of the second regiment for the remainder of the war. After the war, Boude served pastorates in Galatin, Tennessee, and Paris, Texas. He became President of Austin College on April 24, 1878, and immediately began an active campaign for the completion of the College building. He achieved this goal within a matter of months, but in the process, incurred a bonded debt to Eastern bankers that created bad feelings among some Board members. Having brought Austin College over a major obstacle to its continued presence in Sherman by rescuing the foundering building project, Boude returned to the ministry in 1881. He died in May, 1913.

	Reverend Edward Porter Palmer 1882-1885
	W. D. Vinson, a graduate of Lee's college in Lexington, Virginia, and an outstanding mathematics teacher and chairman of the faculty under Boude, stepped in as Acting President from 1881-1882. The College, however, was not ready to accept a layman as President, and the Reverend E. P. Palmer was thus called to the presidency in 1882. Palmer was born in Summerville, South Carolina in 1826. He attended the University of Georgia and Columbia Theological Seminary and was ordained a minister in 1849. He served as pastor of churches in South Carolina and Alabama before becoming a professor at Louisiana State University in 1869, where he received an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree in 1874. Palmer had a strong reputation as a preacher and teacher, but the financial situation facing the College required the talents of a businessman. Palmer resigned in 1885 to resume his ministerial career until his death in 1905

		Reverend Donald MacGregor 1885-1887
	Businessman turned preacher, Donald MacGregor, who assumed the reins of the presidency of Austin College from Reverend Palmer, was born in Glasgow, Scotland. He served with the legendary 42nd Regiment of Scotch Highlanders before turning to the mercantile business that brought him first to New Orleans and then to Houston. In his fifties MacGregor heard the call to preach and, after studying for the ministry, was ordained in 1874. Before coming to Austin College he served as pastor of the Chappell Hill Presbyterian Church and the Second Presbyterian Church of Houston. While at Chappell Hill, MacGregor acquired the friendship and admiration of J. N. Chadwick. After MacGregor became president of Austin College, Chadwick became the College's chief benefactor. MacGregor also expended a portion of his own fortune to help relieve Austin College's financial distress, and he used his business contacts and skill to liquidate the bonded indebtedness quickly. The pressures of the position were physically devastating to MacGregor, and he died in 1887, but his legacy as a shrewd and successful businessman continued. His widow, Harriett Speake MacGregor, bequeathed to Austin College a valuable piece of property in downtown Houston which provided the College with essential income well into the twentieth century.

	Reverend Thornton Rogers Sampson 1897 - 1900
	Luckett's successor, Thornton Rogers Sampson was an outdoorsman as well as an intellectual. He was born at Hampden Sydney, Virginia, October 9, 1852, and graduated from the University of Virginia. He pursued post-graduate studies at universities in Scotland, Germany, and Syria. After his ordination in 1878, he served as missionary to Greece until 1892, as Secretary of Foreign Missions, 1892-18q4, and as President of the Presbyterian Assembly's Home and School, 1894-1897. He came to Austin College on June 10, 1897. Being a physical health enthusiast himself, Sampson established the first gymnasium at the College and encouraged the physical training of students. During his administration compulsory physical education, several business courses, and a course in pedagogy were added to the curriculum. The first college yearbook, The Chromascope, was published, and Sampson had the distinction of being the first (and only) Austin College president to have his buggy hoisted to the top of the tower of Old Main on April Fools Day, 1899. He resigned the presidency in June, 1900, and became President of Austin Theological Seminary in which capacity he served from 1900-1905. An experienced mountain climber, Sampson disappeared on a mountain climbing expedition in the Colorado Rockies in September, 1915. His body was not found until the following spring, presumably the victim of an early blizzard.

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