Most Texans today know of Lawrence Sullivan Ross only by his namesake, Sul Ross State University, or for his role in the capture of Cynthia Ann Parker as a fabled Texas Ranger. A few may know that he was a general in the Confederate army or that he served as the nineteenth governor of Texas. But for former and current students of Texas A&M University, he is known as “Sully”—an affectionate nickname referring to the oldest campus statue, which is the repository of wished-upon pennies left for good luck prior to taking final exams. In Sul Ross at Texas A&M, John A. Adams Jr., chronicler of Texas A&M University history, presents an in-depth examination of Ross’s life as a college president. Adams shows how by the late 1880s, the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas was on the brink of collapse. Student discontent, administrative mismanagement, and faculty factionalism threatened the continued existence of the fledgling school. The college’s board of directors were desperate and offered the presidency to Ross. Adams details the steps Ross took to bring order out of chaos, expanding and modernizing the college and leading the school’s finances out of the red. Many Aggie traditions first took shape during Ross’s tenure: the class ring, the band, and even the school’s first intercollegiate football game against the University of Texas. Ross’s years at the helm were transformative. Fans of A&M and Texas history will be enthralled by this captivating account of Sul Ross’s time as president of A&M.

Chronicles the life of Lawrence Sullivan Ross and discusses his childhood in the Iowa Territory, his dedication to working for the state of Texas, his career as president of Texas A & M College, and other related topics.

Thousands of black men died violently at the hands of mobs in the post–Civil War South. But in Brazos County, Texas, argues Cynthia Nevels, five such deaths in particular point to an emerging social phenomenon of the time: the desire of newly arrived European immigrants to assert their place in society, and the use of racially motivated violence to achieve that end. Driven by economics and the forces of history, the Italian, Irish, and Czech immigrants to this rich agricultural region were faced with the necessity of figuring out where they fit in a culture that had essentially two categories: white and black. In many ways, the newcomers realized, they belonged in neither position. In the end, they found ways to resolve the ambiguity by taking advantage of and sometimes participating directly in the South’s most brutal form of racial domination. For each of the immigrant groups caught up in the violence, the deaths of black men helped to establish racial identity and to bestow the all-important privileges of whiteness. This compelling and superbly written study will appeal to students and scholars of social and racial history, both regional and national.

This richly illustrated book traces this history of Texas A&M's mascot, Reveille, from the first mutt of uncertain origins to Reveille VII, an American collie of purebred lineage and scientific breeding.

Those individuals remembered as the "founders" of cities were men, but as Elizabeth York Enstam shows, it was women who played a major role in creating the definitive forms of urban life we know today.

A helpful new source for scholars and teachers who wish to fill in some of the missing pieces. Tackling a number of such presumptions—that a viable labor movement never existed in the Lone Star State; that black, brown, and white laborers, both male and female, were unable to achieve even short-term solidarity; that labor unions in Texas were ineffective because of laborers’ inability to confront employers—the editors and contributors to this volume lay the foundation for establishing the importance of labor to a fuller understanding of Texas history.

Gives insight into an elite planter-class Texas woman's loneliness and hunger to experience the non-traditional world of a Southern Belle. Her contextual observations on slavery, family relations, and the Civil War contribute to Southern history.