Texas A&M University - Commerce

Texas A&M University–Commerce was originally established by William L. Mayo at Cooper, Delta County, in 1889 and chartered in 1890 as Mayo or Mayo's College, a private institution where Mayo "could be at liberty to put into operation his idea of a democratic school of a college type." The school grew for five years, but the building burned in 1894; and since Cooper had no railroad at the time and Mayo was in financial straits, he proposed to move his school to the town offering the best incentives. Commerce put up land and $20,000 cash, so the college was rechartered there in 1894 as East Texas Normal College. It started with thirty-five pupils. The first session was held in a small business house, but soon a two-story administration building and two frame dormitories were erected. Mayo continued as president until his death in 1917. The school operated as an independent private college with no endowment or income except tuition and a small profit from its dormitories. Between 1889 and 1917 more than 30,000 students received their basic educational training in this school; records show that the college prepared more teachers for the public schools than any other college or university in Texas in the same period. The college had six degree programs.

Mayo wanted to perpetuate his school as a state teachers' college, and he started a move to place it under the authority of the board of regents of the state normal schools. After the Thirty-fifth Legislature passed an act to do this, the board of regents paid the Mayo estate $80,000 for the institution; Mayo died in March 1917, the same month that the state purchased the plant and fifty acres of land. Commerce donated $40,000 to renovate the buildings. The board of regents of the state teachers' colleges took over the plant and staff of East Texas Normal College, and its name became East Texas State Normal College. In 1923 the name was changed again to East Texas State Teachers College. Graduate courses were offered for the first time in 1935. Enrollment in 1947–48 was 1,593.