Dr. Grady Early, Distinguished Professor Emeritus, taught math and computer science at Texas State University for 29 years, serving briefly as interim chair of the newly-formed Computer Science department. After retirement, Early began researching his family history and gained some familiarity with various research tools: ancestry, familysearch, newspapers, San Marcos Record archives, findagrave and many more. This made it easy for him to segue into the histories of non-family members, which is how he began to write a story about Southwest Texas Normal School in San Marcos, also known as San Marcos Normal, which is now Texas State University. The following is an excerpt from Early’s story about Thomas Green Harris, the first school Superintendent. Harris was not President, as the position is called today; the school was a Normal, not a College. Harris was the focus of Early’s research and a difficult one to pin down. There are bio blurbs by Pat Murdock and Tula Townsend Wyatt but nothing definitive. The University Archives has a scant five inches of Harris’ papers discovered under Old Main. Early spent hours on newspapers.com and the San Marcos Record archives. He corresponded with a great granddaughter of John Edward Blair, Sr., a member of the first faculty of San Marcos Normal. He also discovered a fascinating story about a rock in the road that threatened to derail San Marcos Normal before it had a chance. This research was the basis for the nonfiction story that follows.
On 10 May 1899, Gov. Joseph Draper “J.D.” Sayers signed the bill authorizing a normal school at San Marcos.
Remember that name — Sayers.
