A&M's Earliest Campus. In its first year, the campus at the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas consisted to just two buildings: Steward's Hall (left) and Old Main. Two wooden barracks were added behind Old Main for the second session (just visible through the front porch of Steward's Hall). (image from the collection of Lone Star Junction)

Students arriving at the college for its inaugural session no doubt experienced some anxious moments. Aside from two impressive brick buildings and a railroad line along the western boundary of the campus, the physical surroundings were those of a wild wasteland where deer, cougar, wolves and other wildlife abounded. The howling of wolves furnished an every-night and all-night serenade. On at least one occasion, a lone wolf wandering through the campus threw the whole community into a frenzy of excitement by glaring into the ground-level window of the mess hall. Some thirty cadets and professors responded to an alarm, but the animal easily escaped into the high weeds.

A&M's earliest years were characterized by much turmoil as the school struggled to define its curriculum, to survive the politics of lawmakers in Austin, and to curb the internal feuds of its own faculty on campus. The school was forced to respond to a critical press and to compete fiercely for operating funds from the state. More than once during these early days, A&M found itself on the brink of collapse.

Ultimately, however, both the faculty and the students of A&M were able to rise above each of these obstacles to survival. In the process, they created the foundation for an institution of higher education in Texas that now ranks among the leading universities of the world.