Historical marker hints at tarnished reputation at TSD

Historical marker hints at tarnished reputation at TSD

Ken Herman, AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN

Published: June 17, 2010

Say you lived a long, full life. And say, like most folks, you had done some
good stuff, some bad stuff and some somewhere-in-between stuff.

And say, after you died, you got mentioned on a Texas historical marker. And
say all it mentioned was a lowlight of your life.

“In 1875-76, (Texas School for the Deaf’s first superintendent) returned to
New York and Gov. Richard Coke appointed Gen. Henry ?McCulloch as
superintendent. McCulloch’s leadership caused the faculty and staff,
including then-Principal Emily Lewis, to leave.”

In his 78 years, Henry Eustace McCulloch was a soldier in the Texas
revolution, a Gonzales sheriff, a Texas Ranger, a Confederate Army brigadier
general, a Seguin businessman, a Texas lawmaker, a U.S. marshal and a
Methodist church trustee.

But on the historical marker at TSD all we learn is McCulloch’s “leadership
caused the faculty and staff … to leave.” What, one might wonder (if one
had too much spare time), did McCulloch do to earn such ignominy?

Hey, I’ve got too much spare time. Let’s look for answers.

At UT’s Briscoe Center for American History, I found a Jan. 31, 1877, notice
in which the board of what was then the Deaf and Dumb Asylum reported the
school “has a full corps of competent teachers and employees” thanks to
McCulloch’s “energy and management.”

A Dec. 2, 1878, board notice to McCulloch reported on its review of
“dissatisfaction of some of your teachers and the demoralization of the
pupils.” The problem, the board concluded, stemmed from “your mode and
manner of living — which is like one family, all eating at the same table
and of the same food.”

At the Texas Historical Commission, the application for the TSD marker noted
that McCulloch’s “decision not to learn sign language caused an upheaval in
the school.” But on the plus side, the application said, ?”McCulloch was
reviled for ideas which, from the perspective of a later age, seem
progressive and even rational. He spoke out on the issue of providing
education for black students who were deaf or mentally challenged.”

So that’s the deal? Hounded from office because he was ahead of his time?

“He may have alienated a lot of people by doing the right thing, which has
been known to happen in Texas,” said Stephen Hardin, a McMurry University
history professor who claims no deep insight into McCulloch’s TSD tenure.

The fact that McCulloch gets positive mention — mostly for military exploits
— on other Texas historical markers doesn’t mean he wasn’t a giant screw-up
at TSD. But where’s the evidence?

Perhaps in the Texas House Journal from the 16th Legislature. If you believe
our lawmakers (and who doesn’t?), it looks like “caused the faculty and
staff … to leave” may be kinder than McCulloch deserves. A March 1879
legislative report found nepotism, incompetence, fiscal shenanigans, cruelty
and a conclusion that McCulloch was “tyrannical and unyielding.”

“The young ladies of the institution have been compelled to clean up the
rooms of the matrons of the institution, and not unfrequently have they been
compelled to remove the evidences of those little accidents, which, by
reason of nature’s laws, occur to children at a tender age,” said the
report.

I’ll omit other findings in deference to those of you reading this over
breakfast.

But where’s McCulloch’s side of the TSD story? His autobiography at the
Briscoe Center notes he had to deal with outside political pressure and
“trouble with dishonorable aspirants … on the inside.” The center also has
an Aug. 14, 1879, McCulloch open letter about the legislative investigation.
Thirteen pages, hand-written and, save for a few phrases such as “vile and
slanderous assault,” illegible.

I’m not sure if it’s the same document, but a TSD history book authored by
Sharon Kay Crawford / Forestal Hovinga and published for the school’s alumni
association refers to a booklet containing McCulloch’s defense. On the cover
is this unattributed quotation: “In robes of seeming truth and trust came
sly dissimulation. And underneath a gilded crust lurked dirty defamation.”

The book notes the school’s board, in a statement, defended McCulloch as “an
old lion torn and mangled by curs and jackasses.”

“Although equipped by neither education nor training to be superintendent of
a school for the deaf,” the book concludes, “Henry ?McCulloch, in
retrospect, appears to have done as well as anyone could, given the
administrative and financial burdens under which he labored. In light of
this, it is amazing he was able to accomplish what he did in his short
tenure as superintendent.”

Today’s lesson, courtesy of professor Hardin: When it comes to learning
history, “Markers are a good place to start but never a good place to
finish.”

[email protected], 512-445-3907

Source:
http://www.statesman.com/opinion/historical-marker-hints-at-tarnished-reputation-at-tsd-754344.html