Freestone County, Texas Biographies Biography of Rev. Nathan Powell (Aug. 19, 1869-Nov. 5, 1963, buried at Restland Memorial Park in Dallas, TX.) TEXAS AND TEXANS, VOLUME IV by Frank W. Johnson Editor: Eugene C. Barker, Ph.D. published by The American Historical Society Chicago and New York, 1916 TEXAS AND TEXANS, VOLUME IV - page 1864 .... REV. NATHAN POWELL, PH. D., founder and president of Powell’s Preparatory School, originator of the great Southern Methodist University of Dallas, and formerly for many years a minister of the Methodist Church, was born on his father’s plantation in Limestone County, Texas, about seven miles west of Mexia, in 1869, his parents being William H. and Emily Isabel (Wood) Powell, natives of Weakley County, Tennessee, the former deceased and the latter still living. William H. Powell removed with his parents to Texas in 1852 and located in Freestone County. He was a son of Nathan Powell, who was of the pioneer type, a man of great strength, virility and moral purpose, a man of substantial means also and extensively engaged in the cattle business in Freestone County. Nathan Powell was one of the first white settlers of the county, in the organization of which he took an active park, and was a leader in the organization of schools, churches and all things which are necessary to set on foot in order to bring a frontier section from its pioneer phases into the orderly life of civilization. He reared- his family in the faith of the Methodist Church, and William H. Powell was a devoted adherent of that faith right up to the time of his death, in 1882. Mrs. Powell, who now makes her home happily with her son and family at Dallas, came with her parents to Texas in 1851 and located in Limestone County, adjoining Freestone. In Limestone County the Wood family were, as the Powells in Freestone County, among the earliest pioneer settlers. Rev. Nathan Powell was reared on the home plantation, which was located about five miles from Tehuacana, the seat of the old Trinity University, and it was in that famous institution that he received his first serious educational training. In 1889 he left Trinity and entered Vanderbilt University at Nashville, Tennessee, where he was a student for six years, receiving the degrees of Bachelor of Arts. In the fall of 1895 he entered Yale University and in 1896 received from that institution the degree of Bachelor of Divinity. About this time he returned to the South and was married to Miss Minnie Keiser of Union City, Tennessee, who had also been a student at Vanderbilt, where they first met. The young couple then went together to Europe and both entered as students the Royal George August University at Goettingen, Germany, where Doctor Powell devoted most of his time to study and research in historic theology. Returning to Texas in the latter part of 1897, he joined the Texas Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and was stationed as minister of one of the churches of that denomination at Galveston. Subsequently he occupied other prominent pulpits, mainly at Bastrop and Brenham, and became widely known as an accomplished and talented minister of the gospel, with notable success in building up congregations and becoming a potent factor in the moral and spiritual elevation of every community to which his labors were drawn. Doctor Powell has always taken the keenest interest in education and at different periods was professor of German in the Agrieultural and Mechanical College at Bryan. He was for several years a member of the board of trustees of Southwestern University at Georgtown, being a memher of the auditing and several other important committees of that board and very active in the general affairs of the university. In 1915 he comaleted post-graduate work at Chicago University and upon submission of his thesis was given the degree of Doctor of Philosophy by that institution. As a student and teacher Doctor Powell has specialized in New Testa- TEXAS AND TEXANS, VOLUME IV - page 1865 ment Greek and in Religious Education, the latter embodying all the approved modern methods in the training and education of the child and the varied and interesting sociological forces surrounding the child and the family-in fact, everything bearing on the welfare of the child from the cradle to mature age. In December, 1910, Doctor Powell removed with his family to Dallas, and here they have since made their permanent home. In the summer of 1915, Doctor Powell began the erection of the buildings for a large, high-class preparatory school for boys and girls at Dallas, with the intention of opening the school, if possible to get the buildings ready, September 15, 1915. This is one of the most important and notable educational enterprises in the South. The school is located on thirty acres of land owned by Doctor Powell, immediately adjoining the campus and buildings of the Southern Methodist University, Highland Park. He has engaged a faculty of the best talent to be secured of degree men from the great eastern universities, and the school will be devoted to preparing pupils for the Southern Nethodist and all other large universities. When completed, this school will cost more than $100,000, and it is the intention of its founder to make it one of the finest preparatory institutibns in the Southwest. The buildings are being erected on the unit plan. During the first year girls will be taken only as day pupils, but later boarding facilities will be provided for them on the campus. The buildings will be situated on high ground overlooking the university campus and the city, an ideal location for such an institution. Beyond his activities as a minister and teacher, the most notable achievement in the life and career of Doctor Powell lies in the fact that he was the sole originator and promoter of the great Southern Methodist University at Dallas, which began its first year September 15, 1915. His connection with Southwestern University at Georgetown and his intimate knowledge of its somewhat narrow field and lack of adequate facilities, convinced him that the church needed another and greater inslitation that would rank with the great universities of the land and that would give honor and dignity to the educational system of the denomination. This especially in view of the fact that the church had lost its one great university, Vanderbilt. He accordingly formulated his plans, and, while pastor of the church at Brenham, and while attending the annual meeting of the West Texas Conference at Uvalde, in October, 1909, he submitted a resolution to the Conference Board of Education providing for the appointment of a commission to co-operate with similar commissions to be appointed by the other Texas Conferences, looking toward the establishment of a new university. He later presented this same resolution to his own conference at Jacksonville, which was held in December, 1909. After a great deal of hard work, and against much opposition and influence, Doctor Powell's original resolution was adopted overwhelmingly by all of the fall conferences in 1910. This, however, was only the official church approval of Doctor Powell's plan, and then followed the real hard work of selecting a suitable site and buying the land and raising the necessary money for bringing the university into existence. Dallas was finally selected as the location for the new enterprise, and Doctor Powell personally employed the firm of Hann & Kendall to buy a site of 662 acres lying north of Highland Park, and where since the beautiful buildings of the university have been erected. This, briefly, is the story of the founding of the Southern Methodist University. Underneath it, however, is an inner story of a long, lone, hard struggle on the part of Doctor Powell against numerous powerful opposing elements in church officialdom who either discouraged his plans or tried openly to thwart them. The conception and carrying out of this notable TEXAS AND TEXANS, VOLUME IV - page 1866 enterprise indicate the breadth of vision and great purpose possessed by Doctor Powell, as well as his unswerving courage, unflagging energy and great patience during a four-year period of hard work, often in the midst of the most trying opposition. This institution will remain an everlasting monument to his foresight and energy. Doctor and Mrs. Powell are the parents of five daughters: Florence, Isabel, Julia, Elizabeth and Mary.