Gathings College

The college stood on money made by enslaved labor. James J. Gathings left Mississippi in 1849 with his family and more than thirty slaves, the Handbook of Texas says, and his Covington works making saddles, boots, wagons and flour initially relied on that labor. He and his brother Philip founded the college in the early 1860s. In 1871 his eldest son was accused of murdering a Black couple, whom the Handbook does not name. Gathings led a group that seized the officer chasing the son, who escaped. Gathings was then fined $3,000, the cost of enforcing martial law.

What the plaque says

Gathings College Established about 1860 by the founder of Covington, Col. James Gathings, and his brother Philip. Over 200 students enrolled. A military department prepared young men for duty in Civil War. Many of the 25 colleges in Confederate Texas closed, due to shortage of teachers and books. But college here stayed open. Col. Gathings operated flour mill, tannery, shoe shop, machine shop (made wagons, coffins, farm equipment), brick kiln, saddlery. To needy families of soldiers he gave flour, meat and shoes. He also mounted, clothed and equipped army units free. (1965)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Hill County Courthouse — 14 mi
  Wesley C. Dodson's limestone Second Empire courthouse of 1890 on the Hillsboro square, gutted by fire on New Year's Day 1993 and rededicated in 1999 after a rebuilding that two Willie Nelson concerts helped pay for.
• Cleburne State Park — 18 mi
  A 1930s Civilian Conservation Corps park on the old Chisholm Trail crossing country, with a spring-fed lake, a hand-carved three-tiered spillway and a CCC bridge in Johnson County.
• Ellis County Courthouse — 28 mi
  J. Riely Gordon's courthouse of 1897 in Pecos red sandstone and pink granite, with twenty-one carved stone faces and two cornerstones left by a quarrel over its building.
• Acton State Historic Site — 31 mi
  The smallest state historic site in Texas, a grave plot holding Elizabeth Crockett, widow of David Crockett, under a 1913 statue of a pioneer woman shading her eyes toward the west.

More markers nearby

• First Presbyterian Church of Itasca — 6.6 mi
• Site of Switzer College — 6.8 mi
• Town of Grandview — 7.6 mi
• Rio Vista — 7.8 mi