Lockney Christian College (7): The Ledlow Years and the End of LCC

In the summer of 1914, evangelist W. F. Ledlow held what was then called a "protracted meeting" (an extended series of sermons) at the Lockney Church of Christ. While he was in town, Ledlow met with leaders of Lockney Christian College and agreed to serve as the next president of the school. Associates of the college knew well that the most successful past presidents brought strong academics and good public relations. Both were vital. Ledlow had just completed a master's degree at the University of Texas and was a gifted speaker. The leaders of the school were thrilled to bring him on board as the new president.[1]

Ledlow soon initiated a number of projects, building up the library and improving some of the school's facilities. His first year at Lockney came at a time when both the town and the school were experiencing noticeable growth. By the end of the academic year in 1915, student enrollment stood at 166. That summer, President Ledlow announced in the pages of the Firm Foundation that the school would be offering a standard junior college course of study.[2] It was an exciting time. But the relationship between the new president and the school was not to last.

During his second year at Lockney, in the fall of 1915 the secular press reported that W. F. Ledlow had been offered a position at the University of Texas. The president did his best to quell the rumors about a resignation, and even announced some of his plans for the coming year. But by the summer of 1916, the Firm Foundation included a note in which Ledlow stated, "we have moved to Thorp Spring, and have begun life in our new home.  . . . I love the Lockney people and have hundreds of friends there, but Thorp Spring offers me better opportunities."[3] He was now serving as the president of the faculty at Thorp Spring Christian College under the leadership of C. R. Nichol.[4]

Significantly, after Ledlow's announcement of his move, it appears that the Firm Foundation never mentioned Lockney Christian College again. Later in 1916, a publication known as Christian Higher Education issued a number that contained historical sketches of ten schools with connections to the Churches of Christ. But it never mentions L.C.C.[5] By 1918, the school finally closed. In his brief survey of the history of the school, Norvel Young offered several reasons why:

Lockney was a small town and unable to support the college well enough for it to gain accreditation. Abilene Christian College and Thorp Spring Christian College gained recognition as standard junior colleges and attracted many students away from Lockney. The dislocation caused by the war further added to the school's problems, . . . Ledlow attributed the closing to the above factors as well as to "peculiar views and local dissension."

Notes

[1] Platt, "History of Lockney Christian College," 35.

[2] Ibid., 36-37.

[3] Ibid., 38-39.

[4] Ibid., 39.

[5] Ibid., 39-40.

[6] M. Norvel Young, A History of Colleges Established and Controlled by Members of the Churches of Christ (Kansas City, MO: Old Paths Book Club, 1949), 151-52. For the quotation, Young cites William Franklin Ledlow, "History of Protestant Education in Texas" (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Texas, 1926), 403.

Lockney Christian College (6): Two Brief Presidencies

At the end of the school year in the spring of 1911, James L. German resigned as president of Lockney Christian College. From that time on, the school witnessed a period of uncertainty and rapid turnover in leadership until it permanently closed its doors seven years later.[1]

German's successor was one J. C. Estes, a graduate of the Nashville Bible School. The Estes administration, which lasted two years, seems to have had its problems. The school did not issue a catalog for the 1911-1912 session, and by 1912 not one member of the faculty who served under President German remained at the school.[2]

In the late summer of 1913, the Firm Foundation informed its readers that 27-year-old T. W. Croom had agreed to become Lockney's next president. Croom was quoted as saying that he intended "to build up a great institution in this place for the training of those energetic young men and women who will have so much to do in shaping the future of the west." The same announcement stated that Lockney, now a town of 1200, had "no saloons and kindred evils so common in our larger cities."[3]

One of the more interesting events in the story of Lockney dates from the new president's brief tenure. Not long after Croom began his work at the school, G. H. P. Showalter, one of the former presidents of the school and now the editor of the Firm Foundation, published a favorable review of a book by W. F. Lemmons titled The Evils of Socialism. In reply to Showalter's review, seventeen men from Lockney wrote in asserting that Lemmons's book contained false statements and that it twisted the Scriptures. In response to their challenge, they asserted, the editor ought to "put up or shut up."

Not one to back down, Showalter responded in the Firm Foundation dated March 17, 1914, calling the men the "Socialists of Lockney."[4] It seems that in the early twentieth century, the sentiments of leftist politics had not all faded away in West Texas. As late as 1914, the Socialist Labor Party in Texas fielded a candidate for governor. At that time, the party outranked the Republicans in Texas. Second only to the mighty Democrats, the Socialists were the next largest political party in the state.[5]

Notes

[1] Robert M. Platt, "History of Lockney Christian College," 1960, Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum, Research Center, Canyon, TX, 32.

[2] Ibid., 33.

[3] Ibid., 34.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Handbook of Texas Online, Alwyn Barr, "SOCIALIST PARTY," accessed February 21, 2019, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/was01.