In 1910 Ida Van Zandt Jarvis and her husband, Maj. James J. Jarvis of Fort Worth, deeded 456 acres near Hawkins for the education of Black students, and the school opened in January 1913 with a dozen elementary pupils. It grew step by step into a high school, a junior college in 1927, and a senior college in 1937, and it became Jarvis Christian University in 2022. Today it is the last surviving historically Black college of the twelve founded by the Disciples of Christ. This walk visits the state marker, a presidential home on the National Register, the oldest surviving campus building, and the library and religious center at the heart of student life.
About this site
Jarvis Christian University is a private college or university in Hawkins, Wood County.
The site sits at 32.5861, -95.1802 near Hawkins. The nearest cataloged historic site is Jarvis Christian College (historical marker), about under a tenth of a mile away. Others within a short drive include Robinson, Florence, Cottage, Jarvis Christian College, and Liberty.
Planning for Jarvis began in 1904, when Black members of the Disciples of Christ in Texas and the Christian Woman's Board of Missions started raising money for a school for Black youth in East Texas. In 1910 Maj. James J. Jarvis and his wife, Ida Van Zandt Jarvis, deeded 456 acres near Hawkins to the mission board on condition that it be used for such a school. Construction started in 1912 under Thomas B. Frost and Charles A. Berry, graduates of the Southern Christian Institute in Mississippi, with help from prospective students, and Jarvis Christian Institute held its first classes in January 1913 with twelve elementary pupils. Under first president James N. Ervin the school added high school work in 1914, junior college courses in 1927 and senior college courses in 1937. Chartered by the state as a college in 1939, it gained regional recognition in 1950 and full accreditation from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools in 1967. In 2022 the school renamed itself Jarvis Christian University and won approval to offer graduate degrees, beginning with an MBA and a master's in criminal justice.
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