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History
of Texas A&M University Mothers' Club
The first Texas A&M University Mothers’
Club was organized in 1922 by Mrs. H.L. Peoples. At that
time the school was an all male military college with an
enrollment of 1800. Students were restricted to campus
by regulations which forbade having cars or driving a
car of someone else’s ownership. Most of the comings and
goings from campus were done by train. Travel between
College Station and Bryan was either by trolley or foot.
For long periods of time the average student saw or
communicated with no one other than his professors or
fellow students. Mrs. Peoples, mother of a freshman at
A&M, became concerned with the poor quality of life on
campus – no entertainment, no culture and a complete
lack of feminine influence. In
February, 1922 eleven interested mothers met in Dallas
and the first A&M Mothers’ Club was organized with Mrs.
Ada Brooks Allen Peoples as its President. The club’s
objective was to contribute in every way to the comfort
and welfare of the boys and to cooperate with the
faculty of the college in maintaining a high standard of
moral conduct and intellectual attainment. The only
updating of this objective has been to change the word
“boys” to “students”. In order
to best determine what steps to take, the eleven mothers
decided to visit the campus. Traveling in a caravan of
Model T’s over dusty roads, they presented themselves
and their ideas to faculty and staff at Texas A&M. They
were practically laughed off the campus.
Undaunted, they organized a second
caravan and, being wise mothers and knowing the way to a
man’s heart, they took with them fixings for what they
called a “spread” consisting of fried chicken,
sandwiches, pies and cookies. One hundred Dallas
students plus the President of the College and his wife
attended. The “spread” was a success and became an
annual affair which was extended to include the entire
student body. Ada Peoples
realized that the tender little things that mothers do
did not go far enough. Many students in the state of
Texas had the ambition but not the money for education.
A student loan fund was established by that first
mothers’ club in Dallas. Today, many of the clubs
consider scholarships to be their most important
contribution to the students. A
second club was formed in Fort Worth and from there the
mothers’ club idea spread rapidly. Eight clubs became a
Federation in 1928. The Federation Board serves as a
coordinating body for the mothers’ clubs. As of 2005
there were 18 mothers’ clubs in Texas and 8 in
surrounding states. From the largest membership of over
400 to the smallest of 3, all clubs have the same goal –
to band together for the good of the A&M student body.
The Mothers’ Club member also finds a companionship she
cannot find elsewhere. A club meeting is a sharing place
of joys and defeats, of successes and failures. The
mother of a student who has failed a course is sure to
have the worry of such an event eased when another
mother tells her, “Yes, that happened to my child, too”.
Once the mothers got started they looked
for ways in which they could serve the college. The list
of their accomplishments is long, varied and impressive
including significant contributions in the form of
scholarships and donations to campus organizations
distributed in such a way that a wide range of students
benefit. President’s Endowed Scholarships have been
established by some clubs as well as an SOS Fund under
the direction of the Vice President for Student
Services. The Mothers’ Clubs have established endowment
funds for the Mentors Program and the Sterling C. Evans
Library. The Mothers’ Clubs have a close working
relationship with the President of Texas A&M University
and the administration. «
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