HomeMy WebLinkAboutMrs. Frederick W. HenselMrs. Hensel
Arrived on Campus - 1913
TTlitness to Vast Changes
Ara Lee Jones, a native of
Temple, came to the A&M
campus with misgivings in the
fall of 1913.
Midway through asix-month
course of study at a Waco
business college, she had been
pressured by the owner of the
school to accept a secretarial
position in the agronomy
department of the college.
Having borrowed money to go
to school, being 18 and coming
from a strict family the idea of
coming to A&M was
questionable and somewhat
frightening.
Permission was granted by
her family only because she had
a close friend in Bryan in whose
home she could stay.
SHE RECALLS a trying
period from September 1914 to
February 1915 when she and
everyone at the college, in-
cluding the president, worked
but received no pay.
The state of Texas was without
funds acid until money could be
appropriated no one at A&M
received paychecks. However,
she said, it was a shared ex-
perience and everyone survived
because credit was extended by
Bryan businessmen. She
remembers the great rejoicing
when paychecks-including the
back pay-arrived.
In 1914 ,she met Frederick
William Hensel, always called
`Fritz' by all who knew him, who
had been on a year's leave to
take a master's degree at
MRS. F. W. HENSEL
Cornell. She and Hensel married
one year later.
Following a brief stay in a
Bryan apartment the Hensels
moved into campus housing
provided by A&M for faculty
members.
THE HENSEL HOME was
located where the Memorial
Student Center now stands and
while not lavish was more than
adequate and comfortable. The
six room house with small
servant's space rented for $25
per month including utilities and
maintenance.
In 1939 the college announced
that within two years all campus
housing for faculty members
would terminate. The Hensels
built a home as close to the
campus as possible because
"Fritz didn't want to be one foot
way from the campus."
It is Hensel, then a professor of
floraculture and landscape•
architecture, who receives much
of the credit for the abundance of
trees and landscaping on the
campus.
For example, it was his model
for planting of the present main
entrance to the school that was
acceptd by the board of directors
when the Systems Building was
constructed on land previously
housing livestock barns and
pasture.
MRS. HENSEL remembers
some objections to the small live
oak seedlings planted by her
husband. However, he main-
tained they were planted for
posterity with beauty rather
than quick growth but short life.
Looking back to her early
years on campus she terms-the
time a quiet, happy way of life.
There was little entertainment
except being with people but
there were not many problems.
"We had the happiest life. We
didn't know we didn't have
everything."
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