Richard Chitwood

Richard Mortimer Chitwood
Chitwood legislative portrait
Texas State Representative for District 121 (Fisher, Mitchell, and Nolan counties)
In office January 11, 1921 – January 9, 1923
Preceded by	John J. Ford
Succeeded by	Sam A. Bryant
Texas State Representative for District 17 (Fisher, Mitchell, and Nolan counties)
In office January 9, 1923 – August 20, 1925
Preceded by	Walter F. Jones
Succeeded by	J. C. Hall
Born	February 9, 1878 City missing, Alabama, USA
Died	November 21, 1926 (aged 48) Dallas, Texas
Resting place	Sweetwater Cemetery
Political party	Democrat
Spouse(s)	Eleanor Mary McCombie Chitwood (married 1916-1926, his death) (not first wife)
Children	Benjamin Goodwin Robinson Chitwood Parents: William Parker and Laura Lyon Chitwood
Residence	Sweetwater, Nolan County, Texas Lubbock, Texas (1925-1926)
Alma mater	Morgan Park Academy (Chicago, Illinois)
Occupation	Businessman

Richard Mortimer Chitwood (February 9, 1878 – November 21, 1926)^[1] was a Democrat state representative from Sweetwater, Texas, who represented District 117, which encompassed Fisher, Mitchell, and Nolan counties in the western part of his state. In his first House term from 1921 to 1923, he represented the same counties as District 121.^[2] He played a major role in the establishment of Texas Tech University.

Biography[edit]

A native of Alabama, Chitwood was a son of William Parker Chitwood (1835-1921), a native of Lincoln County, Tennessee, and the former Laura Lyon (1850-1895). He was educated at Morgan Park Academy in the Morgan Park section of Chicago, Illinois.^[2]In 1916, he wed the former Eleanor Mary McCombie (1887-1972)Clea

In 1923, Chitwood, as a second term member of the legislature, was the chairman of the House Education Committee. That year state Senator William Bledsoe of Lubbock and Representative Roy Alvin Baldwin of Slaton in south Lubbock County pushed to passage Senate Bill 103, with a $1 million appropriation, to establish Texas Tech University as a four-year educational institution in West Texas with an emphasis on agricultural research. The school would be separate from Texas A&M University in College Station, which had a similar mission and whose leadership opposed the new institution. Bledsoe confessed to having drawn up the requirements for the host city to fit only Lubbock, which was selected over thirty-six other locations, including Chitwood's Sweetwater in Nolan County, San Angelo (before the existence of Angelo State University), Midland, Plainview in Hale County, Brownwood in Lampasas County, Big Spring, and even Boerne, in Kendall County northwest of San Antonio. Vernon in Wilbarger County west of Wichita Falls claimed it should be selected because of its railroad access; at the time Vernon had more than one thousand more people than Lubbock.^[3]

Though the site selection committee traveled to all the communities seeking to become the location of the new college, but the fix was in from the start. To win the competition, Lubbock was allowed to amend its initial application to account for eighty more acres so that it could meet the two thousand acres required in the legislation for the chosen location. In time, Texas Tech, originally Texas Technological College, helped to make Lubbock the largest city of West Texas, excluding El Paso in the far southwestern corner of the state. Chitwood thought Sweetwater far better suited for the new institution as the "central" location of West Texas. When Lubbock was chosen, Chitwood was given a patronage consolation as business manager of the new institution.^[3]

Chitwood died of angina pectoris at the age of forty-eight at the Baker Hotel in Dallas, after just fifteen months as the Texas Tech business manager. He is interred in Sweetwater Cemetery.^[4] The Daily Toreador, the Texas Tech newspaper, wrote upon Chitwood's passing that there was one "no more truly big hearted" than the former college business manager. The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal referred to Chitwood's death in its edition of November 23, 1926, as "A Loss to Texas and to Tech College."^[2]

References[edit]