This summer, Dr. Rebecca Cantor arrives to begin her term as the 17th President of Austin College in Sherman. This summer, your humble author Marc takes off for the Colorado mountains to see Roo buds with whom I once summitted the 14,000-foot Mt. Sherman. Hey, these two events sound like an opportunity for Marc to tell the tragic-but-incredible Jeremiah Johnson story of the 8th President of Austin College: Dr. Thornton Sampson.
Thornton Sampson, born in 1852 Virginia, was a childhood friend of fellow Presbyterian and future U.S. President Woodrow Wilson. After college, he traveled the world as a Presbyterian minister. Multiple trips to Europe and Asia gave Sampson fluency in numerous languages, including German, Italian, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and Arabic. Sampson returned home and in 1897 and was elected the 8th President of Austin College.
Sampson’s term in Sherman (1897-1900) was one of both triumph and struggle. He improved the finances of the college, created new courses of study, and established relationships with other Texas schools, most notably the University of Texas at Austin. He was also the first President of Roo athletics, which had officially arrived in 1896. From “Austin College: A Sesquicentennial History,” by Dr. Light Cummins:
“As a vigorous outdoorsman, Dr. Sampson also valued athletics and worked to improve sporting activities for Austin College students. He encouraged the school’s fledgling baseball and football teams, expanded the gymnasium, [and] hired AC’s first full time coach and athletic trainer. Dr. Sampson was so enthusiastic about sports that he was a spectator at almost every athletic event.”
Nevertheless, significant tension between faculty and trustees was a problem Sampson was unable to overcome. The termination of a compulsory military program in 1897 combined with a smallpox epidemic in 1899 reduced enrollment, revenue, and morale. Sampson’s cancellation of 50th Anniversary celebrations in 1899 only exacerbated the tension. Frustrated, Sampson resigned the Presidency in 1900 and moved to Austin, where he founded the Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary.
The move also reignited Sampson’s former life as a vigorous outdoorsman. After Austin College, Thornton Sampson returned to his roots as a Robert Redford-like Jeremiah Johnson Mountain Man.
Sampson had discovered his love of the mountains in Europe and Asia and was soon spending considerable time within the desolation of Colorado’s Rocky Mountains. He was an expert in self-sufficiency, so much so that his family rarely worried when Sampson would disappear into the wilderness for months on end. “My husband loved the mountains,” his spouse Ella would later remark.
In the summer of 1915, Sampson departed again for Colorado. He planned a trek west across the Continental Divide before returning east to Estes Park in time for the grand opening of Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP) on September 4, 1915. Sampson set out on foot on August 11, spending the next few weeks alone in the splendor of the Rockies. On September 1, he left camp for the 2-day trip east over the 12,000-foot Flattop Mountain, down to Bear Lake, and into Estes Park for the ceremony.
He never made it.
The weather was pleasant at departure. But Colorado weather in late summer can change unpredictably. A huge snowstorm rolled west from Estes Park just as Sampson headed east over the Continental Divide. Not only did Sampson fail to show for the RMNP dedication, his family did not express concern for weeks due to the former AC President’s love of the mountains. But eventually, his disappearance could no longer be ignored. From the book “The Way of the Mountains,” by James Pickering:
“By September 18, some 50 people including Estes Park’s leading citizens were actively involved in the search [for Sampson]. [Son] Frank became the family’s spokesman, and it was from his conversations that the [AC President’s] connection with President Woodrow Wilson first surfaced. ‘President Wilson, a close friend and former schoolmate of Rev. Sampson,’ the New York Times told its readers, ‘has requested all government officials in Colorado who might be of assistance to join the search.’”
President Wilson’s interest in the search for Sampson was furthered by his own cabinet in Washington. “Sampson also knew three members of Wilson’s cabinet: Secretary of Agriculture David Houston, a UT Law graduate and Sampson’s former neighbor; Attorney General Thomas Gregory, with whom Sampson had been friends since his days at Austin College; and Postmaster General Albert Burleson, an Austin lawyer and friend of Sampson during his days at the Austin Presbyterian Theological Society.”
Despite the national headlines and local efforts, all searches for the AC President came up empty. That is, until an unexpected find 17 years later. From Pickering: “On July 8, 1932, a young man from Fort Collins [CO] came across human remains at the base of a cliff [near Bear Lake]. The left leg clearly showed a shinbone fracture. Nearby, in a cave-like overhang, was found a knapsack containing a pipe, tobacco, matches, fishing flies, toilette articles, and a frayed diary, the handwriting [of Sampson] still legible despite years of exposure. The Reverend Thornton Sampson had at last been found.”
The diary told the tale. “[Sampson] had indeed reached the summit of Flattop Mountain. As day waned into evening and snow began to fall, travel became treacherous. Lost and confused, Sampson slipped and fell, breaking his leg. Though he found shelter and perhaps even managed a fire that night, the combination of wet clothes and falling temperatures on a cold September night proved fatal. [63-year-old] Thornton Sampson fell asleep and did not awaken.”
The family was grateful for the closure of the 1932 discovery. Sampson’s wife Ella spread her husband’s cremated remains at the trailhead of Bear Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park, where Sampson had intended to emerge in 1915 before the Park’s dedication. A headstone was also erected at the trailhead. The headstone read: “Reverend Thornton Sampson (1852-1915). A rugged man of God who passed away amid these rugged mountains that he loved so well.”
10 years ago in 2016, I started writing “Roo Tales.” That same year, Dianne and I rented an RV and took the kiddos to Colorado. We drove into Rocky Mountain National Park under sunny skies. But the unpredictable weather turned nasty as we made our way to Bear Lake. For the Parrishes, the lake is a place of family stories, from underdressed kids as the snow rolled in to the overjoyed awe at the beauty of the storm. What we did not know was that those same conditions at Bear Lake contributed to the demise of an AC President.
Best wishes to you President Cantor, and welcome to Sherman. I’m sure your tenure will have its fair share of both triumphs and struggles, just like the tenure of former President Thornton Sampson. But if my Roo buds ever invite you on a climb up the 14,000-foot Mt. Sherman, you may want to politely decline. The Colorado Rockies can get the best of an Austin College President, even those who doubled as an authentic Jeremiah Johnson.
https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/sampson-thornton-rogers
https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/rev-thornton-r-sampson
AC President Rebecca Cantor, NCAA D1 Volleyball Hall of Honor inductee
https://roonation.org/president-rebecca-cantor-and-the-ncaa-d1-volleyball-championship/
“Austin College: A Sesquicentennial History,” by Dr. Light Cummins
https://www.amazon.com/Austin-College-Sesquicentennial-History-1849-1999/dp/1571689273
“The Ways of the Mountains,” by James Pickering
https://www.amazon.com/Ways-Mountains-James-H-Pickering/dp/1890787124/ref=sr_1_1
2016: Marc and family at Bear Lake 100 years after President Sampson
2019: Marc and Roo buds summit the 14,000-foot Mt. Sherman
AC President Thornton Sampson, a Robert Redford-portrayed Jeremiah Johnson