Texas Lutheran University

Texas Lutheran University (TLU) is a private Evangelical Lutheran university in Seguin, Texas. History The university traces its roots back to 1891, to an academy of the first German Evangelical Lutheran Synod in Texas, in Brenham. Its first president was the Reverend Gottlieb Langner. That school accumulated crushing financial problems, but in 1912, it was rescued by an offer of 15 acres and $20,000 from local businessmen to relocate the academy to Seguin. Initially, the Lutheran College of Seguin, Texas, as it was newly named, had only one building on a bare former cotton field, with 46 students. The academy reached junior college status in 1928 with accreditation from the Texas Department of Education. The Swedish Lutheran Trinity College of Round Rock was having trouble maintaining a minimum of 40 freshmen and 20 sophomores, so in 1929, it pooled its resources with the larger Seguin institution, bringing two professors and support from Swedish Lutherans. The combined school was renamed Texas Lutheran College in 1930. It became a four-year institution in 1948. Then, Texas Lutheran absorbed Clifton College of Clifton, a Norwegian Lutheran school in 1954, again gaining faculty and support from a larger base.