Arthur T. Prescott

{{Infobox officeholder | name = Arthur Taylor Prescott Sr. | image = Arthur T. Prescott of LA Tech University.png | caption = Prescott (c. 1899) | office = [[List of Presidents of Louisiana Tech University|1st President]] of [[Louisiana Tech University]] | term_start = 1895 | term_end = 1899 | preceded = | succeeded = [[W. C. Robinson (Louisiana educator)|W. C. Robinson]] | birth_name = | birth_date = {{birth date|1863|6|11}} | birth_place = [[Mansfield, Louisiana]], C.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|1942|5|16|1863|6|11}} | death_place = [[Baton Rouge, Louisiana|Baton Rouge]], Louisiana, U.S. | spouse = Nellie Daugherty Prescott (married 1888-1933, her death) | children = 6 | occupation = [[Educator]]; [[College president]] | alma_mater = [[Louisiana State University]] |party = [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democrat]] }}

'''Arthur Taylor Prescott Sr.''' (11 June 1863 – 16 May 1942) was a [[political scientist]] and educator who was the [[List of Presidents of Louisiana Tech University|founding president]] of [[Louisiana Tech University]] in [[Ruston, Louisiana]]. Most of his educational administrative career, however, was spent at his alma mater, [[Louisiana State University]] in [[Baton Rouge, Louisiana|Baton Rouge]].

== Background == Prescott was one of six children born to Ben Prescott, I, and the former Kate Taylor. The second oldest son (a brother died in infancy), he was born during the [[American Civil War]] in [[Mansfield, Louisiana|Mansfield]], the [[county seat|parish seat]] of [[DeSoto Parish, Louisiana|DeSoto Parish]] in northwestern Louisiana, south of [[Shreveport, Louisiana|Shreveport]]. Before he was a year old, the [[Battle of Mansfield]] was fought in DeSoto Parish, a rare [[Confederate States of America|Confederate]] victory at that phase of the ongoing Civil War. Ben Prescott, an LSU graduate, was a [[sugar]] [[Planter (American South)|planter]] in his native of [[Washington, Louisiana|Washington]] in [[St. Landry Parish, Louisiana|St. Landry Parish]] near [[Opelousas, Louisiana|Opelousas]] in [[South Louisiana]]. Kate Taylor Prescott was a native of the [[Georgetown (Washington, D.C.)|Georgetown]] section of [[Washington, D.C.]]<ref name=chambers>[[Henry E. Chambers]], ''A History of Louisiana'', Vol. 2 ([[Chicago]] and [[New York City]]: American Historical Society, 1925), pp. 313–314</ref>

Prescott was educated privately in St. Landry Parish. In 1883, he received his [[Bachelor of Arts]] degree from LSU, from which he subsequently obtained his [[Master of Arts]] as well. As an undergraduate, he was a member of [[Kappa Alpha Order]] fraternity. His first teaching assignment was for one year in [[Port Allen, Louisiana|Port Allen]] in [[West Baton Rouge Parish]]. The next year, he was a [[school principal]] in [[Marshall, Texas|Marshall]] in [[East Texas]].<ref name=chambers/>

== Academic career == In 1887, Prescott was named commandant of the student cadet organization at the [[University of Virginia]] in [[Charlottesville, Virginia|Charlottesville]], [[Virginia (U.S. state)|Virginia]], in which capacity he acquired the rank of [[colonel]], a designation by which he was thereafter usually addressed. He left the position with the UV cadets in 1893, and the next year became the first president of Louisiana Tech though there were no actual classes until September 1895. His salary was $1,500 per year, nearly twice that of most of the five original faculty members. One of those faculty members, the mathematics professor [[W. C. Robinson (Louisiana educator)|W. C. Robinson]], would serve for a year as Prescott's presidential successor.<ref>''[[Ruston Daily Leader]]'', October 11, 1933, p. 20</ref> Originally known as Louisiana Industrial Institute and then Louisiana Polytechnic Institute, Louisiana Tech is an outgrowth of the former Ruston College, begun in the middle 1880s by [[W. C. Friley]], a [[Southern Baptist]] [[clergy]]man who was subsequently the first president from 1892 to 1894 of [[Hardin-Simmons University]] in [[Abilene, Texas]], and the second president of [[Louisiana College]] in [[Pineville, Louisiana|Pineville]] from 1909 to 1910.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sOcxAQAAMAAJ|title=Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Louisiana: Embracing an Authentic and Comprehensive Account of the Chief Events in the History of the State, a Special Sketch of Every Parish and a Record of the Lives of Many of the Most Worthy and Illustrious Families and Individuals ...|author=Co, G.P.|publisher=[[Chicago]]: Goodspeed publishing Company|year=1892|pages=242|lccn=02022466|accessdate=8 November 2015}}</ref>

[[Louisiana House of Representatives|Louisiana State Representative]] [[George M. Lomax]] of Lincoln Parish pushed for the enabling legislation for the college, Act 68, and the first $20,000 start-up appropriation.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pekXAAAAYAAJ|title=Revised laws of Louisiana|author=Solomon Wolff|publisher=F. F. Hansell and Brother|location=[[New Orleans]], [[Louisiana]]|date=1897|page=345|accessdate=February 27, 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/19856181/|title=Ruston Holds Long Record in Education: Establishment of Louisiana Tech Stabilizes Movement Started by Pioneers|newspaper=[[Ruston Daily Leader]]|author=S. D. Pearce|date=June 1, 1937|page=19|accessdate=February 27, 2015}}</ref>

Arthur Prescott is the father of the Louisiana Tech Prescott Memorial Library, which began as a reading room of "Old Main", the Tech administration building, with all initial 125 volumes donated from Prescott's personal collection of mostly studies in engineering, philosophy, religion, science, art, and history. A three-story Prescott Library building opened in 1961; years later it was linked in expanded facilities with the adjacent Wyly Tower of Learning.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.llaonline.org/fp/files/pubs/bulletin/fall1999.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141214101230/http://www.llaonline.org/fp/files/pubs/bulletin/fall1999.pdf|archive-date=14 December 2014|title=Rebecca L. Stenzel, Prescott Memorial Library: Louisiana Tech University|publisher=Louisiana Library Association|accessdate=August 7, 2013}}</ref> Louisiana Tech also honors Prescott with the Distinguished Arthur T. Prescott Professorship, an award once held by, among others, former Tech President [[Daniel Reneau]].{{cn|date=August 2023}} In 1899, he returned to LSU as professor of government and constitutional law. Like his father, Prescott was an active [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democrat]]. He served on the Louisiana State Tax Commission under [[governor of Louisiana|Governor]] [[Newton C. Blanchard]]. He was a member of the [[American Political Science Association]] and the [[Academy of Political Science]] in [[New York City]]. Prescott was also a member of the [[Chamber of Commerce]], a director of the Commercial Securities Company and the Union Homestead Association, and a vice president of the Union Bank & Trust Company. During [[World War I]], Prescott worked in drives to promote the sale of [[war bond]]s and lectured soldiers awaiting departure to war at [[Camp Beauregard]] near Pineville, Louisiana.<ref name=chambers/>

Because of his interest in public law, Professor Prescott in 1904 was the first to propose the establishment of what became in 1906 the [[Louisiana State University Law Center]], with an original enrollment of nineteen students,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://digitalcommons.law.lsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2483&context=lalrev|title=Statement of Welcome, Paul M. Hebert|publisher=DigitalCommons @ LSU Law Center|accessdate=8 November 2015}}</ref> subsequently named in honor of law professor [[Paul M. Hebert]]. After the retirement of LSU President [[Thomas Duckett Boyd]], the board of supervisors in 1926 and 1927 considered Prescott for the top position. He was the choice of Boyd and virtually all of the faculty. However, it was determined that Prescott, then sixty-four, was "too old" for the post, an oddity considering that some may have thought him "too young" at thirty-one when he was named the founding Louisiana Tech president. Prescott continued at the time as the secretary of the supervisors and as university dean of arts and sciences. After their first choice was unable to serve because of military retirement considerations, the supervisors settled on Thomas Wilson Atkinson, a professor of engineering.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=02uC7JfIUjUC|title=Under Stately Oaks: A Pictorial History of LSU|publisher=[[Baton Rouge, Louisiana]]: [[Louisiana State University Press]]|author=Ruffin, T.F. |author2=Jackson, J. |author3=Hebert, M.J.|year=2006|pages=60|accessdate=8 November 2015|isbn=9780807132111|lccn=2006285414}}</ref> Prescott Hall at LSU is named in his honor; it is on the [[National Register of Historic Places]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM5M7F_Prescott_Hall_Louisiana_State_University_Baton_Rouge_LA|title=Prescott Hall - Louisiana State University - Baton Rouge, LA|publisher=waymarking.com|accessdate=8 November 2015}}</ref>

==Family and death== Prescott was a member of the [[Masonic lodge]]; he was a communicant of St. James Church in Baton Rouge, a [[Episcopal Church (United States)|Protestant Episcopal]] congregation.<ref name=chambers/> On January 4, 1888, Prescott married Nellie Daugherty, also an Episcopalian and the daughter of John A. Daugherty and the former Lucy Stewart, both of Baton Rouge. The Prescotts had six children, the Baton Rouge [[veterinarian]] Arthur Prescott Jr. (1892-1968); Lucy Stewart King (1896-1986), the wife of Clifford H. King (1898-1939), a real estate agent in Baton Rouge who died early in life, Allen Worden Prescott (1889-1954), Ben Prescott, II (1899-1975), who in 1924 was a banker in [[Paris]], [[France]], and two younger daughters, Kate Taylor Prescott and Elvira Garig Prescott, unmarried in 1924; married names not available. Elvira married Howard Davidson Muse.<ref name=chambers/>

A year before his death, the [[Louisiana State University Press]] published Prescott's lengthy volume with even a long sub-title, ''Drafting the Federal Constitution.''<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ko5AnQEACAAJ|title=Drafting the Federal Constitution: A Rearrangement of Madison's Notes Giving Consecutive Developments of Provisions in the Constitution of the United States; Supplemented by Documents Pertaining to the Philadelphia Convention and to Ratification Processes, and Including Insertions by the Compiler|publisher=[[Baton Rouge]]: [[Louisiana State University Press]]|year=1968|accessdate=8 November 2015}}</ref>

{{Portal|Biography|United States|Virginia|Education|Politics|Christianity}}

==References== {{Reflist}} {{s-start}} {{succession box | before=N/A | title=[[List of Presidents of Louisiana Tech University|1st President]] of [[Louisiana Tech University]] in [[Ruston, Louisiana|Ruston]], [[Louisiana]] | years=1895–1899 | after=[[W. C. Robinson (Louisiana educator)|W. C. Robinson]]}} {{s-end}} {{Louisiana Tech University presidents}} {{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Prescott, Arthur T.}} [[Category:1863 births]] [[Category:1942 deaths]] [[Category:People from Mansfield, Louisiana]] [[Category:People from Washington, Louisiana]] [[Category:People from Baton Rouge, Louisiana]] [[Category:People from Charlottesville, Virginia]] [[Category:People from Ruston, Louisiana]] [[Category:Louisiana State University alumni]] [[Category:American school principals]] [[Category:Presidents of Louisiana Tech University]] [[Category:Louisiana Democrats]] [[Category:American Episcopalians]]