Waxahachie, Texas – September 1, 2015 – Southwestern Assemblies of God University (SAGU) alumna Terri Roberts inspired a generous donation to the History Department for her research on local landowner Ted Paup’s property located on L.R. Campbell road.
Regarding Paup’s donation, Roberts said, “I was very pleased that Mr. Paup thought so highly of my work. It felt good that something I did also benefited the university.” She continues, “I was honored that Dr. Uglow (Department Chair) recommended me to do the research.”
In 1989, Roberts graduated from SAGU (formerly Southwestern Bible College ), with a bachelor’s degree in Education. Terri and her husband, Jerry, felt called to Latvia (former Soviet Union ) as full-time missionaries.
The Roberts family spent 14 years in Latvia. During this time she taught at the Baltic School of Ministry (formerly called Latvia Bible College ) while homeschooling her three children; Tim, Amy and Kevin.
After her time in Latvia, Roberts returned to SAGU and graduated with her master’s degree in history. During her last semester of school in spring of 2015, Roberts was assigned a research project. She was undecided about what her project was going to be when she was contacted by history professor, Dr. Uglow. He informed her that he received a call from a gentleman named Ted Paup who was in search of someone to research the history of his property. Paup’s administrative assistant, Ranita Smitherman, a SAGU graduate, suggested that he try the SAGU History Department. Mrs. Roberts gladly accepted the opportunity.
She began her research and established that the property is located on “L.R. Campbell road” named after the previous property owners. As she researched the land grants and how they were passed through families, she found that the land passed through the hands of Nicholas P. Sims, the founder of the Sims library, and his nephew W.D. Sims. The Sims family were pioneers in Ellis County and were involved in establishing the City of Waxahachie. She discovered the property was located on the Shawnee Trail (a famous cattle trail around the Civil War time).
As a result of this research project Mr. Paup became a “bridge builder” for SAGU and gave a generous grant to the History Department named the Paup Research Scholarship Fund. This scholarship is available to graduate students during the research semester of their theses. The fund provides assistance for research related travel.
SAGU offers many different grants and scholarships to help students afford higher education.For a full list of SAGU’s scholarships and grants click here .
SAGU
www.sagu.edu
