In 1879, with aid from the Peabody fund, Texas's first tax-supported teacher training institution, Sam Houston State Normal Institute (SHNI), opened on the site of the old Austin College in Huntsville (Richmond 1941, 37). The need for qualified educators in Texas was growing as the state struggled to make up for decades of neglect of and antipathy toward its public schools. In the years after its establishment, graduates of SHNI would fill many of the top positions in education in the state. This article examines the contributions of two members of the first graduating class--Percy V. Pennybacker and Anna Hardwicke Pennybacker--to education in Texas during the post-reconstruction period. From their graduation in 1880 until Percy's death in 1899, the Pennybackers worked to develop new systems of public graded schools in several communities, promoted public education and the teaching profession across the state, served in leadership roles in teacher organizations, and introduced and expanded progressive educational thought in Texas through published articles and presentations. Their efforts in the development of education in Texas helped to establish a modern system of public schools in a state that was understood to lag badly behind.