The university began as the East Texas Normal College in 1889 when founder William Leonidas Mayo opened the doors to a one-building campus in Cooper, Texas, roughly 16 miles northeast of Commerce. After a fire destroyed the original campus in 1894, Mayo moved the college to its present location in Commerce, Texas, due to the presence of a railroad to commute students from Dallas and areas from both North and East Texas.
The state of Texas purchased the campus from Mayo in 1917. Shortly after the purchase of the school, Mayo died suddenly and the school was named East Texas State Teachers College. The name was chosen by the state of Texas due to the state already having schools named for the north, south and west geographic areas of the state and Commerce was the city easternmost of the four. As a result, Commerce received the name for the East Texas school, despite being geographically located in rural North Texas.
In 1957, the Texas Legislature, recognizing that the purpose of the institution had broadened from teacher education, changed the name of the college to East Texas State College. Following the inauguration of the first doctoral program in 1962, the name was changed to East Texas State University. ETSU opened branch locations in Mesquite, Dallas and Texarkana. In 1996, the university joined the Texas A&M University System, in the process of renaming the school, the names North Texas A&M, East Texas A&M, and Northeast Texas A&M were all considered, but the university system decided to honor the affinity of the town and the school and it became Texas A&M University–Commerce. The Texarkana branch of A&M-Commerce separated from the Commerce college, and it became Texas A&M University–Texarkana, a separately administered and funded university.
