Students had the option of studying agriculture in the early years of the university. The department was intended to prepare students to teach agriculture in secondary schools in rural areas. Some of the courses offered were in animal husbandry, gardening, soil and water conservation. A portion of campus was set aside for an experimental garden.

The professor most closely associated with the agriculture program was J. H. Legett. He first set foot on the campus as a North Texas student. Legett was an active participant in campus activities.  He played in the unofficial sports that were organized by the students in the early years of the school, playing both football and basketball. The football players had no regular uniforms at that time. He told the student newspaper, the Campus Chat, that he showed up for a game “dressed in some old clothes and wearing a mackintosh.” Legett published two short compositions in the North Texas State Normal Journal in 1904, when he was a junior. He was also member of the Glee Club in 1905.

After graduating in 1905, he worked at the Humble Oil Field for several months. He then wrote to the school requesting a teaching position in the Science Department. President J. S. Kendall hired him at a lab assistant on November 1, 1905. The classes he was first assigned to included chemistry, physics and English.  Legett  would advance to became the head of the Agricultural Department, which was organized in 1912.

During 1907, he was away from campus to attend the University of Chicago. During his absence, the Normal Building burned down. This destroyed all the scientific equipment owned by the school. His first task upon his return was to help purchase replacement equipment.

He continued the pattern set while he was a student and worked to be an active faculty member on campus.  In 1921, Legett served on the Faculty-Student Council and was chair of the Committee on the Schedule of Examinations. While a member of the Biology Department, he served as the president of the North Texas Biological Society, which was made up of the faculty of North and Central Texas Colleges and Universities. He would also hold the position of president of the Biologica Club of Texas. By 1928, he was the head of the Biology Department.  In 1933, Legett and Professor J. R. Swenson were honored by the Ex-Students at that organization’s annual banquet. In 1939, he was a member of the steering committee for the North Texas Teachers College Golden Jubilee Program to celebrate the school’s fiftieth year.

Legett served on committees and boards outside of the college. He was a member of the board of directors of the Denton County Livestock Show (1928). He showed his own dairy cattle in that same year.  He also held various offices in the Denton Commandery No. 45 Knights Templar. Legett served as a member of the board of directors of the Denton County Teachers Federal Credit Union.

After World War II, UNT was short on places to house the influx of former soldiers returning to civilian life and entering the college.  To house them the college purchased two military surplus structures.  The buildings had been previously used as Bachelor Officers Quarters in the Naval Air base at Eagle Mountain Lake in Tarrant County. They were disassembled and trucked to Denton and then rebuilt on land purchased from Professor Legett. The buildings became known as Legett Halls, to honor the former professor. The structures stood on the west side of Avenue E, between West Sycamore and West Prairie Streets.  The two-story frame buildings were used to house 200 men. Unfortunately, the structures were not popular with those housed in them. They were too evocative of military life, which the men were trying to leave behind them. The buildings were used until 1956, when they were torn down to make way for a new dormitory building, West Hall.

Legett retired in the summer of 1946.  The Department Agricultural ended at the same time.  J. H. Legett died in 1952.

Agricultural students worked on a garden plot as part of their studies. The Denton Courthouse could be seen in the distance.

Jesse Legett, the far left on the back row, is pictured with members of the Spring Oratorical Contest members, 1902.

J. H. Legett, assistant in Science, is pictured in the 1908 Yucca.

Legett Hall was marked by the number 37 on this 1953 photograph.