Baylor University for Boys
Independence, Washington County, Texas
Marker Inscription
On this site stood one of the early buildings of Baylor University erected for boys in 1851, and torn down in 1934; The institution was incorporated February 1, 1845 under the laws of the Republic of Texas; named for Robert Emmett Bledsoe Baylor who with Reverend William M. Tryon secured the charter; Henry L. Graves was elected first president January 12, 1846; consolidated with Waco University in 1886 and moved to Waco; Baylor University; The oldest existing educational institution in Texas; continues in unselfish service; Pro Ecclesia, Pro Texana
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Chartered on February 1, 1845 under the laws of the Republic of Texas, Baylor University opened a building for its male students on this Independence site in 1851. Named for Judge R.E.B. Baylor, who with the Rev. William M. Tryon secured the charter, the school elected Henry L. Graves its first president in 1846. In 1886 it consolidated with Waco University and moved west to Waco, where it endures as the oldest institution of higher learning in Texas.
Why it matters
Baylor's founding in the last months of the Texas Republic marks the beginnings of higher education in a frontier nation about to join the United States, seeding an institution that outlived the town that bore it.
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Related people
- · Robert Emmett Bledsoe Baylor
- · William M. Tryon
- · Henry L. Graves
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Robert Emmett Bledsoe Baylor (1793-1873)
Independence, TX
R.E.B. Baylor, a Kentucky native who served in the War of 1812 and the Creek War, rose in law and politics before moving to Texas in 1839. He became a judge of the Republic of Texas Supreme Court and, after a religious conversion, helped found the Texas Baptist Education Society and worked with W.M. Tryon and J.G. Thomas to charter Baylor University in 1845. The university opened at Independence, where Baylor taught law without pay and served as a trustee before his death in 1873.
Baylor University on Windmill Hill
Independence, TX
Chartered by the Republic of Texas in 1845, Baylor University soon spread from Academy Hill to a second campus here on Windmill Hill, where a nearby quarry yielded "superior building rock" for stone halls like Graves Hall and Tryon Hall. Under president Rufus Burleson the male department developed here through the 1850s and Civil War years, growing to at least eight buildings on a 40-acre campus. Facing declining enrollment, trustees merged with Waco University and abandoned the site by 1886; fire, neglect, and demolition erased the buildings, and the ground is now a commemorative park.
Site of Independence School
Independence, TX
This town-square site traces the arc of public education in a small Texas community, from private schools in the 1830s through the arrival of tax-supported public schooling in the 1870s. Following the county court's 1870 order, precincts were split into separate districts for white and Black students, a stark record of the segregated schooling that shaped the post-Civil War South. A schoolhouse rose here in 1889, burned in 1939, was rebuilt, and finally closed in 1953 after the Gilmer-Aiken Law reshaped Texas school districts.
Independence
Independence, TX
Founded in the 1830s and briefly renamed to celebrate the Texas Declaration of Independence, Independence grew into the wealthiest town in Texas by 1845, when it won the newly chartered Baylor University. Sam Houston was baptized in nearby Little Rocky Creek in 1854, and the town bustled with a hotel, stagecoach depot, and Masonic lodge. When its leaders refused right-of-way to the railroad, trade drifted elsewhere and Baylor departed in 1886, leaving a quiet rural community.