Governor Patrick Morris Neff
Waco, McLennan County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Born at nearby McGregor, Texas, Pat M. Neff was the ninth child of Noah and Isabella (Shepherd) Neff. He was educated at Baylor University and the University of Texas Law School. As a young Waco lawyer, Neff was elected to the Texas House of Representatives, where he served three terms, 1899-1903, the last as Speaker of the House. He later held the office of McLennan County Attorney, 1906-12. He was elected as Texas' 27th governor in 1920 and inaugurated on Jan. 18, 1921. Gov. Neff supported improved roads and educational and prison reform. He appointed the first state park board to begin a park system. In 1922 he won a second term in the governor's office. In 1927 Neff was appointed to the Federal Railway Mediation Board and in 1928 was named chairman of the Texas Railroad Commission. He resigned that post in 1932 to become president of Baylor University, where he had been a trustee for 29 years. He presided over the growing institution until 1947. Neff was a prominent Baptist and Mason. He was married in 1899 to Myrtle Mainer (d. 1953) and had two children: Hallie Maude (Mrs. Frank Wilcox) and Pat M. Neff, Jr. Gov. Neff died in 1952 and was buried in Waco's Oakwood Cemetery.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Born near McGregor as the ninth child of a farming family, Pat M. Neff rose through Baylor and a Waco law practice to the Texas House, where he served as Speaker, and then to the governorship in 1920. As Texas' 27th governor he championed better roads, education and prison reform, and appointed the first state park board — the seed of the Texas park system. He later chaired the Railroad Commission and served two decades as president of Baylor University.
Why it matters
Neff's push for state parks and public reform helped shape modern Texas government, and his life links the state's Baptist, legal, and political institutions across half a century.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Pat M. Neff
- · Myrtle Mainer Neff
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
R. E. B. Baylor
Waco, TX
Robert Emmett Bledsoe Baylor packed several lifetimes into one: Kentucky legislator, congressman from two states, U.S. senator, soldier in the War of 1812 and the Mexican War, and finally a jurist and Baptist preacher in the young Republic of Texas. In 1845 he helped found the university that bears his name, giving its first thousand dollars and leading its board, and he championed both Christian education and a free public school system. He preached the first sermon and held the first court in Waco.
Burleson Quadrangle
Waco, TX
Named for Rufus C. Burleson, the first president of Baylor's Waco campus, Burleson Quadrangle took its enduring shape as the university's four original buildings rose between 1886 and 1903. For generations it has been the setting of Baylor traditions, from the spring "Ring Out" ivy-chain ceremony to the passing of the key to a 1945 centennial time capsule. Its bronze statue of Burleson, unveiled in 1905, is the work of the noted sculptor Pompeo Coppini.
George W. Carroll Science Hall
Waco, TX
Baylor University's Carroll Science Hall was named for businessman and philanthropist George Washington Carroll, whose gifts of $60,000 and $15,000 funded its construction. Completed in 1903 to a Beaux Arts design by architect S. Wemyss Smith, its three floors and basement housed laboratories and classrooms for chemistry, physics, biology, geology, and astronomy, along with an early home of Baylor's museum. After new science buildings rose in the 1960s, renovations converted it to classrooms, and it now houses the Department of English while keeping its original name.
Old Main
Waco, TX
Completed in 1887, Old Main was the first building raised on Baylor's Waco campus after the university moved from Independence, and for years its 17 classrooms and 24 offices served as the whole institution at once. It held the 3,000-volume library, campus religious groups, and even a radio studio and tower. Damaged in the 1953 tornado and threatened with demolition in the 1960s, the Italianate and Gothic landmark was fully restored and rededicated in 1976.