R. E. B. Baylor
Waco, McLennan County, Texas
Marker Inscription
(Front) Robert Emmett Bledsoe Baylor 1791-1873. Founder of Baylor University under the Republic of Texas 1845, donor of the first thousand dollars to the institution; president of the first board of trustees. Professor in the first law faculty. He exemplified in his life the motto of Baylor University "Pro Ecclesia Pro Texana." (Right) CONSTRUCTIVE STATESMAN-JUDGE BAYLOR. Was a member of the Kentucky legislature, congressman from Kentucky, congressman from Alabama, United States Senator from Alabama. He served five years as associate justice of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Texas. Twenty years as district judge for the state courts. As commander of a company in the War of 1812 and as a soldier in the Creek and Indian war, Mexican War and the Texas-Indian War. (Left) RELIGIOUS LEADER-JUDGE BAYLOR. Organized the Union Association. The first Baptist organization in Texas. Presented the first report in behalf of Christian education in Texas. He was the first president of the Texas Educational Society, sponsor of a free public school system. Preacher and lawyer. He preached the first sermon and held the first court in Waco giving direction and destiny to Texas by upholding the law and proclaiming the Gospel. (Back) Erected by the state of Texas 1936 with funds appropriated by the federal government to commemorate one hundred years of Texas Independence.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
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.
Why it matters
Baylor embodies how faith, law, and education were woven together in the founding of the Texas Republic, leaving institutions that still shape the state today.
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Related people
- · Robert Emmett Bledsoe Baylor
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Governor Patrick Morris Neff
Waco, TX
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.
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.
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.
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.