Baylor University

Baylor University owes its founding to Robert E. B. Baylor, James Huckins, and William Milton Tryon, who in 1841 organized an education society in the Texas Union Baptist Association with the purpose of establishing a Baptist university in Texas. Baylor was chartered by the Republic of Texas on February 1, 1845, and was opened in 1846 at Independence. Professor Henry F. Gillette directed the school until the arrival of its first president, Henry Lee Graves, who received notice of his election on January 12, 1846, arrived in Independence in December 1846, and entered upon his duties on February 4, 1847. That year Graves organized a collegiate department and in 1849 added lectures in law. He resigned in 1851 and was succeeded by Rufus C. Burleson, who, during his first year as president announced a course of study leading to graduation. The university granted its first degree in 1854. In 1861, as a result of continued disagreement with the board of trustees, Burleson and the entire faculty of the male department resigned. George W. Baines, Sr., became president and in 1863 was succeeded by William Carey Crane, during whose presidency the curriculum was broadened and the female department became a separate institution, Baylor Female College (see UNIVERSITY OF MARY HARDIN-BAYLOR). From 1866 to 1886 Baylor University was a male school. After Crane's death in 1885, Reddin Andrews, Jr., an alumnus, was made president.

In 1886 the Baptist General Association of Texas and the State Convention, under the control of which Baylor had been operating since 1848, were combined to form the Baptist General Convention, and as a result Baylor University and Waco University, which Burleson had headed since he resigned as president of Baylor at Independence, were consolidated and rechartered as Baylor University in Waco. Under the control of the Baptist General Convention, Baylor was established on the Waco campus by the end of 1887. Burleson was made president emeritus in June 1897. Professor John C. Lattimore, as chairman of the faculty, directed the school until 1899, when Oscar Henry Cooper was made president. Cooper secured two new buildings and raised academic standards.