Baylor University

Baylor grew into a family of schools, and several left. The female department became Baylor Female College under President Crane and is now the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor. Baylor Theological Seminary began in 1905, separated in 1908, and moved to Fort Worth in 1910 as Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Dallas gained a medical college in 1903, nursing in 1909 and dentistry in 1918. The law school opened in 1857, closed in 1883 and reopened in 1920. The Handbook of Texas dates these changes; the plaque keeps to the charter, the namesake and the first presidents.

What the plaque says

Baylor University World's largest Baptist University. Founded under charter issued by congress of Republic of Texas on Feb. 1, 1845, and in continuous operation ever since. Named for Judge R.E.B. Baylor (1791-1873), a native of Kentucky, an 1820s United States Congressman from Alabama, one of the first district judges in Texas. Judge Baylor, with the Rev. William Tryon and the Rev. James Huckins, obtained the charter under the terms of a resolution of the Union Baptist Association to establish "A Baptist University...to meet the needs of all the ages to come." First location was at Independence, in Washington County. Early presidents were Henry L. Graves (1847-52), Refus C. Burleson (1852-61), George W. Baines (1861-63), and William Carey Crane (1863-85). Texas supreme court justices Abner S. Limpscomb, Royal T. Wheeler, and Judge Baylor taught the first law classes. An early benefactor was General Sam Houston, who sent his children to the university and who initiated construction of the first woman's building. In 1886 the university moved to Waco, where new schools have been added and the plant enlarged in later years. The Armstrong Browning Library, Texana collections, and other features are world renowned. (1970)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Armstrong Browning Library — 0.2 mi
  A three-story Italian Renaissance library on the Baylor campus built to hold A. J. Armstrong's Browning collection, dedicated in December 1951 and now, by its own account, the world's largest of Browning material.
• Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum — 0.6 mi
  The official state repository of Texas Ranger memorabilia, opened in 1968 in Fort Fisher Park on the Brazos, named for a Ranger post of 1837 whose site no one has located.
• Dr Pepper Museum — 0.7 mi
  The 1906 bottling plant of the Artesian Manufacturing and Bottling Company, built where Dr Pepper outgrew a Waco drugstore soda fountain, now the Dr Pepper Museum.
• Waco Suspension Bridge — 1.0 mi
  A Brazos crossing opened in January 1870 as the longest single-span suspension bridge west of the Mississippi, tolled until 1889, closed to vehicles in 1971 and now walked.

More markers nearby

• R. E. B. Baylor — steps away
• Burleson Quadrangle — steps away
• Governor Patrick Morris Neff — steps away
• Carroll Library — steps away