Daniel Baker College

Daniel Baker, the clergyman the college honored, had helped organize his church's first Texas presbytery in 1840 and Austin College in 1849, and had argued for a public school system. The college opened with seven faculty, four holding master's degrees from eastern colleges, and 111 students, a number that doubled within a year before falling to sixty-two by 1899. In 1946 Southwestern University took it over under J. N. R. Score's University of Small Colleges plan, abandoned in 1949. Under the Episcopal Diocese of Dallas from 1950 it was one of only two Episcopal senior colleges in the country.

What the plaque says

Affiliated with the Presbyterian Church and named for early Texas circuit-riding minister Daniel Baker (1791-1857), this institution was founded in 1888 by the Rev. Brainard Taylor McClelland (1845-1901). The college officially was chartered on April 5, 1889. McClelland, under whose leadership Brownwood's First Presbyterian Church was founded in 1876, served as the college's first president. His wife, Susan Mary Smith McClelland, was a member of the college faculty and assumed a leadership role for two years following her husband's death. Land for the college campus was donated by brothers Samuel R. and Modie J. Coggin. The first class of Daniel Baker graduates, consisting of eight students, received diplomas in May 1895. In addition to academic instruction, the college also featured an active sports program, with football, baseball, track, and basketball teams. Plagued with financial problems throughout its history, the college was briefly affiliated with the Methodist and Episcopal denominations. Finally, in 1953, it was consolidated with Howard Payne College, a Baptist school also located in Brownwood. (1992)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Lake Brownwood State Park — 10 mi
  A CCC park on a reservoir that filled in a single flood before its dam was done, with stone cabins, a hilltop dance pavilion and a grand staircase climbed by dancers arriving by boat.

More markers nearby

• Dr. Mollie W. Armstrong — steps away
• Brooke Smith — 0.4 mi
• The Rev. Noah Turner Byars — 0.6 mi
• Camp Collier, C.S.A. — 0.8 mi