Dr. Horace G. Clark

Horace Clark's early life was at sea. The Handbook of Texas says he served four years under an uncle who was a merchant captain and was pressed into the Portuguese navy at fourteen in Rio de Janeiro, until the United States consul got him released. He studied at Shurtleff and Georgetown colleges and ran academies in Kentucky and La Grange before Independence. He was secretary of the Baptist State Convention of Texas in 1856 to 1858 and 1867, and later a Masonic grand chaplain. He died in 1909 and is buried in Glenwood Cemetery in Houston.

What the plaque says

Dr. Horace G. Clark Born in Massachusetts. Coming to Texas (1850) with wife, Martha Davis Clark, he was principal and second president of Baylor Female College. Mrs. Clark also taught and counseled students. Family operated dormitory on this site 20 years. Dr. Clark, with $1,000 gift from Dr. Asa Hoxey, built 3-story main hall. He was ordained to ministry (1858) at Independence Baptist Church. Family opened Clark's Academy, Houston, 1871; Dr. Clark took Holy Orders (1880), Christ Episcopal Church, Houston, and was a rector in Corpus Christi. Mrs. Clark, a lifelong Baptist, died in 1896. (1970)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Independence and Old Baylor Park — steps away
  A crossroads north of Brenham that was the richest town in Texas when it won Baylor University in 1845, refused the railroad, and lost the college to Waco and Belton in 1886.
• Washington-on-the-Brazos State Historic Site — 12 mi
  The townsite on the Brazos where delegates met in a cold, unfinished hall in March 1836 to declare Texas independent, with Independence Hall rebuilt and Anson Jones's Barrington farm worked as in 1850.
• Star of the Republic Museum — 12 mi
  A star-shaped museum of the Republic of Texas years, 1836 to 1846, built at Washington-on-the-Brazos after a Brenham campaign and opened on March 1, 1970.
• Navasota — 17 mi
  A railroad and cotton town where the La Bahia Road crossed the Navasota River, scarred by an 1865 explosion and yellow fever, and the home ground of the songster Mance Lipscomb.

More markers nearby

• Columns of a Building of Old Baylor University — steps away
• Female Department of Baylor University — steps away
• John Prince Coles — steps away
• Site of the Home of General Sam Houston and Family — steps away