Governor Patrick Morris Neff

Neff's climb to the governor's office is the part the plaque skips. In 1920 he ran with no headquarters and no campaign manager, drove 6,000 miles, and toured thirty-seven counties no candidate for governor had visited. Former senator Joseph Weldon Bailey took the primary plurality, but Neff won the runoff, which the Handbook of Texas says helped end Bailey's influence. In office he increased funding for rural and vocational schools and helped establish Texas Technological College. His veto of a West Texas agricultural college bill set off the Sweetwater Secession movement, which drew publicity but no formal action.

What the plaque says

Governor Patrick Morris Neff Born at nearby McGregor, Texas, Pat M. Neff was the ninth child of Noah and Isabella (Shepherd) Neff. He was educated at Baylor University and the University of Texas Law School. As a young Waco lawyer, Neff was elected to the Texas House of Representatives, where he served three terms, 1899-1903, the last as Speaker of the House. He later held the office of McLennan County Attorney, 1906-12. He was elected as Texas' 27th governor in 1920 and inaugurated on Jan. 18, 1921. Gov. Neff supported improved roads and educational and prison reform. He appointed the first state park board to begin a park system. In 1922 he won a second term in the governor's office. In 1927 Neff was appointed to the Federal Railway Mediation Board and in 1928 was named chairman of the Texas Railroad Commission. He resigned that post in 1932 to become president of Baylor University, where he had been a trustee for 29 years. He presided over the growing institution until 1947. Neff was a prominent Baptist and Mason. He was married in 1899 to Myrtle Mainer (d. 1953) and had two children: Hallie Maude (Mrs. Frank Wilcox) and Pat M. Neff, Jr. Gov. Neff died in 1952 and was buried in Waco's Oakwood Cemetery. (1975)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Armstrong Browning Library — steps away
  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 — 0.7 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 — 0.8 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 — 1.1 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
• The Texas Collection — steps away
• Baylor University — steps away