Hardin-Simmons University

Oscar Henry Cooper, one of the presidents the plaque names, came to Abilene with a long record. He graduated first in his class at Yale in 1872, served as state superintendent of public instruction from 1886 to 1890, and led Galveston's schools when they won a gold medal at the Paris Exposition, the only Southern city on that list. After presiding over Baylor from 1899 to 1902, he ran Simmons College until 1909. For its first decade the school had taught mostly high school subjects; under Cooper it added three more years of study and began granting bachelor's degrees.

What the plaque says

Organized as Abilene Baptist College by cattlemen, preachers, and Sweetwater Baptist Association in 1891. Named for New York pastor, James B. Simmons, after he donated funds for completing the first building, which housed the president, classes, and women students during school's early years. Men lived in nearby barn-like structure, "Valhalla." Noted early presidents were the missionary-editor, O. C. Pope, Oscar Henry Cooper, renowned educator; and Jefferson Davis Sandefer, in whose term (1909-1940) the school made extensive growth. Approximately 44,000 students have been enrolled, and 10,000 degrees conferred. Ex-students enter business and the professions, including medicine, law, teaching, engineering; ministers and lay workers serve in hundreds of pulpits and on all continents. Students come from many states and foreign countries. Athletic teams are "Cowboys"; the "Cowboy" band, famous nationally, has played in 45 states and on 3 continents. Renamed Simmons University, 1925; and Hardin-Simmons in 1934, after generous benefactions by John G. and Mary Hardin. Since 1940, guided by the Baptist General Convention of Texas. Most of extant buildings have been constructed since 1945. (1967)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Frontier Texas! — 1.9 mi
  Abilene's multimedia museum of the frontier as the settlers told it, beside the Texas and Pacific tracks the town was built on, and the official visitor center for the Texas Forts Trail.
• Fort Phantom Hill — 12 mi
  A field of lone stone chimneys north of Abilene, left by the fire after the Army left in 1854, later a stage stop and a buffalo-hide town of more than 500 people.
• Buffalo Gap Historic Village — 14 mi
  The 1880 stone courthouse and jail of the county seat Abilene took away, with about twenty old buildings from around West Texas gathered around it since 1956.
• Abilene State Park — 19 mi
  A pecan-shaded park on Elm Creek in the Callahan Divide south of Abilene, with red sandstone CCC buildings, a summer pool, a bird blind and yurts under the trees.

More markers nearby

• Hendrick Medical Center — 0.3 mi
• Site of Old Headquarters of the Hashknife Ranch — 0.8 mi
• Morgan Jones — 1.3 mi
• James Harrison Parramore — 1.4 mi