Site of Soule University for Boys

Soule's first classes met in the Chappell Hill Institute building. Then R. J. Swearingen gave ten acres in another part of town, probably to keep male and female students apart, and a three-story stone hall begun in 1858 was finished in 1861 for $40,000. The army used it as a hospital and wrecked the library. A medical department in Galveston taught 143 students between 1865 and 1871 and graduated seventy-two. The planters who backed the school were ruined when the people they enslaved were freed, and fever kept students away. It lasted until 1888.

What the plaque says

Site of Soule University for Boys Established in 1855 and chartered in 1856 to replace Rutersville and Wesleyan Colleges. Closed during the Civil War and later by yellow fever. Succeeded in 1875 by Southwestern University

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Independence and Old Baylor Park — 14 mi
  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.
• Star of the Republic Museum — 14 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.
• Washington-on-the-Brazos State Historic Site — 14 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.
• Navasota — 20 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

• Chappell Hill — steps away
• Site of Chappell Hill College — 0.5 mi
• Cedar Creek Community — 1.3 mi
• William Jones E. Heard — 1.3 mi