William C. Crane

Late in Crane's presidency Texas Baptists debated merging Baylor with Waco University, and he and Baylor's "Old Guard" fought to keep the school at Independence, though a move had become plain. He was pastor of the Independence Baptist Church for eighteen years, wrote a classic biography of Sam Houston and chaired the committee that recommended founding Sam Houston Normal Institute. In 1866 he urged the legislature to create a graduate school at Austin, though he later opposed a state university that he believed would undermine existing colleges. He was the first Baylor president to die in office.

What the plaque says

William C. Crane Born In Richmond Va. March 17, 1816. Died in Independence Tex. Feb. 27, 1885. He gave his life to the cause of education and religion in Ga. Ala. Miss. La. and Texas. The remains of Dr. Crane were removed from Washington County and on February 26, 1937 Reinterred in this cemetery by the State of Texas [Footstone] President Baylor University 1863 - 1885

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Texas State Cemetery — steps away
  A hill east of the Capitol that began with one general's grave in 1851 and now holds Stephen F. Austin, governors, Barbara Jordan and more than 2,000 Confederate veterans and widows.
• French Legation State Historic Site — 0.3 mi
  A raised pine house built in 1840 and 1841 for France's envoy to the Republic of Texas, who left Austin in a rage over a neighbor's pigs before it was finished.
• George Washington Carver Museum — 0.4 mi
  East Austin's museum of Black history and culture, grown from a segregated branch library moved across town in 1933, with a permanent exhibit on Juneteenth at its core.
• Texas State Capitol — 1.0 mi
  Austin's fourth statehouse, a Renaissance Revival capitol of 1888 that stands 311 feet to its Goddess of Liberty and was restored after the 1983 fire.

More markers nearby

• Judge Edwin Waller — steps away
• Dr. George Moffit Patrick — steps away
• William E. Collard — steps away
• Major William Cooke — steps away