UMHB Judge Baylor's Grave

Robert Emmett Bledsoe Baylor was nearing fifty years of age when he arrived in Texas following the fight for independence. Traveling from Alabama, Baylor was a lawyer as well as a gospel preacher. Baylor was born in Kentucky, served in the War of 1812, pursued a career in the law, served as a legislator from Alabama to the U.S. Congress, and ordained to the Baptist ministry. 

No one knows his motive for coming to Texas about 1839. When the Congress of the Republic of Texas elected judges for the seven districts, Baylor was chosen as a judge of the Third District without opposition. He also served as an associate justice of the Texas Supreme Court and a member of the annexation committee when Texas joined the Union.

 He partnered with Z. N. Morrell in founding churches and associations and holding revival meetings in the vicinity of La Grange. He was influential in the growth of the Baptist denomination by organizing the Union Baptist Association. At the group’s second meeting, he proposed establishing a Baptist college in Texas. The Association established the Texas Baptist Educational Society to pursue the idea and named Baylor as president. In the fall of 1844, Baylor and his close friend, William M. Tryon, finalized the proposal; it was introduced to the Republic of Texas Congress by Sen. George Alexander Pattillo. As the proposal made its way through the legislative process, there were questions of what to name the new school. Although Baylor and Tryon each offered the other’s name, the judge’s name prevailed. President Anson Jones signed the charter creating Baylor University on February 1, 1845. 

For more than twenty years Judge Baylor traveled over the state, holding court during the day and preaching at night. Throughout his life he maintained involvement in Baptist programs. He spent his final years at his Washington County home in relative obscurity and near poverty. Judge Baylor died in 1873 when Baylor was located at Independence, Texas. He was buried on campus according to his final wishes to be interred in “Baylor soil” and remained there after Baylor moved to Waco and Baylor Female College moved to Belton.

The building and grounds of old Baylor were eventually abandoned, and the land sold to the Roman Catholics. About 1915, the Baptist General Convention of Texas at its annual meeting recommended that “the early remains of Judge Baylor should be removed from their present place of sepulcher and solemnly buried in some suitable place where they may have due attention and care from our Baptist people.” A committee was appointed to oversee the grave relocation.

A proposal was sent first to Baylor University trustees, but the board declined the offer. “We do not think it advisable to inter [Judge Baylor’s remains] them on the University campus.” The committee withdrew its offer and made a proposal to the board of Baylor Female College which quickly accepted. Arrangements were made for the exhumation and the bones were found to be perfectly preserved. The only other articles found in the grave were metal handles of the coffin and a large Masonic emblem. On May 5, 1917, following a ceremony in Belton, Judge Baylor’s remains were laid to rest next to the Wilson Administration Building and Alma Reeves Chapel.

When the Wilson Administration Building burned in February 1964, walls fell on the grave’s marble slab, shattering it. Workmen clearing away the rubble piled up large slabs and stones to mark the grave and it remained in that condition until 1965 when a permanent memorial was created in in the center of campus in what is now Heritage Plaza. Each Charter Day seniors place a wreath at the grave of Judge R.E.B. Baylor.

Banta, John. "Baylor's Grave Needs a Marker." Waco News-Tribune, Dec. 18, 1964, 6A.

Gambrell, Herbert. "Robert Emmett Bledsoe Baylor (1791-1873). Speech delivered at Mary Hardin-Baylor College, May 1936.

Gravesite at College Cleaned Up. The Austin American Statesman, April 1, 1964.

Utley, Dan K. and Cynthia J. Beeman. History Along the Way: Stories Beyond the Texas Roadside Markers. College Station, Tex. : Texas A&M University Press, 2013.