Robert Emmett Bledsoe Baylor Statue
In 1841, delegates to the Union Baptist Association meeting accepted the suggestion of Reverend William Milton Tryon and District Judge R.E.B. Baylor to establish a Baptist university in Texas. The Texas Baptist Education Society then petitioned the Congress of the Republic of Texas to charter a Baptist university in the fall of 1844, ultimately requesting it be named after Judge Baylor. Republic President Anson Jones signed the Act of Congress on February 1, 1845, officially establishing Baylor University.
A native of Kentucky, Judge Baylor served in the Continental Army as a member of the 3rd Light Dragoons. In 1819, he was elected to the Kentucky State Legislature. His reputation continued to grow after moving to Tuscaloosa, Alabama. In 1824, Baylor was elected to the Alabama State Legislature and became a United States Representative from that state in 1828. In 1836, Baylor led a battalion of Alabama volunteers against the Creek Indians.
One of the defining moments of R.E.B. Baylor’s life came in 1839 with his conversion to Christianity. He was ordained shortly after his conversion experience, leaving his flourishing political career in Alabama behind to spread the Gospel.
At the age of 46, Baylor moved to Texas where he continued to devote his life to law and his new faith. In 1841, he was appointed an associate justice of Texas’ Supreme Court. While judging cases around the state, he presided over the first district court held in Waco and preached perhaps the first sermon offered in Waco. He was involved in a number of religious organizations including the Texas Baptist Education Society, the Union Association, and the Texas Baptist State Convention. He had joined the Freemasons in 1825 and served as a chaplain for that society in 1843, 1846, and 1847.
During his residence in Texas, Judge Baylor owned slaves, predominantly women, including 33 enslaved people in 1860. Being a slaveholder formed a significant portion of his wealth, which totaled $24,000 in real estate and $35,000 in personal estate in 1860 — sums that made him among the wealthiest residents of Washington County at the time.
Legal matters involving slaves came before Baylor with some frequency during his service as a judge in Texas. He did not serve in the Confederate military, as he was 67 years old when the Civil War began. However, he did continue serving as a judge in Texas during the Civil War and can also be said to have supported the cause of the Confederacy, broadly speaking.
Despite his involvement as a donor and law professor, Baylor was never a president of the University. He also was never married nor had children. He died in 1873 and was buried at Baylor University’s original campus in Independence, Texas, but his remains were later transferred to the University of Mary-Hardin Baylor in 1917.
The statue of Judge R.E.B. Baylor, created by Pompeo Coppini, and funded by the Texas Centennial Commission, was unveiled on February 1, 1939, on the 94th anniversary of Baylor University’s founding. In 2024 the area around the statue was updated with additional pieces of limestone that include the more complete story of Baylor’s namesake, founders and trustees.