Baylor's First Board of Trustees Monument
When the Republic of Texas chartered Baylor University on February 1, 1845, it designated 15 men, 12 of whom were Baptists, to serve as the institution’s first Board of Trustees. They were Robert S. Armistead, R.E.B. Baylor, Orin Drake, James L. Farquhar, Albert G. Haynes, Albert C. Horton, James Huckins, Richard B. Jarman, Nelson Kavanaugh, James S. Lester, Eli Mercer, Aaron Shannon, Edward W. Taylor, James G. Thomas, and William Milton Tryon.
By the time Baylor was chartered, chattel slavery had become woven into the cultural and economic fabric of the Republic of Texas. All three of Baylor’s primary founders were slaveholders, as well as 11 of Baylor’s first 15 members of the Board of Trustees. In the 1850 federal census of Washington County, where Baylor University was located at the time, 47 percent of the total population were enslaved people. Located in the Brazos River Valley between Houston and Austin, Washington County’s loamy soil was well suited to cotton cultivation, for which enslaved people provided much of the labor. At the onset of the American Civil War, the county had become the second most populous county in Texas and one of the leading cotton-producing counties in the state. Slavery formally ended in Texas after June 19, 1865, when Gen. Gordon Granger arrived at Galveston with occupying federal forces and announced emancipation.
Today, animated by the University’s Christian commitment, Baylor is striving to ensure that the University is a place that values equity, condemns injustice and offers a welcoming environment for all students, faculty, staff, alumni, and visitors to campus.
The monument honoring Baylor University’s first Board of Trustees was dedicated on May 15, 1945, in recognition of the centennial of the governing board’s first meeting in Brenham, Texas, shortly after the University’s founding in February 1845. The stone was removed in 2024 in conjunction with renovations to the area around the Judge Baylor statue, and information on the stone (full text below) was added to the more complete story of Baylor’s founders and trustees.
IN HONOR OF THE FIRST BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF BAYLOR UNIVERSITY ORGANIZED AT BRENHAM, TEXAS, ON MAY 15, 1845 LIVE OAK TREES BORDERING THE PLEASANCE WERE DEDICATED BY THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES ON MAY 15, 1945 MEMBERS OF THE ORIGINAL BOARD ROBERT S. ARMSTEAD – R.E.B. BAYLOR – O. DRAKE JAMES L. FARQUHAR – A.G. HAYNES – A.G. HORTON JAMES HUCKINS – R.B. JARMAN – NELSON KAVANAUGH JAMES S. LESTER – ELI MERCER – AARON SHANNON EDWARD W. TAYLOR – J. G. THOMAS – WILLIAM M. TRYON