Robert Emmett Bledsoe Baylor (1793-1873)

R.E.B. Baylor, for whom Baylor University is named, was a prominent leader in diverse arenas of public service: military, judicial, political, educational, fraternal and religious. A Kentucky native, he served in the War of 1812 and the Creek Indian War, attaining the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. Following successes in law and politics in Kentucky and Alabama, he moved to Texas in 1839 and taught school at La Grange, later settling at Gay Hill (7 mi. W), where he built his home, Holly Oak.

Baylor was judge of the Third Judicial District and associate justice of the Republic of Texas Supreme Court, 1841-45. He continued as district judge during statehood, retiring in 1863. A Mason, he was Grand Chaplain of the Grand Lodge of Texas.

It was perhaps as a Baptist leader that Baylor received his greatest recognition. Converted to Christianity in 1839, he helped found the Texas Baptist Education Society in 1841. With W.M. Tryon and J.G. Thomas, he worked to start a Baptist university. Chartered in 1845 as Baylor University, it opened at Independence the following year and included a female department later chartered separately as Baylor Female College. Baylor served as a trustee for both institutions and taught law classes, accepting no pay for teaching.

Judge R.E.B. Baylor died on Dec. 30, 1873, with burial here on the Windmill Hill campus. The university moved to Waco in 1886, and in 1917, reburial of his remains occurred at Baylor Female College (now Mary Hardin-Baylor University) in Belton. This marker commemorates the judge's productive years here, from which his influence spread worldwide and is still in evidence today. (2006).