Female Department of Baylor University

Duane's take

The way the marker tells it, here's what stood on this very ground. On this site rose the Female Department of Baylor University, incorporated under the laws of the Republic of Texas on February 1, 1845. The Republic of Texas.

Not the state, not the territory. The Republic. That right there should tell you something about how far back this story reaches.

The first president, Henry L. Graves, was elected on January 12, 1846, and before that year was even a few months old, something else was already stirring. The Preparatory Department for Boys and Girls opened its doors on May 18, 1846, with H.

F. Gillett standing at the front of the room as teacher. Education putting down roots in Texas soil while the ground was still fresh.

Then came 1851, and Rufus C. Burleson stepped in as president. Years passed, the way they do.

Decades, even. And then 1886 arrived, and with it, a fork in the road. Baylor University packed up and moved to Waco, consolidating with Waco University.

But the Female Department, it didn't simply follow along and disappear into that merger. No. It headed to Belton and kept right on going, under a new name: Mary Hardin-Baylor College.

Started as a department of a university in a republic that no longer existed, and it just kept becoming something more. That's the kind of stubbornness Texas tends to admire.

What the marker says

On this site stood the Female Department of Baylor University incorporated under the laws of the Republic of Texas, February 1, 1845; Henry L. Graves, first president, was elected January 12, 1846; Preparatory Department for Boys and Girls was opened May 18, 1846 with H. F. Gillett as teacher; Rufus C. Burleson became president in 1851; in 1886 when Baylor University moved to Waco and consolidated with Waco University; the Female Department moved to Belton and now bears the name of Mary Hardin-Baylor College