Waco University

Duane's take

The way the official marker tells it, here's how I heard the story of Waco University. Back in 1856, a man named Reverend Solomon G. O'Bryan founded something called the Trinity River Male High School right here in Waco country.

Now that name didn't stick forever, but the school did, and what grew out of it is a story worth telling. Five years on, in 1861, a Dr. Rufus C.

Burleson made a decision that would shape Baptist education in Texas for a generation. Burleson, born in 1823, had been serving as President of Baylor University, which at the time was located over in Independence. He resigned that post, walked into a new chapter, and took the head position at what had become known as the Waco Classical School.

That same year, 1861, the school was renamed Waco University. And then the real work began. For twenty-five years, Burleson worked tirelessly, and that word tirelessly is the marker's own word, to make Waco University the pre-eminent Baptist college in the state of Texas.

By the early 1880s, enrollment had climbed to over four hundred students. That is not nothing. That is a university finding its legs and standing tall.

But here is where the story takes its final turn. In 1886, Waco University and that original Baylor University over in Independence were unified. One institution, brought together, carrying forward under the name Baylor University at Waco.

Rufus C. Burleson, who passed in 1901, had spent a quarter century building something that ultimately merged into a legacy larger than either school alone. Two rivers of Baptist education, joined at last.

What the marker says

In 1861, Dr. Rufus C. Burleson (1823-1901) resigned as President of Baylor University (then located at Independence) to become head of the Waco Classical School, which had been founded in 1856 as the Trinity River Male High School by The Rev. Solomon G. O'Bryan. For 25 years Burleson worked tirelessly to make Waco University, as it was renamed in 1861, the pre-eminent Baptist college in the state, and by the early 1880s enrollment had reached over 400 students. In 1886, the Waco and Independence institutions were unified as Baylor University at Waco.