Professor R.E.B. Baylor

Judge R.E.B. Baylor, for whom Baylor University is named, served as one of the first faculty members at the School of Law when it opened in 1857. He continued to teach classes until his death in 1873.

Baylor was born and educated in Kentucky. He read law under his uncle, Jesse Bledsoe, a congressman from Kentucky. Baylor served in the War of 1812, and later moved to Alabama, where he served in the Alabama Legislature.

In 1829, he served in the United States Congress representing the Tuscaloosa District. Failing to be reelected to Congress, he returned to the private practice of law.

He was converted in 1839 by the preaching of his cousin, Rev. Thomas Chilton, and soon became an ordained Baptist minister. In 1839, he moved to Texas, were he taught school. He became at once active in denominational and civil affairs and participated in the organization of the Union Baptist Association. He was later appointed by the Congress of the Republic of Texas as a District Judge, and later as a Supreme Court of the Republic of Texas. He was a member of the Constitutional Convention that met in Austin in 1845 to frame the Constitution of the State of Texas.

He was one of the original trustees and throughout his long life one of the most active supporters of Baylor University.