Professor John Sayles

John Sayles served as a faculty member of Baylor Law School when it first opened in 1857. He wrote numerous books pertaining to Texas laws, including Sayles' Texas Statutes, the predecessor to Vernon's Texas Statutes.

Sayles was born in Ithaca, New York in 1825. He began to teach in that state in 1840 at the age of 15. Later, he taught in Georgia. He attended college between terms and earned a B.A. from Hamilton College at Clinton, NY in 1845.

Shortly after receiving his degree, he moved to Brenham, Texas, where he read law and taught school. He was admitted to the bar in Texas in 1846. He represented Washington County in the Texas House of Representatives of the 6th Texas Legislature from 1855 to 1856.

Sayles joined R.E.B. Baylor and Royal T. Wheeler as one of the initial faculty members of the new law school at Baylor University. He taught there from 1857 until the school suspended operations in 1860. When the law school reopened in 1866, he was again appointed as a faculty member.

Sayles wrote more than fifteen titles related to Texas law, many of which were several volumes.

Sayles is listed as a faculty member at Baylor until 1883, when the school ceased to offer law classes on a regular basis. In 1886, Sayles moved to Abilene and practiced law there with his son in the firm of Sayles & Sayles. John Sayles died in 1897.