|
History
Home
1849-1883: The Early History 1956-1984: Development of the Modern Law School 1985-present: Continuing the Tradition
|
1849 to 1883: The Early History Baylor University was organized at Independence, Texas, by the Baptist denomination in Texas in 1845. It was granted a charter by an act of the Congress of the Republic of Texas on February 1, 1845. The university was named for Judge R.E.B. Baylor, who was a member of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Texas, and later a state district court judge. In 1849, Baylor and another trustee of the university, Judge Abner S. Lipscomb of the Supreme Court of the State of Texas, began teaching classes in the "science of law." Baylor University was thus the second university west of the Mississippi to teach law. St. Louis University, beginning in 1842, was the first. Lipscomb died in 1856. The School of Law was formally organized at Baylor in 1857, and Judge Royall T. Wheeler, also a justice of the Texas Supreme Court, was appointed head of the law school. R.E.B. Baylor, Captain W.P. Rogers, and John Sayles were on the faculty with Wheeler when the law school first opened. They were all part-time teachers when there were thirteen students in the law school upon its organization. Students completed a two-year course of study, which included a moot court course and other lecture courses. Sayles devoted much of his time to the law school and later printed his lectures as Sayles' Treatise on the Practice in the District Courts and Supreme Court of Texas. He was apparently the first law textbook writer in the state. He later wrote several other practice books and compiled various editions of Sayles' Texas Statutes, which eventually became Vernon's Texas Statutes several generations later. Wheeler resigned as the head of the law school in 1860. The first law class graduated in 1858 during his tenure, and by the time of his resignation twenty-nine others had graduated. Of these the most renowned was Thomas J. Brown, who served as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Texas from 1893 to 1911, then as Chief Justice from 1911 to 1915. Baylor Law School suspended operations during the Civil War. In 1866, R.E.B. Baylor, Sayles, R.T. Smyth, John Alexander, and James E. Shepard were reappointed to the law school faculty. Though Smyth is recognized as the full-time resident faculty member, Shepard is generally recognized as the second Dean of the law school. Shepard served in this capacity until the law school suspended operations once again 1871. Records of students or graduates during this time are incomplete. R.E.B. Baylor taught a course in Constitutional Law until his death in 1873. Sayles and Shepard continued to be listed as members of the faculty of the University until 1883, and Shepard is believed to have taught law courses up until that time. In 1883, the School of Law at Texas University opened, and law classes would not be offered on a regular basis at Baylor for another thirty-seven years. |