The Founding of Baylor

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In addition to support for missions, the Triennial Convention of 1817 also recognized the need for educating its ministers and recommended the formation of education societies. In To Light the Ways of Time, Baylor historian Eugene Baker writes, "The rapid growth of these groups was phenomenal, and within two decades a Baptist education society was operating in almost every state in the Union. These early education societies gradually became the catalyst for the creation of institutions of learning" including Baptist schools and colleges from New England to Georgia.

Two of Baylor's three principal founders benefited from these early Baptist educational endeavors: William M. Tryon as one of the first students at Mercer Institute in Penfield, Georgia, and James Huckins at Brown University in Rhode Island. Both men were sent to the Republic of Texas as missionaries of the American Baptist Home Missions society. The men worked diligently to spread the gospel and establish churches, some of which would come together to form the Union Baptist Association.

At their first annual meeting, delegates agreed to establish the Texas Baptist Education society–R.E.B. Baylor as president, Tryon as vice president and Huckins as a board manager–with the objective of establishing an "academical and theological institution" for the education of young men called to the ministry of the gospel.Their actions ultimately led to the founding of Baylor University; today, Baylor is affiliated with the Baptist General Convention of Texas and stands as the oldest university in Texas and the largest Baptist university in the world.

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