George Washington Baines - The Baylor Years

The Baylor Years

Baines served as Baylor's president from 1861 to 1863 at a salary of $1,600 per year. He struggled to keep the school afloat despite financial woes and problems with his own health. He also taught grades 7-12—Baylor educated all above the sixth grade—and his college science class as well as handling the administration of the school. Baines resigned from the Baylor presidency because he believed himself to have been more suited for a pastorate than a college administrative post.

Baylor was the first institution of higher learning in Texas, and in time the school became the largest Baptist-related institution of higher education in the world. Baines encouraged women students at Baylor, and he and Mrs. Baines helped to provide them lodging. In his later years, Baines was a trustee of the Baylor female institution, the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor in Belton. The school has since gone coeducational. In 1886, four years after Baines' death, Baylor relocated to Waco, the seat of McLennan County.