Waco University

In 1861, Dr. Rufus C. Burleson (1823-1901) resigned as President of Baylor University (then located at Independence) to become head of the Waco Classical School, which had been founded in 1856 as the Trinity River Male High School by The Rev. Solomon G. O'Bryan. For 25 years Burleson worked tirelessly to make Waco University, as it was renamed in 1861, the pre-eminent Baptist college in the state, and by the early 1880s enrollment had reached over 400 students. In 1886, the Waco and Independence institutions were unified as Baylor University at Waco.