South Texas Baptist College was an ambitious institution chartered by Baptists who formed the South Texas Educational Conference about 1895 and in 1898 secured a campus site from local landowner C.C. Waller. Trustees serving when the college opened in the fall of 1898 were J.C. McGaughy of Hempsted, James F. Duncan of Houston, C.W. Matthews of Montgomery, W.J. Durham of Richmond, S.A. McCall of Willis, and J.E. Boulet, E.J. Matthews, J.L. Miles, and J.T. Sanders of Waller. W.E. Clark, A.M., of Georgetown College of Kentucky, was president; Matilda Shannon Clark was the college matron; Annie Black and Bellie James were teachers; and Thomas Shannon was secretary. The first session opened with three students and closed with 33, and the second opened with 15 and closed with 102. Courses of study covered primary through college subjects, and tuition ranged from $10 to $20 a term. The third session opened on Monday, Sept. 3, 1900, but on the night of Sept. 8-9 the great 1900 storm blew in from Galveston, severely damaging the college building, wrecking several churches, and demolishing the public school. Although no lives were lost in the town, damage throughout the section was so great that the college never reopened, and its campus has served since 1916 as a public school site.