Distinguished Texan Robert Emmet Bledsoe Baylor

Robert Emmet Bledsoe Baylor was a lawmaker, judge, and lay preacher who served in the legislatures of Kentucky and Alabama, represented Alabama in the U.S. Congress from 1829 to 1831, and came to Texas in 1839. He was Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Texas from 1840 to 1846 and judge of the 3rd Judicial District from 1846 to 1863. He helped organize Baptist churches, Masonic lodges, and the Texas State Baptist Convention, and for leadership in their founding, Baylor University and Mary Hardin-Baylor College were named for him. In some of the eight counties of his 3rd Judicial District, he had to organize courts, carrying a Bible along with his law books. After a week of court, he would remain in a town to preach on Sunday, then ride his horse as far as 50 miles to hold court on Monday morning. He was a judge when Texas pioneered such legal rights as community property and homestead exemption, later accepted throughout the U.S. and much of the world. Baylor and 19 other state judges in Confederate Texas considered wartime matters including seizure of aliens' property, conscription of soldiers, and exemption by substitution. District Courts also tried suits involving slaves, land, personal property, contracts, and debts, as well as criminal charges such as assault, slander, fraud, and murder.

Belton, Texas · United States