Robert Emmett Bledsoe Baylor, 1791-1873, founded Baylor University under the Republic of Texas in 1845, gave the first thousand dollars to the institution, served as president of its first Board of Trustees, and taught in its first law faculty. He was a member of the Kentucky legislature, a congressman from Kentucky, a congressman from Alabama, and a United States Senator from Alabama. He served five years as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Texas and twenty years as a district judge in the state courts, and he was also commander of a company in the War of 1812 and a soldier in the Creek and Indian War, Mexican War, and Texas-Indian War. As a religious leader, he organized the Union Association, the first Baptist organization in Texas, presented the first report on behalf of Christian education in Texas, and became the first president of the Texas Educational Society, which sponsored a free public school system. A preacher and lawyer, he preached the first sermon and held the first court in Waco, upholding the law and proclaiming the Gospel.