It is a most remarkable fact that those who bore a conspicuous part in the early struggles and triumphs of Texas were either the direct descendants of some of the most famous families on the continent, to which belonged distinguished statesmen, soldiers, and politicians, or else they were young men who gave promise of the highest usefulness in their sphere in life. Dr. R. C. Burleson, the subject of this memoir, forms no exception to this rule. His progenitors include men distinguished in every business and calling, during the colonial, revolutionary, and constitutional periods of the history of the United States. Possessing a dauntless and dashing element of character, they spent little time in hesitation and hovering around the old homestead in their youth, but pushed out and became powerful factors in the moral and material development of twenty-two States and Territories.
All the members of the American branch of the Burleson family have descended from two brothers: Sir Edward Burleson, who settled in Jewett City, Conn., in 1716, and Aaron Burleson, who settled in North Carolina in 1726. The descendants of these brothers have constituted two separate families, those of Sir Edward being Western people, in the common acceptance of that term, and those of Aaron being intensely Southern in sentiment and sympathy. Jonathan, a descendant of Aaron, son of John, and father of the subject of this sketch, was born near Lexington, Ky., October 6th, 1789. Both John Burleson and his wife, Abigail Adair, were strong in mind and resolute in purpose, and possessed that daring and courage always and everywhere a characteristic of pioneers. After attaining his majority and wedding Miss Elizabeth Byrd, Jonathan moved to Alabama, and settled on a farm near Decatur. Here he lived and died after amassing a large fortune, and raising a family of thirteen children. Rufus C. Burleson, seventh of these children, was born August 7th, 1823.
On his maternal side he was a lineal descendent of Sir William Byrd, founder of Richmond and Petersburg, Va., and Governor William Adair, of Kentucky, and inherited in no mean measure the courage and wisdom of these famous foundation builders in American history. Young Rufus was a precocious boy; and this precocity did not fade with his youth, as is often the case, but grew with his manhood and developed with his growth. At the early age of seven years he was ambitious to become a great scholar, a great lawyer, and a great orator, and laid his ambition, plans, and purposes before his father, whose pride and sympathies were thoroughly arroused in his boy's high aims and ideals.
At this tender age he had received some instruction at home, and had developed many of the qualities of the student. As a further means of preparation for a university course, he was placed in a country school taught in the neighborhood, where he made marked progress notwithstanding many interruptions. In the autumn of 1837 he entered Summerville Academy. He continued his work in this school until 1839, when he entered a select school at Danville, conducted by Dr. A. B. Sims, the course in which was correlated with that in the highest educational institutions of the State. Having finished the course there in less than twelve months, he returned to his father's home and again entered the school at Decatur. He remained in this school only one year.
Up to this time his intention was to study law and devote his energies and abilities to that profession; but he attended a revival meeting conducted by Rev. W. H. Holcombe in a Baptist church near his father's plantation, professed conversion, and immediately abandoned his plan, and resolved to prepare himself for the ministry. When he gave up his purpose of studying law, it became necessary to remodel his course of instruction, and in 1840, at the age of 17, he matriculated in Nashville University, and began to prepare himself for entrance into a theological seminary.
While in Nashville his health was greatly impaired by close application and confinement, and he was carried to his father's farm to recuperate. Here he studied Greek, Hebrew, and Bible history until 1842, when he accepted a tempting offer to teach a private school in Mayhew Prairie, Mississippi. This experience as a teacher, when his tastes and predilections were in a formative state, leads on to his career in Texas, where he elected to make education the work of his life. Having ample means to prosecute his law studies without performing the drudgery usually incident to a young lawyer's life, it is reasonable to say that but for his work at Mayhew Prairie he never would have engaged in teaching, and that disposition to instruct the young which afterward became in him an overweening, consuming desire would never have been formed; and, if it had not, the university at Waco, for which he did so much, might have gone like many other institutions of learning in the State, and never attained its present splendid proportions.
He taught in Mississippi from 1842 to 1845, then tendered his resignation, returned to his home, and in 1846 entered the Western Baptist Theological Seminary at Covington, Ky. He finished the course and received his diploma at this seminary June 21, 1847, and while yet standing within the shadow of the walls of his alma mater, surrounded by preceptors and class-mates, he raised his boyish face toward the skies, stretched his arms to the West, with both eyes closed as if to shut out the world, and said: “This day I solemnly consecrate my life to Texas.”
How well this resolution was executed, and what a potent power Dr. Burleson has been for more than a half century in the moral, educational, and material development of Texas, every page reciting the history of this State tells unmistakably. With him a resolution was much more than mere words, for both principle and sentiment were involved.
He offered his services as missionary to Texas to the missionary board of the Southern Baptist Convention, they were accepted, and he was assigned as missionary pastor to a small church in the frontier village of Gonzales. He spent some time before fixing a date for his departure in the study of the history of Texas and its people, and reviewing the lives of eminent pioneers, who had founded governments, churches, and great institutions of learning, that all mistakes might be as far as possible avoided in his field of operations.
He left Covington for Texas in the fall of 1847, and while at his father's house, near Decatur, en route, for a last visit and day of rest, he was informed that Dr. Wm. M. Tryon, pastor of the Baptist church at Houston, had died of yellow fever, and he had been chosen as his successor by both the missionary board and the church. He was only 24 years old, and felt his inability to take up the work of this great man; but he often remarked in after life, when reciting the incident, “A small voice whispered in my ear, `My grace is sufficient.”' The journey to New Orleans was made by private conveyance, and from there he took a steamer for Galveston, landing in that seaport January 5th, 1848. He proceeded to Houston and assumed his new charge in that month. His preaching was so acceptable, and his administration of this pastorate so wise, that the State soon became filled with his fame and praise. While serving this church as pastor, his determination to consecrate his life to Texas was subjected to a severe test in a great variety of ways. He was prostrated with yellow fever in 1848, fell helpless and insensible on the streets a victim of cholera in 1849, was offered the pastorate of a wealthy church at Huntsville, Alabama, was elected corresponding secretary of the Southern Baptist Publication Society, and later on was offered the presidency of Union University, Tennessee, as well as the presidency of Shreveport University, Louisiana. All these scourges, misfortunes, and tempting honors would have been enough to move an ordinary man to forget his vow and turn his back on the people with whom he had resolved to rise or fall. Not so with him.
In 1848 the scattered churches in Texas decided to hold a general conference for the purpose of discussing the advisability of forming a State convention. Pastor Burleson was elected a delegate to the conference from the Houston church, and took his seat in that body September 8th, 1848. He had been in the State at this time only eight months. His participation in the organization of the Baptist General Convention on that occasion in Anderson marks Dr. Burleson's entrance into public life in Texas. From that time on to his death in Waco a few weeks ago no history of Texas can be written, and especially no history of the Baptist church, without mention of the great service he rendered the State.
At the close of the second session of the Union Association held at Clear Creek in 1841, the formation of a Baptist education society had been recommended. In 1842 the business of this association had been so disturbed by the Mexican invasion that nothing had been done in the way of carrying the resolution adopted the previous year into effect.
In 1843 the society had been formed, and R. E. B. Baylor elected president, and Dr. Wm. M. Tryon secretary. In 1844 the society had resolved to found a Baptist State university. The charter had been issued by the Republic of Texas February 1st, 1845, and the institution had been named in honor of Judge R. E. B. Baylor. On the 15th of May, 1845, the board of trustees had met and received and considered the bids of the several places that were candidates for the location, and Independence had been selected. January 12th, 1846, Dr. Henry L. Graves had been elected president, and the institution had been fairly launched in the young Republic May 18th, 1846. Dr. Graves continued in office for five years, when he severed his connection with the school and moved to Fairfield. At a session of the board, commenced on the 13th and concluded on the 18th of June, 1851, Dr. R. C. Burleson was nominated for the presidency by Judge A. S. Lipscomb, of that first famous Supreme Court, and elected without a dissenting vote.
As stated, Dr. Burleson's first impulse after graduation was to do something for Texas and her struggling people, so while living in Covington, Ky., February 4th, 1847, he had accepted an agency for Baylor University, canvassed the States of Ohio, Kentucky, Mississippi, and Alabama, and received some appreciated collections, not only of money, but books and scientific, chemical, and philosophical apparatus for the school. Having decided to accept the position to which he had been so heartily elected, he tendered his resignation as pastor of the church at Houston, which was accepted amidst sighs and sorrowing by the congregation, and June, 1851, he moved to Independence and threw his soul and splendid abilities into the work of raising that school to a high standard.
This institution was born in a storm, and lived in a storm up to the time Dr. Burleson was placed at the helm. The determination to establish it was reached in 1841, before the excitement of the Revolution of 1836 had subsided, and during the period when the most serious conflicts between the early settlers and Indians occurred. It was formally established in 1845, while the exciting campaign which resulted in the annexation of Texas to the United States was distracting the attention of the people. It had scarcely emerged from the feverish conditions engendered by this controversy when war was declared between the United States and Mexico, March 11th, 1846, and the school struggled for existence during that sanguinary conflict. Every interest of the new country, political, commercial, educational, and religious was in an embryonic state, and for this reason the institution had not grown as rapidly, nor fulfilled its mission as quickly as its wise and unselfish projectors had hoped. When, therefore, Dr. Burleson assumed control, he found the attendance small, the buildings inadequate and unsuitable, only a trifle on hand in the way of a reliable endowment fund, insufficient apparatus, and, worst of all, the friends of the school discouraged and without heart. Even the learning, wisdom and enthusiasm which the recently elected president brought with him to the position did not reinspire the trustees and friends of the school. They argued that while he was the very best man for the position whose services were available, still he was only 28 years old, and with no experience as a college president. The discouragement and demoralization of the board, however, did not discourage nor demoralize this young president. He took the field and advertised the school liberally through the channels at that time available, as a result of which, when the fall session of 1851 opened, the attendance was largely increased. With each succeeding year he got a better grasp of the situation, and a clearer conception of the work. The friends took courage and came manfully to his support, new buildings were erected, the endowment fund was increased from one to twenty thousand dollars, the apparatus was added to, and a library was started. Dr. Burleson developed such administrative ability and such qualities as a leader that in 1855, four years after he took charge, the school was beyond the experimental stage, was regarded as one of the fixed institutions of the country, and had a reputation coextensive with the State. He worked on until Baylor University was known in every State in the Union, and catalogued by the London Times in 1860 as one of the prominent institutoins of learning in America.
Dr. Burleson continued in the presidency of the school at Independence until 1861, when, owing to some irreconcilable differences between himself and faculty and the board of trustees, he tendered his resignation.
In 1855 Trinity River Association decided to establish an associational school. In 1856 it was located at Waco, and christened Trinity River High Male School. A female department was provided for and located at Hillsboro, but was never opened. February 2d, 1860, the high school at Waco was chartered by the State, and rechristened Waco Classical School. In June, 1861, Dr. Burleson was offered and accepted the presidency of this school, moved to Waco, and induced the board of trustees to change the name of the school to Waco University.
The conditions with which he was confronted at Waco in 1861 were somewhat similar to those that existed at Independence in 1851, ten years before, but he was ripe in experience, and hence troubles were trifles when cast athwart his purpose. Here, as at Independence, the attendance increased from a mere handful to a mighty force of young people, all diligently preparing themselves for the conflicts and struggles of life.
Baylor University at Independence was still the State denominational school. Dr. Wm. Carey Crane, a ripe scholar and a grand character, was president, and standing manfully to his guns. Independence, while one of the most charming spots in the State, and associated with the dearest memories of Texas, had been left off all the railroads constructed in the country, and was, therefore, inaccessible. For this reason a demand came from all portions of the State for a consolidation of the schools at Waco and Independence, and the location of the consolidated school at some more accessible point. The friends of the Independence school opposed this movement, and an acrimonious discussion was brought on, in which Dr. Burleson took no part, except to say that Waco and Baylor would sustain themselves, and if the denomination wanted anything bigger and better than either, the whole State was open, and the Baptists had a perfect right to undertake the work of establishing it; but that, if it was decided to change the location of Baylor, Waco University was ready to furnish her elder sister at Independence a domicile and shelter. By some Dr. Burleson's position on this question was misunderstood, and for this reason I indicate the stand he took on “consolidation and removal,” and which I learned from him through many conversations while the agitation was going on.
The Baptist State Convention met in Lampasas in October, 1884, and the question of the removal of Baylor University was the question of most interest before that body. After a spirited debate, running through the greater part of two days and nights, a compromise resolution was passed by which a settlement of the question was reached. The substance of this resolution was that the buildings, grounds, and other property of Baylor University was to be turned over to Union Association for educational purposes, and the name and State-wide character of the school removed. This resolution also included Baylor Female College at Independence.
For the purpose of executing the provisions of this resolution a committee with plenary powers was created by the convention. This committee, after several sessions, met in Temple in November, 1884, and, after the propositions from towns that had announced as candidates for the location had been opened and considered, decided to remove Baylor Female College from Independence to Belton, consolidate Baylor with Waco University, and locate the consolidated University at Waco. There was effected at the same time a partial consolidation of the faculty of the two schools, and also of the boards of trustees. Dr. R. C. Burleson was elected president of the two universities thus merged into one, and Dr. Reddin Andrews vice-president.
Dr. Burleson, who was now 62 years old, felt the school to be his creation; and, while he claimed no proprietary rights, he had managed it with great success in the past, and felt fully competent to do so in the future. The board of the unified school recognized and respected Dr. Burleson's long service and ability, but were self-assertive, feeling that they had some authority which president and faculty were bound to respect. Hence arose something of a clash, with which it would hardly be profitable to deal here.
In 1898 Dr. Burleson was 75 years old, and the trustees of the university, to relieve him as far as possible from the weight of responsibility and worry, elected him president emeritus on full pay, and thus ended his public life.
In a sermon preached in Brenham in 1888, Dr. Burleson used this language, which is given in full, as it contains an item of history which has not found its way into any of his biographies: “I have spent the last forty-seven years with the young in college halls. I have instructed in the last thirty-seven years in the halls of Baylor University over four thousand five hundred young ladies and gentlemen. As agent of the Peabody fund for Texas, I canvassed one hundred and twenty-seven counties and addressed not less than sixty thousand young people on the subject of education.” Dr. Burleson continued to represent this fund for several years, and discharged the duties of this high trust with so much skill that Dr. B. Sears, the general agent, paid him a just and deservedly high compliment in a public address delivered in Galveston shortly before his death.
In his public addresses before and after the war between the States he advocated putting the provisions of the statutes and the State constitution for the establishment of a university and other educational institutions into practical effect. He earnestly insisted that specially trained teachers for the public school system of Texas should be provided, and it was very largely through his efforts that the Sam Houston Normal Institute at Huntsville was founded. For thirty-seven years he had been not only a college president, but a teacher also, and knew from observation and experience the value of special preparation for the profession of teaching.
Dr. Burleson's forethought and wisdom came to his help when the subject of co-education was being discussed by the scholars of the world, and he may be said to be a pioneer in this great forward movement. When he took charge of Baylor University at Independence in 1851, he maintained that the boys and girls ought to be educated separately, and through his efforts a male and a female department were established, which had no more connection than if they had been operated under different names in widely separated towns. When, however, he took charge of Waco University in 1861, ten years later, his mind had undergone a complete change on this subject, and he earnestly advocated co-education before the trustees of that school. They adopted the policy, and Waco University has the proud distinction of being one of the earliest institutions in the world to put co-education to a practical test. Now there are more than two hundred of the higher institutions of the world that are co-educational, and Dr. Burleson's wisdom is fully endorsed by the world's most distinguished and successful scholars and teachers.
Dr. Burleson was elected president in 1851, and served Baylor [Waco] University continuously for exactly fifty years. The school received his constant attention. He was the first to be seen on the campus in the morning, and the last to retire at night. During this half century of service as the controlling spirit in an institution founded in a howling wilderness, his enthusiasm knew no abatement.
In 1853 Dr. Burleson was happily wedded to Miss Georgiana Jenkins, daughter of Judge P. C. Jenkins, a distinguished lawyer who came to Texas in 1836 from Georgia. He was a graduate of Mercer University, and was a conspicuous character among the great men of the early days. Miss Jenkins was a most charming and cultured young lady. She graduated at Judson Institute, Marion, Alabama, with high honor. She was of a family of educated, intelligent people, who attached much importance to mental culture, and no step in Dr. Burleson's life was more fortunate than this union. She was his constant companion and counselor. When he was confronted with difficulties and became greatly perplexed, Mrs. Burleson always maintained her coolness of judgment. Hers is a most beautiful character, and thousands of former students of Baylor hold her in tenderest esteem. To her husband she was a constant living inspiration and stimulus.
In 1847 the degree of A. M. was conferred upon Dr. Burleson by Nashville University, and in 1867 the degree of D. D. by Howard College, Alabama. In 1882 Keachi College, Louisiana, conferred on him the degree of LL. D. In 1878 and 1879 Dr. Burleson was moderator of the General Association that included the whole of what is known as North Texas in its jurisdiction, and later was president of the Baptist General Convention several years.
Dr. Burleson may be said to have been an enthusiast on the subject of Texas history, and contributed many valuable and interesting articles to the press on various historical subjects. He was a member of the Texas State Historical Association, and promoted the purposes of the association by all means and in all ways in his power. For the last few years before his death he was engaged in preparing for publication a book entitled Fifty-three Years in Texas, which Mrs. Burleson will complete and give to the public. This work includes the presentation of a great variety of subjects, from the standpoint of personal knowledge, and will be a most valuable contribution to the history of Texas. Mrs. Burleson having come to Texas eleven years before her husband, and having been a student of current events as well as a scholar, it is most fortunate that the completion of the work will be under her direction.
Dr. Burleson was a member of the Texas Veterans' Association, and took a deep interest in its success and welfare. He served as its chaplain from 1898 to the time of his death. In a letter dated March 28th, 1901, addressed to Mr. E. Pennington, of Brenham, he stated that he was collecting data and material, and proposed when his book had been finished to write a history of the association from its organization. He did not expect to live to complete it, but would leave the work in such a shape that when the last member had “crossed to the other side” the final chapter could be written, and the record of the association rounded up and forever closed.
Dr. Burleson's ambition was to obtain for Baylor University a high place among institutions of learning in America, and he felt that he had accomplished as much, but this by no means affected his interest in the cause of education in general. In 1870 he attended the meeting of the National Educational Association held in Niagara Falls, New York, and made much reputation through the breadth of his views expressed in an address delivered before that learned body of men. He continued to attend the annual meetings of the association, and at one time was made one of the vice-presidents. He was also much interested in the work of the Texas Teachers' Association, and attended nearly all the meetings, and presided over its deliberations for several years.
Three elements of character appeared in Dr. Burleson in an eminent degree: courage, coolness, and continuity of purpose. “Never get mad, never get scared,” was one of his mottoes, and he adhered to it religiously. He was as courageous as Julius Cæsar, and he never lost his temper. He was a stranger to the feeling of discouragement, and when every condition seemed to conspire to defeat his purpose and scatter the work of his hands into viewless air, it was then his determination conquered all obstacles. When he was confronted with a mighty difficulty, his slender form seemed to take on the proportions of a giant. Another remarkable element of character was his endurance, physical and mental. On one occasion this writer saw him step out on the campus at Independence, where a hundred boys were playing “hot ball,” and offer himself as a target for the whole crowd. He was pelted a hundred times with solid rubber balls, and one hundred blue spots must have been made on his body, but he was as obdurate and unmoved as the sturdy liveoak under which he stood while the fun was going on. The sport over, he saluted the boys, and bowed himself from the campus, his face wreathed in smiles when he was unquestionably suffering the greatest pain.
Anecdotes and incidents without end could be given illustrating his coolness, courage, and good nature; but the limits of this article forbid their recital. I have to add only the following editorial from the Galveston News of May 15th, the morning his death was announced:
“Rev. Rufus C. Burleson, who died yesterday at Waco, has stood for many years with the leading divines and educators of the country. He came to Texas in 1848, and has since that time been an active and telling force in the intellectual and moral progress of the State. Dr. Burleson's work as a missionary in pioneer times led to the establishment of Baylor University, and under his presidency the institution flourished and prospered. There are in all portions of Texas men and women who will remember with a tear the earnest and zealous old man whom they learned to love during their college days. Others will recall the venerable man of the pulpit to whose sermons they have listened, the genial old preacher who delighted to recall the adventures and triumphs of early days in Texas. Evidences of the zeal and energy of the deceased are to be found in many places, and thousands of living witnesses stand ready to honor the dead. It is set down that Baylor University is `a monument to his genius and industry.”'
How to cite:
Haynes, Harry, "DR. RUFUS C. BURLESON ", Volume 005, Number 1, Southwestern Historical Quarterly Online, Page 49 - 60. http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/publications/journals/shq/online/v005/n1/article_7.html
[Accessed Tue Dec 2 20:57:14 CST 2008]
