William Carey Crane College
R. C. Crane
General Entry
William Carey Crane College was established at Independence, Texas, around 1886, after Baylor University and Baylor Female College were moved to Waco. Professor William Winston Fontaine, assisted by Charles H. Wedemeyer and others, advertised the institution as a continuation of the two Baylor schools in the old Baylor plants. The school had ten pianos, 3,500 books in the library, and other adequate equipment. Henry Arthur McArdle headed the art department. Fontaine was succeeded about 1889 by R. E. Binford, who secured a ten-year lease on the plants and changed the name to Binford University. The Baylor plant was sold in March 1889 for a debt of $2,000, and about 1897 all efforts to continue the institution were abandoned.
