Osler's Razor

Through the 1850’s, enrollment at Baylor rose dramatically, due in equal part to the expansion of the population within Texas and Judge Baylor’s creative efforts to enroll students from diverse jurisdictions. Most notable of his innovations was his creation of an advertisement for the school (grossly overstating its credentials) on a removable cardboard flap glued onto the front of every Sears, Roebuck & Co. mail-order catalogue in 1853. It was also possible that Judge Baylor and his children forcibly enrolled students after seizing them from passing wagon trains traveling to points West, as the main trail leading to Roswell, New Mexico and onward to Newport Beach, California passed close to the school and both of those destinations were then, as now, popular with families containing children and young adults.

Judge Baylor passed away in 1860, when the school that bore his name had grown to over 200 enrolled students and seven professors, the latter group including all five of his children, himself and his wife. The circumstances of his death are not well documented. News accounts reported that the night watchman at the school was overwhelmed by intruders bearing bludgeons and whisky and who seemed to be uncharacteristically clothed for a warm climate-- in fur coats. Much of Judge Baylor’s body was lost, and only a severely scratched right arm was found. Later analysts have theorized that the loss of his body was due to a wild animal attack, possibly by the very bears he had freed when he founded Baylor University.

Interestingly, this is consistent with the tragic deaths of other college founders at the hands of men and beasts later made the mascot of that university. Taylor Cincinnattus, founder of the University of Cincinnati, was mauled to death by a mixed group of bears and wild cats which had escaped from a private zoo; Ernest Vanderbilt was killed in a duel by Commodore Edmund Peary; Franklin LaCrosse, founder of the University of Wisconsin, suffered a fatal stroke when he was attacked by badgers; Thomas Jefferson died due to mistakes by his physician, Robert ("The Wahoo") Cavalier; and, perhaps most famously, University of Oklahoma founder Norman Oklahoma died while swimming in the Caribbean, when he was struck by an errant Dutch schooner. Even old Eric Tech, founder of Texas Tech University, suffered a similar fate. His home was invaded by hordes of fire ants seeking out his large collection of cheese. Tech was nearly fully consumed by the greedy red raiders, who also stripped the house of the cheese.

After his demise, the remaining arm of Judge Baylor was located and cast into a statue of Judge Baylor which still stands on the Baylor University campus. That statue depicts Baylor standing on the front porch of the school’s main building, gesturing into the distance where a Texas autumn sun fell gently into a bright and promising horizon.

Labels: Baylor History