Osler's Razor

Formally, the school began in January of 1845, housed in the former Bear barn, with the only student being Gideon, for whom Tiffany had designed a special pant to obscure the loss of his left foot to the marauding bears. At that time, of course, rather than wearing conjoined “pants” as men do now, people made or purchased a “pant,” which covered just one leg. Normally, as one might imagine, they were worn two at a time for near-complete coverage. Tiffany Baylor was a master of the home manufacture of the pant, and she later offered her creations via mail order, an enterprise which provided a significant income and also led to Baylor’s groundbreaking development of an academic program in fashion merchandising, which continues to flourish in the present day.

At the time of the arrival of the first group of twelve “outside” students on August the 29th of 1845, the new University had three faculty members: Judge Baylor teaching Rhetoric, Latin and History, Gideon teaching Dentistry, and Tiffany offering instruction in Fashion Merchandising. The re-outfitting of the former barn was quite impressive. One of the incoming students, Langston O’Dell of Erie, Pennsylvania, wrote a letter home insisting that “the facilities here are quite remarkable given the location of the school. The main building is built of wood and fabric, with a coal furnace at each end, and spittoons generously placed, natch. You would quite admire the construction.” The bears, displaced from the barn, had been returned to the wild but for reasons unknown did not wander far from the campus. In fact, in 1847, several of these same bears joined cause with a band of Comanche Indians in raiding their former home, leaving with two students and the school’s full store of berries, nuts and cheese.

Despite reports to the contrary in the habitually incorrect Bear Meat blog, current Baylor President John Mark Lilly was not a member of this initial group of students, but rather matriculated the school as a freshman in 1983, a mere two decades ago.

The first group of students was a varied lot joined in but one respect: It appears that each had compelled in their parents a desire for great separation between progenitor and offspring, and an acceptance by the parents that it would be fine with them if their child was subjected to a harsh environment which could include whippings, random grade adjustments and the constant threat of attack by feral bears. Some, like O’Dell, seemed merely feckless, while others, such as Tina Trowbridge of Baltimore, quickly demonstrated tendencies which were challenging and at times straightforwardly felonious. Trowbridge, in fact, was a known firestarter. Though she was never caught, it is suspected that she played an active role in the fires which destroyed the campus in 1846, 1847, 1850, 1852, 1866, and 1898 (after the school’s move to its current location). She was significant for another enduring tradition, however: Trowbridge, an attractive, thin, petite blonde, possessed both a severe eating disorder and a high, clear alto singing voice. She was able to combine both when she organized Baylor’s first “Sing” event in 1848 with fellow students Patsy Noggle and Faia Oulufu. That first “Sing” offered just two performances: Trowbridge, Noggle and Oulufu in a scripted piece entitled, “Run! Bears!” and a short, apparently unscripted number by Galwain and Liz Baylor with friend Rehoboth Ur Davidson on the theme of “Molar Removal.”

Labels: Baylor History