Biographical Encyclopedia of Texas Page: 64 of 372
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BIOGRAPHICAL
54
rison, these noble men employed him to teach a
private school for their sons and daughters. During
the two years hlie taught for these gentlemen
he was ordained and became the pastor of three
flourishing churches. By three years of ceaseless
toil and rigid economy he made $1000 in gold, and
gained $10,000 worth of experience and self-reliance.
In January, 1846, he entered the Theological
and Literary Institute at Covington, Kentucky,
under the direction of the great Dr. R. E. Pattison,
aided by the learned Drs. E. J. Robinson,
E. Dodge and Asa Drury, as professors. He graduated
with distinction, in 1847, in a class remarkable
for talent, learning and piety. In December following
he was elected to succeed the great and lamented
William M. Tryan, as pastor of the First
Baptist church, Houston Texas. His piety, learning,
eloquence and untiring energy placed him in
the front rank of Texas preachers. His congregation
grew fromin the smallest to be the largest in
the city, anid paid off a heavy nmortgage on their
house of worship. Thoughi attacked by yellow
fever, cholera and dengue, hlie never deserted his
post. In June, 1851, he was unanimously elected
President of Baylor University, then struggling for
existene. Though ardently beloved by his flourishing
church, and eminenitly fitted for the pulpit,
he felt that a great University was a necessity for
the church and State. Though lie knew it would
cost him a life of toil and poverty to lay anew the
founrdations of a grand University, lie entered upon
the struggle with the zeal of a martyr. In this
great work hlie received the cordial support of such
eminent men as Hon. R. E. B. Baylor, Hon. A. S.
Lipscombe, Hlon. Royal T. Wheeler, Governor A.
C. Horton and General Sam Houston. Very soon
Baylor University became the pride and ornament of
Texas. On the third of January, 1853, he married
Miss Georgia Jenkins, a lady eminently fitted to
be the companion of a man wlho was destined to
mold and guide the leaders of a powerful denomination
and a great State. While pastor, at HoUston,
he baptized the heroine of the Alamio, Miss
Dickinson, and at Independence, in 1859, he baptized
the hero of San Jacinto, General Sam Houston.
After conducting Baylor University with
brilliant success for ten years, lie found a more
central location in the great wheat region, and
above the yellow fever' district, essential to success.
In 1861 he and his brother, Dr. R. Baylor
Burleson, his learned faculty associate, removed
to the flourishing village of Waco-and
inaugurated Waco University, which, for eighteen
years, has been the leading institution of the Southwest.
Dr. Burlieson has already instructed over'
three thousand young men and ladies, whose
power has been and is felt in the pulpit, at thebar,
in legislative and congressional halls, on the
tented field of battle, on the farm, and around the
family altar. Mr. Burleson is prematurely bald and'
gray, is six feet two and one half inches tall, very
slender, but his nerves are steel and 1his will isiron,
and lie has marvelous endurance. He is rigidly
temperate, rejects all stimulating drinks, except
coffee, and all sweet meats and delicacies, and has
not had headache for forty-one years; and though
lie hlas penetrated every nook and corner of the Empire
St.ate in all kinds of weather, lie has not been
sick ten days for thirty-one years, except during the
yellow fever and cholera. His character is remarkable
for fullness and a blending of opposite peculiarities.
Hiis miirthfulness is in striking contrast withl
his firmness and micxiihl sternness in duty. His.
devotion andti zeal to his own chuirchl is only equaled
by his admiration and love for all true men
whether Jews or G(entiles, Catholics or Protestants,.
from the North or South. HIis vigilance and caution
never sleep, his activity is untiring, his courage
never falters. At nineeeeni ywars of age he took
Athenasius, the father of the Nicene creed, as his
great model, and lie took as his mottoes "Nil desperandmnm
ChIrlto Duef.' " A resolute mind is omnipotent."
"Trust nothing to luck-everything to
pluck and Providence." With such maxims, such
models, suclh characteristics, and such training,
it is not surprising that every school and every
church with which he has ever been connected,.
has prospered greatly. These things have made
him the companion and adviser of the greatest
aiid best men in Texas. lie hIas been justly called
the Nestor of preachers and educators in Texas.
h - U"MSEV, JAMES ASBURY, agriculturist
a, ind legislator of Williamson coiunty, Texas,,
is a native of Preston county, Virginia,
where he was born on the 7tli day of September,
1834-. His father, (George Rumsey, settled
in Williainson county in 1851, where he still resides
as a roninent physician, now retired from active
practice. His mother's maiden name was Elizabeth
Sterling; she was a native of Preston county.
The subject of this brief memoir was brought
up in Northern Indiana, where hIis father had
located in 18:34. His early education was received
in the common schools of Indiana. From
1848 to 1852 he served an apprenticeship at house-.
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Biographical Encyclopedia of Texas (Book)
Biographical view of Texas and its history including narratives of the individuals who helped shape Texas history and information about important point in history including: the pioneer days of Texas, Texas' transition from a Mexican state to being part of the United States, and the wars in which Texas citizens took part.
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Biographical Encyclopedia of Texas, book, 1880; New York. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth5827/m1/64/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.