University of Mary Hardin-Baylor: from republic-era charter to Belton campus

The school now known as the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor was chartered in 1845 as the female department of Baylor University. It first operated in Independence, Texas. In 1886, the Baptist State Convention moved the women's college to Belton. The city had offered $31,000 and an eleven-acre hilltop site to bring it there. The college opened in Belton on September 13, 1886.

During the Great Depression, a major gift from Mary and John G. Hardin helped keep the school going. That gift led to a name change: the school became Mary Hardin-Baylor College in 1934. The college admitted men in 1971 and became a university in 1978. It still operates under its original 1845 charter, making it one of the oldest continuously chartered schools in Texas.

Today the university has a 340-acre campus in Belton and is tied to the Baptist General Convention of Texas. The Texas State Historical Association's Handbook at tshaonline.org has a full history of the school.