George Washington Baines

Career Baptist ministry beginnings In 1832, he was converted in a revival conducted by the famous baptist preacher Thomas Jefferson Fisher about ten miles south of Tuscaloosa, Alabama. He was baptized in Salem Baptist Church at the age of 25, and in 1834 he became licensed to preach by the Philadelphia Baptist Church of Tuscaloosa County. He was ordained by the Grant's Creek Baptist Church on August 7, 1836. His father was among the signers of his preaching license and certificate of ordination He was expelled by his church in Arkansas when it was seized by "hard shell Baptists" whose main point of disagreement with Baines was the concept of predestination.

Move to Louisiana Baines baptized more than 100 people in Arkansas, where he lived for seven years, before moving to Mount Lebanon, Louisiana, with his family in July 1844. He was a pastor at the Rehoboth Baptist Church in Mt. Lebanon and personal minister for Sam Houston. He was a member of the Board of Trustees of Baylor University from 1851 until 1859. Baines became the first editor of the first Baptist newspaper in Texas, the Texas Baptist, while a member of the board of Baylor. Baines offered his resignation to the board in 1858, but his request was tabled, and he remained on the board until February 1, 1859.

A lengthy editorial in his newspaper, the Texas Baptist, from January 3, 1861, the writer of which was "probably G. W. Baines" (it was signed "B") attacked northern abolitionists, defended the condition of the slaves, and proceeded to place slaves in what the author deemed their "proper position:" "If the intellectual and moral condition of a race of men fit them only for despotic government, they will be slaves to their superiors wherever they may live, and to declare that they are equal in rights to the men who are fitted for a free republican, or a democratic government, is to declare what is positively absurd. They have not the capacity to understand or appreciate the rights, duties and responsibilities of a free citizen of a republican government, and therefore it is impossible that that morality can be sound which requires all human governments to allow men rights which they have no adequate conceptions of or capacities to exercise." In the editorial, the institution of slavery as a whole was defended, with the author writing "We are sure that God has given to us the right to buy and own slaves as a perpetual inheritance, and to transmit them to our children. We know that our Lord and the apostles recognized the institution of slavery as lawful, and made provisions both for masters and slaves in the first churches, and for these reasons we are determined not to be controlled by an ungodly and unchristian party of misguided fanatics in this matter. We are responsible to God and our fellow citizens first, and until they condemn us, or, rather, while God and our own people justify us, we shall not fear those who condemn us without a cause."

After Rufus Columbus Burleson departed the presidency of Baylor University for Waco University, Baines was appointed president by the Board, until they could find a suitable replacement for Burleson and during the Civil War. He was re-elected president for the year 1863 by the Board of Trustees on June 25, 1862, after he had sent a letter from June 24 mentioning his reluctance to remain in the position on account of his health. The time, for which I accepted the Presidency of Baylor University, expires with the present collegiate year. At your last meeting, I am informed, that you passed an order requesting me to continue my services until the end of the present year. It is my desire, that you allow me to decline this offer. My principal reason is that my state of health will not justify the confinement which is necessary to teach and control a school of little boys, seven or eight hours every day. During the summer of 1862, a committee of correspondence was established by the Board of Trustees to enter negotiations with William Carey Crane to fill the vacancy in the office of the president left by Baines. Although Baines was the president for one year and only conferred one diploma, a stone marker at his grave and many Baylor University publications incorrectly state that Baines was president from 1861 to 1863. A page on the University of Mary Hardin–Baylor website falsely says Baines was president until 1864.

Shortly after leaving Baylor he moved to Fairfield, Texas, where his wife Melissa Ann and youngest son Johnny Paxton died. According to Janet Baines Brockett, a granddaughter of Baines, he had to build his son's coffin due to the scarcity that existed during the Civil War. He farmed in Fairfield and pastored at several churches in the area. Baines married his second wife, Cynthia W. Williams, on June 13, 1865. After the Civil War, he moved to Salado, Texas, in 1867 so his daughter Anna Melissa could attend Salado College. He later became the third minister of the Salado Baptist Church, the president of the Board of Trustees of Baylor Female College at Belton, Texas, and pastored at the First Baptist Church, Belton, in the early 1870s. He was the principal of the Davilla Institute in 1874.

Death The George Washington Baines House in Salado, Texas, in 2008. He devoted his life as a Christian leader; even with his chronic dyspepsia, he was a field agent of the Baptist State Convention for several years. After the death of his second wife in January 1882, he lived with his daughter Anna Melissa in Belton. Baines died on December 28, 1882, of malaria, a day before his 73rd birthday. At the time he was a pastor at Salado. The 36th U.S. president, Lyndon B. Johnson, was his great-grandson.