Henry Lee Graves
Henry Lee Graves (February 22, 1813 – November 4, 1881) was the president of Baylor University from 1846 to 1851. Biography Henry Lee Graves, son of Thomas Graves, was born in Yanceyville, North Carolina in 1813. He married Rebecca Williams Graves on February 3, 1836. Rebecca, from Caswell County, North Carolina, was Graves's first cousin once-removed. Graves and Rebecca had four daughters (Mary Anna, Bettie Williams, Ophelia Florine, and Willie Ruby) as well as two sons (Charles Henry and Henry Lee). Rebecca died in 1865. Seven years later, Graves married Myra Lusk Crumpler, a wealthy widow who survived him by twenty-one years. Career Graves attended the University of North Carolina and graduated in 1833. From 1835 to 1837, he served as the chair of mathematics at Wake Forest College, then taught at a Baptist high school in Covington, Georgia in 1838. In 1841, Graves attended the Hamilton Literary and Theological Institute in New York City. He returned to Georgia for a few years and served as a delegate at the Southern Baptist Convention of 1845 in Augusta, Georgia before leaving for Texas in 1846. Graves became the first President of Baylor University, originally located in Independence while simultaneously serving as