A Baptist academy opens, later Butler College

Name: A Baptist academy opens, later Butler College
Start: 1905

Beginning1905, sources differ (see the note). Card 74 of 165.

Butler College, Tyler, as a book published in 1910 pictured it.Butler College, Tyler, Texas, from W. N. Hartshorn, An Era of Progress and Promise (Boston, 1910). Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.The original All picture credits

Butler College began in 1905 when Rev. Cornelius Moses Butler and the East Texas Baptist Association founded a Baptist academy for African American youth in Tyler.

Butler was its first president until his death in 1924, when it was renamed Butler College.

It became a senior college in 1951 and closed in the early 1970s.

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Note

Its early name differs by source: East Texas Baptist Academy on its marker, Texas Baptist Academy in the Handbook of Texas, East Texas Academy on another marker. The marker says the association voted to close the college in 1971; the Handbook says it closed in the summer of 1972.

Sources

Texas Historical Commission marker: Butler College (Atlas 5507015480)atlas.thc.texas.govRev. Cornelius Moses Butler and trustees of the East Texas Baptist Association founded East Texas Baptist Academy in 1905.Rev. Butler served as the academy's first president until his death in 1924, at which time the institution's name was changed to Butler College.
Handbook of Texas: Butler Collegetshaonline.orgButler College, a coeducational school for Blacks in Tyler, was established as the Texas Baptist Academy in 1905 by the East Texas Baptist Association.In 1951 Butler became a senior college and added a program in teacher preparation.Butler closed in the summer of 1972.

Checked October 15, 2026. How the cards are filed

A Baptist academy opens, later Butler College

Note

Sources

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