Burleson, Richard Byrd, Lld

Burleson, Richard Byrd, LL.D.

a Baptist minister, was born near Decatur, Ala., about 1820. He united with the Church in 1839; spent three years in Nashville University, Tenn.; was licensed by the first Baptist Church in Nashville in 1841, and ordained as pastor of the Church in Athens, Ala., in November, 1842; remained there till 1845, and then was transferred to the Church at Tuscumbria, where he continued till 1849, when he became president of Moulton Female Institute. In 1855 he removed to Austin, Tex., where he was pastor, and also had charge of a select female school. He was chosen professor of natural philosophy in Baylor University in 1857, and vice- president and professor of natural science in Waco University in 1861, with which institution he was connected eighteen years. He died at Waco, Dec. 21, 1879. He is said to have been "a preacher of distinguished ability, and a teacher eminently qualified for his work." See Cathcart, Baptist Encyclopaedia, p. 163. (J. C. S.)