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Independence was originally named Coles Settlement or Cole's Hill for John P. Coles, a member of the "Old Three Hundred" colonists who followed Stephen F. Austin into Mexican Texas during the early 1820s. The name the community changed shortly after Texas' victory at the Battle of San Jacinto in 1836. The town of Independence, known for its 1839 Baptist church at the crossroads, became a thriving cotton plantation center and the home of many of the early leaders of Texas.

Baylor University spent its first forty-one years in that beautiful place, following the 1845 chartering of Baylor by the Republic of Texas.

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Financial challenges faced the leaders of Baylor almost every year between the founding period and 1886 when the trustees decided to relocate the university to Waco through a merger with Waco University. The traumatic experience and aftermath of the Civil War, plus significant changes in rail transportation in Texas meant that the future of higher education was no longer bright for Baylor in Washington County. With the women of Baylor moving to Belton, Texas, the path to Waco was open and relatively more promising.

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