Toby's Practical Business College

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the rise of railroads and industrialization caused significant changes in the business world. The growth of corporations and big businesses led to a greater need for accountants, bookkeepers, corporate bankers, and other financial and administrative professionals. In response to this new demand, business schools teaching the skills necessary to fill these positions began to pop up across the states. Among these was a Waco institution known as Toby’s Practical Business College (or simply Toby’s Business College). Founded in 1890 by Edward Toby, the school made a name for itself as a producer of competent businessmen and upstanding citizens.

Edward Toby was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, in 1858. When he was eighteen, he earned his degree in engineering in Virginia and entered the workforce. After spending time in New York City and New Orleans, Toby moved to Waco in 1883. After trying his hand as a salesman, grocer, clerk, and even cowboy, Toby settled into a job with Provident National Bank. In his position as head bookkeeper, he displayed remarkable professionalism and capability. In 1890, at the urging of his coworkers, he began to teach the business skills he had learned to others. For three years, he taught a few night classes a week while working at the bank during the day. Eventually, the high demand for his classes led him to quit his job at the bank and begin teaching full time.

Toby initially held classes in his home on Fifth Street. His popularity continued to grow, and in 1896 Toby’s Business College had enough students to field a football team. During the summer, he offered business classes in New York City. In 1898, the college outgrew its small room in Toby’s house, and he moved it to a rented office space on South Fourth Street. A year later, the school received its charter with a capital stock of fifty thousand dollars. In 1910, he built a new four-story building on the corner of Fourth Street and Webster Avenue. The college grew to be one of the biggest business schools in the country with about 600-700 enrolled students a year.

In the numerous advertisements he purchased in newspapers and city directories, Toby marketed his school as the best education money could buy. There were several things Toby believed made his school the very best. One was his own impressive qualifications as a Certified Court Accountant, a Fellow of the Central Association of Accountants of the World, and a renowned handwriting expert. Another was his unique, hands-on approach to education. He refused to use traditional textbooks and instead wrote his own lessons, emphasizing practical experience. Another defining quality of the college was its high standards for admittance. Toby would not admit smokers, drinkers, sloppy dressers, troublemakers, or anyone who did not have at least an eighth-grade education.

The school had six departments: academics, bookkeeping, banking, shorthand, telegraphy and office appliance, and typewriting. Adjacent to the business college was Toby’s School of Correspondence. On Fridays, Toby would host symposiums where prominent businessmen or legislators would come and speak to the student body on matters such as banking, railroads, mining, or aviation, after which the students would hold a debate. The classes at the business school garnered such respect that Baylor University President Samuel Palmer Brooks often encouraged his students to take additional classes with Toby.

The school prospered until the Great Depression. The cause of its financial hardship was most likely a sharp decline in enrollment leading to a lack of profits. The school was unable to recover and closed its doors in the 1940s. Ed Toby died in 1937 at the age of 79.