This Week in Texas Methodist History  September 29

Tennessee Annual Conference Meets—Sends Four Missionaries to Texas  October 3, 1838

Tennessee was one of the most important source regions for immigration to Texas during Mexican rule and during the Republic.  There were well-known Tennesseans such as Davy Crockett and former Tennessee Governor Sam Houston.  There were also many less prominent residents of Tennessee who came as farmers, merchants, and even Methodist preachers.  Some of the motivation for immigration came from the Panic of 1837 which created economic difficulties for many Tennessee farmers.  The initials GTT (Gone to Texas) were chalked on many cabin doors in the state. 

The Tennessee Annual Conference convened on October 3, 1838 in Huntsville, Alabama,  and provided a much-needed boost to the missionary forces in Texas.  Littleton Fowler, Jesse Hord, Isaac L. G. (Ike) Strickland, and  S. A.  Williams all transferred from the Tennessee Conference to the Texian Mission of the Mississippi Conference.  The previous summer the MEC bishops decided to take the Texian Mission from the Board of Missions and give it to the Mississippi Annual Conference—thus necessitating the transfers into the Mississippi Conference.

The Mississippi Annual Conference did not meet until the first week of December.  There was no bishop present, but the minutes reveal the following appointments to the Texan Mission.

Littleton Fowler, Presiding Elder
Abel Stevens, Houston and Galveston
S. A. Williams, Nacogdoches
R. Alexander and I. L. G. Strickland, Washington
Jesse Hoard (sic), Montgomery
J. P. Snead (sic), Brazoria


Sneed was already a member of the Mississippi Conference.  Stevens was a member of the New England Conference.  His most recent appointment was Providence, RI.,