Among the changes that had to take place was a shuffling of student housing. Laura Kuykendall Hall became the USS Kuykendall. The women who had previously lived there moved to Mood Hall or to the newly purchased Sneed House across University Avenue from the campus. Civilian men who had been living in Mood Hall were dispersed among a variety of facilities including private residences.
Thursday, July 23, 2015
This Week in Texas Methodist History July 26
President Score Greets New
Southwestern Students and Emphasizes
School’s History, July
31, 1943
The last week of July seems
like a strange time to start a new academic term, but in 1943 war time exigencies
meant a reshuffling of the academic calendar to accommodate the new program on
campus. As a matter of fact, the new
calendar was one of the least of the changes that had surrounded the campus for
the past few years.
The World War produced important
changes in the United States
even before Pearl Harbor. A draft was instituted, and industrial
production to help the allies increased.
Both developments cut into the number of young men choosing to enroll in
colleges and universities. Southwestern University faced the prospects of
declining enrollment and declining tuition payments with apprehension. SU enrollment had dropped to 376 for the
1942-1943 academic year.
One solution to increase
enrollment and also contribute to the war effort was to participate in one of
the programs the federal government had started to train military
personnel. Such a program would require
considerable readjustment, but it was certainly worth the effort.
Thanks to the efforts of
President Score, Congressman Lyndon Johnson, Secretary of Commerce Jesse Jones,
and other influential friends of Southwestern, the school received official
notification in February 1943 that it would become a V-12 site. Southwestern would help train military aviators so badly needed in both Europe and the Pacific Theater.
Among the changes that had to take place was a shuffling of student housing. Laura Kuykendall Hall became the USS Kuykendall. The women who had previously lived there moved to Mood Hall or to the newly purchased Sneed House across University Avenue from the campus. Civilian men who had been living in Mood Hall were dispersed among a variety of facilities including private residences.
Among the changes that had to take place was a shuffling of student housing. Laura Kuykendall Hall became the USS Kuykendall. The women who had previously lived there moved to Mood Hall or to the newly purchased Sneed House across University Avenue from the campus. Civilian men who had been living in Mood Hall were dispersed among a variety of facilities including private residences.
As new students entered in
July, 1943, President Score called them to an assembly. Dr. William C. Finch (later SU President)
gave a lecture on the history of Southwestern—after all many of the new
students had not chosen Southwestern, they had been assigned there. President Score then addressed them on the
standards of conduct to which they must conform. He then turned the assembly over to Ray
Davidson, former civilian SU student and now in the V-12. Davidson spoke of the school’s traditions and
led them in three school songs,
The first was Hail, Alma Mater, the official school
song.
The second was the Pirate Fight Hymn, followed by the Southwestern Hymn. The fight song is not as well known as the Hail, Alma Mater, so here is the text:
Pirates fight for old Southwestern
For your Alma Mater dear,
Pirates fight for old Southwestern
For Victory is near.
To Southwestern we’ll be loyal
Till the sun drops from the sky
Remembering until the end
Pirates, fight, never die.
The fight song was especially significant
because a considerable portion of the audience was about the take to the
gridiron wearing the Pirate colors.
There were many V-12 students who had played collegiate football for
regional powers such as UT, TCU, Baylor, and SMU. The Pirate football team went on to successful seasons and two victories in the Sun
Bowls of 1944 and 1945.
Saturday, July 18, 2015
This Week in Texas Methodist History July 19
Rev. Frank Gary of Galveston
Addresses Epworth Leaguers in Indianapolis,
July 22, 1898
The 1890s are rightly known as a very bleak period
for African Americans. During the
Reconstruction era the Republican Party had attempted to create a base of
African-American voters in the South who were naturally grateful for the role
of the Republican Party in the abolition of slavery. By the 1890s though, party leaders recognized
that such a strategy was not working.
With the withdrawal of Republican support, there was nothing to stop a
full-fledged attack on rights of African Americans. The Jim Crow system of segregation of the
races, denial of voting rights, and an increase in lynching characterized the
1890s.
Methodist youth, however, provided one small counter current to the flood of racism that was washing over the United States. That one small action was the convening of
annual conventions of the Epworth League.
Those conventions embraced both the MECS and MEC Epworth Leagues and
included young Methodists from the U.S, Canada,
and England. When Leaguers began planning these
conventions, northern Leaguers demanded integration, and they got it. The integrated nature of Epworth League
conventions meant they had to meet in the northern states and Canada where integrated convention
facilities could be provided.
The 1899 Epworth League
Convention was held in Indianapolis. One of the speakers was the Rev. Frank Gary
of St. Paul’s Methodist Episcopal Church in Galveston. St.
Paul’s had an interesting history. It was formed by members of Reedy Chapel when
a majority of Reedy Chapel members decided to switch denominations and become
an A.M.E. church. Not all the members
wished to become A.M.E. so they obtained property on Ave. H between 8th
and 9th Streets, and created an M.E. C. church pastored by the Rev.
Samuel Osborn.
St. Paul’s MEC was one of the most prominent churches
in the Texas Conference, but just two years after Rev. Gary’s participation in
the Epworth League convention, his church sanctuary was destroyed by the
hurricane.
Under Gary’s leadership, the congregation decided
to relocate, this time to Broadway, a more prominent location.
Saturday, July 11, 2015
This Week in Texas Methodist History July 12
Amarillo
Methodists Open
New Church,
Pay off Debt on Same Day, July 14, 1907
Of all the large cities of Texas Amarillo is the
northernmost, and serves not just the Texas Panhandle, but also large sections
of New Mexico, Colorado,
Oklahoma, and Kansas as an important commercial and
cultural center.
Amarillo is also
home to one of the great historic churches of Texas,
Polk Street United
Methodist Church. On July 14, 1907 a congregation of 3000
worshiped for the first time in a new building.
There was still a $8400 debt on the $33,000 building, but Rev. C. N.
Ferguson used the enthusiasm of the opening to ask for pledges to pay off the
debt. The appeal was successful as $9000
in cash and pledges came in on that one day.
Methodism had grown up with the city of Amarillo. In 1902 a church costing $4000 was erected at
802 Polk Street. That church was insufficient as Amarillo boomed as ranchlands
were converted to farming, and population increased.
Polk Street
hosted the Northwest Texas Annual Conference of 1907 and Bishop W. A. Candler
the following November. One should
remember that in 1907 the Northwest Texas Conference embraced the entire
territory of what is today the Northwest Texas
and Central Texas Conference. That meant
that preachers and laity all the way from Round Rock and everywhere in between
had to go to Amarillo
for Annual Conference.
Just twenty years later, during the pastorate of
L. N. Stuckey, the church moved again, this time six blocks to the south. That 1928 building cost a half-million
dollars—just in time for the Depression and Dust Bowl to reduce agricultural
receipts and therefore Amarillo’s
economy to a fraction of what it had been during the boom years of the
1920’s.
Polk
Street was able to withstand the economic
problems, and during Eugene Slater’s pastorate (1953) it erected a $450,000
activity center. Membership at one time
exceeded 4500.
Polk Street Methodist became known for its
prominent preachers. There was once a
rule that preachers could stay in an appointment only four years. The best-known preachers of that era developed
a rotation system, in which the biggest churches rotated preachers among
themselves. Polk Street Methodist became
one of the churches in that rotation and thus received preachers by transfer
from other conferences. In addition to Stuckey and Slater (later
elected bishop) preachers filling the appointment were (among others) Sam Hay
(also later bishop), Oscar Sensabaugh (see column from two weeks ago), Ira Key,
Neal Cannon and several others ministers who provided leadership in other
annual conferences and the entire denomination.
Polk Street UMC continues to
value it heritage of ministry to the Texas Panhandle and beyond.
Sunday, July 05, 2015
This Week in Texas Methodist History July 5
W. B. Carter Receives Salvation While Riding Black
Mule,
When is the last time you heard one of your fellow
congregants testify about his or her conversion?
It’s probably been a long time. For 19th century Methodists,
though, stories of personal conversion were not just common, they were an
expected part of revivals. The arc of
the story is simple---first a feeling of despair over one’s great sin and the
consequence of eternal damnation as a result of that sin, then a period of struggle
followed by surrender. The final stage
was elation, joy, and a desire to tell others so that they could also
experience the happiness.
The conversion experience was so profound that the
converts repeated their stories often and in public. Here is one such account, probably from the
1880s, as recorded by John E. Green. . .
Many a mean
man and not a few wicked women have I known to be checked and changed by the
power of the Gospel. A remarkable case
was that of W. B. Carter, a big, burly fellow from Milam County who, while in
the fervor of his first love, attended a great meeting we were holding at the
historic Chappell Hill and Belleville
camp ground where I have often worked in revivals and where I have had
some of the happiest times of my ministry.
Carter was earnest and enthusiastic.
He made himself agreeable to everybody and all soon learned to love him. One morning at a prayer and praise meeting
feeling was running high, almost to the “popping-off point.” Brother Carter arose with tears of joy
running down his face and said, “Brother Green, I got more to be thankful for
than anybody. I was too mean to live, meaner
than the devil wanted me to be. From bad
to worse I went until recently. I live a
little way out from Cameron and several miles out beyond my place there is a
country church where the Methodists were having a big meeting. I didn’t care anything for religion, but went
to that meeting fro fun. I was riding a
little black mule. After a few nights I
felt a mean feeling creeping over me, and the first thing I knew I was at the
mourners’ bench and there I felt sill meaner.
Every time I would go to the altar, I’d get meaner and meaner. I was discouraged and said, “I won’t go any
more, I get not better, but worse,’ One night I was riding home between two men
on horses. One was a Baptist and one a
Methodist, but both mighty good men. A
half mile from the church we got to a ravine where the limbs of trees reached
across the road, making it so dark I couldn’t see my hand before my eyes; I was
in the dark more ways than one and I was so miserable. Then one of the men said, ‘Carter, you don’t
have to go to the mourner’s bench any more.
Just surrender fully now and trust the Lord this minute and He’ll save
you right here.” The truth was made
plain. I trusted Jesus. I got happy and shouted, “Glory!’ and my mule
ran away. I couldn’t quite shouting and
that mule wouldn’t quit running, but the Lord didn’t let the mule hurt me. I held on to the Lord with one hand to the
little black mule with the other and ran several miles shouting.”