Saturday, June 25, 2016
This Week in Texas Methodist History June 26
Epworth
Era Debuts, July 1894
Previous posts have highlighted the
role of the Epworth League in Texas
during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The organization of Methodist youth and young
adults provided invaluable service to the denomination. It lifted up missionary concerns, recruited
men and women for Christian vocation, and was an important training ground for
future denominational leaders.
The official organ of the MECS Epworth
League was the Epworth Era which
debuted in July 1894 with S. A. Steel as editor. The corresponding MEC publication was the Epworth Herald, published in Chicago. The Era
began optimistically as a monthly and soon grew into a widely-circulated
periodical. It reported on activities of
state Epworth League conventions, provided topic ideas for prayer meetings, and
almost always reported on activities in the various mission fields.
In 1919 the editor was Fitzgerald S.
Parker. Here is a representative
sampling of reports from the field in June and July 1919.
The West
Texas Conference met in Corpus
Christi led by President Mrs. Kuehne. Speakers included Miss Ruby Van Hooser of Scarritt Bible Training School
and W. H. Moore of the Mission Board.
The North
Texas Conference met in Paris
and registered the largest number of attendees of any of the annual conferences—over
300. They pledged over $9000 for
missions. They adopted W. H. Moore as
their missionary to Brazil
and raised over $1500 for his support.
At the conclusion of “Bob” Schuler’s sermon asking for full time
volunteers for missionary service, 12 members met him at the altar.
The C. M. E. Sunday School and Epworth
League were also meeting in Paris
at the same time and MECS officials were invited to address them.
About 90 Central
Texas Leaguers met at Polytechnic MECS church in Fort
Worth and heard the blind preacher from Lawton, Oklahoma,
Willmore Kendall and Alonzo Monk.
The Texas
Conference League met at Houston,
and President L. L. Nelms and Secretary Lulu Beard managed to secure pledges of
about $1200 from the 80 delegates.
The annual conference meetings were
just a prelude to the big event, however.
That was the Texas State Assembly at Epworth by the Sea near Port O’Connor. The campground/convention facility was wholly
owned by the Epworth Leagues in Texas
and in 1919 featured Frank Onderdonk, Frank Smith, Hiram Boaz, Paul Kern, and
other major players in Texas Methodism.
The Epworth
Era was able to continue publication until 1931 when it fell victim to the
changing times. If the name of its
editor, Fitzgerald Parker, is familiar, you may know it from Mt. Sequoyah
in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
In 1924, as Mt. Sequoyah was being built as a retreat and conference center, Epworth Leagues in Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana
raised funds to build Epworth Lodge. In
1936 upon the death of Fitzgerald Parker, it was renamed in his honor. It is the oldest remaining building on the
campus.
Friday, June 17, 2016
This Week in Texas Methodist History June 19
We Celebrate the Birthday of Francis A.
Mood, Born June 23, 1830
I suppose I first became aware of F. A.
Mood when I moved into Mood Hall at Southwestern
University for the fall
semester, 1965. I heard from older
family members that my grandfather, Wesley W. Hardt (B. A. 1919) had also lived
in Mood Hall as an undergraduate.
The building is still there, although
no longer used as a dormitory and the name has been changed to Mood-Bridwell
Hall. It was built in 1908 and named to
honor the founder of Southwestern
University. (see http://www.southwestern.edu/live/galleries/46-mood-bridwell-hall/galleries)
Francis Asbury Mood was born in Charleston, S.C.
on June 23, 1830. His father, John Mood,
followed his father occupation, silversmith and jeweler, until his call to
preach. John Mood joined the South
Carolina Conference in 1824. He served
several appointments, but in 1830 located and resumed his trade. Mood thus was raised in Charleston.
This decision allowed for Mood to enjoy a boyhood of stability and the
educational advantages that a city such as Charleston had to offer. He also received an intense religious
education, including Sunday School, class meeting, preaching, and family
hymns. The family also left the city to
attend camp meetings in the surrounding country side.
It was at such a camp meeting in April
1842 that the young Mood received the gift of the peace that comes with
conversion. In 1849 he was licensed to
preach. He and his family were particularly
close to Bishop Andrew who advised him that the South Carolina Conference was
to small to accommodate all four Mood preacher brothers. F. A. Mood then volunteered for missionary
service to China. Bishop Andrew advised him that such a move
would devastate his mother, and he should wait and possibly consider Texas as a mission field
too.
During the Civil War he was in the
hospital chaplaincy and then preached at a Unitarian church.
Meanwhile Soule University in
Chappell Hill was struggling to recover from its closure during the Civil War
and yellow fever epidemic. It offered
Mood a professorship which he refused.
That offer brought him to the attention of the Soule Board of Governors,
and when the presidency became vacant, they offered it to Mood.
This time he accepted. He moved to Chappell Hill, transferred to the
Texas Conference and almost immediately realized that a successful educational
institution depended upon a broader base of support.
His project to secure the sponsorship
of the five MECS annual conferences in Texas
for a new university outside the fever belt was a herculean effort, but Mood was
able to accomplish it. The new university,
Texas University,
opened in Georgetown and was later renamed to Southwestern University.
He died in Waco
in 1884 and was buried in Georgetown.
Saturday, June 11, 2016
This Week in Texas Methodist History June 12
Homer Thrall Marries Louisa Dickson and Rev.
William S. Hamilton, June 14, 1846
Homer Thrall is well known as the preeminent
historian of Texas Methodism during the 19th century. Less well known is his role as a general Texas historian.
Thrall found time to publish A History of
Texas: From the Earliest Settlements. . “ in 1876 and A Pictorial History of Texas
in 1883.
Although Thrall cited other historians such as
Henderson Yoakum and Mary Austin Holley, he claims his friendship with Texian leaders
as part of his credential for writing.
This is from the Preface
. . .It has
been the good fortune of the writer to enjoy the personal friendship of nearly
everyone who has filled the executive chair, from the organization of the
government to the present time, including Governors Smith and Robinson,
appointed by the Consultation in 1835; President Burnet of the government ad
interim; all the presidents of the Republic
prior to the annexation, and the Governors of the state since that period. Yes,
Homer Thrall was a Texas
history enthusiast.
On June 14, 1846, he officiated at a wedding
involving one of the families of the Revolutionary period. The bride was Louisa Dickson. The groom was the Rev. William S.
Hamilton.
Dickson’s father, Abishai Mercer Dickson, joined
the Alabama Red Rovers, one of the volunteer companies formed in the United States
in support of the Texian cause. He was
martyred at the Goliad Massacre, March 27, 1836. The Republic
of Texas rewarded families of the
deceased soldiers with land grants so Louisa’s mother, Ann, brought the young
Louisa and her younger brother Richard Hogue Dickson, to Texas to claim the land that had been bought
with blood.
They came to the Alabama Colony ( see post of Dec.
6, 2014 for more information on the Methodists of the Alabama Colony) where the
Widow Dickson married John Sutherland, another Revolutionary hero.
William S. Hamilton, the groom, was admitted O. T.
at the Texas Annual Conference in December, 1843, and appointed to the Egypt
Circuit as the junior preacher working with Homer Thrall.
We are fortunate that several items of the Dickson
family, including letters from the Rev. William Hamilton to Louisa and a
collection of Louisa’s brother. Richard Hogue Dickson (1831-1931) have survived.
They are part of the DRT Library, formerly
available for research at the Alamo. The DRT collection is currently in transition
to a new facility.
Saturday, June 04, 2016
This Week in Texas Methodist History June 5
Texas Conference Celebrates Diamond Jubilee of
Organized Women’s Work in Texas 1955
A special celebration was held at the Texas Annual
Conference in 1955 in honor of the 75th anniversary of organized
women’s work in the conference. Women
had been shouldering much of the burden of Methodist work since its beginnings,
but the formal organization dates only to the post-Civil War era when the East
Texas Conference meeting in Marshall
and the Texas Conference meeting in Flatonia created formal organizations for
the women.
Prior to Annual Conference, from March 17-20,
1955, the Woman’s Society and Wesleyan Service Guild held a joint meeting at
First Methodist Houston. Over 1000
participants attended. (note to readers: In 1955 the Woman’s Society of Christian
Service (WSCS) consisted mainly of women who were not employed outside the
home. Their meetings were commonly held
during the day. The Wesleyan Service Guild consisted mainly of women who were
employed outside the home. Their meetings
were usually in the evenings.)
The highlight of the Diamond Jubilee celebration
was a drama, I Send You Forth,
written by one of the most accomplished Texas Methodists of the 20th
century, Johnny Marie Brooks Grimes (1905-1997).
Johnny Marie Brooks was born in Bellville into a family with deep Texas Methodist roots. Her father, John Williamson Brooks (1856-1939)
was a surveyor who had learned his surveying from Martin McHenry Kenney, son of
John Wesley Kenney, the preacher/surveyor who organized the 1834 Caney Creek
Camp Meeting. She attended Bellville schools, and showed
signs of brilliance. If one visits the
Bellville Public Library even today and asks for information on the history of
Bellville, the librarian will supply a copy of a paper Johnny Marie wrote as an
8th grade student.
Johnny Marie received her B. A. from Southwestern University
and then a Master’s from Columbia Teacher’s College and Union Theological
Seminary in New York City.
She became one of the outstanding Christian
educators of the era and worked at both the YWCA and First Methodist
Houston. She married the Rev. Lewis
Howard Grimes (1915-1989). The couple
made their home in Dallas
where they both were employed by SMU. Howard was on the faculty of Perkins
School of Theology.
Johnnie Marie was research assistant to the
president of Southern Methodist University from 1953 to 1975. In that position she provided invaluable
assistance to the entire SMU community. She also was elected to the State Board of
Education.
Johnnie Marie and Howard attended First Methodist
Dallas and, as you could probably guess, were active in educational
activities. The Aldersgate Sunday School
Class still honors their memory.