This Week in Texas Methodist History   Dec. 10

Bishop Keener Organizes German Mission Conference in Houston, Dec. 16, 1874

On December 16, 1874 Bishop J. C. Keener organized the remaining MECS Germans in Texas and Louisiana into a new conference, the German Annual Mission Conference of Texas and Louisiana.   I say remaining because the MEC had seen a vast exodus of former MECS preachers and churches into the Southern German Conference of the MEC.  That conference had been organized in Industry in 1873.   

The new conference consisted of the former German speaking congregations in Texas and Louisiana of the MECS.  The charter members of the new conference, as listed by F.W. Radetzky,  were Charles Grote, J. A. Pauly, F. Vordenbaumen, J. Prinzing, J. C. Kopp, J. A. Schaper, August Engel, J. B. A. Ahrens, Jacob Bader, Al. Albrecht, J. A. G. Rabe, H. Evers or “Ebers”, J. Wohlsclaegel, W. A. Knolle, Jacob Kern, , and C. Thomas. 

That organizing session also authorized starting a school, Fredericksburg College.  In 1886 the Louisiana churches became part of the Louisiana (English-speaking) Conference.  In 1894 the college was sold for $8000, and trustees managed those funds for scholarships.  In 1929 the residue was turned over to Southwestern University as an endowment for a lectureship for ministers and teachers. 

The MECS General Conference of 1918, in response to World War I, changed the name to Southwest Texas Conference.  That name was temporary.  In October 1918 the Annual Conference voted to dissolve.  Three churches, Bering and Beneke in Houston and East Bernard joined the Texas Conference of the MECS.  The others joined the West Texas (today Rio Texas) Conference.  Those churches were kept in a newly created district—the Southwest District with E. A. Konken as Presiding Elder.  Three years later the district was enlarged by the inclusion of English speaking churches and renamed the Kerrville District.