This Week in Texas Methodist History December 24

Texas Conference of MEC Meets in Houston, December 1870

The Texas Conference of the MEC met in annual conference twice during the calendar year 1870, once in January and again the following December.   Having two annual conferences in one calendar year was rare, but not unknown.  Annual Conferences were scheduled to accommodate the travels of the bishops who would preside at those conferences.  The bishops would meet as a group and divide the annual conferences among themselves.  It was customary for the most arduous travel assignments to be assigned to the most junior bishops who were usually younger and better suited for the rigors of 19^th century travel.  The MEC eventually formed so many conferences that the annual sessions had to be conducted through much of the calendar year.   With a few exceptions, northern conferences were held in the spring and southern conferences met in the winter.  The most arduous travel of all, to mission conferences such as Liberia were eventually turned over to a special category of bishops, African Americans who did not preside over annual conferences in the United State, only in missions. 

The December session of the annual conference was held in Shearn Church (later First), a MECS congregation that opened its doors to the MEC.  A formal greeting was supplied by G. S. Hardcastle, a steward of the church who had been an original member, joining in 1837.   The Shearn pastor at the time was B. T. Kavanaugh, brother of Bishop H. H. Kavanaugh, and transfer to Texas from Kentucky in 1866.  After his four years as Shearn pastor, he located and resumed his former profession of medicine. 

Between the two 1870 annual conferences the churches reported a gain in membership from 5846 to 7934, a very respectable increase.  Two new districts had been created, the Tyler and the Guadaloupe (sic).   Although most of the conference consisted of African American members, all the Presiding Elders were European American except for B. O. Watrous (1811-1884), P. E. of the Waco District. 

The largest membership by far was Navasota with 915 members.  Then came LaGrange (400), Millican (312), Springfield (368), and Anderson (269).  By way of contrast, the 5 appointments in the German District reported a total of 209 members.  (remember that the appointment was a circuit—several churches—rather than a station—one church.  Navasota did not have one church with 950 members.)

The conference was in a growth pattern of receiving both probationary and full members.  Only one preacher located, and another was suspended for remarrying while his first wife was still living.

The church and Texas both faced huge problems.  The yellow fever epidemic of 1867 was catastrophic, killing several preachers and many church members.  The tensions associated with Reconstruction continued.  The MEC was naturally associated with the “Yankees” and some of the European American MEC preachers were seen as “carpetbaggers.”  The P. E. of the Tyler District, J. Brock, reported, “Serious opposition involving great personal peril is now passing away.” 

As a final gesture of good will the final action of the annual conference was an offer to fill the pulpit of Shearn for the Sunday services to be held on Dec. 18.  We do not know whether that offer was accepted.