This Week in Texas Methodist History September 30

Camp Meetings Held in Commemoration of Methodist Centenary, October, 1839C

Friday, October 4, 1839 kicked off a month of camp meetings in Texas in honor of the centenary of the founding of Methodism.    Texas was still considered a mission field by the MEC in 1839 and was attached to the Mississippi Conference as a district.  On the other hand, it was rapidly growing with the transfer of preachers from other conferences and the licensing of local preachers already in Texas.  It was even ambitious enough to be planning a university and had already hired a president for that that projected institution of higher education.  

The first camp meeting was held in Robert Alexander’s field at Rutersville, the site of the proposed university in Fayette County just a few miles from LaGrange.   Alexander had recently given up the Washington Circuit to move to Rutersville and help get the university started.  

On Friday night the preacher was Daniel N. V. Sullivan (-1847).  Sullivan was not even a preacher.  He had come to Texas from Alabama to teach school.  In the first session of the Texas Annual Conference, Bishop Waugh ordained him deacon and appointed him to Matagorda. He served responsible appointments and died in Houston in 1847.

On Saturday John Haynie, Joseph Sneed, and William Y. Allen occupied the pulpit.  Haynie (1786-1860) had been ordained a deacon for Bishop Asbury in 1811 and came to Texas only in January, 1839, and settled near Bastrop with his son-in-law, John Caldwell.  When the Texas Legislature moved to Austin, he served as Chaplain of the House of Representatives while serving the Austin Circuit.  He was also appointed to Corpus Christi, but came back to Rutersville where he died in 1860.  Haynie Chapel Iin the Rio Texas Conference is named in his honor.

Joseph P. Sneed (1804-1881) was another newcomer, having arrived in Texas in February, 1839.  He was appointed to the Montgomery Circuit, and with Alexander’s resignation from the Washington Circuit, had those churches added to his parish.  The result was by far the largest circuit any of the early Texas riders had to travel---basically from Texana to Marlin.  He retired to a farm in Milam County where he died.  Sneed Memorial UMC in the Texas Conference is named in his honor.

There aren’t any UMC churches named for William Y. Allen (1805-1885) because he was a Presbyterian.   He came to Houston in 1838 and enjoyed cordial relations with the Methodist preachers he met, especially Littleton Fowler with whom he exchanged correspondence.  His preaching at a Methodist camp meeting was in no way strange---Methodists in the 1830s in Texas were happy to invite Presbyterians and Baptists to the pulpit.  Allen did not return directly to Houston from Rutersville, but went to Austin where he organized the Presbyterian Church in the new capital city.  He eventually left Texas and became President of Centre College in Danville, Kentucky. 

The camp meeting continued until Tuesday, October 8, when Haynie preached the concluding sermon, “with curious effect” according to Allen’s diary.

Through the rest of the month Centenary Camp Meetings were held at  Texana, where Sneed preached; Robinson’s in Walker County; Fanthorp’s (present Anderson in Grimes County); and Lindley’s (Joseph Lindley 1794-1874---Montgomery County). 

The big one and most famous, though, was held on the Washington Circuit beginning on Thursday Oct. 24 on New Year’s Camp Ground about 8 miles southwest of Independence.   The preachers there included Robert Alexander (1811-1882), William Medford (?-1841), Joseph Sneed, and Robert Hill, and John Wesley Kenney (1799-1865). 

One of the preachers who had thought deeply about the observance of the centenary was not there.  Abel Stevens had come to Texas in December 1838, served the Washington Circuit, then went back home to his family whom he had left in Providence, Rhode Island.  On his way back to New England he stopped at the New York City offices of the Publishing House and Christian Advocate.  He reported on his idea to celebrate the centenary by soliciting land donations for church and camp meeting sites.  He had even gone to a printer and had deeds of gift printed so all donors had to do was fill in blanks.  It made a great deal of sense in Texas in the 1830’s since there was so little cash in circulation, but lots of people had more land than they could use for agricultural purposes.

The series of camp meetings in October 1839 produced a great deal of enthusiasm and set the stage for the organization of the Texas Conference at Rutersville in December, 1840.