This Week in Texas Methodist History  August 18

Continuing with our series celebrating the 175th year of Methodism in Brenham. . .

When the Civil War finally ended, everyone knew that the old social order based slavery was forever destroyed.  Few could anticipate how tumultuous the religious scene would become during the era immediately after the war. 

The first and most obvious change was that African Americans were now free to organize their own religious lives without having to conform to the wishes of the people who formerly held them in bondage. 

Before the war at least a quarter of Texas Methodists were African American.  Washington County holds the distinction of having the only Methodist African American licensed to preach before the Civil War whose name we know.  A man named John Mark was licensed by the Washington Circuit Quarterly Conferences beginning in 1852.  Joseph P. Sneed recorded in his diary hearing him preach and commented favorably on his sermon.  Sneed also reports that when the man who held John Mark announced his intention to move further west, Methodists in Washington County bought John Mark so that he could remain and preach here.  Alas, I have not been able to corroborate this statement with any other document.

After emancipation African Americans had choices that did not exist before the war.  They could join the MEC which was known for its anti-slavery stand in 1844.  They could join the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) or African Methodist Episcopal Zion (AMEZ) churches, both of which were totally controlled by African Americans.  They could also remain in the MECS, but since that denomination had been founded on a defense of slavery, that option wasn’t particularly appealing.  In Brenham’s case, it really wasn’t appealing since the Brenham pastor was Franklin C. Wilkes who had been a colonel in the Confederate army. 

Robert Alexander, though, had another idea.  He attended the 1866 General Conference of the MECS which met in New Orleans, and while there visited with representatives of the AME denomination.   Shortly after returning home, he visited with Richard Haywood who had been licensed as exhorter by Orceneth Fisher way back in 1840.  Alexander suggested that Haywood affiliate with the AME and start a church in Washington County.   He did so and when the Texas Conference of the AME was founded, 3 of its fifteen churches were in Washington County.  John Mark, who had been licensed by the MECS, switched to the AME and served Independence. 

African Americans continued to leave the MECS and join the MEC, AME, and AMEZ churches, and eventually the MECS organized its remaining African American members into a new denomination, the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church, later renamed the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church or CME.  In the case of Brenham and Washington County, it was too late.  The AME and MEC were far ahead of the CME in organizing churches there.