This Week in Texas Methodist History October 20

Centenary Camp Meeting Begins, October 24, 1839

In 1839 Texas Methodists were still part of the Mississippi Conference, and operated on the far western edge of European-American settlement, but they still participated in the celebration of the centennial of Methodism.  1839 was chosen because the first Methodist classes were formed in England in 1739.  In 1884 they celebrated another centennial, that one of the formation of the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1784.  

Joseph Sneed gives the following description

Thursday, Oct. 24, 1839, Our Centenary Meeting began at New Year’s Creek Camp Ground, About eight miles south of Independence, half a mile below the road to San Felipe, on the west side of the creek, at a fine spring in the edge of the prairie, within a half mile of the old camp ground, the first meeting of the kind, I believe, ever held in western Texas.   

Lide gives the names of the preachers as Robert Alexander, Robert Hill, William Medford, Joseph Sneed, John Wesley Kenney, and Amos Roark.  All were Methodists except for Roark who was Cumberland Presbyterian.   Lide also contradicts Sneed and says that the meeting was on Caney Creek rather than New Year’s Creek.

The author has spent hours trying to reconcile the accounts.  Sneed was a participant so he should know.  His detailed location, “eight miles south of Independence, half a mile below the road to San Felipe, on the west side of the creek.. “ is compelling evidence that the creek was New Year’s Creek.  The problem is that Sneed then states “within a half mile of the first meeting of the kind I believe ever held in Western Texas.’

The first meeting, referred to by Sneed was on Caney Creek.  Which creek was it?  I have concluded that it was New Year’s Creek.  The Caney Creek Camp Meeting (actually held on a small tributary of Caney Creek rather than the main channel) site had fallen into disuse by 1839 after having hosted meetings in 1834, 1835, and 1837.   Robert Alexander, the main preacher in the area, had moved to Rutersville to help found the Methodist College which would open January 1840.  He would later move back to Caney Creek and establish his home of Cottage Hill on the Camp Ground, but in 1839, he was living in Rutersville.   There were two other Methodist sites near Caney Creek in October 1839, Centre Hill, about 3 miles away, the home of David Ayres, and the home of William Medford on Piney Creek about 5 miles south of  Centre Hill.  

The Centennial Camp Ground on New Year’s Creek was soon overshadowed by Felder’s Campground near it.