This Week in Texas Methodist History December 29

Advocate Publishes Sam Barcus Request for New Status (Retirement) with Conference, January,  1942

The Barcus family is one of the most distinguished in Texas Methodist history, having provided several preachers across several generations.  One of the most prominent members of the family was J. Sam Barcus. 

In his history of Southwestern University, William B. Jones, described President Barcus as
“personally a modest man.”

In his request for superannuated status at the 1941 session of the North Texas Conference he overcame some of that modesty and told some of his many accomplishments.  Had he wished, Barcus could have spoken even longer about a career that included membership in four annual conferences, the presidency of 3 colleges (Seth Ward, Clarendon, and Southwestern), and Presiding Elderships. 

Here is the address as printed in the Southwestern Advocate.

I come to ask a change in my Conference Relationship.  I do not make this request at the suggestion of the bishop, the district superintendent, or members of my family.  I come of my own motion.  I came after consulting the calendar.  I joined the Conference forty-nine years ago.  I began serving as a supply fifty-two years ago.  I was licensed to preach fifty-five years ago. 

I was a licensed preacher from Hubert Knickerbocker was a lad.  I was O. P. Kiker’s preacher when he was a “prep” in college. I was Chairman of the Admission Committee when Umphrey Lee’s father joined the conference.  When a question was raised by the committee about his age, he replied that even if he could not give more than twenty years of service, Umphrey, then 15 years old, would come along and be worth something to the church. 

I graduated from Southwestern University before Hiram Boaz entered there.  I was A. Frank Smith’s pastor when he was a boy and his little broth Angie was too young to remember.,  (note:  Angie Smith was presiding in the absence of the bishop when these remarks were delivered.)_

I was a college president when Ivan Lee Holt entered college and I have heard bishops that Bishop John M. Moore never saw. 

My ministry falls into three periods.  I have been a pastor, a college president, and a Presiding Elder.  As a pastor I never failed to have additions to the church on professions of faith or to raise Conference collections in full.  As President of Southwestern University, we had the largest graduating class before or since.  As Presiding Elder, I now have a fountain pen as making the best report of any presiding elder in the Conference. 

In asking for a change in Conference relationship, I hardly know how to frame the request.  It would not be proper to ask for superannuation.  In Methodist terminology a superannuate is one worn out in the service.  The record I hold for never missing an appointment in fifty years on account of sickness has been maintained this year.  I have filled all my appointments and have preached a number of times in the country school house.  I have made quarterly visits to the members of the church.  While I have always reported Conference collections in full, I had this year the largest percent increase this year of any year.  

Retirement would not be the right term to use.  I do not know how to retire.  I can beat a charge, but I do not know how to beat a retreat.  Whatever my relationship to the Conference, I will be working somewhere for the Lord.  

The group that has been called by one as “parasites” (retirees drawing a pension) will not fit my case. After the thousands of dollars I have personally contributed and the hundreds of thousands I have raised, and the many people I have led to Christ and into the church, I feel that any compensation I receive from the church will be for value received. 

It will be impossible to place me in the class sometimes designated as “forgotten men.”I have loved too many people and have been loved by too many to ever be forgotten.   One of my most prized letters received this year was from a girl received into the church about four years ago.  She was acknowledging a little present sent on the occasion of her high school graduation.  She wrote “I will keep this as a remembrance but I need nothing to remember how wonderful you are. 

Sam Barcus retired to Georgetown and died there in 1948. 

This Week in Texas Methodist History December 22

Superintendents Report Devastation by Hurricane 1915. December 1915

The Galveston Storm of `1900 is well known as the greatest natural disaster in the history of the United States with at least 6,000 fatalities and attendant loss of property.  Less well known is the fact that the upper Texas coast faced another terrible hurricane just 15 years later.  The 1915 hurricane did not cause as much loss of life, but the coastal plain had experienced population growth.

W. P. Stewart, the U. S. Weather Observer in Galveston is credited with saving hundreds of lives.  Well before the storm arrived, he sent motorcycles in a twenty mile radius from Galveston warning people, "If you do not shelter behind the sea wall, you will be killed."   With memories of the 1900 storm still fresh, hundreds of residents, campers, and workers took his advice and were saved.  

h as a result of the petroleum boom in the intervening years so the second storm also caused great damage.  

+

Newspapers of the era carried stories of both damage and dramatic rescues.  The four masted schooner the Dora Allison en route from Progresso to Mobile was swept over the Galveston sea wall and deposited on the parade ground of Fort Crockett.  All eight crewmen were saved.   

Gus Carlson, a crewman on the dredge boat San Bernard was found in the surf fifteen miles down the coast from where the boat was sunk.  He was wearing a life belt and was unconscious when discovered.  All of his ship mates were killed.   Galveston, Anahuac, Wallisville, and Port Arthur were all devastated while Texas City suffered relatively minor damage as compared to the more exposed locations.  At Sabine Pass 75 residents crowded into the brick school house.  It was the only structure in town left standing.

When the Texas Conference of the MEC met in Galveston in December 1915, the District Superintendents reported on the damage to churches and parsonages.  Here is what they reported:

Wallisville—church and parsonage both destroyed. 

Angleton and Columbia---had to abandon property because of May Flood; August hurricane destroyed every church on the circuit.

Houston Tabernacle—pastor and family escaped by wading through waist deep water.  The roof and all interior furnishings were destroyed.

Houston Calvary—entire church destroyed

Houston St. Mark’s –entire church destroyed.

Houston Sloan Memorial—parsonage damaged

Houston Trinity—damage to church building but covered by insurance

Sweeny Circuit—all crops destroyed by storm, could not pay any apportionments

Thompson’s Circuit---all churches on the circuit underwater every time Brazos overflows

Texas City Circuit—both churches damaged

Freeport—plans to start a new church abandoned because of flood

Hockley Circuit—meeting house destroyed by flood

More than 100 years later the Texas Conference continues to deal with flood damage. 

This Week in Texas Methodist History  December 15

 Texas Conference of the MEC Passes Resolution to Oppose Jim Crow. December 17,1913

The 1913 session of the Texas Conference of the MEC met in Palestine from December 17-21.  Among the business items was the introduction of a resolution against Jim Crow rail passenger cars. 

One should remember that the  1896 Supreme Court case that enshrined the “separate but equal” , Plessy v. Ferguson, dealt with discrimination in rail cars.  The Supreme Court ruled that as long as the passenger car facilities were of equal quality, it was legal for railroads to discriminate on the basis of race.

Not surprisingly, the rail companies did not provide equal rail cars as demonstrated by the 1913 Texas Conference resolution. 

It read

Whereas, the great state of Texas operates separate passenger car regulations, known as the “Jim Crow Rail Car” law which provides for equal accommodations for white and colored passengers;

Whereas, the rail companies fail to comply with this law providing for equal accommodations for passengers regardless of color;

Whereas, we are often placed in a small cut-off place of four or six seats with tobacco users in all forms, as well as whiskey drinkers and law breakers;

Whereas our wives and children of refined culture are invariably subjected to the unpleasant conditions, for which the railroad companies are responsible;

Whereas on account of these unpleasant conditions, under which our wives and children, as well as ourselves, are compelled to travel over the different railroads of Texas, and that to our greatest shame and humiliation;

Be it Resolved, that we are not pleased to ride on passenger trains with tobacco users and whiskey drinkers and law breakers;

Resolved that we faithfully and prayerfully ask for accommodations as provided for in the “Jim Crow Car Regulations” for our wives, children, and ourselves;

Resolved that the Conference Secretary forward a copy of these resolutions to each railroad ticket agent for his consideration. 

 P. H. Jenkins

H.B Pemberton

M. Q. A Fuller

B. M Taylor

M. Fountain

T. W. Sparks

This Week in Texas Methodist History December 8

Death of A. J. Weeks, Advocate Editor, Creates Crisis in Southwestern Advocate, December 8, 1939

Andrew Jackson Weeks, editor of the Southwestern Advocate since 1930, had a heart attack at his home in Richardson on December 8, 1939.   He died on the 12^th.  His death created a crisis for the denominational newspaper which was already in serious financial difficulty. 

In one of the most remarkable acts of devotion to the cause of religious publishing, the children of A. J. Weeks (Vivian, Agnes, Marvin, and Jack) pitched in to get the December 14 issue of the Advocate produced and distributed. 

Weeks, born in Angelina County and a member of Ryan’s Chapel Methodist Church, had served pastorates in the Texas and West Texas Conferences as well as being a Presiding Elder in Oklahoma.  He had been editor 1919-1922 and was called back to the editorship in 1930. 

Although he was 70 years old in 1939, there was really no succession plan.  The denomination has come into being earlier in 1939, and there were questions about the future of its publication program.  For example, should the range of the Advocate be extended to the newly created South Central Jurisdiction or remain as an organ of Texas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico? (Colorado had once been included in its constituency.)

The Board of Publication met on December 19, 1939, and cobbled together a temporary solution to the problem created by the demise of A. J. Weeks.

Bishop John M. Moore assumed the role of Editor in Chief.  Harry DeVore became business manager.  Associate Editors from each of the conferences were named.  These associate editors were among the most prominent preachers of their era.  They included John Nelson Russell Score of Fort Worth, Dawson Bryan of Houston, Marshall Steel of Dallas, Edmund Heinsohn of Austin, J. O. Haynes of Big Spring, and Wallace Crutchfield of Oklahoma.  

Moore had retired from the active episcopacy in 1938 and lived iu Dallas. He had been managing editor of the Texas Christian Advocate 1906 and of the Daily Christian Advocate from 1906-1909.  From 186-1898 he had been on the staff of the St. Louis Christian Advocate. 

The new arrangement brought together perhaps the most distinguished editorial board ever to serve on a Methodist newspaper, but did little to ease the financial problems plaguing the Advocate. 

The Advocate was $3,900 in debt with about $1,000 in unpaid subscriptions and $200 in accounts receivable from advertising.   There was no cash on hand, and the $2,700 deficit looked overwhelming.   There were 8,150 subscribers.  Half of them would have their subscription expire on January 1.  Each issue cost $300 top print.  Something needed to be done.

The bishops devised a plan to make the Advocate solvent.  Bishop Moore and Dr. DeVore agreed to forego a salary for six months.  Then a subscription drive would be launched—not for an annual subscription, but for a six month subscription for $.75 for the twenty-six issues from January 1940 to June 1940!   Seventy-five cents for 26 issues would include postage! 

Why six months?  The first session of the South Central Jurisdictional Conference was going to meet May 28, and the assumption was that the Jurisdictional Conference would create a newspaper for the entire jurisdiction.    

The bishops (Holt, Boaz, Moore, Selecman, and Smith) calculated that it would take 20,000 new subscriptions at that reduced price to erase the debt.  Being Methodists, they naturally assigned quotas.  The forty-two districts in Texas would each have a quota of 500 new subscribers.  Oklahoma which then had eastern and western conferences would be assigned 2000 per conference.  New Mexico would be assigned 1000 new subscriptions.   The total would be 25,000 new subscribers, enough to attain solvency.  They hoped to keep the Texas Christian Advocate in business for just six more months and then let a jurisdictional newspaper replace it.  

The South Central Jurisdiction declined to create a weekly newspaper.  The Texas Christian Advocate was forced to adjust.  It eventually was reorganized with the Dallas District Superintendent and two Dallas pastors assuming editorial responsibilities on a rotating basis.  DeVore remained as business manager.