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.”
“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.
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