This Week in Texas Methodist History March 29

Advocate Excoriates Governor and Attorney General Over Beer Sales, April 1942

As the United States geared up to fight World War II, rural Texas boomed with military construction.  Texas was an ideal site for all sorts of installations because it had wide open spaces suitable for training in almost every area the military required.   The first major construction project in World War II Texas was Camp Bowie in Brown County.  Construction began in September 1940.  It started with just 2000 acres, but by October 1942 had expanded to 120,000 acres.  The installation was an important part of the war effort where it trained both armored and artillery units.  It also eventually housed about 3,000 prisoners of war.

There was a problem---Brown County was dry, and the Post Exchange (PX) wished to sell 3.2 beer.   Governor Coke Stevenson asked Attorney General Gerald Mann for an opinion on the subject.   Could the Army sell beer in a dry county? A. G. Mann issued a decision that it could—federal laws trumped state law in this matter. 

The editor the Southwestern Advocate went ballistic in his criticism of the two officials.  The editor claimed that Germany’s forcing itself upon smaller states and the U.S. Government’s forcing 3.2 beer sales in dry counties was based on the same principle.  “Germany forcing its way of life on small states and the army invading dry territory and forcing alcohol sales are one in the same thing in principle.”    Quite an exaggeration Mr. Editor! Although in April 1942 full extent of Nazi atrocities in conquered “small states” was not fully known, Americans did know about the viciousness of the Nazis in Poland and other devastated nations.   Using such hyperbole---comparing beer sales in a PX to Nazi atrocity—actually harmed the temperance cause. 

Particularly galling was the fact that both the Governor and A. G. had strong Methodist connections.  Coke Stevenson (1888-1975) was named for Bishop Coke.  At one McMahan’s Chapel Day celebration at which he was the featured speaker, he claimed to be related to Henry Stephenson, pioneer Texas Methodist preacher. Yes the spelling of the name was different, but the kinship claim was plausible.

Attorney General Mann (1907-1990) was famous as SMU’s first super star foot ball player (1925-1927),   when he was named All Conference twice.  He was also a religious man and pastored a Congregational church while working his way through Harvard Law School. 

The conflict over beer sales in dry counties continued---and was exacerbated at some posts when German P. O. W. s  had beer but the locals did not. 

This Week in Texas Methodist History March 22

Methodists Participate in City Wide   “Go to Church Campaign” in Teague, March 1920

There is more than $60,000 invested in church buildings and property in Teague, and at least $8,000 per year paid to ministers of the gospel, and yet---get this---the average attendance at the ser vices of these churches is less than 250 people.  Think of this!  It at once becomes deplorable.

So wrote the editor of the Teague Chronicle in the March 26, 1920 issue.  The solution was a Go-to-Church movement which was formed by the cooperation of five of the churches in Teague. 

Much has been made of denominational rivalry, but by the early 20^th century more and more interdenominational associations were forming among Protestant churches.  To be sure the “mainline” churches remained hostile to Roman Catholics, Adventists, and Pentecostal groups but Methodists, Baptists, and Presbyterians often worked together. 

Part of reason was that the denominations had often cooperated in the Prohibition effort.  They had worked together to stamp out Demon Rum, and found friendships across church lines. 

Ministerial associations actually date to the Republic of Texas era when Protestant ministers of Houston banded together.  There were so many con artists posing as preachers coming to the newly created city of Houston that the legitimate preachers needed to protect the integrity of the profession.

As circuits morphed into stations and Methodist pastors began staying more than one year in an appointment, preachers were more likely to become more community minded, form friendships with other pastors and work together.

The Go-to-Church campaign in Teague consisted of the pastors of First Methodist (MEC), First Baptist, First Christian, First Presbyterian, and the Methodist Protestant churches.   The MECS pastor was F. D. Dawson (Ferd) the first of a multi-generational preacher family with that name. 

The Campaign was typical of the era in that friendly competition would drive the event.  Members of all five churches were arbitrarily dived into Red and Blue teams –the “Hustlers” and the “Rustlers”  with a general chair of each team.  A lay woman and lay man from each of the five churches would be named captain to organize evangelistic visits to every house in town.  The team that brought in the most improved attendance would win a prize---the honor of hosting a picnic for all at the end of the campaign. 

The Chronicle editor made sure to point out that the campaign was strictly local and had nothing to do with the Interchurch Movement.  (see previous posts for Interchurch Movement)   

This Week in Texas Methodist History  March 15

MECS Churches in Houston Hold Simultaneous Revivals March 21-April 4, 1920

One hundred years ago this week the MECS churches in Houston began two week revivals. 

A listing of the churches reveals the dominant pattern of Texas Methodist geography.  In all of the metropolitan areas of Texas churches existed fairly close to one another near the central business district.  As the cities grew, suburban churches were organized farther and farther from the central business district.  Eventually most of the “close-in” churches were closed or relocated. 

Here are the MECS churches in Houston in 1920 along with their addresses and revivalists:

First—Main at Clay   Sam Hay

St. Paul’s –McGowen at Milam   W. R. Hendricks

St. John’s Crawford and Gray  John E. Green

Bering Memorial  McKinney and Milam   C. A. Lehmberg

Woodland Heigfhs  Houston Ave.  S. W. Thomas

Washington Ave    1500 Block of Washington Ave.  A. B. Chapman

Grace Church,  Yale at Thirteenth, Heights    H. M. McCain

West End   Brunner Ave and Woods St.  R. E. Ledbetter

Trinity, Loraine and Gano   I. M. Manly

McKee Street   McKee and Conti  Frazier Smith

McAshan Memorial Sampson and Magnolia   Oscar W. Hooper

Central Park    Seventieth St. and Ave. M    Terry W. Wilson

Beneke Memorial  Waverly and Chestnut  A. L. Carnes

All the revivals would be conducted in the evening, but at 10:00 a.m. First Methodist would hold a union service.

African American churches in the MEC were also well-represented in Houston. 

They included the following:

Audubon and Independence Heights—F. W. Johnston

Boynton---S. W. Johnston

Mt. Vernon—E. H. Holden

Mallalieu  L. H. Barnett

St. James----W. D. Lewis

St. Mark’s  ---E. L. Warren

Sloan Memorial---J. W. Gilder

Trinity-C. K. Brown

Trinity East---L. E.Jordan

The MEC also had two German speaking churches,  Norhill and Pine Grove (later Oakwood).

The MEC also had English speaking churches for European-Americans—South Houston and Collins

 There was also one United Brethren (later EUB) in Houston, prominent enough that it was the host church for annual conference twice in the 1920s (1922 and 1928).  It was called Oaklawn (not to be confused with Oakwood).  

There are few better illustrations of the 1920s boom time in Houston than the organization of Methodist churches.  In addition to the churches  listed above, the 1926 MECS Journal lists the following Houston churches:   Cottage Grove, Denver Harbor, Fulbright Memorial, Milby Memorial, North Side, Park Place, and West End. ----an average of more than one new church per year.

In that same time span the MEC added two African American churches in Houston, Ebenezer and Grace. 

Many of the Houston Methodist Churches of the 1920 no longer exist.  Some have closed.  Others merged, others moved and changed their names.  St. Paul’s moved but kept its name. 

I like to compare the expansion of Methodist churches into the Texas suburbs of the 20^th century with the expansion of Methodism in Texas in the 19^th century.   The appointive system worked like this;---A bishop would appoint a preacher to an area increasing in population and say “Organize a church.  We will pay your salary until the church is self-sufficient.” 

The appointive system worked great to build churches in places with increasing population. 

It does not work nearly so well in areas of population decline.  All over the state, near the inner cities, are large church buildings which are expensive to maintain with church membership too small to generate the income to pay the maintenance expenses. 

This Week in Texas Methodist History March 8

Southwestern Christian Advocate Reports on Subscription Campaign, March 14, 1940

A previous post reported on the re-organization of the Texas Christian Advocate following the unexpected death of A. J. Weeks, editor and business manager.  The denominational organ encompassed Methodist churches in Texas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico.  Bishops met in Dallas in January, 1940 and developed a plan to revive the finances of the Advocate.  The plan assigned quotas to all the districts and offered a special subscription rate of $.50 for the next six months,  The bishops expected that when the South Central Jurisdiction met in July 1940, it would expand the scope of the Advocate to the other states in the jurisdiction.   

The duties of editor and business manager would be separated.  Retired Bishop John M. Moore would assume the duties of editor-in-chief and each annual conference would supply an associate editor.  Harry DeVore would serve as business manager.  All members of the new team would serve without salary. 

How did the subscription campaign work out?   Not very well, it seems.  Evidently Bishop Moore was not averse to using public pressure because on March 14 all of the churches with 1000 membership in Texas, New Mexico, and Oklahoma, complete with membership and number of subscriptions was published.  The pastor’s name was also published.  The results were a little embarrassing.   The quota had been one subscription per every 20 members, and the campaign had not come close.

First Methodist Houston P. W. Quillian pastor, had the largest membership of any Methodist church in the region in 1940  with 5264 on the church roll with only 6 subscriptions.  Other 1000+ Texas Conference churches with subscriptions in the single digits included Marshall First  with 4 and Jacksonville First with 9.  

The Central Texas Conference 1000+ churches with fewer than 10 members were Hillsboro and Waxahachie.  First Abilene and Polk Street Amarillo made the list for the North Texas Conference. 

On the other hand, there were a few examples of churches that exceed the quota.  First Wichita Falls where Paul Martin (later bishop) was pastor, reported 120 subscriptions in a 2100 member church.  Pampa First and Corpus Christi First also exceed their quota.  The star churches in the Central Texas Conference were Herring Ave. in Waco and First Fort Worth. 

The Jurisdictional Conference did not establish a jurisdictional newspaper.  The Advocate continued as a regional publication.