This Week in Texas Methodist History April 26

Galveston Methodists Celebrate Centennial, April 20-27, 1941

Many churches celebrate special anniversaries.  It has been my privilege to participate in centennials, sesquicentennials, and even several 175^th celebrations.  By the way, there is less consensus about what to call the 175^th---here are some of the contenders for the name Dodransbicentennial, Dequasbicentennial, Dosquicentennial, Demisemiseptcentennial, Septaquintaquinque-
centennial, and Terquasquicentennial.

Galveston Methodists spent the week of April 20-27 celebrating their centennial with a week of distinguished speakers,   Unfortunately the celebrations were marred by torrential rains. 

Bishop Ivan Lee Holt preached twice on Sunday, April 20.  Monday night Bishop Hiram Boaz preached.  Tuesday night was devoted to a reading of the history of the first 100 years of Methodism in Galveston.  On Wednesday night Bishop John M. Moore preached.  Regular readers of this column will remember that that Bishop Moore was retired, but had been called back into service as Editor of the Southwestern Christian Advocate. 

The rains started Wednesday, and by worship time on Wednesday night the streets were flooded.  Attendance was only 100 brave souls.  The celebration ended on Sunday the 27^th with Bishop C. C. Selecman preaching at both services. 

Galveston’s Methodist history is full of twists and turns.  As the most important port in the Republic of Texas,  many immigrants, including Methodists came through the city.  On the other  hand,  it was difficult to establish a self-sustaining congregation.  Coastal cities experienced epidemic disease more often than inland settlements, and many arrivals left Galveston as soon as they could afford to.    In its earliest days, Galveston and Houston were on a circuit.  Neither city was able to support a station church,.  When a church was finally built, it was financed in part by the generosity of William Ryland, well known as Chaplain of the U. S. Senate.  The donation had been solicited by Thomas O. Summers, pastor at Galveston who conducted a grand fund raising tour in the United State.  The church was named Ryland Chapel in the donor’s honor.

Ryland Chapel could not survive the vicissitudes of Reconstruction, and the building was occupied by an African American congregation.  The MECS reorganized and built St. John’s which was dedicated by Bishop Marvin in 1871.  Just two years later, in 1873, St. James was organized mainly through the efforts of David Ayres, to serve the expanding population.  St. James really flourished, and three of its pastors (Mouzon, DuBose, and Ward) were later elected bishop. 

In 1886 a third MECS church (West End) was organized, making Galveston one of the few cities to have 3 MECS churches. 

The 1900 storm destroyed so much property and cost so many lives that St. John’s and St. James decided to merge.   A new name was chosen—Central (later changed to First Methodist).  The building was completed under the pastorate of Seth Ward at a cost of $40,000.  It was this building in which the centennial was celebrated. 

Galveston played the central role in Texas Methodist publishing from the 1850s through the 1880s when the Advocate was relocated to Dallas.  Galveston had the book store/printing office/editorial offices of the Advocate.   One of the Galveston pastors or the Presiding Elder served as Editor.  Galveston had by far the most important communications network in Texas, thanks to its primacy as the state’s main cotton market.  Those same communication links, mainly to New Orleans, which served the cotton markets, also carried church news.  The book store did a large mail order business, and could serve its customers via the extensive rail network that converged on the port facilities. 

First Methodist was eventually relocated and its name was changed to Moody Memorial. 

This Week in Texas Methodist History   April 19

Mr. and Mrs. J. J. Perkins Announce Gift to Construct Lois Perkins Chapel at Southwestern University April 1943

One of the outstanding architectural treasurers in Texas Methodism is Lois Craddock Perkins Chapel on the campus of Southwestern University in Georgetown.  The Chapel was funded by well-known philanthropists Mr. and Mrs. J. J. Perkins of Wichita Falls.   Their generosity also benefitted SMU, the Methodist Home in Waco, the Superannuate Endowment Fund, First Methodist Wichita Falls, and numerous other schools.  Their gift to SMU that resulted in the name of the Theology School being named “Perkins” had not yet occurred. 

The gift was announced at a banquet of the Williamson /County Southwestern University Ex-Students Association.  The chapel was designed by Cameron Fairchild who was not in attendance because he was in military service.  Fairchild had already been the architect for West Gymnasium and Cody Memorial Library.   An architectural drawing of the proposed building released at the banquet showed a traditional design, including transepts, to be built with native limestone, the same materials already in use in other campus buildings. 

The banquet was held in the University dining hall.  Harold Egger of Dallas, President of the Ex-Student’s Association, introduced the keynote speaker, Bishop A. Frank Smith of Houston.  SU President J. N. R. Score introduced the distinguished guests.   The guests included the Perkins’ pastor Paul Marin (who would be elected bishop in 1944) and Dr. Claude Cody, Jr. of Houston, the Chair of the SU Trustees.  Cody, an ENT with a practice in the Houston Medical Center, was the son of long time SU mathematics professor, Claude Cody, Sr.   

The chapel would be constructed on the site where the science building stood.  That siting decision meant that a new science building would be built.   The new science  building would also be named in honor of another well-known Texas philanthropist, W. W. Fondren of Houston. 

Where had SU students worshiped before the chapel was built?   The auditorium in the Administration Building was called the Chapel, and services were held there.

One of the events in that space was Dr. Score’s inauguration on October 6, 1942.  A. Frank Smith presided, and Mrs. Smith sat with her SU classmate, Lois Craddock Perkins.  They joked about the poor facilities in which the inauguration was occurring.  As Mr. and Mrs. Perkins drove back to Wichita Falls, Mrs. Perkins said, “Joe, I wish they had a nice chapel at Southwestern.”  That same night when they got home, Joe Perkins called Score to talk about building a chapel.  He followed up via letters on October 28 and Nov. 24 in which he pledged $75,000 for the project.

Naturally the project had to wait until the end of World War II, and Joe Perkins realized that war time inflation meant that his original $75,000 would not be enough so he doubled that figure.  The eventual contact, let in 1948 was for $189,821.  To reach that figure, the transepts in the original design were eliminated. 

In his April 1943 remarks, President Score related that very soon after his becoming President, Dr. Cody and told him that the first major building project needed to be a Chapel in the center of the campus where religious life could be focused.  Alas, President Score did not live to see the completion of the Chapel.  He died in September 1949 art the age of 53, and his ashes were buried under the altar in Lois Perkins Chapel. 

Footnote:  Lois Perkins Chapel was the site of Commencement in 1969 when I received my degree. 

This Week in Texas Methodist History April 12

Mission Home Flooded with Adoption Requests, Closes Application Process, April 1944

While examining old newspapers for subjects of this weekly blog, one sometimes discovers accounts that contradiction conventional wisdom.  Such was the case for this week’s blog.

“Conventional wisdom” tells us that Americans delayed starting families during World War II.  With so many lives disrupted by military service marriage and family plans were put on hold.  Vital statistic records corroborate this wisdom.  The Baby Boom is an indisputable part of our demographic history.  Conventional wisdom also tells us that in the swirl of mass transport of young people around the nation during World War II, there were many casual sexual liaisons which resulted in unplanned pregnancies. 

I was therefore surprised when I read the April 1944 report of the Texas Methodist Mission Home in San Antonio.  Superintendent Dennis Macune reported that in the first quarter of 1944 the Home had been so overwhelmed with applications for adoption that it had to close the application process until May 1, 1944.    There were far more potential adoptive parents than there were babies to be adopted.  Macune reported that for the January-March quarter, fifteen women had been admitted to the Home.  Nine babies had been born, and all nine had been adopted. 

The Texas Methodist Mission Home (today’s Providence Place) is one of the most famous and inspiriting stories in Texas Methodist history.   Readers of this blog probably already know the origin story.  Madam Volino who ran one of the most famous brothels in San Antonio, heard a street preacher in September 1895.  The preaching moved her to contact a woman whom she knew attended Travis Park Methodist Church.  The woman arranged fro Rev. W. W. Pinson to visit Mrs. Volino at the brothel (prudently taking his wife with him).  That visit led Mrs. Volino to a revival at Travis Park where she gave her life to Christ and resolved to turn her brothel into a rescue home.

With the help of volunteers from Travis Park, God blessed Mrs. Volino’s efforts.  Eventually the annual conferences in Texas became involved in the Home and the institution became one of the leading homes for women with unplanned pregnancies and adoption agency.   There are literally hundreds of Texas still living who are grateful Home alumni. 

Changing social mores reduced the name demand for such institutions, but the Home adapted to changing conditions and today provides a variety of services that bring healing and hope not just to young women, but to many other persons. 

This Week in Texas Methodist History April 5

Edmund Heinsohn Defends Religious Climate at University of Texas,  April, 1943

One of the most intellectually gifted Texas Methodist preachers was Edmund Heinsohn (1888-1989).  His Fifty Years Courtroom Pulpit (1972) reveals a deep intellect, passionate involvement in social issues, and a consecrated life devoted to the gospel.  He was born in Fayette County but his family moved to Bartlett when he was a child.  He received both undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Texas and moved to Temple to set up a law practice.  He practiced law for eleven years and then entered the Methodist ministry.  He served several appointments, including six years at First MECS at Georgetown before being appointed to University in Austin in 1934. 

On any given Sunday morning his congregation included many university professors, Supreme Court justices, elected officials –the cream of Texas intellectual elite.  He served on the Southwestern University board from 1931-1959 and chaired the board of Huston-Tillotson College.  He was also chair of the Texas State Library and Historical Commission for 25 years.  He was simultaneously a Lion, a Rotarian, and a Kiawanian. 

In 1943 he came to the defense of the embattled President of the University of Texas, Homer Raney in the battle over academic freedom.  Raney (1896-1985) had run afoul of trustees who wanted to control all aspects of the university.  Raney had been named President in 1939 when the Board of Regents was composed in large part of Regents appointed by Governor James Allred.   Allred was a progressive and an  enthusiastic FDR New Deal supporter.  The next governor was W. Lee “Pappy” O’Daniel, perhaps the most anti-intellectual governor Texas has ever had.  Texas has had lots of unintellectual governors, but O’Daniel was actually anti-intellectual.  When O’Daniel left for the Senate, Coke Stevenson became governor.  Robert Caro in his biography of Lyndon Johnson describes Stevenson as self-educated rather than academically inclined.  O’Daniel and Stevenson appointed UT Regents who shared their political views, and a cornerstone of both O’Daniel and Stevenson was their hatred of labor unions.

Regents pressured Raney to fire four economics professors who professed New Deal view and even defended parts of New Deal labor legislation.  Raney defended the professors.  The Regents fired them anyway.  Three of them had tenure.  Regents also found that an English instructor had placed USA by John Dos Passos on the reading list for sophomore students.   They called for the work’s removal.

Raney was outraged by the meddling of the Regents some of whom began openly undercutting Raney.  One of the smears against Raney, who was an ordained Baptist preacher, was that he was promoting atheism, perversion, communism, and socialism---sound familiar?

Heinsohn published an open letter in April 1943 after securing the cooperation of Presbyterians, Lutherans, Episcopals, Baptists, the YMCA, and YWCA, all of whom added their signatures to the open letter.  Other Methodist signers with C. W. Hall, and Paul Deats, Jr.   Hall held the Bible Chair at UT and Deats was with the Wesley Foundation then.  (Deats eventually joined the faculty of Boston University and became a leading light in Methodist progressive circles for years.)

The open letter was a defense of the University of Texas in promoting religious life among its students.  The letter contained 9 points:

1. Only 451 members of the 10,000 person student body failed to list a religious preference when they registered.
2. 90% of the faculty were church members
3. The University gave academic credit for the Bible classes taught at the church student centers.
4. A committee regularly brought religious figures to campus to address various student audiences
5. The Hogg Foundation at the UT regularly promoted the cause of religion in mental hygiene.
6. The University allows religious groups to use campus facilities without a fee
7. The Fine Arts Department regularly performs sacred music and religious drama
8. The Daily Texan regularly prints announcements of meeting of religious groups
9. The Library purchases books at the request of the various denominations and makes them available to students.

Just to make sure they got the point Heinsohn added, “We also wish to express our appreciation to Dr. H. P. Raney, President of the University of Texas, for his fine religious leadership and counsel shown by his many speeches and discussions of religious topics to church groups in Austin and around the state, and his active participation in the life of a University Church.”

Raney was fired without cause in 1946.  His firing led to a student strike, an 8000 person march from the campus to the Capitol and Governor’s Mansion, sanctions by the AAUP, and reprimands from Phi Beta Kappa and the Southern Association.  

Raney ran for governor in 1946 in a very contested primary---the big issues were academic freedom, racial justice, and of course—labor unions.  He survived the first primary but lost to Beuford Jester in the runoff.  The next year he accepted the presidency of Stephens College.  Raney eventually retired from the University of Colorado.