This Week in Texas Methodist History September 27

 

Marlin Methodists Unsuccessful in Retraining District Seat, District Superintendent Moves to Bryan, September 1941

 

Methodist annual conferences are organized into regional districts presided over by a District Superintendent.  Throughout most of Methodist history the district was named after the city in which the District Superintendent lived.  The prestige of being a “District Seat” was of considerable importance to our ancestors, and communities took pride in that status.

 

Naturally population and transportation patterns change over time as rail roads and highways were built, new factories were built and oil fields were discovered.  It was sometimes necessary to change the district seat. Some of the relocations of district seats were obvious, but there have also been some head scratchers—How could they make that move?  For example, Texarkana gained the honor from Pittsburgh.  Texarkana is on the state line, and therefore cannot be central to the district.  Nacogdoches replaced Timpson and was later replaced by Lufkin.  Galveston lost to Houston, and so on. When Brenham lost the district seat, it was replaced by Galveston.  That seems odd until one realizes that the District Superintendent traveled by rail, and the old Brenham, new Galveston District was well served by the Gulf Coast and Santa Fe Railroad.

 

  Sometimes the removal of the district seat was met with opposition.  In 1945 Bishop A. Frank Smith moved the district seat from Marshall to Longview.  Marshall Methodists were so angry that they petitioned General Conference to move to the Louisiana Conference.  Bishop Smith was not welcome and did not go to Marshall for ten years. 

 

In 1941, the district seat for the westernmost counties of the Texas Conference was moved from Marlin to Bryan.   Marlin had been the district seat only since 1908 when it was moved there from Calvert.   It had been a strange move in 1908.  Marlin was in no way central to the churches in the district.  It was much closer to many churches in McLennan and Bell County which at the time were in the Northwest Texas Conference.   Some churches in the Marlin District were 125 miles away.  On the other hand, Marlin was well known for its therapeutic hot springs and attendant medical facilities.  Calvert had never achieved the population its boosters hoped for. 

 

Now after 33 years as the seat of the Marlin District, the District Conference voted by the necessary three-fourths majority of the quarterly conferences of the church  to move the District Offices and Parsonage to Bryan.  The special called District Conference that ratified the move was held in Bellville, one of the churches at the extreme southern end of the district, about 120 miles from Marlin.  One wonders if the District Superintendent, Clarence Lokey, chose the site of the called District Conference strategically—as far from Marlin as one could get. 

 

The move was prompted by an offer from First Methodist Bryan to donate a lot across the street from the church for the district parsonage.  The District created a Building Committee and built a $7000 brick veneer parsonage on the donated lot.  Marlin Methodists were chagrined at the loss of the District Seat and, after it was too late, offered to create a fund to compensate for the additional travel expenses that were incurred because Marlin was not central to the District. 

 

The most recent reorganization of the districts in the Texas Conference eliminated the practice of naming the district after the city and used geographic designations—North, Northwest, South,  South East and so on.  Bryan/College Station is still the district seat---but not of the Bryan District but of the West District. 

This Week in Texas Methodist History September 20

 

 

Paul Quillian, Pastor of First Methodist Houston, Honored at Rice Hotel with Banquet of 1200 Attendees, September 20, 1948.

 

Reverend Paul Quillian of First Methodist Houston, was honored on the occasion of his 12 years at First Methodist with a banquet in the Rice Hotel.  There were 1200 attendees.  The program included both Bishop A. Frank Smith and Bishop W. C. Martin, and the presidents of both SMU and Southwester University, Umphrey Lee and J. N. R. Score.

 

Quillian was born in Georgia in 1895.  He graduated from Emory at age 18 and entered the business world.  At age 28 he responded to the call to enter the ministry and enrolled for seminary studies at SMU.  He served churches in Camden and Little Rock, Arkansas, and then was appointed to St. Luke’s Oklahoma City.  In 1936 he came to First Methodist Houston. 

 

Under his leadership the membership grew to 7848 making First Methodist the largest Methodist church in the world.  His sermons were broadcast on radio and he became one of the leading voices of Methodism in Texas.  He was a General Conference delegate in 1934, 1938, 1940, 1944, and 1948. 

 

Quillian was very involved in ecumenical affairs, and in 1947 attended the Methodist Ecumenical Conference in Springfield, Massachusetts, and the organizational meeting of the World Council of Churches in Amsterdam. 

 

While in Amsterdam, Quillian suffered a heart attack.  Although he returned to the pulpit in the fall of 1948, he realized his physical condition called for a less strenuous life.  He therefore accepted a position at Perkins School of Theology to teach young preachers how to preach.  The appointment was to begin January 1, 1950. 

 

He did not live that long.  On March 28 he died in Houston at age 53.  Bishops Smith and Martin once again honored him, this time at his funeral.  On March 29 the Official Board of First Houston began the Paul Quillian Memorial Building Fund.  Almost the entire goal of $100,000 was pledged that night.  The memorial building fund eventually resulted in the construction of Quillian Center in far west Houston. 

 

This Week in Texas Methodist History September 13

 

Travis Park Preacher, Albert Shirkey, Touts Chautauqua Speaker Stephen Haboush On Sacred Soil, September 1948

 

The Chautauqua Movement is most closely associated with the late 19^th century,  as an educational and religious enterprise that brought well known speakers to almost every city and town in America. 

The organization still thrives in New York State as a summer program.  The travelling speakers program, once a staple of American life, has been replaced by other forms of communication.

 

One of the most interesting Chautauqua speakers was Stephen Haboush (Estephanious Antonious Habboush) who spoke and gave magic lantern slides about the Holy Land. 

 

Habous was born in Galilee in 1892.   Through the records his birthplace is listed as Syria, Palestine, Turkey, Holyland, and Israel (!).  As a youth he herded sheep in the Galilean hills, and that experience provided the basis for his Chautauqua career.   He entered the United States in 1906 as part of the migration of Lebanese/Syrian immigrants fleeing the Ottoman rule.  The earliest notice I can find of his speaking is in Indianapolis in 1915.  Following census records and newspaper announcements of his speaking engagements, we find him residing in Pennsylvania, Maine, Wisconsin, and Tennessee.  In 1924 he published Over the Hills of Galilee, which sold well.  Later, in 1949 he published My Shepherd’s Life in Galilee with an Exegesis of the Shepherd’s Psalm.  Both books are still available via the usual used book sellers. 

 

Indirect evidence shows that Haboush made a comfortable living through his speaking and publishing careers.  The passenger ship lists showing several his travels show him travelling first class. 

 

Although he spoke in all sorts of venues, including Baptist and Catholic churches, opera houses, civic auditoriums, and tents by 1948 he was associated with the Southwest Texas Conference of the Methodist Church under the auspices of the Audio-Visual Department of the Inter-Board Council.  Vernon Perry of that Department booked his speaking engagements.  That association produced a letter of recommendation from Albert Shirkey of Travis Park Methodist Church in San Antonio. 

 

From 1949 through 1955 Haboush was one of the most popular speakers in Texas.  Although associated with the Southwest Texas Conference, his appeal was ecumenical.  He gave is program before a variety of religious denominations.  There are accounts of his giving his program in the following Texas cities:

 

Nocona, Shiner, Alvin, Stephenville, Wortham, Odem, Mesquite, Teague, Electra, Flatonia, DeLeon, Crosbyton, Sulfur Spirngs, Grand Saline, Panhandle, Boerne, Rockdale, Mineola, Archer City, Sinton, Edna, Alto, Fairfield, Bellaire, Clifton, LaGrange, Graham, Lubbock, Baytown, Houston, Georgetown, Bridge City, Honey Grove, Taft, and Carrolton. 

 

Mrs. Haboush accompanied him and helped with the costumes and music.  His favorite prop was his staff which into which he had driven 28 spikes—each spike represented a wolf, hyena, or jackal he had killed while defending his flocks. 

 

He died in Palm Beach, Florida, in March 1975 and is buried in Maine. 

 

His magic lantern slide collection is now in the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.  The slides consist of scenes of shepherds, landscapes, and city scenes of Jerusalem, Damascus, and Cairo.   Many of them were produced from photographs Haboush took himself on his many trips back to his homeland.  

 

This Week in Texas Methodist History September 6

 

Quixotic Campaign Against Tijuana Vice Spills Over into Texas, September 1920

 

One of the unintended consequences of the enactment of the prohibition of alcoholic beverages in the United States was a boom in the liquor traffic along the Mexican border.  The most prominent explosion of bars, casinos, and brothels was in Tijuana (or Tia Juana as it was usually spelled in 1920). 

In 1900 the reported population of Tia Juana was 343, but upon the enactment of prohibition, the sleepy little seaside village was transformed.  It was just across the border from San Diego, California, which in the 1920 census had a population of about 70,000.  American capital poured into Tia Juana to build facilities for every kind of vice one could imagine. 

 

The MECS Board of Temperance, Prohibition, and Public Morals, headquartered in Nashville, TN, knew exactly what was going on and devised a plan.  They would petition the Passport Office of the United States to deny permit cards for U. S. citizens wishing to cross the border at Tia Juana. 

 

Naturally Secretary Colby of the Passport Office denied the petition in the interests of uniformity of regulations at all border crossings and the necessity to conduct international trade to the mutual benefit of both nations. 

 

There was a Commission on Temperance in every annual conference of the MECS, and they received literature from the Nashville board.  As they learned about the campaign to deny U. S. citizens access to Tia Juana, their thought naturally turned to Ciudad Juarez/El Paso and Nuevo Laredo/Laredo.  Both of those border towns were far more important than Tia Juana/San Diego in terms of international trade.  The commercial networks at San Diego led to the unproductive Baja Peninsula while the two Texas inland ports led to the productive mines, factories, and farms of the interior. There had been rail connections in Texas with Mexico for decades, and the volume of commerce was hugely important to both nations.   In addition, San Diego, El Paso, and Laredo all had significant U. S. military presence, and one of the main objectives of the Board of Temperance during World War I was making sure U. S. military personnel did not have access to liquor. 

 

Texas Methodists contacted the head of Immigrant for the Mexican Border to ask him about vice conditions in Ciudad Juarez.  He assured them that Mexican authorities were far more engaged in vice suppression in Juarez than they were in Tia Juana.  The Temperance Boards breathed a little easier and turned their focus to enforcement of prohibition laws, trying to suppress the cigarette habit which had increased in World War I, and trying to keep Sunday closing laws on the books.