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  The travelling speakers program, once a staple of American life, has been replaced by other forms of communication.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.