This Week in Texas Methodist History   Nov. 8

 

Texas Conference Appoints Agricultural Missionary to Panola County, November, 1945

 

The Texas Conference met in Houston First Methodist Nov. 6-9, 1945

 

World War II had ended just a few months earlier, and Conference members embraced returning chaplains who had been discharged from the armed forces and were returning to accept civilian appointments.  Some chaplains had not yet been mustered out, but, as in the case of Rev. Lamar Clark, were represented by their wives, who brought greetings from their husbands who were still in uniform.

 

When historians write about the social, demographic, and economic changes brought about by World War II, they often concentrate on the industrialization of Texas.  Not just on the Coastal Plains, but also in the northern counties of the Texas Conference, military production had boomed.  Refineries, chemical plants, and other facilities had sprung up all over the Conference. 

 

Historians are less likely to write about the flip side of the story---what was going on in the farm sector?

 

World War II had produced a revolution in rural Texas too.  Rural Texas left farms by the hundreds of thousands to join the military service or one of the new defense plants.   Since most of those who left were in their prime working age, that created a shortage of agricultural labor.  The last agricultural census before World War II showed that most East Texas counties had a mule to tractor ratio of 10 to 1 or even higher.  By contrast, the High Plains counties were also completely mechanized with far more tractors than mules. 

 

The Texas Conference was vitally interested in rural churches.  For several decades there had been a Town and Country Commission to focus on rural work.  With growing recognition of the changing demographics, that Commission was interested in new forms of ministry to the rural churches.

 

One of their steps was the appointment of an agricultural missionary, Carl Beadle to the Deadwood Circuit in Panola County in November 1945.   It was a three point circuit—Deadwood, Galloway, and Waterman’s Front (Front).   Regular readers of this column will know Deadwood as one of the more prominent rural Methodist communities—with roots in the MEC , and the home of the LaGrone family who have been active in Texas Methodism for years. 

 

Besides serving the three churches, Beadle would also live on a 25 acre farm and use it as a demonstration farm to promote better agricultural practices.   Beadle was a graduate of Texas A & M and also of Scarritt, the main Methodist missionary-training institution.  In addition to serving the three churches and running the demonstration farm, Beadle also enrolled in seminary at SMU.

 

In 1949 he transferred to the Holston Conference in Appalachia.