This Week in Texas Methodist History, December 27

 

Bishops Capers Presides Over Texas Conference in Chappell Hill, December, 29, 1847

 

Bishop William Capers (1790-1855) presided over the 8^th session of the Texas Conference held at Chappell Hill which convened on December 29, 1847.  Capers was a member of the South Carolina planter elite who had received a good classical education and really didn’t like the way Texans used their frontier status as an excuse for unholy habits. 

 

He had traveled overland to Chappell Hill and therefore was subjected to the rude accommodations along the way.  He was appalled at the common practice of all guests at an inn or private residence sleeping in the same room “without so much as a screen or curtain.” 

 

By 1847 Texas had already acquired a reputation as a refuge for scoundrels, deadbeats, criminals, and other undesirable characters.  A man at Logan’s Port (Logansport, Louisiana) had jested with Bishop Capers as he was about to enter Texas for the first time.

 

“To drink the waters of the Sabine will make a man a thief, and to drink of the Tonaboe (the first creek one encountered in Texas.  Does he mean Tantabogue?) would make him cunning to conceal stolen goods.’  Capers goes on to say about Texans, “For some cause or other, many have fallen in to a savage mode of life and are indifferent to its correction.”    Capers observed three types of Texans, the avaricious whose interest was in obtaining more and more property, the lazy who were also dirty.  Capers placed his hope for Texas in the third group who were amenable to being organized into Methodist societies and become decent and respectable. 

 

When he got to Chappell Hill and opened the Conference, he found great progress in the establishment of the Methodist Church.  The German Mission, which had been begun the previous year in Galveston, was expanded to include Houston, San Antonio, and Victoria/Indianola.  The Houston African Mission was established and two new districts—Austin and San Antonio were created.  The Washington District was discontinued, probably in recognition that Austin and not Washington was firmly established as the capital. 

 

Bishop Capers may have complained about the roughness of Texas, but the conference minutes show considerable progress in the civilizing mission of the church.

 

 

A side note.   In the description of his travel to Texas, Capers also criticized the roughness he encountered in Missouri and Arkansas.  One of his meals in the Ozarks was something I had not seen in other sources.  He said he was served a dish of beef, pork, wild turkey, and chicken, all boiled together in clear water without any seasoning—even salt.  At another inn the only food was beef steak—which he pronounced of excellent quality.