This Week in Texas Methodist History  June 27

 

 

Chappell Hill Female College Holds Commencement Exercises, June, 1878

 

Because Francis Asbury Mood shifted the focus of Texas Methodist higher education from Chappell Hill to Georgetown when he led the transformation of Soule University into Southwestern University, we forget that the Chappell Hill Female College continued after the closing of Soule. Not only did it survive into the 20^th century, it provided a good education for young women, especially in the fine arts.

 

In June 1878 a reporter attended all three days of the commencement and filed his report.

 

Commence Exercises of

Chnppcll Bill Female College.

This interesting occasion began Friday

night with a juvenile con-

cert. "The little ones" acquitted themselves

admirably in the rendition of each

piece 

The annual commencement sermon was preach-

ed by Rev. W. G. Connor D. D. ofWaco.

At night the pulpit w as filled b) the presi-

dent of the college. Rev E. D. Pitts.

Monday night concert by the music class

which numbered sixty-five and the only

true description that can be given of the

entertainment -is 'that it must have been

witnessed to be appreciated.



Rev. A. El Goodwyn of Galveston deliv-

ered an "Educational Address" upon the

conclusion of which diplomas were award-

ed. 

Prof. John C Wiley in a very pathetic

manner awarded medals for superior proficiency in

music 

The exercises closed with

a grand concert. 

Note:  the pathetic manner in which medals were 

Awarded means “with feeling”.  

 

 

 

This Week in Texas Methodist History  June 20, 2021

 

Czech-Texas Pastor Repatriated, June 1942

Joseph Paul Bartak, superintendent of the Methodist Mission in Prague, returned to New York City in June, 1942 on the diplomatic ship, Drottingholm.  His 900 fellow passengers were other Americans who had endured months of detention in Nazi camps. 

 

Bartak first came to the USA in 1907 as a nineteen year old from Bohemia which was then part of the Austrian Empire.  He went first to Chicago, and although he knew no English, he was hired by the Chicago Tract Society to distribute religious literature among his countrymen living in Chicago.  After attaining English fluency, he enrolled in Southwestern University.  One of the attractions of Southwestern University was that Williamson and Bell Counties had numerous Czech-speaking residents, and Bartak preached to them.  At different times he was affiliated with both the Central Texas and Texas Conferences.  While in the Texas Conference, he lived in Marlin and served congregations in the Brazos Valley.  After Southwestern, he enrolled in Vanderbilt where he earned a B.D. and the University of Chicago where he earned an M. A.  In 1925 Southwestern conferred an honorary doctorate.

 

When Czechoslovakia was formed after World War I, Bartak volunteered for missionary service there and, with his wife Marian, started building the Methodist Church in his homeland.   

 

In December 1941 when war was declared between Germany and the United States, the Gestapo arrested Bartak and imprisoned him in a Prague.  After several weeks he was transferred to a castle at Laufen, Germany, near the Austrian border.  The Germans had commandeered the castle to hold internees. 

 

While at the castle, Bartak acted as Chaplain to his fellow internees including fellow Methodist missionary G. P. Warfield who had been captured in Warsaw, Poland.  (My Uncle Charles Hardt had been a missionary to Poland, but when missionary donations decreased during the Depression, Charles and Ruby returned to Texas.  If they had been in Poland, they would have also been interned.)  In gratitude for his daily worship services, his fellows presented him with a “diploma” signed by his “congregation>”    He was able to bring that document back to the US.  He also brought back a Czech Bible printed in 1488, possibly the only surviving copy and possibly the oldest Czech Bible in existence. 

 

Bartak came to Houston in November, 1942 to attend the Texas Annual Conference and returned to preaching to Czech speaking congregations.  He went back to Czechoslovakia after the war, but returned to the US fairly frequently.  Marian Bartak was a popular speaker at various Schools of Mission.  She related her experiences in organizing  the first Epworth League and the first Wesleyan Service Guild in Czechoslovakia.  The Communist takeover and subsequent suppression of Christianity forced them to relocate to Vienna.  Jospeh died in 1964.   .

 

This Week in Texas Methodist History June 13

 

 

A. J. Weeks Returns to Dallas after Attending Aldersgate Bicentennial Celebration, June 1938

 

 

A.     J. Weeks, editor of the Southwestern Christian Advocate, was one of the best known Texas Methodist preachers in the 1930s.  He grew up in the Methodist Church of Ryan’s Chapel and served appointments in several annual conferences before accepting the editorship of the Advocate which served Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and sometimes Colorado.  He had an impressive number of contacts and served on the Judicial Council of the MECS and was Secretary of the Ecumenical Council.   It was in that role that Weeks was one of the organizers of the celebration of the bicentennial of John Wesley’s Aldersgate experience on May 24, 1938.

 

Weeks had to take a whole month off from his editorship so he could travel to England for the celebration.  W. D. Bradfield stepped in as substitute editor during his absence.  Sadly this was valuable experience.  He stepped in again to help out when Weeks died in 1939. 

 

It was natural for Weeks to fill up the Advocate with reports when he arrived back in Dallas in June 1938.      

 

Weeks actually was part of the program, bringing greetings from the Western Division of the Ecumenical Council.  May 24 1938 was a Tuesday so the celebration started on Sunday the 22 with services at Wesley Chapel.   Weeks reported he arose at 5:00 a.m. on Tuesday and read II Peter 1:4 as Wesley had done 200 years earlier.  After a luncheon, there was  police-escorted procession, first to Susanna Wesley’s birthplace.  The next stop was the house where Charles Wesley was staying when he also had a transforming experience.  Then on to the chapel at Aldersgate where the procession stopped and the members sang O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing, in the street.   They then processed to the cemetery where Susanna Wesley is buried and sand For the Saints Who From Their Labors Rest.   The next stop was right across the street to the house where John Wesley lived and died. 

 

The proceedings started at 7:30 in Wesley Chapel with Charles Wesley hymns and scriptures readings.  There were two short sermons, but most of the evening was consumed with formal statements from the global representatives who had assembled, including Weeks.

 

On Wednesday services were held in St. Paul’s Cathedral by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Cosmo Gordon Lang.   He reminded the congregation that John Wesley had attended Evensong in St. Paul’s prior to going to the meeting house on Aldersgate Street.  Lang preached from the text, I saw another angle fly into the midst of heaven, having the everlasting Gospel to preach unto them that dwell upon the earth, and to every nation, and kindred and tongue of people.”  Revelation 14:16

 

On Thursday Weeks went to Bristol and got a personal tour from Dr. Frederick Pratt, Warden of the New Room, who took him to the house of George Whitefield’s sister where John Wesley came and stayed during his first trip to Bristol.

 

On returning to New York, Weeks preached on June 7 at John Street Methodist Church.  That was a Tuesday.  John Street had services six days per week.  The church dates to 1766  and is famous for its association with Barbara Heck,  Captain Webb, Philip Embury, and many other 18^th century Methodists. 

 

Weeks returned to Dallas by means of a series of flights I have already highlighted in a previous post.  Here is a summary    From New York he flew to Buffalo, Chicago, St. Louis, Tulsa, Oklahoma City, then to Dallas.  The longest layover was 3 ½ hours. 

 

 

 

 

This Week in Texas Methodist History June 6

 

 

Joint Sessions of Annual Conferences Convened at SMU to Celebrate Bicentennial, June 6, 1966

 

 

Moody Auditorium at SMU was the site of joint sessions of Annual Conference to celebrate the bicentennial of American Methodism.  The Methodist movement had begun in Britain earlier, but 1966 was picked because in 1766 John Wesley commissioned preachers to come to the colonies.   It should be noted that the Methodist Episcopal Church was founded in Baltimore in 1784.  In April, 1966 Baltimore hosted a bicentennial celebration and was to do so again in 1984. 

 

Previous posts on this blog have highlighted how avidly Methodists celebrated centennials, bicentennial, etc.  Huge celebrations were held in 1884 for the founding of the denomination; 1919 for the centennial of missions, 1934-1936 for the centennial of Texas Methodism, 1938 for the bicentennial of the Aldersgate experience, and so on.

 

In 1966, as the annual conferences gathered for the bicentennial of American Methodism, there was a striking departure from previous celebrations.   In Texas, all the previous celebrations had been racially segregated, but in 1966, although the segregated Central Jurisdiction still existed, the conferences met together culminating in a joint ordination service.  A European-American Bishop, Paul Galloway presided over the African American Texas Conference of the Central Jurisdiction.  The Houston Area Central Jurisdiction Bishop, Noah Moore, had his schedule filled with the West Texas and Louisiana Conference of the Central Jurisdiction.  Bishop Galloway was bishop of the Arkansas area of the South Central Jurisdiction. 

 

Other bishops in attendance were Kenneth Pope, W. C. Martin, Paul Martin, Eugene Slater, and Ivan Holt.   Other dignitaries including Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson, SMU President Willis Tate, and Governor John Connally, also spoke.  The Governor’s theme was “Methodism has stood in the front ranks of economic and social progress.”

 

The eight annual conferences held business sessions separately in SMU facilities and area church.  The Central Jurisdiction Texas Conference met in the auditorium of the Religious Music Department of the university and the South Central Jurisdiction Texas Conference met in Highland Park Methodist.