This Week in Texas Methodist History January 30, 2022 Texas Methdodists Suppport Governor Allred’s Call to Repeal Pari-muteul Race Track etting January 1937 One of the great social shifts that have occurred in my lifetime has been the wide-spread acceptance of gambling not just in Texas, but in the United States. Gambling in Texas was strictly illegal in the Texas in which I grew up, and I adopted the stance of my parents and church in coming to see gambling as inherently evil. I was not allowed to play marbles for keeps. II asm glad my pafrents instilled these values in me. Today even sports betting is legal, and it seems that no stigma is attached to casinos, sports betting, horse race betting, raffles, and bingo. Gambling did have a long tradition in Texas. There are missionary letters complaining that Sundays were given over to horse racing in several Texas towns. County fairs attracted travelling gamblers, and the story of E. L. Shettles (1852-1940) became known. Shettles was a professional gambler who was converted and became a prominent Methodist preacher. I recommend his autobiography for more details on his gambling life and conversion. The same impules of reform that resulted in prohibition of alcohol also resulted in prohibition of gambling. Methodists were prominent in the fight against both vices. During the Depressionl though, both alcohol and gambling were seen as potential sources fo revenue for state coffers. Alcohol was made legal through the local option law. Wagering on horses and greyhounds was also legalized. Both vices prospered in the oil boom towns and large cities of Texas and even in smaller communities. Another formative experience of my adolescence was the clean up of Beaumont in which my father played a prominent part in rooting out prostitution, gambling, and after hours liquour sales. The legalization of gambling did not make it acceptable for Methodistst so which Governor James Allred (1899-1959) put the issue of repealing race track gambling on the legislature agenda in January 1937, Methodists jumped in to support him. Perhaps you are not familiar with Governor Jimmy Allred, but he was a bright spot between two of our states’s worst governors. He succeed Miriaim “Ma: Ferguson in 1935. She has been the subject of a previous entry in this blog. Her specialty was taking bribes for issuing pardons. Many of the pardons went to convicted bootleggers thereby circumventing the efforts of Methodists to suppress the liquor trade. He was followed by W. Lee “Pappy” O’Daniel, an incompetent buffon. He was a dry though and therefore acceptable to many single-issue prohibition voters. In his legislagtive agenda speech Allred used the standard arguments I internalized in my youth. First—illegal gambling always follows legal gambling—criminal gamblers do not report winnings so winters can evade taxes on those winnings. Second==some people will become addicted to gambling and steal and embezzle funds to support their addictions and also deprive their families of the necessities thereby forcing families on relief.

This Week in Texas Methodist History January 23, 2022 John R. Mott, Arguably the Most Famous Methodist in the World, Comes to Dallas, Feb. 1941 One of the advantages of having a major university in Dallas was that its citizens were treated to lectures and sermons by some of the most prominent church leaders in the world. No event brought more Methodisths to SMU than Minister’s Week which began soon after the university opened. General sessions were open to the public, and preachers from throughout the region planned their winter travels around being in Dallas for the event. General sessions were held in McFarlin Auditorium, and usually there was standing room only attendance. Perhaps the most famous Methodist to lecture at Minister’s Week was John R. Mott (1865-1955), a future (1946) Nobel Peace Prize Laureate. Mott never sought ordination and lived his life of evangelization was a layman. After Mott’s graduation from Cornell Univesity 1n 1888, Mott threw himself into evenagelism and missions focusing on young men. He was largely responsible for the Student Volunteer Movement from 1888-1920. That organization recruited workers for foreign missions. He also served as General Secretary of the YMCA for 16 years beginning in 1915. In that post he had the huge responsibilikty of the YMCA work during World War I. That work was exapdned to military bases both foreign and “over there.” His most famous book was The Evangelizatioon of the World. That book was a huge best seller and its title became a 20th century slogan that lasted for decades. Mott gave five lectures in McFarlin Auditorium quite naturally he spoke on missions during this time of global upheaval. There were few speakers who had travelled so widely and met so many world leaders as Mott. All five lecures attracted huge audiences.

This Week in Texas Methodist History January 15 Morris, Whipple, and Clark Visit Ruter Grave January 1842 In early December I was invited to give the dedicatory address for t unveiling of the Texas Historical Commission’s marker honoring the Methodist church at Washington on the Brazos. Title to the property was secured by trustees in February 1838. One of those trustees was Martin Ruter. The following May Ruter died there, and the church was renamed in his honor. The town and the church did not survive the transition from the steamboat era to the railroad era, and the church fell into disrepair. Today there is a fine state park with museum, visitor’s center, living history farm, and one of the most beautiful picnic areas in the state. As of December it also has a historical marker for the Methodist church. I chose to speak about the visit to the site by Bishop Thomas A. Morris, and the Reverends John Clark and Josiah Whipple in January 1842 Bishop Morris left his home in Ohio in September 1841 and conducted annual conferences in Michigan, Illinois, Missouri, and Arkansas and finally arrived in San Augustine, Texas the last week of December, 1841 to preside over the Texas Conference. He had recruited two transfers to Texas from Illinois, Josiah Whipple and John Clark. Both were tpo play important roles in Texas Methodist history. You may read about them in previous blogs. After presiding over the Texas Confeerence, Morris and his companions did a very strange thing. Although Mrs. Morris was dying, instead of returning home to Ohio, the group headed west. Their destination was the frontier town of Austin, the rude capital of the Republic of Texas. Bishop MJorris had a son, Francis Asbury Morris who had just ended a term as acting Attorney General of the Republic of Texas. He had assumed the position from A.G. James Webb who had been dispatched by President Lamar on a quixotic mission to try to secure diplomatic recognition from Mexico. Webb as a prominent Methodist layman so oone presumes the youthful Morris got the job through those church connections. Sam Houston had been inaugurated in December for his second term as president so the Lamar administration was now unemployed. Morris continued his journey to Austin to retrieve his son and tanke him home. They hoped to get back to Ohio before Mrs. Morris died. In January they paused at Washington on the Brazos to visit Ruter’s grave. Here is the diary entry Thursday, 13th, the country appeared less inviting as we neared the Brazos river, though the bottom, on the east side, about three miles across, is rich enough to be very muddy. The river is, perhaps, eighty yards wide, and the banks very high and steep, but at present not much depth of water. As we ascended the hill from the ferry on the west side, we entered the town of Washing- ton, late the seat of justice for Washington county, which contains, probably, about fifty or sixty houses, and is apparently on the decline, though in the midst of a fine country. Having proceeded west to the middle of the town, we turned at right angles to the north, about three hundred yards, to the old graveyard, which is situated on a dry ridge in open woods. Our business was to seek out the grave of Dr. Ruter, the apostle of Methodism in Texas, who died at his post May 16, 1838. The mourn- ful spot sought for was easily found without a guide, the grave being inclosed by a stone wall, and covered with a white marble slab, three feet wide and six long, with a suit- able inscription. At the foot of the slab stands a small hickory-tree, hung with Spanish moss, waving in the breeze over the charnel-house. As we stood under this tree reading the solemn epitaph, the sun was disappearing in the west, while a thousand thoughts of the past rushed upon our minds, and forcibly reminded us that our own days would soon be numbered. With Dr. Ruter I had often united in preaching the Gospel to crowded assemblies in Ohio and Kentucky. He now rests from all his toil, enjoying the promised reward ; and if faithful to the grace given, may I not hope soon to join with him in the song of final and everlasting triumph? When we read on the cold marble, "thirty-seven years an itinerant minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and superintendent of the first mission of that Church in the republic of Texas," and then remembered that the same mission had already become a respectable annual conference, and was still in- creasing, the thought arose, whereunto will this mission grow, and what cause of rejoicing must this be to its first superintendent forever? Our visiting the graveyard at sundown in a village where we knew no one, and where no one knew us, seemed to excite some curiosity. A col- ored boy, sent no doubt for the purpose, came and inquired whence we journeyed? Our answer was, "Into all the world." That night we were kindly received and enter- tained at the house of brother Lynch, sheriff of the county, two miles west of town. Yours, truly, T. A. Morris. You were wondering. Did they make it home to see wife and mother before she died? Yes. They got home in February and Mrs. Morris died in May.

J. M. Willson Creates Lecture Series at Texas Tech January 1946 One of the main forms of Methodist philanthropy in the 20th century was the endowed lecture series. In previous blogs posts we have already considered the Fondren Lectures at SMU which were established right after World War I by Walter and Ella Fondren. Perhaps the most prolific endower though, was James McCorry Willson (1888-1972) a lumber yard owner in Floydada, Texas. In January 1946 he endowed a lectureship at Texas Technological College (later Texas Tech University). At a faculty meeting that year at which H. I. Robinson, pastor of First Methodist Church Lubbock was present, it was announced that the inaugural lecture would be delivered in February, 1947, by Rev. Roy Smith, identified by Christian Century as one of the 7 most distinguished preachers in the United States. In addition to Texas Tech, Willson endowed lectures at other colleges including McMurry, Texas Wesleyan, Baylor, Southwestern, Hendrix, Oklahoma City University, SMU, Earlham, Wayland Baptist, and I am probably omitting some others. The lectures continue to provide college and university students an opportunity to hear scholars whom they would not otherwise know about. Few students have the resources to travel to conferences to hear internationally distinguished authors such as those invited to give the Willson Lectures. Thank you Jim Willson! Perhaps you are wondering how much it cost to endow a lecture series in 1946. The gift to Texas Tech was $10,000. The interest on that amount would fund the program.