This Week in Texas Methodist History July 31 Houston District Board of Missions and Evangelism Reports Numerous Projects July 1939 The conventional historical narrative emphasizes the tremendous industrial growth of Texas during World War II. Almost all regions of the state shared in the growth. The coastal plains concentrated on petroleum resources such as aviation fuel, lubricants, and gasoline. The Dallas-Fort Worth area became known for aircraft industries. East Texas developed steel and munitions. I could go on. Because the post-Pearl Harbor industrial expansion was so dramatic, we often overlook the fact that the boom actually started before Pearl Harbor. For example it was the census of 1940 that reported that a majority of Texans lived in urban rather than rural areas. In other words, the 1930s had seen a significant rural-urban migration. Methodists responded to this migration by planting churches to accommodate the new urbanites. Houston Methodism was very much in the center of the action, and the main body to accomplish the task was the District Board of Missions and Evangelism. In 1939 that Board consisted of fifteen men (all men) who were among the business elite of Houston. Among the members were Fred Heyne who managed the Jesse Jones interests in Houston. Jones had been appointed to the Reconstruction Finance Corporation by President Hoover. When Roosevelt was elected, he named Jones Chair of the RFC and also Secretary of the Department of Commerce. He had to live in Wasington most of the time so Heyne was hugely important in managing the real estate, newspaper, banking, and broadcasting interests. John Scott of First National Bank but also with interests in insurance, textiles, lumber, and the stockyards. Judge Ewing Werlein, a preachr’s son, served on the Board. E. L. Crain was an investment broker and real estate investor. Marcus Greer was a banker. Another banker was Albert Dee Simpson, formerly of Southwestern University. Hines Baker was an officer of Humble Oil (later Exxon) who would later become CEO of the corporation. Wesley West, a rancher and oil man and the son of James M. West, was also on the Board. Roy Bear was presidentof Star Engraving Company. You get the idea. The interests of expanding Methodism in Houston on the eve of World War II were in the hands of the business elite. They accomplished a great deal. They supported new congregations in Riverside, Alief, Little York, New Caney, Old River, and Spring. The Board helped secure low interest loans for Pasadena, St. Mark’s and Katy. They provided consultation for the refurbishing of Grace, Ludtke, and McAshan church buildings. For some churches the need was for educational space so they assisted Bering, Beneke, Higlands, Pearland, and Larkin with those projects. A whopping 8 new buildings were erected in 1938/9. Genoa, Almeda, Wesley, Epworth, West University, Pasadena, and Katy all received som help, but St. Mark’s received the most ---$130,000. They were not resting on their laurels. In July 1939 Park Place, Central, Galena Park, and Golden Acres were all drawing up plans in anticipation of financial aid from the Board of Missions and Evangelism. As one read the report of the Board, one sees that in addition to the grants and loans made to churches, a very important function of the Board was to use its contacts with bankers to press for lower interest rates for churches wishing to borrow money for building projects. The actual budget of the Board was about $6000 with First Methodist supplying $2400, St. Paul’s $1250, and Bering $600. It may surprise you to learn that none of the members of the Board were delegates to General Conference (the Uniting Conference) and only John Scott was delegate to the Jurisdictional Confenence (the first). Only Scott (First) and Elledge (Berting) were their church’s lay delegate to annual conference. The best way to look at these dedicated, philanthropic men is that they would Houston boosters ---muchy in the mold of the man who wasn’t there---Jesse Jones. Serving on the Board was a way to serve their church and also aid in the progess of their city—Houston.

This Week in Texas Methodist History July 24 Advocate Goes All in for Dan Moody, July 1942 A modern reader would also certainly be struck by the amount of political content in the main denominational newspaper of Texas Methodists in the mid-20th century. The editors of the Southwestern Chrisitan Advocate were not shy about involving themselves in partisan poltics. The generation of denominational leaders, including newspaper editors had cut their teeth in the battle over the prohibition of alcoholic beverages. Even when national Prohition was enacted and then repealed, the drumbeat of editorials about alcohol continued. The repeal of Prohibiton had created the local option in Texas so what had been a national political issue was refought at the local level. Under local option law, a county, city, or commissioner’s precinct could vote whether to have beverage alcohol, and if so, what level would be legal. For example some counties allowed beer and wine but not liquor. Naturally the local option law was a boon for bootleggers who often contributed to local option elections on the side of the Dry faction. Many Texas Methodists became single issue voters. Dry candidates contended in the Democratic primary over who would enforce Prohibiton most vigorously. Other qualifications were overlooked such as Earle Mayfield’s membership in the KKK. Mayfield was a Methodist, and an alum of Southwestern University, but his dry credentials carried the day. The editors of the Advocate had their greatest venom for the Fergusons (James and Miriam or Pa and Ma) even though Pa was the son of a Methodist minister. The Fergusons were wet and Ma became famous for her pardons of convicted bootleggers alledgedly prompted by bribes. The July 1942 campaign for the Democratic primary is perhaps the pinnacle of the political involvement. The Southwestern Christian Adcoate carries paid political ads for candidates for Lt. Governor, Comptrolled, two state Represenatives, Dallas County Sheriff, Dallas County Commissioner, and several judges. The largest paid political advertisement was for Dan Moody, and it was accompanied by a laudatory unsigned news article A Distinguished Methodist Layman for Dan Moody. Dan Moody was the “boy wonder” of Texas politics, shooting to fame after his successful prosecution of a gang of KKK terrorists in Williamson County. He became A. G. and then Governor at age 33. He was widely admired for his integrity and in 1942 was running against the buffoonish Senator W. L. O’Daniel and his challenger former Governor James Allred—a rare case of three Texas governors being on the ballot vying for one spot. Allred was enthusiastically in favor of the New Deal. O’Daniel said he was, but was part of the reactionary Southwern bloc of Senators’ Moody, although a Democrat, had broken with FDR and was later to support Eisenhower and Nixon. By this time alcohol as a political issue had somewhat faded. Drys tried to prohibit the sale of beer around the numerous military bases that were being built in Texas, but the big issue was winning the war against Fascism. To put is bluntly, O’Daniel was an embarrassment. While most senators worked diligently to provide the troops with the resources they needed, O’Daniel continued his demagogic ways and his incompetence brough disgrace to the conservative Democratic faction. Moody, on the other hand, was intelligent and a man of integrity. It was little wonder that the Adovate supported him all the way. He came in third in the primary. O’Daniel then barely beat Allred in the runoff---the rest of his senatorial term was not any better. In 1948, with his approval rating in the polls at 7 per cent, he declined to run for re-election. Moody became a leading figure of the conservative wng of the Demcoratic Party.

This Week in Texas Methodist History July 17 Newly Remodeled and Renamed Cody Memorial Library Opens at Southwestern University, July 1942 In 1879 a twenty-five year old recent graduate of Emory University arrived in Georgetown to teach mathematics. No one could have predicted at the time that the young man, Claude C. Cody, would have such a tremendous impact on Methodism’s “Central University” in Texas. Cody taught for 37 years, but in addition to teaching mathematics and astromy, he also served as Dean, Librarian, Treasurer, Secretsary of the Faculty, President of the Faculty, and twice acted as interim president of the University. He also became a historian. In that role he wrote a biography of F. A. Mood and was co-editor of the Texas Methodist Historical Quarterly (1909-1911). When President Hyer tried to remove Southwestern to the Metroplex, Cody was the main force on the side of those trying to keep the University in Georgetown. Evenually Hyer saw he could not remove Southwestern to Dallas, and moved there to found SMU instead. When he died in 1923, his admirers began a fund raising campaign to expand the library in his honor. It took decades, but in July 1942 the expanded, remodeled library opened under the new name, Cody Memorial Library. And therein lies a tale. . . ‘’/Claude Cody, Junior, (1885-1959) became physician in Houston with an ENT speciality. With an M. D. from Johns Hopkins and graduate study in Vienna, he was one of the shining stars of the Houston medical scene and acted as department chair at Baylor College of Medicine in addition to his private practice. His patients included my grandparents. He also served as President of the Texas Medical Association. He was also Chair of the Board of Southwestern University and was instrumental in saving the University from its crushing debt load in the Depression by connecting SU with Houston’s oil millionaire philanthopists and his in-laws, the Brown and Root Construction. (Cody married Florra Root in 1917) It waS difficult to raise money for library expansion since the fate of the University was so precarious but with help from U. S. Representative Lyndon Johnson who got the libraryt designated as a repository for Federal Documents, the remodeling was finally accomplished. The new, expanded library was opened in July 1942 as Cody Memorial Library—That was the library where I studied and had a campus job in the 1960s. The library has since been remodeled twice and renamed, but the “Cody Expansion” is still there and houses the Special Collections Department.

This Week in Texas Methodist History July 10 Malakoff Methodist Church Receives Memorial Gifts in Honor of Deceased Pastor, July 15, 1943 Sometimes historical research becomes personal. While looking through back issues of the Southestern Christian Advocate for topics for this blog I found some family history of which I was unaware. The Advocate of July 15, 1943 contains a letter from my father, John Wesley Hardt, announcing two gifts from family members in honor of my grandfather Wesley William Hardt who had died the previous Good Friday. Wesley’s brothers and sister donated a pulpit Bible and other relatives donated a bapitismal bow. Three of Wesley’s brothers were also preachers/ Dan, Louis, and Charles served in the West Texas (today Rio Texas) Conference. Two of the brothers, Henry and Ben, were chemistry professors. One brother, Anton, managed the ranch. The only sister, Alice, was a missionary to Mexico, having taught at both Holding Insittute, Lydia Patterson Institute, and MECS school in northern Mexico. The Hardt children were raised in Medina County near the town of Yancey, although they also had ancestral ties to another Medina County church, New Fountain, founded by (among others) their grandparents. The Hardt children received very good educations, mainly at Southwestern University. The oldest, Dan, entered the German Mission Conference in 1918, the last year of that conferences’s existence. Louis, the next oldest, entered the West Texas Conference. By the time Wesley was old enough, he (in consultation with his financee, Ida Wilson) decided that three brothers in one conference would be too much so he took an appointment in the North Texas Conference, the Bogata Circuit. After one year, he transferred to the Texas Conference. As a young man, he served mainly six and five point circuits of sawmill towns, but as he gained experience, he got better appoiontments—only two or three tpoint circuits). They included Tomball (with Spring and Magnolia), Anahuac (with Wallisville), Woodville (with Doucette and Colmesneil). He even served two stations Arp and East Bernard, that did not have multiple churches on a circuit. His appointment to Malakoff in November 1942 never should have happened. While serving in Anahuac, he had been diagnosed with carcinoma of the parotid gland. In spite of devastating radiation treaments, and disfiguring surgeries, one of which severed the facial nerve, the cancer had spreac. He came to Malakoff in December 1942, made it through Christmas and went to bed. He knew he was dying but was deperate to try to secure the maximum pension for his widow, and pensions were calculated on years of service, and he had only 21 years. When he died, Bishop A. Frank Smith appointed his son, my father, John Wesley Hardt who was a 21 year old seminary student. Although my father had already served two appointments (DeKalb Circuit and Alba Circuit) at that young age, this was an extraordinary appointment. Malakoff was considered a good church, and the town was fairly prosperous thaks to the lignite mine that supplied fuel to a Texas Light and Power plant in Trinidad. The appointment was made possible only because of the large number of ministers who had entered the milary chaplaincy. Chaplains in World War II had to be at least 24 years old so John Wesley could serve a local church instead of entering the military chaplaincy. Bishop Smith’s appointment had the added benefit of allowing Wesley’s widow and her two daughters to remain in the parsonage. Malakoff also happened to be my mother’s home town, so after the couple married in September 1943, they could stay with her parents. I do no know what happened to the pulpit Bible Wesley’s siblings donated. Perhaps it is still there. When I was conference archist and received a pulpit Bible from a closed church, I tried to determine if it had been presented as a memorial. If so, I tried to return it to the family.