This Week in Texas Methodist History  February 19

Southwestern Advocate Embraces Southwestern University's Most Famous Alum, J. Frank Dobie,  February 1941

Most Texans in the 2020s have little appreciation for the esteem in which J. Frank Dobie was held in the 1930s and 1940s.   Today he may be casually dismissed by historians as a folklorist rather than an historian.  It is true that he was a stalwart of the Texas Folklore Society and contributed hundreds of articles relating to that field.  His work is also dismissed for relying too much on telling a good story rather than examining his sources rigorously.  On the other hand, he lived in the golden era of magazines and not only that it was also the golden era of regionalism.  The general public didn't care for scholarly quibbles about his work.  They devoured his every word, and those words helped shape general opinion about the Texas past, even if that view was highly mythologized.  

Less well known was Dobie's Methodist connection.   He was an alum of Southwestern University and so was Mrs. Dobie, the former Bertha McKee.    In February 1941 his blockbuster, The Longhorns, was released.  The Southwestern Christian Advocate ran a full-page ad from the Methodist Publishing House in Dallas offering the book for sale for $3.50.  In addition to Methodist publications, the Dallas office acted as a general bookstore.  Postage was included in the price.   If you have a 1941 first edition, don't get excited.  It is not a rare book.   On the other hand, if you have the 1941 slipcase edition with illustrations by Tom Lea, that's another matter.  I saw one on ABE books for $5800.00.    Lea was on the verge of even greater fame in 1941 for his paintings of soldiers in World War II.  

Because both Mr. and Mrs. Dobie were SU alums, Methodists had a special connection with them.  Today J. Frank Dobie's papers are housed at UT where he taught his famous Life and Literature of the Southwest.   Bertha's papers, though, are in the Special Collections at Southwestern University.  

I had a small contribution to that collection.  They did not marry immediately after SU.  Bertha taught English at Alexander Collegiate Institute.  One of her students was Dorcas Riddlesperger, my maternal grandmother.  During the summer vacation Dorcas and Bertha corresponded.  Those letters eventually came to me.  I donated them to SU Special Collections.  They are the earliest documents in the collection and show a caring teacher.   My paternal grandmother Ida Wilson was a classmate of Bertha and J. Frank and told me stories about knowing both of them in Georgetown.  

 This Week in Texas Methodist History  February 12

West Texas Conference Holds Emergency Offering for Salaries February 12, 1939

Last week's post highlighted the problem of minimum salaries in the years leading up to the 1939 unification.    One indication of how bad the situation was the emergency offering held on Feb. 12, 1939, in the West Texas Conference of the MECS (currently the Rio Texas Conference of the UMC) .

Conference had just met which meant that reports had been submitted.  Those reports revealed that the many preachers had not received the minimum salary of $1200 per year.  That's right the salary was $100 per month and many churches could not pay that amount.  For several years the conference had tried to meet the difference by asking all pastors receiving the minimum salary or above to contribute 1% of their salaries to make up the difference.  

Even that wasn't enough, so the week of Feb. 12 was chosen for a major fundraising effort.  Three possibilities were suggested for the local church.  The first was dedicating a communion offering to the cause.  A second was adding salary support to the regular budget.  A third was a mail appeal.  Beeville and Robstown had tried this method the previous year with great results.  Beeville had raised $135 and Robstown $136.  

This was the third year for such an appeal.  The results were mixed.  The first effort brough in $3600 but then the second was only $1600.  The third was a little better at $2300.     The goal for 1939 was $5000.  

Today the UMC still has minimum salary provisions, and those provisions still include help from the conference.  A big difference between then and now is that there is a time limit on how many years a church can receive such support.  

 This Week in Texas Methodist History Feb. 5

Beverly W. Allen Contributes to Debate over Preacher Salaries, February 1938

One of the tropes attributed to older persons is how they comment on how easy the current generation has it compared to conditions when they were young.  The trope has even entered popular culture in the "walked to school in the snow uphill both ways" meme.

As the three branches of Methodist prepared for merger in 1939, one of the big items in the church press was preacher salaries.  Once upon a time all Methodist preachers received the same salary (with adjustment for marital state).   Those days were long gone.  There was a huge gap between big city churches and rural ones, and there were lots of rural churches.  The Great Depression depressed agricultural prices and hence rural prosperity.  It was common for churches not to be able to pay the salary in full.   Sometimes preachers were paid in kind, such as meat, poultry, eggs, and vegetables.  As late as 1941 my father received part of his salary in the form of used clothing left behind by young men entering the armed services when the served the DeKalb Circuit.

At the other end of the spectrum in the MECS were the big city churches who competed for the giants of the pulpit of the era.  Preachers were limited to four years at a church, so an informal system arose in which great preachers rotated among them.  In Texas those churches were First Houston, First Dallas, Travis Park San Antonio,  Polk Street Amarillo, and Trinity El Paso.  Other churches in the circuit were Boston Avenue in Tulsa, First Birmingham in Alabama, etc

The salary issue came more in focus with the Depression and impending merger.  The Methodist Protestant church was concentrated in rural areas so its pastors were not very well compensated.  the largest MP church on the eve of union was First Dallas with about 250 members pastored by future bishop Kenneth Copeland.

Throughout 1938 and 1939 the church press was full of letters about minimum salary and also what that salary should be.  The Methodist Church created in 1939 from the merger would have much larger geographic scope than the predecessors and cost of living varied widely across the country. 

In February 1938 retired preacher Bevely W. Allen contributed to the discussion.  In his letter he bragged about how he had done so much with so little salary in his youth.  Here is part of what he said.

My first year in the ministry 1895 I was paid $242.  I was not married and with that salary I bought lots of nice clothes, lots of good food, and a buggy.  I traded for the old grey mare.  I attended the state Epworth League meeting in Houston and the International Epworth League meeting in Chattanooga.  I had over a hundred accessions by profession of faith and paid all the assesssments (apportioments) in full.  I had plenty of money to travel to my next appointment,