This Week in Texas Methodist History  May 14

Trinity MEC in San Antonio Lays Cornerstone, 1879

The MEC had a difficult time in Texas since most Methodists preferred the MECS to the "northern" church, but that did not stop their evangelization efforts.  The first successes were with African American and German-Texans who had   been MECS before the Civil War, but switched denominations after 1865.  By the 1872 there were separate conferences in Texas for African American, German speakers, and English-speaking Anglos. 

The Anglo MEC churches were most prominent in the cities and in North Texas areas being opened by railroads.  The main constituency was northern migrants to those cities and new agricultural lands being opened by rail expansion.

San Antonio finally got an Anglo church in 1879 only after the establishment of both African American and German churches in the Alamo city.  It was called Trinity.  The Rev. M. A. Daughtery preached the sermon at the laying of the cornerstone for the stone building with 500 seat capacity.

Unlike most reports of cornerstone ceremonies, the contents of the box put into the cornerstone were published.   They included the Discipline, the hymnal, copies of the denominational newspapers, lists of the choir members, stewards, etc.  There were two surprises in the list of items placed in the cornerstone.  One was a copy of the MECS Advocate published in Galveston.  The other was the roster of Federal troops in the District of Texas.  One should remember that San Antonio was then and is now the Texas city with the longest and most significant military presence.  

Official Reconstruction was over but warm feelings toward the U. S. Army persisted in the MEC.  Not only did the denomination benefit from northern soldiers who were Methodists stationed in Texas, but they played a major role in protecting African American Methodists from the violence that was often directed against freedmen and their Anglo supporters in Texas by unreconstructed Southerners.  That is the reason that a roster of federal troops was placed in cornerstone.