This Week in Texas Methodist History  June 18

Methodists Acquire Building for Publishing House and Book Depository in Galveston 1858

Before the Civil War Methodists owned two types of properties beyond the local church:  schools and publishing houses which also served as book depositories.  Acquiring a publishing house in 1858 in Galveston was a huge step forward.  One can imagine the pride that accompanied the announcement that Methodists had acquired a 3-story building on the Strand as a publishing house/depository.  It was 32 feet wide and 110 feet deep---more than enough space for the two newspapers whose editorial and printing facilities it would contain --one English and one German language newspaper.  The English language Advocate had a circulation of 4,000.  The German language newspaper required a $500 per year subsidy from the Mission Board.  

The building was made available at very generous terms by the developer/speculator David Ayres who had moved to Galveston in 1848 when his projected Methodist town of Centre Hill lost the Austin County seat election to Bellville. The terms were interest only on a loan of $12,000.  Ayres would wait for principal payments until the conference was in good financial shape.  It was hoped that renting out part of the building would cover the annual interest payment.  The cost would be less than the rent they were now paying.  Since Ayres was also the business manager for the newspaper, he had a strong personal involvement in the enterprise.  

The Publishing House suspended publication during the Civil War.  It tried to relocate to the interior of Texas, but the Union blockade prevented the delivery of newsprint.  At the Texas Annual Conference of 1863 General John B. Magruder authorized the conference to trade cotton for newsprint---if they could get it through or around the Union blockade, but they couldn't.  Publication resumed after the Civil War with editors including Clayton C. Gillespie, I. G. John, and G. W. Briggs.  All three of these men had interesting lives which I have discussed in previous posts.  Use the search function to access them.  

The publishing interests moved to Dallas in 1887 in a move similar to way the secular newspaper that later became the Dallas Morning News did in the same era.  The German language newspaper was suspended when the editor, Peter Moelling, went to New York when the Civil War began.  

What about the function of a depository?  Of course, it was a warehouse, but it was something more.  Every cubic inch of ship's cargo hold was important, so it was common to ship the unbound pages of books by sea and have them bound when they reached their destination, so the depository was also a bindery and bookbinding was a fairly common occupation one saw in city directories.