This Week in Texas Methodist History July 30

Texas Cowboy Turned Preacher Rides Horseback 2000 Miles to Celebrate Bicentennial of Methodism in America   1966 

There may be some readers who remember the 1984 Bicentennial Celebration of the founding of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Baltimore in 1784.  Fewer would remember that in 1966 the denomination celebrated the bicentennial of the first Methodist activity in the American colonies that occurred in 1766.

Both the 1966 and 1984 celebrations were held in Baltimore, and both included re-enactors.  In 1966 the re-enactors went all out.   The organizers of the event put out a call asking for volunteers to ride horseback to Baltimore to help the celebration.   130 Methodist ministers volunteered to do so, and the committee selected 12 from that group.   Among the starting points were Omaha, Nebraska and Cape Girardeau, Missouri.   A preacher who had actually been a Texas cowboy but was now a preacher in the Louisiana Conference, Dan Wesley Tohline, chose Vidalia, Louisiana, as his starting point for the ride which would take forty-two days.  

Tohline had been raised on a ranch near Fort Worth. After high school he went to Texas Tech and became an engineer.  After a stint in the Navy he moved to Beaumont to put his engineering degree to use but felt the call to ministry.  After being licensed as a local preacher he moved to Shreveport to attend Centenary College to take courses in preparation for seminary.  After seminary at Vanderbilt, he moved back to Crowley, Louisiana, and back to work as an engineer for Sun.   He filled Baptist, Presbyterian, and Nazarene pulpits while working as an engineer, but in 1954 joined the Louisiana Conference of the Methodist Church and began a series of appointments which were interrupted by his pursuit of a master's at Iliff.  During those years he served a Colorado appointment.  

Tohline chose an authentic route---the Natchez Trace from Natchez to Nashville.  He used two horses.  One he rode and one was trailered in a truck driven by a friend.  Along the way he distributed copies of the book of Romans--just as a pioneer circuit rider would have done.  

As you may imagine, he rode the truck home rather than retracing his ride on horseback.  

 This Week in Texas Methodist History  July 23

Barbara Bowman of McAllen Named Miss Methodist Student Nurse of 1957

In 1957 Barbra Bowman of McAllen was named Miss Methodist Student Nurse.  She was a senior and president of the nursing students at Houston Methodist Hospital.  She was chosen from student nurses at the 53 Methodist hospitals in the United States that had schools of nursing.  Criteria included being a senior in the upper 1/3 of her class, professional skills, appearance, and personality.  Each contestant was required to submit a 200-word answer to the question, "Why I chose the nursing profession?"

Bowman's answer was If I can live up to the great traditions of nursing, I will achieve the inner peace necessary for happiness.  Nursing makes possible the fulfillment of my dream for service.  and more, it is making a better person of me.  

Her prize was a trip to Chicago where she would be honored at a luncheon during the annual meeting of the National Association of Methodist Hospital and Homes.  

Perhaps you are surprised at the large number of Methodist hospitals that had schools of nursing, since nursing education has generally migrated to universities and colleges that often partner with hospitals for the clinical side of education.  Actually, nursing education had been a major part of Methodist hospital since the late 19th century.  There were two main events that made that possible.  The first was the professionalization of the nursing profession in the immediate post-Civil War era.  The other development was the creation of the office of Deaconess in both the MEC (1888 and the MECS (1902).   

The MEC led the way, most notably in Cincinnati which had long been the center of German Methodism in the United States.  The MEC built hospitals designed not only to treat patients but also to train women for the healing professions---not just nursing.  One Texas young woman, Bertha Ott, went to Cincinnati and became a pharmacist rather than a nurse.  

During World War I the nursing duties were often performed through the Red Cross, but the demand for nurses in World War II was so much greater, that the incorporation of nurses into the military was necessary.  Methodist hospitals, including Houston Methodist, stepped up their efforts in World War II, and a large proportion of their graduates went to work for one of the armed services.  

As the recent pandemic has put nurses back in the spotlight, we wish to acknowledge our debt to their service and our Methodist history of helping in their professional education.  

 This Week in Texas Methodist History July 16,

Methodist Press Touts PK's in the Senate  1965

After the new Congress convened in January 1965, Methodist journalists noted that six of the U. S. Senators were PK's---that is preacher kids if you did not know.  There is a whole genre of humorous stories about the antics of PKs, but most of us turn out ok.   The argument could be made that PKs are usually brought up in homes that stress education and both the written and spoken word.  

One of the six senators was the product of a Baptist parsonage.  He was Willis Robinson of Virginia.  You probably know of his son,  the pioneer Christian Broadcaster, Pat Robinson. 

The other five were all the products of Methodist parsonages:   George McGovern of South Dakota; John Tower of Texas; Walter Mondale of Minnesota; B. Everett Jordan of North Caroliina; and James Pearson of Kansas.  

It was not mentioned in the article, but with just a little bit of research would have revealed that that both of Tower's grandfathers were also Methodism preachers.  

 This Week in Texas Methodist History  July 9

Bishop Hendrix Shares Podium with Governor Woodrow Wilson, October 28, 1911

On the last weekend of the Texas State Fair in Dallas in 1911 Governor Woodrow Wilson of New Jersey made an appearance supposedly to deliver a lecture on the Bible, but his real purpose was to advance his presidential campaign.  He made the most of a whirlwind trip to Dallas and Fort Worth as he met politicians, and business, civic, educational, and religious leaders, some of whom were already members er of Wilson Clubs formed to promote his candidacy.  

He travelled by train to Texas, stopping by Little Rock to drum up support in Arkansas and arrived in Texas in time to deliver three addresses on Saturday October 28.  The first was at the State Fair where he talked about the Bible.  It was not an original address.  He had delivered the same speech the previous May.  Bishop Eugen Hendrix of the MECS delivered a sermon on the occasion and they were joined by Samuel Palmer Brooks (1863-1931) President of Baylor University.  

The party then moved to Dallas First Baptist Church where Governor Wilson addressed the audience on the tercentenary of the King James Version of the Bible (mistakenly identified as the St. James Version in the New Orleans Christian Advocate.) Wilson and his party then boarded a special interurban train and went to Fort Worth where he delivered his third address of the day.  

Although Wilson was Governor of New Jersey, he was really a Southerner, having been born in Virginia and raised in Presbyterian parsonages in Georgia and South Carolina.  His preacher father was a staunch supporter of the Confederacy and one of the leaders who created the Southern Presbyterian Church after Presbyterians split north and south.  He was elected to the governorship from the presidency of Princeton University where he developed a reputation as an educational reformer.  He won the 1910 election, was inaugurated governor in early 1911 and almost immediately began running for president.  In July 1911 he named "Colonel" E. M. House of Austin as his campaign manager.  House was a power broker in Texas politics who saw a chance for Democrats to return to the White House.  

You know the rest of the story.  Wilson won both the Democratic nomination and the presidency when he beat President Taft and former president Theodore Roosevelt.  Texas reaped important rewards for its early support of Wilson.  House was offered any Cabinet position besides Secretary of State (promised to William Jennings Bryan) but declined formal office to become an intimate advisor to Wilson, especially in foreign affairs.  Bryan held the office of Secretary of State but House was more influential.   Bryan busied himself negotiating treaties while Wilson and House made the important decisions.  

Besides House as the most intimate advisor, three Texans were named to the Cabinet:  David Houston in Agriculture (later Treasury); Thomas Watt Gregory as AG, and Albert S. Burleson, Postmaster General.

President Wilson is often described as a Progressive.  His progressivism was mainly in the economic sphere.   The Federal Reserve System was created land boniness regulation were proposed to help the average citizen against the power of the corporations.  In the area of race relations and civil rights, Wilson was far from progressive.  For example, Burleson oversaw the segregation of the Post Office Department.  Wilson's screening of Birth of Nation is well known.  Although not as notorious as his successor, A. Mitchell Palmer, Gregory headed the Justice Department that imprisoned Eugene Debs for encouraging noncompliance with conscription. He and Burleson were the point men in the administration in suppressing free speech. (BTW Gregory Gym at UT is named for him.)

Lest you think I am totally critical of the Texans in the Wilson Cabinet, let us lift up the career of  David Houston.  He was an academic and president of Texas A&M and UT.  His memoir, Eight Years in Wilson's Cabinet is my favorite cabinet memoir.

 This Week in Texas Methodist History July 1

Rural Texas Methodists Support Texas A&M Methodist Church  July 1943

One of the most important stories in the history of Texas Higher Education is that of the transformation of Texas Agricultural and Mechanical College (later University) from a fairly small all male student body with compulsory ROTC studying the Agricultural and Mechanical Sciences to a huge, co-ed student body studying all the disciplines of a comprehensive university.   Such transformation occurred in my lifetime, so I have been a witness to that transformation. 

Texas was very slow to create institutions of higher learning.   All of the early colleges were created by the churches, or even individuals.  During the Civil War when the Southern states did not have Representatives or Senators in Congress, Northerners were able to pass domestic legislation that had been opposed by the South.   Three of the most important pieces of legislation which Southerners had blocked were the creation of the national banking system, the Homestead Act, and the Morrill Act, which created land grant colleges for the education of students in the Agricultural and Mechanical Arts.  The author of the act was Senator Justin Morrill of Vermont.  (BTW  the senator's house and barn are preserved as a museum which I have visited to honor this great educational leader.)  

Some state such as Wisconsin combined the land grant college with the state university.   Texas did not have a state university, so it created the two land grant colleges (one in College Station and one in Prairie View de novo).   Very soon after that the state decided it did need a state university, so the University  of Texas was created.  As part of that creation the Methodist university inn Georgetown changed it name to Southwestern University from Texas University.   

The roles of A&M and UT were clearly defined.  A&M would teach agriculture and engineering.  UT would prepare students for law, medicine, basic sciences, classics, humanities, and social sciences.  A separate set of regional normal colleges would prepare teacher for the pre-college schools.  The names of the universities now in San Marcos, Denton, Huntsville, Nacogdoches, Commerce, etc once had "Teacher's College" in their names.   

Over the years UT enrollment surpassed that of A&M.  Enrollment at A&M was suppressed by its all-male student body requirement.  

In the 1920's Methodists embarked upon ministries to college students.  At A&M that took the form of building a church across from the campus.   The church was intended for students and the general public.  The pastor, King Vivion (later president of Southwestern) asked all the Methodists preachers in Texas to send him then names of their young men attending A&M so he could invite them to church.  

World War II transformed Texas A&M and its associated Methodist church.  The ROTC program was one of the most important in the nation in supplying officers for the war effort--rivaling West Point in the number of officers.  A&M Methodist saw it needed to expand its footprint.  In 1943 the church sat of half a city block across the street from the north gate of the campus.  That year it obtained the other half of the block thereby doubling its footprint.  That location was convenient to the dormitories.  

Naturally it started a fund raising campaign to build a larger facility.  Texas Methodists had already decided that the "student work" at Texas colleges would be supported by all the conferences in the state rather than the conference in which the college was located.  

The fund raising worked very well and was supported especially by the rural churches of Texas.  Here are a few examples.  Winnie sent $169.35 from a congregation of 189 members.   The Blue Grove circuit in the Wichita Falls District sent $24.77.  Anderson Circuit in nearby Grimes County sent $43.00.  Cold Spring Circuit chipped in $37.00.   Liberty gave a whopping $315.00.  Perhaps the highest contribution per member was Stowell which sent $132.30.  Maybe they were competing with nearby Winnie.  

Similar amounts were raised throughout Texas and the A&M Methodist Church prospered.  Within a few decades the College became a comprehensive university and student enrollment boomed.  Today the students are served by a Wesley foundation that is widely recognized for its excellence,