This Week in Texas Methodist History  October 21

West Texas Annual Conference Meets in San Antonio,  October 20-25, 1937

Travis Park Methodist Church has been the site of numerous historic events in Texas Methodist history.  There have been memorial services for distinguished Methodists, many sessions of Annual Confernce, and many noted speakers travelling through San Antonio.  It is also the church that began the publication of the Upper Room, a booklet for private and family devotions.  It began in a Sunday School class of which my Aunt Velma was a member, so I have family connection, and the UR was a constant in my childhood and youth.  Another family connection is that my grandparents, Wesley Hardt and Ida Wilson were married there---not in the sanctuary, but in the pastor's office.  

Bishop Boaz was the presiding officer of the Annual Confernce, but he was not the only bishop there.  Arthur Moore, who had served as pastor at Travis Park was there as was A. Frank Smith.  Both men had been elected as young men in 1930.   They had become friends when Moore was at Travis Park and Sith was at Laurel Heights in San Antonio.   Both men played important roles in Methodist history.  Future bishops were there too.  President of SMU, C. C. Selecman attended.  J. Chess Lovern was admitted on trial.  Oliver Eugene Slater, then a pastor at Ozona was beginning their careers.  Other universsity presidents Law Sone and J. W. Bergin were also there.   SMU also provided Professor Robert Goodloe as Confernce preacher. The Spanish-speaking conference was represented by Frank Ramos and Alfredo Nanez.  

On the first day, Bishop Boaz called for the vote on unification.  Committees had been working for years to effect an merger between the MEC, MECS, and MP denominations.  Boaz ruled that no debate would precede the vote.  All the members of the Conference had received merger plans well in advance.  The vote was 246 to 5.   Then the Conference began balloting for delegates to the 1938 General Conference of the MECS---a Conference that would be the final one of the MECS as the Uniting Conference of 1939 would create then Methodist Church.  As part of the merger the West Texas Conference would be renamed the Southwest Texas Conference because the MEC also had a West Texas Conference. 

My three uncles received their appointments.  Uncle Charles Hardt to Ward Memorial in Austin, Uncle Dan Hardt to Skidmore, and Uncle Louis Hardt to Buda/Dripping Springs.  Louis's son-in-law, Lennie Dubberly was admitted to the conference and appointed to Marble Falls.  

One notable pastor was not there to answer the roll call.  Sterling Fisher had been conference secretary for 46 years--but was unable to attend.  He was elected anyway for the 47th time.  The real work of the secretary was done by his assistants---Olin Nail, J. Fisher Simpson, and R. F. Curl---names you probably know.  

 This Week in Texas Methodist History  October 15

Case Study in Church Growth---Aleman in Hamilton County

One of the most important questions in Methodist history is explaining why the denomination spread so rapidly in the United States.  I have reached the explanation that the Methodists expanded so well mainly because they combined both formal and informal methods of church expansion.  The formal method was the connectional system of conferences and missionary societies.  A bishop cold appoint a pastor to unchurched territory and tell him---"go organize circuits."   In time those circuits would grow to stations, districts, and even conferences as new arrivals to a territory found churches waiting for them in their new homes.  

The informal method of spreading is not reflected in the historical record so well.  Historians have naturally focused on the Journals and official correspondence.   The informal method were often based on family migration.  

One example of this movement is the story of German Methodists and their migration from the hearth of Texas Methodism in present day Austin and Washington Counties to new farms further north and west.  

The first recorded Methodist work among the Germans was in Galveston, but the movement quickly expanded to the rural German immigrants in Austin and Washington Counties and in settlements along the Guadalupe.  During Reconstruction most German Methodists switched from the MECS to the MEC and Industry and Brenham became the most important German Methodist centers.  Eventually the Hill Country Germans in Llano and Mason Counties would become most prominent in Texas Methodist German society.  

Industry had been the earliest German settlement in Texas, so it had a head start in population growth.  in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in Austina and Washington Counties families had grown so that their original farms could not support them.  Fortunately, this era was also the era of railroad expansion into new agricultural areas to the north and west of the source region.  Family groups often migrated together and took their religion with them.    The most famous "daughter settlements" were in Perry/Riesel right up the Brazos and in Runnels County--made possible by rail construction.  

Less well known is Aleman in Hamilton County--so named by Spanish speaking railroad workers for the Germans in the area. It had also been settled from the core region --right up Highway 36.   By the 1920s there was a MEC church in Aleman.  The 1927 Journal reports a membership of 37.  The pastor was J. W. Witt who also reported that a lot had been purchased.  Witt did not live in Aleman.  He lived in Riesel and went to Aleman every other week for services.  The distance between Riesel and Aleman---almost 90 miles.   That travel in 1927 must have taken a long time but most Sundays he was accompanied by one of his Riesel neighbors, John Schreiber.   Between the two of them, they could offer religious services in both English and German---It was the only English language service in the community.    

When Witt had to quit because of health reasons, Schreiber continued.  He was a local preacher, not under appointment, and did not receive a salary.  He was a famer.  He made the 90 mile trip twice a month and in good weather often preached to a congregation of 100 persons.  His service is just one of many examples of how the Methodists spread more through community connections than formal appointment.  

 This Week in Texas Methodist History Oct 1

Rev. A. E. P. Albert Narrowly Avoids Jail (or worse) on Segregated Rail Car

The Rev. Dr. A. E. P. Albert was the editor of the Southwester which was the official newspaper for the African American churches of the MEC in the South.  His offices were in New Orleans.   As part of his duties, he came to Houston in December 1891 to cover the annual session of the Texas Annual Conferenced of the MEC.  The conference itself was fairly routine, but the train ride home was not.   The last day of the conference was December 7th, 1891  

He planned to return to New Orleans on the 5:30 p.m. train and wanted a sleeper.  Knowing that ticket agents often refused to sell sleeping berths to African Americans, by giving the excuse that they were all sold out, Albert went to the train station at noon---well before the train would have filled up.   The agent was reluctant but finally sold Albert a first-class ticket and a berth ticket.   When the connecting train arrived from Galveston, Albert presented his two tickets to the sleeping car attendant G. H Hodgson.  

Hodgson was also reluctant to honor the tickets since there was a Texas law mandating separate cars for the two races.  There was no sleeping car for African Americans.   Hodgson eventually assigned Albert to a lower berth and then things got ugly.  The white passengers complained to the train conductor, and a mob of them went to the sleeping car and demanded that Albert leave.  

The brave pastor stood his ground---he pointed out that he had the proper ticket and intended to ride in the berth to which he had been assigned.   The conductor deputized the largest most thuglike of the mob to confront Albert and throw him off the train.   Albert again stood his ground.   The mob then decided to telegraph the sheriff at Beaumont to meet the train and arrest Albert for violating Texas law.   

Hodgson then began a passionate plea for them not to do so.  He pointed out that Albert was a dignified, courteous man who had caused no trouble, and that the segregation law was often skirted.   In the end the mob decided not to send the telegram and Albert made it home to New Orleans without further incident.

Naturally he wrote about his experience in his newspaper.  At the end of the article, he made a plea---he said let us raise at least $5000 for legal expenses and have someone be arrested on purpose to test the constitutionality of the law.  

The following June, 1892, another group of African Americans did just that---Homer Plessy committed the act of civil disobedience by riding in a white railroad car and was arrested.  His case eventually went to the U. S.  Supreme court where the doctrine of separate but equal was enshrined in U. S. law.   That precedent stood for a half century until overturned by Brown v. Board of Education.