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.