This Week in Texas Methodist History December 24

Pioneer Houston Preacher Elias Dibble Laid to Rest, December 18, 1886

A previous post recounted the life and ministry of the most influential African American pastor in Houston Methodism, Elias Dibble.  He was born in Georgia in 1814 and was in Houston as early as 1837.  He had already been converted in 1825 before coming to Texas and had already started preaching as a very young man.  

He gained popularity as a preacher and is listed in the appointments of the Texas Conference of the MECS in 1865.   If he could have made the trip to New Orleans, he would have been ordained in the MEC  Conference that was established to serve churches in Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas.  

Since he could not travel to New Orleans, he had to wait for his ordination by Bishop Matthew Simpson until the organizing annual conference of the Texas Conference of the MEC in January 1867.  

In addition to Houston (today Trinity) he also served appointments in Lynchburg, Harrisburg, and St. Paul's Galveston.  

Thanks to the Rev. W. H. Logan, we have a detailed account of his funeral services which were conducted on December 18, 1886.  

Dibble's final illness began with a sore throat on December 14.  He became worse, and his friend Rev. Logan came to spend the last two nights with him.  Dibble died on December 17, leaving his wife, four daughters, and one son.  

The funeral was conducted the next day.  A crowd assembled at his home, and six men--three clergy and three laymen bore the body from his bedroom to the waiting hearse.   A large group walked behind the hearse down Franklin, then Main, finally to Bell Street where the church was.  At the church the three lay pallbearers deferred to three clergy waiting there and the coffin was brought to the altar.  The service began with Rev. J. B. Bryant reading Psalm 90.  Rev. J. W. Williams sang a hymn and then read verses from I Corinthians 15.  Rev. J. S. Minnegan had arrived from Beaumont in time to give Dibble's life story.  The Honorable Richard Allen delivered the eulogy.  

The hearse then proceeded to Olivewood Cemetery which Dibble had co-founded.