Texas Methodist History

2012-01-28T07:33:00.000-08:00

This Week in Texas Methodist History January 29

St. Paul’sMethodist in Abilene Organized After Mulkey Revival

A previous post highlighted the work of evangelists Abe andLouisa Mulkey in securing a strong financial basis for the Methodist Orphanagein Waco. Lest than a decade after making the orphanagedebt free, a Mulkey revival led to the organization of a new church in Abilene.

In early February, 1909, at the invitation of Abilene First Methodist Church pastor, Rev. S. J.Rucker, Abe Mulkey preached a revival in the Opera House. On the last night ofthe revival, there was a collection for a new church building. The collection totaled almost $18,000 of aprojected cost of $30,000. Then acurious thing happened. Rather thanusing the funds to build a new church building for FirstMethodist Church,it was decided to organize a second Methodist church in Abilene.

By annual conference the basement had been dug, andconstruction started. By the 1910session of annual conference, the new church, St. Paul’s Methodist, was able to report 320members as compared to First Methodist’s 420. It took three years to build the new church building, and the firstworship service held in the new sanctuary was the 1912 session of the NorthwestTexas Annual Conference.

In 1914 Rev. J. W. Hunt was appointed to St. Paul’s. He stayed two years before assuming the presidency of Stamford College. StamfordCollege closed, and Hunt came back to St. Paul’s, and from that post worked to created McMurry College(later McMurry University). The church website highlights St. Paul’s important rolein supporting McMurry.

2012-01-21T08:54:00.000-08:00

This Week in Texas Methodist History, January 22

Bishop Morris Preaches to Students At Rutersville, January23, 1842

The first five sessions of the Texas Annual Conferenceoccurred before the annexation of Texas. The presiding bishops and transferringpreachers were thus engaged in a sort of foreign missionary project.

session	Date	Site	Presiding bishop
1	Dec. 1840	Rutersville	Waugh
2	Dec. 1841	San Augustine	Morris
3	Dec. 1842	Bastrop	None (Roberts had been assigned, but illness prevented his attendance)
4	Dec. 1843	Walker’s (near Huntsville)	Andrew
5	Jan. 1845	San Augustine	Janes

We are fortunate to have detailed travel accounts of three ofthe four episcopal visits to the Republic of Texas. Bishop Thomas A. Morris provided one of themost interesting accounts because after he adjourned the second session of theTexas Annual Conference in San Augustine, he did not return to the United States. Instead he took a grand tour all the way westto the frontier capital of Austin.

On Monday, October 19, 1841, Bishop Morris left St. Louis with John Clark and Josiah Whipple who weretransferring from Illinois to Texas. On Nov. 10 they reached Batesville, Arkansas,where Morris presided over the fifth session of the Arkansas Conference. They crossed the Sabine at Gaines’ Ferry onDec. 17 and reached San Augustine the next day. Morris appointed Clark as Presiding Elder of the Rutersville Districtand Whipple to Austin,so the three men, who had already travelled 750 miles together, continued theirjourney.

They reached Rutersville on January 19, and the followingSunday Morris preached in college chapel. On Monday January 24 they continued on through Bastropto Austin.

They stayed at the residence of Judge James Webb about twomiles from Austin where Bishop Morris wasreunited with his son, Francis Asbury Morris who had become Attorney General ofthe Republic of Texas the previous March. PresidentLamar appointed A. G. Webb as minister to

Mexico

,. (a failed diplomaticmission) and F.A. Morris took his place. Lamar’s presidential term ended, and as it did, so did Morris’sgovernment position. (NHOT entry onWebb, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fwe04)

Thomas Morris said goodbye to Clark and Whipple, and his sonbecame his travelling companion back to the United States, reaching Cincinnation March 1. They learned that Mrs.Morris had become ill during her husband’s episcopal tour. She died on May 17.

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This Week in Texas Methodist History, January 15

TexasConference Meets in Special Session, W. A. Pounds Honored for Fifty Years asConference Treasurer, January 17, 1972

There are some years in which Methodist annual conferenceshave so much business that they cannot wait a whole year to meet. In such years it is possible to have aspecial session of the “annual” conference. One such special session of the Texas Conference was held at Marvin UMCin Tyler, Texas,on January 17, 1972. Bishop KennethCopeland presided over the special session which had been called to take stockof a change in accounting. 1971 was thefirst full year in which the Texas Conference fiscal year coincided with thecalendar year.

Emmitt Barrow, Chair of the Commission on World Service andFinance, presented a series of recommendations concerning fiscal matters. Those recommendations were adopted withlittle debate.

The brief (10:00 a.m.to 3:45 p.m. including lunch break) annual conference session also passedresolutions presented by the Conference Trustees concerning abandoned churchproperties. It granted superannuation andsabbatical leaves as requested and heard from distinguished guests. Those guests included two visiting bishops,three college presidents, and other denominational leaders.

The first visiting bishop was the conference preacher, PaulV. Galloway of Arkansaswho preached on the 23^rd Psalm. Bishop Galloway retired the following summer but was called back to theTexas Conference after the death of Bishop Copeland.

Bishop Ralph Alton of the Wisconsin Episcopal Area alsoattended. He was in Tylerbecause the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) was meeting in Tyler. He addressed the conference about the reliefwork of the church.

Three college presidents also addressed the conference. Cecil Peeples, of Lon Morris College, introduced a student musicalgroup. Robert Hayes, Sr., of Wiley andDurwood Fleming of Southwestern, both addressed the conference about centennialobservances that would be occurring in 1973. Bill Copeland (brother of Bishop Copeland) reported as director of theMethodist Home in Waco,and Wallace, “Wally” Chappell spoke in his capacity as Executive Director ofthe Texas Commission on Campus Ministry.

A truly remarkable lay man was recognized at this specialsession was no visitor. That honor wentto a member of the host church, W. A. “Abe” Pounds, who was recognized for hisfifty years of service as Texas Conference Treasurer (1922-1972).

It is difficult to imagine a greater record of volunteerservice than that of W. A. Pounds. Onemeasure of his uniqueness is that on January 17, 1972, there were only twopreachers (Joe Wells and Bruce O. Power) at Marvin who had been conference members in 1922.

Pounds had been born into a parsonage family in Center in1894. He became a banker, first in Lavon(Collin Co.), but in 1914 he moved to Tylerto a position at the Guaranty State Bank. He advanced from the ranks of stenographer and cashier and eventually tothe presidency of the Tyler Bank and Trust Company.

He married Isabelle Windham of Shelbyville, and they had twosons. Jack Pounds was killed whiletraining military pilots in the early days of World War II. The municipal airport at Tyler, Pounds Field, is named in hishonor. W. A. Pounds, Jr. also became a banker.

Abe Pounds was involved in too many civic, professional, andreligious volunteer activities to mention. Of special interest to followers of Methodist history was his practiceof loaning money to preachers for moving expenses. He said many times that he never lost a centwhen he loaned money to Methodist preachers.

In February 1972 Pounds was formally honored for his fiftyyears as Texas Conference Treasurer. Atthat tribute dinner on speaker said, “Abe Pounds was the best friend aMethodist preacher ever had.”

He died in Tylerin July 1974 at the age of 80.

2012-01-07T07:41:00.000-08:00

This Week in Texas Methodist History January 8

Fifth Session of TexasAnnual Conference Convenes in San Augustine, January 8, 1845

The Texas Annual Conference convened for its fifth session onJanuary 8, 1845 in San Augustine. In additionto the usual business of committee reports, appointments, and worship,conferences members also dealt with emotional issues of separation and division.

The MEC General Conference of 1844 authorized the TexasConference to divide into two new conferences, the Western Texas and Eastern Texas Annual Conferences. The dividing line was to be the Trinity River. TheGeneral Conference also directed the two new conferences to meetconcurrently. As preachers arrived inSan Augustine, many of them faced uncertainty about their annual conferenceaffiliation. Appointment to either newconference would mean separation from beloved colleagues.

San Augustine was the chosen site. Sessions were held at Wesleyan Collegeand the San Augustine church. Thepresiding bishop was Edmund Janes whose nephew Lester Janes was president of Wesleyan College. This was to be the bishop’s only trip to Texas. Both he and his nephew stayed with the MEC after the creation of theMECS.

The 1844 General Conference also resulted in a call from mostof the southern delegates to meet in 1845 in Louisville to begin the organization of theMECS. The two Texas Conferences werethus tasked with electing delegates to that meeting. Littleton Fowler, Robert Alexander, andFrancis Wilson were elected as delegates.

Bishop Janes read the appointments, and it was reported that

The members of theconference received their appointments with cheerfulness, resolving to devotethemselves fully to their holy calling, not counting their lives dear untothemselves, so that they may finish their course with joy, and the ministrywhich they have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the graceof God.

As the annual conference adjourned, the Conference MissionarySociety convened. A special guestpreacher addressed the Missionary Society. The Rev. Adam Poe from Ohiohad come with Bishop Janes. Besidesattending the annual conference and Missionary Society, he had come to SanAugustine to get the three children orphaned by the death of his brother andsister-in-law, Daniel and Jane Poe. (see post for Sept. 16, 2007)

The combined annual conference and Missionary Societysessions lasted eight days. Thepreachers then started for their new appointments. They faced many uncertainties. Upon the creation of the MECS the WesternTexas Conference reclaimed the name “Texas Conference.” The Eastern Texas Conference became the “EastTexas Conference.” Fifty-eight yearslater the MECS General Conference of 1902 reunited the Texas Conference and theEast Texas Conference into what we know as the Texas Conference.

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This Week in Texas Methodist History, January 1

Oscar Addison Warns Again Con Man Posing as Methodist Preacher, January 6, 1860

Many kinds of con men, frauds, cheats, and swindlers found nineteenth century Texas a fertile ground for their schemes. A favorite ruse was to fleece the unsuspecting in the guise of a clergyman. As early as 1837 a ministerial alliance was formed in Houston to examine the credentials of men claiming to be clergy.

One such imposter was the “Reverend” Fernando L. Taylor. He must have been a consummate con artist. He was able to secure a letter of recommendation from the Springfield District Presiding Elder Oscar M. Addison, and then steal Addison’s trunk. Although it must have been extremely embarrassing, Addison felt compelled to warn others about Taylor by means of a letter to the editor. It is reproduced here from the Navarro Express (Coriscana).

A notice appears in a southern Baptist paper, calling attention to the fact that a gentleman by the name of Taylor, “a Baptist preacher from the north,” is travelling in the south, who it is feared is “a spy and a abolitionist.” The writer of the notice says of Mr. Taylor: ---I hope every press of the south, religious and secular, will in aiding the community on its guard against him, and that whenever he turns up he may be arrested, and either sent with Gerret Smith to an insane asylum or to a penitentiary or to a gallows, to one of which I am sure he is entitled.

This, we presume, is the Mr. Fernando L. Taylor who recently “turned up:” in Texas not as a Baptist, but as a Methodist preacher. Rev. O. M. Addison , P. E. of the Springfield District, writes that the said Taylor, “accredited as a Methodist preacher,” had been preaching for some short time in the counties of Ellis, Navarro, and Limestone, from which region he decamped about the first of November for parts unknown, taking with him a considerable amount of property, obtained under false pretenses.

Mr. Addison says:As he stole my trunk, marked with my address, containing among other things my private papers, he has found it convenient to assume my name, and when last heard of, was making tracks through East Texas, impersonating my humble self.The said Taylor is about 33 years old, five feet three inches high, fair skin, dark hair, large blue eyes, upper front teeth partly decayed, small feet, and weighs about one hundred twenty pounds.As he has a letter of recommendation from me, I feel under obligation to honor him with this notice, and caution the public against his future villanies. Methodist preachers throughout the South are especially requested to look out for this scamp.By copying generally, the press will aid in the detection of this arch imposter, and prevent his further depredation on the unsuspecting.

Wheelock, January 6, 1860 Oscar M. Addison

This Week in Texas Methodist History December 25

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William Bollaert Describes Methodist Political Power December 25, 1843

William Bollaert (1807-1876) was an English scientist, traveler, and adventurer who arrived in Galveston in February 1842. He lived in Texas about 2 and one-half years, and in that time, explored much of the Lone Start Republic. His journals and notes eventually found their way to the Newberry Library in Chicago and have been published. His descriptions are entertaining and informative and of much value to historians.

On Christmas day, 1843 his travels had taken him to Huntsville. The fourth session of the Texas Annual Conference was meeting at Robinson’s, just a few miles from Huntsville. He was aware of the conference and mentioned it in his Journal. He also related a story that purported to show the political power of Methodist clergy in the Republic. Here it is from the diary entry for December 25, 1843.

Minister: “Friend---We never see you at our meeting.”

Friend: “I read my bible at home.”

Minister: “That’s well, but, but, but—it would be better to attend meeting and if it be true what I hear that you intend running for Congress next year, if you do not mix with your Methodist friends you will not be elected. They all know you to be generous, well to do, and a man they like, but not being satisfied with your non-attendance at public worship, they will oppose your election and probably some one may get the votes over you, who may do us all great harm in Congress. My Christian friend, consider this, and I’ll do much for you with the brethren and minister.”

Friend: “I will take your views into consideration and will attend meeting next Sunday.”

This Week in Texas Methodist History December 18

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Methodist Orphanage Dedicated in Waco, December 22, 1901

One of the Texas Methodist institutions with greatest longevity of service is the Methodist Home in Waco. It has changed its name from “Orphanage” to “Home,” and increased the range of services and proudly celebrates more than a century of ministry to children and youth.

December 22, 1901 was a special day in the life of the Methodist Orphanage. A distinguished group of Methodists gathered to celebrate the formal dedication of the administration building. The dedication was a celebration of the fact that the Orphanage was debt free. Bishop Joseph Key came from his home in Sherman to preach the dedicatory sermon. In 1890 Bishop Key suggested the orphanage project in large part to unify the Northwest Texas Conference which was being rent by disputes over the Holiness Movement. Horace Bishop, a Waco pastor (see column for Dec. 4, 2011), was instrumental in securing the institution for Waco. The renowned evangelist team of Abe and Louisa Mulkey adopted the Orphanage as their special cause. As they held revivals, they donated the proceeds of one night’s offering to the fledgling institution. By 1901, the Mulkey’s had donated about $5000 of their own money and raised another $11,000 in those collections to be applied to the cost of a $20,000 administration building. Their dedication to the cause was recognized on the cornerstone, “Preached, prayed, and sung up by the Rev. Abe and Louisa Mulkey.” Their generosity did not end with the dedication of the building. They continued to donate thousands of dollars to the Orphanage.

The combined congregations of the Methodist churches in Waco met in the Orphanage auditorium for 11:00 o’clock services at which Bishop Key preached. At 3:00 o’clock the auditorium was filled again to listen to Abe Mulkey preach the official dedicatory sermon. Rev. W. H. Vaughn, who had been the Manager from its inception, could point with pride to the accomplishments of the first decade. The first resident, David Harrison from Hill County, knocked on Vaughn’s door in 1894 and announced, “My name is David, and I’ve come to live with you.” In the seven years between David’s arrival and the dedication, 229 more orphans came. About 40 of them had been adopted. Six had died, and on December 22, 1901, there were 110 residents of the Orphanage.

Another reason for the debt-free status was that the Orphanage had expanded its base of support from the Northwest Texas Conference to other MECS conferences in the state. Assessments on those conferences ranged from $1500 for the Northwest Texas Conference to $150 for the German Conference.

Two parts of the dedicatory service on December 22, 1901, would seem very familiar to modern Methodists. All 110 residents of the Orphanage made up the choir for the dedicatory service. They also took up a Christmas collection. Both children’s choral music and a Christmas collection continue as part of the Methodist Children’s Home.

This Week in Texas Methodist History December 10

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Methodist Preacher Debates Universalist at Farmersville, December 8, 1873

In the 19th century Texas Methodist preachers often participated in public debates with representatives of other denominations. A favorite topic was infant baptism vs. adult baptism. As Adventism became more popular, debates on whether the Sabbath should be observed on Saturday or Sunday occurred. One recurring debate theme was the doctrine of universal salvation, and on at least one occasion the Methodist preacher’s debate opponent was a Universalist preacher. The Universalist Church was all but non-existent in Texas in 1873. The Universalist Register for 1874 listed only one congregation in Texas, a congregation of 50 members in Sand Fly, Bastrop County, led by the Rev. Marmaduke Gardner. The Register reported that Gardner held services once per month. It also reported four other Universalist travelling preachers in Texas.

At least one Universalist missionary the Rev. Elisha Darnielle participated in a debate in Texas over the tenets of his religion as early as 1873. On December 8 of that year, Darnielle, a missionary from Fayetteville, Arkansas, began a four-day debate with the Methodist preacher at Farmersville, H. C. Rogers. Although the debate lasted four days, there were only two propositions:

Proposition #1: The Scriptures teach the final holiness and happiness of all mankind.
Proposition #2: The Scriptures teach that a portion of mankind will suffer endless punishment.

As rails linked Texas to the northern and Midwestern United States, immigrants from those regions came to Texas and Universalists were able to establish more churches. In 1891, there were enough Texas Universalists to form a state association. The Register for 1897 lists the Rev. C. H. Rogers as president of that association which numbered 620 members in 31 parishes. In 1961 the Universalist Church of America consolidated with the American Unitarian Association. The on-line directory of the Unitarian Universalist Association lists 49 fellowships in Texas.

This Week in Texas Methodist History December 7

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Bishop Hay Unveils Monument to Sarah Philpott, December 7, 1928

1928 was a special year for the Texas Conference Woman’s Missionary Society. They celebrated their Golden Jubilee of fifty years of organized missionary work. The celebration took several forms. Each of the MECS annual conferences published a history of woman’s missionary work. The Texas Conference Missionary Society met in Marshall in April for the Jubilee and honored Sarah Martha Bishop Philpott with a special memorial service. ‘Sallie” Philpott had died the previous February 10 at her home at Dew in Freestone County. She had been a past president of the Society and was honored as not just a charter member of the Texas Conference Missionary Society, but as the first member of the Society. She had been born in Virginia in 1839 and moved to Texas in 1860. She married B. A. Philpott in 1875 and lived the rest of her life (53 years) in the same house in Dew.

The memorial service in Marshall in April was not the last of the honors accorded to Sallie Philpott. On December 7, 1928 Bishop Sam Hay conducted another memorial service for her at Dew. Mrs. J. W. (Kate) Mills, the Texas Conference president, delivered the memorial tribute. I cannot find documentation, but assume that Sallie’s brother, the Reverend Horace Bishop would have attended if able. (Horace Bishop, 1843-1933, admitted North West Texas Conference 1868, prominent member of Central Texas Conference.) One highlight of the event was the unveiling of a monument to Sallie Philpott at her grave in the Fairfield Cemetery.

Sallie Philpott made the Woman’s Missionary Council a beneficiary of her estate. The Council used the bequest to enlarge the Bethlehem Center in Nashville. That social service agency (est. 1894) provided services to both African American and European American Nashville residents and served as a training location for students from Scarritt. It has adapted and expanded its mission and still exists. Sallie Philpott’s legacy continues to provide missionary ministries.

This Week in Texas Methodist History November 27

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Texas Annual Conference Superannuated Preachers Honored in Verse December 1, 1886

Bishop Joseph Key convened the 46th session of the Texas Annual Conference at 9:00 a.m. on December 1, 1886, in Giddings Memorial Methodist Church in Brenham. Sixty-nine clerical and ten lay delegates answered the roll call. The following committees were appointed:

Public Worship
Books and Periodicals
District Conference Relations
Bible Cause
Conference Relations
Temperance
Memoirs

I. Z. T. Morris, Wesley Smith, and I. G. John were directed to meet with members of other annual conferences to investigate the organization of a Texas Methodist historical society.
The fourth day of conference fell on a Sunday so visiting Methodist preachers filled pulpits of other denominations. H. M. Dubose preached to the Baptists. J. W. Heidt of Southwestern University preached to the Presbyterians. Weems Wooten preached in the German church of the MEC, and M. S. Hotckiss to the African American MEC. Bishop Key led a love feast in the Giddings Memorial Church.

Josiah Whipple, a pioneer preacher from the Republic of Texas days, was granted superannuation. He had joined the Illinois Conference in 1839 and transferred to Texas with his Presiding Elder, John Clark. By 1886 he had served many of the most important posts in the Texas Conference and was, in the language of the era, “tired and worn out.” He died in 1894.

An anonymous poem addressed to the superannuated Texas Conference preachers appeared in the local newspaper at the conclusion of annual conference.

Ye men of faith with years and labor crowned,
Whose heads have bowed beneath affliction’s rod
And Bleached with sunshine from the hills of God,
While you in whitened fields the sheaves have bound,
And scattered seeds for others’ harvests round;

I sit with reverence at your way-worn feet
And with unfeigned meekness yearn to feel
The impress of your holy, quenchless zeal;
To catch your words with faith and love replete
And feel the pulse of inspiration beat.

(three stanzas omitted)

Your tents are worn and soon must be laid by,
Your armor bright in the last battle fall.
And you no more shall answer to our call,
But when the muster roll is called on high.,
You’ll gladly answer, “Master, here am I.”

This Week in Texas Methodist History November 20

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Jesse Boring Addresses Mass Meeting in San Antonio November 23, 1860

Soon after news of Abraham Lincoln’s election to the presidency reached San Antonio, anonymous handbills appeared

The citizens of San Antonio are respectfully invited to attend a meeting to-morrow evening at half past seven o’clock, in front of the Menger Hotel, to take into consideration the present position of the South.

At the appointed hour a large crowd did assemble. After a presiding officer was selected, the speeches began. The first speaker was the Rev. Dr. Jesse Boring, a fifty-three year old Georgian who had come to San Antonio only two years before. His frail, sickly appearance did not match the energy with which he had served his church. He entered the itinerancy at age 18 and was appointed to the Chattahoochee Circuit in Alabama. As he gained experience, he received appoints to larger churches. Like many of his colleagues, riding circuit broke his health and in 1832 Boring received an easier appointment, Milledgeville, at that time the capital of Georgia.

In 1849 he was appointed superintendent of the California Mission. After several years in California, he returned to Georgia, and in 1858, Boring and Hamilton G. Horton transferred to Texas. The 1858 General Conference authorized the division of the Texas Conference. Its southwestern churches were to be organized into the Rio Grande Mission Conference (today’s South West Texas Conference). Horton was appointed to the dangerous Uvalde Circuit (see column for July 30, 2011) and Jesse Boring to the Methodist church on Soledad Street in San Antonio.

Boring had a dual appointment. He was not only the preacher, but he was also charged with organizing San Antonio Female College which met in basement of the church. He was thus a well-known public figure in San Antonio.

The reporter for the San Antonio Ledger and Texan who covered the mass meeting shared Boring’s political views. The reporter stressed that Boring did not unleash his powerful oratorical talents, but spoke calmly and dispassionately. His argument was that the Lincoln election had, in effect, dissolved the Union already. Boring finished, and a union speaker named Anderson followed him. Other sppeakers, both pro and anti Union continued long into the night. Meanwhile a resolutions committee was organized which produced a resolution in favor of disunion.

When the Civil War began, Boring, who was also a physician, enlisted in Henry McCullough’s division as a military surgeon. The troops were initially assigned to guard western and southwestern Texas, but in 1862 were sent to Fort Nelson, Arkansas. Boring served as both doctor and chaplain in the Confederate service, and when peace was restored, he was appointed to Goliad and elected a delegate to the 1866 MECS General Conference. His next appointment was to the Medical Department of Soule University which was located in Galveston.

The rigors of circuit riding, missionary travel, and army camp life finally caught up with Jesse Boring In 1868 he returned to Georgia and served twenty more years. He is credited with establishing orphanages in both Decatur and Macon. His last days were spent with his daughter and son-in-law in a small Georgia town. He is buried in Atlanta.

Jesse Boring would be high on the list of number of annual conferences in his 60- year career. His conference affiliation is as follows:

South Carolina (admitted 1827)
Georgia
Alabama
Georgia
Pacific
Georgia
Rio Grande Mission
West Texas
North Georgia (superannuated 1887)

Boring claimed to be a founding member of five of those conferences.

This Week in Texas Methodist History November 13

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Rev. G. S. Wyatt of Tulia Reports on Flu-Shortened Annual Conference, Nov., 1918

The 1918 session of the North West Texas Annual Conference reflected some of the unsettled conditions of the end of World War I. It was eventful enough for the pastor at Tulia, the Rev. G. S. Wyatt, to write a report for the local newspaper, the award winning Tulia Herald. Perhaps part of the reason he wrote the informative article is that almost none of the lay delegates from the Panhandle districts attended annual conference that year.

The site of the Annual Conference was changed “because of the conditions related to the end of the World War” from Lubbock to First Methodist Abilene. The change was, in fact, due to the flu pandemic. The mayor of Lubbock banned large assemblies so the conference was moved to Abilene on three day’s notice. Naturally there were many absentees and the conference was shortened to three days at the insistence of Abilene city officials. One should remember that in this era most conference attendees stayed in private residences. Any germs that visitors might bring thus had the potential to spread throughout the entire city. The conference received eight transfers from other conferences as twenty-three ministers transferred to other conferences. Bishop James Cannon, who had been elected at the MECS General Conference earlier in the year, presided.

The 1918 General Conference submitted two constitutional amendments to the annual conferences. The North West Texas Conference voted 95 to 0 to extend full laity rights to women. It also voted 94 to 8 to change the wording of the Apostle’s Creed to eliminate the words, “Holy Catholic Church.” The first amendment received enough votes in the other annual conferences to pass. The amendment that would have struck “Holy Catholic” from the Apostle’s Creed failed.

The conference heard two reports about conditions in Europe. Wyatt reported that Dr. Selectman (sic) of California reported on his visits to the doughboys in the trenches and praised their morality, cleanliness, and courage. Selecman was soon to return to Texas as pastor of First Methodist Church, Dallas, then president of SMU, and then bishop.
Bishop Cannon also reported on his inspection trip to France. He praised General Pershing’s policy of not allowing U. S. troops to drink liquor and visit “districts with bad women” as did the French and British troops.

As part of the conference looked back at the Great War just ended, another part of the conference looked forward to a crusade of progressive Christianity, the Centenary Campaign. The various Methodist denominations banded together to conduct a huge campaign for missions in 1919, the centennial of the Methodist mission to the Wyandots. (See column for May 20, 2007). The North West Texas Conference was been assigned a goal of $416,000, and part of the conference was devoted to building support for that fund raising effort.

The denomination sent three of its heavy hitters to Abilene to support the Centenary Campaign. W. W. Pinson, Secretary of the Board of Missions, Secretary Neil of the Sunday School Board, and Rev. Frank Onderdonk, director of the Mexican Mission. The speakers were there to lay the groundwork for the solicitation that was to occur the following May. Each church was encouraged to conduct an every member canvass to collection donations for mission work in Latin America, Appalachia, Africa, war-ravaged Europe, Asia, Native Americans, and northern industrial workers. The same crusading spirit that had rallied Americans to “make the world safe for democracy” was directed to “winning the world for Christ in our generation.”

This Week in Texas Methodist History November 6

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Texas Annual Conference Holds Very Special Memorial Service, November 6, 1932

A special part of every annual conference is the memorial service. The conference sings “And Are Yet Alive” and later remembers the members and spouses who have gone on to their heavenly reward. Family members of the deceased receive special invitations to the memorial service, and the entire conference is reminded of the faithful witness of its departed members.

The Texas Annual Conference memorial service of 1932 had special significance. It was meeting in Navasota with Bishop Hiram Boaz in the chair and D. L. Landrum as the host pastor. The opening day, Thursday, November 3, was routine. Roll was called. Visitors were introduced. Those visitors included Atticus Webb of the Anti Saloon League, Mrs. W. C. Godbey of the W.C.T.U., and Dr, D. R. Glass of Texas College in Tyler. He represented the C.M.E. Church, and received the customary collection for that sister denomination.

The annual conference conducted its usual business of committee reports, resolutions, and worship. Then, on the last day of the conference, Sunday, November 6, the conference moved from the Methodist church to the town cemetery. The memorial service was a very special one. It was held at the grave of Dr. Martin Ruter, the head of the Texas Mission of the MEC who came to Texas in November, 1837 and died the following May.

At 2:30 in the afternoon the memorial service began in the cemetery. The conference sang, “There is a Land That is Fairer Than Day.” C. A. Tower gave a prayer. The first tribute was delivered for the life of James M. Wesson who is interred in the same cemetery (see post for July 16, 2006). J. W. Mills gave an address on the life and labors of Martin Ruter and concluded by laying a wreath on the grave.

Then the Texas Conference members and spouses who had died during the previous year were honored. G. Z. Sadler spoke without a manuscript of the life of Weems Wooten who had requested that no formal memoir be prepared. Then the memoirs were read. A. A. Tharp read one for A. G. Scruggs. W. E. Hassler read W. W. Horner’s, and D. S. Burke read Mrs. J. P. Skinner’s.

The memoirs were over, but the service continued. G. Z. Sadler told the conference about C. L. Spencer. Spencer was the local preacher who had rescued Ruter’s remains from the abandoned cemetery in Washington on the Brazos and reinterred it in his own plot. Spencer’s tombstone is beside Ruter’s.

The conference then walked about 40 yards to the northwest of Ruter’s grave to that of James Wesson. They sang “O Think of a Home Over There,” and D. H. Hotchkiss laid a wreath on the Wesson grave. P. T. Ramsey then pronounced the benediction bringing to an end to the open air memorial service.

The conference reconvened in the church to hear an address by Bishop James Cannon on prohibition. By November 1932 Cannon’s reputation was greatly tarnished, but he had survived the U. S. Senate investigating committee, subpoena, and public apology at the 1930 General Conference and was now in Navasota to rally the dry forces. (see column for May 4, 2008). The final session of the 1932 Texas Annual Conference did not begin until 8:15 p.m. It was late in the night when the final appointment was read. Bishop Boaz read, "H. E. Floyd --- Winona." Thus ended a very long, eventful day in Texas Methodist history.

This Week in Texas Methodist History October 30

2011-10-29T14:11:00.000-07:00

Recognized Historic Site #1 Dedicated at Oak Island, Bexar County

Regular readers of this column are aware of the Recognized Historic Site program of the General Commission on Archives and History. A list of recognized sites may be found at http://www.gcah.org/site/c.ghKJI0PHIoE/b.3524085/

One notices immediately that Texas has far more historic sites than any other state. (106 of a total of 462 sites) The presence of several annual conferences within the boundaries of Texas helps explain the large number of recognized sites. The vigor with which the various Texas annual conferences Commissions on Archives and History pursue their mission also explains the large number of sites.

One also notices that Historic Site #1 is in Texas. It is at the Oak Island Church in Bexar County about 15 miles south of downtown San Antonio near the Highway 16 crossing of the Medina River. The cemetery beside the church contains the final resting place of the Rev. John Wesley Devilbiss, the subject of several previous columns. In October 1880 Devilbiss retired to his ranch home, Palo Blanco, at Oak Island. He died on January 1885 and was buried at the church cemetery where he had worshipped in his retirement.

Mrs. W. W. Jackson was the local church historian who researched the history of Oak Island Church necessary for a successful historic site application. On November 2, 1969 Bishop O. Eugene Slater of San Antonio led a celebration in honor of the Historic Site #1 designation. The guests included Senator Ralph Yarborough. The most recent Historic Site designation was recently held at First UMC Euless.

This Week in Texas Methodist HIstory October 23

2011-10-22T06:51:00.000-07:00

Quarterly Meeting in Harrison County Passes Resolution in Favor of Mission to African Americans, October, 1843

One of the areas of the Republic of Texas that benefitted most from changing transportation patterns was the region around Marshall and Jefferson. Before the Texas Revolution there were two main routes by which travelers came to Texas. One of those routes was the Natchitoches to Nacogdoches route which crossed the Sabine at Gaines Ferry. The other was in extreme northeast Texas where travelers crossed the Red River at Fulton, Arkansas, where the river turned in a great bend to the south. In the early years of the Republic a third route became more prominent. U. S. Army engineers under Henry Miller Shreve cleared a huge raft of logs and other debris from the Red River. Instead of stopping at Natchitoches, travelers could now go further upstream to where the Texas Trail crossed the Red River. Grateful town developers named their community Shreveport in honor of the man who made navigation possible. Westward bound travelers at Shreveport had both land and water options for going into Texas. Some chose the water route and snaked their way through the shallow waters of Caddo Lake and Cypress Bayou to Jefferson (laid out as a town in 1842). Land travelers naturally wished to avoid the low country so they took a more southerly route to Marshall (made the county seat of Harrison County in 1842).

The Shreveport to Marshall-Jefferson route became the route of choice for thousands of immigrants. Methodist circuit riders always followed settlement so it was natural that Harrison appears as one of the original Texas Conference appointments upon the organization of that conference in 1840. In only two years, there had been enough growth that the Lake Soda District was formed for the churches in the area.

Many of the travelers on the Texas Trail were involuntary immigrants. Because it was the route of choice from Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia, many of the immigrants were enslaved African Americans. The area around Marshall and Jefferson eventually achieved African American population percentages comparable to the Brazos, Trinity, and Colorado River bottom lands. The 1860 Census revealed that 59% of the Harrison County population was African American.

Slavery became an issue in Harrison County in 1843 in two different ways. On Aug. 19 William R. Alexander (Robert Alexander’s brother) wrote Littleton Fowler that William O’Conner had made some dinner table remark criticizing slavery. Since O’Conner was an Ohio recruit, perhaps Alexander was testing the northern preacher who was now in the South. Fowler took the accusation of the anti-slavery remark seriously enough to write O’Conner a reprimand and also to instruct John Woolam to look into the matter.

Unfortunately the O’Conner flap ended because the 27-year-old Ohio recruit died in October and was buried near Marshall. On October 21 the Rocky Creek Quarterly Meeting passed a resolution asking John Woolam to inquire among the slave holders if they would allow the circuit riders to preach among the slaves. The resolution is a good example of a popular argument Methodist preachers used when trying to obtain permission to preach to slaves. Here is part of the resolution:

. In the Southern States where the M. E. Church has established missions to the slaves the consequence has been that of a great moral and religious reformation of this class of population which tended to make them honest, industrious and more obedient to those who controuled them greatly to the advantage of both both the servants and masters. This enterprise had the full consideration of the members of this conference from the fact that near one half the population in the bounds of this circuit are slaves and hitherto have had but little preaching because the preachers had as much as employed their whole time in filling the numerous appointments within the bounds of their charge.

There is no “Harrison Colored Mission” listed in the appointments at the next annual conference, but between the establishment of the MECS and the Civil War there are numerous appointments to “African Mission” and “Colored Mission” in Texas.

This Week in Texas Methodist History October 16

2011-10-15T06:32:00.000-07:00

Yellow Fever Forces Joseph Sneed out of Houston, October 19, 1839

Joseph Perkins Sneed (1804-1881) is one of the pioneer Texas circuit riders who helped lay the foundation for Methodism in the Republic of Texas. At the Mississippi Annual Conference of December, 1838, Bishop Thomas A. Morris honored his request for a transfer to the Texas Mission of that conference. On February 8, 1839, he entered Texas via Gaines Ferry and began his Texas ministry.

Monday, October 14, 1839, found Sneed in Texana where he had just participated in a camp meeting. Texana was the home of several devout Methodist families who had immigrated from North Alabama in the late 1820’s. The Sutherland, Menefee, Heard, Rector, and Rogers families were to make a huge mark in Texas Methodist history, but Sneed had other flocks to tend so he set off by horseback. He rode 150 miles to Houston where on Saturday, October 19, he held a quarterly meeting.

The normal practice of the time was to have the quarterly conference on Saturday and then stay for Sunday worship, but yellow fever was raging in the city, and Sneed and his companion, Robert Hill left Saturday even though they knew leaving on Saturday would force them to travel on the Sabbath. After spending the night in what Sneed described as “wild country,” they reached the Brazos at Warren (about three miles east of present-day Chappell Hill). When they arrived, they were disappointed to learn that the ferry was swamped on the far bank. The river was flowing swiftly and night was falling. Here’s what they did next, told in Sneed’s words.

Sunday Oct. 20th Traveled this day contrary to my feeling and custom, about forty miles. Reached the Brazos at Warren, below the mouth of New Year’s Creek, just about dark, The river was swimming, the ferry boat sunk, and no one around. I swam my horse across and then shoved the boat over in its sunken condition. Bro. Hill got on it with our equipments: It was sufficient to bear him, and by hard work we crossed our clothes dry, I having swum his horse and swum back to him alone. By this time we had no light but the moon. Making our way three or four miles to Mr. Hubert’s we were comfortably situated for the night.

The next Thursday Sneed and Hill participated in the memorable Centenary Camp Meeting honoring the centennial of John Wesley’s Aldersgate experience in 1739.

This Week in Texas Methodist History October 9

2011-10-08T07:44:00.000-07:00

Ebenezer Methodist Church Organized October 10, 1858

The Texas Forest Service has been much in the news in 2011. The double tragedy of drought and wild fire has been devastating to our forests, and made many of us more aware of how important our forests are to us. The TFS does excellent work providing good stewardship for the beautiful forests of Texas. One of its programs calls attention to the importance of trees in Texas history by maintaining a web site that highlights famous Texas trees. http://famoustreesoftexas.tamu.edu/introduction.aspx
One of the famous trees of Texas is near New Fountain in Medina County and is important in Texas Methodist history.

New Fountain was first known as Soldier’s Camp because it was a convenient rendezvous point for soldiers patrolling the road that led west from San Antonio. Many of the early settlers were part of the Castro colony and were Alsatian Catholics. As the colony prospered, D’Hanis, Quihi, and Vandenberg were founded in the area. The settlement at New Fountain received its name because a creek disappeared in the fissures of the creek bottom only to reappear in the creek bed several miles downstream—in other words a “New Fountain.”

The Texas Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church South organized a German District with John Wesley Devilbiss as the presiding elder. (see post for Jan. 11, 2011) In 1857 he held a camp meeting in the area. The next year on October 10, 1858 the Rev. F. A. Schaper assembled a group of German pioneers under a large live oak tree. Among the attendees were John and Aalke Wiemers. They were gloriously converted. At that same meeting Schaper organized the Ebenezer Methodist Episcopal South. The oak was on the Wiemers property. The couple donated a lot for the erection of a small pole building about 16 by 20 feet. There were 15 charter members.

Just weeks after October 10, Ebenezer became one of the first churches in the newly organized Rio Grande Mission Conference which had been authorized by the 1858 General Conference of the MECS. The Rio Grande Mission Conference eventually became the Southwest Texas Annual Conference.

By 1872 the Ebenezer Church had outgrown its simple pole structure so John and Aalke Wiemers donated an acre of land in a more convenient location for a new church building. Friedrich and Antje Muennink donated two acres for a cemetery across the road. As was the custom of the time, the church members donated their labor for the construction of the new church building. It was also customary at the time for German preachers to teach school during the week. Such was the case under the pastorate of Jacob Kern. The German farmers made great sacrifices so that their children would receive good education. At least 13 of their sons became Methodist preachers.

The 1872 church building still stands in good repair. There are also modern Sunday School and meeting facilities. They are testaments to the vitality of the congregation that continues to worship and serve 153 years after organizing under the live oak tree.
What about the oak that was large enough to shade a meeting in 1858? It’s still there and promises to have a continuing presence in Texas Methodist history through one of its seedlings. On March 12, 2005, one of the seedlings was planted at Lakeview Methodist Conference Center in honor of Bishop John Wesley Hardt, a great-grandson of John and Aalke Wiemers.

This Week in Texas Methodist History October 2

2011-10-01T06:49:00.000-07:00

Texas University (later Southwestern University) Classes Begin, October 6, 1873

On October 6, 1873 a new school began instruction in Georgetown. Years of preparation ended as three faculty members met thirty-three students. The man in charge was Francis A. Mood, a South Carolinian who had come to Chappell Hill to assume the leadership of Soule University. It didn’t take him long to discover that Soule was in trouble. Indebtedness and too few students threatened to finish off the school that had been devastated by the loss of its student body to the Civil War and a yellow fever epidemic that ravaged the Texas coastal plains.

Mood believed that a Texas Methodist university could be successful if it enjoyed the support of all five of the MECS annual conferences in Texas and was favorably situated outside the fever belt. He threw himself into the task of building that support. Each annual conference finally gave its support. Georgetown was selected as the site.

The thirty-three students came to Texas University. It was not until 1875 that the institution received its charter, and one of the conditions of the charter was that the name had to be changed. It became South Western University. From that small beginning in 1873 came Southwestern University which has a beautiful campus, an outstanding faculty, and a student body any institution would be proud of. It continues to cherish its Methodist roots which have sustained it.

This Week in Texas Methodist History September 25

2011-09-24T06:18:00.000-07:00

Grace United Methodist Dedicates Historic Site Medallion September 25, 2011

On Sunday, September 25, 2011, Grace United Methodist Church, 1245 Heights Blvd., in Houston, will dedicate its United Methodist Historic Site Medallion. This recognition was granted by the General Commission on Archives and History after approval by the Texas Annual Conference.

Try to imagine Houston before it became the petroleum center, before the dredging of the Ship Channel, before public health measures controlled mosquito-borne diseases, before air conditioning. The city on the banks of Buffalo Bayou boasted of being “where 17 railroads meet the sea.” Those railroads funneled lumber and cotton to Galveston, still undamaged by the hurricane of 1900, where those raw materials entered world commerce.

Houston was growing, mainly along the Washington Avenue corridor and around the railroad shops northeast of downtown. As the city grew, it created new opportunities for developers. Since its founding by the Allen Brothers in 1836 Houston had been friendly to developers, but in 1892 a new transportation technology made possible a new era in development. That new technology was the electric street car. The Omaha and South Texas Land Company bought 1,175 acres of land on the north side of Buffalo Bayou, constructed a street car line to downtown, surveyed streets and lots, and began selling those lots.

The development became known as the Houston Heights and proved to be a great success. It had advantages of a city including a school, a post office, hotel, opera house, and after 1896 its own municipal government. It also had both Buffalo Bayou and White Oak Bayou available for recreation and what we would call today a Green Belt. The streetcar line made it possible for Heights residents to live in this pleasant setting and still find employment downtown.

In 1905 the Woman’s Home Missionary Society of the MECS organized a society with the intention of starting a church. They worshiped in homes, a school, a skating rink, and City Hall before erecting their first building at 13th and Yale. The first preacher was S. S. McKinney. Among his most illustrious successors was W. C. Martin, who was later elected bishop.
Since 1971 the congregation has been worshipping in a sanctuary that faces Heights Blvd.

What about the Heights? The Heights gave up its own municipal government and became part of the city of Houston in 1918. As part of the annexation agreement, the Heights retained its prohibition of alcoholic beverages. In the middle decades of the 20th century it appeared that the Heights was destined to go the way of many inner city neighborhoods. The streetcar was replaced by the automobile, and suburbs stretched farther and farther in all directions.

A group of visionaries refused to allow their neighborhood to succumb to urban blight. In 1973 they organized the Houston Heights Association and eventually made the Heights a shining example of historic preservation. Today the Houston Heights is one of the most desirable neighborhoods in Houston. Grace UMC has been and continues to be part of that success.

This Week in Texas Methodist HIstory September 18

2011-09-17T06:15:00.000-07:00

Pasadena First United Methodist Church Dedicates Historical Markers September 18, 2011

On Sunday September 18, 2011, First United Methodist Church of Pasadena Texas will observe a very special historical event. On that day Bishop Huie will lead services in which not one, but two, historical markers will be dedicated.

One marker is the United Methodist Historic Site Designation #458. That marker is issued by the General Commission on Archives and History after approval by Annual Conference. The Texas Annual Conference also approved historic site designations for Grace UMC in Houston Heights and Greggton UMC. Other UM Historic sites for 2011 included Old Mutare Mission in Mutare, Zimbabwe, the Mary Johnston Hospital in Manila, Philippines, and the College of West Africa in Monrovia, Liberia.

The other marker is awarded by the Texas Historical Commission, an arm of state government that works with county historical commissions to identify and preserve the historic resources of Texas.

Pasadena FUMC is the oldest church in Pasadena and began in 1896. They followed the usual Methodist practice of meeting in homes and the school until they were able to build their own church building in 1907. That building was replaced by others in 1933 and in 1955. Those churches were at the corner of Broadway and Shaver. In 1986 the church relocated to Fairmont Parkway.

Pasadena FUMC has an active Historical Society which maintains historical displays of artifacts and photos in Room 221.

This Week in Texas Methodist History September 11

2011-09-10T05:36:00.000-07:00

Bolivar Peninsula the Scene of Church Conflict, September 15, 1898

In 1898 the Bolivar Peninsula was experiencing a spurt of development. Rail service from Point Bolivar to High Island and Beaumont was completed in 1896. Barges carried rail cars of freight and passengers across Bolivar Roads to Galveston Island. The federal government was improving the Port of Galveston, and part of that improvement was the construction of a jetty on the peninsula. Fort Travis, designed to protect the entrance to the harbor was under construction. Farmers tilled the sandy soils and provided melons and other vegetables to the Galveston and Beaumont markets. Ranches grazed cattle on the salt grass prairies and marshes. Communities developed on the peninsula. Patton Beach (today Crystal Beach) had a post office in 1898. Caplen had two hotels and a summer population of several hundred. Where communities developed in Texas, Methodist churches were soon to follow. The East Texas Conference appointed a circuit rider to the Point Bolivar Circuit which stretched along the coast from Point Bolivar to High Island.

Unfortunately conflict between the MEC and the MEC South developed. John Williams the MECS pastor on the Port Bolivar Circuit explained it this way in the Texas Christian Advocate, September 15, 1898.

The Northern M. E. Church, in the great Gulf Mission Conference, is doing some proselyting (sic) in this section also—in fact they have, without invitation, come into my charge and organized one of my societies into a Northern Church—every member of that society, with two exceptions, joining them. I am told that they tell those who will hear it that they are the mother Church, and that therefore they have the right to present their claims. I am told they have recently had what they call a “big revival” at High Island, at which point they organized a society out of a Southern Methodist society belonging to my charge—Port Bolivar Circuit.

The next two years the Point Bolivar Circuit of the MECS was able to report 81 members. In spite of forming a society from a former MECS charge, the MEC seems not to have been able to been able to form much of a presence on the peninsula. It was much more effective in Port Arthur just a few miles away where the northern church was able to establish not just a strong church but also a college (Port Arthur College).

Bolivar Peninsula is extremely vulnerable to hurricanes. Less than two years after Rev. Williams complained about the Northern church stealing his members, the whole region was devastated by the storm of 1900. In 2008 Hurricane Ike brought death and destruction to the same area. Before and after images may be found at http://coastal.er.usgs.gov/hurricanes/ike/photo-comparisons/bolivar.html

This Week in Texas Methodist History September 4

2011-09-03T06:20:00.000-07:00

U. S. and Vivienne Newton Gray Sail for Liberia, Sept. 8, 1948

Two of the most distinguished missionaries Texas Methodism ever produced sailed from New Orleans on September 8, 1948. The missionary couple, U. S. and Vivienne N. Gray, was on the way to Liberia where God would abundantly bless their efforts.

Ulysses Samuel Gray was born in Pin Oak, Robertson County, in 1913. He received a call to the ministry at the age of 11 and was licensed to preach at the age of 13. He attended Wiley College and then transferred to Clark University and Gammon Theological Seminary in Atlanta. He received his divinity degree in May, 1948, and the following September, he and Mrs. Gray left New Orleans for Liberia.

The missionary couple threw themselves into the task at hand. They built Gbarnga Methodist Mission in Gbarnga. The mission eventually included a church, school, homes both on the mission and in town, and the first indoor gymnasium in the country. They brought electricity and a sewer system to the interior. They planted trees and raised livestock. They also raised a generation of church and civic leaders whose influence in Liberia was immense.

Public recognition of U. S. and Vivienne Newton Gray came. Schools were named for them. President William Tolbert, Jr., awarded them the Liberian Star, the highest honor awarded to civilians. Trinity UMC in Houston honored Vivienne Gray in a stained glass window which may be seen at http://www.tumchouston.org/118839.

Many Texas Methodists felt a special relationship with the U. S. and Vivienne. When the couple toured Texas churches in a ministry of mission interpretation, church members felt an instant connection with the work in Liberia. Gbarnga became a “can’t miss” destination for Texans on mission tours. Scores of Texas Methodists visited U. S. and Vivienne in Liberia and were given warm hospitality and came away inspired by the mission work.

After retiring from the foreign mission field, the Grays moved to Marshall where U. S. was Dean of Men at Wiley College. Vivienne died in 1988, and U. S. in 2009.

This Week in Texas Methodist History August 28

2011-08-26T08:50:00.000-07:00

Report on McKenzie Institute in Texas Christian Advocate, September 1, 1855

The premier educational institution in pre-Civil War Texas was McKenzie Institute near Clarksville. At its height it enrolled 300 students and employed 9 instructors. It was created through the efforts of one of the great Texas Methodist preachers, John W. P. McKenzie. He imposed a strict discipline on the students such as requiring prayers at 4:00 a.m., and provided what was probably the best education available in Texas in 1850’s. Unfortunately the Civil War came. Students went into the military and McKenzie was formally closed in 1868.

J. W. P. McKenzie’s efforts are not forgotten. Southwestern University claims McKenzie College as one of its four root institutions.

Here is a report from a visitor to McKenzie which appeared in the Texas Christian Advocate, September 1, 1855.

"Having pulled and trudged through that miserable black mud, in the midst of a splendid prairie farm, yonder is the McKenzie Institute. Oh! how changed in nine years. Then the dwelling was a rude log house, shedded in barn fashion, with a few offices in the yard—the school-room, a rude log cabin, a few hundred paces distant in the woods. Now, as you approach from an opposite direction, you behold the splendid white mansion, two stories high. This is the dwelling—also, the upper stories, the female department of the institution. A wise arrangement this, as the young ladies are the constant inmates of the family of the Principal. About one hundred paces distant, stands the main college building, three stories high. And, about fifty or sixty paces distant from the college, stand two large buildings, each two stories high, with galleries—all well furnished and ventilated; so that students may, in comfort, pursue their studies summer and winter. These are the dormitories. They will accommodate, with convenience, about one hundred and fifty pupils. Young men had better apply soon, or they will be disappointed in getting a place the next session in this institution. As I reached the examination at a late period, and there being a regular visiting committee appointed to report the examination and prospects of the institution, I forbear saying more than that the large audience seemed highly delighted with the exercises. The speeches of the young men were highly creditable. One would suppose, as a hearer, that some of them breathed rather strongly in party political atmosphere.
But the most stupendous thought of all connected with this institution is, how did one man, with limited means, commence fifteen years ago, and build up such an institution? Let no one say that it was the Church that helped and sustained him. He helped and sustained the Church, in Northern Texas, sometimes almost alone! Yea, and his institution also. His donations in various forms, to my knowledge, have not averaged less than one thousand dollars annually, for the last nine years. He has educated and turned into the active itinerant ranks, from two to three young men every year, and now donates the whole college buildings, with twelve acres of land, to take effect at his death, to the East-Texas Conference. The gift is as liberal as the mind and economy was enlarged that made it. But how was all this mighty work, the cost of which was not less than thirty thousand dollars, accomplished? By the day and night toil, vigilance, perseverance, and economy of Brother and Sister McKenzie. Yes, the latter name deserves as much, if not more praise in this noble work, than the former. She who has watched around the sick-bed of the student, and in her soothing, gentle, amiable manner, made him feel that both mother and sister were there, will never be forgotten by us boys.
Rambler

This Week in Texas Methodist History August 21

2011-08-20T07:47:00.000-07:00

Texas Methodists Cope with Economic Depression August 1933

As Texans continue to suffer from the effects of heat, drought, and global economic problems, it is time to consider how Texas Methodists coped with adversity in the 1930s.

By August 1933 the effects of the Great Depression were taking their toll on Texas Methodists. As the price of both cotton and oil dropped to unheard lows, so did the ability of members to contribute to their churches. Annual conference receipts dropped more than fifty percent from 1929 to 1933. (Central Texas $1,682,000 to $687,335; North Texas $1,419,000 to $730,000; Northwest Texas $1,320,000 to $591,000; Texas $1.877,000 to $1,053,000’ and West Texas $1,276,000 to $629,000). The total amount paid to all preachers in salary in all the conferences in the MECS dropped from $1,911,000 to $1,264,000. Some of the church’s colleges could not pay faculty salary and offered to let their families eat in the college dining halls. Tyler Street Church in Dallas could not meet the payments on bonds it had issued and the bond holders foreclosed on the property. SMU was in such straits that its trustees sold 273 acres of property on the north side of the campus. Real estate prices were so depressed that the sale raised only $83,221.

Wesley College in Greenville, Kidd-Key in Sherman, and Weatherford College all closed, and Lon Morris, Southwestern, and other institutions barely survived. The Methodist Home in Waco, Lon Morris in Jacksonville, and other church institutions with dining halls and dairies thankfully received donations and tuition payments in the form of home-canned produce and meat, box car loads of hay, and whatever else church members had.

Plans for new church buildings were deferred, and missionary support was slashed. The author’s great-uncle, Charles T. Hardt, had to give up his missionary post in Poland and return to the West Texas Conference.

Churches had to become more deliberative and imaginative in their fund raising. Before the Great Depression a typical rural church would get by with contributions in the collection plate to pay on-going expenses such as salary and utilities. Most churches never had an annual pledge campaign. It didn’t make sense to ask for weekly contributions because farmers had income only once a year when they sold their crops. When the crops were harvested and sold, there would be a drive to raise money for the connectional expenses which were called “assessments.” (We now call them apportionments.) As the financial strain worsened, churches moved more and more to an annual pledge drive in which every member of the church, even those who attended irregularly, would be asked to put a pledge in writing. The use of pre-printed, numbered offering envelopes became almost universal.

Even before the Great Depression, a Texas Conference preacher, Clarence W. Lokey, had developed an imaginative plan. When he arrived at Edgewood in the Tyler District, he found the church had not paid all the salary due his predecessor and that the bank had foreclosed on the parsonage.

He and his members developed a plan called “The Lord’s Acre.” The farmers who participated promised to designate one acre of their farm or a calf or a piglet as the Lord’s. The proceeds from the sale of that designated acre or livestock would be donated to the church. The “Edgewood Plan” spread, and Lokey was appointed Conference Director of Rural Work so he could devote full time to spreading the idea.

The Great Depression and World War II changed almost everything about Texas and Texas Methodism. They had no way of knowing of the expansion and prosperity that would occur in the post-war years.

comment on previous post

2011-08-16T14:57:00.000-07:00

The post of July 24 elicited a response from a reader. I responded to a comment in the response but the site would not accept my comments so I post them here.

Thank you for you comments about This Week in Texas Methodist History, and pardon me for the delay in responding to your inquiry concerning ministerial education. I must admit that I did not look at the "comments" section until a friend brought your response to my attention.

Even though Methodism had its origins on a university campus (Oxford) where John and Charles Wesley participated in the "Holy Club" so methodically that they were called "Methodists" in derision, educational standards for Methodist preachers in the 19th century did not require divinity school. As a matter of fact, the expectation that all preachers will receive formal seminary training is a post-World War II phenonmenon. As recently as my childhood in the 1950s I knew many preachers in small rural churches who did not possess a B. A. much less a seminary degree.

The first Methodist seminary was Boston University (chartered by Mass. in 1869, even though it had earlier antecendents).
Methodist preachers in 19th century Texas varied widely. Some of them such as Littleton Fowler, T. O. Summers, Chauncey Richardson, Homer Thrall, were college educated. Remember that general liberal arts college in those days included Greek and Latin. The text for Greek class was almost always the New Testament. Many more of them had little more than a grade school education.

Their theological education consisted of the "Course of Study". When a man presented himself for membership in an annual conference, he would receive a probationary membership. One of the parts of that probation was to read four books and come to next year's annual conference ready to be examined on the contents of those books. That process would repeat for three more years. Today annual conference consists mainly of the reports given by the various committee and agencies of the church, but in the period in which you are interested, annual conference consisted mainly of examining the character and behavior of each of the members and examining the younger preachers on how well they had learned the books that had been their assigned reading.

What were the books? The required books for 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th year probationary candidates stayed remarkably stable through most of the 19th century. The core was Wesley's Sermons. The main commentaries were by Fletcher and Watson. There were specific commentaries on books of the Bible and church history, sometimes a book on missions etc. There is a letter in the Fowler Collection at Bridwell Library, Perkins School of Theology, SMU, from Daniel Carl to John Woolam from 1841 that gives the flavor.

My studies I have red through the new Testament very near twice am now reading in the old part of the Bible--have red one volum of Westley's Sermons through or nearly so have been studying Watsons Theological Dictionary and Westley's Notes some not mutch.

The Course of Study still exists and provides a path to full ordination for preachers who cannot or wish not to attend seminary on a full time basis. Rather than self-study, it now consists mainly of intensive summer school courses at the seminaries.

There was an anti-intellectual bias in 19th century Methodism. The key element in anyone's spiritual life was a personal religious experience that was emotional rather than intellectual. The bias of emotion over intellect was reinforced when the first Methodist educational effort (Cokesbury College in Maryland) burned. Some church members interpreted the fire as a sign that God did not want Methodists to be involved in schooling. T. O. Summers reports that he was criticized for wearing reading glasses. Wearing glasses was a sign that you had ruined your eyes by reading so much.

As the century progressed though, and Methodist laity became more educated , they demanded better educated preachers. Only a very tiny fraction of Methodist preachers in the 19th century had formal seminary training. Those who desired it had to leave. Besides Boston (already mentioned) there were Yale and and Harvard. Princeton was highly suspect because of its Calvinistic/Presbyterian roots. A few such as John M. Moore (later bishop) went to Germany which was the center of theological education in the period in which you are interested.

With the establishment of Vanderbilt Unviersity in Nashville, the Methodist Epsicopal Church South finally entered the field of theological education. Vanderbilt did not remain under control of the MECS and, although Vanderbilt continued to train preachers, Emory and SMU assumed the main roles of seminaries for the MECS (Emory for east of the Mississippi and SMU for west of the Mississippi)

This Week in Texas Methodist History August 14

2011-08-13T07:38:00.000-07:00

William B. Travis Writes Appeal for Methodist Missionaries, August 17, 1835

About six months before he wrote his famous appeal from the Alamo, William B. Travis wrote another appeal, this one for Methodist missionaries who would “produce much good in this benighted land.” The letter was published in the New York Christian Advocate and became a favorite source of quotations for generations of Texas Methodist historians.

The full text of the letter is so readily available in secondary works such as Phelan (vol. 1) that I will not reproduce here.

Travis presents an interesting problem for Texas Methodist historians. How tightly do we embrace Travis as a member of the early Texas Methodist community? William B, Travis was definitely part of the Methodist community in 1835. Besides the August 17, 1835 letter, there had been a previous letter to the Mission Board from Travis, David Ayres, and Lydia McHenry. In a characteristic act of bravado he offered to provide security at the September, 1835 Caney Creek Camp Meeting. He left his six year old son, Charles Edward Travis, in the custody of David Ayres at Montville where Lydia McHenry and Ann Ayres were operating a boarding school. John Wesley and Maria Kenney admired Travis so much that after his death at the Alamo they renamed their daughter, Emily Travis Kenney (b. Dec. 10, 1835). His name appears on the list of persons at the Caney Creek Camp Meeting who pledged to support Kenney if he would form a circuit.

So what’s the problem? It is obvious that William B. Travis was an enthusiastic participant in Methodist activities of 1835. The problem lies in that most Texas Methodist history is written from a fairly pious point of view, and William B. Travis led a life that would have excluded him from membership in a Methodist class meeting—big time!

Travis had come to Texas under a cloud. He deserted his pregnant wife and 18-month old son and fled to Texas. One persistent story is that the desertion occurred because he suspected his wife, Rosanna, of infidelity and killed the man he suspected of fathering the unborn child. His diary (edited and published by Robert E. Davis in 1966) shows he kept a running tally of his sexual conquests. The diary leaves little doubt that he was having relations with Rebecca Cummings on Mill Creek while he was still legally married to Rosanna.

Of course Travis was not alone. Immigration to Texas in the 1830s was a common response to people wishing to leave legal, family, and economic problems behind. Some of those with shady reputations became upstanding pillars of righteousness in the Republic of Texas.

Two weeks after Travis wrote his appeal for missionaries the second Caney Creek Camp Meeting convened about 20 miles north of San Felipe where Travis lived. The meeting was well attended. John Wesley Kenney and W. P. Smith (both Methodist) and Sumner Bacon and Peter Fullinwider (both Presbyterian) preached. An informal quarterly conference was organized and a pledge list was circulated. Thirty-one people pledged to support John Wesley Kenney if he would organize a circuit and preach. William B. Travis was one of those persons pledging.

Political events would dictate that Kenney would not organize the circuit. On Saturday, September 5, while the camp meeting was in full swing on Caney, there was a barbecue in Brazoria. Stephen F. Austin was finally home from his long confinement in Mexico City. The barbecue was a welcome home party. Austin gave a speech. The unjust imprisonment in Mexico City had made him reconsider his position about a break with Mexico. He was now ready to join the faction advocating independence.

Events moved quickly during the autumn of 1835. The skirmish at Gonzales, the siege of Bexar, and the organization of volunteer forces swept aside the possibility of Kenney’s being able to form a circuit. In December Travis received a commission as a lieutenant colonel. In March he died defending the Alamo. He was only twenty-seven years old. Methodists and other Texians embraced him as a martyr. His letter to the Advocate meant that he was also known to the wider Methodist community. News of the victory at San Jacinto arrived while that Methodist community was meeting in General Conference at Cincinnati. Missionaries came the next year.

This Week in Texas Methodist History August 7

2011-08-06T09:15:00.000-07:00

Celebrate Bicentennial of Robert Alexander's Birth August 7 1811-August 7 2011

As Texas Methodists gather for worship and Sunday School on August 7, they would do well to remember the bicentennial of Robert Alexander's birth, August 7, 1811 in Smith County, Tennessee.

Alexander was the first of the three officially commissioned missionaries to arrive in the Republic of Texas, crossing the Sabine River in the summer of 1837. Although junior to the other members of the mission, Martin Ruter and Littleton Fowler, he was to outlive both of them by decades and was involved in almost every signficant event in Texas Methodist history until his death in 1882.

He was presiding elder of several districts, presiding officer of the Texas Annual Conference when no bishop was able to come, leader of the Texas Conference delegation to eight General Conferences, one of the main supporters of Rutersville College, chair of the commission that led to the founding of Southwestern Unviersity, President of the Texas Conference Missionary Society, Representative of the American Bible Society, college trustee, member of the Board of Vistors to Methodist colleges, supporter of Texas Methodist journalism, etc.

About six months after his arrival in Texas, in January, 1838, he married Eliza Ayres, the daughter of David Ayres, the most prominent and generous Methodist lay man of the era. The couple lived in Rutersville, Cottage Hill (their ranch in northern Austin County) Belton, Waco, then back to Cottage Hill, then to Perkins Island in Galveston Bay, and then to Chappell Hill. Both Eliza and Robert died in Chappell Hill and are now buried in Brenham.

The Texas United Methodist Historical Society celebrated the bicentennial of Alexander's birth during its March meeting. They honored a man who cast a giant shadow over 19th century Texas Methodism.

This Week in Texas Methodist History July 30

2011-07-30T07:37:00.000-07:00

Camp Meeting on the Sabinal Interrupted by Indian Raid August, 1859

The MECS General Conference of 1858 created the Rio Grande Conference, the predecessor of today’s Southwest Texas Conference, by breaking off the southernmost charges of the Texas Conference. Naturally the new conference needed preachers to evangelize the thinly settled Rio Grande Conference. Bishop George F. Pierce presided at the 1858 Georgia Annual Conference and transferred two of its members, Jesse Boring and Hamilton G. Horton, to the Rio Grande Conference. The two preachers were to have vastly different experiences. Boring was also a physician, and Pierce appointed him to San Antonio where he would be both a preacher and president of San Antonio Female Academy.

Horton, on the other hand, would have to forego the comforts of cosmopolitan San Antonio. He was appointed to the Uvalde Mission, a rugged land teeming with dangers. Instead of school book and physician’s kit, he would carry six-shooters, shotguns, and a Bowie knife. He would need them all. The San Antonio-Castroville-Hondo-Uvalde Road (present Highway 90) was the main road west. California gold seekers used it, Bishop Pierce used it when he when to California to hold annual conference. Although the U. S. Army built forts to protect the route, travelers were subject to robbers, rustlers, and all types of criminals.

In August 1859, in Horton’s first year on the Uvalde Mission, he was holding a camp meeting on the Sabinal River (Uvalde County). Here is a portion of his memoir on what happened at the camp meeting.

In August we held a camp meeting on the Sabinal just below where the Southern Pacific railroad now crosses the stream (the farthest west at that time of any camp-meeting in the State) assisted by the presiding elder and one other missionary. In the midst of the meeting, just at the close of a late night service, a scout dashed into camp shouting, 'Indians!" Some of the sisters had been making a racket over the conversion of one or two cow-boys and one good sister had gone into a trance. The shout of "Indians" hushed everything else and soon recalled the sister from the spirit land, where she seemed to have been wandering, and before that night was over all of us were ready to send the red brother on a long journey to the "happy hunting-grounds." A large band of Indians had passed down within a few miles of the camp-meeting and stole a herd of horses six miles below us. Rations were prepared quickly, and most of the men were on horseback and off like a flash. They followed the Indians for several days, recaptured many of the horses and killed several of the raiders. The women, children and old men were hustled off at daylight to a rock house and forted up. The last I saw of the class-leader that night he was riding with the exhorter at full tilt to give a 'red brother" a bit of his own experience . . .

When the Civil War came, Boring returned to Georgia and became a Confederate chaplain/physician. San Antonio Female College collapsed. Horton, though, stayed in Texas. He was appointed to the Goliad Circuit where on Dec. 24, 1860 he spent the night with the Henry Hardt family in Weesatche. That visit led to the conversion of the family, and the rest is history.

In his old age Horton became interested in Texas Methodist history. He was a frequent contributor to the Texas Methodist Historical Quarterly (1909-1911) from which this exerpt is taken.

This Week in Texas Methodist History July 24

2011-07-24T12:12:00.000-07:00

Commence Exercises at Wesleyan College, San Augustine, July 29-31, 1845

Commencement exercises in 19th century Texas included far more than sermons, speeches, and walking across a stage to receive a diploma. If the July, 1845 exercises at Wesleyan College in San Augustine are typical, they lasted for three days and included public examination of the students—all the students—not just those graduating seniors.

As the name suggests, Wesleyan College was Methodist, but the Congress of the Republic of Texas insisted on non-sectarian charters for its schools. Methodist schools did not impose denominational strictures on the curriculum. The course of study in all the Methodist schools was a general liberal arts curriculum.

One way the school and the Eastern Texas Conference related was through the “visiting committee” which was a body distinct from the Board of Trustees and examined the students on their educational progress. The visiting committee at Wesleyan in July 1845 consisted of Eastern Texas Conference stalwarts, Littleton Fowler, J. W. Fields, and Daniel Payne. Fowler and Payne were presiding elders. Fields was station preacher at San Augustine.

The committee report was later printed and served to reassure parents of prospective students that Wesleyan College provided a sound education. Here are highlights from the reports which may be found at http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth80137/m1/5/zoom/?q=wesleyan date:1845-1845

. . .The exercises commenced on the 29th of July, and continued three days. The first day was devoted chiefly to the examination of introductory classes, in the Preparatory Department: several of these classes had completed the studies in which they were engaged; and all showed a thorough acquaintance with with their respective studies, so far as they had proceeded.

The 2nd and part of the 3rd day was employed in the examination of classes in the studies of Freshman, Sophomore, and Junior years. The classes of Mathematics, especially the 1st and 2nd, in Algebra, in Geometry, and in Trigonometry, plain and spherical, evinced a knowledge and familiarity highly gratifying to all.

The classes in Latin and Greek languages exhibited not only a readiness of acquaintance with the verbiage of the authors studied, but also of the deep meaning and spirit which they contain.

The class in Olmsted’s Natural Philosophy, and Comstock’s Natural Philosophy, and General History, displayed a more thorough knowledge than we had witnessed on any previous occasion.—The evening of the third day was devoted to the reading of original compositions, with a number of original speeches by the more advanced students.

On Thursday night, after the exercises of the College had concluded, a literary society, composed of the students of the institution, met and an able essay was read by one of its members, and flowed by an eloquent address by another.

The whole examination together, evidenced a proficiency in the students, in the various studies, considering the length of time they had been engaged in them, rarely, if ever met with any where.
. . .There has been altogether, 129 students during the session that has just passed—a fact that will doubtless surprise many of the friends of Texas at a distance, when contemplating the recent settlement of this country, the difficulties she had to encounter, and above all the recent establishment of “Wesleyan College.”

Parents guardians may rest satisfied that no pains have been spared by the Faculty in cultivating properly the minds, and guarding the morals of the students. Energetic efforts have been, and will continue to be made by the Faculty, to elevate the standard of morals of the students and pursue a sound scientific course of instruction. . .

This Week in Texas Methodist History July 17

2011-07-16T07:03:00.000-07:00

Henry Stephenson Starts Camp Meeting in Sabine County, July 17, 1834

Although William Stevenson preached to settlements along the Red River well before 1820, and the Arkansas Conference regularly supplied preachers to circuits along the Sulfur River in northeastern Texas well before 1834, Henry Stephenson’s grand tour of camp meetings in the summer of 1834 has captured the imagination of Texas Methodist historians more than those earlier Methodist activities in northeastern Texas. In 1934, for example, Texas Methodists honored Henry Stephenson’s organizing a society at McMahan’s Chapel in 1834 and designated that event as the starting point for a Centennial Celebration. The celebration occurred in spite of the fact that Methodist activity along the Red and Sulfur Rivers pre-dated McMahan’s Chapel by almost 20 years. (Another curious facet was that the Centennial Celebration was held in San Antonio which had the most tenuous links to early Texas Methodism of any major city in Texas.—more about that in another column.)

Henry Stephenson (b. 1772) was a member of the Mississippi Conference who at the 1833 Mississippi Annual Conference was instructed by his Presiding Elder, O. L. Nash, to spend some of his time west of the Sabine in Mexican Texas. Stephenson had been in Texas as early as 1824 when he travelled to San Felipe and met with Stephen F. Austin. Ten years had passed, and conditions were much more favorable for Methodist missionaries so Stephenson tried again.

Stephenson made a written report to the November, 1834, Mississippi Annual Conference which was printed in the New York Christian Advocate and Journal (Dec. 26, 1834). The report has not been widely reprinted and is the earliest first person account of a Methodist preacher in the interior of Texas so I present it here, beginning with July 17.

. . .I appointed a camp meeting to be held on the Sabine district, beginning on the 17th of July following. When the time arrived I attended the camp meeting, where I met several of the brethren from the United States, who had “come up to the help of the Lord against the mighty.” The weather proved unfavorable; but our heavenly Father visited us in this “moral waste” and manifested his loving kindness unto his children. Sinners were convicted—mourners converted, and of a truth we were permitted to “sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” The people were orderly and well disposed. From this time all prejudices gave way, and a more effectual door was opened unto us to preach Jesus, and him crucified, in all the lengthy and breadth of the land.

At the request and by the advice of the presiding elder, the Rev. O. L. Nash, I started on a more extensive tour than I had taken through the colonies, on the 22nd of July. In Nachidoches (Nacogdoches) I preached to an orderly and well disposed congregation. From thence I took my course to the Brasas (Brazos), preaching in all the settlements where I could get hearers—On reaching the Brasas settlements, finding it practicable, I appointed a camp meeting, to commence on the 4th of September following. In the mean time I prosecuted by journey through Coles’ and Clokey’s settlements (Washington Co.) preaching the Gospel of the grace of God to the dear people wherever I could. From thence I went to the Bastrop, a small town on the Colorado River, where again I stood forth as the messenger of peace to the dear people. I rode about 40 miles down the river; from thence I steered my course to the Gonzilos (Gonzales), a small town on the Gaudaloupe. (Guadalupe), in DeWitt’s Colony, where I found some precious people, with whom I rested several days. I preached to a large congregation the everlasting Gospel. They heard attentively, and some apparently with deep interest. At the conclusion of the last service I rendered them, I requested all in the congregation who wished the M. E. Church to send preachers among them to signify it by standing up. I think all rose up at once. It was enough to move the very stones to see these dear people in this distant land pleading for the Gospel to be sent to them! May the Lord visit them, and send men after his own heart to dispense to them the word of life.

I am now at the farthest part of the American settlements, and so far have met with no opposition; all treat me with kindness and hospitality. Not unfrequently am I entreated to stay among them; and all wish to extract promises that I will visit them again, or that the Gospel may be sent to them.—From the place I returned to the Untied States, and on my return visited the settlement on the Labacka (Lavaca) and Navedad (Navidad), west of Colorado, making my way to the camp meeting I had appointed on the Brasos, at which place I arrived on the 31s of August. Considerable preparation was made, much more than could have been expected, in view of all the circumstances. At this meeting I had Brother John W. Kenny (sic), formerly of the Ohio Conference and brothers Wm. Medford and Benjamin Babit (sic), of Missouri, all of whom live in this province, to assist me. About 400 attended the meeting. The great Head of the Church was with us to our comfort.—Several professed to find peace in their troubled souls and 28 joined our Church. In this wilderness I found some of the Rock Christ, and administered the symbols of the body and blood of Christ to 24 even in the heart of Texas. Surely this “wilderness begins to blossom as the rose.” From this place I started to another camp meeting I had appointed on the Inesh (Ayish) Bayou, within a day’s ride of the United States, to commence on the 18th of September, where I met the Rev. I. Applewhite from the United States, and brothers J. C. Lawhorn, a local preacher that has settled here who assisted me at this meeting. At this meeting I formed a society of 98 members, in whom I administered the sacrament of the Lord’s supper. On the Saturday and “Sabbath” following I held another two days’ meeting in the Sabine district. Here I formed a society of 16 members. The Rev. James English, a local preacher in the Tonehaw (Teneha) District, has formed another society of 20 members, making in all 102 members that we have been able to collect in this new but extensive field of labor.

From all that I have been able to learn of the government, I am persuaded the government does not, nor ever will oppose any barrier to the introduction of the Gospel in Texas; but it is hard to conclude on any thing certain in reference to that government, as it is any thing else but stable and fixed in its operations. The Mexican congress, in December, 1833, passed a law that granted liberty of conscience , and that all might worship the Lord Jehovah according to their own judgment and conscience. Although this law has been loudly complained of as unconstitutional, I believe it is yet a law, and will remain such so long as the present incumbent hold the reigns (sic) of government. I see no ground to fear any things from any source that should or could hinder the introduction of the Gospel. ‘The harvest is even now white, and the loud cry comes from the farthest point of the American settlements, “Come over and help us.” Come teach us and our little ones the way of life!’

Thus dear brethren, I have attempted to lay before you an account of my expedition in the province of Texas. You can do as it may seem good to you, but I must be permitted to plead in behalf of these dear people. Let us send them the Gospel. “the Lord has opened unto us an effectual door—it is now wide open, and the rich harvest before us should induce us to go up to their help at once.

May the great Bishop of souls, the Head of the Church, preside over you! May He look upon benighted Texas, and make known his saving energy in their salvation.

Yours affectionately in the Lord Jesus
Henry Stephenson
Clinton, Hinds co. Mi., Nov. 20, 1834

This Week in Texas Methodist History July 10

2011-07-09T07:04:00.000-07:00

Texas Methodist Musical Heritage to be Theme for TUMHS 2012 Meeting

As regular readers of this blog will already know, the Texas United Methodist Historical Society holds an annual meeting. The program of the meeting is organized around a theme. The recently announced theme for the 2012 Annual Meeting, to be held in March in Dallas, is “Texas Methodist Musical Heritage.”

When one considers the theme even briefly, dozens of possible program topics come to mind. Think of Wesley’s hymns as they were being lined out in camp meetings, African-American gospel songs, some of the best organists playing on very fine instruments, children’s choirs, hand bells, Christmas carols in many languages, --obviously the list could go on.

Consider also how Methodists have interwoven sacred music into their institutions. Kidd-Key College specialized in music. One cannot imagine the Methodist Home in Waco without thinking of the children singing Let the Sun Shine In. The singing of Are We Yet Alive at annual conferences gives us a tangible link to our heritage. The number of Texas musicians who received their first musical instruction in a Methodist church is incalculable.

Why is our musical heritage important? I will be so bold as to assert that Methodists have learned more theology through their hymns than through sermons. Our congregational singing is not just a pleasant interlude in Sunday morning worship; music is a principal means by which we transmit the faith.

Perhaps you would like to present a paper on some aspect of the Texas Methodist musical heritage. Email me and I will put you in touch with the program chair.

This Week in Texas Methodist History July 3

2011-07-02T07:02:00.000-07:00

Missouri Lockwood Porter Fowler Woolam, “Sainted Matriarch of the East Texas Conference,” dies, July 10, 1891.

Death came to one of the most significant women of 19th century Texas Methodist history on July 10, 1891 when Missouri Lockwood Porter Fowler Woolam died at her daughter’s house in Chireno. She had been the wife of two Methodist preachers, had ridden circuits with them, attended camp meetings, and annual conferences. She was witness to many of the historic events of Texas Methodist history. One of her great contributions was the preservation of letters to and from Littleton Fowler.

Missouri Lockwood was born at Fort Madison (now Baton Rouge) Louisiana in 1807 to a career army officer who commanded the fort. Her father was re-posted to Kentucky where she grew up. In 1825 she married Dr. J. J. Porter, and the young couple moved to Nacogdoches. In 1836 Dr. Porter walked too close to a chained bear in Nacogdoches and was killed. Missouri Porter was now a widow.

Littleton Fowler’s main residence in late 1837-38 was in Houston where he was Chaplain of the Senate of the Republic of Texas. He spent the winter break in Nacogdoches and San Augustine, and began courting Mrs. Porter. Fowler was in Houston from February to June 1838, attending to the chaplaincy. While in Houston he carried on a correspondence with Mrs. Porter and when Congress adjourned, he went back to Nacogdoches where Rev. Lewell Campbell married them.

Martin Ruter’s death in May 1838 made Fowler the head of the Texian Mission, and he had significant administrative responsibilities. Missouri sometimes accompanied him on his Methodist travels. When she stayed home in East Texas to manage the household affairs, Fowler wrote a great many letters to her. Those letters are now in the Fowler Collection at Bridwell Library Perkins School of Theology.

The death of Littleton Fowler in January 1846 left her a widow again. Three years later (1849—not 1852 as per Phelan) she married John C. Woolam who had been living in the Fowler household. Woolam was also a Methodist preacher so Missouri returned to itinerate life of a Methodist preacher’s wife. John and Missouri Woolam served many appointments over the next forty-years

1853-54, Jasper Circuit;
1854, Agent, Fowler Institute;
1855, Sabine Circuit; 1856, San Augustine Circuit
1857, Douglass Circuit;
1858-59, Elysian Fields Circuit;
1860-61, Gilmer Station;
1862-63, Chaplain in Confederate Army;
1864-5, Hemphill Circuit
1866, San Augustine Circuit
1867, Livingston Circuit
1868-70, Crockett District, P. E.
1871-73, Crockett & Pennington Station
1874, Sunday School Agent
1875, Pennington Circuit
1876, Elysian Fields Circuit
1877, Harrison Circuit
1878, Elysian Fields Circuit
1879-80, Palestine Circuit
1881, West Palestine
1882, Athens Circuit
1883-1890, Chaplain State Prison at Rusk

As you can infer from the list of appointments, Missouri Woolam was well-known all over East Texas and was widely mourned after her death in Chireno. John Woolam, her third husband, died in 1894.

This Week in Texas Methodist HIstory June 26

2011-06-25T16:19:00.000-07:00

Cumberland Presbyterians Defend Church State Separation July, 1838

The governor’s call for a prayer meeting in Houston in August 2011 naturally makes the Texas historian consider the relation of church and state in the Republic of Texas. In a nutshell, the founders of the Republic were adamantly opposed to entangling the affairs of church and state. They were so strong in their separationist beliefs that the first draft of the Texas constitution denied preachers the right to vote. It was modified to allow them vote but not hold office. Homer Thrall credits William Crawford, a member of the convention, for the amendment. The prohibition against clergy holding political office continued through several constitutions.

The Texas Bill of Rights declares that there shall be no religious test for office, that prospective jurors who do not swear to God may still serve on juries, that no public money can be spent for sectarian causes, and no preference shall be given to any form of worship or non-worship. In other words, the Texas Bill of Rights provides explicit guarantees for the separation of church and state.

Cumberland Presbyterians were the first Protestants to organize a Protestant judicatory in Texas. They did so in San Augustine County in 1837. One year later the four C.P preachers who constituted the Texas Presbytery of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church convened in San Augustine County. One of their business items directed Amos Roark to write a “Narrative of the State of Religion within the Bounds of the Presbytery of Texas.”

Included in that narrative is a statement that speaks eloquently to the evils of entangling religion and government

Among the first acts of government of our infant republic was the severance of the unholy alliance that existed in the government from which we separated, between church and state—a union deprecated in every age of the world—a union which all experience declares to be productive of unmixed evil to both church and state—a union which robs the holy religion of our blessed Savior of all those peculiar attributes of meekness, purity, humility, and loveliness which its divine founder so fully invested it, and which he ever intended to be its only ornaments, and which degrades and debases it—making it a mere political engine to be used for the promotion of the selfish, vicious, and unholy purposes of political demagogues and designing and ambitious ecclesiastics.

The full text can be read at the Portal to Texas History http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth48004/m1/1/zoom/?q=burke sunday school date:1838-1838

This Week in Texas Methodist History June 19

2011-06-18T06:42:00.004-07:00

Death Comes to Pattison During Revival, June 22, 1933

The most common revival sermons of 19th century Methodism were not good natured talks on achieving one’s potential. They were not learned orations on the meaning of the original Greek or Hebrew of the scriptures. Revival sermons were not designed to make people feel better about themselves. A typical revival sermon can be summarized as follows.

You are going to die. If you haven’t made a decision for Christ, you are going to spend eternity in Hell. Tonight, right now, you have a chance to escape an eternity in Hell. Don’t wait until tomorrow, because you may not be alive tomorrow. Do it now.

Stories of persons who were “almost persuaded” and then suddenly died were a stock-in-trade of revival preachers. The most famous of such stories in Texas concerned two young men who accompanied their girl friends from Marshall to the famous Scottsville Camp Ground in the 1890’s. They didn’t make the decision for Christ, and on the way home their buggy was swept away by a flood. They drowned, and their unfortunate end became a sermon illustration for decades.

In June, 1933, unexpected death came to Pattison while a revival was in progress. The station preacher, W. W. Hardt had invited his good friend Bruce O. Power to hold revival services in Pattison (Waller County). On Thursday, June 22, Vernon Pattison (age 15) and Roland Gray (age 7) were in the cotton field. A summer thunderstorm developed, and the two boys took shelter in a shed used to store farm implements. Lightning struck the shed. Both boys were killed.

Funeral services were held the following Saturday, June 24. Rev. Power, who had come to preach the revival sermons, assisted in the funerals. The revival theme of “no one knows the hour” was thus reinforced.

This Week in Texas Methodist History June 12

2011-06-11T05:57:00.000-07:00

Texas Christian Advocate Advises Parents “Cheer Up!” After Death of Child

The Texas Christian Advocate published submissions from its readers. Those submissions often included poetry (always bad), weather and crop reports (often depressing), and death notices (often interesting). The June 13, 1861, TCA, published the following death notice from Smith County.

TEXAS CHRISTIAN ADVOCATE, June 13, 1861, James Tunnell died on the 10th of May, 1861, of bloody flux, after an illness of twelve days, aged 48 years, 10 months, and 27 days.

He professed religion and joined the M. E. Church, South, in early life, after which time he lived a consistent member of the same up to his death. He left a large family and a large circle of friends to mourn their loss; but they mourn not as those who have no hope.

Also, Nathaniel Bascom Tunnell, only child of Perry and Ellen Tunnell, of the same disease, aged 13 months and 14 days.

Parents, cheer up! though little Nat cannot come back to you, you can go to him.

This Week in Texas Methodist History June 5

2011-06-04T06:52:00.000-07:00

The Republic of Texas Legalizes Marriages Conducted by Bond, June 5, 1837

Perhaps you think family law is complicated today. The prevalence of blended families, child custody disputes, disposition of family assets, and similar issues fill our courts. As complicated as they may seem, these issues are child’s play when compared with family law in Texas of the 1820’s and 1830’s.

Mexico invited immigrants to the Texas and gave very generous land grants as an inducement to immigrate. A head of household would usually receive a league (4428 acres) and labor (177 acres). An unmarried man would receive ¼ league (1107 acres). If an unmarried grantee later married, he could then apply for an additional ¾ league. Say “I do” and get 3321 acres!

With such a powerful incentive to marry it is little wonder that Mexican Texas was full of sham marriages, fraud, bigamy, and assorted ruses to be able to present oneself as married. Men who deserted their wives in the United States without benefit of divorce sometimes committed bigamy when they arrived in Texas. Young girls of fourteen or fifteen became the objects of courtship by much older men. Widows were especially prized. A man who married a widow not only got the league but could also file a claim for the league due his wife’s deceased first husband.

Unfortunately for couples who wished to marry, only Roman Catholic priests could perform weddings, and there was always a shortage of priests in the regions of Texas being settled by colonists from the United States.

The combination of powerful incentives for marriage and the shortage of priests meant that many couples who wished to marry did so by means of a marriage bond. The parties would post a monetary bond promising to forfeit the bond if they failed to marry the next time a priest came to their settlement. After they posted the bond, they co-habited and lived as husband and wife. Couples would sometimes live as husband and wife for years with no more legal or religious sanction than the marriage bond. A Visit to Texas; Being a Journal of a Traveler Through Those Parts Most Interesting to American Settlers, New York, Goodrich and Wiley, 1834 contains a description of colonists receiving Catholic marriage at San Felipe. Travelers were often amused to see couples being married and several of their children being baptized on the same day.

Many couples who began living together with the sanction of marriage bonds didn’t bother to go through with the wedding. On June 5, 1837, the Congress of the Republic of Texas declared those marriages to be valid without the benefit of clergy. The Congress of the Republic of Texas also enacted marriage laws very similar to the ones with which we are familiar. Ministers of the gospel, civil magistrates, and ship captains were authorized to marry couples. On July 23, 1837, the Rev. Henry Matthews signed the first marriage license issued in Harrisburg (later Harris) County, Texas, as Mary Smith and Hugh McCrory wed. There was no more need for marriage bonds.

This Week in Texas Methodist History May 29

2011-05-28T06:22:00.000-07:00

Woodrow Seals Lifts Up Society of St. Stephen, May 29, 1972

One of the most colorful and dedicated laymen in Texas Methodist history was Judge Woodrow Seals (1917-1990), a member of St. Stephen’s UMC in Houston and an active participant at all levels of United Methodism. He could be unpredictable. His speech was colorful, and his imagination for pushing the conference into greater fields of service seemed limitless. No wonder all other conversation stopped when Seals had the conference floor.

As the 1972 Texas Annual Conference convened, Seals was completing a quadrennium as chair of the Conference Board of Christian Social Concerns. The continuing struggle of African Americans for civil rights and the Viet Nam War and the associated peace movement had put the Board front and center during the 1968-1972 quadrennium. On June 3, 1969, three young men disrupted the morning worship at the Texas Annual Conference demanding reparations for African Americans. Woodrow Seals led the negotiating team that defused the situation. Judge Seals’ influence was so great that he was able to secure the entirety of an afternoon business session of the 1971 Annual Conference for debates about abortion and setting a date for withdrawal of U. S. forces from Viet Nam. In addition to the events occurring in the secular world, the United Methodist Church was in the process of ending institutional racial segregation by abolishing the Central Jurisdiction. Petitions submitted to General Conference during the quadrennium reflected the divided state of the church. There were petitions on both sides of practically every contentious issue of the day—civil disobedience, conscientious objection, the right of farm workers to form unions, the pace of racial desegregation, the right of peaceful protest, the war on poverty, boycotts of businesses with unfair labor practices, and more. The church was no ivory tower as some might think. It was in the thick of all these issues as Methodists struggled to find solutions based on the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

For Woodrow Seals church, personal, and professional life were all of one piece. President Lyndon Johnson reluctantly appointed Seals to the federal bench in 1966, and his belief in caring for poor, the outcast, and the marginalized can be found in his decisions. When the state of Texas and several school districts finally started to comply with Brown vs. Board of Education, they sometimes did so by mixing African American and Latino students—and leaving Anglo students in lily-white schools. Seals ruled that Latinos were a distinct group, and true desegregation must take that fact into account. The Supreme Court later upheld his ruling. When Quaker and Mennonite and other Christian pacifist draft resistors appeared in his court for violation of the Selective Service laws, he tried to steer them into alternative service instead of prison.

The Texas Annual Conference convened On May 29, 1972. The printed report from the Board of Christian Social Concerns highlighted two programs that Seals started during the term. He may have been a global thinker on the great issues of the day, but both programs were very personal—the very embodiment of the bumper sticker phrase, “Think Globally—Act Locally”. They were as follows:

Operation Understanding—a program that paired historically African American and historically Anglo churches for informal, monthly meetings. There was no agenda, no program, just a chance to form cross-racial friendships.

Society of St. Stephens—a program to help people who, through circumstances beyond their control, needed help with food, utilities, rent, transportation, or other necessities.

Even though Seals was active at the conference level, he remained active in his local church. Most Saturdays found him, in suit and tie in the Houston heat, knocking on doors near St. Stephens. “I’m Woodrow Seals, if you don’t have a church home, please come to St. Stephens.” When the weather was bad, he would go to a shopping mall and pass out cards inviting strangers to church. When Bering UMC opened its facilities for homeless people on severely cold nights, Seals spent nights there as a volunteer. The number of times he visited churches to promote the Society of St. Stephen can probably never be known. He taught an adult Sunday School class in which almost always the lesson was not taken from Sunday School literature, but from his experiences of the previous week. His circle of friends of all faiths was prodigious. On any given Sunday his class members might hear about Rev. John Osteen of Lakewood Church, the Roman Catholic Bishop’s plans for Houston, or what he had learned from a lunch date with a rabbi.

Perkins School of Theology presents a Woodrow Seals Award annually to a lay person. The Houston Young Lawyers Association also presents a Woodrow Seals Award. His greatest legacy, though, is probably the Society of St. Stephen. The program of helping families in need was adopted by the denomination. Today, there are tens of thousands of persons who know that the United Methodist Church cares about them because of acts of mercy channeled through the Society of St. Stephen.

This Week in Texas Methodist History May 22

2011-05-21T06:21:00.000-07:00

81st (and last) Texas EUB Annual Conference Meets in Wichita Falls, May 22-25, 1967

Fifty-four delegates to the 81st session of the Oklahoma-Texas Annual Conference of the Evangelical United Brethren Church met in Wichita Falls May 22-25, 1967. Twenty-five preachers and twenty-nine lay delegates conducted the business of the conference which had only a few churches scattered across such a vast area. There were eight EUB churches in Texas; the host church in Wichita Falls; Greenway Trinity in Houston; Lissie; El Campo; Post Oak Zion (30 miles se of San Antonio);, Temple; San Antonio Grace; and San Antonio First.

The main issue facing the conference was, of course, the proposed EUB-Methodist Church union. The presiding bishop, Paul Milhouse, asked Superintendent Roderick Gray for a membership report. Gray reported that since 1956, the year the EUB Church was created by merger from its predecessor denominations, and the Oklahoma-Texas Conference was formed from the Texas and Oklahoma Conferences, membership had dropped by 27.5%. Corresponding declines occurred in average worship attendance and Sunday School attendance.

Immediately after the grim statistical report, the conference considered the proposed union. The vote was forty-nine in favor, six opposed, and two abstentions. The other thirty-six EUB annual conferences were also voting on union. When all votes from all conferences were tallied, the plan of union carried by seventy-one per cent. (A two-thirds majority was required.) Annual Conferences in the Methodist Church were also voting on union. They cast ninety percent of their votes in favor.

Approval by both denominations paved the way for the creation of the United Methodist Church on April 23, 1968 in Dallas. Former EUB churches and pastors in Texas became dispersed in several annual conferences. Lissie and Greenway Trinity became part of the Texas Conference. The Southwest Texas Conference received El Campo and the San Antonio churches. Central Texas received Temple, and North Texas received Wichita Falls.

Paul Milhouse, the bishop who presided over the final session of the Oklahoma-Texas Annual Conference of the EUB, was assigned to the Oklahoma area of the United Methodist Church in 1968. He held that position until his retirement in 1980.

This Week in Texas Methodist History May 15

2011-05-14T07:19:00.000-07:00

Martin McHenry Arranges for Fowler to Take Enslaved Woman to Texas, May 16, 1845

A poignant letter in the Littleton Fowler Collection at Bridwell Library, Perkins School of Theology is a letter of May 16 from Martin McHenry to Littleton Fowler in which McHenry confirms arrangements for Fowler’s taking a slave woman from Kentucky to Texas.

At the MEC General Conference of 1844 the issue of slavery proved to be too contentious to resolve. Delegates from the slave states agreed to meet the following year, May 1-19, 1845, in Louisville, Kentucky, to plan their next steps. Fowler had been a delegate in 1844, and the Texas Conference chose him again for the 1845 convention. The other Texas Conference delegate in 1844 was John Clark, who was the only southern delegate to vote with the northern delegates. He did not return to Texas. The Texas Conference then elected Robert Alexander to go to Louisville.

Martin D. McHenry, an attorney living in Shelbyville, Kentucky, had two sisters living in Texas, Lydia McHenry and Maria Kenney (Mrs. John Wesley Kenney). On at least one occasion, Lydia McHenry wrote to Kentucky asking her brother John to send her a slave child 8 or 10 years old. (Lydia McHenry to John McHenry, May 7, 1837, in Hardin Collection, Chicago Historical Society) In May, 1845, Martin McHenry asked Robert Alexander to take a slave woman from Louisville to his sister Maria in Texas. Alexander lived about five miles from the Kenney household.

Alexander demurred, not because he objected to slavery or transporting slaves across international boundaries (the USA and the Republic of Texas), but because he intended to return to Texas after the convention in a leisurely manner through Tennessee to visit relatives. Alexander then asked Fowler to accommodate Martin McHenry’s request. Fowler agreed, and arrangements were made to deliver the woman to Fowler’s custody in Louisville. Fowler agreed to take the woman as far as San Augustine. John and Maria Kenney would then arrange transportation from San Augustine to their home in Austin County.

One can only imagine the thoughts the unnamed woman must have had. She was being torn from family and familiar surrounding in Kentucky and being taken all the way to Texas. She would have had no prospect of ever seeing her family again. What made the situation even more poignant was the location. Louisville was a river port on the Ohio River. The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 excluded slavery from the territories north of the Ohio River. As she boarded a steamboat in Louisville, she could have looked north to Indiana and seen a land without slavery. As she proceeded down the Ohio River, there was always slavery on one river bank and free land on the other. When the Ohio reached Cairo, Illinois, and met the Mississippi River, every turn of the paddlewheel took the unfortunate woman deeper into an unknown world and further from everything she knew.

It may be uncomfortable for us to remember that Texas Methodist founders were enmeshed with slavery. A hired slave worked Fowler’s farm while he travelled on church business. Robert and Eliza Alexander at one point kept sixteen slaves. David Ayres regularly advertised in the newspapers that he traded land, livestock, and slaves. Homer Thrall and Chauncey Richardson, who were both born in Vermont, wrote a great deal to advance pro-slavery arguments.

One of the evils of the system is that most of the enslaved people were rendered anonymous and voiceless. I would dearly love to know the name of the woman who came to Texas from Kentucky in May 1845. I would love even more to have a record of the event from her point of view. When the church is at its best, it gives voice to people silenced by oppressive systems. Giving voice to the oppressed often runs counter to the prevailing culture, but it is central in the church’s proclamation that every person is created in the image of God.

This Week in Texas Methodist History May 8

2011-05-07T05:23:00.000-07:00

Woodland and Norhill Churches Sign Articles of Union May 8, 1938

The unification of the Methodist Episcopal, Methodist Episcopal South, and Methodist Protestant Churches to create the Methodist Church in May, 1939, is widely known as the great historic event of 20th century Methodism. What is less well known is that several Northern and Southern churches merged with each other before their denominations did. One such merger occurred on the north side of Houston when Woodland Methodist Church (Southern) merged with Norhill Methodist Church (Northern). The merger was highly publicized and recognized as an important step toward the unity both denominations would embrace one year later.

Norhill’s origins dated to 1875 and the organization of Emanuel German Methodist Episcopal Church. They built their church on a lot at Hamilton and Preston (one block east of Minute Maid Park). About 15 years later they relocated to the corner of White and Lubbock (between Washington and Memorial, just east of Glenwood Cemetery) and renamed the church Zion Methodist Episcopal Church. Another relocation in 1924 took the newly renamed congregation of 11th at Norhill. (immediately north of Hogg Middle School).

Meanwhile the MECS was also at work organizing a church on Houston’s north side. Woodland Heights had its first service in 1913. Woodland Methodist Church prospered and began to think about expansion. In 1927 they bought a lot in the 600 block of Pecore in contemplation of a move. The Great Depression put a damper on church building plans. Obviously people who were out of work could not contribute to a building fund, and the sale of the old church property to Woodland Christian Church brought far less than they hoped.

As the leadership of Woodland Methodist struggled with the difficulties of planning a church construction project in such difficult economic times, the idea of merger with Norhill emerged. Both churches’ membership was too great for their existing facilities. Norhill had 539 members and Woodland Heights 650. Since Woodland Heights already owned property between the two churches, a merger and construction of a new church building on that lot seemed like a solution for both of them. Early in 1937 D. L. Landrum, the Woodland pastor, and Presiding Elder H. M.Whaling went to Kansas City to approach Bishop Charles Meade of the MEC about the possibility of a Norhill-Woodland merger.

Meade reacted positively to the idea and brought A. A. Leifeste, the Norhill preacher, into the conversation. The membership of both churches embraced the idea, and committees composed of MEC and MECS members worked through 1937 to work out the details of merger, raise funds, and plan the construction of a new church.

On Sunday, May 8, 1938, the two congregations worshiped together and signed the Articles of Union which had been carried to the altar in the form of a scroll by a procession headed by the pastors’ sons, Billy Leifeste and Lawrence Landrum, Jr..
The combined churches were able to implement their building program. On February 4, 1940, Bishop A. Frank Smith preached the first sermon in the new sanctuary on Pecore Street. The merger and move had brought about a name change. The church was now named St. Mark’s Methodist church. It is now known as St. Mark’s United Methodist Church. Its history may be found in Twelve Adventurous Decades: 1875-1990 by Raymond Moers.

Postscript: The Norhill-Woodland merger one year before the Methodist unification was a major news story covered throughout the United States by both the religious and secular press. One effect of the merger was advancing the career of the Woodland pastor, D. L. Landrum. He was only 34 at the time, but had shown considerable organizational ability. His next appointment after St. Mark’s was First Methodist Longview. He was then Superintendent of the Galveston District, Lakeview, and the Beaumont District.

This Week in Texas Methodist History May 1

2011-04-30T05:47:00.000-07:00

C. A. Grote Reports on German Mission at Fredericksburg, May 5, 1851

REPORT OF THE GERMAN MISSION AT FREDERICKSBURG.
I here send my first report of the Fredericksburg German Mission, to which I was appointed at the last session of the Annual Conference. This Mission has been two years in existence and on entering upon the discharge of my duties, I found forty-five members on record, who all, more or less enjoyed some degree of the grace of God. It was indeed to my surprise to find all the members here coworkers in the great and glorious cause. They are all active and untiring in their effort to diffuse the light of the gospel, not only by their words and professions, but by their works. Many glorify their Father which is in Heaven; and just as they prosper in spirituality so they prosper temporarily (sic), and therefore realize the promise that godliness is profitable unto all things. The members had bought a house last year which is now occupied for divine worship. There are also lots obtained, two of which were bought with the house and the other was given by a brother, all of which, is according to our Discipline, deeded to the M. E. Church, South. Our second quarterly meeting was held on the 27th and 28th of April. Brother Young from the Seguin German Mission was with us, in the place of the presiding elder, and it was indeed a time of refreshing from the presence of the Lord. In the celebration of the sufferings and death of the Redeemer, it seemed as if all had met around the Cross of Calvary, as the altar on which burned heavenly fire, to the utmost height of the redeeming activity of Jesus Christ, filled all hearts and all exclaimed: "He died for me—for me my Savior died!"

But we also realized His glorious resurrection; for our hearts were all made glad, and like the weeping Mary, exclaimed: "Rabboni" which is to say: "Master;" and I feel more encouraged to tell all men that Christ died for our sins, and rose again for our justification. The love-feast was also of great interest, where many repeated the story that they were lost, but now are found—dead but now alive in Christ Jesus. Fifteen persons joined on probation at this time, one of whom was a Roman Catholic; and I think it would not be unprofitable to present the circumstances of his conversion for the benefit of the German work. When the Catholics learned his intention the priest asked him if he would not go to confession? The man replied, no, as he had concluded to join the Methodists. The priest became excited and appointed a prayer-meeting for the benefit of this back-slidden brother. His wife also joined, and although a Protestant, had as much or more opposition from her parents.
Another family which belonged to the Lutheran Church, had a little child which the mother would have baptised by the Methodist minister. Her husband did not like it, but at last consented, and they called upon me to dedicate the babe to God by holy baptism. One day the man was asked by his associates who baptised the child. He told them the Methodist minister. In the dispute that followed, when they saw that he held with the Methodists, they whipped him thoroughly, and since that time he and his wife never fail to fill their place in our church.

A very zealous advocate against us tried to put down Methodism, but his arm was too short and to my surprise I learned some time ago that he was very serious, and one day he came to converse with me about religion. I handed him one of our disciplines, and a few days ago he informed me that after a long struggle he had concluded to join my church,
Thus the Lord subdues the mighty and the strong and oh, may we all shine through the power of God as lights in this world that all may see and experience the reality of the religion of Jesus Christ.

C. A. GROTE. Fredericksburg, May 5th, 1851.

This Week in Texas Methodist History April 24

2011-04-23T06:12:00.000-07:00

Baltimore Immigrants Shipwrecked at Velasco, May 1, 1835

The Addison family was one of the most prominent Methodist families in 19th century Texas. Oscar Murray Addison, Sr., was a member of the East Texas, Texas, and Northwest Texas Conferences. Three of his sons, James, John, and Oscar, Jr., followed their father into the ministry. In his retirement at Eulogy, Somervell County, he collected historical materials and wrote about his involvement in important episodes in Texas history, beginning with his arrival at Velasco on May 1, 1835.

Isaac Addison was a merchant in Baltimore who liquidated his assets and joined a large party of immigrants headed for Mexican Texas. The lure was land because Mexico was very generous in its land distribution policy. The Isaac Addison family included his fourteen year old son, Oscar. They travelled via the schooner Elizabeth to the mouth of the Brazos and intended to proceed up that river to Columbia. There was a crude signaling system in place at Velasco in 1835. Flags indicated one of three conditions:
1. do not attempt to cross the bar
2. wait for a pilot to guide the vessel over the bar
3. it is safe to proceed up the Brazos without a pilot.

On the night of April 30, 1835, the warning flag indicated that vessels should wait for better conditions. The Elizabeth anchored offshore. Disaster struck that night. The Elizabeth hit the bar. Waves destroyed the vessel. The immigrants were near enough to shore that the Addison family was able to struggle to the beach, but the goods intended to get them started in a new land were destroyed. They stayed in tents on the beach at Velasco, picking through the wreckage. Eventually they arrived at Columbia and proceeded up the Brazos to the crossing of the Old San Antonio Road. Robertson’s Colony was their destination, and they staked out their land about five miles east of the present day city of Caldwell in Burleson County.
As the Addison family was trying to create a farm in the wilderness, Texas was engulfed in revolution. The Addison family participated in the Runaway Scrape as they fled to Fort Houston (2 miles west of present-day Palestine).

After the Texas Revolution the Addison home became one of the important preaching points for Methodist circuit riders. Isaac Addison donated ten acres for Waugh Camp Ground, (remember that Bishop Beverly Waugh was also from Baltimore) and Robert Alexander organized a church, Elizabeth’s Chapel, in Isaac Addison’s home. Macum Phelan named the preachers who came from Elizabeth Chapel: James W. Scott, Oscar M. Addison, James H. Addison, John W. Addison, John E. King, Rufus Y. King, Willis J. King, Milton H. Porter, John Porter, and J. Fred Cox.

Perhaps Oscar Addison’s greatest contribution to Texas Methodism was the collection of manuscripts, memoirs, and Texana that he collected. That collection is now owned by the University of Texas at Austin and is available to researchers. Elizabeth Chapel merged with Cook’s Point Methodist Church about 100 years ago and continues as part of the United Methodist Church.

This Week in Texas Methodist History April 17

2011-04-15T14:24:00.000-07:00

Littleton Fowler Tours Washington and Baltimore on His Way to General Conference, April 1844

Littleton Fowler and John Clark were elected delegates from the Texas Conference to the 1844 General Conference of the MEC. The Littleton Fowler Collection at Bridwell Library contains letters which Fowler wrote home to Missouri Fowler about his travels to New York City, the site of General Conference.

Fowler left home and proceeded to Natchitoches, Louisiana, arriving on March 27. From there he secured steamboat passage down the Red River and Mississippi River to New Orleans (April 2). By April 8 he was almost to Memphis. By April 15 he was in Cincinnati, Ohio. The route continued by river to Wheeling, (West) Virginia, and then by stage to Cumberland, Maryland. Fowler boarded the train at Cumberland, and 10 hours later was in Baltimore. He was amazed at the speed. He had travelled 170 miles in 10 hours, sometimes achieving a speed of 25 miles per hour.

Since he was so close to Washington, D. C., he took another train to see the sights there. Texas was very much on the national political agenda in April 1844. President Tyler was trying to annex Texas via a treaty. That measure, of course failed, and Texas annexation was later accomplished via a joint resolution rather than treaty. While Fowler was in the Capitol, he witnessed a scuffle between George Rathbun (1803-1870 D NY) and John White (1802-1845 W KY) which resulted in a gunshot fired by a non-member. Here is the way the Congressional Record reported the result of the committee appointed to look into the incident.

The House proceeded to the consideration of the report of the select committee upon the subject of the rencounter between Mr. White and Mr. Rathbun, upon the floor of the House, on the 23d of April last, and which was, on the 6th instant, postponed until this day; the question being upon the motion of Mr. White to recommit the said report to the select committee, and the following instructions moved thereto by Mr. Hale, on the 6th instant, viz: "With instructions to report a resolution declaring that, in view of the facts disclosed by them in their report, Messrs. White and Rathbun did fight willingly on this floor, a public place; that, in doing so, they have violate the order of the House, have been guilty of an affray, and deserve, therefore, the censure of this House; and that John White, a member of this House from the State of Kentucky, in applying to George Rathbun, a member of this House from the State of New York, language imputing falsehood to said Rathbun, while the House was in session in Committee of the Whole, merits and should receive the severest censure of the House."
And, after debate,
Mr. White withdrew his motion, made on the 6th instant, to recommit; (and the said instructions fell.)
________________________________________
Mr. Elmer moved the following resolution:
Whereas it appears, by the reports of the select committee appointed to inquire into the circumstances of the case, and by the testimony taken by the committee, and reported to this House, that, on the 23d day of April last, (the House being in Committee of the Whole,) John White, one of the members of this House from the State of Kentucky, did, in violation of the rules of the House, use opprobrious language to George Rathbun, one of the members of this House from the State of New York, imputing to him, personally, falsehood; and that the said George Rathbun thereupon made an attack upon the said John White, and they then engaged in a personal conflict on the floor of the House; and that great disorder and confusion was thereby created, and the public business interrupted: Therefore,
Resolved, That the said reports be laid on the table; and that the said John White and George Rathbun are hereby declared guilty of violating the rules of the House, and deserving of its censure; and are therefore censured accordingly.
A motion was then made by Mr. Weller that the whole subject be laid upon the table.
And the question being put,
• It was decided in the affirmative,
• Yeas, ... 82
• Nays, ... 73

Here is how Littleton Fowler reported the incident in his letter to Mrs. Fowler:

The Senate is a grave dignified boddy[sic] but the House is the most disorderly and uproarous parlamentary[sic] boddy[sic] I ever saw. Just as we reached the door of the house a pistol went off within. Two members had a fight and a man not a member was in the house at the time who was pushed out by two other members. The expelled man felt his dignity encro[a]ched. As he passed the door he turned and fired his pistol at the members and shot another man in the thigh but [it is] said the wound is not dangerous. The proceedings of the House was a disgrace to the nation. I saw more disorder in a few hours there than I ever [p. 3] saw in both Houses in Texas all the time I served them in the Chaplaincy.

This Week in Texas Methodist History April 10

2011-04-09T06:19:00.000-07:00

Jesse Hord Founds Methodist Church in Houston, April 14, 1839

First United Methodist Church of Houston dates its founding to April 14, 1839 when Rev. Jesse Hord received 14 original members by transfer of letter from other churches. This was not the first Methodist activity in Houston. Littleton Fowler served as Chaplain of the Texas Senate from Nov. 19, 1837 to May 24, 1838 (except for the Christmas recess when he divided his time between Nacogdoches and San Augustine) and preached in the Senate Chamber. Later in 1838 Jesse Hord was appointed to ride a circuit that included Methodists scattered along the Coastal Plains from Houston to near Victoria. He arrived in Houston on December 23, 1838, but he was aware that Abel Stevens had been appointed to Houston/Galveston, so he hurried on to Richmond, San Felipe, Matagorda, Egypt, and Texana.

Houston was on Hord’s circuit which took about a month to complete. He was back in Houston from January 17-21, 1839. When he arrived in Houston on the 17th, he was overjoyed to discover that Abel Stevens had arrived in Houston and was accompanied by Schuyler Hoes, another Methodist preacher, who was an agent for the American Bible Society. The joy turned to disappointment was both Stevens and Hoes refused Hord’s invitation to preach on Sunday night, January 20. Presbyterian preachers, James Burke and William Y. Allen did accept his invitation. We now know that Stevens had no intention of accepting the Houston/Galveston appointment he had received at the Mississippi Annual Conference in December. Instead he immediately began a successful campaign to have Littleton Fowler re-assign him to the Washington Circuit. On Monday the 21st Hord left Houston to start another round of his circuit, but a winter storm caused him to miss his February appointment in Houston. He was able to come back to Houston during the middle of March.

The April 14th organizational meeting that founded the first Methodist church in Houston had thus been preceded by preaching, Sunday School, tract distribution, and canvassing the city to learn who had been Methodists before their immigration to Houston. In a curious coincidence the April meeting included Abel Stevens. Fowler had acceded to Stevens’ request to ride the Washington Circuit which he started about March 1. Now, just six weeks later, he was in Houston on his way to Galveston and his permanent departure from Texas. On this occasion Stevens did accept Hord’s invitation to preach the sermon at the Sunday night service. He had accomplished a great deal during his brief time in Texas and later was to achieve fame as an author.

At the next session of the Mississippi Annual Conference in December, 1839, Edward Fontaine was appointed to Houston and Thomas O. Summers to Galveston. After Fontaine’s departure, Summers assumed both the Galveston and Houston pastorates. It was Summers who was able to build Methodist church buildings in both cities. He did so by fund raising campaigns in which he travelled widely in the United States. In his absence the Houston church depended upon local pastors and lay leaders such as Charles Shearn (merchant) and Francis Moore (journalist/politician).

The Methodists eventually named their church in honor of Charles Shearn. When they built a new church building at the corner of Main and Clay, they renamed the church First Methodist Church.

this Week in Texas Methodist History April 3

2011-04-01T23:15:00.000-07:00

Cornerstone Laid for Kirby Hall at SMU, April 3, 1924

As SMU was ending its first decade of existence, the School of Theology finally found a home of its own, Kirby Hall. The cornerstone of that building was laid during the Fondren Lectures on April 3, 1924. The cornerstone was laid by three MECS bishops, Boaz, Moore, and Mouzon and Bishop Herbert Welch of the MEC. The philanthropist who made the event possible, R. Harper Kirby (1861-1928) also addressed the assembled group of clergy and laity. Kirby came for a distinguished line of Texas educators. His maternal grandfather, Richard Swearingen, had been one of the founders of Soule University. His mother, Helen Kirby, had been dean of women at the University of Texas for 35 years. The University of Texas also boasted a Kirby Hall, this one a women’s dormitory.

Kirby amassed a fortune in farming, ranching, real estate, timber, and oil and used that fortune to promote Methodist causes. He was president of the Anti Saloon League and in 1919 and donated $100,000 of this own money to the cause of Prohibition. The $100,000 Kirby gave to establish Kirby Hall was a fraction of the estimated $2,000,000 he gave to various causes.

With the cornerstone laying in April, it is hard to believe that the building would be open in time for the fall semester, 1924, but it was—at least the third floor, the only floor that was finished at the time which had its first class on Sept. 24.

Kirby Hall is now Florence Hall and now is part of SMU’s Dedman School of Law, but the name Kirby Hall lives on in another building as part of Perkins School of Theology.

This Week in Texas Methodist HIstory March 27

2011-03-26T05:20:00.000-07:00

Texas Christian Advocate Prints “Why I am not a Methodice” letter 1879

All newspaper editors sometimes receive letters not really up to proper journalistic or grammatical standards. Editors almost always discard them without comment. In 1879 Texas Christian Advocate Editor I. G. John couldn’t help himself. He received a substandard letter and printed it. Here it is as it originally appeared:

Why I am not a Methodice

Dear Editor—i thought i would Tell you why i am not a Methodice i Sea in you
Church that you have many differant classes of Members from Bisips to infant Babe i never seen a Sample in the new Testament when the apotals Ever Baptise Infants Or had Different Grades of members a Norther Rezan the 9 article of the Dissiplin says we air save by faith only 1 John, 3.7 Says different also James 2 21-25 & Revlations 22.14 Tell a Different Story now mr Editor this is why i cant swallow that dissiplin.

I. G. John mercifully withheld the name of the letter writer.

This Week in Texas Methodist History March 20

2011-03-19T06:33:00.000-07:00

Galloway Calhoun Begins Teaching Friendly Sunday School at Marvin Methodist Church, Tyler, March 23, 1930

A standard feature of larger Texas Methodist churches in the 20th century was a men’s Sunday School class taught by a dynamic teacher. Historic photo collections from those churches often show well over 100 men posed for a class picture. Marvin Methodist church in Tyler had one of the outstanding teachers in all of Methodism, Galloway Calhoun, teacher of the Friendly Class. Calhoun began teaching on March 23, 1930 and continued until his death in 1962.

Charles Galloway Calhoun was born in Athens in 1894 to the Rev. J. C. and Bettie Calhoun. (Note how many preachers named sons after bishops. {Charles Betts Galloway 1849-1909, elected bishop 1886}, but that’s a topic for another column.) He received his education in the Tyler public schools, the University of Texas, and Cumberland Law School. He practiced law in Tyler, and at the age of 26 was elected District Attorney for the judicial district which included Smith, Wood, and Upshur Counties. The elevation of his UT classmate, Dan Moody, to the governorship from the Attorney General’s office, created vacancies for assistant attorneys general under the new AG, Claude Pollard. Calhoun moved to Austin and became the First Assistant Attorney General of Texas.

After serving in state government for three years, he resigned his office and moved back to Tyler. The same oratorical skills that helped him in jury trials and his almost photographic memory for books and speeches made him a very successful Sunday School teacher. His influence was extended by the use of radio. Many people who never met him still knew him from those Sunday School class broadcasts.

One would think that a law practice and Sunday School teaching would be enough work for one man, but Calhoun was also very active in politics and Masonry. He was president of the Tyler Rotary Club, a delegate to three National Democratic Conventions, Director of the Northeast Texas Region of the Federal Housing Administration, Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Texas, and a nationally recognized speaker. It was while speaking in Little Rock that he died in 1962.

The Friendly Class of Marvin UMC continues with Dr. David Nichols as teacher. Two questions you probably had---Yes, the lessons are still broadcast over the radio, and yes, women are now welcome.

This Week in Texas Methodist History March 13

2011-03-12T06:17:00.000-08:00

Fire Destroys Seth Ward College, March 16, 1916

Plainview, the county seat of Hale County, is located in the center of a prosperous agricultural region in the South Plains. Increasing population during the first decade of the 20th century created a demand for education, and when the facilities of Central Plains College, a Nazarene institution, became available, the Plainview District of the Northwest Texas Conference purchased them for $32,000 and founded a two year school.

They named the two-year college after the recently deceased Bishop Seth Ward. Ward was the first native Texan to have been elected a bishop in the Methodist Episcopal Church South. In 1909 he died in Kobe, Japan,, so naming the college for him was a posthumous honor.

Seth Ward College was adopted by the annual conference. Its academic program was designed to prepare students for Southwestern University in Georgetown, and it soon offered football, basketball, and baseball in addition to academics. A keen athletic rivalry arose with Wayland Baptist College, also located in Plainview.

Seth Ward College enrollment reached as high as 321 students in the fall of 1912. Students could take advantage of a fine library, chemistry lab, literary societies, a pre-ministerial club, and oratorical contests. As was the custom of the era, there were campus revival meetings.

Seth Ward College showed much promise, but it also had problems. Counting the holdover president from Central Plains College, it had five presidents in six years. In the spring of 1914 the men’s dormitory burned. It was being rebuilt when, on March 16, 1916, the Administration Building and women’s dormitory also burned. That was too great a blow. The college closed. In 1929 the Conference transferred any remaining assets to the Board of Education. Seth Ward alumni continued holding reunions until 1975, and maps of Hale County still show Seth Ward as a place name.

One of last real circuit riders passes away.

2011-03-09T06:06:00.000-08:00

The image of the Methodist circuit rider on horseback is one of the most iconic in Methodism. Lest you think that all the horseback riding circuit preachers were in the 19th century, let me tell you about a 20th century Texas Methodist preacher who rode a circuit by horseback.

His name was Burney C. Cope. He was born in 1917 near Buffalo in Leon County and, after the death of his parents, raised by his older sisters. He graduated from Centerville Hill School, but drifted a bit until a relative encouraged him to get more education. He borrowed $10, put all of his worldly possession in a paper grocery sack and hitchhiked to Jacksonville where he enrolled in Lon Morris College as a 21 year old freshman.

Lon Morris, a college owned by the Texas Conference of the Methodist Church, had revivials, religious emphasis week, and promoted an atmosphere of preparation for church careers. Walter Rabb Willis was preaching a college revival, and Burney C. Cope was converted. He continued at Lon Morris, and worked in the college dairy for his tuition. He began to think of becoming a preacher.

Upon finishing Lon Morris he went to Southwestern University in Georgetown and began preaching at one of the local churches. Once again, he worked to suport himself--this time not by milking cows, but by being a gardener for the university at the President's house. After graduation, and still a local pastor, he was assigned the Nursery Circuit in Victoria County.

It was here that he became a horseback riding circuit preacher. He was too poor to afford a car, but one of the parishioners loaned him a horse to ride the four point circuit. I interviewed him about riding circuit on horseback. Burney Cope reported it to be a great experience. He said it gave him time to practice his sermons. He would sing as he rode along. When the horse needed to rest, he would stop by a creek and read his Bible while the horse rested. When it grew dark, he would find a farm house, and announce himself in the traditional manner, "I'm a Methodist preacher, and I'm going to spend the night with you." At one stop he reported the man who answered the door replied, "I have a can of peaches and a pack of crackers. We can have one for supper and one for breakfast. Which one do you want tonight?"

After riding the Nursery Circuit, Burney was appointed to other churches in the Southwest Texas Conference, Portland and San Diego. While at San Diego, he began to regret his decision to begin preaching without attending seminary. He confided that regret to his brother-in-law, John Wesley Hardt, who had gone to Perkins School of Theology at SMU. Hardt told Cope, "It's not too late." Thirty minutes later they were on their way to see Dean Eugene Hawk of Perkins. Enrollment in seminary depended upon having a preaching appointment to support his family while he attended school, and the Southwest Texas Conference was too far from Dallas to supply one. As he talked with Dean Hawk about his desire for a seminary education, Hawk said, "An Oklahoma District Superintendent just called me about a vacancy right over the Red River. It would be close enough for you to serve that church and come to school here." Burney Cope said, "I'll take it."

Thus began a ministerial career in the Oklahoma Conference for the orphan boy from Buffalo who rode a Texas circuit by horseback. Funeral services were held Tuesday, March 8, 2011, at Mannsville UMC near Ardmore, Oklahoma, for Burney Cope. He was my uncle whom I loved dearly.

this Week in Texas Methodist HIstory March 6

2011-03-05T14:21:00.000-08:00

Andrew Davis born at Jonesborough March 10, 1827

The first Methodist preacher to have been born within the present boundaries of Texas was probably Andrew Davis, born at Jonesborough on March 10, 1827. Jonesborough was on the Red River, and although the Adams-Onis Treaty of 1819 had made the south bank of the Red River Spanish (and later Mexican) territory, the Spanish and Mexican authorities made little effort to exercise sovereignty in the area. The Red River settlements consisted of frontier settlements mainly populated by immigrants from Missouri and Tennessee who lived beyond governmental reach. They lived by hunting, trapping, and some farming, and trading. His father, Daniel Davis, immigrated to Jonesborough in 1818.

His mother died when he was only five years old so he had no memories of her. Years later, when Davis was stationed at Huntsville, he learned about his mother from Sam Houston who had stayed at the Davis house upon his coming to Texas (Dec. 10-20, 1832. Nancy Davis died the following January 20.) After his mother’s death, his father wandered in northeast Texas, eventually living in the Teneha District (Shelby County). It was there that Andrew, at age 8, killed his first bear. Daniel Davis took young Andrew to Fort Lyday near the Lamar/Fannin County line and remarried. One night when Andrew was away at the fort, the Davis household was attacked by Indians, and Daniel Davis was killed. Young Andrew was orphaned again. His stepmother remarried, and the young Andrew was taken even further west.

Meanwhile some of his father’s friends decided to show their love for the father by taking care of the son. They agreed to send the 14 year old Andrew to school, and the closest school was the one that J. W. P. McKenzie was starting near Clarksville.

His sponsors secured passage from a teamster with an ox-drawn wagon to take Davis to Clarksville. He arrived in the middle of a camp meeting. Andrew wrote later that his sole knowledge of religion at the time consisted of hearing men swearing and telling people to go to hell. As they arrived at the camp meeting, McKenzie was in the preacher’s stand. (Preachers of the era often preached from elevated platforms with rails.) Because of his complete ignorance of religion, Davis thought McKenzie had been confined against his will, and the ranting and wild gesticulations were efforts to free himself.

Mrs. Matilda McKenzie met Davis and welcomed him into their home. He finally had a loving Christian family. He progressed rapidly under Professor McKenzie’s instruction and was licensed to preach at 17 and admitted to the East Texas Conference in January, 1845, by Bishop Janes. His first appointment was to the Paris Circuit. He rode that circuit and thus began his ministerial career. His first appointments were in northeast Texas: Bonham, Boston, Clarksville, then back to Paris. He located for two years to nurse his sick wife, and when he returned to the ministry, it was in the Texas Conference. He held appointments in Battle Creek (near Dawson in Navarro County), Springfield, Huntsville, Cold Spring, Bedias, Plantersville, and back to Springfield and Mount Calm.

He located again because of throat troubles, and when he took an appointment again, it was in the Northwest Texas Conference as Presiding Elder of the Waxahachie District. He then moved to Corsicana District, and to Chatfield and Fairfield. He was elected General Conference delegate and to the board at Southwestern University. The ravages of old age, including deafness, finally forced him into a superannuated relationship. He died in 1906 and was buried at Corsicana. Autobiographical materials were published in the Southwestern Historical Quarterly, vol. 42, #2., available at. http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101111/m1/172/

This Week in Texas Methodist History February 27

2011-02-25T21:42:00.000-08:00

TUMHS Annual Meeting Announced

The Texas United Methodist Historical Society will be meeting at Chappell Hill United Methodist Church and Brenham from March 24-26. The theme of the meeting is Robert Alexander and His World 1811-2011. The meeting will begin on Thursday, March 24, at noon with registration. The Rev. Paula Behrens, the host pastor will welcome the group at 1:00 p.m. The Rev. William Lanigan, the Texas Conference historian will speak on the life of Robert Alexander, one of the first commissioned Methodist missionaries to the Republic of Texas. Chappell Hill UMC historian Tom Stevens will provide a history of the host church. A banquet on Thursday evening at the church will feature An Evening with Robert Alexander.

Friday, March 25 will be devoted to a tour of Methodist heritage sites in the area. Participants will visit historic churches, the graves of Robert Alexander and Martin Ruter, and Rutersville, the site of the organization of the Texas Conference on December 25, 1840. The tour will feature interpretation by expert guides. A lunch is included.

On Saturday, March 26, the group will meet at Chappell Hill UMC. The winning paper in the Essay Contest for university students will be read. The Kate Warnick Award for best local church histories of the past year will be announced, and the Society will conduct its business meeting.

Included in the registration fee of $45 are the banquet meal on Thursday night, lunch on Friday, tour transportation, and interpretative materials. If you would like registration materials delivered via email, please request them from TUMHS President Wm. C. Hardt at wchardt@gmail.com

This Week in Texas Methodist History February 20

2011-02-19T06:41:00.000-08:00

J. Waskom Pickett, Bishop of Methodist Church in India, Born in Jonesville, Feb. 21, 1890

How did a preacher’s son from a very small town in East Texas become a bishop in the Methodist Church of India and a confidante of the founders of the modern Indian state? There must be a story there.

J. Waskom Picket was born on February 21, 1890, to the Rev. Leander Lycurgus Pickett, one of the leading lights of the Holiness Movement. L. L. Pickett had been a MECS preacher, but in 1884 had been denied reappointment because of his refusal to baptize by immersion. (See post for Nov. 9, 2008) L. L. Pickett continued preaching independently and became one of the leaders in the Holiness Movement. In 1887 Pickett conducted a powerful revival that led to the establishment of a Holiness campground in Scottsville, just a few miles from Jonesville and Waskom in eastern Harrison County.

When J. Waskom Pickett was still a young child the family moved briefly to South Carolina and then to Wilmore, Kentucky, the site of Kentucky Holiness College (founded 1890). Kentucky Holiness College soon changed its name to Asbury College. L. L. Pickett became an important author and publisher until his death in 1928.
J. Waskom Pickett graduated from Asbury in 1907 and taught for three years. In 1910 one of his classmates, E. Stanley Jones, recruited him to take over a church in India that Jones was leaving.

Pickett accepted the call and spent the next forty-six years in India. He served as pastor, district superintendent, and in 1935 was elevated to the office of bishop.

His years in India were marked by the end of British rule, and both Jones and Pickett formed friendships with Mohandas Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru. At Nehru’s urging, Pickett visited Gandhi just two days before the Mahatma’s assassination.

Upon his retirement Pickett taught at Boston University. He died in 1981 in Ohio and is buried in Wilmore, Kentucky.

This Week in Texas Methodist History February 13

2011-02-12T06:22:00.000-08:00

Methodists Participate in Large Interchurch World Movement Meeting in Dallas February 1920

There is no finer example of the vision and optimism that characterized progressive Protestantism of the early 20th century than the Interchurch World Movement. There is also no finer example of how quickly such optimism can fizzle.

Setting the stage—Proponents of the Social Gospel were accustomed to working across denominational lines to fight the evils of an increasingly urban, industrial United States. There were inter-denominational organizations with Texas chapters that promoted woman’s suffrage, anti-lynching laws, Prohibition, YMCA’s, YWCA’s, and Sunday Schools. The horrors of World War I prompted many Christians to turn their attention to world peace. World War I draftees were given medical and intelligence screening. The aggregated data from those screenings revealed that America had huge problems with disease, malnutrition, drug abuse, and illiteracy.

The main thrust of reformers in the MECS had been prohibition. With the passage of the Volstead Act, it now looked like that battle was won. The armies of volunteers that had been mobilized for prohibition were still intact. The crusading fervor was still there. There were still massive social ills. What direction would the social reformers take?

One of the directions was the creation of the Interchurch World Movement. The IWM had its origins immediately after World War I. The Southern Presbyterian Mission Board convened a conference on December 17, 1918 to consider its post-war mission. Moving more rapidly than is usual in such matters, they convened a much larger meeting in February, 1919. It was at that meeting that the IWM was formed. It was now no longer a Presbyterian mission program, but an ecumenical body. They hoped to unite the missionary efforts of all the Protestant denominations into a mighty crusade. William Adams Brown called the IWM the religious counterpoint to the League of Nations.

The IWM soon had serious financial backing. John D. Rockefeller, Jr., bankrolled it. (One should remember that Rockefeller’s philanthropy was handled by Raymond Fosdick, brother of Harry E. Fosdick.) In January, 1920, the IWM convened in Atlantic City and wrote its platform. Its goal was to unite the Protestant denominations to finish the educational and missionary objectives of the church.
One month later, February, 1920, about 800 church leaders convened in Dallas. Their main task was to support the Atlantic City declaration and to create a regional organization for the IWM. Methodists figured prominently in the gathering. Robert S. Hyer, founding president of SMU, was on what we would call today the “platform committee.” Other Methodists on the committee were J. C. Williams, a Methodist Protestant from Tehuacana, Charles DeBow (MEC), and W. J. Johnson (MECS). In an interesting side note, J. Frank Norris was also on the committee. (Can one imagine Hyer and Norris on the same committee?) Bishop Mouzon addressed a session of the meeting on the importance of continuing the revival spirit. Delegates passed a resolution calling for the cabinet-level Department of Education, something that was done in 1979. Another goal was building 1000 new buildings on college and university campuses in five years.

Methodist participation in the IWM was somewhat compromised because the various Methodist denominations were simultaneously engaged in their Centenary Campaign. The first Methodist mission had been in 1819. In 1919 Methodists adopted a seven-pronged mission effort. (See post for May 20, 2007) The goals of the Centenary Campaign coincided in the large part with the IWM, but there were still questions about the relations between the programs.

The IWM began with great enthusiasm and solid financial backing, but in five years it was dead. Both Northern Baptists and Northern Presbyterians pulled their denomination out almost immediately—later in 1920. The optimistic mood of winning the whole world for Christianity and lifting millions up out of poverty, disease, illiteracy, and hunger seemed but a distant memory.

This Week in Texas Methodist History February 6

2011-02-05T06:35:00.000-08:00

Joseph P. Sneed Enters Texas February 8, 1839

On February 8, 1839 Joseph P. Sneed crossed the Sabine River at Gaines Crossing on his way to Brazoria Circuit. The previous December Bishop Thomas Morris had appointed him to the Brazoria Circuit of the Texas District of the Mississippi Annual Conference. February 8 was a Friday, but Methodists in the Republic of Texas had preaching any day they could get it, not just on Sundays, so Sneed preached that night. He spent the night with the Stovall family, and then pushed on to meet Littleton Fowler. The next few weeks were full of more travel, preaching, and meeting his new colleagues, and, by the way, he didn't made it to Brazoria.

Joseph Sneed was born near Nashville, Tennessee, in 1804. In 1829 he joined the Mississippi Annual Conference and served several appointments. In 1834 he assisted Henry Stevenson at McMahan’s Chapel just west of the Sabine in Mexican Texas. Several years later he volunteered for Texas.

On Feb. 9 he rode the four miles from Stovall’s to McMahan’s where Fowler was holding a quarterly meeting. Moses Speer and Samuel Williams were also there. Sneed reported for duty with a letter of recommendation from Bishop Morris to Fowler, “I am sending you a man who is not afraid to die or sleep in the woods.” Bishop Morris also entrusted Sneed with $800 of missionary money to be distributed as salary for the preachers in Texas. After a love feast on Sunday the 10th, Sneed, Fowler, and Missouri Fowler headed for “West Texas.”
It took them until February 27 to reach the Brazos River. On the way they picked up Ike Strickland, the Montgomery Circuit preacher. The party visited Martin Ruter’s grave and spent the night with the Gates family.

Fowler had previously instructed the preachers in West Texas to meet him at William Kessee’s, near present-day Chappell Hill. I suppose the prospect of being paid ensured good attendance because most of them showed up and stayed five days. There was, of course, a quarterly meeting and love feast, but Fowler used the meeting to override the appointments Bishop Morris had made at annual conference and reassign Strickland to Brazoria and Sneed to the now vacant Montgomery Circuit. He also reassigned Abel Stevens from Houston to Washington to take the place of Robert Alexander who had moved to Rutersville the previous fall.

Stevens rode the Washington Circuit for only 3 months and then returned to the United States. Fowler instructed Sneed to take over the Washington Circuit in addition to his Montgomery Circuit. He was thus responsible for Texas Methodists west of the Trinity River all the way to the settlements on the Colorado River from Spring Creek in the south to Waco in the north.

Sneed was up to the challenge of riding long circuits. Except for a ten year location in which he farmed near Gay Hill in Washington County, he served honorably in appointments until his superannuation in 1867. He died in 1881 at his son’s home in Milam County.

This Week in Texas Methodist History January 30

2011-01-29T06:27:00.000-08:00

Littleton Fowler Gives Medical Advice February 5, 1844

The letters in the Littleton Fowler Collection at Bridwell Library Perkins School of Theology, SMU constitute one of the most important sources about Texas Methodist history in the 1830s and 1840s. They are full of data about church affairs, preachers, circuits and so on. They also contain a great deal of information about politics, law, medicine, and agriculture.

The letter of February 5, 1844 from Littleton Fowler to Missouri Fowler is especially interesting because it describes a reaction to smallpox in Nacogdoches in the Republic of Texas. It also shows that in addition to Bibles. tracts, and hymnals, a circuit rider’s saddlebags may have contained matter from smallpox pustules with which to inoculate the faithful.

Fowler wrote, The smallpox is certainly in Nacogdoches. Dr Moore at the time he was up before was with the man who died with it at Lea’s and pulled some of the scabs off the patient and came down into our family, but at the time he was with the man it had not been pronounced smallpox but the next day it was ascertained to be that disease and strongly suspected it was the s[mall]pox when the Dr saw him. Bro Williams will bear this and will carry some vascine[vaccine] matter if he can get it; if so be sure to have all the children vascinnated[sic] without delay.

By 1844 the introduction of material from smallpox victims into healthy persons was old hat. There is documentation of the practice from the Ming Dynasty of China (16th Century) and it was widespread in Turkey, Persia, and Africa in the 17th Century. In 1706 Cotton Mather discovered that one of his slaves had been protected from smallpox when he still lived in Africa. Further examination revealed that many Boston slaves had been treated this way. George Washington protected his troops who had not yet contracted the disease.

Littleton Fowler’s instructions to his wife to protect the children from smallpox were therefore nothing out of the ordinary. Fowler’s advice was better than John Wesley’s. In Primitive Physick Wesley advised smallpox sufferers to” Drink largely of toast and water.”

Many 19th century Methodists combined preaching and medicine. The reference to Bro Williams in the letter is probably Samuel Williams. When the letter was written Williams was the preacher at Nacogdoches in the Lake Soda District of which Fowler was the PE. . Among Fowler’s contemporaries who were also preachers were Henry Matthews, William P. Smith, and Abner Manley. Matthews practiced at San Felipe. Smith and Manley lived in Washington and attended Martin Ruter in his last days.

This Week in Texas Methodist History January 23

2011-01-22T05:49:00.000-08:00

Henry Young (Heinrich Jung) Preaches to Huge Crowd on Galveston Bay January 25, 1846

The post two weeks ago was about John Wesley DeVilbiss and the first sermon he preached in German. He did so after having been appointed as Presiding Elder of the newly-formed German District of the Texas Conference.

The earliest German Methodist preacher who can be identified in Texas is Henry Young (Heinrich Jung) who was transferred from the German Mission in New Orleans to Galveston by Bishop Soule at the Mississippi Annual Conference of December 1845. Most Methodist work among Germans was around Cincinnati, but by 1844 both New Orleans and Mobile had German Methodist missions.

Young came to Galveston and according to J. A. G. Rabe in “The Work Among the Germans,” in the Texas Methodist Historical Quarterly claimed that about a month after his arrival, Young preached to 1,000 Germans on the shore of Galveston Bay. The text was Is. 55:1-3, (Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat, . . .) and the multitude listened in rapt attention. By April Young organized a church, and by November built a church building at 19th Street and Avenue H.

The German church in Galveston was one of the strongest in Texas. During the 1850s it was pastored by Peter Moelling who also edited the German Christian Advocate, Der Deutsche Christliche Apologete. Under his pastorate the church prospered enough to build a parsonage.

Certainly Galveston was an important German port of entry in the 1840’s, but is the claim of a congregation of 1000 believable? Perhaps. The period in question was during the heyday of immigration sponsored by the Adelsverein. Between 1844 and 1847 seven thousand Germans immigrated to Texas. They entered by the ports of Galveston and Indianola so perhaps it would be possible to assemble a congregation of 1000 Germans on the shore of Galveston Bay in January 1846.

It is even possible that two of that congregation of 1000 were Johann Wilhelm Hardt and his son Heinrich Christian Hardt, the author’s great-great-great and great-great grandfathers. They had arrived in Galveston aboard the Strabo with 167 other German immigrants the previous November 20—just two months before Rev. Young’s sermon on the beach. There is neither documentary evidence nor family tradition that they were there, but it is an intriguing possibility.

This week in Texas Methodist History January 19

2011-01-15T09:01:00.000-08:00

Wesleyan College Receives Charter January 16, 1844

Sam Houston had an interesting signature. The capital S in “Sam” was a bit ambiguous. It often looked more like an “I” than an “S.” The result was a signature that proclaimed “I am Houston.” On January 16, 1844 he used that signature to complete the process of chartering Wesleyan College in San Augustine.

San Augustine was an important place in the Republic of Texas. The main land route by which immigrants, traders, and other travelers came to Texas crossed the Sabine at Gaines Ferry and led right to San Augustine. It boasted a newspaper and Masonic Lodge. Its citizens showed an early interest in education. The same day the town was chartered, June 5, 1837, a University of San Augustine was also chartered.

It also became an important focus of Methodist activity as early as the 1830s. On October 19, 1837 Littleton Fowler, John Denton, and Moses Spear held a four day meeting and solicited pledges for the purpose of building a church. Within a week a building committee was formed and construction specs drawn up. On November 24 of the same year Martin Ruter preached to a small crowd in the school house at San Augustine. It served as the seat of a district in the Mississippi Conference with Littleton Fowler as Presiding Elder.
The University of San Augustine, although nonsectarian in its origin, came under Presbyterian influence. As the New Handbook of Texas states, “This relationship fostered animosity in the community, which had a sizable Methodist population.”

Daniel Poe, one of Fowler’s recruits from Ohio, took the lead in organizing the Methodists. He organized a “committee of direction” which purchased a house for the principal and began construction of a university building. Only after construction began did Poe approach the Texas Annual Conference in 1843 to seek denominational affiliation. The December 1843 annual conference approved the relationship, and only two weeks later the Congress of the Republic of Texas passed the charter legislation. The original trustees included Littleton Fowler, Daniel Poe, Francis Wilson, J. P. Henderson (later governor of Texas), Travis Broocks (postmaster of San Augustine), Henry Augustine (a trustee of the rival San Augustine University), John Love (former alcalde under the Mexican government), and others.

About six weeks after the charter, on March 5, 1844, classes began. The president was another Ohio recruit, Lester Janes, nephew of Bishop Edmund Janes who presided at the joint sessions of the Western Texas (today Texas) and Eastern Texas Annual Conferences in San Augustine the following January. (see post for January 2, 2011).

Unfortunately Daniel Poe was not there. He and Mrs. Poe died the previous July. (see post for September 16, 2007) Francis Wilson became the driving force behind Wesleyan College. From June to December, 1844, he conducted a fund raising tour of the United States. (see post for October 3, 2010)

The high hopes of the founders were not realized. Wesleyan was closed in 1847. Its legacy is preserved by Southwestern University which claims Wesleyan as one of its four root institutions. To learn the particulars of Wesleyan’s brief existence, consult William B. Jones, To Survive and Excel: The Story of Southwestern University 1840-2000, Georgetown, Tx 2006.

This Week in Texas Methodist History January 9

2011-01-08T06:08:00.000-08:00

John Wesley DeVilbiss Preaches First Sermon in German, January 11, 1856

When the Texas Annual Conference met in Galveston in December 1855, Bishop George Pierce took the German speaking churches out of their geographic districts and placed them all in a single district based on their language. He then had to name a Presiding Elder for that district. The problem arose that none of the German preachers had enough experience for the job, and none of the English preachers spoke German.

Pierce appointed John Wesley DeVilbiss, who had come to Texas from Ohio in 1842, to the district. DeVilbiss realized that he needed to learn German. He moved to New Braunfels where he could be immersed in the language. About a month later, on January 11, 1856, he was ready to preach his first sermon in German. The sermon was at “Antioch Chapel on Clark’s Creek.” (I think this church was the predecessor of Hope UMC in Lavaca County in the SWT Conference.)

Had DeVilbiss achieved enough fluency to preach a sermon in just one month? Not really. He had written his sermon in English, and then had help translating it into German.

He persevered in both his language study and his presiding elder duties. DeVilbiss eventually achieved a fair fluency in German and some familiarity with Spanish. The German District consisted of 11 appointments from Galveston to Fort Mason south to Victoria, Yorktown, and Medina County. He served the German District for four years, and in December 1859 became P.E. of the Helena District in the newly-created Rio Grande Mission (later West Texas later Southwest Texas) Conference. He took the superannuate relationship in 1881. DeVilbiss died in 1885. The German District of which he had been the first presiding elder eventually evolved into its own annual conference.

This Week in Texas Methodist History January 2

2011-01-01T05:49:00.000-08:00

Texas Conference and East Texas Conference Meet at San Augustine January 8, 1845

The 1844 General Conference of the MEC authorized dividing the Texas Conference at the Trinity River. The two new conferences would be known as the Western Texas and Eastern Texas Conferences until 1846 when the MECS renamed them the Texas and East Texas Conferences.

As part of the plan of division, the fifth session of the (Western)Texas Conference and the first session of the East(ern) Texas Conference met together at San Augustine on January 8, 1845. Edmund Janes was the presiding bishop. The Eastern Texas Conference also received the churches in northeastern Texas which had formerly been part of the Arkansas Conference. Each of the conferences was organized into three districts. The Western Texas Conference districts were Galveston, Washington, and Rutersville. The Eastern Texas Conference included the San Augustine, Clarksville, and Sabine (Nacogdoches, Marshall, Henderson, etc.) Districts.

The annual conferences were noteworthy for the preachers received by transfer from other conferences. John Fields came from Kentucky. David Bell and Jefferson Shook came from the Arkansas Conference. Four members of the Memphis Conference came into the Western Texas Conference: Mordecai and Pleasant Yell, John Williams and Robert Guthrie.

The Yell brothers, Mordecai and Pleasant are noteworthy. They arrived at San Augustine with some reflected celebrity. They were relatives of Archibald Yell, former governor of Arkansas and member of the United State House of Representatives to whom James Polk had entrusted with pushing Texas annexation through the House.

Since both conferences were meeting in San Augustine, the transfers had a choice of which conference to join. There was speculation that Mordecai Yell would take the Clarksville District in the Eastern Texas Conference as Presiding Elder, but he ended up as P.E. of the Washington District in the Western Texas Conference. Pleasant Yell was appointed to Nashville in his brother’s district.

Both of the Yell brothers lived long, productive lives in Texas. Mordecai served as the P.E. in four districts, was a General Conference delegate, and a charter member of the Northwest Texas Conference when it was created. He retired to a farm near Groesbeck, later moved to Hays County. He died in 1897 and is buried in Caldwell County.
Pleasant Yell pursued secular pursuits. He moved to Montgomery County and was commissioner, County Judge, District Clerk, and County Clerk. He died in 1894 and is buried in Montgomery County.

This Week in Texas Methodist History December 26

2010-12-25T07:19:00.000-08:00

William Jennings Bryan Delivers Prince of Peace Lecture in Beaumont, December 31, 1907

On December 31, 1907 the Campbell Sunday School Class of First Methodist Episcopal Church South in Beaumont hosted William Jennings Bryan as he delivered his most requested speech, The Prince of Peace, to an audience of 1500. Bryan had been one of the most famous men in the United States for a decade as the Democratic nominee for the presidency in 1896 and 1900.

He had risen from the obscurity of a two-term congressman from Nebraska on the basis of his oratorical skills. His Cross of Gold speech at the 1896 Democratic Convention had made him the youngest person ever nominated for the presidency by a major party. He was thirty-six years old. In the ensuing campaign he made hundreds of speeches from his rail car while his opponent, William McKinley, sat on his porch and let reporters come to him.

His platform was rooted in his fervent Presbyterian faith. He was for the prohibition of alcoholic beverages, against Darwinism, against U. S. imperialism, and for conventional moral principles. In 1896 the main issue was monetary policy. Apologies for the over simplification, but it was basically the debtors (farmers) who wanted cheap currency versus the lenders (bankers) who wanted tight currency. The Cross of Gold Speech was a plea for the monetization of silver. Such a policy would induce inflation and therefore relief for the debtor-farmers. Bryan lost to McKinley but had another chance in 1900. By this time in addition to the monetary issues, one of the most important foreign policy questions in U. S. history was added—that of the annexation of the Philippines. Bryan was against it. He lost again.

After the 1900 campaign Bryan was a superstar. He had delivered hundreds of speeches all across the United States and was well known to both the political elite and the common man.

He liked the life of the orator so rather than returning to the life of the lawyer after his second defeat, he turned to the Chautauqua Circuit. He was a robust young man of forty and was able to schedule as many as four appearances in a single day. His speaking fee was as much as $500. Bryan became a wealthy man and eventually acquired estates in Nebraska, Miami, Florida, and the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. Even though a wealthy man, he was known as the Great Commoner and published a weekly magazine called The Commoner.

The New Year’s Eve appearance in Beaumont was part of a speaking tour. On December 30 he gave the same Prince of Peace talk at the New Temple Theater in Palestine, boarded a sleeper car at 10:00 pm and arrived in Beaumont the next morning. Here is the text of the Prince of Peace speech from the New York Times, Sept. 7, 1913. http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=F10A1EF83A5F13738DDDAE0894D1405B838DF1D3

Soon after giving Prince of Peace to the 1908 MEC General Conference, Bryan received the Democratic nomination for president one more time, but he was again defeated. It was back to the lecture circuit. One month after his defeat he gave the Prince of Peace to students at the University of Texas. Woodrow Wilson’s victory in 1912 put a Democratic back in the White House and Bryan became Secretary of State. Although not a Christian pacifist, he was ardent for the cause of peace. His main activity was negotiating treaties between potential belligerents that promised arbitration of disputes before escalation to war.

In fact, President Wilson made most of the important foreign policy decisions without Bryan. Other members of the Wilson administration, especially David Houston, considered Bryan to be too naïve to engage in the rough and tumble world of international conflict. After the sinking of the Lusitania in 1915 Wilson sent Germany a set of demands. Bryan resigned in protest because he thought the demands were too harsh.

Resignation from the Department of State did not mean an exit from politics. Bryan campaigned for prohibition and woman’s suffrage. He moved to Miami and allowed his name to be used by the developers who were creating cities in southern Florida. His final act on the public stage was the Scopes Trial in Dayton, Tennessee. It was in that small town that he died five days after he had participated in the successful prosecution of John Scopes.

He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery with the epitaph, “He Kept the Faith.”

This Week in Texas Methodist History December 19

2010-12-18T06:20:00.000-08:00

Austin Church Dedicated December 19, 1847

Last week’s column described travel difficulties of Homer Thrall and John W. Devilbiss as they travelled to their new appointments from the Texas Annual Conference of 1843. Both men had long careers in the West Texas Conference which was later renamed the Southwest Texas Conference. Devilbiss is remembered for establishing Methodism in San Antonio. Thrall is probably best remembered as the greatest of the 19th century Texas Methodist historians. His legacy also included founding churches. On December 19, 1847, he was the preacher in charge at Austin when Methodists dedicated a new church building.

Austin had a rocky beginning. Its creation was a project of President Mirabeau B. Lamar who had visions of expansion to the West. The government moved to Austin in the fall of 1839. Rather than a sophisticated city of monumental government buildings and a state university as it is today, it was a crude frontier village of less than 1000 inhabitants in 1840. There was a Methodist presence in Austin, mainly through the efforts of John Haynie who lived down the Colorado River in Bastrop County. Haynie became Chaplain of the Congress of the Republic of Texas and rode the Austin Circuit to the Methodists of Bastrop and Travis Counties. Nathaniel Moore, James Caldwell (Haynie’s son-in-law), James Gilleland, Middleton Hill, Charles McGehee and their families constituted an important cluster of Methodists. Lamar’s Attorney General, James Webb, was a prominent and active Methodist lay man. When Lamar sent Webb on a diplomatic mission to Mexico, his replacement was Francis Asbury Morris, son of Bishop Thomas Morris.

In addition to this Methodist community, there were also Methodists among the members of Congress who came to Austin to transact the business of the Republic. Methodists, were not, however, the organizers of the first church in Austin. That honor went to the Presbyterians. Methodists had class meetings, and preaching services, usually in the Capitol building, a one-story frame building that was located at 8th and Colorado Streets. Bishop Waugh, who was coming to Rutersville to organize the Texas Annual Conference, preached in the Capitol on December 20, 1840 and gave the invocation when Congress met on Monday the 21st.

When Sam Houston replaced Lamar as president of the Republic, Austin’s fortunes declined. Houston made no bones about his dislike for Austin which had been a project of his political rival. When a Mexican army captured San Antonio in March 1842, Houston used the incident to move the government (except for the Archives) eastward away from the dangerous frontier, first to Houston and then to Washington-on-the-Brazos.

In 1842-1845 Austin experienced decline and loss of population since it no longer functioned as the Capital of the Republic. Methodist activity all but came to an end. The class Haynie had formed in 1840 dissolved. Austin is not mentioned in the appointments for 1845.

Austin got another chance. The convention called to act on annexation to the United States met in Austin and designated Austin as the capital of the new state of Texas until 1850 when the people would choose a permanent capital. The 1846 Annual Conference appointments listed Homer Thrall appointed to Austin.

When Thrall arrived, he found no organized Methodist activity and no place to live. Rowan Hardin, a distant cousin of Lydia McHenry and Maria Kenney, let him sleep on the floor of his law office. Thrall organized a school in the Capitol to earn some money and organized a Sunday School. By April 1847 he was able to have a quarterly conference authorize a building program. In Thrall’s own words, he was “building committee, collector, paymaster, and general manager” of the construction project.

The church in Austin that Homer Thrall built was dedicated on December 19, 1847. Ten days later, on December 29, 1847, Annual Conference met, and Thrall was transferred to the Washington Circuit. As is often the case, the preacher who builds the church does not get to enjoy the fruits of his labor. In 1853 the building was sold to another denomination.

This Week in Texas Methodist History December 12

2010-12-11T06:50:00.000-08:00

Fourth Session of Texas Annual Conference Convenes at Robinson’s December 13, 1843

December 1843 must have been a very rainy month. The rains were so heavy that we have two travel accounts highlighting the difficulties faced by attendees of the fourth session of the Texas Annual Conference. Those accounts provide interesting insights into transportation patterns in the Republic of Texas and how physical geography impacted those patterns.

Robinson’s Settlement, eight miles south of Huntsville, was to be the site of annual conference. Getting there was the problem. The presiding bishop was James O. Andrew whose status as a slave owning bishop would become a main topic of contention just six months later at the MEC General Conference in New York City. Andrew arrived in Galveston by sea and took a steamboat to Houston. He and his travelling companions, Thomas Summers and Charles Shearn, had a decision to make. There were two possible routes. The most comfortable would be a steamboat back down Buffalo Bayou to Galveston Bay, then up the Trinity River past Liberty, Cane Island, and assorted plantations in the Trinity bottoms to approximately Riverside where they would disembark and proceed overland to Robinson’s. The other route, which they chose, was overland. They proceeded northwestward approximating present-day Highway 290 to Cypress. It was at Cypress that the difficulties began. Both Little Cypress Creek and Cypress Creek were out of their banks. They had to wait in the company of teamsters who were also stranded.

When they finally were able to cross Cypress Creek, they headed north toward New Kentucky on Spring Creek, and then the San Jacinto River bottoms. The San Jacinto basin in this area is now flooded to create Lake Conroe. In 1843 it presented a formidable obstacle of water, mud, fallen timbers, and other obstacles. Bishop Andrew and his party arrived at Robinson’s cold, wet, and tired by the journey.

Bishop Andrew presided over the conference which reported an increase in membership from 3,738 to 5,016. (Wouldn’t you like a percent increase like that!) Bishop Andrew made the appointments in the five districts in the conference, transferred his travelling companion, Summers, to the Alabama Conference, and started back to Houston to catch the steamboat back to Galveston.

He wanted no part of the San Jacinto bottoms. Instead of retracing his route, he went west into Grimes County and thus “headed” the San Jacinto. When he got back to Cypress, he found the wagon train still waiting to cross the creek.

The other travel account is that given by Homer Thrall. He and his travelling companion, John Wesley Devilbiss, left Robinson’s and headed for their new appointments (Egypt and Gonzales). They went from Robinson’s to Washington and then took the road south toward San Felipe. After passing Robert Alexander’s Cottage Hill and David Ayres’s Centre Hill, they had to cross the Mill Creek bottoms. (As a modern reference, think of about three miles east of Highway 36 between Bellville and Sealy.) Mill Creek at this point has a wide flood plain as it nears the Brazos River. Only seven years earlier, Sam Houston had used this same route as he withdrew his army from San Felipe. Although the soldiers complained about having to slog through the flooded bottoms, they also knew that the heavy vegetation provided a defense against the elite Mexican lancers whose superb equestrian skills were most effective on the open plains. After finally emerging from the Mill Creek bottoms, the two preachers headed to the Colorado River crossing near Columbus. Before they could get there, they had another ordeal, what Thrall called the “quicksand” in the San Bernard River.

Modern day travelers on Interstate Highway 10 passing Columbus will observe the gravel pits along the Colorado River. Those gravels have been transported by the river from the Central Mineral Region (Hill Country) and have proved a valuable construction resource for decades. The San Bernard River is much shorter than the Colorado so its headwaters do not extend to the Hill Country. Rather than depositing gravel, it deposits only sand. The San Bernard crossing between San Felipe and Columbus ordinarily presented little difficulty, but in extremely wet years, the water lubricates the sand grains and makes them incapable of supporting significant weight. That was the situation Thrall and Devilbiss found.

As the flooded Mill Creek bottoms played a role in the Texas Revolution, so did flood conditions along the San Bernard. Texas history buffs will remember that the bulk of the Mexican Army was not defeated at the Battle of San Jacinto on April 21, 1836. There was an organized Mexican army of 2500 still in the field. Why didn’t they continue the fight? One of the reasons is that they were engulfed in the “sea of mud” between the San Bernard and West Bernard. Gregg Dimmick, a Wharton pediatrician and avocational archeologist, discovered the remains of Mexican equipment and wrote a most interesting account of the Mexican Army’s difficulties very near to where Thrall and Devilbiss were almost eight years later. The Mexican Army was unable to affect an organized withdrawal and reorganize because so many of its carts and draft animals were mired in the mud. Many soldiers were exhausted in their efforts to extricate the equipment.

When one reads accounts of 19th century circuit riders and the travel difficulties they faced, it is most often the lesser streams that presented more problems than the larger rivers. The large rivers such as the Brazos, Colorado, and Trinity all had ferries. The San Bernard, Mill Creek, Yegua Creek, and a host of other secondary and tertiary streams were fordable most of the year so they had no ferries. Those were the streams that caused problems for the circuit riders.

This Week in Texas Methodist History December 5

2010-12-04T06:46:00.000-08:00

First Lay Delegates Seated at Texas Annual Conference December 11, 1867

The 1866 General Conference of the MECS is rightly considered by many historians as one of the most significant. The 1862 General Conference had been cancelled because of the Civil War. When delegates to the 1866 General Conference arrived in New Orleans, they faced a mountain of problems. Many of the church buildings had been destroyed or neglected during the Civil War. African American Methodists were leaving the MECS by the thousands. No bishops had been elected for eight years, Prospects looked dismal.

One of the steps the General Conference of 1866 took was to authorize lay representation in the both the annual and general conferences. So it was that on December 11, 1867, sixteen lay members of the Texas Annual Conference were duly enrolled when the conference met in Houston. Three of the sixteen lay delegates are particularly interesting because in the years to come there were churches that bore their family names. August Bering and Morris McAshan were both from Houston. Bering UMC is still in operation. McAshan Methdodist Church was once located just north of Buffalo Bayou near downtown Houston. It is no longer in existence.

The third delegate whose family name was the name of a church was also from Houston—Sylvester Munger, and the church in this case, Munger Place Methodist Church in Dallas bears the name of the suburban development of his nephew, Robert Sylvester Munger. Since Munger Place UMC has recently been in the news as the result of its becoming a branch of Highland Park UMC, we should remember the life and contributions of Robert Sylvester Munger.

The Munger family was rooted in Connecticut where R. S.Munger’s father, Henry was born. Some of the family migrated to South Carolina, then to Mississippi, and then to Texas. Henry tried his luck in the California gold fields but came back to Texas when he met and married Jane McNutt, daughter of Robert McNutt, Texas Revolution hero and close associate of John Wesley Kenney.

The couple lived in Rutersville which had been originally organized by Methodists, and it was there in 1854 that Robert Sylvester Munger was born. Henry followed the Houston and Texas Central Railway as it built its rails north, and eventually settled in Mexia where he opened a lumber business. One way that Henry Munger expressed his love for the church was his supplying building materials to churches at cost.

Living in Mexia meant that Robert S. Munger was close to one of the finest schools in Texas, Trinity University in Tehuacana, and he took advantage of that opportunity. (Trinity University was later relocated to Waxahachie and then San Antonio. Methodist Protestants bought the facilities and operated a college there.) The Munger family expanded from lumber to cotton farming, and it was in that arena that R. S. Munger made his mark.

The youthful Munger turned his attention to the ginning process. At the time most ginning was done in small-scale animal-powered gins in, or near, the cotton fields. Munger began a series of inventions that revolutionized the industry. From the pneumatic suctioning of cotton from the wagons to the bagging of 500 pound bales wrapped in burlap, Munger’s inventions increased the speed and efficiency at every step. The cumulative effect of his patented improvements was to replace the small animal-powered gins on plantations with larger steam and then diesel gins to which farmers brought their crops. The “Munger System” was so great an improvement that it was universally accepted across the South.

In 1885 R. S. Munger opened a manufacturing plant in Dallas. A few years later he built a larger one in Birmingham, Alabama, and after that spent most of his time there. The Munger family did not abandon Dallas. Robert’s brother Stephen ran the Dallas operation.

In 1902 Robert Munger sold his gin machinery manufacturing business and turned his attention to real estate development. The Munger Place subdivision was a showplace of fine homes in what some sources describe as the first subdivision to employ deed restrictions. It was conveniently located just east of downtown Dallas and soon became one of the most prestigious neighborhoods in the state. There was even a possibility that the new university the Methodists were planning in Dallas would be built in Munger Place. R. S. Munger's offer of fifty acres for a campus could not compete with the 300 acres plus cash offer that was accepted. Munger Place Methodist was organized in 1913, and the present sanctuary built in 1925.

Later, though, upscale Dallas neighborhoods moved north instead of east. The location of SMU in the north near Highland Park, rather than the east near Munger Place was part of that trend. It also adds a bit historic irony to the October 2010 re-opening of Munger Place as a branch of Highland Park UMC. If SMU had been located on the east side of Dallas rather than the north side, the roles of the respective churches might have been reversed.

Robert S. Munger died in Birmingham in 1923. In addition to his impact in Dallas, he is also remembered at UMC-related Birmingham-Southern College where Munger Hall is named for him.

Thanks to Rev. William Lanigan for research help for this column.

This Week in Texas Methodist HIstory November 28

2010-11-27T06:32:00.000-08:00

Louis Blaylock Starts 56 Year Career at Texas Christian Advocate November 30, 1866

One of the longest church related careers in Texas Methodist history began on November 30, 1866 when Louis Blaylock began work for the Texas Christian Advocate as a typesetter. He rose in the ranks and eventually became publisher. When he stepped down in 1922, Blaylock had served the denominational newspaper for fifty-six years.

Blaylock was born in 1849 in Arkansas. His family moved to Texas, and he found work as a typesetter for the Advocate in 1866. The newspaper barely survived the Civil War. It had relocated from Galveston to Houston, but shortages of paper and ink plagued the enterprise. Even before the war, it depended upon subsides from David Ayres and Charles Shearn to stay in business. It survived the war and Reconstruction and flourished as Texas population and Texas Methodist membership increased. Blaylock and his partner, William Shaw, relocated the Advocate to Dallas in 1887 and its circulation reached 18,000, making it the largest circulation newspaper in the state.

Blaylock, as publisher, had to work with a succession of editors who were preachers first and journalists second. The quality of the Advocate was therefore very uneven, and during the 1880s and 1890s contained advertisements that did not bring credit to the church such as those for patent medicines and medical devices hawked by quacks. Each annual conference in the state had an associate editor who forwarded items of revivals, births, deaths, marriages, church consecrations, etc. to the Advocate. The journalistic standards of the era allowed for reprinting stories from other newspapers, and the Advocate followed that policy liberally. Preachers acted as subscription agents and were expected to sell subcriptions to their church members. In return, they received a 50% clergy discount off the $2.00 annual cost--quite a bargain for the fity-two issues.

Besides his career in Methodist journalism, Blaylock served on the building committee for First Methodist Church Dallas and was active in civic affairs. In the early years of the 20th century as Dallas grew and needed more municipal services, Blaylock served as police commissioner, fire commissioner, and finance commissioner. Upon his retirement from the Advocate, he was elected Mayor of Dallas. Since he was seventy-four years old at the time of his election, he was nicknamed “Daddy” Blaylock. He was an able mayor. He died in 1932 and was buried in Oakland Cemetery.
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This Week in Texas Methodist History November 21

2010-11-20T06:08:00.000-08:00

Schuyler Hoes Organizes Texas Bible Society November 25, 1838

The names of Ruter, Alexander, and Fowler are well known as the first officially appointed Methodist missionaries to Texas. The name of Schuyler Hoes is less well known, but he too was a Methodist missionary to the Republic of Texas. He is not known as well because he did not organize churches and circuits and was never under appointment by the Mission Board or the Mississippi Annual Conference.

Hoes was in Texas as an agent of the American Bible Society. The ABS had been formed in 1816 to translate and distribute copies of the Holy Scriptures. Its membership included clergy and laity from various Protestant denominations and numbered among its leadership some of the most distinguished public figures of the day including John Jay, John Quincy Adams, Francis Scott Key, and James Fennimore Cooper.

The ABS supplied Bibles to Texas as early as 1831 when it sent 30 Bibles and 70 Testaments via E. R. Butler and 100 more to American and Swiss colonists. The ABS got a real boost in 1834 when Sumner Bacon made Bible distribution his main work. He was successful in establishing a society in San Augustine. Bacon removed his work to Arkansas during the Texas Revolution, but there is evidence that the San Augustine Society continued.

Readers will remember that David Ayres received English and Spanish Bibles from the ABS’s New York City office on his way to Texas. In 1838 the ABS sent Schuyler Hoes of New York to Texas as its agent. Perhaps Ayres had some influence in the matter. He and Hoes had known each other in the 1826 revivals in Ithaca, New York. After his arrival in late 1838, Hoes made several trips inside Texas including ones to Egypt, San Augustine, and Centre Hill.

On November 25, 1838, he organized the Texas Bible Society in the Masonic Lodge in Houston. Records of the ABS reveal that the Hoes assignment to Texas was not intended to be a permanent one. He went back to New York and in August, 1839, was appointed to Utica in the Oneida Conference. Bishop Elijah Hedding wrote Littleton Fowler on November 15, 1839, informing him that Hoes would not be transferring to Texas. He later served St. Paul’s Church in Lowell, Massachusetts, in the New England Conference.

After Hoes returned to the United States, ABS business in the Republic of Texas was managed from Arkansas. That was not the end of Hoes's connection with Texas. When Littleton Fowler was in New York City for the General Conference of 1844, he reported sharing a meal with Schuyler Hoes. Fowler identified him as one of the abolitionists.

This Week in Texas Methodist History November 14

2010-11-13T18:05:00.000-08:00

Kate Mills Elected General Conference Delegate, First Woman Delegate from Texas Conference November 18, 1921

The Texas Annual Conference met in Beaumont in November, 1921. The setting was the magnificent First Methodist Episcopal Church South. The church building was fifteen years old; having been built after the Spindletop Oil Boom ushered in an era of unprecedented prosperity for Beaumont. It featured an Akron Style auditorium with a sloping floor under a great dome. Sunday School rooms surrounding the auditorium had roll-partitions that increased the seating capacity.

It was a great setting for history to be made. Participants were noteworthy. E. L. Shettles retired and began a superannuate relationship of two decades that he devoted to collecting Methodist history materials. W. C. Martin transferred from the Little Rock Conference and was appointed to Grace Church in the Houston Heights. He was later elected bishop. Glenn Flinn, who had pastored this church in 1916/17, transferred back from the North Texas Conference to become Conference Educational Secretary. He later became the driving force in ministries to Texas university students. The author’s grandfather, W. W. Hardt, entered the conference as a deacon.

The presiding bishop of the conference was W. N. Ainsworth, completing his first quadrennium after being elected in 1918. Bishops in this era itinerated, and the fact that that they were non-resident meant that most conferences had a powerful preacher or small group of preachers who exercised considerable informal power. These groups were sometimes called the “Union” or the “Machine.” Bishops were infrequent visitors to most conferences; informal power lay with these small groups.

In the Texas Conference in 1921, a main wielder of informal power was the host pastor, the Rev. J. Walter Mills. (pastor at FMC Beaumont 1919-1924 again from 1931-1938 and on the Beaumont District in 1928 and again from 1945-48). One of the conference tasks was to elect delegates to the 1922 MECS General Conference to be held at Hot Springs, Arkansas the following year, and J. W. Mills was elected to lead the delegation on the first ballot.

Balloting for delegates continued, and this year was a little different. The 1918 General Conference had changed the language for lay delegates—instead of “lay man”, the phrase “lay person” was the operative term. Just as women had won the right to vote in civic elections, they were now eligible to vote in the MECS General Conference. So it was that on Friday, Nov. 18, that Kate Vernor (Mrs. J. W.) Mills received the necessary 23 votes on the second ballot and became the first woman elected a General Conference delegate by the Texas Conference.

The election was emphatically not a courtesy to her husband. She had earned it. Kate Vernor was born in Gonzales County in 1878. She attended Sam Houston State Normal in Huntsville where she met J. W. Mills. They married in 1898. They served a variety of appointments and Kate Mills became very active in mission work. She eventually assumed every leadership role available including membership on the General Board of Missions (1922-1934). Her election to the 1922 General Conference was the first of many. She was also a delegate in 1924, 1930, 1934, 1938, 1939, and 1940.

Her husband died in 1949, and she lived in Beaumont and was active in First Methodist, the church her husband had served twice. She taught a couple’s Sunday School Class and taught the W. S. C. S. and Wesleyan Service Guild mission studies. She mentored younger women, including another woman from Beaumont—Hallie Morton—to assume leadership roles in the conference. One of her grandsons,Walter Cason, was a missionary to Liberia. She died in 1966 and her funeral services were held in the sanctuary where forty-five years earlier she had made history by her election to the General Conference.
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This Week in Texas Methodist History November 7

2010-11-06T06:34:00.000-07:00

J. H. Hamblen Withdraws from Northwest Texas Conference, Later Forms New Denomination November, 1945

The 1945 Journal of the Northwest Texas Conference lists under “withdrawn” only one name, that of J. H. Hamblen. If that were the only source of information, such a withdrawal might come as a surprise since Hamblen had filled some of the leading appointments of the conference and been a presiding elder. Hamblen began his ministry in the Texas Conference in 1905 when he was appointed to Kellyville in Marion County. In 1909 he transferred to the Nortwest Texas Conference.

Hamblen had been one of the vigorous opponents of modernism in the controversies of the 1920s about seminary professors and Sunday School literature. He was a long time pastor at First Methodist Abilene. In 1944 rather than accepting a new appointment, he asked for a sabbatical leave. Hamblen moved from the parsonage into a house in Abilene and by the following September was holding regular worship services there. Annual Conference convened on November 7, 1945 and Hamblen met with the bishop and cabinet and asked to be withdrawn. Such a principled stand meant Hamblen would forfeit forty years of pension credit.

Hamblen’s withdrawal eventually led to the formation of the Evangelical Methodist Church and his becoming its first general superintendent. Today Texas EMC churches include Copperas Cove, Killeen, Gatesville, Duncanville, Mansfield, Seagoville, and Haltom City.

If you would like to read more about James Henry Hamblen, see A Look into Life: An Autobiography (1969) or David Murrah, And Are We Yet Alive, 2009. Hamblen’s son, Carl Stuart Hamblen (1908-1989), was well known as a singer, cowboy movie actor, and composer of such hits as This Ole House, It Is No Secret (What God Can Do), and Open Up Your Heart (and Let the Sunshine In).

This Week in Texas Methodist HIstory October 31

2010-10-30T06:35:00.000-07:00

Freethinker J. D. Shaw Leaves Northwest Texas Conference, Nov. 4, 1882

This week begins a two part series in which we will tell the stories of two Northwest Texas Conference preachers who withdrew from the conference under pressure. One was a modernist and the other a fundamentalist. The cases are interesting because both men were among the most prominent preachers of their conference.

The battles over modernism in the Methodism are most famous in the 1920s, but the case of James Dickson Shaw (1841-1926) shows that disputes over modernism existed decades earlier.

Shaw was born in Walker County, served in the Confederate Army and then taught at Marvin College. In 1878 he was appointed to Fifth Street Methodist Church in Waco. Annual conferences in those days had to pass on the character of each preacher individually. When Shaw’s name was called at the Northwest Texas Annual Conference meeting at Cleburne on November 2, 1882, no one could say anything negative about his character or his behavior, but his presiding elder reported rumors criticizing his doctrinal purity. A committee was appointed to examine the rumors. Shaw appeared before the three person committee and told them that he had modified his opinions concerning the inspiration of the scriptures, the divinity of Jesus, the vicarious atonement, and the punishment of the wicked.

The committee reported their findings to the full conference, concluding that his views were “detrimental to religion and injurious to the church.” Shaw asked for time to withdraw rather than be expelled and also asked for time to address the annual conference in a farewell speech.

On Saturday, November 4, Shaw delivered that farewell and resigned not just from the conference but from his various offices including an editorship of the Texas Christian Advocate, one of the curators of Southwestern University, Secretary of the Board of Missions, member of the Board of Publications of the Advocate, and member of the General Board of Missions.

Shaw moved back to Waco and only a month after the conference, on Dec. 2, 1882, was instrumental in forming the Religious and Benevolent Association. In 1883 that association began publishing the Independent Pulpit, a monthly twenty-four page magazine that championed the modernist cause. By 1884 the Association had grown large enough to build its own building, Liberal Hall. The Independent Pulpit circulated beyond Texas, and Shaw gave weekly lectures.

Naturally those lectures attracted the scorn of more orthodox preachers. Waco Baptist, B. H. Carroll preached a sermon, “The Agnostic,” aimed directly at members of the Society. The Religious and Benevolent Society did not last. Liberal Hall burned in 1889 and was not rebuilt.

Shaw’s personal life was filled with tragedy. His first wife died leaving him to raise five young children. His second wife also died. In 1910 he moved to California to live with one of his daughters. After his death in 1926, his ashes were returned to Waco.

this Week in Texas Methodist HIstory October 24

2010-10-22T06:26:00.000-07:00

Charles Shearn Born in Bath, England, October 30, 1794

One of the most distinguished Methodist lay men of the 19th century, Charles Shearn, was born on October 30, 1794, in Bath, England. He immigrated to Texas in 1835, in time to fight in the Texas Revolution. He and his son were captured by General Urrea’s troops, but when Urrea discovered they were British subjects, the Shearns were released. In 1837, Shearn moved to Houston. His move to the city named after the hero of the Battle of San Jacinto less than a year after its founding was a wise move. As Houston grew, so did Shearn’s mercantile business. He prospered.

Shearn became a civic and religious leader. He was chief justice (old term for County Judge). He was on the city council and served as road commissioner. His service to the church was so great that the Methodist church was named in his honor. He was on the building committee that Robert Alexander authorized in 1842, and was twice fiscal agent for the Texas Christian Advocate. He died in 1871. Shearn was renamed First Methodist when it moved to its present location in 1910.

This Week in Texas Methodist History October 17

2010-10-16T07:02:00.000-07:00

Texas Conference Opens New Headquarters October 20, 1967

On October 20, 1967 a special session of the Texas Conference convened at St. Paul’s Methodist Church on South Main Street in Houston. The purpose of this session was to open the conference’s new headquarters building at 5215 Main Street, just a few block to the north. The conference needed new facilities because of its programs and staff were expanding. The conference had been in a church building boom, and the impending merger of the churches in the Texas Conference (Central Jurisdiction) in just three years would further increase its membership by about 1/6th. It was time for a new facility.

The headquarters occupied some of the most valuable real estate in Houston. It was only a few blocks from the Medical Center which included the world famous Methodist Hospital of Houston, Rice University, and a major cultural and recreational area that included a park, zoo, and museums. Besides its proximity to St. Paul’s, it was also convenient to First Methodist Houston.

The building was made possible mainly through the generosity of R. E. (Bob) and Vivian Smith, members of First Methodist Church. Bob Smith had climbed the economic ladder from roughneck to driller to petroleum company owner. He invested his money in Harris County real estate and invested his time in civic service to Houston. At one time he owned more than 11,000 acres of Harris County property. He served on a variety of boards including the Houston Symphony, the Houston Museum of Fine Arts, and the Methodist Hospital. He was instrumental in bringing major league baseball to Houston and, with Roy Hofheinz, building the Harris County Domed Stadium (the Astrodome). He served on the boards of both Texas Wesleyan College and Southwestern University.

The generosity of the Smiths allowed the conference to move fairly quickly on the project. On April 29, 1966 a special session of the conference was held at Lakeview to discuss the issue of a new building. In June the 1966 annual conference authorized borrowing $275,000 for the project. Sixteen months later the building was open for business.

The special session convened at 1:30 p.m. on October 20, 1967 at St. Paul’s and conducted a few pro forma business items. Dr. Charles Allen presented a Bible to his parishioners, Bob and Vivian Smith, and thanked them for their donation. Conference members processed to the new headquarters. Vivian Smith cut the ribbon. Several dignitaries participated in the ceremony. Houston Mayor Louie Welch, Rabbi Hyman Schachtel, Episcopal Bishop Milton Richardson, and Roman Catholic Bishop John Morkovsky were all there.

The total cost of the building, landscaping, carpeting, parking area had been $364.602. The furnishings cost another $61,000. The indebtedness of $275,000 to the Great Southern Life Insurance Company of Houston was covered with a twenty year note at 6% interest. The monthly payment was $1971.75. The modern building contained the Bishop’s office, conference staff, the two Houston District Superintendents, the Houston District Board of Missions, and the Houston office of the Methodist Home. The Smith Building, since remodeled and expanded, continues to serve the needs of the conference.

This Week in Texas Methodist History October 10

2010-10-09T07:25:00.000-07:00

Texas Conference (CJ) Passes Two Anti-Lynching Resolutions October 15, 1946

One of the continuing threads of the history of the United States is the inherent tension in a federal system between the powers of the federal government and those of the states. The specific issues have changed through the years from South Carolina’s attempts to “nullify” the collection of U. S. tariffs in the early 1830s to the present attempt by several state attorneys general to nullify the extension of health insurance.

It may surprise many readers of this column to know that a major flash point between states rights advocates and advocates of federal power was whether the federal government should protect African Americans by passing a federal anti-lynch law. Conservatives argued that a federal anti-lynch law would usurp the police powers of the states. The battle was mainly fought at the quadrennial Democratic National Convention. Liberals would bring a resolution to the Platform Committee asking that the Democratic Party support a law that would use the law enforcement resources of the federal government to punish lynch mob participants. Conservative Southerners would defeat the resolution.

A call for the passage of such a law was a constant feature of the African American press during the 1920s and 1930s, and at least some MECS women, including Jessie Daniel Ames, founder of the Association of Southern Women for the Prevention of Lynching, adopted the cause.

The passage of a federal antilynching was still an uphill battle, and lynching continued to occur. The states rights argument that law enforcement was a local issue was contradicted by the fact that local police officers sometimes participated in the lynching, local grand juries seldom indicted the murderers, and guilty verdicts for those criminals were few and far between. Even guilty verdicts sometimes resulted in insignificant penalties.
A particularly egregious lynching had occurred about 60 miles east of Atlanta, Georgia, on July 25, 1946 George and Mae Dorsey and Roger and Dorothy Malcolm; two young African American couples were brutally killed by a lynch mob. George Dorsey had recently returned from five years military service in the Pacific theater.

In this case the FBI did investigate, but no indictments were returned. President Truman did introduce antilynching legislation. Southern conservatives killed it. No one was ever charged at either the state or federal level for these four murders.

It was in this context that the Texas Conference (Central Jurisdiction) met at Boynton Chapel in Houston from October 15-20, 1946. The conference passed two resolutions dealing with lynching. One was composed by a committee and called upon President Truman to bring the perpetrators of the Georgia lynching to justice. The other was submitted to the conference by the Rev. A. W. Carr, a retired minister, who had joined the conference in 1900. Carr described the lynching as “the most dastardly, base and cowardly act ever perpetrated against the Negro in the United States.” Carr’s resolution also called upon President Truman to seek justice.

The passage of these resolutions was one small step on the road to racial justice. It would be more than a decade before federal legislation authorized national law enforcement

This Week in Texas Methodist History October 3

2010-09-30T21:22:00.000-07:00

Francis Wilson Visits President October 3, 1844

As regular readers of this column will know, Texas Methodism during the Republic of Texas period relied heavily on recruits from the United States to fill the pulpits. The greatest concentration of Methodists in the 1840s was in the Ohio Valley so it is natural that many of the preachers who volunteered for the Republic of Texas came from Ohio, Kentucky, (West) Virginia, and other states in the Ohio Valley.

Coming to Texas did not mean an end to the bonds of friendship and family. Republic of Texas preachers often returned to the United States. J. W. Fields and T. O. Summers did so to find wives. The Kenney family went back to Kentucky to visit family, and we should remember Littleton Fowler’s recruiting at the Ohio and Northern Ohio Annual Conferences.
One of the most interesting trips to the United State from the Republic of Texas was the one that Francis Wilson made in 1844. He left San Augustine on May 22 and returned to that city on December 27. His journey is particularly interesting because it combined fund raising for Wesleyan College in San Augustine, speaking in favor of the annexation of Texas to the United States, visiting family members and the graves of his children, preaching, attending the Ohio Annual Conference, and sight seeing.

Wilson attended the Ohio Annual Conference from September 4 to 12 and then set out for Washington City and instead of taking the much easier river route upstream to Pittsburgh and then by land, he chose to go via the more scenic, lightly populated mountain trails across the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains.

He went first to his brother who lived in Williamsport, Maryland, whom he had not seen in 28 years. By October 3, he was in Washington and Saturday, October 5, 1844, he visited the president and talked to him about Texas annexation.

Wilson’s editor inserts after “. .I went to see the President” (James Polk). That is impossible since Polk was inaugurated the following March 3, 1845 John Tyler was President of the United States on October 5, 1844. Their discussion about annexation must have been an interesting one. At one time, the unpopular Tyler had pinned his reelection hopes on the annexation issue, but by October the dream of winning the 1844 presidential election was over for Tyler. In October, 1844, when he visited with Wilson, he was using his influence to deny the Democratic nomination to Martin van Buren, an anti-annexationist, and elect James Polk who was for annexation. The politics behind the annexation explain why Texas was annexed by joint resolution of the House and Senate rather than by treaty. A treaty required 2/3 vote while the joint resolution required a simple majority.
After his Washington visit, Wilson returned to Texas via a southern route, eventually taking steamboat passage from Mobile. He continued to raise money for Wesleyan College all the way home.

This Week in Texas Methodist History September 26

2010-09-25T07:26:00.000-07:00

Camp Meeting Begins at Rutersville Under Difficult Conditions October 1, 1841

A recent post at This Week in Texas Methodist History told the story of T. O. Summers and his exhibiting a horned frog at a camp meeting in Alabama in 1843. (See post for August 29, 2010) Two years earlier Summers left his congregation in Houston for a two week tour that included camp meetings in Rutersville and Montgomery.

On Wednesday the 29th of September, 1841, Thomas O. Summers, the preacher for Galveston and Houston, borrowed a pony from a man named Davidson so he could attend the Rutersville Camp Meet announced for the weekend of October 1-3. He travelled westward, following in reverse the same route he and Bishop Waugh had used the previous winter after they left the first session of the Texas Conference. That route took him to David Ayres’s house at Centre Hill, where he learned that Ayres’s grandson, Robert Franklin Alexander, the son of Robert and Eliza Alexander died on September 30. The poor boy was fifty-one weeks old. The Ayres and Alexander families lived about four miles apart, Ayres in Centre Hill and Alexander on his ranch named Cottage Hill.

Summers pushed on to Rutersville where he informed the campers that Alexander was too grief-stricken to attend and that Jesse Hord was too sick to come. The preaching duties were shared by Summers and John Wesley Kenney with Abner Manly occupying the pulpit once. Rutersville was an important Methodist community. The Texas Conference had been organized there the previous Christmas, and the college was about to finish a two-story 52 feet by 26 feet building. One presumes that some of the camp meeting attendees were college students. Instructor Thomas Bell wrote his father on October 11 that the Methodists and Baptists both had camp meetings at Rutersville, and the Cumberland Presbyterians were planning one. The letter is particularly valuable because Bell explicitly states the non-sectarian nature of Rutersville College.

After the camp meeting, Summers left in Ayres’s cart and spent two nights at Cottage Hill with the grieving Alexander family. On Wednesday, October 6, the party, now including Ayres, Summers, Alexander, and “the ladies” left for another camp meeting, this one in Montgomery. Summers did not return to Houston until October 11 or 12. When he did, he learned from Francis Moore that the Methodist laity of Houston had been holding organized prayer meetings in his absence.

Tragedy again struck the Alexander and Ayres families. On November 9, less than six weeks after her brother’s death, Ann Eliza Alexander joined her younger brother in death. She was three years old. Both children were buried at Cottage Hill but are memorialized by a stone in Prairie Lea Cemetery in Brenham.

This Week in Texas Methodist History September 19

2010-09-18T07:56:00.000-07:00

Churches Celebrate Heritage September 19, 2010

On Sunday, September 19, 2010, at least two Texas Conference UMC churches will celebrate special anniversaries.

Greggton UMC in Longview will celebrate 100 years of witness and service in Gregg County. The farming community existed as early as 1873 and was called Willow Springs when the Texas and Pacific Railroad established a station there. The MECS church was organized in 1910 and was called Center Point. Extant records show that it was part of the Hallsville Circuit in the 1920’s along with Hallsville, Summerfield, Winterfield, and LaGrone’s Chapel. All of Gregg County was transformed by the discovery of the East Texas Oil Field, and the community was renamed Greggton in the early 1930s. During the 1950’s it was annexed by Longview.

Greggton UMC is celebrating its centennial with a week of services culminated in a Sunday service at Pine Tree Auditorium followed by a barbecue lunch. Bishop Janice Huie will participate in the celebration.

Jones Memorial UMC in Houston will celebrate fifty years of ministry with a special worship service on September 19, 2010. The church was organized in the residence of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Nora on September 19, 1960. Bishop Noah Moore appointed the Rev. Dr. J. S. Scott to be the founding pastor. The congregation moved into its own building in 1963. It has been blessed with a succession of distinguished pastors. Dr. Scott was followed by Revs. Lewis Jackson, Sr., Joseph Cox, Louis Greer, Donald Waddleton, and Lawrence Young. The current pastor is the Rev. Kenneth R. Levingston.

Jones Memorial UMC now worships in new facilities at Highway 288 and Almeda-Genoa Road in Houston.

The guest preacher for the 50th anniversary celebration will be former pastor Dr. Waddleton.

This Week in Texas Methodist History September 12

2010-09-11T06:24:00.000-07:00

Texas Conference Enters Computer Age September 13, 1968

Few persons present at a special session of the Texas Annual Conference on September 13, 1968, could have predicted the pervasive influence electronic computing would assume in all areas of life. Delegates were asked to approve a plan to count ballots by computer at that session. In only a few decades computers would transform both workplace and home, but in 1968 they were like “a cloud no larger than a man’s hand” on the horizon.

Setting the stage—The General Conference of 1968 was momentous. It created the United Methodist Church by the merger of the Methodist Church and the Evangelical United Brethren. It mandated the abolition of the Central Jurisdiction and in doing so mandated the integration of the races in the new United Methodist Church.

Only a few weeks after the General Conference of 1968 adjourned, the various annual conferences met and set up committees to work out the details of the mergers. There were two Central Jurisdiction annual conferences in Texas, the Texas and West Texas. With the exception of a few charges in the Texas Conference (CJ) that went to the North Texas and Central Texas Conferences (SCJ) and a few West Texas Conference (CJ) charges in Wharton, Robertson, Falls, and Milam Counties that came into Texas Conference (SCJ), the boundaries of the Texas Conference (CJ) and Texas Conference (SCJ) were virtually identical. The plan of merger stipulated that the former Texas Conference (CJ) would be renamed the Gulf Coast Conference until a final merger that would occur June 1, 1970.

A Committee on Inter-Conference Relations was charged with presenting a merger plan at the June, 1969, annual conferences. The plan of merger would require a 2/3 vote of both the Texas and Gulf Coast Conferences.

There was another transition for the Texas Conference in 1968. Bishop Paul E. Martin completed eight years as presiding bishop of the Texas Conference (SCJ)and retired. Bishop Noah Moore who had presided over the Houston Area for the Central Jurisdiction transferred to Nebraska and the bishop in Nebraska, Kenneth Copeland, was reassigned to the Houston Area. Copeland began September 1, and just two weeks later, a called session of annual conference convened to welcome him and Mrs. Copeland.

In addition to the official welcome, a few business items had accumulated in the three months since the regular session adjourned. Those included a retirement, a readmission, a request for disability leave, several new nominations for committees, and so on.

Because the merger of 1968 still had so many details to work out, a special called session of General Conference was to be held in 1970. An ad hoc committee charged with “studying the feasibility of employing the techniques of Computer Science in casting ballots for the election of delegates to General Conference” came to the September 1968 session with a resolution. Rev. Kenneth Lambert presented the report of the committee which had been chaired by Ed Curry. He moved that the conference adopt electronic counting for its ballots. The motion passed, and Rev. Emmitt Barrow moved that an expenditure of $600 be authorized to implement electronic balloting. The Texas Conference thus entered the computer age.

The conference was opened for announcements, and the Rev. Frank Richardson announced that the Reverend John Goodwin had died. (Mrs. Goodwin died the previous February.) Perhaps some of the attendees with historical imagination paused to consider the pace of technological change. Goodwin had been born in 1873. When he was born, there was not a single telephone in Texas, and now the conference was entering the computer era—all in the span of one man’s life!

Not so fast. . . No elections were held after all. When the 1969 Texas Conference met, Asbury Lenox brought a Conference Council recommendation to the floor to rescind the enabling legislation that called for the election of new delegates to the 1970 General Conference. The Lenox motion passed 404 to 74, and the delegates elected to the 1968 General Conference were named to the 1970 General Conference. Counting of ballots by computer would have to wait.

This Week in Texas Methodist HIstory September 5

2010-09-04T06:30:00.000-07:00

Clarendon College Opens September 5, 1898

Joseph Haymes begins his discussion of Clarendon College with the observation that “the city of Clarendon has been universally known as the Athens of the Panhandle.” He meant that it was a seat of education and culture.

The Fort Worth and Denver Railway was built from Fort Worth to the Texas state line from 1881 to 1888. Towns were platted, lands surveyed into farms, and settlements all along the rail line sprang us. Clarendon had an advantage because it was one of the few settlements in the region that preceded the construction of the railroad. The town had been a project of the Rev. Lewis Henry Carhart (see post for April 6, 2008). When the Fort Worth and Denver came to Donley County, the town relocated a short distance to the tracks and within a few years became a thriving shipping point for agricultural products of the region.

About ten years after the railroad construction, the push for a Methodist school gained momentum. Rev. J. R. Henson led a campaign to clear out the saloons and gambling dens from the Feather Hill section of the town, and the community began soliciting donations for the construction of a school. In November 1897 the District Conference meeting in Memphis received the offer of a school and forwarded it to the Northwest Texas Annual Conference.

The Conference accepted the school, so on Sept. 5, 1898, the Clarendon College and Training school opened with four teachers and twenty-one students. The founding president was J. W. Adkisson who was followed in by W. B. McKeown. When president J. R. Mood arrived in 1906, he found 268 students.

Clarendon College provided a valuable service in that it provided an education close to home for many students in the Panhandle. Some of those students went on to distinguished church careers. One such student was Cecil Peeples who became president of Lon Morris College. (see post for June 10, 2010)

Clarendon College continued until 1927 when its assets were liquidated and the property became a public institution. It now offers instruction at Clarendon, Pampa, and Childress. The Clarendon campus is 107 acres.

This Week in Texas Methodist HIstory August 29

2010-08-28T06:47:00.000-07:00

Thomas Summers Crashes Camp Meeting and Shows Horned Frogs, September 1843

Thomas O. Summers, the preacher at Galveston and Houston toured the United States in 1841 to raise money for church construction in Texas. In June 1843 the first service was held at Ryland’s Chapel in Galveston. Unfortunately the building was not paid for. Summers embarked on another trip in the late summer of 1843. September found him in Alabama where he invited himself to a camp meeting. His arrival caused a stir, not because of the eloquence of his preaching, but because he brought some Texan exotica –horned frogs preserved in alcohol.

His appearance at the camp meeting is described in Anson West’s History of Methodism in Alabama (1893). An excerpt from that work follows. DeYampert was Lucius Q. C. De Yampert. Pierce was Lovick Pierce, then stationed at Mobile.

The Rev. Thomas O. Summers was . . . from the Republic of Texas. He was making a tour of Alabama and other states soliciting funds to pay debts incurred in the erection of houses of worship for the use of the Methodist Episcopal Church at Galveston and Houston, Texas. He was a native of England, at the time herein mentioned he was about thirty-one years old, had been in the United States about thirteen years, had been preaching nine years, and was unmarried, and was in search of a good wife. In his manners in the social circle he was brusque; in the pulpit he was stormy and fidgety. He exhibited at that Camp-meeting at DeYampert's Camp-ground some horned frogs in alcohol preserved, which he had brought with him from Texas. It is quite easy to imagine the impression which he made on the minds of the Camp-meeting folks of Alabama concerning himself by the exhibition of his frogs, and the interest which he created thereby in the peculiar product of the then neighboring Republic of Texas. Tradition says that about the second day of that Camp-meeting the Rev. Mr. Summers was put up to preach, and that the effort of that hour was unacceptable to the congregation, and to Brother DeYampert it was quite offensive. He was offended by the matter of the sermon and the manner of the preacher. The other preachers filled the pulpit at the different hours from that on, leaving Summers to himself, his horned frogs, and his Agency for funds for erecting Churches in the land from which he had brought his exhibits. Summers, true to his business, solicited a contribution from DeYampert to assist his Churches in Texas. DeYampert gruffly refused to make a contribution. The meeting went on, Sunday approached, Dr. Pierce continued sick. Hopes were entertained, so tradition says, that Dr. Pierce, the great preacher, would recover sufficiently by Sunday to preach on that day; but on the arrival of Saturday evening the physician who had charge of the sick man pronounced against his preaching. There was an emergency. The presiding elder called a Council, constituted of the home preachers. The business of the Council was to improvise and provide for the services of Sunday, the great day. The Council met in the capacious tent of DeYampert. The perplexing question was: Who shall preach at 11 o'clock A.M. Sunday? It was first suggested that, of course, the presiding elder was the preacher for that hour, but he humbly declined in favor of any one who could and would meet the emergency. The home preachers were suggested, one after another, until all had declined. Not one was willing to attempt to preach at that hour in the face of the expectation created by the trumpeted fame of Dr. Pierce. At last one in the Council moved that the Rev. Thomas O. Summers be appointed to preach at 11 o'clock A.M. Sunday. That proposition stirred the indignation of Brother DeYampert, who railed out, " He cannot preach the gospel! The poorest preacher here can preach better." The council adjourned and dispersed without making any appointment for the great hour, and the presiding elder had the responsibility and the prospect of occupying the hour himself. While the preachers were engaged in the consultation about the appointments for Sunday the Rev. Mr. Summers, who was being entertained at Brother DeYampert's tent, was in his room in the tent adjoining the one in which the preachers were assembled, and in such proximity that he could not avoid hearing what was said.

The gathering of that multitude was impressive. As the dusty crowds from the hills and woods swelled the throng, and as the numerous groups of the rich, with the roar and clatter of wheels and hoofs, the glare and glitter of trappings and fixtures, approached the outskirts and rolled through the encampment the interest became intense. The scene was really impressive.

The presiding elder looked upon the vast throng, and beheld the array of wealth and elegance, and at the very last moment his courage failed, and instead of preaching himself, as till that very moment he had really expected to do, he, upon his own responsibility, and at the risk of incurring the lasting displeasure of Brother DeYambert, led the Rev. Thomas O. Summers on the stand, and informed him that he must preach. Mr. Summers knew the situation, but he was not in the least abashed. He at once proceeded with the services. He read a hymn after the manner peculiar to himself, and then prayed. The prayer was seldom equaled. It was characterized by devotion, unction, propriety of utterance, variety of petition, and heartiness of thanksgiving. To use one of Mr. Summers's own phrases it was "good to the use of edifying." When through with the introductory part of the services, and ready to proceed with his sermon, Mr. Summers took his position at the bookboard, and looking Brother DeYampert, who was near the stand, and in full view, squarely in the face, said: "I heard it declared last night I could not preach the gospel. May the Holy Ghost enable me to preach this day to this dying people, ' not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect.'" He then read his text: " But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling-block, and unto the Greeks foolishness; but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.". . ., and he was that day at his best, and he drew, the Holy Spirit assisting, the audience to the theme, and before he was through with the exposition of the text the assembly gave demonstrations of great enthusiasm. At the close of the sermon the spacious altar was crowded with penitent sinners. The meeting went on for some days longer with intense interest and with glorious results, the Rev. Mr. Summers working efficiently, and working till the conclusion of the last doxology. Brother DeYampert changed his mind, reversed his verdict, gave Mr. Summers a liberal contribution for his Churches in Texas, and he became one of Mr. Summers's greatest admirers and warmest friends.

This Week in Texas Methodist History August 22

2010-08-21T06:52:00.000-07:00

Littleton Fowler Leaves Tuscumbia, Alabama, For Texas, August 22, 1837

Three days after Robert Alexander crossed the Sabine into Texas as the first officially appointed missionary to the Republic of Texas, his colleague, Littleton Fowler, left Tuscumbia, Alabama, to join him. Fowler was two weeks shy of this 34th birthday and had been working as an agent for LaGrange College near Tuscumbia in northwestern Alabama for three years. (This LaGrange College should not be confused with LaGrange College of Georgia which still exists or Hannibal-LaGrange College in Missouri. The LaGrange College in Alabama did not survive the Civil War.)

Since Fowler was embarking on a new phase of his life, he started a new journal. Here is what he wrote on August 22, 1837.
Tuscumbia, Alabama, August 22, 1837. This day I leave this place for the Republic of Texas, there to labor as a missionary, having lately been appointed to this field by the Board of Foreign Missions of New York. The impression made on my mind to go as a foreign missionary to Texas is as strong as the one which first called me to the ministry, consequently I shall expect the presence and the blessings of God to attend me. In view of the labor and privations which must await me my soul is firm and undaunted. I rather rejoice that I am worthy to labour and suffer for my blessed Master. Yet the fact of being severed from my country, my kindred, my friends and brethren fills me with deep sorrow and affliction. Rev. Dr. Martin Ruter and Rev. Robert Alexander are to be my fellow-labourers in the Texas mission.

Fowler was undoubtedly filled with a sense of holy purpose, but his statement about being severed from his kindred is exaggerated. In August, 1837, he had two brothers, John Hopkins Fowler and Bradford Fowler already living near their mother’s family, the Wrights, along the Red River near Pecan Point and Jonesboro. A younger brother, Andrew Jackson Fowler, would join them in Texas later in 1837. Although Bradford would later move back to Kentucky, Littleton always had many “kindred” in Texas. Only ten months from this journal entry he would also have a wife when he married a widow, Missouri Lockwood Porter in Nacogdoches.
This was not Fowler’s first trip to Texas. In January, 1833, immediately after his appointment as agent for LaGrange, he had been to Texas to visit his relatives. Fowler thus had some first hand knowledge about Texas and must have heard about Texas from his brothers, cousins, and aunt and uncle. John Hopkins Fowler served in 1836 with Col. Robert M. Coleman’s First Regiment, Texas Rangers, and the Wright and Fowler families were among the most prominent in northeastern Texas.

Fowler took his time en route. He visited with his family, spent two weeks sick in Jonesboro and went to Hempstead County, Arkansas where he performed the wedding ceremony for this brother. He also recruited John Bunyan Denton to join him. They arrived in Nacogdoches on October 16, almost two months after leaving Tuscumbia.

This Week in Texas Methodist History August 15

2010-08-14T06:39:00.000-07:00

Seven People Completely Sanctified at Cedar Bayou Revival August, 1895

In the second of his two volumes on Texas Methodist history, Macum Phelan reports that the Holiness Movement reached its peak in Texas around 1894-95. Depending on one’s point of view, the Holiness Movement was either a vital outpouring of the Holy Spirit that energized Methodists or a deeply divisive force that split congregations and conferences. Phelan’s sympathies were with the second viewpoint.

A hallmark of the Holiness Movement was the doctrine of entire sanctification. According to this doctrine a person was sanctified when he or she received the assurance of salvation through the witness of the Holy Spirit. A “second blessing” or “entire sanctification” was also the work of the Holy Spirit. It allowed the believer to be free from the worldly desires that led to sin. It then became possible to lead a holy life.

The Holiness Movement was closely tied to revivalism, and especially to travelling revivalists. Much of the tension in the 1890s revolved around station preachers (that is preachers appointed to a particular church) who resented the incursions of travelling revivalists. The revival preacher would sometimes earn as much in two weeks as the station preacher earned in six months. Station preachers complained that revivalists swooped in and worked their members into a lather and then left. The station preacher was then responsible the day-to-day ministry to the people.

The General Conference of the MECS dealt with the issue by passing a rule that that the station preacher had to give permission for a travelling evangelist to hold a revival in his parish. Such a rule naturally led to some of the revivalists surrendering their credentials so they could preach where the Spirit directed them. Several Christian denominations were founded during the Holiness era by preachers who had once been Methodists.

The situation was not always contentious. In August, 1895, the Texas Christian Advocate reported on a sixteen day meeting at Cedar Bayou in which several preachers cooperated. Seth Ward, the presiding elder of the Galveston District and later bishop, started the meeting with a quarterly conference. Four other preachers including E. L Shettles also took the pulpit. The Cedar Bayou preacher, E. M. Meyers, reported that nine of the “best members of my church” claimed to have been entirely sanctified by the blood of Christ.

This Week in Texas Methodist HIstory August 8

2010-08-07T06:17:00.000-07:00

Committee Convenes at Rutersville to Examine Charges Against Preacher Aug. 9, 1854

An incident in June, 1854, led to formal charges against Rev. Joshua Shepard. Henry Tatum was the accuser, and the formal charge was engaging in “unministerial, immoral, and unchristian behavior.” The victim was Rev. Walsh, a recent transfer from the Memphis Conference. Josiah Whipple, the Presiding Elder of the Rutersville District assembled a committee consisting of Homer Thrall, I. G. John, and George Tittle. They heard eight specifications.

1. When at the Tatum home, Mrs. Tatum asked Shepard how Rev. Walsh was getting along with his congregation. Shepard answered in a “reproachful, envious, and blasphemous manner, they think he is next to Jesus Christ.”
2. Several weeks later at the Wallace home, Shepard lured Walsh outside and assailed him with oaths and blows.
3. He had an armed accomplice with him to help him if necessary, in the incident in #2.
Specifications 4 through 8 all deal with Shepard’s lying about beating Walsh. The lies were not denials of the beating, but exaggeration of the violence including the use of a stick he had deliberately prepared for the purpose.

The committee answered “not sustained” to all nine charges even though Shepard admitted the beating. How did he get off? Shepard’s defense was that Walsh had insulted the memory of his dead mother, and the insult had put him in such a state of mind, he wasn’t responsible for his actions. Now that he had calmed down, he sincerely repented. Thrall, John, and Tittle concluded their report, “”We consider his course hasty and imprudent, and in order to honor the law of the Church, we would direct his Presiding Elder to administer such reproof as he may see property.”

You may read the entire report in the pages of the Texas Ranger, Aug. 17, 1854. at the Portal to Texas History. http://texashistory.unt.edu/ Use the :advanced search.” Use Whipple as the search term and limit the date range to 1854.

This Week in Texas Methodist History August 1

2010-07-31T05:58:00.000-07:00

Fowler Orders O'Conner to Ease Slavery Controversy August 1, 1843

Readers of previous posts have learned of Littleton Fowler’s recruitment trip to Ohio for the annual conferences of 1842. That recruitment trip was spectacularly successful. The Texas Conference was invigorated by able preachers from the Ohio and North Ohio Conferences. Two of the recruits, John Wesley DeVilbiss and Homer Thrall, were two of the most prominent preachers in Texas for years to come.

William O’Conner, another recruit, lived less than a year after transferring to Texas, but he was the subject of an intense controversy over slavery in the summer of 1843. We know about the case from the correspondence between Littleton Fowler, John Woolam, and William Alexander. Unfortunately none of O’Conner’s letters have survived to tell his side of the story.

We can piece together the incident from the letters. O’Conner made disparaging remarks about slavery in the presence of William R. Alexander (Robert’s brother) in Harrison County. O’Conner is alleged to have said that he “. . . had as soon associate with the devil as with slavery. That the Methodist preachers who own slaves are trampling with impunity the Discipline under their feet. . .”

Accusations and counter-accusations flew back and forth. Alexander denied calling the circuit stewards together to try to remove O’Conner. He maintained they only wanted to consult with him. On August 1 Fowler wrote O’Conner, telling him to “cool it”, and to remind him of the conversations they had on the subject in Ohio and en route. Fowler’s admonition is the same advice presiding elders and district superintendents have been giving throughout Methodist history—if you keep on with this controversy, you’ll become unappointable.

At the first opportunity Fowler went to Harrison County and heard O’Conner’s side of the story in person and was partially won over to the preacher’s version of events. . Unfortunately O’Conner died soon after that visit in October, 1843, and was buried near Marshall. He was only 27 years old. The following April, when Fowler went to the 1844 General Conference in New York, he stopped in Cincinnati to make a pastoral call on O’Conner’s parents. He wrote back to his wife, Missouri, that Mrs. O’Conner cried as if her son had just been buried.

The correspondence concerning the O’Conner-Alexander affair is in the Fowler Collection at Bridwell Library, Perkins School of Theology, SMU. .

This Week in Texas Methodist History July 25

2010-07-24T06:43:00.000-07:00

Chauncey Richardson Reports on Church Dedication at Montgomery, July 27, 1851

Montgomery had been a preaching point for Methodist circuit riders while Texas was still part of the Mississippi Conference. Ike Strickland is credited with organizing a church at the home of William Sanders on Dec. 30, 1838. Evidently the church grew slowly because just two weeks later Strickland wrote Littleton Fowler asking for a transfer because the area was too thinly settled.

By 1851 the population had grown large enough to build a church building. Chauncey Richardson wrote about the dedicatory services of the church named Alexander Chapel after Robert Alexander. Today Montgomery is a bustling small city with an attractive Methodist church building, a large high school, and many residential developments on the western shores of Lake Conroe.

Here’s what Richardson wrote about the Montgomery church.

In the flourishing village of Montgomery, Methodism seems to be permanently established. At an early period in the exploration of Texas by the missionaries of the Methodist Church, this place was visited, but of the success of their labors here for several years, we are not prepared to speak definitely. But in our visit to this town on last Sabbath we found a church of some thirty odd members, most of whom are truly devoted Christians, and tetotalists. They have evinced their Christian enterprise in sustaining a stationed preacher, and in the erection of a neat and commodious chapel, which was dedicated to the worship of Almighty God on last Sabbath.

A quarterly meeting was in progress, the services of which commenced on Friday. We were not able to reach the town before Saturday night, being just in time to listen to an excellent sermon from Rev. George Rottenstein, which was followed by a warm and persuasive exhortation from Rev. R. Alexander at the close of which, mourners were called to the altar, and prayers were offered in their behalf.

An interesting and animated love-feast preceded the public services of the Sabbath. The narrations of Christian experience were lively and expressive of deep religious feeling. It was a precious season to many.
It was our pleasure to conduct the dedicatory services of the new chapel, which is to be called Alexander Chapel, in compliment of Rev. R. Alexander, the Presiding Elder, on Ruterville District, who has preached there frequently for his work's sake.

In these delightful services we were assisted by Rev. Bros. Rottenstein and Alexander—the former offered the first prayer and the latter administered the holy sacrament of the Lord's Supper at the close of the sermon.
God evidently accepted the chapel as his dwelling place, the house of prayer and sacrifice for his people, and recorded his name there. Many realized his presence and were made glad by the benediction of his heavenly grace.
Rev. Bros. Ogletree, Johnson and John were present to assist in the subsequent exercises of the meeting. Our first impressions of Montgomery were quite favorable. We learned that a Baptist church has been organized in this town, and that a handsome subscription for a church edifice has been obtained and that the edifice will be erected forthwith.

July 27th, 1851.

This Week in Texas Methodist History July 18

2010-07-16T08:22:00.000-07:00

Robert Alexander Apprises Littleton Fowler of Church Affairs in the West July 23, 1845

Both Robert Alexander and Littleton Fowler attended the Louisville Convention of 1845 and participated in planning the official secession of the Southern conferences of the MEC to create the MEC South. The trip to Louisville naturally meant that both men had long absences from Texas. In Alexander’s case, he used the opportunity to visit relatives in Tennessee on his way home. He arrived home on June 10 and rested at his farm, Cottage Hill, rather than plunging into his duties as presiding elder. His horse, Henry Bascom, also needed the rest since the mount had “ verry rotten feet.”

Even though he was not making his quarterly conference rounds or attending the camp meetings in his district, the preachers in his district were sending reports. There were the usual reports of conversions at camp meetings. Alexander also passed on complaints he was hearing. The first was discontent over his fellow presiding elder, Chauncey Richardson. He wrote, “he is not popular with his preachers nor with the people generally.” He also wrote that the young preachers were grumbling about having to collect the missionary appropriation. Naturally there were still complaints against John Clark, the only Southern delegate to the General Conference of 1844 who had sided with the North. Alexander’s district was a particular hotbed of anti-Clark sentiment. The resolution condemning him had been introduced at a quarterly meeting at Travis, about 10 miles west of Cottage Hill. Alexander also reported that preachers blamed him and Fowler went appointments went sour.

Does all this sound familiar? Preachers complaining about apportionments and blaming the presiding elder or district superintendent when they receive a bad appointment—sounds like some things never change. The original letter is in the Fowler Collection at Bridwell Library, Perkins School of Theology, SMU.

This Week in Texas Methodist History July 11

2010-07-11T08:19:00.000-07:00

Lydia McHenry Writes Brother, “Do Not Treat Me Like an Idiot.” July 17, 1836

Lydia McHenry, Methodist lay woman, teacher, and mission supporter, immigrated to Texas in December, 1833, with her sister Maria Kenney and her brother-in-law, John Wesley Kenney. The move was prompted by the death of her parents, the Rev. Barnabas and Sarah Hardin McHenry in the cholera epidemic of the previous June. The travelling party arrived in Washington on the Brazos in December, 1833, but when spring came, they moved a few miles to the south in present day Austin County. That move was very significant since it was at that location that Kenney organized the famous 1834 Caney Creek Camp Meeting the following September.

Lydia McHenry and Ann Ayres opened a school on Feb. 1, 1836 at the Ayres residence at Montville (near present day Burton). It was at this school that Wm. B. Travis left his son Charles when he went to the Alamo.

February 1836 was, of course, a very poor time to launch a school because the Texas Revolution was underway. After the fall of the Alamo the Ayres household, including the students who boarded at the school, participated in the Runaway Scrape.

When they finally got back home, Lydia McHenry wrote her brother John McHenry in Hartford, Kentucky. She began her letter of July 17, 1836, in a highly contentious tone. As is often the case, the heirs of the McHenry estate (Lydia, Maria, and their brothers who stayed in Kentucky) disputed the distribution of the assets. (From what the author has been able to piece together from other sources, it seems that the two sisters left for Mexican Texas with at least two horses and three slaves before the estate had been probated. Inference on part of author)

She closes the last paragraph, “I have no wish to discuss the subject, but for God’s sake do not you and Martin any longer treat me as an idiot who required a guardian. . .”

McHenry then goes on to describe their Runaway Scrape adventures and return in which she found her bed destroyed and clothes stolen. Fortunately they were able to find all their cows so they did not starve. She then vented her anger on the Texas government. . .
Our cabinet, with the exception of two, Genl. Zavala and Genl. Lamar, a Frenchman, is perhaps the worst imbecile body that ever sat in judgment on the fate of a nation. Weak, corrupt, and credulous, they were with difficulty prevented from setting Santa Ana (sic) at liberty, notwithstanding all his crimes, upon his bare word that he would pay the expenses of the war.

The same letter reported that John Wesley and Maria Kenney had changed the name of their infant daughter to Emily Travis Kenney in honor of their fallen friend.

The original letter is in the Hardin Collection of the Chicago Historical Society. Some of those letters were published in the Southwestern Historical Quarterly, January 1971.

This Week in Texas Methodist History July 4

2010-07-03T07:13:00.000-07:00

Methodists Mourn Ike Strickland’s Death July, 1839

In 1839 Texas Methodists tempered their celebration of Independence Day with the knowledge that one of their brothers, Isaac L. G. Strickland, had died in West Columbia at the age of thirty.

Strickland had itinerated in Tennessee for six years before transferring to the Texas Mission of the Mississippi Conference in October 1838. Littleton Fowler assigned him to the Montgomery Circuit, and he began his rounds.

Unfortunately he became discouraged. On January 14, 1839 he wrote Fowler asking for a transfer to the Washington Circuit which had recently been left without a preacher because Robert Alexander had moved to Rutersville. Strickland had no way of knowing that Abel Stevens, the preacher stationed at Houston/Galveston, on January 16 had also written Fowler asking for a transfer to Washington.

The arrival of Joseph Sneed from Mississippi allowed Fowler to grant both men’s requests for transfers. He decided to handle it in person. While at the Mississippi Annual Conference in December, 1838, Bishop Andrew entrusted Sneed with $800 of mission money to distribute in salaries to men of the Texas Mission. Fowler announced that he would go to Washington County in February, 1839, and act as pay master. The expectation of finally being paid insured that all the preachers in “West Texas” assembled at William Kesee’s where Fowler held a quarterly meeting during the first week of March.

Having all the western preachers at one place for several days allowed Fowler to size up the situation. He moved Stevens to Washington and Strickland to Brazoria. Sneed, the newcomer, took Strickland’s place in Montgomery.

Strickland started the Brazoria Circuit in March. He died at the Bell Plantation at West Columbia on July 2 and was buried in a private cemetery on the plantation. There was an outpouring of grief such as that from Jesse Hord, writing from Velasco on July 8.

I scarcely know how, or what to wright[sic], I am so overwhelmed with feeling by the death of our dear and beloved Bro. Strickland. I know of no death in all my life to which I found it so extremely difficult to be resigned, which indeed is my duty but I am constrained to say, the fleash[sic] is week[sic], very week. But my brother in the Lord is gone, gone to that rest that remains for the people of God. Doubtless while his body and manly [presence?] moulders within the rayless tomb and earthly friends heave their bosoms with agonizing sorrow, disbelieving tears of sympathy from every eye, his blood-washed, his sainted spirit, unconscious of earthly and heart-rending commotions, calmly rests beneath the peaceful umbrage of the tree of life, touching a chord of his golden harp, and making melody, surpassing in softness and sweetness that made by the Angelic choir of Paradise.

(Original in Fowler Collection, Bridwell Library, Perkins School of Theology, SMU)

This Week in Texas Methodist History June 27

2010-06-26T07:20:00.000-07:00

La Trinidad UMC, Fort Worth, Celebrates Founder’s Day, June 27, 2010

Fort Worth’s historic La Trinidad UMC will celebrate Founder’s Day on June 27, 2010. The special day will lift up the life and legacy of Eugenia Smith, a deaconess of the Methodist Episcopal Church South who worked in Wesley Houses in Thurber, Fort Worth, and Houston during her long and distinguished career.

Wesley Houses were a prominent feature of Progressive Era Methodism. They provided a variety of social services such as health education, child care, vocational training, language instruction, Sunday school classes, and recreation. They were often staffed by deaconesses such as Eugenia Smith. The MECS established the office of deaconess in 1902, following the lead of the MEC which had done so in 1888. The office of deaconess provided women opportunities for Christian vocation when full ordination was denied to them on account of sex.

Before coming to Fort Worth, Smith had already worked at Thurber among the Mexican, Italian, and Bohemian immigrants who had come to work in the coal mines. She secured a donation of property from the Texas and Pacific Rail Road and established Marston Hall. After only a few years she came to Fort Worth where she worked in Jerome Duncan Wesley House which was located on the north side of the city to serve the multi-ethnic community that had grown up around the packing houses and flour mills. A 1908 report gives a good idea of the services offered in Fort Worth. In addition to a campaign to have kindergarten included in the public schools, it “maintains a library; playground; kindergarten; day nursery; stamp savings; rummage sale room; classes in sewing; cooking; fancy work; clubs for boys; mission Sunday school.”

Smith later moved to Houston where she continued to work in a Wesley House. It was located on the near north side of downtown near the old McKee Street Methodist Church and received much of its support from First Methodist Church. The author’s grandmother, Ida Wilson Hardt was a good friend of Eugenia Smith and often stayed with her at the Wesley House when annual conference met in Houston.

La Trinidad UMC in Fort Worth traces its origins to the Progressive Era efforts of dedicated women like Eugenia Smith. We salute the church for lifting up her example of ministry.

This Week in Texas Methodist History June 20

2010-06-19T06:56:00.000-07:00

Noted Historian, Henderson Yoakum, Delivers Address to First Graduating Class of Soule University, June 23, 1856

Soule University in Chappell Hill was not the first school established by Texas Methodists, but when it was authorized by the Texas Annual Conference in December, 1855, Methodists hoped they had learned from their experiences, and were going to get it right this time. The big difference this time was a broader base of support. Although a creature of the Texas Conference, the East Texas Conference later added its sponsorship and thereby strengthened the school.

Among the original trustees was a Walker County attorney and historian named Henderson Yoakum (1810-1856). Yoakum was well qualified to serve in that position. He had been involved in the establishment of Andrew Female School, and he wrote the charter for the Presbyterians when they established Austin College (later relocated from Huntsville to Sherman). He was also superintendent of the prison. Sam Houston was one of his law clients and became one of his close friends. In 1853 Yoakum moved out of the city of Huntsville, seven miles to Shepherd’s Valley. It was there that he completed his two volume work, The History of Texas from its First Settlement in 1685 to its Annexation by the United States in 1846. That work, which has been useful to generations of Texas historians, was completed in 1855.

In December of that year the Texas Annual Conference named the Board of Trustees for Soule University. They quickly went to work and were able to open the preparatory department by February. That first class of students finished their work in June and graduation ceremonies were held to mark their accomplishment. Henderson Yoakum gave the commencement address.
Although he was a relatively young man, he would not be alive to attend the second graduation. He died in Houston on November 30. Yoakum County is named in his honor.

This Week in Texas Methodist History June 13

2010-06-12T07:03:00.000-07:00

Cecil Peeples Named President of Lon Morris College June 14, 1935

On June 14, 1935 the Board of Trustees of Lon Morris College, meeting at the Palace Café in Jacksonville, Texas, offered the presidency of the struggling institution to a thirty-two year old preacher from Livingston. Cecil Peeples accepted the offer. He was to remain president until 1972 and remain active as a fund raiser for years after that.

Peeples had been in eastern Texas only four years. He and Mrs. Peeples were teaching school at Texline when he received a call to preach at Garrison. He accepted the call, and served at Garrison, then Weirgate, and then Livingston, all in the Texas Annual Conference.

Meanwhile Lon Morris was feeling the effects of the Great Depression. Many young people could not afford to continue their education past high school. Many donors to church institutions could no longer afford to help out. Lon Morris, like most other private colleges of the era, had debts that seemed overwhelming at the time. Some colleges failed, and closing Lon Morris became a topic of discussion.

Peeples accepted the offer of the presidency and threw himself into the new task. He knew he had to deal with the debt. He wrote personal letters to the creditors and enclosed a portion of the amount owed with a promise that he would pay off the entire debt. Such an approach brought good will to the college.

He wore many hats. He was the development officer (fund raiser). He recruited students. He counseled students with personal, academic, and vocational advice. He taught classes. He crisscrossed the Texas Conference building support for the college.

His typical approach was to load up his car with a student musical group and drive them to some church in the Texas Conference. The students would sing, he would preach, and then he would solicit donations from the congregation and recruit prospective students. Hundreds of East Texans owe their college education to the encouragement Cecil Peeples gave them in such settings. Naturally many prospective students were held back by finances. Much of the encouragement was along the lines of “You come, and we’ll find a way to pay for it.” Many of these trips were held at Sunday night services. That often meant a long drive back to Jacksonville, getting to bed late, and then hitting the ground running on Monday morning with his characteristic energy.

Slowly but surely Peeples chipped away at the debt. He solicited donations from philanthropists. He and his family took meals in the dining hall as part of his salary. The College operated a dairy and grew vegetables. That saved money, provided work for needy students, and furnished the dining hall with fresh produce and milk.

When Peeples retired in 1972, he was named President Emeritus and Chairman of the Permanent Endowment Fund Committee. His total service to Lon Morris thus amounted to more than fifty years. It all began on June 14, 1935.

This Week in Texas Methodist History June 6

2010-06-05T07:53:00.000-07:00

Texas Annual Conferences Convene in Dallas, June 6, 1966

The bicentennial of Methodism in America provided the opportunity for a rare meeting of all the annual conferences in Texas at Dallas in June 1966. Thirty years earlier, in 1936, the annual conferences met in Houston to commemorate the centennial of Texas independence. In 1966 clergy and lay members of the various annual conferences came to Dallas to conduct conference business, worship, and to take some small steps toward ending racial segregation. The joint sessions, unlike those in 1936, were to be racially integrated.

Annual conference sessions were conducted at area churches during the day, and at night all the conferences gathered at Moody Coliseum for combined activities.

Monday night June 6 began with a communion service led by the host bishop, Kenneth Pope. Retired Bishop W. C. Martin preached the sermon, and Bishop Paul Galloway delivered the benediction. Other bishops participating included Paul Martin of the Texas and Rio Grande Conferences, Eugene Slater of the Southwest and Northwest Texas Conferences, and Noah Moore of the Texas and West Texas Conferences of the Central Jurisdiction. The choir from First Methodist Church Wichita Falls provided the music.

On Tuesday night the combined conferences heard an address from Governor John Connally, a Methodist lay man, who had been tragically thrust into the national spotlight less than three years earlier when he had been wounded in the John Kennedy assassination. Part of Connally’s address contained hints of what later became the denomination’s motto when he said, “Methodism has stood in the front ranks for social and economic progress with open minds and open hearts.”

On Wednesday night the conferences came back to Moody Coliseum for a musical-dance-drama pageant entitled “The Church is Here!” The presentation spanned the 200 years from the colonial era in which Methodism had come to America to the secular society and radical theology of the 1960s. A co-producer of the pageant was Johnnie Marie Brooks Grimes, assistant to SMU President Willis Tate, and one of the most outstanding Methodist lay women of the mid-twentieth century.

On Thursday afternoon Moody Coliseum was packed to the rafters for a joint ordination service for deacons and elders of the various conferences. The honor of preaching the ordination sermon went to retired Bishop Ivan L. Holt who had been elected bishop in 1938. One of the powerful ideas in Bishop Holt’s sermon was sage advice for the ordinands. He said

It is not the function of religion to answer every question. A twelve year old boy can ask questions nobody can answer. It is the function of religion to give to women and men the courage to carry on in the face of questions nobody can answer.

On Thursday night the conferences came back to Moody Coliseum one last time. After the usual opening music, prayer, and courtesies, Bishops Moore, Galloway, Martin, Slater, and Pope read the appointments. After the appointments, all sang A Charge to Keep I Have, and Bishop Slater pronounced the benediction.

These four days in June, 1966, which had been set aside to honor an important historic event, did not wallow in the past. The conferences were fully engaged with the vital issues of the day. On June 6, the opening day of the conferences, James Meredith was shot as he began a protest march from Memphis to Jackson. The Conferences responded with resolutions and prayers for peace. The various annual conferences invited Professor Albert Outler of Perkins School of Theology to report on Vatican II at which he had been an official observer. The Boards of Christian Social Concerns of the conferences presented resolutions dealing with racial and ethnic justice. For example, the Rio Grande Conference asked other Methodists to share their concern about barbers in Dimmitt, Alton, Lockney, and Crosbyton who refused service to Latin Americans. The presence of the African American conferences in the joint sessions was a step on the road to complete desegregation of the church. Delegates who came to commemorate history found themselves fully involved in contemporary events.`

The author is grateful to Retired Bishop John Wesley Hardt for sharing his memories of this event.

This Week in Texas Methodist History May 30

2010-05-29T09:00:00.000-07:00

Town and Country Commission Report Highlights Changing Demographics May 31, 1965

The main story of Texas population changes from 1940 to 1965 is one of rapid urbanization and suburbanization. War time industrialization created high paying jobs in almost every urban area of Texas. Texas was home to large military bases where inductees received basic training. After the war some of those soldiers from other states decided to make Texas their home. After World War II many of plants converted to the production of civilian goods so employment remained high.

All of the major Texas cities grew in population in the period from 1940-1965. The state was transformed.

Since the growth of the cities and suburbs was the main story, it would be easy to miss another demographic movement. This one was going the other way—from urban to rural.

The movement to the country was spurred by construction of reservoirs, and their construction would change the face of rural Texas as the construction of factories had done for urban Texas. Texas went on a dam building spree in the 1950s and 1960s. It was spurred by the drought of the 1950s, the demand of growing cities for municipal water supplies, and politicians who saw the potential of reservoirs for economic development in rural Texas where much of the young work force had departed for the cities.

Although the ostensible purpose of the reservoirs was for flood control and municipal water supply, recreational facilities grew up around almost all of the impoundments. There was a boom in the construction of residences, mainly weekend homes. Other private developments of the same period such as Ivanhoe Lakes (Tyler County), Hilltop Lakes (Leon County), and Elkins Lakes (Walker County) added to the possibilities for weekend homes.

Meanwhile the construction of interstate highways had made it possible for other city dwellers to purchase rural acreage and become weekend ranchers.

The Town and Country Commission of the Texas Annual Conference grappled with the difficulties of providing Christian ministry to these two groups of weekend residents of a fast-changing rural Texas, the “Lake People,” and the weekend ranchers.

The Commission recognized that neither group was likely to join fully in the life of a rural church near the lake house or ranch. “They are there for only a short time and thus spend all their time on their farming and recreation.” There were also cultural differences. The most notable of those was in the organization of municipal governments around the lake developments for the purpose of selling alcoholic beverages. Within a few years there were many cities such as Gun Barrel City (Henderson County) and alcoholic beverages were easily available in regions that had been traditionally dry, much to chagrin of many Methodists in rural Texas.

The legalization of alcoholic beverages, garish commercial development, increased weekend traffic, a recreational life style, and county budgets strained by new demands for law enforcement expenditures all help explain why some rural church members were not particularly welcoming to lake house owners who happened to show up at church on Sunday morning.

Some members of the Town and Country Commission proposed a summer chaplaincy program to offer ministries to recreational visitors at the lakes. (The Oklahoma Conference did have such a ministry on Lake Texoma.) Another idea was to use Lakeview, the Texas Conference encampment, as the focus for Methodist weekend home development. An honest appraisal of the efforts to minister to the weekend recreational population of rural Texas would have to conclude that little was accomplished.

As years passed, more of the lake houses became permanent residences rather than weekend retreats. As lake developments shifted from weekend to permanent residency, the rural churches near the lakes finally benefitted from the increased population. Elkins Lake, in particular, became a favorite residence of retired Texas Conference preachers.

This Week in Texas Methodist History May 23

2010-05-22T07:01:00.000-07:00

Camp Meeting at Spanish Springs Camp, May 26, 1843.

Many of the immigrants to Texas came as members of extended families who travelled together, coordinated land acquisition, and settled near one another. No group better illustrates that generalization than the so-called “Alabama Colony” who arrived in Texas in the winter of 1830. The colony consisted of members of the Heard, Sutherland, Menefee, Rector, Rogers, and White families. An advance party came to Texas to scout for land and then returned for the rest of the party.

The party left Tuscumbia, Alabama, and arrived in Texas between December 1830 and February 1831. They settled at Texana on the Navidad River in Jackson County and at Egypt in Wharton County. The soil was excellent, and they prospered. Several of the Alabamians played prominent roles in the Texas Revolution and formation of the new government. They were also strong Methodists and included at least one lay pastor, Samuel C. A. Rogers in the group.

The community of interrelated families became the southern-most Texas Methodist settlement in the late 1830s. Martin Ruter went there in December, 1837, only fifteen days after crossing the Sabine. On May 26, 1843, John Wesley DeVilbiss, and many other preachers, conducted a camp meeting six miles below Egypt at the Spanish Springs Camp.. May was not a typical month for a camp meeting since such events were usually scheduled in slack agricultural times, but this was a make up for a rained out meeting so they went ahead.

Some of the sons of the immigrant families became preachers. The Sutherland family, for example contributed A. H. Sutherland to the ministry. He devoted his life to Spanish Speaking congregations. Quinn Menefee was a promising member of the Texas Conference who died in the yellow fever epidemic of 1867. FUMC Ganado grew out of Roger’s Chapel, established by Samuel Rogers. The daughters were barred from ordained ministry, but Talitha Menefee (Quinn’s sister) married John Wesley DeVilbiss in 1845. Unfortunately she died in 1846.

This Week in Texas Methodist History May 16

2010-05-15T06:01:00.000-07:00

Francis Wilson Begins Camp Meeting at Liberty May 18, 1843

Southeastern Texas, embracing the lower basins of the Trinity, Neches, and Sabine Rivers, was not a particularly fruitful area for Methodist evangelization. The coast from the eastern tip of Galveston Island to Sabine Pass consisted of inhospitable marshes. The interior was mainly the magnificent wilderness known as the Big Thicket. Neither region was particularly attractive to immigrants from the Uplands of the South whose main economic activity was an agricultural system revolving around cotton, corn, and free range swine. .

There were settlements along the rivers to service the plantations and lumber, fur, deer skin, and bear grease trade. The most important town in the region was the county seat town of Liberty, so that is where Francis Wilson, Presiding Elder of the San Augustine District, went in May 1843.

Wilson arrived at Liberty on May 16 and began soliciting donations for Wesleyan College in San Augustine. He was very successful in his efforts. He secured pledges of 3920 acres of land from seven donors. On Thursday, May 18, he went to the camp meeting site and opened the camp meeting with a night service. The camp meeting continued until the next Tuesday. Wilson noted that there were two African American classes in Liberty with a total membership of 40 persons. He noted that the class leaders were African American and that there was an African American preacher there. Unfortunately, he does not name the preacher.

This Week in Texas Methodist History May 9

2010-05-08T06:00:00.000-07:00

J. W Fields Completes Tour of Trinity Circuit May 13, 1850

J. W. Fields was a Kentucky Methodist preacher who transferred to Texas and joined the Eastern Texas Conference in January, 1845. He showed great promise and was soon appointed Presiding Elder of the San Augustine District. He rode that district and both he and his wife, Winna Ann Duncan Fields, became ill. In 1849 Annual Conference was held in Paris. Bishop Paine presided. He could tell that Fields was a sick man so he offered to transfer him to a comfortable station back home in Kentucky close to his parents and his in-laws. Fields replied, “No, I have come to labor, to suffer, and to die in Texas.” Paine reappointed him to the Trinity Circuit, a mostly unsettled region along the Trinity River embracing settlements in Anderson, Henderson, Kaufman, Dallas, and adjoining counties.

J. W. and Winna moved to Palestine and the laboring and suffering began again. In April, 1850, he set out from Palestine to the most distant point on the circuit, Dallas. Here is a section of his diary that conveys some of the difficulty and joy he experienced.

Monday morning I started for Dallas, but the creeks being impassable I was compelled to return to Brother S's where most of the congregation, who had attended the Quarterly Meeting, still remained owing to rain and high water. I thought it best not to be idle, so I proposed to Brother H, the p. c., that we should have preaching. This we had forenoon and afternoon as it continued to rain.
I started again, found the little creeks lower but the big ones higher. The East Fork of the Trinity, the worst and most dangerous stream in Northern Texas, covering its miserable bottom for two miles. What shall I do? inquired I of the ferryman, and then of the Lord. "Go," said the Lord, "and lo I am with you even to the end of the world."
But the ferryman reluctantly took me over the channel and two or three of the worst sloughs; and then he took a horse and piloted me through the most dangerous parts of the bottom. At our parting I silently offered a prayer of thanksgiving to God. and after compensation, and many cheerful thanks to him, I made my way out finding terra firma in about one mile more.
April 27th and 28th.—Attended the Dallas Qt. M. at Webb's chapel. This place was dear to me from the recollection that here the first standard of Methodism was planted in this circuit, a few years ago; that time I `had the privilege to attend a two days' meeting at this place, when the Lord was pleased to own and bless His word, and the poor preacher felt it a privilege indeed to be among the first to bear the good tidings to the feeble few in the wilderness. They number some 50 members. Our Quarterly meetings were well attended; much good feeling prevailed. One circumstance I was forcibly struck with in the Love Feast. A very pious sister had lately gone to the spirit-land, her name was frequently called and one said, "SisterJW—is here indeed,her sainted spirit seemed to mingle with us. Does not this prove the doctrine of ministering angels?"

On May 13, Fields returned home to Palestine.

This Week in Texas Methodist History May 2

2010-05-01T06:11:00.000-07:00

Lewell Campbell Denounces David Ayres May 6, 1839.

David Ayres is widely known as the most prominent lay Methodist in Texas from 1835 to the early days of statehood.. He emigrated from New York with a shipment of Bibles from the American Bible Society, was a generous supporter of missions, financial agent of the Advocate, and frequent attendee at camp meetings and conferences. He often contributed not just money, but also articles to the Advocate. Those articles were often about events in early Texas Methodist history. They are very valuable source documents.Ayres lived a long time and became one of the “grand old men” of Texas Methodism.

The Fowler Collection at Bridwell Library at Perkins School of Theology contains a scathing letter denouncing Ayres as “one of the grandest scounderels (sic) in Texas.” That’s saying a lot. Texas in 1839 was full of scoundrels.

The writer of the letter was Lewell Campbell, a missionary from Kentucky who came to Texas in 1838, but at the Mississippi Annual Conference in December, 1838, was appointed to New Orleans. On May 6, 1839 Campbell wrote Littleton Fowler from New Orleans

I am very glad that Ayers is out of the church. For I have no doubt he is one of the grandest scounderels in Texas. [p. 3] For any man that would take the advantage that he did of Dr Ruter’s widow by collecting good money on a note which was to be paid in Texas which was one half under par, and she at the time hardly able by all the means she could command to sustain her small children all of which were females, I say, any man that would take this underhanded measure and advantage, would not only steal if he had the chance, but sir, he would rob a corps[e] of the grave clothes if they would yield him any profit. Although I do not believe in Lynch Law, still I do not feel much mortified that [it] has been blocked.

The details may be hard to reconstruct exactly, but the source of Campbell’s anger seems to have related to Ayres’ role in settling the accounts of Martin Ruter’s temporal affairs. Ruter had died the previous May. Robert Alexander wrote the widow Ruth Ruter soon after the death indicating that he was managing the estate. Ruter had obtained land claims in Texas. Alexander turned them over to John Wesley Kenney, a preacher-surveyor, who carried through on surveying and obtaining title for those claims. Alexander indicated that Ruter had left a horse, some cash, and other property. Alexander intended to sell the horse to pay off Ruter’s debts and forward the cash to Ruth Ruter in New Albany, Indiana.
If the Ruter estate included notes or any other financial instruments, it would have been natural for Alexander to turn them over to David Ayres, his father-in-law, for ultimate disposition. Ayres was one of the biggest wheeler-dealers in Texas in 1839.

Texas was fertile ground for financial wheeler-dealers. The Republic of Texas, throughout its existence, had problems with its official currency. Much of Texas had a barter economy. Promissory notes passed from hand to hand and served the place of currency. U. S. currency circulated. Mexican coin continued in circulation. Notes on wildcat banks from the United States circulated in Texas. Newspapers regularly printed the discount for Republic of Texas currency as compared to “real” money. They also printed the discount for some of the bank notes issued by banks in the southern United States. In short, even if a perfectly honest man were given the task of redeeming notes left in an estate in Texas and sending the proceeds to an heir in the United States, he would be open to criticism.

It is unlikely that we will ever know whether Ayres acted in good faith in settling the Ruter estate or whether he was a “scounderel.” Campbell was certainly not an objective observer. Just before writing his denunciation of Ayres, he had married Sybil Ruter and therefore had some family interest in the estate. If Ruth Ruter really was the victim of some financial hanky-panky at the hands of David Ayres, she either did not know of it or forgave him. On December 1, 1847, she gave Ayres her power-of-attorney to try to get any of the Ruter estate still remaining in the custody of John Wesley Kenney. You can read the instrument at https://scandocs.glo.state.tx.us/webfiles/landgrants/pdfs/1/4/7/147840.pdf

This Week in Texas Methodist History April 25

2010-04-24T07:09:00.000-07:00

Dallas Announced as Site of 1968 General Conference, April 28, 1964.

One might think that the selection of a city to host General Conference might not be controversial, but from the formation of the Methodist Church in 1939 until the later 1960’s, there was a always a problem. The Discipline recommended that the site of General Conference be rotated among the jurisdictions, “provided satisfactory arrangements can be made for entertainment, with special reference to the requirements for equality of accommodations for all races, without discrimination or segregation”.

Obviously non-discriminatory arrangements could not be found in the states of the former Confederacy. Racial segregation was not just the custom; it was enforced by local governments throughout the South. Even if a non-discriminatory convention hall could be found, African American delegates attending a General Conference in the South would be subject to discrimination in hotels, restaurants, taxis, city busses, depots, air terminals, and the like. Attending a General Conference in the South would have been a constant humiliation for African American delegates.

The General Conference locations since the creation of jurisdictions in 1939 had been as follows:
Atlantic City (1940) Kansas City (1944) Boston (1948) San Francisco (1952) Minneapolis (1956) Denver (1960) and Pittsburgh (1964).

The Committee on Entertainment met at Pittsburgh to decide the location of the 1968 General Conference. It was obvious that the suggestion to rotate among the jurisdictions had not been met. The Southeastern Jurisdiction had never hosted a General Conference and the South Central only one and that in the border state, Missouri. The Committee on Entertainment consisted of two members from each of the six jurisdictions. When Dallas was proposed as the site of the 1968 General Conference, the two delegates from the Central Jurisdiction, Thurman L. Dodson, a lay delegate from Washington, D. C. and Dr. L. Scott Allen, editor of the Central Christian Advocate from New Orleans, dissented vigorously.

In addition to segregation in public accommodations and the well known control of Dallas by a conservative oligarchy, less than six months earlier Dallas had been the scene of the Kennedy assassination. William A. Holmes of Northhaven Methodist Church in Dallas preached a sermon on Sunday, November 24, 1963 on the assassination from the text of Pilate’s washing of his hands and saying “I have no responsibility for the death this man.” The sermon linked the climate of hate in Dallas to the tragedy. The sermon included the report that local school children had cheered the assassination. National news outlets picked up the story, and Dallas became known, not only as the site of an infamous murder, but as a city in which children had been taught to hate.

The internal deliberations of the Committee on Entertainment are not part of the historical record, but it finally voted 9-3 to hold the 1968 General Conference in Dallas.

At the same the General Conference was deliberating in Pittsburgh, another deliberative body was considering a proposal that would make Dallas a more hospitable place for African American delegates four year hence. That body was the U. S. Senate.

In June, 1963 President Kennedy called for the passage of a civil rights bill that would guarantee non-discrimination in public accommodations. That bill was going nowhere, but on November 27, in his first address to Congress after the assassination, President Lyndon Johnson announced his determination to see it passed.

The main obstacle to passage was a filibuster organized by Johnson’s mentor, Senator Richard Russell of Georgia who was a Methodist lay man. Johnson turned to Republican leader Everett Dirksen of Illinois for help and finally broke the filibuster after 57 days. President Johnson signed it into law on July 2. When African Americans came to Dallas in 1968, they would find the law on their side rather than opposing them.

The 1968 General Conference turned out to an historic one. The Evangelical United Brethren and the Methodist Church became the United Methodist Church. It was also the General Conference that finally took action on abolishing the Central Jurisdiction.

This Week in Texas Methodist History April 18

2010-04-17T05:43:00.000-07:00

Bishop Morris Informs Fowler of His Missionary Commission April 20, 1837

In April 1837 the Missionary Board of the MEC met in New York City and approved a mission to the Republic of Texas. Martin Ruter would head the mission. He would be joined by Robert Alexander and Littleton Fowler. Bishop Hedding should have written all three men to tell them of their assignment, but he did not have Fowler’s address so he asked his brother bishop, Thomas A. Morris to write the letter.

On April 20, 1837, Morris wrote to Fowler. In doing so he was renewing an old relationship. Morris had been Fowler’s first Presiding Elder. Fowler would later name his son Littleton Morris Fowler. The bishop told him that Ruter was being asked to head the mission, but if Ruter declined, Fowler would have that role.
Morris might have been aware that he was writing on the one year minus one day anniversary of the Battle of San Jacinto, because he closed the letter with a rhetorical flourish that is worth repeating.

I know this will be welcome inteligence to you as it is to me. Some have fought there for an earthly inheritance with the weapons of death; you will contend on the same ground for a crown of life with weapons which are not carnal but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds, casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God. May you conquer thro’ the blood of the Lamb.

This Week in Texas Methodist History April 11

2010-04-10T07:21:00.000-07:00

Henry Young Organizes First German Methodist Congregation in Texas, April 12, 1846

Texas became a favorite destination for German immigrants in the 1840s. They came both as members of immigration companies, as family groups, and as individuals. On January 25, 1845 one of Isaac Addison’s sons already had reason to complain about not being able to find work in Galveston because “the place is overstocked with Dutch carpenters, no less than three brigs now lying in port from Bremen.” That complaint hits close to home since the following November 20 the author’s great-great-great and great-great Grandfather arrived in Galveston aboard the Strabo from Bremen. Although the passenger list records their occupations as wheelwright, they became carpenters in Texas.

German immigrants in New York and the Ohio Valley had already attracted the attention of Methodists. William Nast was already publishing a Methodist newspaper in German in Cincinnati in the 1830’s. Louisville also had a German mission. As German immigration increased in New Orleans, Galveston, and Indianola, it was natural for Methodists to look upon them as potential objects of evangelization. At the Mississippi Annual Conference of 1845 Bishop Soule appointed Henry Young (originally Heinrich Jung) as a missionary to the Germans in Galveston. Upon his arrival he announced that he would preach in the open on the shores of Galveston Bay. The sources claim that on January 25 he preached 1000 Germans. A modern reader might find that large number suspect, but there were enough serious Germans to think about organizing a church. That organization occurred April 12, 1846. By November they had finished construction of their church at 19th Street and Avenue H.

The next year Young was sent to Houston where he helped lay the foundation for what is today Bering Memorial UMC. His place in Galveston was taken by Ulysses Salis and then Karl Rottenstein. Neither of those men had a very successful ministry, but then Peter A. Moelling came to Galveston from New Orleans. Moelling had been educated for the Roman Catholic priesthood and was an accomplished writer and speaker. The congregation prospered enough so that it was able to build a parsonage beside the church. In 1855 Moelling began publishing the Deutsche Christliche Apologete (name changed three months later to Evangelische Apologete). He also wrote poetry and travel accounts. Unfortunately the mission report for 1855 also says of the Galveston German Mission, “much wasted by yellow fever.”

The church recovered so that Young was called back to Galveston. He and Moelling served together, and Moelling continued his journalism. .In October 1856 the congregation asked that its name be stricken from the list of MECS missions. It said it no longer needed denominational financial support.

Perhaps it was too much of a good thing. Young and Moelling had difficulties working with each other. Young became a Presbyterian and took many of the members with him. The 1860 Census shows Moelling living in Galveston with three daughters, 7, 5, and 3 years old, but with no wife.

The Civil War, paper shortage, increasing assimilation, and Moelling’s move to the north all contributed to the decline of both the church and the publishing effort. The church sold the property in 1870.

this Week in Texas Methodist History April 4

2010-04-03T06:33:00.000-07:00

“Some One” Urges Prayer League For Texas Methodists April 4, 1885

The Texas Christian Advocate sometimes served as an outlet for persons wishing to vent their anger toward the decline of civilization as they knew it. The editor allowed anonymity, and on April 4, 1885, printed a classic anonymous diatribe. As usual, it was prefaced by a call to pray for the sinners and ended with a reminder to love our enemies. It’s too long to reproduce in its entirety, but here are eight categories of persons needing our prayers.

1. We have wicked law-makers, both in our Federal Congress and in our State Legislature, who strive, by every political intrigue, to enact laws for the benefit of the rich, and for the oppression of the poor. We have corrupt executive officers who. . fail to enforce the laws against the vilest and boldest offenders. We have unscrupulous lawyers who. . .labor to convict the innocent. .and strive to collect unjust debts. We have unjust jurors who, . .strive to render verdicts in accord with the pleadings of mercenary lawyers. . .
2. We have slanderers, swindlers, thieves, and murderers, who render good people’s lives, property, and reputation insecure.
3. We have profane swearers and Sabbath-breakers
4. We have whisky and beer saloonists who entice our young men into their soultraps.
5. We have operas, theatres, skating rinks, dancing schools, balls and play-parties by which our young people are enticed from the serene enjoyments of religion to the exhilarating joys and vexations of vice. .
6. We have heterodox churches who use the subtlety of the old Serpent to persuade people that the transforming office of God’s Holy Spirit. . .is confined to apostolic age.
7. we have hypocrites in the church who disgust the avowedly wicked at the profession of Christianity.
8. And we have in the church luke-warm professors of religion, who labor much for the things of this life and but little for the life to come.

.. ,. (for all of these people)O, brothers! O, sisters! Have compassion on them, for Christ’s sake. Let us humbly set them our best example, and meekly tender them our best advice

Signed “Some One”

This Week in Texas Methodist History March 28

2010-03-27T18:26:00.004-07:00

Carl Urbantke Opens Mission Institute with Three Students, March 28, 1883

The origins of Blinn College in Brenham can be traced to the efforts of the Southern German Conference of the MEC to provide theological training for young Texans of German heritage so their could become preachers. Although Blinn College is no longer affiliated with the United Methodist Church, its predecessors, the Mission Institute and Blinn Memorial College, filled its role in ministerial training splendidly.

The Southern German Conference, authorized by the MEC General Conference of 1872, depended upon transfers from the German Conferences in the northern states. Retention was always a problem. Carl Urbantke reported that many of the wives of the preachers were unhappy in Texas far from family and comfortable parsonages and settled communities.

An obvious solution was “grow your own,” but lack of opportunities for theological education stood in the way. Rev. William Pfaeffle approached Urbantke with the proposal to begin a school. Urbantke was reluctant. “. . .I, who had received only an elementary school education, and who had lived fifteen years in the woods and studied while following the plough, was expected to establish a Mission Institute.”

Pfaeffle brought his plan before the annual conference which met in Seguin in December, 1882. He would be Brenham District presiding elder and act as financial agent for the Institute. Urbantke would be stationed at Brenham and also run the Institute. The conference accepted the plan.

On May 28, 1883 three students began their studies under Rev. Urbantke. He used the German Bible, commentaries, dictionaries, treatises, etc. and led those students in lessons from 8:00 to 12:00. In the afternoon he did his pastoral work. At night he prepared the lessons for the following day.

He began with Matthew, then moved to Paul’s epistles, and then included one of Peter’s. Many nights he worked until midnight. One advantage was that such a regimen always meant he had a text for a sermon on Sunday.

Pfaeffle solicited funds as he visited churches in his district. By summer he had enough to buy a lot and build a building. When the September term started, it opened in its own quarters.

The Institute prospered. The curriculum expanded beyond theology. Rev. C. Schuler was appointed to the church and Institute so Urbantke could devote full time to teaching and administration.

In March 1887 the Rev. Christian Blinn, preacher from New York, arrived for an extended visit. Blinn became an enthusiastic supporter. He offered $750 to hire a third teacher. He personally paid for and supervised the construction of a new building with three classrooms on the first floor and seven student rooms on the second. The building was completed by the end of April, less than two month’s of Blinn’s arrival in Brenham. The next year he sent $10.000 for the endowment. The Mission Institute became Blinn Memorial College.

This Wee in

2010-03-27T18:26:00.001-07:00