This Week in Texas Methodist History  April 1

Bishop Joyce Delivers Missionary Speech In Episcopal Church in Marshall  1900

Although Methodism grew out of Anglicanism, there was considerable friction between the Episcopal Church and Methodists in Texas.   In 1853 the Methodist preacher at Bastrop, J. W. Whipple, invited the Episcopal Missionary Bishop George Washington Freeman to preach in his church.  Whipple and his colleague J. H. Addison attended the service and found it so lacking in spirituality that they kept the congregation after Freemen's departure so they could preacher "enthusiastic" sermons.  

The use of robes instead of plain clothing was major distinction between the two denominations.  Methodists derided Episcopalians as too ritualistic instead of "experimental".  We would use the work "experiential" instead of "experimental."

In 1900 Bishop Isaac Joyce of the MEC was in Marshall on a missionary tour.  Bishop Joyce had been MEC bishop of Japan, Korea, and China until 1898 and he toured afterwards telling stories about the work of the Asian missions.  Marshall was an appropriate setting since it was the location of Wiley College, founded by the MEC to serve African Americans.  It was named for Bishop Isaac Wiley of the MEC who had been a medical missionary to China from 1850 to 1854 and had died in China in 1884.  

The Episcopal Rector in Marshal, the Rev. T. W. Jones, invited Bishop Joyce to preach from his pulpit during Joyce's stay in Marshall.   The editor of the Advocate, a MECS organ, was astounded by the invitation.  He was also in Marshall at the time and decided to attend the service because "this was something new under the sun in Texas."   The report of the service was careful to note that Jones was robed and Joyce was in plain cloth.  

The "venerable" bishop (he was 66 at the time) spoke for an hour telling stories of missionary work in Asia then thanked Jones for the invitation and delivered a benediction.    The Advocate editor was most complimentary of the Episcopalian Rector for his courtesy and hoped such amity would spread.  He noted that Bishop Galloway (MECS) had been invited to address an Episcopal church in Brazil, and that Episcopalians in Virginia were known for their friendships with preachers from other denominations.  In  the end though, he couldn't resist.  He concluded his report "Not until Episcopalians abate some of their exclusiveness and arrogant airs can they hope that their pleas for 'church unity' will excite anything but ridicule. "  

 This Week in Texas Methodist History  March 24

Mt. Zion MEC Cornerstone Laid in Brenham  1879

The church is closed now, but the building still stands on the west side of Brenham near Blinn College.  

The cornerstone for the building was laid November 28, 1879, under the direction of its pastor, Spencer Hardwell.  Hardwell was one of the most prominent members of the conference having served Wesley in Austin and would leave Brenham for his next appointment, Mt. Vernon in Houston.  Also in attendance was Benjamin Watrous, a delegate to the Texas Constitutional Convention of 1869 and one of five African American signers of that constitution.  He was also a former Presiding Elder of the district in which the church was located.  Hardwell had also been at the constitutional convention, but as a teller rather than a delegate.  

The proposed building was to be 56 feet by 34 feet on a lot that measured 75 feet by 65 feet.  The estimated cost of the building was to be $125.   A collection of $23.50 was taken on the day of the cornerstone laying.   Hardwell described the lot as the prettiest on the west side of Brenham.  

Within a few months construction crews for the Gulf Coast Santa Fe Railroad would lay tracks two blocks east of the church lot.  The coming of the railroad meant increased prosperity, jobs, and population.  Mt. Zion thrived as a result.  

Hardwell's next appointment was to Mt. Vernon and then to Richmond.  He attended the 1883 Annual Conference in Paris but became ill there.  He made it home to Richmond where he died Dec. 6, 1883. His grave is not in a cemetery but behind a private residence in Richmon,  

 This Week in Texas Methodist History  March 17

Orceneth Fisher Calls for Doubling the Number of Bishops, 1854

Orecenth Fisher (1803-1880) was one of the most prominent Methodist preachers of 19th century Texas.  He was an author, pastor, presiding elder, editor, delegate to General Conference.   His membership in the Missouri Conference, Texas Conference, East Texas Conference, and Pacific Conference gave him an above average ability to view the Methodist church as a whole.  As the General Conference of the MECS of 1854 approached, Fisher called for delegates to double the number of bishops from four to eight.   

The reasons for the increase lay in the westward expansion of the United States.  The territorial acquisition as a result of the war with Mexico, the California Gold Rush, the westward expansion of the agricultural frontier, improved transportation, and increased immigration from Europe meant that the US was growing---and so was the Methodist Church.  

As one could tell from the name "Methodist Episcopal", the denomination needed bishops (Episcopal means bishop.  The bishops presided over annual conferences.  In the absence of a bishop the conference could elect a presiding officer, but that officer could not ordain new preachers.  Ordination was vital to supplying the ministers who were organizing the new churches on the frontier.  

The problem was that none of the four effective bishops in the MECS in 1854 lived west of the Mississippi River.  Bishops were elected at the quadrennial General Conference, and most of the voting delegates at those conferences lived in the older states east of the Mississippi River.  Naturally they voted for people they knew best.   The bishops met and decided which bishop would preside over the annual conferences for the next four years.  Often the distant conferences of the West would be assigned to the youngest bishop who was presumably the most able to withstand the rigors of travel. 

In his letter to the New Orleans Christiann Advocate.  Fisher predicted that the two conferences in Texas would soon more than double.  He predicted a San Antonio Conference, a Rio Grande Conference, and an El Paso Conference.  (The 1854 General Conference did not create any of these, but the 1858 General Conference did create the Rio Grande Mission Conference which eventually became the West Texas then Southwest Texas and then Rio Texas Conference.)  

Fisher did not stop with Texas--he predicted that Methodist Conferences would then be created though Mexico and Central America and China.  

He said, "our brothers in the East do not realize the vastness of our territory in the West and how rapidly it is filling up."   The 1854 General Conference needed to double the number of bishops because "Methodism is God's instrument for converting the world."

The MECS did elect 3 bishops in 1854.  (Early, Pierce, and Kavanaugh)

Pierce was only 43 years old and, true to form, was sent to California.   His travel memoir is a treasure.  Kavanaugh was 52 and robust enough to travel.  Early was already 68 when he was elected but lived another 19 years.  

 This Week in Texas Methodist History  February 25

Texans Look Forward to Uniting Conference in Kansas City, 1939

In April 1939 the Methodist Episcopal Church, the Methodist Episcopal Church South, and the Methodist Protestant Church united to form the Methodist Church.  By doing so Methodists undid breaches that had occurred in the 19th century.  

Naturally this was a grand affair of reconciliation of the three denominations and Kansas City was determined to put its best foot forward as the host city.  As was customary invitations were sent to dignitaries including President Franklin D. Roosevelt.  In keeping with the theme of reconciliation, if the president attended, he would be welcomed by Governor Alfred Landon of Kanas, FDR's Republican opponent in the election of 1936.  Landon was a lay delegate to the conference.  A nationwide radio broadcast was planned for the event in which Landon presented Roosevelt to the conference and the president responded.

Roosevelt declined the invitation, and it is easy to see why he had other priorities.  He had returned from the baths at Warm Springs, Georgia to a world on the brink of global war. 

As the delegates made their way to Kansas City, FDR was exchanging letters with Adolph Hitler, asking in the strongest terms for peace.  Hitler rejected his plea.  FDR met with Charles Lindbergh a well known fan of Germany.  The same week FDR signed an appropriation bill to provide funds to build 571 bombers.  He then asked for another appropriation to build naval air bases.  

On April 30, while the Conference was in session, Roosevelt went to New York City to speak at the opening of the World's Fair.   For you trivia buffs, that was the first time a president appeared on television.  That same day Germany and Italy formalized their alliance.  

Eleanor Roosevelt often represented her husband in ceremonial matters, but she was also in the news in April 1939.   Marian Anderson had been denied use of Constitution Hall, owned by the DAR, for a concert.  Mrs. Roosevelt resigned her membership in the DAR.  Ms. Anderson gave her concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on Easter Sunday, April 9.  The concert attracted 75,000 attendees and millions more via radio, but Mrs. Roosevelt was condemned in newspaper editorials not just from Southern newspapers, but all over the nation.  

Both FDR and Mrs. Roosevelt had good reasons for not attending the United Conference in Kansas City, but there was another complicating factor.  On April 8, Tom Pendergast was arraigned for failure to pay taxes.  It gets worse.  He income he did not report was a bribe he needed to pay off gambling debts.  Pendergast was the political boss of Kansas City.  He had delivered Missouri votes to help get FDR elected and many CWA and PWA projects in Missouri were funneled through him.   He was responsible for elevating Harry Truman to the Senate.   FDR probably wanted nothing to do with Kansas City in April 1939.  

 This Week in Texas Methodist History  February 18

J. B. Ahrens Laments Problems Facing German Mission Efforts in Texas  1882

The Board of Missions of the MECS met during the General Conference of 1882, and J. B. Ahrens of New Orleans addressed the group on the difficulties facing the German mission work in Texas and Louisiana.  Those two states constituted the only German speaking conference in the MECS.  The MEC, on the other hand, had 8 German speaking conferences in the US and even sent missionaries back to Germany.

Arhrens was born in Germany in 1836.  H immigrated to Texas and attended Soule University in Chappell Hill.  He then went back to Germany and studied at the University of Gottingen.    In 1863 he was admitted on trial in the Texas Conference when it met in Columbus.  His first appointment was Missionary to the Army, but at the next conference he was appointed to Spring Hill and chaplain to the military post in Hempstead.  Hempstead was the site of one of the most famous prisoner of war camps in Texas, Camp Groce.   It is unknown whether Ahrens served as chaplain to the prisoners or to the guards--or both.  

After the war he was appointed professor at Soule, but very quickly was transferred to New Orleans by Bishop Keener.  He basically spent the rest of this ministry in New Orleans as pastor, presiding elder, and editor of two newspapers Familienfreund and later also the Kinderfreund.  

During his pastorate German immigration to Louisiana diminished and Germans became more integrated into US society, so Ahrens oversaw the transition of the largest German Church in New Orleans, Dryades Street from German to English services.  

He attributed the struggles of the MECS in his German work in Texas and Louisiana to the following:

1.  "Educated Germans for some reason or the other, associate our denomination with slavery."  It seems obvious to us today that the MECS was associated with slavery.

2.  German rationalism promoted secularism.  It is true that the critical study of the Bible had been a product of German universities.  German "rationalism" was a favorite bete noire for American Protestants which they conflated with atheism.  I have seen denunciations of this philosophical tradition in Methodist literature used as a reason to enter World War I. 

3.  Lutherans are becoming more organized and attacking us as fanatics.  They have the advantage of a steady stream of well-educated pastors coming from Europe.  It is true that Lutherans were becoming more organized.  The first Lutherans were small immigrant communities, but now they were well established.  

4.  The MEC is building churches right next to our churches!   The presence of two Methodist churches in small towns is confusing to the Germans.  Of course, with 8 annual conferences the MEC could support a much larger publishing effort than could the MECS.  The publishing efforts were located in Cincinnati and headed by William Nast who became quite a celebrity in Methodist circles.  

Ahrens died in New Orleans in 1906.

 This Week in Texas Methodist History February 4

Snapshot:  Texas MECS Bishops on Eve of Unification   1939

As the Methodist world concentrated on the May 1939 Unification Conference in Kansas City, final statistics were being gathered from the last sessions of the annual conferences of the MECS, MEC, and MP denominations that would soon be a part of history as they united to become the Methodist Church.

I thought readers might be interested in the bishops who had some connection with Texas as unification approached.

One should remember that bishops served more than one conference.   There were 12 MECS Episcopal Districts in 1939.  Two of them were centered in Texas and included churches in other states.  Bishop A. Frank Smith served the 5th District which consisted of five annual conferences:  Texas, West Texas, Louisiana, Indian Mission, and Texas Mexican.  The total membership in those conferences was 257,985.

Bishop Ivan Holt served the 6th District which consisted of North Texas, Central Texas Northwest Texas, and New Mexico.  There were 280,751 members.

  C. C. Selecman who had been at First Methodist Dallas and then President of SMU presided over Oklahoma, North Arkansas, and Little Rock Conferences.  Paul Kern who had served prominent Texas churches presided over Tennessee, Holston, Florida, Cuba, and the Latin Mission (only 585 members in that mission.)

Two bishops who had served Texas churches had far fewer members than all the other bishops but travelled much more than their colleagues.  Arthur Moore who had served Travis Park San Antonio (1920-1926) was assigned to the Belgium, Poland, Czechoslovak, Congo, and China Conferences.   There were a total of 18,410 in all those conferences.   Will Martin served the Pacific, Arizona, Western Mexican, Northwest, and California Oriental Mission.  There were 32,000 Methodists in those conferences.  He had been pastor of Houston Grace and Port Arthur Temple. 

The Uniting Conference shook up these assignments.  Bishops were assigned to newly created jurisdictions.  This meant that usually they would stay relatively close to home. 

The practice of serving several conferences such as Bishop Smith's five and Bishop Holt's four was sharply curtailed in 1960.  It became much more common for bishops to be assigned to a single conference.  

 This Week in Texas Methodist History January 28

Orceneth Fisher Asks Holland McTyeire for Help Against "Shavers"  1851

Did you ever wonder how Methodists supported their missions?  There was no national banking system.  There were no peer-to-peer apps on cell phones.   Checking Accounts?  Still not in common use.    Money usually consisted as coin--including British and Spanish coin.  Many Texans relied on a system of barter and IOU's, Methodists were often quite generous in supporting missionaries, but how to get the money from the donor to the missionary was always a problem.  One should remember that until annexation, donations to Texas Missions meant an international transaction. 

The usual solution was to send a draft to the missionary.  The draft would say something like "this draft may be presented in New York and redeemed for $100.  Imagine yourself as a merchant in some small Texas city like Liberty or San Augustine.  A man you don't know walks into your store and asks for provisions and offers to pay you with a draft payable in New York countersigned by a bishop who lived in Ohio Naturally you would be suspicious--and rightly so.  Even if you sold the goods, you would certainly not accept the draft at face value.  You would demand a discount.   The Texas merchant would then send the draft to his "factor" in New Orleans.  The factor acted in the business interests on behalf to the merchant, and he would also demand a discount from the face value.  

In 1851 Orceneth Fisher, Presiding Elder of the San Austine District of the East Texas Conference of the MECS wrote Holland McTyeire of New Orleans asking him to find merchants in New Orleans who would accept the drafts at face value.  (called "par").   He reported being under considerable embarrassment because of the shaving of the drafts by New Orleans merchants.  He complained about the 1% discount he had to endure.  His arguments to McTyeire were that the Missionary Society had never repudiated its debt.  Its drafts were as good as currency.  (Fisher didn't say it but Missionary Society drafts were actually better than most bank drafts of the era.)  He also appealed to the spirit of Christian charity that at least a few New Orleans factors should embrace. 

Fisher also complained about the poverty of the preachers in his district which ran from Jefferson to Beaumont.   The harvests had been bad.  The preachers were always paid last, and if a preacher complained about not getting his salary he was criticized as being "mercenary".  

Both Fisher and McTyeire went on to greater prominence.  Fisher became one of the pioneer preachers of Pacific Coast.  McTyeire was elected bishop in1866.  His wife was the cousin of Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt.  That was the connection that sparked the donation that created Vanderbilt University.  McTyeire charied the Board of Trustees.