USA > Texas > History of Methodism in Texas > Part 7
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A church was built at Cedar Creek, in Washington County, in 1847. Soon after this, the village of Chappell Hill was founded, and in 1853 a church was built there, in which four sessions of the Texas Conference have been held. The church in Brenham was built in 1848. At an early period, a storeroom in the town of Bastrop was pur- chased, and fitted up for preaching. In 1850, while J. E. Ferguson was pastor, the present church was built in Bastrop. About the same time a small house was built in La Grange, which is still occupied by the Methodist con- gregation.
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In 1851 a church was built in Matagorda. In 1854 that portion of the coast of Texas was visited by a terrible tornado. Many of the buildings in Matagorda, including the Methodist and Episcopal churches, were destroyed. It is supposed the roof of the Methodist church was blown out to sea, as it was never found.
In 1847, Bishop Capers, thinking East Texas needed more ministerial laborers, transferred Wm. C. Lewis to that Conference, and appointed him to the Clarksville dis- trict. After four years of faithful labor, Mr. Lewis was retransferred to the west, and returned to his home in Brenham, where he still lives, though for several years past he has been on the superannuated list. In 1849 J. B. Tullis was appointed to the Gilmer mission in the Clarksville dis- trict. Mr. Tullis found two local preachers on the work, Dr. Tullis, who afterward went to California, and Judge Vannoy. At Gilmer a class was formed, and, with the assistance of Col. Camp, a Sunday-school was organized.
In 1849 N. A. Cravens was sent to Brownsville. A church was built, and a few members reported. Mr. Cravens was succeeded by Messrs. O. M. Addison, D. W. Fly, and Robert Paine Thompson; but the field appeared unpromising, and since the war we have had no ministers on the Rio Grande.
The Springfield district was formed in 1849, and Mor- decai Yell placed in charge of it. Mr. Yell entered the Tennessee Conference in 1832. Before coming to Texas he had been several years a presiding elder in the Memphis Conference. He came to Texas in 1844. He had been successively on the Washington, Rutersville, and San Antonio districts. The country between the Brazos and Trinity was rapidly filling up, and Mr. Yell's age and
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experience eminently fitted him to organize this new district. Under the faithful labors of Mr. Yell and his preachers the church grew rapidly until new districts were formed, and the work finally expanded into what now con- stitutes the Northwest Texas Conference.
In 1848 Geo. Tittle was on the Red Oak mission. He was an absent-minded man, and not unfrequently got lost. On one occasion, after having been wandering over the high prairies for some time, he found himself in a strange place. It proved to be the residence of Major E. W. Rogers, who had formerly been a member of the church in the Kerr settlement in Washington County. Mr. Rogers gave the preacher a cordial welcome, and invited him to preach. He did so, and organized a church in the village of Waxa- hachie, which had sprung up around the residence of Mr. Rogers. In 1854, while S. S. Yarborough was on the cir- cuit, a gracious revival took place in Waxahachie. There were forty accessions to the membership, and money raised to build a church. Since that, two sessions of the North- west Texas Conference have been held there, and it is the seat of Marvin College.
Our published church statistics do not include the num- ber and value of our church-buildings. According to the United States census report there were in Texas, in 1850, 328 churches, valued at $266,930. Of this number the Methodists owned 173 churches, valued at $58,195; the Baptists, 70, valued at $23,190; the Presbyterians, 47, valued at $20,070; the Episcopalians, 5, valued at $15,400; he Roman Catholics, 13, valued at $79,700; the Chris- ians, 5, valued at $1,500. Some other churches were eported free.
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SECTION III. The East Texas Vendetta-Personal Sketch of John Taylor-General Conferences of 1850 and 1854.
EVERY one familiar with Texas history has heard of the East Texas Vendetta,-the triangular war between the Regulators, who professed to punish thieves; the Modera- tors, who wished to hold the Regulators in check ; and the Conservatives, who belonged to the law-and-order party. The strife was bitter and bloody. Dr. Job M. Baker, who lived in the midst of it, estimates that at least one hundred persons lost their lives. In Harrison County the Regulators took possession of the court-house, and would not permit Judge Hansford to hold his court. According to Yoakum, Wat Moorman was captain of the Regulators, and John M. Bradley of the Moderators. In the Summer of 1844, at the door of the church in San Augustine, just after the con- gregation had been dismissed, Moorman killed Bradley. Two or three years after, while Moorman was crossing the Sabine River, he was killed by a Dr. Burns. In the Fall of 1844, at one time some three thousand people were under arms, and a bloody civil war seemed inevitable. At this juncture, under orders from President Houston, Gen- eral Smith ordered out the militia, and partial quiet was restored. So far as we know, no preacher lost his life dur- ing this feud, at the hands of either party, though Mr. . J. T. P. Irvine came near being killed one night by mistake. At a certain house, a party of Moderators were expecting an attack. As a precautionary measure, they had attached a bell to the gate, so that the opening of the gate would give an alarm. Mr. Irvine, who was on the Shelbyville circuit, rode up to that house to stay all night. Of course
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the bell rang, but fortunately one of the party recognized him and his life was spared. In such a state of society it was no easy task to induce people to give attention to re- ligious services. The calling out of the militia had par- tially restored the supremacy of the laws. A few of the leaders of the two parties were Masons, and the influence of that fraternity was successfully exerted to secure peace in some particular instances. But a spirit of vengeance still rankled in the bosoms of a large number of the people. " The gospel of Christ is the power of God unto salvation." There is no type of human depravity, no disordered condi- tion of human society, that the gospel cannot reach and remedy. Under the labors of Messrs. Fowler, Wilson, Berks, Irvine, and others, a series of protracted meetings were held, extending through the entire region in which the feud existed. The power of God was manifestly and marvellously present. It not unfrequently happened that men, loaded with arms to kill each other, were struck under conviction, and knelt side by side, and together were made partakers of the grace of life. Thus finally died away this bloody feud, and since that time that portion of East Texas has been as quiet and orderly as any portion of our State.
John Taylor, without having been eminent for piety, was one of those eccentric geniuses entitled to a notice in these sketches. One Sunday, in the Spring of 1846, Mr. Thrall left the city of Austin without a preacher, to fill an appoint- ment in the country. Just at night Mr. Thrall returned and learned that Colonel Taylor had an appointment to lecture that night on Infidelity. The lecture was unique, if not original, the arguments were well put, the reasoning incontrovertible. The speaker's imagery was gorgeous, and
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it seemed as if every word in the English language was at the speaker's control. We, the audience, were charmed- delighted with the lecture. Indeed, it was such an intel- lectual feast as was seldom enjoyed in Texas. Tradition has it that Taylor's first appearance in Texas was as a "volunteer counsel." A wealthy planter (so the story goes) had first insulted a young and beautiful lady, and then murdered her husband, who was his overseer. The man succeeded in being acquitted of the murder, but, in addition, he had circulated some scandalous reports about the injured woman. The lady afterward sued for slander, but when the day of trial came the opposite party had retained all the lawyers. As the plaintiff was a lady, the judge appealed to the members of the bar for some one to volunteer to prosecute it. For some time there was no response. As the silence became painful, and the poor woman was sobbing with grief, a voice in the crowd out- side the bar proposed to undertake the case. The speaker was dressed in the roughest garb of a backwoods hunter. Satisfying himself that the speaker was a lawyer, the judge invited him inside the bar. Taylor was posted as to the merits of the case. He paid little attention to the witnesses, nor did he exhibit his peculiar power until he come to make his closing speech. He then drew a picture of the distressed woman appealing for relief, and of the base wretch who had first insulted her, then murdered her hus- band, and finally attempted to blast her reputation. Before he closed, every eye in the court-room was bathed in tears. The jury made up a verdict without leaving the box, giv- ing the lady the highest damages allowed by law, and it was with difficulty that the crowd could be restrained from dealing with the slanderer according to the bloody code of
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Judge Lynch. John Taylor had at one time been licensed as a local preacher, but he seldom staid long at a place, and his career was irregular. It is reported that some preacher once asked him for his license. It was out of date. He replied that he carried his church-membership in his heart, and his license to preach on the end of his tongue. But after this, to avoid offence, he announced lectures instead of sermons. When we heard of the mental idiosyncrasies of Mr. Taylor, we thought certainly he was laboring under some mental disorder. When we heard him speak the epithet applied by Carlyle to Edward Irving, so character- istic of both writer and subject, came forcibly to mind, " Not daft, but dazed." John Taylor, with all his genius, was not a success. Many men of more moderate gifts, with plodding industry, accomplished much more. We find in a book (Bishop Paine's Life of Bishop McKendree), recently published, a paragraph which ought to afford encourage- ment to a class of preachers denominated " common field- hands." He says: "The comets which blaze athwart our field of vision, attracting for a while every eye, and causing the beautiful constellation to pale before their gorgeous splendors, soon retire into obscurity and leave our planet to its former nightly gloom, and then the lately obscured and forgotten stars resume their office, lighting up the dome of the Creator's sublime temple of the universe with the sheen of a thousand lamps. Give me the less brilliant but more constant stars in preference to the more glaring meteor and fiery comet."
On the 1st of May, 1850, the second General Conference of the Church, South, met in St. Louis. The delegates from East Texas were R. Crawford and William C. Lewis; S. A. Williams, reserve. From Texas, R. Alexander and C. Rich-
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ardson, delegates ; J. W. Whipple, reserve. The most mate- rial act of this Conference was the adoption of the plan of finance providing for the introduction of laymen into the joint board of finance in the Annual Conference. Dr. Bascom was elected Bishop, and provision made for two book-agents, one in the east and another in the west.
The third General Conference met in Columbus, Georgia, May 1st, 1854. The delegates from East Texas were S. A. Williams, O. Fisher, and Jefferson Shook; N. W. Berks, reserve. Texas Conference, R. Alexander, H. S. Thrall, James M. Wesson, and J. W. Whipple ; reserves, William A. Smith and William C. Lewis. Having gained our suit for our legitimate share of the chartered and book funds, this Conference proceeded to establish a publishing house at Nashville, Tennessee, that city giving a bonus of $30,000 for the location. George F. Pierce, John Early, and H. H. Kavanaugh, were elected Bishops.
SECTION IV.
Necrology-Poe-Fowler-Sullivan-Booker-Bell-Richardson-John Patton-Young-Cameron-Garrett L. Patton-J. W. Addison- McElroy-Rabb-Gen. Burleson.
IN the Fall of 1844, less than two years from the time Daniel Poe volunteered for the Texas mission, he was called from labor to rest. He and his noble missionary wife were attacked with congestive fever at the same time, and died within an hour of each other, and were buried in the same coffin .*
* A generous Texas friend deeded to Mr. Poe's infant daughter a tract of land. The deed is in the hands of Rev. Dr. O. Fisher, of Bryan. Rev. Dr. A. Poe, of Ohio, removed bis brother's children back to their old home in Ohio.
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A little over a year later, on the 19th of January, 1846, Texas Methodism was called to mourn the death of Lit- tleton Fowler. After the death of Dr. Ruter, in 1838, Mr. Fowler was appointed superintendent of the Texas mission, and after Texas ceased to be a mission, he occu- pied the post of presiding elder .* In 1839 Mr. Fowler married Mrs. Missouri M. Porter, of Nacogdoches. Mrs. Fowler still lives, having subsequently married Rev. John C. Woolam. After his marriage, Mr. Fowler settled in the McMahan settlement, in Sabine County, where his family still resides. Some time before his last illness, he requested Rev. S. A. Williams to preach his funeral sermon from the text: "I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ." The last time Mr. Fowler himself preached, he used that text. It was in Douglass, and the sermon was equal to one of his best efforts. Mr. Fowler retained his intellectual fac- ulties unclouded till the last. On the day before he died, he addressed his physician, who was skeptically inclined : "Doctor, I have tried the religion of Jesus Christ for more than twenty-five years, and I find it now what I be- lieved it to be all the time. It gives me consolation in my dying hour. I have no fear of death. I shall he happy, and live in heaven forever. Oh! I hope you will study the gospel more, and yet believe in it to salvation." After this, his friends sung a favorite hymn : "Oh ! land of rest, for thee I sigh." During the ensuing night, he turned to his brother, Judge A. J. Fowler, and said : "Jack, am I not dying ?" His brother told him he thought he was. " Well," said he, "you should have told me so. It does
* For the particulars of Mr. Fowler's death, we are indebted to an article in the Southern Quarterly Review, prepared by Hon. B. F. Sexton.
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not alarm me ; I feel that I must die; death to me has no terrors. I feel that I can walk through the valley and shadow of death, and fear no evil. God is with me." His children were called to his bedside. He gave each one a Bible, a word of advice, and an affectionate farewell. Still later, and after a brief season of repose, he awoke as if from a dream, and exclaimed : "Oh ! what a glorious sight! I have seen the angelic hosts, the happy faces of just men made perfect," and repeated the couplet :
"Farewell, vain world, I'm going home, My Saviour smiles, and bid me come."
His sight failing him, he inquired of Mr. Woolam if there were no lights in the room. He was told there were. " Ah! well," said he, "my sight grows dim. Earth re- cedes, heaven is approaching. Glory to God in the high- est !" Soon after this, he expired. "There was no strug- gle," says Mr. Sexton, " no violence, but there was the cold reality too real." In forming an estimate of the character of Littleton Fowler, the first thing that strikes us is its perfect symmetry. His fine physical form furnished a suitable tenement for his noble mental traits. In his man- ners, dignity and affability were beautifully blended. He had a most benevolent expression of countenance, a keen, piercing eye, and a musical, ringing voice. His mind was well cultivated ; his religious experience was cheerful; his convictions of the truth and power of the gospel remark- ably strong. He was the very man for Texas, and when he died, Texas Methodism went into mourning. He was buried under the pulpit in the church in his neighborhood in which he had so often stood as a Christian ambassador.
Daniel N. V. Sullivan was licensed to preach in 1833;
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he came to Texas in 1838, and engaged in teaching at Rutersville. Commenced itinerating in 1840. In 1846 he was appointed presiding elder on the Washington district. He died at the residence of A. McGowan, in Houston, February 20th, 1847. In clearness of statement and argument, in pureness of diction and poetic sentiment, Mr. Sullivan had few equals.
William G. Booker was the son of a local preacher. Young Booker had just entered upon a career that prom- ised great usefulness to the Church, when he was cut down in his youth. He died at Col. Hardin's, Liberty, January 21st, 1848.
David L. Bell entered the itinerancy, in Arkansas, in 1842; came to Texas in 1844, and died suddenly near Victoria in 1849.
Of Chauncey Richardson, A.M., who died April 11th, 1852, a volume both interesting and edifying might be written. He was Secretary of our Conference from 1845 to 1851. He was a member of the Louisville Convention, and of the General Conference of 1846 and 1850. Two years he edited the Texas Wesleyan Banner, and made it a most interesting and popular paper. He was a most excel- lent reader, especially of hymns and the scriptural lessons introductory to religious services. He made very thorough preparations for the pulpit. His sermons, in the careful analysis of the subject, the logical arrangement, and the elegance of their diction, reminded us of the published sermons of Richard Watson. His last appointment was to the Galveston district. He had held one round of quar- terly meetings, and started for his home in Rutersville when he was taken sick, and died at the house of Rev. John Patton, near Richmond. His remains were trans-
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ferred to Rutersville, and buried in front of the college edifice, where a modest shaft has been erected to his memory.
John Patton soon followed Mr. Richardson to the spirit- land. He had been a travelling preacher in East Tennes- see, but came to Texas in an early day, and was very useful in his local sphere. He joined the Texas Conference in 1851.
From 1845 to 1850, William Young was an effective laborer in the Texas itinerant ranks. He died in Missis- sippi on the 18th of February, 1853. When asked if he was resigned to die: "Oh! yes; I have great confidence in God, my Saviour: I am perfectly resigned, perfectly happy."
Simon B. Cameron was stationed in Houston in 1850, and in Austin in 1851. He then took a supernumerary relation, and took up his residence in Houston. For a few months he edited the Texas Wesleyan Banner. He died of yellow fever, in Houston, in 1853.
In 1853, Garrett L. Patton was on the Springfield dis- trict. In 1854, he was stationed in Galveston, but died before the year expired.
John W. Addison had travelled two years, the last upon the Lynchburg circuit. At the close of the year, he came to Houston, expecting to meet his brother, Rev. O. M. Addison, from Brownsville. While John Addison was preaching, he was attacked with yellow fever in the pulpit, and died in a few days.
H. C. M'Elroy was a young man of extraordinary prom- ise, but fell a victim to consumption ere he had com- pleted his first year upon the Beaumont circuit.
George W. Rabb died in Montgomery, in his second year in the itinerancy, in 1850.
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Gen. Ed. Burleson, former Vice-President of the Re- public, died in Austin, December 2d, 1851. He was a State Senator at the time of his death. For many years he had been an acceptable and useful member of our Church.
CHAPTER V.
FROM 1855 TO 1865.
SECTION I.
A Prosperous Era-Cedar Mountain -- Fort Worth -- Gatesville-Fort Graham-San Saba-James Dancer-Indian Reservations and Missions-Placido-Revivals-Church-building-U. S. Census Re- ports for 1860.
TEXAS continued to prosper. An unceasing tide of popu- lation and wealth flowed into the country. New counties were organized, the frontiers extended, and villages and cities sprung up as if by magic. Most of these were sup- plied with colleges, academies, or school-houses. The Church shared in this general prosperity. The journal of Benjamin A. Kemp informs us that in 1855 he organized the Cedar Mountain and Fort Worth missions, laying on the cross-timbers in Ellis, Dallas, and Johnson Counties. In 1856 Mr. Kemp organized the Gatesville mission in Coryell, Bosque, and Erath Counties. In 1857 he was again on the Gatesville work, and in 1858 he organized the Fort Graham circuit in Tarrant and adjoining Counties. The same year J. M. Jones organized the Weatherford cir- cuit. In 1856 Wesley Smith organized the San Saba mis- sion in the territory on the west side of the upper Colorado River, including the valleys of the Pierdinales, Llano, and San Saba Rivers. Before this, James Dancer, a local preacher, had settled on Honey Creek, and had preached
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in that region of country. Mr. Dancer was killed by the Indians in 1859 .*
This last incident naturally directs attention to our aborigines. It was, we believe, M. De Paw who, after examining our Indians, pronounced that they were either " apes or satyrs," but Pius IV., when he wished to estab- lish bishoprics in the finest portion of the American Con- tinent, said that " it appeared good to him, and also to the Holy Ghost, to declare that the Indians are men and sub- jects of the Gospel." Since that time the Indian question has furnished a difficult problem to solve. In an exami- nation of undergraduates at a session of one of our Texas Conferences, a young preacher was asked on what principle a Comanche could be saved. He replied that the way they saved them on his circuit was to shoot them. The answer was not exactly orthodox. After annexation it was con- cluded that certain Indian tribes had a right to a domicil in Texas. By the action of Congress and the Legislature twelve leagues of land on the upper Brazos were set apart for Indian Reservations, and some tribes collected and settled upon them. Major R. S. Neighbors was appointed Indian Agent. The Major was a Christian gentleman, a member of the Methodist Church. At the request of the agent, arrangements were made for Rev. Pleasant Tackett to preach on the reservation. There were two of
Since the close of the war the Indians visited the same neigh- borhood and scalped Mrs. John Friend (Mr. Dancer's daughter), and carried her son into captivity. After Mrs. Friend was knocked down she feigned to be dead, while the Indians scalped her. She is still living. The grandfather of her child, Rev. L. S. Friend, found and recovered the boy in one of the agencies in the Indian territory.
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these reservations, and from 1855 to 1858 they did well. In 1858 there were hundreds of acres in cultivation. They had good schools, regular preaching, and the Indians had a good supply of hogs, horses, and cattle. Soon after this some citizens of adjoining counties accused the Indians of stealing horses, and a company of about 1,000 men col- lected and drove the Indians out of Texas. In the mêlée Major Neighbors was killed and the reservations broken up. Mr. Tackett thinks the Indians were unjustly accused and harshly dealt with. This was also the opinion of Gov- ernor Runnels, and of the United States officers encamped near the reservations. Of course some Indians may have stolen horses, but the majority were rapidly acquiring the habits of civilized life. During the period in which the Indians occupied their reservations the surrounding coun- ties enjoyed comparative quiet. Within a year after they were driven out at least 100 persons fell victims to savage barbarity. Mr. Tackett himself, and two of his sons, were surrounded by a band of these marauders, and the old gentleman and one of his sons were badly wounded. So ended the only attempt ever made in Texas for the evan- gelization of the Indians .*
* Among those who listened attentively to Mr. Tackett's preach- ing was Placido, principal chief of the Tonkaways. Placido was a fine-looking warrior. When on the Colorado, he and a few of his tribe occasionally visited our camp-meetings. General Burleson trusted Placido implicitly, and frequently employed him as a guide and spy. When the war broke out some Indians, who had espoused the Federal cause, attempted to induce Placido to join them. This he utterly refused to do, as he could not fight against the Texans. On refusing, he and his few warriors were murdered. Placido has a son living, about 20 years old, but the young chief has no tribe, no country, no hunting-grounds, no home. Poor Placido !
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