USA > Texas > History of Methodism in Texas > Part 8
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METHODISM IN TEXAS.
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During the period now under review the Texas Chris- tian Advocate abounded with notices of revivals. In 1856, Mr. Lynch reports 270 accessions to the Tyler circuit ; Mr. Tackett, 50 on the Belknap mission; Mr. Caulder, 70 on the Henderson circuit; William A. Smith, 60 at Austin ; Mr. Buckingham, 80 on Springfield circuit; M. Yell and A. J. Smith, 75 in Parker County ; J. W. Fields, 101 on Kaufman circuit; S. C. Box, 75 on Sumpter mission ; H. W. South, 200 on Webberville circuit; Mr. Sansom, 137 on Crockett circuit; Mr. Irvine, 34 in Jefferson station ; Job M. Baker, 100 on Seguin circuit; Mr. Cooley, 54 at Sempronius ; Mr. Scruggs, 40 at Clarksville; W. A. Smith, 34 at San Marcos camp-meeting ; H. B. Hamilton, 116 at the Jacksonville camp-meeting; John Carpenter, 22 at Florence ; A. M. Box, 14 at Moulton ; G. W. Burrows, 148 at Georgetown; 101 are reported in Burnett County, and H. S. Lafferty reports 60 on the Coletto circuit. In 1855 J. E. Ferguson reports at one time 600 accessions at the Vic- toria district ; and H. S. Thrall, 500 on the Rutersville dis- trict ; S. S. Yarborough reports 100 at a camp-meeting near Corsicana. At one time, in 1858, 55 accessions are reported at the Austin camp-meeting; 34 at Hills- borough ; 54 at Chappell Hill; 14 at Plantersville ; 60 at Madisonville ; 43 at Fairfield; 46 on Navidad circuit; 100 at Henderson, and 100 on Sumpter mission. Mr. Davidson reports 489 accessions on the Gonzales district. The next year J. W. Whipple held 11 camp-meetings on the Austin district, during which there were some 500 conversions. S. A. Williams reports 46 conversions at the Shiloh camp-ground ; 70 are reported among the students at the Mckenzie Institute; R. S. Finlay reports 97 conversions on the Cherokee circuit ; S. Lynch, 30 at Crockett ; W. K.
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Maston, 75 on Tyler circuit ; T. T. Smothers, 45 at Mont- gomery ; W. C. Crawford (the preacher, lawyer, and states- man), 26 at Pittsburg. We give these notices as speci- mens. Our readers can form some estimate of the amount of labor necessary to carry forward these revival-meetings to such glorious results.
This was also a period of considerable activity in church- building. In 1855 the church at Irish Creek was built. In 1856 the church at San Marcos. (This church was burned in 1871.) In 1856 a church was built at Hunts- ville ($2,800 contributed the day the church was dedicated). In 1859 churches were built in Richmond, Anderson, and Cold Springs; in 1860, at Sweethome, Shelbyville, Nacog- doches, and Independence. In 1861 a church was built at Waverley ; and in 1862, at Port Lavaca and Indianola. Of course many others were built of which we have no information. The census reports of 1860, give 1,030 churches in Texas, valued at $1,095,254, and furnishing accommo- dation to 271,184 hearers. Of this number the Methodists had 410 churches, valued at $319,934, and accommodating 119,934 hearers ; Baptists, 280 churches, valued at $228,- 030, and furnishing accommodation to 77,435 people. There were 96 churches denominated Union. The Presby- terians had 72 churches, accommodating 19,567, valued at $120,550 ; Christian Church, 53 churches, value $27,395, and accommodating 15,905 hearers; Cumberland Presby- terians, 52 churches, valued at $47,430, and accommodating 19,350 ; Roman Catholic, 33 churches, valued at $189,900, and accommodating 12,772 worshippers ; the Episcopalians have 19 churches, valued at $111,250, and furnishing accom- modations to 8,480 hearers ; the Lutherans have 19 churches, valued at $20,500, and accommodating 3,510 hearers.
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SECTION II.
The Texas German Missions.
THOUGH not exactly in accordance with chronological order, we have preferred to give, in a separate section, some account of the missions among the Germans in Texas. In the Summer of 1846, H. P. Young commenced a German mission in Galveston. In November he reports 23 mem- bers, and a church-building under way. The next year the church is completed, a parsonage fitted up, and 60 members reported. In 1848, missions are established in Houston and Victoria. This year Galveston reports 55 members; Houston, 46; Victoria, 52: total, 153. In 1849, 169 members were reported. In 1850, Seguin and Fredericksburg are added to the list of missions. The total number of members reported in 1851 was 226. In 1852 a mission was commenced at New Braunfels. In 1853, 276 members were reported. The first German camp- meeting in Texas was held near Fredericksburg, in August, 1854. It resulted in some 50 conversions. On the 5th of September, after the close of the camp-meeting, the corner- stone of a rock church was laid in Fredericksburg. The year 1855 was probably the most prosperous our German missions ever experienced in Texas. There were 4 admit- ted on trial in the travelling connection. In Galveston, 41 joined the church in the month of April. At Industry, Henry Baun, a local preacher, had built a small church and parsonage, which he turned over to Mr. Vondenbimen, the missionary. A new church was built on Clark's Creek, in Lavaca County. Through means granted by the Mis- sionary Board at Nashville, a German paper was started in
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Galveston. The following numbers are reported: Galves- ton, 80; Industry, 72 ; New Braunfels, 72; Fredericksburg, 115 ; Victoria, 34; Clark's Creek, 23 ; Houston, 85 : total, 481.
At Houston 85 members are reported. The desertion of Mr. Goldberg and H. P. Young, who joined the Cum- berland Presbyterian church, and of the two Rottensteins, who joined the Episcopal church, had a depressing effect upon the work, both in Galveston and Houston ; but at the latter place the brethren had reorganized, and taken preliminary steps to build a church. In 1856 the German work constituted an Elders' district, and J. W. De Vilbliss appointed presiding elder. This did not include the Gal- veston and Houston missions, which were included in the Galveston district, H. S. Thrall, P. E. At the close of 1856, 503 members are reported. The next year, all the German missions were in the German district. This year 485 members are reported, and in 1858, 572, and 4 local preachers. In 1858 the West Texas Conference was formed. At the close of that year, 295 members are reported in the Western Conference, and 614 German members in both Conferences. In 1859 the Llano circuit is reported self- sustaining. In 1861 there were, in the two Conferences, 711 German members, 12 travelling and 8 local preachers. At this time there was in Texas, according to census tables, a free population of 421,694. Of this number, 43,422 were foreign born, and 20,553, or a little less than five per cent. of our free population, were born in German States.
During the war, all our statistical reports are defective. In 1866 all the German missions were transferred to the Texas Conference : 800 members are reported. At the close of this year, P. A. Moelling, Wm. Harmes, Ed. Schneider,
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Gustavus Elly, and Chas. Biel, located and joined the M. E. church. In 1868, 464 members are reported; in 1869, 442; in 1870, 575. In 1870 it was announced, in the Texas Christian Advocate, that a competent hand was preparing a history of the German missions in Texas, and that it would be a work of thrilling interest, showing that many of these missionaries possessed the spirit of which martyrs are made. We had hoped this volume would appear in time to furnish us some valuable information. It has not appeared, and we are compelled to give a mere skeleton of the German work, without those personal incidents that give such interest to a narrative. There are some pecu- liarities about the German work. The Germans are not as impressible as Americans, but when one is converted, and joins the church, he is a permanent church-member. The preachers regard the ministry as a vocation for life, and generally give up all secular business. When a German congregation is formed, one of the first things done is to build a church, and the next is to provide a parsonage for the pastor's family. It was the privilege of the writer of these pages to hear Rev. Mr. Nast preach, before there was a German Methodist missionary in the United States. He was also present at the dedication of the first German Methodist church-that on Race-street, Cincinnati. He has watched with growing interest the expansion of their work. The work in the North did not make rapid progress, until its management was committed to the Germans them- selves, by forming separate Conferences. Now, there are four German Conferences in America; one in Germany, and one in Switzerland, offshoots of the American stock. If the work in the South had been organized into German Conferences fifteen years ago, there is but little doubt but
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we should have had German churches in Nashville, Louis- ville, Memphis, Mobile, and other places, where we once had organizations that have now ceased to exist; and where we now have churches, they would probably have been much more prosperous. They would also have had a literature, and probably, by this time, a literary institu- tion of their own. The Germans would then have their own representatives in the General Conference, and, in gen- eral, would have the control of their own peculiar field of operations, while their American brethren would still afford them generous aid from our missionary treasury. The German field is an important branch of our evangelical work, which should be assiduously cultivated.
SECTION III.
Texas Christian Advocate and Book Depository.
IN 1847 Rev. R. B. Wells commenced, in Brenham, the publication of a paper, called the Texas Christian Ad- vocate. The next year, Rev. O. Fisher purchased the paper, and removed it to Houston. This failing to meet with general encouragement, at a camp-meeting at Ruters- ville, in September, 1848, a committee was appointed to inaugurate a newspaper enterprise in behalf of the church. A prospectus was issued in the Houston Telegraph of October 12, 1848. The succeeding Annual Conference fully indorsed the measure, and appointed a committee of publication. On the 14th of February, 1849, Messrs. Alexander and Thrall, on behalf of said committee, entered into a contract with Messrs. Cruger and Moore, of Houston, to publish a weekly edition of 1,000 papers, of imperial size, for $2,500 a year, they bearing all expenses except paying the editor.
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Mr. Richardson, the editor, named the new paper the Texas Wesleyan Banner. But Texas was sparsely popu- lated, and the 1,000 subscribers were not immediately obtained. The consequence was, that, although the paper was ably edited and very popular, the weekly receipts were a little below weekly expenses. At the General Conference in 1850, the Banner was adopted as a "General Confer- ence" paper, but this did not materially improve its finances, and, at the Conference in Bastrop, in December, 1851, the publishing committee reduced the editor's salary, whereupon Mr. Richardson resigned, and Mr. Rottenstein was elected editor. About the 1st of January, 1852, some liberal friends, principally in Houston, furnished the com- mittee $1,000, with which to purchase printing materials and a hand-press. The committee needing some one to supervise the financial department, C. Shearn, Esq., a gen- tleman of experience, who loved the church, undertook this department without fee or reward. From this time until the close of the fifth volume of the paper, in July, 1854, Mr. Shearn so managed the finances that the receipts covered all the expenses of publication. In the Summer of 1853, Mr. S. B. Cameron was elected editor. He died of yellow fever in October, and J. A. Hancock took charge of the editorial department of the Banner. At the Gen- eral Conference in 1854, steps were taken to remove the - paper to Galveston, and C. C. Gillespie was elected editor. The book-agents at Nashville loaned the publishing com- mittee of the Advocate $1,024. The printing-office in Houston was sold, and the first number of the new Texas Christian Advocate made its appearance in Galveston, August 12, 1854. As the General Conference had author- ized (instructed) the book-agents at Nashville to loan the
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Texas branch $5,000, the committee hoped with this sum to be able to fit up an office and commence operations. The Nashville agents failed to furnish any money, except the first installment of $1,024. In the Spring of 1853, Mr. E. D. John became financial agent, but in a short time turned the business over to David Ayers. In 1855 Mr. Ayers purchased a printing-office for the Advocate. At this time the office had 2,000 paying subscribers .. In the Spring of 1858 the fiscal committee purchased of Mr. John Brown a three-story building, on the Strand, for the Advocate office and Book Depository. They were to pay $12,000, in three annual payments.
This purchase was ratified by the publishing committee. In the General Con- ference in May, 1858, it was announced that the financial difficulties of the Advocate were at an end, and that the paper, besides its large advertising patronage, had a weekly circulation of 4,000 copies. Rev. J. E. Carnes was elected editor. Mr. Ayers continued to act as agent of the Ad- vocate, and on his individual responsibility brought on a few books and opened a Book Depository. At the Confer- ence in Austin, in November, 1858, Rev. J. W. Shipman was appointed fiscal agent of the Advocate and Book Depository. Mr. Shipman took hold vigorously of the new enterprise, and the people rallied nobly to its support. The Advocate of April 28th, 1859, reports over $6,000 in cash and good cash notes, obtained in Galveston ; John Rabb donates 640 acres of land; $1,700 are obtained at the Felder camp-ground, near Chappell Hill; several hun- dred dollars in cash are sent from Texana. Indeed, almost every paper acknowledges the receipt of cash or cash notes from various parts of the State for the Depository. In April, 1860, Mr. Shipman visited New York, and gener-
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ous friends there donate to him $1,060 with which to pur- chase a power-press and an "Ericsson" engine for the Advocate office and Depository. The year 1861 opened most auspiciously. Subscriptions and money were con- stantly flowing into the hands of the agent. The adver- tising patronage of the paper was steadily increasing. An excellent job-office was now rapidly becoming a source of profit. But, alas! the Civil War broke out, the blockade was established, and it was found necessary, in July, to reduce the paper to half a sheet. The last job executed in the Advocate office was a "System of Military Tactics, by Col. R. T. P. Allen." Soon after this the Federal forces made demonstrations against the city; the paper was suspended, and books, papers, and printing-office and fix- tures were sent up to Houston.
After two years' suspension, the Conference at Colum- bus recommended the resumption of the Advocate, and sundry persons subscribed cotton, then worth $100 per bale, to the enterprise. H. Bass, Esq., of Columbia, gave ten bales, and other parties gave a smaller number. Gen. J. B. Magruder, who was at the Conference, readily gave permission for the exportation of the Advocate cotton to the Rio Grande. The paper, however, did not reappear until after the Waco Conference, in November, 1864. Mr. Carnes continued as editor, and the venerable and generous Charles Shearn again came forward and took charge of the financial department. On examining the old material, it was found that the engine and power-press were ruined with rust, and the type so pied up (in the language of print- ers) as to be almost worthless. Mr. Shearn, however, suc- ceeded in securing enough type to set up a paper half the size of the former Advocate: In this form it was issued
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for a year. The Conference which met at Chappell Hill in November, 1865, determined to remove the paper to Gal- veston. Captain Grant was appointed publisher, and H. V. Philpott, editor, and agent of Depository. Nothing was done, however, until after the General Conference in 1866, when I. G. John was elected editor. Mr. John issued the paper in due time, commencing in the second quarter of the 9th volume of the Advocate, or of the 14th volume of the Banner. At the session of the Texas Conference in Galveston, in October, 1866, Mr. John was appointed Depository agent, and authorized, if he deemed it expedient, to sell the building on the Strand, purchased of Mr. Brown, and provide cheaper quarters for his business. The house was accordingly sold, and an office fitted up in the building formerly occupied as a parsonage on the Methodist church lot in Galveston. In process of time, however, it was discovered that there were some debts owing at the North, some of which had been confiscated and paid by Mr. Shipman to the Confederate Government. The assets of the Depository not being equal to its liabili- ties, in 1870 it was put in liquidation and wound up. In January, 1868, the publishing committee of the Ad- vocate entered into a contract with Messrs. Shaw & Blaylock, printers, for the publication of the paper. The committee turned over to these gentlemen the type, presses, and office fixtures, the subscription and advertising patronage, and further agreed to furnish 2,000 paying sub- scribers. Messrs. Shaw & Blaylock agreed to pay the editor appointed by the General Conference, and when 3,500 subscribers were obtained the paper to be enlarged without increasing the price of subscriptions. At the close of 1868, Messrs. Veal & John bought out Messrs. Shaw
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& Blaylock, and assumed the responsibility of publish- ing the paper. In 1870, though the subscriptions fell far short of 3,500, the publishers enlarged the paper. In Sep- tember, 1871, the form of the paper was changed, and, giving a little less reading-matter, it is furnished to sub- scribers at $2.00 per annum.
There is an appendage to the Advocate office that, in two respects, reminds us of the pyramids of Egypt: 1st, in the mystery of its origin; 2d, in the magnitude of its dimensions. It is the old Advocate debt. It is known that, during the first year in which it was published by Messrs. Cruger & Moore, there was a small debt incurred, but it was thought the sale of the office and fixtures, furnished by the Houstonians, was more than sufficient to pay that amount; and it was further thought that the money obtained of the book-agents at Nashville was suffi- cient to cover the expenses of a removal to Galveston, so that when it started there it was square with the world, with a large amount due on the books for back subscrip- tions. But so it is,-there is, or there was, an old debt. When Mr. Ayers took charge of the financial department, in 1857, he found the debt amounted to $5,000. In the first year of his administration he paid all expenses, and paid off $1,000 of former indebtedness. At the Conference in La Grange in 1859, an earnest effort was made to wipe out the debt, and preachers and people generally thought it had been paid. But, after the war, it appears again, like a certain famous ghost. Including interest, it then amounted to about $3,500. We believe that Bishop Marvin, during his tour of Conferences in the Fall of 1870, and Spring and Fall of 1871, obtained pledges for the full amount of this annoying old debt.
6
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SECTION IV.
General Conference of 1858-Expunction of the Rule against Slavery -- Troubles in Northern Texas-Anthony Bewley-Secession movement -Preachers in the Army.
THE fourth General Conference met in Nashville, Tenn., May 1st, 1858. Delegates from East Texas : C. C. Gillespie, J. W. Fields, S. A. Williams, J. B. Tullis, and N. W Berks ; reserves, Jeff. Shook, J. T. P. Irvine. From the Texas Conference: R. Alexander, J. W. Phillips, J. W. Whipple, W. H. Seat, R. W. Kennon, M. Yell, and W. C. Lewis; reserves, Daniel Morse, Daniel Carl, Asbury Davidson. At this Conference provision was made for the organization of a Conference in West Texas. It was at first called the Rio Grande Conference, afterward West Texas. The most important act of this Conference was, to use the language of the journal, "the expunction of the rule against buy- ing men, women, and children, with an intention to enslave them." The resolutions eliminating this rule, having ob- tained the requisite vote in the Annual Conference, finally passed the General Conference by a vote of 143 to 7. As this had been construed as applicable to the African slave-trade, there was some sensitiveness on the subject of its repeal. Bishop Pierce defined the position of the Con- ference upon this subject-
He begged to say, the design of the Alabama Conference, and of the other Conferences voting with the majority, has been misap- prehended. The Methodist Church divided on this subject. The Southern Church has avowed, as her settled belief, that slavery is not a subject of ecclesiastical legislation.
The idea that this movement has any connection, even the most remote, with the re-opening of the African slave-trade is gratuitous and unwarranted. The slave-trade is piracy by the laws of the United
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States, and punishable with death. We claim, said the Bishop, to be loyal citizens. If our members were to become complicated with this prohibited traffic, they would subject themselves to accusation, trial, and expulsion. There is no occasion, then, for sensitiveness, excite- ment, or alarm.
As a specimen of the manner in which inappropriate subjects are thrust upon the attention of ecclesiastical bodies, we notice that this Conference almost adopted Pro- fessor Mulkey's System of Orthoepy. And this reminds us that, at the General Conference at Columbus, Ga., the great razor-strop man had his stores at the door of the Conference-room, and all were invited to try them. Al- though he had sold so many, he was the identical .man that had "a few more of the same sort left." At the same session the members were furnished with a writing-fluid, which they were expected to use, and recommend. One of the Texas delegates tried it, and found-1st, It spread like water, going through two or three thicknesses of paper. 2d, It blotched. 3d, When dry, it was illegible, and the leaves all stuck together. He decided emphatically that the whole villainous mixture ought to have been in the ink-bottle which Luther threw at the head of the Devil .*
Another General Conference should have assembled in
* It was the General Conference of 1858 that had its picture taken. We have never felt exactly right toward that artist. He did not do Texas justice ; for, although he placed the chairman of our dele- gation in a favorable position, and secured a good likeness, the other Texas delegates were so distributed throughout the extensive field, and hid, so to speak, amid other (not to say brighter) and more advantageously located constellations, as to be hardly visible and recognizable to the naked eye.
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1862. Delegates elected from East Texas: J. E. Carnes, S. A. Williams, L. R. Dennis, J. W. Fields, R. S. Finlay ; reserves, J. W. P. Mckenzie, J. T. P. Irvine.
Texas Conference : R. Alexander, J. W. Shipman, J. W. Whipple, G. W. Carter, J. E. Ferguson, J. G. John, R. T. P. Allen; reserves, J. W. Kennon, W. H. Seat, J. W. Phillips, A. Davidson. From West Texas : Jesse Boring, Ivy H. Cox ; reserves, J. W. De Vilbiss, F. Vondenbimen. In consequence of the war, the Conference never met.
In 1859 Bishop Janes held a Conference of the M. E. Church, on Timber Creek, in Fannin County. The activ- ity of the anti-slavery party, the John Brown raid at Har- per's Ferry, the abolitionizing of Kansas, and the threat which had been announced, that the Indian Territory and northern Texas should be made free territory had rendered the public mind very excitable. A committee of citizens of Fannin County was appointed to wait on Bishop Janes, and remonstrate against sending abolition preachers into Texas. The chairman of the committee was Colonel Samuel A. Roberts, a graduate of West Point, and an oldl Texan, who, during the days of the republic, had occupied the position of Secretary of State. He was a lawyer of distinction, and a life-long Methodist. The remonstrance was presented. Of course, under the leadership of such a gentleman as Colonel Roberts, no violence was contempla- ted, and none would have been permitted. The Confer- ence finished its business, adjourned, and it is believed all its members left the State. The excitement, however, did not abate. The whole country was rife with rumors of insurrections and reports of turbulent conduct on the part of negroes. When these negroes were examined, they uniformly stated that northern men prompted them to
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