USA > Texas > History of Texas : from 1685 to 1892, volume 2 > Part 39
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In 1841, the Baptists established Baylor University, at Independence, in Washington County. Its president, from
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1852 to 1860, was Rev. Rufus C. Burleson, who had succeeded Rev. H. L. Graves, its first president.
In the latter year, Dr. Burleson founded Waco University, and in 1885 the two institutions were incorporated into one at Waco, and received the name of Baylor University, in honor of the Hon. Robert E. B. Baylor, a Baptist clergyman and, for more than twenty years, a district judge. At the same time a female college as a branch of the University known as "Baylor College " was located at Belton. Both institutions have continued to grow, drawing their pupils from all parts of the State, and not a few from other States.1
The Baptists also have at Brownwood an institution known as Howard Payne College, and at Decatur in Wise County, the North Texas Baptist College for both sexes.
The Episcopal Church has at Dallas, St. Mary's Institute, a female school of high order, a beautiful stone edifice with ample grounds beautifully located. Its inauguration in 1889 was due to the untiring zeal of Rt. Reverend Bishop Alex- ander C. Garrett of the diocese of North Texas. They have also Montgomery Institute at Seguin, and St. Mary's Insti- tute at San Antonio.
The Cumberland Presbyterian Church has at Tehucano in Limestone County, Trinity University, an institution repre- senting that denomination for the whole State - the result of uniting into one in 1875 several institutions previously exist- ing elsewhere.
They also have Buffalo Gap College at Buffalo Gap, in Tay- lor County ; a Texas Female Seminary at Weatherford, Parker County, Veal's Station College at Veal's Station, in Parker County, and Quanah Female College at Quanah, in Hardeman County.
The Presbyterian Church has Austin College at Sherman
1 Dr. Burleson, having served as president of the parent institution for forty years, is yet president, and is still devoted to his life work in the edu- cation of the youth of Texas, male and female.
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(originally at Huntsville), with a theological department attached; a theological institute at Austin under the presi- dency of Revs. R. K. Smoot and Dabney ; a female synodical college at Gainesville (recently established), Stuart Female College at Austin, and a Presbyterian female college at Round Rock.
Daniel Baker College at Brownwood is a Presbyterian Insti- tution of high order, under charge of the southern branch of that church.
The Christian Church or Disciples of Christ has Add Ran College at Thorp's Springs, three miles from Granbury in Hood County, founded in 1873 by Rev. Joseph Addison Clark and his sons Addison and Randolph Clark, all ministers of that denomination. It has, perhaps, the largest number of pupils of any institution of learning in the State. President Clark has been a citizen of Texas since 1839- his children are all natives of the State.
The same church has Carleton College for both sexes at Bonham, founded about 1870, by Rev. Charles Carleton, which enjoys a large patronage.
The Roman Catholic Church in addition to parochial schools has St. Mary's University at Galveston, St. Joseph's College at Victoria, St. Mary's Academy at Austin, St. Mary's Col- lege at San Antonio, St. Joseph's College at Brownsville, and convents, academies or seminaries, in Dallas, Clarksville, Corsicana, Denison, Fort Worth, Jefferson, Marshall, Sherman, Texarkana, Muenster, Galveston, Houston, Austin, Palestine, Temple, Waco, Castroville, Frielburg, San Antonio, Cuero, Halletsville and orphan asylums at Oak Cliff - a suburb of Dallas ; at Galveston and at San Antonio.
M. E. Church (South ) .- The conferences of the Methodist Episcopal Church (South ) have institutions of learning of high grade. Among the number, the Southwestern University, with a ladies "annex," at Georgetown, into which were merged several institutions previously existing, October 1st,
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1873, under the presidency of Rev. F. A. Mood, D. D., the annex being added five years later. During Dr. Mood's presidency of eleven years, which terminated in his death in 1884, the institution had increased from thirty-three students, to one hundred and twenty-seven young ladies and two hun- dred and eighteen young gentlemen, or a total of three hundred and forty-five. Rev. John H. McLean - a native of Texas, has for several years been president of the institution, and its patronage has greatly increased. They have also - North Texas Female College, at Sherman ; Polytechnic Col- lege, male and female, at Fort Worth; Weatherford Female College, at Weatherford; Waco Female College, at Waco ; Central College, male and female, at Sulphur Springs ; Honey Grove High School, male and female, at Honey Grove; Lam- passas Female College, at Lampassas, and Chappell Hill Female College, at Chappell Hill, Washington County.
At Belle Plain in Callahan County is a co-educational col- lege chartered in 1883 by the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, but in October, 1891, it was purchased by Judge L. M. Onin. Mechanical auxiliaries were added, and it is an in- stitution of great promise, already attracting patronage from other States. This denomination has also Alexander Institute, male and female, at Kilgore, Gregg County, Coronal Insti- tute, male and female, at San Marcos, and Vernon College (new), male and female, at Vernon, in Wilbarger County.
The Methodist Episcopal Church (North), have the Fort Worth University at Fort Worth, and the Wiley College for colored males and females, at Marshall; and, it is believed, several other denominational institutions.
A Normal College has been established at Denton, by Prof. Chilton, and a southwestern normal college at Italy in Ellis County. Weatherford has the Cumberland Female College.
There are in all the densely populated portions of the State numberless well established academies taught by well trained educators; business colleges, and select or private
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schools of good reputation by private endowment, besides an- nual normal schools, composed of teachers, one for each of the thirty-one senatorial districts, in the State. Texas is allowed nine scholarships in the Peabody Normal College, Nashville, Tennessee.
In addition, Nacogdoches College, male and female, enjoys a patronage of three hundred and twenty students; Columbia College at Van Alstyne, Grayson County, is in a prosperous condition and Belton has a male academy of high order. In every considerable town there are special German schools in which both the German and English languages are taught.
A female college of high order is to open at Oak Cliff, a suburb of Dallas, in September, 1892.
ORPHANS' HOMES.
On the T. & P. Railroad, five miles east of Dallas, is the Buckner Orphans' Home, founded by Reverend Robert C. Buckner, D. D., of the Baptist Church, in successful operation since 1884, having under its care (1892) two hundred and twenty-five orphan boys and girls, who are not only being taught in its school, but also all useful occupations includ- ing the cultivation of the farm by the boys. It is sustained by voluntary contributions without distinction of creed or nationality, from all parts of the State.
Boyland Orphans' Home, at Boyland, Galveston County, has been in successful operation many years and has done noble work in that branch of beneficence.
CHAPTER XLIX.
CHURCHES IN TEXAS.
When American settlements began in Texas in 1822, as a province of Mexico, which was under Spanish rule from 1521 to 1821, the Roman Catholic religion was the established re- ligion of the Government, and so remained until the forma- tion of the Government of the Republic of Texas, in 1836. Marriage, to be lawful, had to be solemnized by a priest of that church, who, with one or two periodic exceptions, could only be found in San Antonio, Goliad and Nacogdoches. All foreign settlers, in a legal point of view, were regarded as Roman Catholics. Yet, as a fact, those who came as Protest- ants, at least nominally, remained as such. While denying them the right of erecting and organizing churches, the Mex- ican authorities were lenient to the extent of allowing occas- ional Protestant worship in private houses, and this was done during the visits of Protestant ministers from the United States. The Rev. Henry Stevenson of the Methodist church, made a tour of the country as far west as the Brazos in 1824 and preached several sermons in private houses, as he had done in eastern Texas in 1822. In 1828 the Rev. Sumner Bacon of the Cumberland Presbyterian church, preached a number of sermons in the country. In 1829 Rev. Thomas J. Pilgrim of the Baptist church, conducted a Sabbath school at San Felipe. A similar school the same year was estab- lished at Matagorda, and, a few months later, on " Old Caney," both by members of the Baptist church. In 1833 a camp meeting was held ten miles east of San Augustine, at which Rev. James Stevenson, Enoch Talley (of Mississippi)
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and Sumner Bacon were the preachers, the two first named being Methodists. Mr. Bacon continued preaching in isolated places until 1832, when he became bible agent and distributed bibles both in eastern and western Texas. In 1833 Rev. Milton Estill organized a Cumberland Presbyterian church in what is now Red River County, then supposed to be in Arkansas.
PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH.
After the revolution, when religious liberty was fully estab- lished, the different Protestant churches began organizing throughout the settled portions of the country. In 1838, Rev. Caleb S. Ives, of the Protestant Episcopal Church, arrived as a missionary at Matagorda. He organized a church and founded a flourishing school for young ladies, which he conducted until 1849, when death ended his arduous labors. In the same year, the Rev. R. M. Chapman organized a church in Houston. In 1840 he was succeeded by Rev. Henry B. Goodwin. In the same year Rev. Leonidas Polk, then a missionary bishop, made a tour of observation through central Texas. As the result of his visit, in 1841, Rev. Ben- jamin Eaton was sent as a missionary, preaching alter- nately at Galveston and Houston. In 1842, a church hav- ing been erected in Galveston, he became its rector, and so remained until 1871, when, in his pulpit reading a hymn (" Nearer my God to Thee " ) he dropped suddenly and in a few moments breathed his last.
In 1843 Rev. Charles Gillette became rector of the church in Houston. In 1844, Rev. George W. Freeman, Missionary Bishop of Arkansas, was given supervision over the Episcopal churches in Texas and annually visited them until the conse- cration of Bishop Alexander Gregg in 1859, (Texas, in 1849, however, having been created a separate diocese). The progress of the church since, as that of other denominations, has been marked by a healthy growth, there being three
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dioceses, under the supervision of Bishops Gregg of Austin, Elliott of San Antonio and Garrett of Dallas.
PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, O. S.
Rev. Hugh Wilson, said to have been the first minister of his church in Texas, in 1838 organized a church in San Augustine, and, in 1839, another at Independence. In 1840 Rev. Daniel Baker arrived in Galveston as a missionary to Texas and found Rev. John McCullough laboring in that field, where he remained a number of years and founded a seminary for young ladies. Mr. Mccullough was pastor of the first church organized in Galveston. In Houston Dr. Baker found Rev. Wm. Y. Allen officiating as a minister. On the 3d of . April, 1840, Dr. Baker was present at the organization of the first presbytery in Texas, at Independence. It was composed of the Reverends Hugh Wilson of the presbytery of south Alabama ; John McCullough of Newton presbytery, New Jersey, Wm. G. Allen of the presbytery of West Tennessee, and Mr. John McFarland, an elder of Independence, Dr. Baker sitting as a corresponding member. Soon after this, Reverends Wm. C. Blair, P. H. Fullenwider, Isaac J. Hen- derson and Francis Rutherford united with that presbytery. In 1851 the first synod met in Austin. Since then the growth of this church has been encouraging, extending with the population and blessed with an able ministry.
THE BAPTIST CHURCH.
In 1826, it is recorded, Rev. Joseph Bags preached west of the Brazos on Peach creek, and the following year at San Augustine, when his services were finally suspended by order of the Mexican authorities. The next Baptist preaching, west of the Brazos, was at the house of Moses Shipman in 1829, by Rev. Thomas Hanks of Tennessee. Among the early
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ministers of this church were Elders George Woodruff and Skelton Allpine, who arrived in 1830-31 and began preaching. The first Baptist Church in Texas was organized in 1833, and the churches of this denomination, with its several branches, have kept in the lead, with the tide of emigration, both in point of numbers and usefulness.
METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH.
In addition to what has been said, in 1834, Rev. Henry Ste- venson, assisted by Revs. J. P. Sneed, Whatley English and Sumner Bacon (of the C. P. Church), conducted a second camp meeting on the same ground as the first, ten miles east of San Augustine. A whisky shanty was set up in the im- mediate vicinity, but the congregation, two hundred in num- ber, with entire unanimity, drove the owner with his supplies from the grounds. In September of the same year, a camp meeting was held on Caney Creek in Austin County by Revs. Henry Stevenson and J. W. Kinney, assisted by Rev. Henry Fullenwider (Presbyterian ) and others. Another was held in 1835 at the same place, and a quarterly conference organized, of which Dr. Wm. P. Smith was made secretary.
In 1837, Reverends Littleton Fowler, Robert Alexander and Martin Ruter, arrived as missionaries in the country. Mr. Alexander conducted a camp-meeting in the Redlands, and was assisted by the local preachers, English, Wm. C. Crawford (a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independ- ence, being the last survivor, and in 1892, still residing in Johnson County ), Johnson and Henry Stevenson, Jr. In the same year Mr. Alexander (October 19th, 1837,) held a camp- meeting in Washington County, assisted by Reverends J. W. Kinney and A. Roark and Andrew J. McGowen ( Cumberland Presbyterians). He was soon joined by Mr. Fowler. On the 17th of January, 1838, the corner-stone of the first Protestant church in Texas was laid in San Augustine, Mr.
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Fowler officiating and Gen. Thomas J. Rusk delivering an eloquent address. Mr. Fowler continued a zealous laborer in the work until his death on the 29th of January, 1846. Mr. Alexander, after preaching through middle Texas, went on horseback to attend conference at Natchez, Mississippi. At Gaines' Ferry on the Sabine he met Dr. Ruter, superintend- ent of the Texas mission, for the first time entering the Republic. The Doctor survived but a short time, having visited the towns and settlements as far as the Colorado. He died in Washington on the Brazos, and was buried on a lot which he had purchased for a Methodist church site. The church was soon afterwards erected. On it was bestowed his name.
Soon after these events, Rev. Daniel Carl, a Tennesseean, arrived in eastern Texas, and for many subsequent years labored as a faithful minister of his church, until 1842, in east Texas, and then, until his death about 1860, in southwest Texas. He fought in several Indian and Mexican battles and died at his residence in Victoria County.
On the 25th of December, 1839, the first annual conference for Texas was organized at Rutersville, the seat of the newly founded Rutersville College, in Fayette County. Bishop Waugh, of Baltimore, presided. In 1844 this conference was divided and another established in east Texas. From that time and especially after annexation the growth of the Metho- dist Episcopal Church, South, (the church in the United States having been divided in 1844), has been continuous and rapid and, as shown elsewhere, its educational institutions have kept pace with the increase of population and wealth.
The parent, or northern branch of the Methodist Episcopal Church, entered Texas as an organized body after the close of the civil war, and has churches in various parts of the State. It is proper to say that in a large sense a feeling of fraternity exists between these two branches of the church.
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THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH.
The condition of this church up to the foundation of the Republic in 1836 has already been given. In 1838 Rev. Father Timon from the institution called the Barrens in Perry County, Mo., first visited Texas, and again in 1840. He was appointed Prefect Apostolic and was the first priest to say mass in Galveston, Houston and Austin, all new towns, but he did not remain long the country.
In what is now Lavaca County, there was a considerable population of American Roman Catholics from Missouri, Pennsylvania and Kentucky, without any pastor. In 1839, the Revs. Joseph Hayden and Edward A. Clark from Bards- town, Kentucky, where they were born and educated, arrived in southwest Texas ; Father Hayden, an eloquent and zealous man, visited the Catholic settlements in the coast country from the San Patricio to the San Jacinto River, and eighteen months after arriving suddenly sickened and died on the latter river lamented by all who knew him, both Protestants and Catholics. A church was built three miles west of Halletsville in 1841 and of this Father Clark became, and, for a number of years, remained pastor, conducting for most of the time a school. He was subsequently transferred to a church in Houston where he died after about eighteen years service in Texas.
In 1840 Rev. John Murray Odin, a native of France, but later from the Barrens, arrived. He visited all the old mis- sions of western Texas, including San Antonio. He visited Victoria, Seguin, Gonzales, the Lavaca settlement and other points. He was first appointed vicar apostolic. In 1847 he was ordained first bishop of Galveston (i. e., of Texas) where he labored until 1861, when he was appointed archbishop of Louisiana. After several visits to Rome, ill health caused him to retire to his native town in France, where he died in 1870. This bishop did much to correct abuses in the Mexi-
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can churches of west Texas, and was held in high esteem throughout the country. His successor in Texas was Bishop Du Buis. There are now three Bishops viz .: Bishop Gallagher of Galveston, Bishop Nerez of San Antonio, and Bishop Brennan of Dallas, each presiding over a separate Diocese. The growth of the church has been rapid, as is- abundantly shown elsewhere by the number of their universi- ties, colleges, academies and convents.1
All these religious denominations have well sustained mis- sions in home and foreign fields.
1 In 1839, on the Trinity River, a Franciscan missionary, Padre Diaz, was- killed; under what circumstances seems involved in mystery. He was the last representative of that ancient class of missionaries in Texas.
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CHAPTER L.
EARLY NEWSPAPERS IN TEXAS.
On this subject but little can be said prior to about 1829. It has been asserted that in Long's first expedition into Texas - including the formation of an embryo-government at Nacog- doches, a small paper was printed there for a few weeks by Mr. Horatio Bigelow, but the collapse of that enterprise was the death knell of the newspaper. So, in 1826, during the Edwards or Fredonian agitation, a paper advocating the Fredonian cause was as short-lived as the cause it advocated. Mr. G. M. Cotton published a paper at Brazoria in 1828-29. From August, 1832, to his death in July, 1833, D. W. Anthony published an able paper in Brazoria, called The Constitutional Advocate and Texas Public Advertiser. In July, 1834, F. C. Gray and A. J. Harris began in Brazoria the publication of a paper, called The Texas Republican, which was continued until the invasion of Santa Anna in 1836. In 1835-6 a paper was published in Nacogdoches, called the Texian Advocate and Immigrant's Guide. In July, 1835, the brothers Gail and Thomas H. Borden, with Mr. Joseph Baker, began at San Felipe the publication of The Telegraph and. Texas Register, which proved to be a most valuable journal, patriotically devoted to the Revolutionary cause, and the first to attain any considerable age in the country. On the approach of Santa Anna the office was removed to Harrisburg, and there on the 18th of April, 1836, together with the town of Harrisburg, it was burned and destroyed, by order of Santa Anna. In August, 1836, the paper was re-established by the same parties at Columbia on the Brazos, then the temporary seat of gov-
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ernment. During the following winter, the establishment was sold to Dr. Francis Moore, Jr., and Jacob W. Cruger, by whom it was removed to Houston, the newly selected seat of government, in the spring of 1837. Dr. Moore remained its editor until about 1850. It then passed into other hands. In 1855, Mr. E. H. Cushing became its editor and so remained until about 1868, when he was succeeded by Wm. G. Webb, and he, a few years later, by Wm. F. Gray. The paper ceased to exist about 1880, having throughout its existence of forty-five years, ranked high in public esteem as an able and consistent journal, advocating democratic principles after the annexation of Texas to the United States.
For several years after 1836 the Red-Lander was published in San Augustine by Israel Canfield. From about the period mentioned the number of papers in the country slowly in- creased. The National Banner and The Intelligencer flour- ished for a time in Houston and in 1842-3-4 the telegraph office in Houston published a daily paper (the first in Texas ) called the Morning Star.
In May, 1838, Hamilton Stuart, recently from Georgetown, Kentucky, established the Civilian and Galveston Gazette, the first permanent newspaper published in that place. He remained in its control until about 1875, since which time he has been connected with the editorial staff of the Galveston News. After an editorial service of fifty-four years in Gal- veston, preceded by three years in Kentucky, he is still in active service - an honored reminder of the early struggles of Texas journalism, a man of talent, integrity and undefiled patriotism.
Between 1837 and 1840, papers were published at Wash- ington by J. W. J. Niles, at Richmond, by Sidney S. Calen- dar (now of New Orleans ), at Matagorda by Samuel Mussina, and W. G. Wallach, and at Nacogdoches, by Senator Isaac W. Burton of " the Horse Marines," a title won at Copano in 1836.
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On the removal of the seat of government to Austin late in 1839, Samuel Whiting established in that place the Austin City Gazette, with George K. Teulon, an Englishman, as editor. He subsequently died in Hong Kong. The Gazette, under various editors, continued until the war between the States. About January 1st, 1840, George W. Bonnell estab- lished a second paper in Austin, called The Texas Sentinel, having as assistants in his office, Martin C. Wing (afterwards one of the seventeen martyrs in Mexico ), Joseph A. Clark, the founder of Add-Ran College and John Henry Brown, the author of this history. Major Bonnell was killed by the Mexicans as one of the guard at the battle of Mier, December 26th, 1842.
In 1844 Washington D. Miller and Wm. H. Cushney founded the first quarto paper in Texas at Washington, on the Brazos. When annexation occurred, Col. John S. Ford and Michael Cronican purchased this paper - The National Register and removed it to Austin, where it was conducted for a number of years. Col. Ford's editorial labors, extending from 1846 to 1861, were often interrupted by his service in the Mexican war, and as a captain of rangers on the Indian frontier. At an advanced age, in San Antonio, he still re- ceives the homage due to a life adorned by self-denial and heroic patriotism.
The Galveston News, long the most prominent paper in Texas, was founded in 1842 by Wilbur Cherry and Benjamin F. Neal. From 1845 to 1866, Willard Richardson was its editor and chief proprietor. In that year Col. A. H. Belo became half owner, and, at the death of Mr. Richardson in 1875, entire owner of the paper, soon afterwards associated with him, C. Jenkins and John J. Hand. In 1881 the cor- poration of A. H. Belo & Co. was formed. They now con- duct both the Galveston News and the Dallas News, considered to be the most prominent and widely circulated daily and weekly papers in Texas. The Houston Post, San
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Antonio Express, Austin Statesman and other papers are . their co-laborers in the field of daily journalism.
In May, 1846, The Texian Advocate, the first paper published west of the Colorado River, was established in Victoria, by John D. Logan and Thomas Sterne, who brought their office from Van Buren, Arkansas, on flat-boats down that river to the Mississippi - thence by New Orleans to Lavaca, and thence by Mexican carts to Victoria. During the continuance of the Mexican war, they were assisted editorially by John Henry Brown - they being strangers in the country. The paper yet flourishes in Victoria, where there are two or more other conspicuous journals. Mr. Logan afterwards published The Herald, in San Antonio, where he died about 1875. (Mr. Sterne still survives as a successful farmer and stock raiser near Victoria. )
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