Early, Texas - History (part 10 of 11)

During the session of the conference at Palestine the Rev. Hugh B. Hamilton, a member of the conference, and presiding elder of the Clarksville district, died. He was born in Rutherford County, Tennessee, November 18, 1818, but was brought up in Jackson County, Alabama. He was converted and joined the Church in his sixteenth year. During the following year he joined a company of volunteers and engaged in an Indian war in Florida. During this campaign he backslid, and was not fully restored until 1843. In that year he was licensed to exhort in Arkansas. He was licensed to preach in 1844, and given an appointment in Little Rock. In 1846 he was married to a Miss Roberts, and removed to Texas. In 1849 he entered the East Texas Conference, of which he remained an active member until his death. During the winter of 1854 he lost his wife, and in 1855 he was again married, to Miss Cynthia Brinley. During the years 1857-58 he was Tract Agent in the East Texas Conference. At the conference of 1858 he was appointed presiding elder of the Clarksville district, which office he filled with much acceptability and success. A few weeks before the close of his year's work he was taken down with typhoid fever. He lingered until the 5th of December the day before his conference closed when he fell asleep. Frequently during his closing days he imagined that some of his brethren returning from conference entered his room, and rousing up he asked again and again, "Where is my appointment 1 ?" But, in the words of his memoir, he had received an appointment, "but not to labor in this world of sin and sorrow, but among the blood-washed around the throne. " Dr. John H. McLean records that he received his license to preach from Hugh B. Hamilton at a quarterly conference on Clarksville circuit in 1859, and that a daughter of H. B. Hamilton, Miss Dona Hamilton, he later received into the Church and that she became a missionary to China.

Chapter Xxiv The Methodist Episcopal Church In Texas

WE have not before had occasion to note the presence in Texas of the Methodist Episcopal Church, or, as it came to be called in the South after the division, the Northern Methodist Church. But during the years just preceding the outbreak of the War between the States the northern body had gradually extended its activities in the southwest, in the slave states of Missouri, Arkansas and Texas. Due to the pronounced antagonism of the Northern Church against slavery, the presence of their preachers in slave territory was a constant source of irritation, and gave rise to some very unfortunate events.

By the Plan of Separation agreed upon in 1844, when the original Methodist Episcopal Church was divided, the conferences, societies and stations along the border between the North and South were given the option of choosing the Church to which they would adhere. In accordance with this plan the Missouri Conference at its session of 1845 voted upon the matter, and a majority of its members voting for the Church, South, placed that conference under the jurisdiction of the Southern Church. But a few of the conference members refused to submit to the decision; some removed into northern territory and reunited with northern conferences; others remaining in the territory of their former ministrations, continued to preach independently as ministers of the "Methodist Episcopal Church." Among these last was Anthony Bewley, formerly of the Holston Conference in

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Tennessee, but who had removed into Missouri and united with the Missouri Conference. "Mr. Bewley utterly refused to unite with the Southern Church," we are told, 1 "and labored in Southwestern Missouri from 1845 to 1848, working with his own hands for support, and preaching to those who remained in the Methodist Episcopal Church as he had opportunity. Several of our preachers labored with him as best they could." There were four or five preachers in Missouri and three in Arkansas who thus continued their relations to the Northern Church. These came together from time to time and appointed themselves to various portions of the territory, with Bewley as presiding elder, until the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1848, when the Missouri Conference of that Church was organized, to include Missouri and Arkansas. Four years later, or in 1852, the Arkansas Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church was formed, and presently we find a preacher or two in connection with that conference appointed to Texas points. In 1855 Mr. Bewley was placed m charge of the "Texas Mission District," and he removed from Missouri to Texas, first locating in Johnson County, but later removed to Millwood, Collin County. The same year B. M. Scrivner was appointed to Bonham mission, but soon thereafter withdrew and joined the Church, South. Mr. Bewley continued to be the chief minister and representative of the Northern Church in Texas until 1859, residing at different times in Johnson and Collin counties, "holding prayer meetings, etc., but finding it impossible to do little besides."

In the meantime both the Church and secular press, North and South, was filled with controversy over the slavery question, and everywhere along the border ex-

1 "A History of the M. E. Church in the South- West," by Eev. Charlea Elliott, from which much of the material for this chapter is taken. The author's work is not a "history," however, so much as it is a venomous indictment of the South in general and the M. E. Church, South, in particular.

cited feelings were beginning to flare up and express themselves in mobs and raids which presaged the coming storm. On the 4th of March, 1859, a citizen's meeting was held at Millwood, Collin County, at which a protest was issued against the abolition sentiments of the Northern Methodists, and a committee was appointed to attend the meetings of that church to ascertain the facts. The proceedings of the Millwood meeting were published in the Bonham Independent, which commented editorially as follows : " We kindly warn these people (the Northern Methodists) to beware lest, in an hour when they least expect it, they will be visited by citizens entertaining adverse sentiments." On Friday, March 11, 1859, the Arkansas Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church convened at Timber Creek, near Bonham, Fannin County, with Bishop JaneS presiding. During the opening session, we are told by our northern historian, "two preachers of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, Messrs. Dickson and Porter, attended as observers, spies, or reporters, which of these we say not." On Saturday it appears that a minister in sympathy with the Northern Church indulged in some inflammatory remarks upon the streets of Bonham, denouncing slavery, and announcing it as the intention of the Methodist Episcopal Church to extirpate that institution. On the same day a mass-meeting was held in Bonham, at which resolutions were adopted and a committee appointed to convey the sentiments of the meeting to the conference in session at Timber Creek. What ensued may be told by the two leading actors in the events of the following day. Says Bishop Janes : 2

2 Extracted from a lengthy article in the Bonham Weekly Era, this and a subsequent article, being a reply, appearing in an article, "The Disturbance in Texas," by Eev. E. L. Shettles, in Texas Methodist Historical Quarterly, January, 1911.

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of last March. The Conference proceeded with its business pleasantly until Saturday evening, at which time the conference, being small, had so nearly finished its work that we might have adjourned, sine die, without inconvenience. But the brethren felt that it would be pleasant to retain their conference association over the Sabbath, and therefore adjourned to meet at six o'clock on Monday morning. This early hour was fixed upon because the brethren, most of whom came on horseback, desired to make a full day's ride on their return journey. I had also engaged a conveyance to take me to Sherman, about 30 miles, where I desired to take the Overland mail stage on Tuesday on my way to New York. Soon after I reached my lodgings some brethren came in and informed me that a public meeting had been held in the court house at Bonham, about three miles from the seat of the conference ; that inflammatory speeches had been made; that great excitement had been created, and that they were coming the next day to drive us off, etc. I advised them to be careful not to give any just cause for offense, and prayerfully await the hour, and religiously meet its responsibilities. ... A social meeting had been appointed for nine o'clock on Sunday morning. The sacrament of the Lord's Supper was to be administered as a part of the service. It was announced that I would preach at eleven o'clock, and at the close of the service ordain deacons. Only one person had been elected to elder's orders, and he had been ordained on Friday. At the appointed hour all the ministers, and most of the members, in the place were present, and united in the exercises of the social meeting. A very devotional spirit was manifest. Near the close of the service the sacrament of the Lord's supper was administered, and the members of other churches present generally partook of it. At eleven o'clock I commenced the more public services. The house was not full, though, for the place, the audience was good in point of numbers. . . . While reading the Scripture lesson, I accidentally lifted up my eyes in the direction of the window, and saw the mob approaching the church. They were mounted on horseback, and marching with considerable regularity, as I judged from the momentary sideglance I had of them, in platoons of from three to five. The Bonham paper states their number to have been about two hundred. I think most of them were armed. The revolvers and bowie knives of some of them were exposed. During prayer they gathered around the church. While singing the second hymn, as many as could crowded into the church. At the close of the singing I commenced giving out my text. At the same time their "spokesman," as he termed himself, standing about half way up the aisle, said, "Do I address the Bishop?" I made no reply, but continued giving out my text. He repeated, "Do I address the Bishop?" I then replied, "I am a Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church." He then said, "I have an unpleasant duty to perform, and I presume it will be equally unpleasant to you." He then described the meeting at Bonham the previous day, when, looking around upon his associates, and pointing me to them, he said, "This large and respectable committee was appointed to wait upon you and the conference, and to make known to you the determination of the meeting." He then called upon one of his company to read to us the resolutions adopted by the meeting. (These were as follows:)

Whereas, as a secret foe lurks in our midst, known as the Northern Methodist church, entertaining sentiments antagonistic to the institution of slavery, and the manifest intention of these Northern coadjutors is to do away with slavery in these United States; and

Whereas, sentiment diametrically opposed to the interests of the South have this day been proclaimed upon our streets by a minister of said Northern Methodist church ; therefore,

Be it Resolved, that the Methodist church has separated into divisions, North and South, the organization of a Northern branch of that Church in our State as a screen behind which the emissaries of a Northern political faction known as abolitionists is dangerous to our interests, and ought not, therefore, to be tolerated by the people of Texas.

2. That the public denunciation of the institution of slavery, and the public action, by a minister of their church, to the effect that the Northern Methodists designed the extirpation of the institution in our land, heard in our streets this day, was a gross insult to our people, and should be boldly and summarily resented.

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3. That the teaching and preaching of the ministers of that Church do not meet the views of the people of Fannin county, and must therefore be stopped.

4. That a committee be appointed to memorialize the Legislature to pass laws to punish the utterance of such seditious sentiments as are mentioned in resolution second, and that other counties be earnestly called on to consider the matter.

5. That a suitable committee be appointed to wait on the bishop and ministers now in Conference assembled, on Timber Creek, in this county, and warn them to withhold the further prosecution of said Conference, as its continuance will be well calculated to endanger the peace of this community.

7. That we hereby bind ourselves to cooperate in the future to do all we can to suppress abolitionism in our midst, and that henceforth we will suffer no public expression of abolition doctrines or sentiments in our streets or county to go unpunished.

When the reading was ended he resumed his remarks. . . . They knew their rights and would have them ; peaceably if they could, forcibly if they must. That as the law could only reach us when overt acts were committed, they could not obtain legal redress. They were therefore, under the necessity of adopting this present mode of procedure in order to rid themselves of what they consider a dangerous organization in their midst. He begged me not to suppose that the move was a trifling or unimportant one. He assured me that nine-tenths of all the respectable men in the county were engaged in it; that they were determined to carry it out; and he forewarned me, that if their demand was not granted if we did not cease to prosecute our church organization among them blood would be spilt, and the responsibility would be on us. They would have no discussion. They demanded a categorical answer, yea or nay. They would give us two hours to determine what answer we would give. Then taking out his watch he said, "It is now half past eleven; in two hours we demand your answer, yea or nay" and began to turn to leave. The speaker was excited, and his manner was vehement. The language and delivery of the address was inflammatory. As he began to withdraw I asked him his name. He stopped and replied, "My name is Eoberts."

The bishop relates that some discussion then followed ; that he replied that he had no authority to answer as to the demands made ; that the conference was not in session, and would not meet again until the following day. The spokesman of the company then reiterated the demands for an answer, and the party withdrew to a distance away from the church. The bishop continues:

I then re-announced my text, preached and performed the ordination service, and dismissed the congregation. When the audience had retired the ministers and a few laymen had an informal conference. . . . The matter had been sprung upon them so very suddenly they knew not how very generally the public sympathized with the mob, or what might be the effect of an answer upon the laity of the church, some of whom were men of families, and could not be forced away without great suffering. They finally concluded to say this much: "We will consult our quarterly conference on the subject, and, until we can do so, we will refrain from preaching here." Two of this number were requested to go out and make this statement to them. They did so, and though the answer was not "categorical," yet, after some debate among themselves, they dispersed. Monday morning the conference met pursuant to adjournment, deliberately finished up its business, enjoyed together a season of devotion, the appointments were read, and the final adjournment had.

Eeference is then made to two subsequent mass-meetings of the citizens at Bonham one on Monday and the other on Saturday following the conference at Timber Creek, and the bishop concludes his article as follows :

The question has been repeatedly asked : Had the Methodist Episcopal church, South, any agency in getting up this movement? In my judgment leading members of that church were the principal instigators. A local minister of that church was present and actively concerned in the proceedings of the meeting on Saturday. The leader and spokesman of the mob on Sunday said in his speech, "We are of the church, South," by which I understood him to mean, at least, that he was a member of that church. In the meeting on Monday another local minister of that church was present and made a speech. I do not think that all the members of that church were parties to the outrage, or sympathized with those concerned in it. The preacher in charge of the Bonham church, South, met me at Sherman, treated me with fraternal courtesy, invited me to his house, attended most of the sessions of the conference, partook of the sacrament with us on Sunday morning, and was seated by me when the mob interrupted our worship. I am unwilling to believe him guilty of such duplicity as would allow him to be secretly concerned in the transaction of the mob. Neither do I think the church, South, in general, should be held responsible for this wanton violation of law and the most inalienable rights of men, only so far as they endorse them.

To the foregoing account, and to several newspaper articles which had appeared in the North on the subject of the Timber Creek incident, Judge Samuel A. Eoberts replied in a lengthy article in the St. Louis Christian Advocate of September 8, 1859, from which the following is taken :

Some time in March, 1859, I first heard that the M. E. Church, North, were to hold a conference at a small school house, about three miles from Bonham, on Timber Creek. ... I gave the matter no second thought, and probably never should, but for an occurrence which took place in Bonham on Saturday of the Conference week. As I was going from my residence to my office, about the middle of the afternoon of that day, I heard the town bell ringing for so long a period that I knew something unusual had happened. On reaching the public square I observed a great many persons going to the court house. I went into my office to transact some business, when several gentlemen of my acquaintance stepped in after me and informed me that the whole town had been thrown into the most intense state of excitement by the public declaration, in the presence of many gentlemen, of a man who had declared himself to be a preacher of the M. E. Church, North, that he and his church heartily endorsed the sentiments of some of the Northern Conferences,

(Maine, I think), which had been read to him by a gentleman present, to the effect that they regarded slavery as a great evil, and that it was the duty of every one, especially the preachers of that church, fearlessly to teach and preach that doctrine, and to do all in their power to extirpate it. This was certainly sufficiently alarming to put every one on the alert, and to call instantly for investigation. On looking around, I found that at least nine-tenths of the people of our town, and those of the country on a visit of whom there was a considerable number, it being Saturday were present. The mayor presided and explained the object of the meeting. I then asked that some one, who heard the remarks of the preacher alluded to, would arise and make an accurate statement of what he did say. This request was responded to by a gentleman present, and corroborated by many who heard the conversation on the streets, and contradicted by no one. The preacher alluded to came in about this time and took his seat and heard all that was said. I will not attempt to give even a synopsis of the speeches that were then made.

We are then told that numerous resolutions were offered ; that a committee was apointed to pass upon and report resolutions; that "in the course of a few hours " the committee made their report, and resolutions were adopted, and that a committee was appointed to present these resolutions to the Methodist Conference. The writer continues:

And here is the birth of the "mob," whose acts have exercised so many pens and caused such an uplifting of hands by many who know nothing about it. The Committee was appointed, our best citizens were placed on it all noted for their integrity and moderation. The number I never exactly knew. The committee met the next morning about nine o'clock in the public square. It was determined that we should proceed as we were some on horseback, but most in carriages to the place of holding the convention; that in the event we found them at worship, we would not interrupt them, but wait until they had concluded, and then I alone should act as the mouth- piece of the committee. It is my belief that not a single man was armed who went on the committee. I was not, I saw none who were, and I feel confident no one armed for the express purpose; but every one knows that on a frontier country like this, arms were frequently worn, and there might have been a few on the ground in their every-day garb. The committee certainly had no fear. They intended to deport themselves quietly and peaceably, and, of course, had no apprehension of violence from the handful of well martyrs on ' ' Timber. ' ' They, therefore, had no use for arms. Well, accoutered as we were, we approached the meeting house riding and driving without the least pretense to order. . . . There was nothing bearing the least appearance of "platoons," or "regular" file or officers in command, or order, even . . . Arriving at the meeting house the congregation were singing the first hymn. As had been agreed we retired to a little distance to wait until the sermon was over. We had not been long in this situation until we were informed that the conference, having heard of our meeting in town, and of the resolutions passed, had concluded all of their business the night previous, and had resolved to disperse ,as soon as the Bishop had finished his sermon, and thus balk us in our design. That, if true, and we had no means then of determining, would have left us, as was designed, in an awkward predicament; and it was at once determined that we should go into the house, and, at the conclusion of the last hymn, discharge our office. We did so. I walked foremost. The hymn was about half through. Not a word was said. No disorder, not even the singing interrupted for a moment. I took my position in front of the Bishop, and as the church was crowded, remained standing. The Bishop himself handed me a chair, (strange courtesy to the leader of a "mob"). At the conclusion of the hymn I said, "Do I address Bishop Janes?" He answered the first inquiry, and did not wait for the second, as he asserts, but answered promptly the first inquiry, "I am the Bishop." I then said that I had a " disagreable, even a painful, task to perform," stating briefly the cause which led to a meeting of the citizens of Fannin, the resolutions adopted by them which were read by Mr. Delisle to the Bishop and demanded a ' ' categorical" answer to our resolutions requiring the ministers of his church henceforth to cease their ministerial functions in our county. I said, ""We are here now in peace; it will depend upon your action whether we shall have to come again in a different attitude." I begged him not to allow himself to be cheated into the belief that this was the movement of a few idle and dissolute malcontents, but assured him that the wealth, the talent, and the best elements of our society were in it, with a unanimity unprecedented. I also alluded to the immediate cause of the meeting, viz: the declaration of one of their preachers on our streets the day previous, particularly mentioned before, and concluded by alluding to what has always been inexplicable to me, but upon one hypothesis. The Northern and the Southern Methodist churches differ in nothing except on the slavery question. We know the position of the Northern church on the subject. No one living at the South need adhere to the Northern branch, then, upon conscientious scruples, save on the one point alone, there being no difference. He must be conscientiously opposed to the institution of slavery, or an imbecile, to persist in his adherence to the North while living at the South. He must mean to teach the "eradication," or, in other words, the abolition, of slavery, and, therefore, a church claiming such privileges could not, and would not, be tolerated among us ; that we were not disposed to sit quietly by until they had located themselves firmly in our midst, when it would be too late to help ourselves; that we thought we knew our rights, and intended to maintain them, etc., etc., and closed by saying that we could have no discussion, and expected a categorical answer in two hours time. . . . He then observed in substance that he was taken by surprise; that he had no suspicion that the conference would not be well received here; that four years ago (I think) a similar conference had been held on the same spot, and that no objection had ever been heard to its sessions ; that he had no authority to answer our demands, and was going on with further objections when I interrupted him, and said that we understood his position; more had already been said than was intended, and that we could no longer parley, but would expect their answer at the stated period. I was in the act of going when the Bishop again addressed me and asked if he would be "permitted" to go on with the service of the hour. I replied that" we came not for the purpose of interrupting them at worship, and that they were at liberty, as far as we were

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The Judge then argues at some length the question of " constitutional privileges," in answer to Bishop Janes 's reference to that subject, and replies to the Bishop's use of the term "mob," and in reply to the Bishop's expressed opinion that the movement was instigated chiefly by members of the Church, South, Judge Roberts says :

The accidental circumstance that two or three members of the committee were of that church would no more prove it a Methodist church movement than the presence of Baptists or Presbyterians would prove it a Baptist or Presbyterian movement, for there were fully as many members of the two latter churches as of the former on the committee. It was the movement of no church, of no party, but the unpremeditated uprising of the people for the protection of their rights, their firesides and their homes.

The "Texas Mob," as one can readily believe, became a subject of endless comment in the Church press, particularly in the North, the most of it of scorching denunciation; while the few references to it in the Southern Church papers were either mildly deprecatory or openly defensive. A single extract from each "side" will suffice. Says Dr. Elliott, editor of the Central Christian Advocate: "In none but slave states is it necessary to resort to violence, rob the mail, interfere with assemblies worshiping God, etc., in order to guard securely their institutions. But freedom of speech, of the press, or of worship cannot exist alongside of slavery. Everything inconsistent with the interests of slaveholders must be suppressed at once and at any cost. The Church itself is a chattel, and its ministers must be dumb unless they choose to speak as their masters dictate." Says the Texas Christian Advocate: "We hope the meeting will insure the end designed, in a manner at once thorough and immediate. Thorough, because, however fondly the Northern Church may cherish the delusion that it is her mission to extirpate slavery in the South, there can be nothing better for her and for us than that she should, if possible, be at once radically cured of this benevolent folly ; immediate because it is evident that the citizens of Fannin County, and all other Southern people similarly beset and outraged by this pestilent overplus of Northern ingenuity or fanaticism, do not desire to be troubled with taking measures to rid themselves of it further than to give a plain intimation that its absence is desirable. This should be enough, and we hope the Northern missionaries will not force any additional action upon the Southern people. . . . They should not stand upon the order of their going, but go at once. Let them shake off the dust of their feet if they choose, and consign us to any fate which their nutmeg genius may deem pungent enough for our iniquities."

The Northern Methodists did not withdraw their preachers from Texas, as demanded by the " committee" at Timber Creek, but at least two ministers of that Church continued to reside in the state, and to some extent exercise their ministerial office. It came to be charged that the Church authorities had evaded the issue, and that they had intended to do so, and that it was their purpose to continue to introduce " abolitionism" into slave territory behind the screen of public worship. Pubtic feeling came to be more and more excited, and excitable, as the public press reported a continued succession of incidents, speeches and resolutions occurring throughout the country. In 1860 rumors were rife in Texas of the presence of secret abolition plots and incendiarism. The Texas State Legislature enacted a law practically legalizing mob measures for putting down or punishing acts or words inciting to incendiarism or abolitionism.

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below Fort Worth, from 1858 to about February, 1860. At the conference of which he was a member, held in Franklin County, Arkansas, in the spring of 1860, Bewley was consulted by Bishop Ames as to the situation in Texas, and as to his willingness to return. Bewley replied that it was not likely that he could do any good, and gave his reasons, but said that "there were large German settlements on the Nueces, west of the Colorado, who wanted our preaching." After some discussion of the matter Bewley and Willett were appointed to the Nueces field, with missionary appropriations for the support of their families, Bewley being appointed superintendent of the mission. After spending some time visiting in Missouri, Bewley returned to Texas, bringing his family and some other relatives with him. Whether he reached the exact field of labor assigned him we are not informed, but his stay in Texas was cut short this time by an untoward incident which put a sure-enough mob upon his track. A letter addressed to Bewley, and supposedly committed to a private messenger to be delivered, came to light early in September, 1860, the contents of which will explain some subsequent events. The letter was as follows :

Dear Sir, A painful abscess in my right thumb is my apology for not writing to you from Anderson. Our glorious cause is prospering finely as far south as Brenham. There I parted with brother Wampler; he went still further south; he will do good wherever he goes. I travelled up through the frontier counties a part of the time under a fictitious name. I found many friends who had been initiated, and understood the mystic red. I met a number of our friends near Georgetown. We had a consultation, and were unanimously of the opinion that we should be cautious of our new associates; most of them are desperate characters, and may betray us, as there are some slaveholders among them, and they value the poor negro much higher than horses. The only good they will do us will be destroying towns, mills, etc., which is our only hope in Texas at present. If we can break Southern merchants and millers, and have their places filled by honest Republicans, Texas will be all easy prey, if we only do our duty. All wanted for the time being is control of trade. Trade, assisted by preaching and teaching, will soon control public opinion. Public opinion is mighty and will prevail. Lincoln will certainly be elected; we will then have the Indian nation, cost what it will. Squatter sovereignty will prevail there as it has in Kansas. That accomplished we have at least one more step to take, but one more struggle to make; that is, free Texas. We will then have a connected link from the Lakes to the Gulf. Slavery will then be surrounded, by land and by water, and will soon sting itself to death. I repeat, Texas we must have, and our only chance is to break up the present inhabitants, in whatever way we can and it must be done. Some of us will most assuredly suffer in accomplishing our object, but our Heavenly Father will reward us in assisting him in blotting out the greatest curse on earth. It would be impossible for us to do an act that is as blasphemous in the sight of God as holding slaves. We must have frequent consultations with our colored friends. (Let our meetings be in the night.) Impress upon their clouded intellects the blessings of freedom ; induce all to leave you can. Our arrangements for their accommodation to go North are better than they have been, but not as good as I would like.

We need more agents, both local and travelling. I will send out travelling agents when I get home. We must appoint a local agent in every neighborhood in your district. I will recommend a few I know it will do to rely upon; namely, brothers Leake, Wood, Evans, Mr. Daniel Viery, Cole, Nugent, Shaw, White, Gilford, Ashley, Drake Meek Shultz and Newman. Brother Leake the bearer of this, will take a circuitous route, and see as many of our colored friends as he can ; he also recommends a different material to be used about town, etc. Our friends sent a very inferior article they emit too much smoke, and do not contain enough camphene. They are calculated to get some of our friends hurt. I will send a supply when I get home.

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compensated for their trouble. Our faithful correspondent, brother Webber, has received but a trifle not so much as apprentice's wages; neither have brother Willett, Mangum and others. You must call upon our colored friends for more money. They must not expect us to do all ; they certainly will give every cent if they knew how soon their shackles will be broken. My hand is very painful, and I close.

W. H. Bailey

The author of "Methodism in the Southwest" treats this letter as a forgery, and calls it a stratagem to lead to Bewley's undoing and says that the existence of such a person as W. H. Bailey was doubtful; but the letter was everywhere accepted in Texas and elsewhere as genuine. It was widely published, appearing even in New Orleans and St. Louis papers. The New Orleans Delta, under the head of "The John Brownites in Texas," says : "The following well-authenticated and clearly proved document has been sent to us from Texas, by a gentleman of this city, who assures us that there cannot be a particle of doubt as to its genuineness. It is a startling and fiendish document, which is quite worthy of the perusal of those credulous, easy-going citizens who have no anxieties about the South no fear of any real design to interfere with our institutions by Northern emissaries." The same paper copies an item from the Fort Smith Herald that "Eev. W. H. Bailey was caught, and arrived in Fort Smith on Sunday last, in the orerland stage, under the charge of Mr. Johnson, an officer from Texas. Bailey is one of the disciples of the John Brown school, and has been engaged in burning, stealing, etc., in a sister State ; and a reward of three thousand dollars has been offered for his delivery in Fort Worth." Aside from this item the fate of Bailey is not known.

Texas, who writes: ''Brother J. E. Bellamy (then presiding elder of the Dallas district) furnished me with the enclosed document, which he has read in manuscript. ... I think there is no fiction in the letter to run Bewley from Texas, as a few days before it was found, this town of Henderson was burned, over one hundred miles from the place where it was found ; and the man in that letter, as the Corresponding Secretary of this State, was taken at Henderson, acknowledged himself to be acting in that capacity, and was hanged. Many others have shared the same fate, both black and white, and others will soon go the same way."

It appears that Bewley and his family had quit their Texas home before the Bailey letter had come to light, and when the excitement arose, growing out of the finding of the letter, it was reported that Bewley had fled to Kansas or Missouri. A reward of $500 was offered for him by a Fort Worth "Committee," and other rewards were offered, the whole amounting to $1000.

To make a long and unpleasant story short; Bewley was pursued by officers and others from Texas, found and arrested near Springfield, Mo., and the company with their prisoner started back to Texas. At Fayetteville, Ark., during a delay, Bewley was permitted to forward a letter to his wife, in which he says : " After I left there that day, I was hurried on, and the next day, about nine o 'clock, we got to Fayetteville. . . . They are now after Tom Willet. So soon as they succeed in getting him, I suppose they will set out with us to Texas in the overland stage, and if so, hand us over to the Fort Worth Committee, and receive the reward. Then we will, I suppose, be under their supervision, to do with us as seemeth them good. And if that takes place, dear and beloved wife and loving children, I shall never in this life expect to see you, but I shall look to meet you all, with our little babe that has already gone to that blessed heaven of repose. The reason why I so speak, in these times of heated excitement, mole-hills are raised mountain-high, and where there are none it is frequently imagined they see something. That being the case, it seems it is enough to know that we are 'North Methodists,' as they are called, and from what we learned in Texas about the Fort Worth Committee, they had sworn vengeance against all such folks. . . . But, dear wife and children, you know that all these things are false. You have been with me, and you know as well as I do that none of these things have never been countenanced about our house, but that we have repudiated such to the last. So you see that I am innocent, and you, my love, will have the lasting satisfaction to know that your husband was innocent, for you have been with me for some twenty-six years, and your constitution is emaciated and gone down to feebleness. You will have to spend the remainder of your life as a bereaved widow, with your orphan children, with one blind daughter. ... As I was taken away and not even permitted to see you, that I might bid you and the children farewell, I have to do it this way. ... I feel no guilt, from the fact that I have done nothing to cause the feeling ... I with a portion of the vigilance committee will leave Fayetteville to-night sometime. The committee has returned without Willet, and have given up hunting him any more. ... I can only leave you in the hands of Him in whom I put my trust. "

The events which follow have been somewhat variously reported. According to Elliott's "History," "When the mob had reached Fort Worth, Texas, with Mr. Bewley, they put him in charge of a hotel-keeper. He was much fatigued and was suffered to retire early. ... A little slave showed him to his room up stairs. . . . About eleven o'clock he was taken from his bed by three men, and when they reached the street they were joined by a crowd there assembled. They took him a few hundred yards away . . . and suspended him upon the same limb and tree upon which several negroes and a Northern man named Crawford had been hung. This gallows had been called 'the Crawford limb'; after that, however, the people called it 'the Bewley limb.' " Another report has it that Bewley was ' ' tried and convicted by a jury of three hundred men. ' ' The St. Louis Christian Advocate published the following, which it said was "from a reliable source": "Mr. Bewley was carried to Fort Worth, after his arrest by the men from Arkansas, and there, at or near Fort Worth, he was tried by the civil authorities, and required to give bail to appear for trial before a higher court. This he could not or did not do, and was ordered to prison. On the way to prison a mob overpowered the sheriff and his posse, took Bewley and hung him. Our informant did not see these things, but heard them in Texas, from what he regarded as reliable authority, and believed them to be true. The evidence on which Bewley was sent on for further trial, consisted partly in what sundry persons testified they had heard him say, and partly in statements made by others who had been arrested and punished. These statements implicated him as one of the party organized to carry out the purposes expressed in the Bailey letter ; but the evidence consisted mainly in the fact that the original Bailey letter was produced at the trial, and Bewley acknowledged he had received and subsequently lost it."

With the passing of Bewley ended the activities of the "Northern Methodists" in Texas before the War. But portions of Texas continued to be alarmed by abolitionist's plots. Reports of incendiarism were numerous, and "hangings" were frequent. Some accounts of more trouble in North Texas will be noticed in the chapter covering the War period.

Chapter Xxv The Yeaes 1860-1866

WE propose in this concluding chapter to carry our history through the War period, embracing also the great reconstructive General Conference of 1866 and the sessions of our annual conferences of the same year, including the organization of a new conference in Texas and the projection of another. There is history enough in this period to make a volume all by itself, but the essentials of the material which we have been able to gather may be contained in a single chapter, though it may prove to be the longest in the book.

The year 1860 found both the State and the Church in a prosperous and growing condition. Texas had 604,- 251 people, by the Federal census, an increase of 391,623 during the previous decade, or 184.2 per cent. The increase during the war decade, or from 1860 to 1870, dropped to 35 per cent. Of the population in 1860, 136,- 853 were negro slaves, who had been "rendered for taxation ' ' the previous year at a total valuation of $85,630,- 748, average value "per head" of $625.54 1 The slave wealth of the state overtopped that from any other source, even exceeding the value of land rendered for taxation, and being two and one-half times the value of all the horses and cattle put together. These figures are of interest as pointing to the sacrifice of wealth which the war was to entail upon Texas alone. And it is little wonder that, with so much property at stake, short work

The annual conferences met in the fall of 1860 under conditions of great excitement growing out of the national presidential campaign. It was generally felt that if Lincoln should be elected it would be a portent of national division and war ; and the announcement of his election, which traveled incredibly fast for those days, reached Texas in the midst of the conference season. Bishop Andrew, now growing quite venerable, though not by any means feeble, was in charge of all the Texas conferences.

The East Texas Conference was held at Jefferson, October 24-30. There were reported 89 traveling preachers, 241 local preachers, and 15,881 members. Maddison Thompson, John C. Smith, John Stubblefield, William Allen, William F. Cummins, John H. McLean, Cadwell W. Raines and David Austin were admitted on trial. Eobert M. Leaton was received by transfer. Hugh B. Hamilton and M. C. Robertson had died during the year, an obituary of the former appearing in a previous chapter.

The Texas Conference was held at Chappell Hill, November 14r-21. Traveling preachers, 124 ; local preachers, 190; members, 12,922. James W. Baldridge, Nicholas H. Boring, Jackson Perry, J. Frederick Cox, Thomas M. Glass, Charles Biel, William Harms, Love M. Harris, Archibald McKinney, Archibald B. Duval, Eugene R. Smith and Ira E. Chalk were admitted on trial. William A. Parks, Thomas W. Rogers, William Shegog and Jacob S. Matthews were received by transfer. John Haynie and Henry D. Hubert had died during the year, further mention of whom will be made.

The Rio Grande Conference met in San Antonio on November 29, reporting 31 traveling preachers, 30 local preachers and 1858 members. Roswell Gillett, Warren 0. Shely, Thomas F. Cocke, Robert H. Mangham, Theodore

The Yeaes 1860-1866 461

The total statistics for the Church in Texas in this year before the war show 244 traveling preachers, 461 local preachers, and 30,661 members. The General Minutes, our only source of detailed information, make no report of number of churches or value of church property. Turning to the Federal Census reports for 1860 we find that the Methodists are credited with 410 church buildings in Texas, valued at $319,934; the Baptists had 210 church buildings, value $228,030; Presbyterians, 72 churches, valued at $120,550; Christians, 53 buildings, value, $27,395; Cumberland Presbyterians, 52 houses, value, $47,430 ; Eoman Catholic, 33 churches, value, $189,- 900 ; Episcopalians had 19 churches and Lutherans 19. A copy of the Texas Conference Minutes for 1860 report "Value of Buildings" for churches and parsonages, but the number of these is not shown. From the valuation figures of these for the various charges we can at least learn what charges had one or more churches or parsonages. Fifty-five charges show church buildings, and eleven had parsonages, or parsonage lots. The churches range in value from $400 to $10,000, the charges showing the largest valuations being the following: Galveston, Houston, Huntsville, Brazoria, Eichmond, Montgomery, Anderson, Washington, Chappell Hill, Waxahachie, Waco, Belton, Austin, and San Marcos.

At the risk of its being monotonous we shall dispose of all the war conference sessions at once. The East Texas Conference was held at Marshall, October 23-28, 1861, Bishop Early in charge. Daniel T. Lake, Wiley A. Shook and James M. Suton were admitted on trial; Nathan S. Johnston had died during the year.

The Texas Conference was held at Huntsville, November 6-12, 1861, Bishop Early presiding. Joseph Hines, George W. Graves, Eobert D. Allen, Cyrus M.

The Eio Grande Conference was held at Corpus Christi, November 20-25, 1861, John W. DeVilbiss president. No one admitted ; no transfers and no deaths.

For the years 1862-63-64 and '65 no minutes of the East Texas Conference were published in the General Minutes, the editor simply entering "No Minutes received," and there are no records extant for these conferences except a few brief references from private sources. The Rio Grande Conference was held at Goliad in 1862, J. W. DeVilbiss president. Two German preachers, J. Gleiss and Conrad Pluncke, were admitted on trial. The Texas Conference was held at San Marcos, Asbury Davidson president. Granbury S. Sandle admitted on trial. Byron S. Garden had died. The Eio Grande Conference for 1863 was held at Sutherland Springs, R. H. Belvin, president. Ferdinand Mummee admitted on trial. William J. Joyce received by transfer from the East Texas Conference. Jasper K. Harper had died during the year. The Texas Conference was held at Columbus in 1863, R. Alexander president. B. Ahrens, George V. Ridley, D. B. Wright and J. B. Allen admitted on trial. Robert N. Drake had died during the year.

The Rio Grande Conference was held at Helena in 1864, Jesse Boring president. The Texas Conference met in Waco, no entry as to who presided. L. H. Baldwin and J. P. Mussett admitted on trial. William A. Shegog had died. In 1865 the Rio Grande Conference met at San Antonio, J. W. DeVilbiss president. Robert Blassengame admitted on trial. The Texas Conference was held at Chappell Hill, with Bishop Andrew back in the chair. George Whitaker and Edwin Duvall admitted on trial. J. W. Kenney and D. Carl had died during the year. Thos. Stanford, Jno. S. McCarver and Wm.

The Years 1860-1866 463

To go back over this period now and take note of some personal matters. First a few scattered reports gleaned from the Texas Christian Advocate, 1860-61. There are no files of the Advocate for the years 1862-68, a period during which a file of these papers would prove invaluable now, but one must know that the Advocate suspended publication during a part of the war. 2 A report from W. T. Melugin, Dallas, in July, 1860, gives an account of a great meeting on his circuit: 38 joined the church at Dallas; 13 additions at " Harding/' 26 at "Cottonwood." From Stephenville T. B. Ferguson writes that Indians are stealing horses ; that he and a companion had scared off an attacking party of Indians with sticks flourished as guns ; hard to do anything religiously on account of disturbed state of public mind. From Comanehe the same preacher writes later that a meeting at Comanehe had resulted in 14 additions to the church. J. M. Marshall writes from McKinney in October, reporting that 120 had joined the church during the year. Six Sabbath schools on the work, 240 scholars. "We have established a literary and theological society, ' ' he writes, "for improvement of local preachers and exhorters." From Buchannan circuit, scattered over Johnson, Ellis and Parker counties, Thomas W. Rogers reports that the class books show 400 members, and that two houses of worship had been built during the year. From a ' ' Flying Trip to North Texas" John W. Fields gives an account of a visit to McKenzie College, July 25, 1861.

2 The Advocate resumed publication as a half -sheet, at Houston in 1864, as Galveston was in the hands of the Federals J. E. Games, editor. In 1865, after the suspension of hostilities, the paper was returned to Galveston, H. B. Phillpot editor. Games had left our Church, gone to the Swedenborgians, and later became editor of the Galveston News. I. G. John was elected editor of the Advocate at the General Conference of 1866, but he ' ' edited the Advocate for pleasure and preached for a living. ' ' In the fall of 1866 a young printer, L. Blaylock by name, entered the Advocate service, and after a few years he proved to be the man to put this struggling paper on its feet.

"Only about 50 out of 150 pupils left to witness the close," he writes. Many had gone to war. 3 The country had an abundant wheat harvest; all barns full, enough to feed the Confederate army for one year; prices 40 to 50 cents, and the only markets at Jefferson and Shreveport, after a wagon haul of 90 to 150 miles.

Several new schools begin to sprout up just at the opening of the war, only to be nipped soon thereafter. "Butersville Female College" was an unsuccessful effort by H. S. Thrall to rehabilitate the old Eutersville institution. "Port Sullivan Female Institute" is mentioned for a few years, first under "Prof. Carmer and Lady," and then run by our old friend, Joseph P. Sneed. But one of the saddest chapters in our educational history was the decline of Soule University, the leading institution of our Church for a few brief years. A Medical Department had been provided for, to be located in Galveston, but this did not come into existence until 1865, when Dr. Jesse Boring and his son, Dr. Nicholas Boring, were appointed professors in the Medical Department. This department began operations, but soon thereafter Dr. Boring, Junior, was killed in a railroad accident, and the elder Dr. Boring returned to Georgia. The Medical Department became detached from the institution at Chappell Hill, and set up a separate existence. In January, 1860, George W. Carter, D.D., from Virginia, was elected president of Soule University. An advance movement was planned. The curriculum was expanded. Chairs of English Literature and Metaphysics were added, also departments of Biblical Literature and Law. The Department of Biblical Literature embraced "the Hebrew Language, systematic theology, ecclesiastical history, Church polity, homiletics, and hermeneutics."

'3 McKenzie College graduated no classes from 1862 to 1869. It closed in 1871, by reason of age and infirmities of the president. During its history it had more than 3300 students enrolled, and of these 2250 were converted in its halls. And all this fruitful and honorable record was made without one dollar from the Church.

The Yeajrs 1860-1866 465

Plans were carefully laid, we are told, to avoid a repetition of the blunders which had brought disaster in so many educational ventures before. "Besides this," says Dr. C. C. Cody, "Soule University was enthusiastically sustained by many of the most influential and wealthiest citizens of the State. Abundant means necessary for material progress seemed in easy reach. The reports of the trustees and the forecasts of the university at this period were luminous with bright prospects and coming greatness." But, alas, from the same educational authority we learn :

In spite of an outlook so full of promise, scarcely had Dr. Carter entered fully into the discharge of his official duties before the call to war was sounded and the young men of the South were challenged to arms. In vain the conservative ones advised against the young men leaving the colleges, and President Davis protested in vain against such an expensive policy, declaring that "we are grinding up our seed corn by sending college boys to war."

Dr. Carter, instead of following this wise course, secured a colonel's commission and urged his students to enlist and follow him to the front. Having resigned as head of the institution, Dr. Pollansbee, who had filled the Chair of Languages from the organization of the faculty, assumed the duties of President. But the war spirit was abroad, and, in spite of his best endeavors, after a few months the halls of the university were deserted and silent. A few months later, under the urgent demands of the Confederate government, the building was converted into a military hospital. At the close of the war it was left with bare and defaced walls, its equipment gone, its endowment swept away, and with neglected liabilities that had increased to seventeen thousand dollars.

Extracts from two letters, written by a member of the faculty of Soule University, will furnish first-hand confirmation of the change in the fortunes of the institution. The first was written on March 25, 1860, portraying conditions in glowing colors :

The Lord lias lately blessed us with a gracious revival of his work in our colleges [Soule University and Chappell Hill Female College]. We trust the fruits will be seen many days hence. The schools are also prospering otherwise. We are crowded in the University with students. Dr. Carter of Mississippi [Cody says Virginia] has accepted the presidency and will be on here in May to organize the faculty anew. Bro. Foot resigned last winter, purposing to withdraw in June next. Bro. Kirby resigned about two weeks ago & withdrew immediately without ceremony. The place is now temporarily filled by Bro. Matthews. We anticipate largely when the new order of arrangements shall have transpired.

The second letter was dated March 26, 1861, one year later, and reveals the fact that anticipations had not been realized. Says the writer :

The crises, secession, the prospect of war, and the current famine of our land of Texas have produced their effects. Hence I arose from a sick room to realize circumstances of straitened character to such an extent as to amount to actual suffering. The want of all material aid from College, the scarcity of money & provisions and a general destruction of all commerical faith shut up supplies to cash transactions. Add to all this, a general neglect and a bad management of University affairs, and you may readily imagine me in no plight to give you any good news, or a good account of matters & things, while an unwillingness to speak evil, led me to delay a reply. ... It is true there are a goodly number of students here. But too many are beneficiaries, or have failed in payment of tuition fees to enable teachers to live. Besides, I think, the proceeds of too many scholarships have found their way either into the stone walls, or attendant expenses. ... I look upon the Institution as in the woods at least for the present. What the future will present, it is impossible to tell. The darkest hour, it is said, is just before day. That may be the case with our College.

The Years 1860-1866 467

Efforts were made to revive the institution after the war, but an epidemic of yellow fever which was especially severe about Chappell Hill and in the colleges there, brought on another period of depression and decline. Dr. Francis Asbury Mood, of South Carolina, was at length called to the presidency. He came, but only to witness the ultimate demise of Soule University. His subsequent labors for education in Texas belong to a period not included in this volume.

Naturally one would suppose that the political agitation preceding the war, and then the actual outbreak of war, had a demoralizing effect upon all church work, and that a greater laxness in the moral life of the people should result. And such was the case. Moreover, there seems to have been a general complaint of "hard times." Several letters of the preachers, which we have, dated early in the war period, reflect these conditions. From one we learn that the class-meeting was being sadly neglected in some places. H. S. Thrall, presiding elder of the Columbus district in 1860-61, who at the same time resided at Rutersville and endeavored to carry on a young ladies' boarding school at old Rutersville College, writes under date of April 25, 1861 :

Our prospects on the Columbus district are not very flattering. The hard times preclude the practicability of doing anything in the way of church building, and I fear there will be a great falling off in all our Collections this year. The unsettled state of the country is unfavorable to the revival spirit. Still the most of the preachers are at their post and doing their duty, as well as circumstances permit. . . . Our boarding school, notwithstanding some opposition, is doing remarkably well. When I left home we had thirty young ladies in our family, and were expecting another last Monday. Still, hard times, opposition, and some uncertainty as to retaining our teachers, may cause a falling off next session, and may possibly end in a change of location.

I am still visiting, praying and preaching hard as I can, and with fear and trembling. As yet we see no change in the moral condition of the town. The people are so absorbed in the "Crisis" that it seems that many have forgotten that they have souls. I think that the moral crisis in this country is much greater than the political. Perhaps there is a change but it is for the worse. The apathy of the church and the carelessness of sinners cause me much anxiety and solicitude. And then it seems that the people in this country have the dancing mania.

I expect about next Sunday I will tare open a hornet's nest, as I intend to preach a set sermon against dancing. I intend to do my duty and the people can think and say as they please about it. ... I expect you will hear of me geting into a dificulty for I intend to throw a few Bum shells right into my congregation. I think this will be for the best in the end.

The presiding elder of that district reports a little later that war had been made "against Bro. Parks at Lagrange," and that it became necessary to call an investigating committee, which, after full investigation,

After the secession of Texas and war had actually opened between the North and the South, the belligerent spirit took possession of many of the preachers and carried them off to war. The German preacher, Peter Moelling, writes from Gralveston in October, 1861 :

Such a moving as there is now a going on here you never have seen in all your life ; most every house is emtyed to Houston or Liberty. If Lincoln's fleet should come now, his myrmidons will not find much to steal, and I am satisfied that their blood will make the grass come up a foot higher on our prairie here. If our rifled guns should not come, then we will let them land and fight them whilst they cannot use their big guns against us.

The Years 1860-1866 469

The good Lord have mercy on us and deliver us all. Pray for me, my dear Brother, and if I should never meet you on earth, meet me in heaven. I shall die a true patriot and a soldier of the cross, the gun in hand and Christ within my heart.

From the minutes of the war conferences we note that preachers who went to war were usually appointed as colleague with some other preacher to a charge, and then listed in footnotes as "In the C. S. Army," or " Chaplain in C. S. Army." In the minutes of the Eio Grande and the Texas conferences (no minutes of East Texas Conference published) the following preachers from these conferences are listed at different times as being in the army: F. C. Wilkes, Geo. W. Carter, J. L. Crabb, W. G. Veal, H. M. Burrows, E. Y. King, D. M. Stovall, Wm. C. Collins, Wm. B. Hill, W. J. Joyce, Jno. C. Smith, A. B. Manion, Jesse Boring, Nicholas H. Boring, Hamilton G. Horton, W. E. D. Stockton, Thomas F. Cocke, J. Hines, F. C. Wilkes, H. W. South, F. J. Cox, E. T. P. Allen, H. M. Glass, J. P. Shapard, J. E. Ferguson, Geo. Tittle. The following received appointments as chaplains: 0. M. Addison, F. P. Eay, C. H. Brooks, B. F. Perry, P. W. Phillips and W. A. Parks. The doughty Simon Peter Moelling, who was ready to fertilize Galveston island with Yankee blood, did not enlist, but moved safely to Houston, and later to the interior, and survived the war. S. C. Littlepage says in his "Eeminiscences": "When the war broke out I joined Major Farrow's company, and went with it with Parson's regiment of State troops. Drilled with them by day and preached to them at night. When an effort by arbitration was made, thinking hostilities about over, I took another appointment. Stationed at LaGrange in 1861 ; at close of year went to Fairfield circuit. In 1863 I was appointed missionary to Forney's division of the Confederate army. Joined this command at Camden, Ark., and remained until the war closed. During the

We have the written journal of Oscar M. Addison, covering the period of his service as chaplain of Col. Bates 's regiment. This contains but little of general interest, except to the antiquary. Addison at first accepted an offer of a captaincy of a company of "Lancers" which he was to raise for Col. Carter's regiment at Chappell Hill, but after some effort "I found a reaction among the people," he says, "and but few were disposed to enlist. There were many recruiting officers in the field, calling for 12 months men, who met with but little success. This being the case men for the war (these I desired) could scarcely be obtained on any terms, and feeling disgusted with the apathy of the people, I gave up the business and returned home." Finding that his appointment in the conference had been filled, he visited Col. Allen's camp at Austin, with the view of applying for a chaplaincy, but "finding some 8 or 10 preachers in the camp," he proceeded to Velasco, where Bates 's regiment was encamped, and received appointment as chaplain of that regiment. A few abbreviated extracts may be taken from his journal :

Aug. 4, 1862: I have made some few acquaintances among the officers and men, a very small per centum of whom I find to be church members. Wishing to have prayer meeting I had Liet. Herndon to send for all his religious men to come to his tent. Out of the 10 or doz. who came I found but one who would consent to pray in meeting.

Oct. llth: From the best information to be obtained Galveston was taken possession of by the enemy on Wednesday afternoon, our troops marching out in tEe morning. Our boarding house was overrun this morning before breakfast with a large number of planters and merchants from the upper portion of the country, on a self-appointed mission to our Col. to obtain permission to place obstructions in the river to prevent the ascent of Yankee gunboats. They offer 1000 negroes for the purpose. Previously a negro could not be hired by the QrMaster only at the highest rates, and the apathy of the wealthy citizens of this country has been the subject of frequent remark by our soldiers. Their selfishness has exceeded their patriotism, and though they shouted loud and long for secession, they have done nothing since. A general spirit of rejoicing pervades the camp that the proximity of the foe has had the effect of alarming our long-at-ease patriots, and given them at last, even though forced to it, to feel some interest in the fate of the country.

Nov. 12 : Yesterday we buried Farmer, a private in Hamilton 's company. His sickness was severe and quite brief. On my first visit he seemed much excited and asked my opinion of his case. I feared to tell him, for I thought him dangerous, but asked him of his spiritual condition. He told me he thought he was a converted man though he had never joined the church. I prayed for him and by his request for his family. He soon gave evidence of a change for the better & we all hoped was getting well but inflammation of the stomach soon took place, this added to congestive fever, his original complaint, in a few days carried him off. Poor fellow he seemed quite anxious about his family (a young wife and one child) and in his delirium before his death enjoined on one of his Lieuts. to send his wife 50 bushels of corn. [This is only one of many instances of soldiers dying in camp, with the heart-breaking anxiety of leaving destitute families at home.]

Dec. 8 : Set off a week ago for Houston. Reached there on Tuesday night & put up at the Fannin house. Found the city & hotel full. . . . While there Col. Bates invited me to call with him and others on Gen. Magruder, who had but recently arrived. . . . Mother had written to me to get a pair of cotton cards at any price. Meeting while there a good chance to send them home I hunted them up. Found them at a place where they would not sell, though a gentleman told me he had bought two pair there that morning at $25 each. At another place where I found a fresh placard announcing "Cotton Cards and nails" I was informed that the former article had not been brought from the depot, but would be on hand before the departure of the cars, price $25. They did not come until after the cars had left. Missing the chance to send them, I did not think I would get any, hoping that by the time I could forward them the price would come down, but on the day I was leaving I concluded to get a pair and trust to chances of sending them home. My man who had promised them to me at $25 now asked $30. I told him he had promised me a pair at the former price, but it did no good, and not having time to look elsewhere I bought them. At another place I paid $5 for what they called 1^ Ib flax thread, but I think there was not half that amount. The cars advertise to leave H. at 10 oclock. After waiting more than 2 hours after that time in the cold we finally got under way, and after a tedious run reached Columbia after dark.

May 27, 1863 : The peaceful quiet of our soldier life has been disturbed by Bank's raid into Louisiana and our regt. is now en route to that State.

The regiment moved into Louisiana, where most of the year was spent. Under date of June 25 there is a long recitalof the successful battle of Brashear City, where 1400 Yankee prisoners were taken, 4000 stands of arms, 11 siege guns, and "an incredible amount of stores of all kind, including flour, bacon, crackers, pork, rice, pickles, beans, dried apples, butter, lard, prepared milk, sugar, coffee, mackerel, cheese, potatoes, desiccated potatoes, and sutlers supplies generally, including clothing of all description. " The chaplain of the victorious regiment came off with a number of books, some picked up on the battlefield, others of a theological nature from the deserted tent of a Yankee chaplain who had fled, and who, a year or two after, opened up correspondence with a view to their return. But they were retained as the " spoils of war," and are now in the possession of this writer.

An interesting survival of this army life, found among the papers of the chaplain, is a " Covenant of the Christian League of Bate's Regt. 13th Tex Vol C S A," with the following preamble and regulations :

We, the undersigned, members of Bate's Regiment, C. S. Army, and belonging to different branches of the Christian Church, or intending to become so, absent from home and our usual places of worship, banded together in the defense of our common country, and feeling still desirous of practicing the precepts of Christ our Master, and giving our influence and example in favor of his cause, do hereby solemnly covenant together, and unite for these purposes, under the following regulations :

I. The association shall be known as the Christian League, a religious organization for temporary use while we are connected with the regiment.

II. Our object shall be the cultivation of a spirit of piety among ourselves, and the aiding of others who may be disposed to a religious life.

III. We will regard the chaplain of our Eegt as our pastor for the time being, and if for any cause there should cease to be one to officiate, we will in the best manner we can supply his lack of service from among our number.

IV. Business meetings of the League shall be convened by the chaplain at such times as may be necessary, at which we promise attendance when in our power.

V. We pledge ourselves to attend the stated religious services held by the chaplain, when possible, and to aid him in his work to our utmost by upholding both the practice and profession of religion.

VI. As our only design is improvement in practical religion in the present relations we sustain to each other, we will ignore our peculiar theological differences, and uniting on the broad platform of Christian Charity and brotherly love, require no other test of fellowship than an expressed desire to join with us & a willingness to subscribe to these regulations.

The paper bears date of September 12, 1863, and has twenty-nine signatures twelve Methodists, five Baptists, two Episcopal, one Lutheran, one Presbyterian, and the rest express no church preference.

Note has been taken in passing through the minutes of the death during the war period of some of the best known Methodist pioneers in Texas. Full biographical notices of some of these have been given in previous chapters; but these and some others, including a few prominent laymen, merit a further word as they come to the end of their labors. Says J. E. Carnes, editor of the Advocate, in an article reporting the Texas Conference sessions of 1860 :

At night the nestor of the Conference, Eobert Alexander, preached the funeral of the sainted young Hubert, who fell during the year at Bastrop. He had seen the boy converted, inducted the young man into the Conference, and now arose to tell that he has gone to heaven and how he got there. What a sight it was that vast sea of humanity swelling with emotion under the potent words of this pioneer preacher. Alexander . is an engine of vast stroke, and when the hull of his subject is big enough for him "one would think the deep to be hoary." His allusions to Euter, Fowler and others of his compeers were irresistible. Everybody wept, and nearly everybody shouted.

While I write at the hospitable home of Bro. Peel Father Kenney is looking up his text for the funeral of Father Haynie. In ten minutes I am to be listening to one pioneer telling of the departure of another for the better country. The fountain of my tears begins to grow uneasy in the anticipation. All unconscious of my occasional glances the Old Man Eloquent of the Texas ministry is looking into a volume of Clarke's Commentaries which once belonged to Euter, or picking up a hymn book. I hope he may find the right text and the best hymn in the book. The bell rings and we rise to go.

Haynie was of a type rare in his day, and still scarcer to-day. "John Haynie was my father's pastor in the early days of the Austin church, " writes 0. T. Hotchkiss, late secretary of the Texas Conference, "and was much loved and honored, and was considered one of the most useful members of the Conference. He often did and said the unexpected, and was a strong defender of his church, and other religious pugilists found in him a foeman worthy of their steel. I have heard my father tell often of an incident at his table when a minister of another church was made to beat a hasty retreat. Bro. Haynie was then pastor of the church in Austin, and with other ministers of the town was invited to supper by my father. While at the table Mr. Haynie complained of the difficulties of his work, and the little success he was having, and said how much discouraged he was sometimes, when the preacher of another church said : ' Come over and join us, and you will get along so much better and have an easier time. ' Mr. Haynie turned on him and as quick as thought said, 'I know I am not worth much to my church, and I am often discouraged, and sometimes feel very much backslidden, but I haven't backslid near far enough to go into your church."

At the Conference at LaGrange in November, 1859, John Haynie, then in feeble health, and suffering from paralysis, was carried into the Conference hall to look for the last time upon his brethren. Besides the members of the Conference present, the venerable Jesse Hord was there to ask that his name be transferred to the West Texas (then the Rio Grande) Conference. Father Thomson and his sister, Mrs. Kerr, who had been present at the organization in 1840, were also there. (Both died soon afterward.) When the venerable Haynie, surrounded by so many veterans of the cross in Texas, pronounced the word "Farewell," it was such a spectacle as those who witnessed it can never forget. He died August 20, 1860, and his excellent wife did not long survive him.

Henry D. Hubert, the young man referred to in connection with Alexander's funeral sermon above, died at Bastrop in October, 1860. M. C. Eobertson, who had been a useful member of the East Texas Conference for seven years, died in August, 1860. James C. Wilson, who had had a short but brilliant career in the Texas Conference, died in February, 1861. An Englishman by birth, he came to Texas and settled in Brazoria County in 1837. He volunteered for service against Mexico in an expedition following General WolPs raid into Texas in 1842, and he became one of the Mier prisoners who landed in a Mexican prison. He made his escape and returned to Texas, after which he spent several years in the service of the state. The county of Wilson was named for him. Byron S. Garden, who had transferred from the Arkansas Conference to Texas in 1854, died in January, 1862. William A. Shegog, who had come from the Alabama Conference in 1860, died in 1864. The closing year of the war marked the close of the earthly careers of three servants of the church with whom we became acquainted in our earlier chapters. William Craig, a local preacher, but who had served intermittently as a supply since 1841, died in 1865. Daniel Carl died id Victoria County in August, 1865, in his fifty-seventh year. As we have seen, he was among the first to receive license to preach in Texas, this under Littleton Fowler, and in 1839, before the Texas Conference was organized, he had gone up with John Haynie and others to the Mississippi Conference for admission on trial. And the Church in Texas never had a more loyal or faithful son. " Daniel Carl," says his memoir, "was a man of genial temper, of unsullied reputation and strict integrity. . . . He was an able expounder of the Holy Scriptures, and a faithful administrator of Church discipline. After more than a quarter of century of labor his toil ends, and his mortal remains sleep in hope of a better resurrection in Victoria cemetery, on the banks of the beautiful Ghiadaloupe."

John Wesley Kenney died on January 9, 1865, after battling many months with pulmonary trouble. Although his official relation to the Church for more than thirty years had been that of local preacher, yet during that time he contributed as much perhaps to the founding and upbuilding of Methodism in Texas as any man in the regular ranks. Says his memoir: "There was scarcely a neighborhood between the Trinity and San Antonio rivers which he did not visit, often spending weeks together away from home. When Bro. Alexander arrived here as a missionary Bro. Kenney traveled with him sometimes for six or seven weeks, assisting in protracted meetings. He was often sent for to dedicate churches, and preach special sermons, and attend camp- and protracted meetings at distant points." Thrall, who was a contemporary, and who often, as he says, enjoyed the splendid hospitality of Kenney '& home, writes: "He was an able expounder of Methodist doctrine. A Baptist preacher having stirred up a controversy on that subject at Bastrop, Mr. Kenney went up there and preached one sermon that settled the Baptist controversy for ten years in that section of country. So a sermon of his on apostolic succession settled that controversy in the minds of hundreds who heard it at Brenham, Independence, Chappell Hill, Anderson, and other places. Whenever and wherever he preached crowds flocked to his ministry, and his popularity continued unabated as long as he was able to occupy the pulpit." Kenney was readmitted into the traveling connection, which he had left in Illinois, at the session of the Texas Conference in 1842, but at the end of the year again dropped into the local ranks. In 1860 he was again admitted into the Texas Conference, and placed on the superannuated roll.

A name which appropriately fits in here is that of John Eabb, who died near Austin in June, 1861, a layman to whom attaches more than ordinary interest in our history. Eabb was one of the first settlers on the Colorado, in Fayette County. He was the first to join the church at the noted Kenney-Stephenson camp-meeting in 1834, and from that time until his death John Eabb was a powerful force for Methodism and righteousness in all the circles in which he moved. He was one of the founders of Eutersville College. He was a liberal entertainer at camp-meetings and in his home, and is said to have pitched his tent at thirty-six camp-meetings. He erected one of the first saw- and grist-mills in western Texas, and this he dedicated to the Lord, and called it

"the Lord's Mill." Eabb sold out his large interests in Fayette County in 1860 and moved to Austin. The following advertisement appeared in the Texas Christian Advocate in 1860, which is so characteristic of Babb that it is here inserted :

Mill For Sale Can't get the kind of miller I want and won't have any other sort; too pushing a business for an old man; can't get time to pray enough; too far from Church. I intend, by the will of God, to sell out and quit business, at least such pushing business. A good Flour, Corn and Shingling Mill (steam power), with a large quantity of Cedar Timber, and any amount of land, from one hundred to four thousand acres, for sale on reasonable terms. Situated ten miles north of Lagrange.

John Eabb

Eabb was a Scotchman, of great energy and force of character. A son, George, entered the itinerant ministry, but died after one year. A daughter married William Keese, a member of the Texas Conference, and both she and her husband died of yellow fever at Houston, where Reese was stationed, in 1867.

We would like to make special mention of other worthy laymen, and from time to time we have done so in this history; but refer here in passing only to two more, who died during the period now under consideration. These are Dr. E. J. Swearingen, for many years prominently connected with our school interests at Chappell Hill, who died in 1861, and young Wm. Pinkney Downs, who died in 1860, and concerning whom, in an obituary notice in the Advocate, Eobert Alexander says : "He was a son of Eev. W. W. and Henrietta Downs; died Sept. 8, 1860, near Waco, in his thirtieth year. He was a native of Georgia; raised in Alabama; educated at LaGrange College. Came to Texas in 1854, and until his death was a steward and Sunday school superintendent at Waco station. He left a widow and four children." A son, who bears his name, has for many years been a pillar in the Church at Temple, and is prominent in the affairs of the Central Texas Conference.

We turn now to devote a few pages to affairs in the East Texas Conference during the war. As there are no war minutes of this conference extant we must depend for our information upon the reminiscences of two prominent members of that conference J. W. Fields and John H. McLean. Dropping first into an old sketch-book written out by Fields, we quote although it must be borne in mind, as it has perhaps been noted before in quotations from Fields, that he is somewhat splenetic in his temper :

Marshall Conference (1861) : Bishop Early presided. The bishop either from dotage or supposed ignorance or inability of the Conference, assumed to be the Conference. Mutch dissatisfaction with the Conference and spectators with his manner of presiding secret whisperings of "Iron Wheel" & c. I always want to respect our Bishops; but they must also respect my rights & feelings. The Conference closed without anything remarkable, more than the board retained the Mission fund on hand so as to be able to meet its own drafts. The Bishop was violently opposed to this measure I warmly advocated it. Time proved that I was right. In a few months Nashville was in the hands of the enemy & if we had sent our funds hither would never have seen them again.

At this session I was returned to the District (Palestine). Commenced work in the usual way, but in a few months half the preachers of the District had volunteered and gone to the Army, and I was mutch troubled to supply their places.

In April our Genl Conference was to convene at New Orleans. I was one of the chosen delegates of our Conference and was preparing to start when news reached us from Bishop Andrew that the time of meeting was postponed on account of threatened invasion & attack on the city. "Wise policy If we had met & remained the usual time we should all have been taken prisoners. And probably would have fared poorly, as they seem to have mutch spleen at our sort.

my family. On my return home found Bro Tunnell (a young man I had taken to live with me) ready to leave in the Army. This left me in a bad fix for cultivating my little crop. Finances low great scarcity of money for the past two years trying to provide food for my family & serve the Church on almost nothing borrowing money at 10&12 per cent in order to serve the Church. Sold a farm in Kaufman county in order to pay out & supply myself with a negro fellow. Negro proved to be untrustworthy. Soon sold him and ate him up as everything in the eating line advanced to sutch rates as the war progressed that a preacher's salary would not furnish half his supplies.

Crockett Conference (1862) : No Bishop being present, Bro E. S. Finley was chosen President and presided to the entire satisfaction of the Conference. Three of our number had died during the year. Some yet remaining in the Army as chaplains, though the majority had returned and were ready for work. And these sudden ins & outs of the preachers have made decidedly a bad impression Mutch rather had I for the credit of the Conf & Church that they had never entered. I should have been in the Army as Chaplain if health had permitted. And in the Chaplaincy, in my opinion, is the only capacity that a minister of the Gospel ought ever to enter the Army. God who called him to preach never uncalled him so far as to swallow up that call in official or private in ranks. ... At this Conference I was placed on Tyler & Garden Valley Circuit. Went to work as usual. But owing to the great drain by the war of the best portion of our male membership, I could do but little.

While encountering none the less all the poverty and hardships of the war period, the tone of J. H. McLean is better. Fields wrote in the midst of things. Dr. McLean, looking back from a serene and comfortable old age, remembers those hard days of his youthful ministry with more satisfaction. "I was read out to Busk station as my first charge, R. S. Finley, presiding elder, he says, referring to 1860. "To reach my charge I travelled by stage all day and night from Marshall to Busk, and just at daybreak the stage driver sounded his bugle as a signal of his coming. As we drove on the public square the first object that met my sight was 'Lincoln hung in effigy,' who later proved to be a lively corpse." Continuing, he says this from his published "Reminiscences":

Being a single man, my salary for the year was fixed by the discipline at $150. ... I had been in charge but a few months before the angry clouds of war began to rise, and preparations being made for the fearful conflict that was soon to ensue. In the late spring a company was formed. It was composed of the flower of the community. It was a memorable and impressive sight when they took formal leave of loved ones and started for the field of battle, many never to return. . . .

From this Conference [Marshall, 1861] I was sent to Sherman station, about 180 miles distant. Brother Binkley preceded me in that station. He was the first pastor and I the second. He had served two years, then the time limit. ... At Marshall Binkley bought a buggy, the first he ever owned, and kindly offered me a seat to Sherman, which I thankfully accepted, it being my first experience in buggy riding. After a hard drive of four and a half days we reached Sherman. . . . Socially and politically the communities of Marshall and Eusk, and the community of Sherman, were not altogether harmonious on the war question. The population of the first two communities were from the Gulf States principally, the last from such border States as Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri and Kansas, and a preponderance of sentiment favored the Union. This placed me in a new atmosphere politically, and made me realize the necessity of being considerate of the rights and sentiments of all, that my ministry might not be lost to any on political grounds. My paramount busines was to look after and promote the spiritual interests of the people, the whole people. I was the servant of all. . . . Many of the best citizens of the community did not favor secession, but when the State acted they could not array themselves against their own people, and they accepted the situation as gracefully as possible. It appears, however, that in an adjacent county, Cooke, there was a secret organization that plotted against their own people, those that sympathized with the Confederacy, and went so far as to waylay two Confederate Colonels, Bill Young and Jim Bourland, killing Colonel Young, but missed Colonel Bourand. These were two of the most promi- nent citizens of North. Texas and resided in Cooke County. The country was much aroused over the dastardly act. Colonel Bourland and Captain Jim Young, son of Colonel Young, at the head of their respective forces, began to ferret out the plot, and finally arrested, tried, convicted and executed forty-eight members of the band. Good men were selected to act on a committee in the capacity of jurors, of the number two were Methodist preachers, J. N. Hamill and J. R. Bellamy, both prominent members of the East Texas Conference. The execution took place at Gainesville, and the forty-eight were hanged the same day and on the same limb.

Eeferring to this situation, Rev. Ed. F. Bates in his "History of Denton County," says: "In the spring of 1862 it was discovered that there was a secret organization among the Union sympathizers, and that they had concerted plans to fight their way through to the Union lines. At that time it was charged against them that their plan was to fight their way through on a selected date, to kill men, women and children as they went, and to use the torch freely." He says that the organization existed in Cooke, Denton and Wise counties, being strongest in Cooke County. He makes no reference to the killing of Col. Young. But we are told: "The people of Cooke county suffered the reported diabolical purposes of the secret order to inflame their passions, dethrone their reason, and influence their judgment to such an extent that they rose up en masse and hanged about twenty-five men. They had some kind of military trial, but the fate of these men rested on the proof of their membership in this order, and Mr. Chance, who had sought membership in the order as a spy, was the witness. In Wise County they acted more deliberately, and were not wrought up. A trial commission of fifty of the best men of that county was organized and presided over by Eev. William Bellamy [James E. Bellamy] a Methodist preacher, and the then presiding elder of this western district of the East Texas Conference." Five men were hanged in Wise County ; several arrests were made in Denton County, but only one prisoner died, and he at the hands of an infuriated citizen.

Returning to Dr. McLean's narrative, we find him in 1863-64 at Jefferson, at that time and for several years afterward one of the leading cities of the state. "Jefferson is where I first met Doctor, later, Bishop Marvin," he writes, "which I esteem one of the greatest privileges and blessings of my life." Concerning this new preacher, now first introduced to Texas Methodism, he says:

I had heard of his being in the vicinity of Shreveport, Louisiana, and gave him a cordial invitation to come to Jefferson and hold a protracted meeting for me, which, he kindly consented to do. He came on horseback, was dressed in a suit of brown homespun jeans, the stirrup leathers had worn through the inside of his pantlegs from riding on horseback. His coat had broadcloth cuffs and collar, the most becoming suit I ever saw on him, more so than the broadcloth suit presented to him a few years later when he was elected Bishop. . . . He preached for me three weeks ; we ate, slept, visited and worshipped together ; and later we were travelling companions for three or four weeks, and such fellowship and association was the privilege of a lifetime. The meeting was a great success. He preached seven consecutive sermons from the same text, "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature."