Early, Texas - History (part 2 of 11)

Beginnings In The Colonies 43

We have evidently reached the place where a real foundation is being laid, as to all intents and purposes a Methodist church was formed here on Caney in September, 1834 about two months after the church was organized at McMahan's in East Texas. There are some conflicting reports as to the number of persons who united in forming this first church in the colonies. Eabb says there were eighteen. Thrall says there were thirtyeight names enrolled, and he appends a list which he says was in Kenney's handwriting, dated September 8, 1834. 11 But it is unaccountable how he arrived at his figures, as this list contains only twenty-six names, including those of Kenney and his family. Robert Alexander, who appeared upon the ground here three years later, and in his ministry came to know personally perhaps nearly all the persons who attended this meeting, says : 12 " There were eight or ten conversions, and eighteen joined the church by letters." This would account for the Kenney list of twenty-six names, which was probably composed of eighteen joining "by letters," and the eight or ten who were converted during the meeting, and joining de novo.

At this meeting Henry Stephenson, before his departure, was urged to present the great needs of Texas to the forthcoming session of his conference, and it was due largely to his representations that the Mississippi Conference appointed Stephenson to the "Texas Mission" in December following. There is no account of

Stephenson's preaching in the west in 1835. In the fall of that year, pressed by increasing age and infirmities, and the needs of a growing family, together with the unsettled political conditions in the west, Stephenson discontinued his conference relation. He continued to reside in Texas and preached as opportunity offered. We shall note the close of his career in another connection.

In the meantime, in September, 1835, one year following their first camp-meeting, the scattered Methodists on the western border came together again near the same place on Caney for another camp-meeting. This meeting was in charge of John W. Kenney, assisted by "Wm. Medford, "Wm. P. Smith, a physician and local elder in the Methodist Protestant Church, and Henry Fullenwider. By Dr. Smith's account, 13 there were at this meeting twenty-one tents, or covered wagons, "between 20 and 30 communicants" the members received the year before and a congregation of about four hundred persons. The meeting continued from Thursday, September 3, to the following Monday. Fortunately we have a still fuller account of this meeting from a contemporary source, and it is here inserted, as several matters of historical interest are brought out : 14

The first camp-meeting that I attended in Texas, and the second camp-meeting held west of the Trinity, was in 1835, within a mile of where the first camp-meeting had been held a year previous by Rev. Henry Stephenson, near Caney, Austin county, assisted by Revs. Kenney and Medford. Mr. Kenney resided near the ground, and not only personally superintended the preparing of the ground, but actually with his own hands did most of the work, and on him fell the burden of providing accommodations for strangers. There was a large attentive congregation assembled and the best order was observed from first to last. This meeting was held when the country was in cornis Published in Western Methodist, Cincinnati, i* From an unsigned article in the Texas Christian Advocate in 1856.

Beginnings In The Colonies 45

motion in consequence of the disposition evinced by Santa Anna to oppress us, and many were fearful that some might take advantage of the existing state of affairs, as by the Mexican laws we were liable to fine and imprisonment for holding or attending any but Catholic religious services in Texas. Mr. K. had previously consulted with Col. Wm. Travis, Dr. Miller and other leading men, who said, "Go ahead and hold your meeting; we will be there, and we pledge ourselves that you shall not be disturbed, ' ' and nobly did they redeem their pledge.

Mr. Kenney was assisted in conducting the meeting by Eev. Wm. Medford, Eev. W. P. Smith, and Eev. Mr. Fullenwider, of the Old School Presbyterian church; and never did any congregation appear to take more interest in hearing the word preached. This was the last time that Col. Travis had the privilege of hearing the gospel preached. At the close of the service the Lord's Supper was administered, and a more solemn, feeling time I never before witnessed. It was truly a season of refreshing from the presence of the Lord. There were two families who came in ox-wagons over forty miles and brought their provisions with them, and some of them returned home rejoicing in God their saviour.

During the continuance of this meeting, after much consultation, a notice was published from the stand requesting all who had been members of any quarterly conference to meet together at a place designated, for the purpose of holding an informal quarterly Conference. We assembled. Bro. Alexander Thornson, then of Burleson county, was then appointed chairman, and David Ayers secretary. Eev. Messrs. Kenney and Medford presented their ordination parchments and certificates that they were ordained elders in good standing in the Methodist Episcopal church, and Eev. W. P. Smith presented evidence that he held the same relation in the Methodist Protestant church. A resolution was offered that we request Eev. J. W. Kenney to take the pastoral charge of us until such time as we could have regular ministers sent us by the bishops of the Methodist Episcopal church. . . . This quarterly conference passed a resolution that we would apply to the Missionary Board of the M. E. church, requesting them to send missionaries to Texas, pledging ourselves to receive whoever they might send, and support them. . . .

Mr. Kenney immediately entered on his laborious work. His circuit was extended west of the Trinity, over nearly all the settled parts of western Texas. He labored faithfully until the invasion of Santa Anna, when he quitted his circuit, shouldered his rifle and went as a volunteer to defend us from invaders.

As this meeting was held, as the writer above notes, under the shadow of the clouds of war fast gathering over the country, it is little wonder that, looking back and remembering the deluge that fell upon the land a few months later, the narrator recalls this as "a solemn, feeling time." In view of certain events of the following year, it is interesting to note the presence here of Col. William Barret Travis; and that his heart was in this cause, as well as in that of securing the freedom of Texas, we have other evidence to submit shortly.

It will be noted that this meeting was held with the express permission of the political authorities then in Texas. Stephen F. Austin was not consulted because of his absence in Mexico. In addition to the interview of J. W. Kenney with the authorities, noted in the record above, Alexander Thomson had also assisted in paving the way for more religious freedom in the province by consulting the political chiefs. "Alexander Thomson . . . visited the Alcalde, Horatio Christman, at San Felipe de Austin," says Dr. Smith in his account. "After a circuitous train of conversation with the Alcalde, with caution and solicitude, Brother T. presented to his consideration the subject of introducing the preaching of the pure gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ into the Province of Texas. Brother Thomson intimated to the Alcalde that it was his opinion that the Mexican Government would not care for any of the Protestant exercises, notwithstanding they might be considered contrary to law. To the high gratification of Bro. Thomson, the Alcalde replied, 'I am much of the same opinion.' Bro. Thomson then remarked, 'If any Protestant preachers come on, I shall open my doors for the preaching of the gospel.' The Alcalde replied, 'I shall do so, too,' which he did, and as a blessed consequence resulting from it, the Alcalde and the major part of his family are now happy participants of vital religion, and honorable members of the Methodist Episcopal Church." 15

Mr. Thomson subsequently visited Dr. James B. Miller, the highest political functionary of the Mexican government in Texas, and reported to him the main incidents of the camp-meeting which had recently been held. Among other things he reported that it had been determined to provide for a preacher, John W. Kenney, to make a regular circuit among the settlements and preach to the people, and that his support had been provided for by a popular subscription. Whereupon the chief replied, "You have done wrong, sir; you should have left your subscription open, for some more of us wish to subscribe. ' ' The subscription paper was then laid before him, and the chief subscribed twenty dollars. 16

Of the extent of Kenney 's first circuit, or how far he got on his rounds, we have no account. But we know that before many weeks he was interrupted by the commotion resulting from the invasion of the Mexicans. But at that September meeting on Caney another step was taken which is of more historical importance than anything else done there, and which the war did not forestall. That was the action taken looking to the enlistment of the interest and help of the Methodist Church authorities in the United States. That which these loyal and fervent Methodists desired most of all was connection with the great itinerant system which would provide them with regular pastors. We have seen that a "quarterly conference" was organized and held toward the close of the meeting. It was irregular in some important details, to be sure, but in spirit and in its results it served the purpose, and is entitled to the honor of being the first quarterly conference ever "holden" within Texas bounds. The attending ministers produced the evidence of their orders, including Dr. Smith, who here entered into affiliation with the Methodist Episcopal Church. The conference made it the special duty of its secretary, Mr. David Ayers, to correspond with Dr. Nathan Bangs, missionary secretary in New York, and to report of his action "at the next quarterly conference." The next conference was appointed to meet at Samuel Gates 's in October, but this conference was never held, owing to the rising prospect of war. But Mr. Ayers fulfilled his instructions, and he was joined in his appeal by others who were present at his house in November, when the communications were prepared. Miss Lydia McHenry wrote urgent appeals to the missionary secretary and to others in the United States. Col. Wm. B. Travis, then present at the Ayers home, penned an earnest call for spiritual reinforcements in Texas, which, while not as tragic as his appeal from the Alamo a few months later, yet met with a readier response when published in the United States. We are not in possession of this particular communication from Col. Travis, and can only judge of its spirit and contents from a letter forwarded on the same mission a few months earlier to the New York Christian Advocate and Journal, as follows :

I take the liberty of addressing yon from this distant quarter of the world for the purpose of requesting you to receive my name as a subscriber of your widely circulated Advocate. We are very destitute of religious instruction in this extensive fine country, and the circulation of your paper here will be greatly beneficial, in the absence of the stated preaching of the Gospel. Although the exercise of religion in any form is not prohibited here, but is encouraged by the people, yet but few preachers have come among us to dispense the tidings of salvation to upwards of sixty thousand destitute souls. I regret that the Methodist church, with its excellent itinerant system, has hitherto sent the pioneers of the Gospel into almost every destitute portion of the globe, should have neglected so long this interesting country. I wish you would do me and the good cause the favor to publish such remarks as will call the attention of the reverend Bishops, the different Conferences, and the Board of Missions, to the subject of spreading the Gospel in Texas. About five educated and talented young preachers would find employment in Texas, and no doubt would produce much good in this benighted land. Texas is composed of the shrewdest and most intelligent population of any new country on earth; therefore, a preacher to do good must be respectable and talented. In sending your heralds in the four corners of the Earth, remember Texas.

Wm. B. Travis

Col. Travis was evidently speaking of a very recent condition, or of what might be expected in the future, in reporting a state of religious toleration in the province. He also overestimates the population of Texas by several thousand.

Of the effect and results of the various appeals dispatched to the United States we shall see later. But the outlook from another direction for the few scattered Methodists, as well as for all American settlers in Texas, soon became dark enough. Early in March of the following year Col. Travis and his entire outpost guard of nearly two hundred men, which had been stationed at San Antonio, were overwhelmed in their last retreat in the old Alamo mission, and brutally slaughtered by Santa Anna and his invading hosts from Mexico. The story of how this despot came to power, and the details of the policy he had set out to effect in Texas would require too much space to recite here. But the blow that fell at San Antonio, and another that fell a few days later at

Goliad, spread general alarm throughout Texas. While most of the able-bodied men shouldered their guns and hurried to join the army forming under Gen. Sam Houston, women and children and the few men who were left in the settlements hastened to gather all together and set out eastward for safety. The country west of the Brazos was within less than a month almost depopulated and left as a spoil to the invader and the Indian. The "Bunaway Scrape," as this exodus of settlers was called, and the military campaign of the Texas revolution ended together by the decisive battle of San Jacinto, April 21, 1836, in which the Mexicans were completely routed and Santa Anna captured. This event brought joy to the distracted country, and cleared the ground for the setting up of the Eepublic of Texas.

A Chapteb Of Reminiscences

BEFORE closing our account of the pre-r evolution period of Methodism in Texas, we will add a few personal records, illustrating conditions and experiences in the earliest days. The first will be the recollections of Martin McHenry Kenney, a son of John W. Kenney, covering his first school experiences; and though the account takes us into the years following the revolution, the educational situation is shown to be still crude and primitive. "The first school that I remember, though I did not attend it, was in Austin's Colony in 1835," he writes (Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, I, 285-296).

It was taught by an Irishman named Cahill. My older brother was one of the pupils of that primitive academy. It was distant about two miles from our house, and the way was through the woods without any road or path. When he started to school our father was absent, and mother went with him, carrying a hatchet to blaze the way.

Of the discipline of the school and its studies I only know that my brother, in relating the experience of several of the boys, made the impression on me that the rod was not spared.

The next school was at the same place in 1838 or 1839, taught by Mr. Dyas, an old Irish gentleman, and I think a regular teacher by profession. The session was three or four months and the studies miscellaneous, but the discipline was exact. He had an assortment of switches set in grim array over the great opening where the chimney was to be when the school house should be completed. On one side was the row for little boys, small, straight and elastic, from a kind of tree which furnished

Indians with arrows and the schoolmaster with switches. At the same time I remember thinking of the feasibility of destroying all that kind of timber growing near the schoolhouse. My terror was a little red switch in that rank which I caught too often, usually for the offense of laughing. The larger switches were graded, partly by the size of the boys and partly by the gravity of the offense, the gravest of which was an imperfect lesson. . . .

As for the studies we all had Webster's spelling book, and were classed according to our efficiency in that great classic. The last few pages contained some stories and fables, intended for reading lessons. They were illustrated, and the last one had a picture of a wolf, a fact which tended to established that book in our estimation, because we saw wolves every day. "The picture of the wolf in the spelling book" this became the synonym for graduation. . . .

The pupils brought such books as they happened to have, and one young man had Robinson Crusoe for his reading book. His readings interested me greatly, but I fear that my attention was given to the adventures of Crusoe rather than to the teacher's precepts for reading well. Several had Weem's Life of Washington, in which the story of the little hatchet and the cherry tree was most impressed upon our memory. There were no classes in arithmetic. Bach boy ciphered through his text-book as fast as he could, and the stern teacher pointed to the errors with the switch held like a pen, and a wag of the head, which meant correction.

We walked morning and evening to and from school, carrying our dinners in tin pails, and milk in a variety of bottles. . . . The Eobinson Crusoe boy, of whom I have spoken, one day took it into his head to teach us some arithmetic. There were five cows grazing by the side of the path, and he maintained there were fourteen, proving it in this way: "There are four in a bunch on the right and one by itself on the left; four on the right and one on the left make fourteen." We admitted the correctness of the numeration in the abstract but could not see the cows in the concrete. "Well," said he, "apply your arithmetic ; when you buy cattle count in the old way, but when you sell cattle numerate them."

A Chapter Of Reminiscences 53

nearly two miles from home. It was a neat log house in a grove in the prairie, with no spring near, but the patrons substituted a well. The house was an improvement on the other, in that it had shutters to windows and doors ; glass was still far in the future. We had also a chimney and a wide fire-place where we kept a roaring logheap in cold weather, when the neighbors brought wood in their wagons (which they did turn about), and a flaming, crackling brush-heap when we had to bring fuel by hand from the neighboring woods.

The following brief scrap of human history, accidentally discovered among some old papers, brings to light a touching case worth inserting here. It is that of a brother of Bishop William Capers, Bev. Dr. James Capers, once a successful preacher and physician in South Carolina, who in later years becomes an unknown rambler and at last totters into an obscure grave in Texas. The item is as follows : *

About the last of October, 1834, an old gentleman rode up to my father's, about one mile west of Bound Top, in Fayete county, and requested to spend the night. He appeared to be very unwell, and had to be assisted from his horse. He gradually grew worse, and was never able to rise from his bed. In March, 1835, he died. He was a very intelligent man, and gave us a complete account of his life. He said he was the brother of Dr. William Capers, afterwards bishop ; that he had been an ordained minister for many years, and showed us a certificate of ordination from Bishop McKendree. He had preached for many years in South Carolina and Georgia. Finally he began to take an undue interest in politics, and in religious and doctrinal controversies. He became embarrassed in business, and lost ground religiously, which caused him to leave and come to Texas. After leading a negligent life he attended a meeting held by Sumner Bacon and was reclaimed and began to preach again. On his sick bed he prayed that he might see Bacon again, and Bacon being found and told of it, came to see the old man, and they prayed and shouted together. My grandfather, who lived near us, and who knew William Capers, by long conversations with the old man was convinced that he was his brother. He had a regular diploma degree of M.D., which, with many other papers, he left with my mother, including his Bible; but these were all lost in the runaway scrape in 1836. He preached often, eloquent, inspiring sermons while lying in bed. His remains lie in an obscure, secluded spot about one mile east of Round Top.

Texas Methodism perhaps has never had a more useful layman than David Ayers, who came to Texas in 1834 from New York State. He tried farming for a year, and after the revolution he embarked in business, first at Washington, removing later to Center Hill, and finally to Galveston, where he became one of the merchant princes of his day. Something of his services in the days of spiritual destitution in Texas, and of the hardships and losses of the pioneer, are set forth in the following letter, written to a friend in 1843 : 2

You will recollect that I sailed from New York in May, 1834, in the brig Asia, Captain Johnson. Contrary to my express agreement with Captain Johnson, he shipped a barrel of whiskey. The consequence was, he was intoxicated most of the time. He ran us aground on the Bahama Banks, where we were aground eight days. We suffered much from exposure to the scorching rays of the sun, having no awning. To enable us to get afloat, we threw overboard all our heavy lading, and about two-thirds of our water. After we got afloat we were becalmed. Our water failed us. We had on board one hundred persons, one-half of whom were women and children. We were out at sea six weeks. We suffered much for want of water; and when our last half pint was served out to us our vessel was run aground near Corpus Christi Bay. We escaped from the wreck in a small boat, and landed on a desert island, where we encampel four weeks. I succeeded in securing from the wreck the box of Bibles and Sunday School books, which we had received from the Bible and Sunday School Societies in New York. I also saved most of my goods. I was compelled to leave my goods on the beach, while I went in the boat, with my family to San Patricio, the nearest settlement. We arrived at this place three months from the time of my departure from New York with my family. Three of my children were dangerously ill with a bilious fever, and I was obliged to remain with them. When I returned to the beach I found the boxes of goods had been opened, and most of the valuable articles were carried off, including the most of our clothing. The box of Bibles I found safe, and secured it, and felt thankful that things were no worse.

In San Patricio I procured a small cabin for my family ; this was made of poles drove in the ground, and covered with grass, without a floor. We were thankful for the shelter. This settlement was composed of Mexicans and Irish Roman Catholics all, or nearly all, were very ignorant. Having some testimonials from several Catholic clergymen in New York, one of which from Rev. Mr. Powers was a very flattering one, I called on the priest and presented them. These testimonials procured us a very hospitable reception, and we were soon supplied with all comforts the place offered. The priest called at our cabin and expressed a desire to inspect my library, which the rabble had not thought worth carrying off. A Spanish testament attracted his attention; he examined it and pronounced it a correct edition and expressed a desire to possess it. I immediately presented it to him, and he appeared pleased with the present. Father Malloy was our constant visitor, and his example was followed by the inhabitants including the officers of the garrison. My library was the chief attraction to our visitors, and I took care to have two copies of the Spanish Testament always in a conspicuous place. These they all were sure to see, and invariably they would express a desire to procure a copy, and then I would avail myself of the opportunity to present it to them at the same time informing them that Father Malloy had examined it, and pronounced it a genuine translation. In this way nearly all the intelligent part of the inhabitants procured Spanish Testaments. My supply was nearly exhausted, when one day the priest came to my cabin in a rage, and demanded of me how I dared to circulate that damnable book among his flock. He threatened me with imprisonment, and said he would burn my books and confiscate the little property I had remaining. (He actually did seize on a quantity of tracts which, by order of the alcalde, were publicly burned in the public square.) I reminded the priest that he had pronounced the translation a good one, and that I supposed he wished his people to read the word of God. He left, denouncing me in the severest manner. In a few minutes I was called on by the alcalde, who informed me that I had committed a great offense. He threatened me, &c. I showed him my passport as an American citizen, and claimed my protection as an American. I afterwards learned that the priest went around, and demanded all the Testaments he could find. I was much gratified that he could not procure all. Some from whom the priest had taken their Testaments away came and requested another copy, promising to conceal it from the priest. I concealed the box of Bibles under my bed. The priest soon made the place too hot for me; and I was constantly annoyed with vexatious lawsuits before the alcalde, which always went against me and in this way my resources were nearly exhausted. Here I was, two hundred miles from my intended home, robbed and deprived of almost all my means of support, by unjust suits before the alcalde, with a large family, amid an ignorant Catholic population, who were ready to obey the priest, and this priest my enemy. I determined immediately on removing east, and was fortunate to procure a large ox wagon, in which I placed my effects, and I mounted my wife and children on ponies, and we left this place, esteeming myself fortunate in being able to get away with the wreck of my property ; I arrived in safety at my place, having spent the last dollar I had in paying ferriage across the last river. The wagoner gave me credit for his bill. On this route I supplied every family I found destitute with a Bible.

The revolution broke out; we were invaded, and we had to flee before the enemy, leaving behind us all our property, excepting some bedding, clothing, some provisions, and a box of Bibles. We wandered from place to place to keep out of reach of the enemy, and lived in the woods eleven weeks, destitute of almost every comfort. The memorable battle of San Jacinto was fought. The enemy retreated; Santa Anna was taken prisoner, and we once more returned to our home. But what a scene presented itself to our view. The spoiler had been there, and nothing was remaining but an empty cottage every article had been de- stroyed or carried off. Our bee-hive was split open, and furniture all gone all presented a scene of desolation which made our hearts sink within us.

We had escaped the horrors of war, and now famine stared us in the face. No corn nearer than 40 miles; nothing to buy corn with but four quarts of salt. No meat our smoke-house had been emptied. At this juncture a bull passed my cottage, and we shot him down, and on him we subsisted until we procured supplies. My farming prospects all blasted, my stock all gone, I removed to Washington, and there commenced a small business. Mrs. A. and my daughter took in sewing, and God prospered our efforts, and we soon got in good business.

At this period, the Spring of 1836, there was not a solitary church organized in all Texas 3 nor was there a Sunday school. I started a prayer meeting at my house, and there in a back room a few pious females met with my family, and united with us in praying that the Lord would send us Ministers of the Gospel. I started a Sunday school. The books I had received from the Sunday School Society in New York furnished us with books. On enquiring of the children if they had Bibles at home, I found most of them were destitute of Bibles. These I supplied, and soon my box of Bibles was emptied; and to supply the demand I gave away nearly every Bible I had in my house, except my large Bible. In 1837 I removed to Center Hill, and left the Sunday school prospering.

From the memorials of another Methodist family of those days we give a personal reminiscence never before published. The family was that of Isaac Addison, from which there went forth three sons into the Methodist itinerancy in Texas. Mr. Addison had been a respectable and prosperous mechanic in Baltimore, who, though long settled and confirmed in the habits of city life, and with the best of religious and educational advantages for his family, was nevertheless attracted by the reports of Texas which reached that distant city, and early in 1835 broke up and shipped for the new country. The family, as a part of a large company of immigrants, arrived on board the schooner Elisabeth off the mouth of the Brazos in the month of May. In an endeavor to make anchorage at Velasco in the night the vessel hung up on a sandbar and went to pieces before dawn. The passengers escaped in a panic by one way and another, but lost nearly all their goods.

"Our vessel was to have landed us at Columbia, on the Brazos," says 0. M. Addison, a son, in his personal recollections of his introduction and early days in Texas, then a boy of fourteen; "but the voyage ending sooner than was expected found us in the country of our future home shipwrecked, among strangers, without shelter or protection from the weather. Our household goods, wet and damaged, were piled up on the beach, and night fast settling down upon us induced a feeling of depression that seemed an unwelcome augury of coming evil. However, no one shed tears or gave way to discouragement. Obtaining a good supper at the hotel in the little town of Velasco, we then extemporized some rude tents, and began our Texas life by the new experience of camping near the beach."

From Velasco we ascended the Brazos in a keel boat to Columbia. Here our passage by water ended, and our further journey to a point near San Felipe was made in ox-wagons, the only mode of transportation in that day, except horseback.

The life was new and exhilarating; the weather mild and pleasant ; the camping and life outdoors novel and exciting, and in such contrast with former experience as to make the trip most delightful. On the evening of the third day our wagons drove up to a long log cabin of a single room in the midst of the prairie, where our goods were unloaded, and where we were to make a temporary home until the country could be explored in order to make a suitable location of our land and permanent residence. Although before starting for Texas we had reduced our household goods to a minimum the little cabin was too small to hold us and our "plunder," as the neighbors called it. We, however, soon adapted ourselves to the necessities of the case, and improvising a shed, covered it with palmetto found in an adjacent creek bottom. This added materially to our accommodations, though the floor of both house and shed were only of native earth. . . .

My father having located a part of our land in Robertson's Colony, on the old San Antonio Road, five miles northeast of the present town of Caldwell, in the latter part of the summer we removed to its vicinity in a couple of large ox-wagons, a journey of about one hundred miles. . . . The place selected was then on the extreme frontier. Securing the occupancy of a little log cabin with a dirt floor about a mile distant from our location, we here passed a season of acclimation with fever and ague. Of doctors there were none, and the little medicine obtainable, improperly administered, probably did more harm than good. In the absence of well, spring or cistern, we used water found in pools in the creek. Warm and impure, it was sometimes sufficiently unpalatable to nauseate a sound stomach; but to a sick person, wrestling with a burning fever, and languishing for a drink of pure, cold water, instead of relief it only cruelly tantalized him with the remembrance of the many refreshing fountains from which he had slacked his thirst in other days.

Our settlement on the frontier necessarily cut us off from supplies to be procured at the centers of trade, and also placed us in unpleasant proximity to the Indians, just about that time becoming hostile. Thus, to a great extent thrown upon our own resources, we soon learned to adapt ourselves to the corn bread and dried beef, the staple bill of fare, and to keep constant watch for the Indians.

Although up to this time there had been no general outbreak of the Indians, some of them were known to be hostile, while the good faith of all was considered doubtful. A short time before our coming a young man, the son of a near neighbor, had been slain by them within sight of his father's house. . . . Knowing our liability to any sudden attack of these savages, it was with no little trepidation that one day soon after our arrival, I saw some dozen or more of them ride up to our cabin. Whether friendly or hostile, I could not tell, and in the latter case I could not depend upon their truthfulness. I went out to meet them and found them avowedly friendly, and outspoken in their kindly salutation in broken English. But the honesty of an Indian was at a discount, and he could not be trusted.

Seeing no one at home but my mother and myself, they soon became rather rude and uncivil. We had just obtained a supply of fresh beef, which, according to custom, was cut up and spread on a scaffold in the sun to cure. This attracting their attention, they rather demanded than asked for a supply for themselves. I at once gave them what I thought a fair share, when, instead of showing gratitude, they insolently clamored for more. I was not disposed to yield, but mother, anxious to get rid of them, instructed me to give them all they wished. This I did, when seeing nothing more they wished they took an unceremonious departure.

In the quiet seclusion of our frontier home, opening a farm, improving the place, and laboring to make things comfortable, for long seasons together one heard nothing from the outside world. There was neither mail route, post-office nor newspaper, and the only means of communication with distant points was the occasional passing of some traveller, or the rare sight of a well-read newspaper. From these sources we had heard of the overturning of the Federal Government in Mexico by the dictator, Santa Anna, who, having ordered the disarming of the Texas colonists, had sent a large force to San Antonio to enforce the decree. That this force had been defeated, and captured by the Texians, was made known to us by the visit of my eldest brother, whom we had left behind in Baltimore. On his way to rejoin us in Texas he had encountered in New Orleans the war spirit in favor of the young Republic, and volunteering as one of the "New Orleans Greys," had fought in the ranks at San Antonio and assisted in the capture of the Alamo.

We had hoped that this success had ended the struggle with Mexico, and did not know that Santa Anna in person was on the march to Texas with a large army, in a war of extermination, until Travis and his heroic comrades had fallen with the Alamo, so long and so nobly defended. The startling news of these tragic events reached us by special courier at midnight, followed at early dawn by a throng of fugitives from the upper settlements on the Colorado river, who, having received earlier intelligence of the fatal distaster, were. already fleeing for their lives. The old San Antonio Eoad was the uppermost highway through Texas, and on this thoroughfare passed as forlorn and desponding company as ever fled from blood-thirsty pursuers. Like ourselves, somewhat remote from the seat of war, and in fancied security, the news of the recapture of the Alamo burst upon them like an unexpected storm, and giving them no time for preparation, forced them to hasten their flight by leaving everything not easily transported. A little provision, some bedding and clothing and all else left, with no hope of a return to enjoy it.

In a straggling crowd the fugitives passed, with just such means of transportation as was at immediate command carriages, wagons, carts, sleds, pack-horses, oxen packed, on foot and on horseback; old men, old women, young men, young women and children of all condition and ages. These with an occasional drove of cattle and horses interspersed, enlivened the usually quiet roadway that morning, and indicated that busines of more than ordinary interest was pressing them forward. . . . In that sad procession passing our house that morning I suppose were fifty or seventy-five families, some already with representatives with Houston in the army, and others intent on placing their wives and children in a place of safety, and then go to the front and unite with those already in the field against the invader and secure the freedom of Texas.

The passing of the fugitives from the Colorado increased the alarm of the few families in our immediate neighborhood, and hastened our preparations for departure. Some provision and bedding were placed in a cart, on truck wheels, the only conveyance obtainable, drawn by two yoke of half broken oxen, and part of the family walking, we joined the rear portion of the scattered fugitives. The promiscuous throng of men, women and children with whom we united had already been on the road for several days, and harassed by fear and weary with travel, having spent the greater part of the previous night on the march, allowed themselves but a short halt for breakfast. This need of haste, we subsequently learned, was well founded, for a division of the Mexican army was actually on the road behind

The Brazos was reached in the afternoon, and not being fordable, in the absence of a ferry-boat, two canoes lashed together made a good substitute; and after some delay all were crossed in safety. "With the river between us and the Mexicans we felt comparatively secure; and while the greater part of the fugitives continued their flight, a few families, including my father's, remained to hear further tidings from the seat of war.

About this time a continuous rain set in, and the whole country became flooded with water. The river became swollen, and our canoes were washed away. This latter circumstance was a serious affair to our family, for father and an older brother had both re-crossed the stream in the hope of being able to procure better means of conveyance. The rain and high water delayed their return until we became somewhat alarmed for them. Our new friends promptly decided that they had been drowned in the overflow. One old man, in mistaken kindness, took it upon him to inform my mother that from all indications it. was quite certain that her husband had been drowned, and that she might as well consider herself a widow. This was almost equal to a confirmation of the fears of my mother. But the suspense and anxiety were soon ended by the absent members of the family presenting themselves on the opposite bank of the river. There were no means of crossing the river, and anxious to hear the news brought by the new arrival, they were closely questioned as to the state of war. My brother incautiously announced the defeat and massacre of Fannin's division of the Texas army. A panic seized the people, and while some waited to hear the close of the story, the greater portion hitched up their teams and fled. The remainder soon followed, leaving but a single family besides our own, and they only because their cart had been left on the other side of the river. Constructing a skiff out of the flooring of a house, in due time the cart and our folks were safely ferried over.

The swollen condition of the Brazos, rendering it difficult to cross, had given us some slight sense of protection from the Mexicans, but knowing they were not idle, we hastened our departure. We found the road in fearful condition cut up by recent travel, alternately covered with water and deep in mire, the laboring teams made slow headway. To relieve this strain, many of the women and children were compelled to walk through the mud and wade through the water, with wet garments, to be only partially dried at the next night's camp-fire. The excitement attendant upon such hardships and exposure may have nerved the sufferers to their full endurance, but the discomforts of that memorable flight implanted the germs of disease that shortened many a useful life. . . .

At the Trinity river our road formed a junction with another road, crossing the country lower down. At the ferry here a large number of families had already crossed before the freshet, but the flooded bottom made it tedious to cross, and hundreds were now waiting their turn to be ferried over. As late arrivals would be too long delayed at this point, and as the Navisota river was in a similar condition to the Trinity, my father with several others made a detour to the left, intending to cross both of those streams higher up, where there would be less water and fewer people. The route travelled was a newly made trail, but little used by wagons; the ground wet and boggy and difficult to travel over.

"While thus seeking to escape the Mexican we were risking an encounter with the but little more savage Comanche. A merciful Providence spared us, and in due time we safely reached Fort Parker. This was the upper settlement on the Navisota, within a few miles of where the old town of Springfield subsequently stood. To protect themselves from the Indians the people had constructed a fort and moved into it. "We rested here a few days, and continued our journey. A few families here had already fled from the Mexicans; a few went with our company, while some remained to meet whatever fate awaited them.

"We were fortunate in finding a rude bridge of logs spanning the Navisota, placed there by fugitives who had preceded us. At the Trinity we encountered the rear of a considerable number of families, and by the aid of some canoes, crossed with but little delay. Reaching Fort Houston, a nice little village, already deserted, we rested awhile, hoping soon to ascertain whether the fortunes of war would force us to cross the Sabine, or permit us to return home.

that place a band of Comanehes appeared at the gate, under protection of a white flag. Confiding unwisely in their honesty, the inmates of the fort permitted them to enter. Having by this stratagem lulled suspicion, the savages soon threw off the mask and massacred or captured their unsuspecting victims, save a few who prudently got out of the way before the tragedy began. Cynthia Ann Parker, then a girl of eight or nine years, was one of the captives. Her relatives made unavailing efforts to rescue her. Years afterward, when the wife of an Indian chief, she, with a child in her arms, was captured in a battle by a party of Texas rangers. Quanah, the noted Comanche chief, is said to be her son.

At Fort Houston, in painful suspense, we waited for information from the seat of war. From the disasters hitherto befalling our arms there was but little grounds for the expectation of good news. Another battle may have been fought, and Houston's army, our last hope, may have been destroyed. . . . Suddenly the looked for intelligence reached us, but who can believe it! Instead of the dreaded reverse there was victory. Instead of the continued flight to the border, we may now return home. . . . The story seemed incredible, and found in every man who heard it a doubting Thomas. Such a combination of favorable circumstances was simply out of the question, and some practical joker had victimized the people by an ill-timed story, too good to be true. But it was true gloriously true! Gen. Houston, by special messengers, had sent forth the good news, to stop the fleeing colonists, and invite them back to their homes. This confirmed the report, and with thanksgiving in many a rejoicing heart, the weary fugitives turned their faces again to the west, and thus ended what was known among the old Texians of that day as the "Runaway Scrape."

The alarm caused by the Mexican invasion spread to the border settlements on the Sabine, carried thither by the rush of the fleeing population from the interior, and raised almost to a panic by deserters from the Texas army, hurrying out of the country, after the Alamo slaughter. A member of a Methodist family just recently entering Texas gives us a glimpse of the effects of the war on the border population. 4 "At San Augustine we were advised not to go any further until the affairs of the country became more settled," we are told. "My brother-in-law, Dr. Wells and family, with myself, concluded to remain through the winter [of 1835-36]. My brother and his son went on and joined the army, and the latter was killed in the Alamo. I remained in the family of Dr. Wells at San Augustine until about the first of April, when the news reached us of the fall of the Alamo, and the advancing of the Mexican army, which, together with the fear of Indians, compelled us to retreat across the Sabine, where we camped in the woods and remained several weeks. There were some hundreds of women and children, with nothing to protect them but the branches of the trees, or very poor tents, and many of them almost without food."

In the short but costly struggle for independence the few Methodist preachers and other Church leaders then in Texas bore or took their full part. James P. Stevenson, who had removed into East Texas in 1835, bore arms in the military operations, as did John W. Kenney. Dr. Wm. P. Smith was appointed surgeon in the army, and he served in that capacity until the close of the war. Alexander Thomson was a member of the first provisional government, as was also Asa Mitchell, whom we have not noticed hitherto. Mitchell was one of Austin 's original 300 colonists, having come to Texas in 1822, settling first at Velasco. He was a Methodist who took a pronounced interest in all the affairs of his church, although he is best known for his participation in public affairs during the revolutionary period. He was not only a member of the first "Consultation" government in 1835, but in 1836 was a member of the Constitutional Convention, and a signer of the Declaration of Independence. He joined Houston's army, and fought in the battle of San Jacinto.

Mitchell County is named for him, jointly with a brother, Eli Mitchell. Present also and taking part in the battle of San Jacinto was Eobert Crawford, who soon thereafter became a prominent Methodist itinerant in Texas. Capt. Moseley Baker, afterwards a prominent local preacher in Houston, commanded a company at San Jacinto. Capt. W. J. Russell, who as a sailor first landed in Texas in 1818, returned and settled at Harrisburg in 1827, subsequently removing to Brazoria County. He is said to have fired the first gun for Texas independence at Anahuac in 1832, and the same year participated in the battle of Velasco. 5 After the war he served a term as senator in the Congress of Texas. Some of his activities in connection with the Church and our school interests will be noticed later.

Dr. Smith explains that he did not reach San Jacinto until the day after the battle. "I, as one of the surgeons of the army, was left at Donaho's, in charge of some sixty sick with the measles, being the sick of both Regiments," he says. 6 "So soon as I got them in condition so that some could go to the settlements, to regain their health, Capt. Hill, of Washington county, and myself, took those who were able to join the army and dashed on as rapidly as possible to join the main Army before the battle. When we arrived on April 20, 1836, at the upper encampment, [we found that] the end was knocked out of the ferry-boat, and while some workmen were repairing it, Cos's division came on, fired on the workmen, and wounded one. Then, as Cos's division was between us and the main army, we could not arrive there until the battle was over, and then we hastened to the scene as quickly as possible. I was there in time to aid in attending to the sick and wounded."

A Chapter Of Reminiscences 67

sort and from another direction, which is to begin the following year with the coming of Enter, Alexander and Fowler. But before setting out upon that part of our history we will first take leave of our old friend, Henry Stephenson. Though Stephenson is to survive a few years more, the active period of his ministry practically closed with the pre-revolutionary days. We have seen that he located in 1835 and removed into Texas. He was now advanced in years ; his health was poor, and with a large family dependent upon him, we hear no more of the extensive rounds over Texas which he had made before. His ministerial career was a checkered one. The records show that he was admitted on trial into conferences three times once in the Missouri Conference, and twice in the Mississippi Conference, and as many times he was discontinued ' ' at his own request. ' ' The ministry paid him practically nothing toward the support of his family, and yet he kept returning and knocking at the conference door for admission and for "work." And yet with all the vicissitudes through which he passed as local preacher and itinerant, and struggling always with poverty, this old horsebacker of the front lines of Methodism rides on to the end with "nothing against him."

After his final location in Texas we have an account of his last visit to the west, made in 1837, to the settlement of the Eabbs and Moores, on the Colorado. His horse gave out, and he entered the settlement on foot. Hearing of the expected arrival of regular missionaries in Texas, he was greatly rejoiced, and used the words of old Simeon, "Now lettest thou thy servant depart, Lord, according to thy word in peace." In 1840 he preached and organized the first church in Jefferson County, near Beaumont. In 1841 he attended his last meeting, held near Jasper. He was a sufferer from asthma, and ' ' such was the difficulty of his breathing that he could scarcely get his breath while lying down, and had to rise fre- quently during the night," says Thrall. This meeting was a good one, and the old gentleman had the satisfaction of seeing his youngest son and daughter convertedthe last of ten children. He expected to return home Monday morning, but learning that the Lord's Supper would be administered, said he would remain and take it for the last time. He died November 20, 1841, in his sixty-ninth year.

Stephenson is described as having been "neither learned nor eloquent, in the ordinary acceptation of those terms; but he was a good man, and cherished a single purpose to glorify God and do all the good in his power. He was of a meek and quiet spirit, winning friends by his gentle manners. In one respect nature had favored him. He possessed a most musical voice, a voice which ringing out upon a camp-ground, charmed into silent and attentive listeners all classes of people. " An example of the effect of his preaching is related by the famous Tom Farmer, who had been converted under Stephenson 's preaching in Louisiana. Later removing into Texas Farmer heard more of Stephenson 's preaching. At TeePs, in Sabine County, where Stephenson preached in 1834, young Farmer formed the acquaintance of Miss Rachel Teel, who was not then a professor of religion, and who had not heard any preaching. "I thought she would suit me," says Farmer, quoted in Thrall, "if she had religion, and I thought it was only necessary for her to hear Father Stephenson preach to make her religious. Not long afterward he had an appointment at Bayou Sara, La. This young lady and another and myself went to hear him. "We had to ride twenty miles the last morning before preaching. As we got in Father Stephenson was just taking his text. It was: 'Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things ; but one thing is needful, and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her/ The two young ladies were quite gay; they had got hold of some starch that a merchant had brought to Texas, and used some, and felt exalted. Father Stephenson had got about half through his sermon when he took the starch out of the girls, and both cried aloud for prayer, and were soon converted. Rachel and I fixed things up at once. I was now a married Methodist, with a Methodist wife."

Henry Stephenson sleeps in an abandoned country cemetery near Burkeville, Newton County. Some belated effort has been made to mark his grave with a plain, inexpensive monument. He left numerous descendants in that region, while two of his sons became local preachers.

First Regular Missionaries

THE news of the decisive battle of San Jacinto reached the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church in session at Cincinnati, Ohio, in May, 1836, and produced no little rejoicing. Much had been published in the press of the country about Texas, and lately the struggle with Mexico had awakened a keener interest in the fortunes of this distant province. The letters and appeals from Methodists in Texas, heretofore noted, had been published widely in the Church papers, so that to the body of representatives of the Church gathered at Cincinnati San Jacinto meant first of all the providential opening of a great door of opportunity for the gospel, and the feeling was general that the response should be instant.

One prominent member of the General Conference, Dr. Martin Ruter, offered himself on the spot as a missionary to Texas, "to go whenever it should be deemed a proper time for entering that field of labor. The superintendents were all consulted on the subject, and all agreed in an opinion favorable to the enterprise. It was believed that the unsettled condition of the country, in reference to its political relations, was not suitable to ' the immediate establishment of a mission, but that in all probability it might be within a few months. ' ' x When the superintendents were at length convinced that the freedom of Texas was measureably secure, and that they were not invading a forbidden land, the mission in Texas was officially established. Dr. Enter received his appointment in April, 1837, as " Superintendent of the Texas Mission," from Bishop Elijah Hedding, who was in charge of all foreign mission work of the Chnrch. Other volunteers selected and appointed the same year to accompany Dr. Euter as " missionaries to Texas'* were Eobert Alexander, of the Mississippi Conference, and Littleton Fowler, of the Tennessee Conference. It must be remembered that Texas was, even after its independence was won, a foreign nation, or, in the terms of the Mission Board, a ' 'foreign field," and the first preachers sent out were chosen and supported by the Mission Board, and hence called ''missionaries." But the term was a little unfortunate as it applied to the American population in Texas, however destitute they were of the gospel, and here and there awakened some prejudice against the first preachers. 2

Henceforth the names of Euter, Alexander and Fowler are to be associated with Texas Methodism all three are to spend the remainder of their lives in the Texas wilderness, and all are to find their graves in Texas soil. No better choice could have been made for this raw and extensive field than the Church made in sending these three pioneers to Texas. They were all men of experience and ability, filling at the time of their appointment places of prominence and responsibility in their home conferences, and all alike displayed wisdom, courage and enthusiasm under the hardships of their new field. The life of Euter was cut short after entering Texas, but the character of the man and his work have stamped his name indelibly upon our history. Fowler, though a young man, yet never very robust in health, lived and labored a little less than a decade through our

2 The writer well remembers the prejudice of the old Texians against the word "missionary," as applied to the early preachers. To their understanding it implied that the people they came to serve were necessarily heathens. Since then the word has become better understood as describing a minister sent to any destitute field. O. M. Addison.

formative period. Alexander, also a young man, and a giant in body as well as in mind, outlived all his first co-laborers, his career in Texas alone extending over a period of forty-four years.

Alexander, being nearest the field, was the first to enter. "Our itinerant system is the best for a rapid and successful spread of the gospel," comments J. G. Jones on this event. "While other denominations were anxiously looking around for men and means to supply Texas, and were waiting for a call to invite them here and there, the Methodists had a corps of minutemen ready to mount their horses and enter the field, regardless of a special call from any community or the promise of a competent salary. Hence they had entered and taken possession of the field, already white unto the harvest, while others were getting ready to begin the work."

Eobert Alexander was born in Smith County, Tenn., in 1811, and was therefore twenty-six years of age at the time of his entering Texas. He was converted and united with the Methodist Church in his seventeenth year. He was licensed to exhort at eighteen, and licensed to preach and admitted on trial into the Tennessee Conference the following year. He served in turn the Bedford, Goose Creek, Fountain Head, Murfreesboro and Mill Creek circuits. He was transferred to the Alabama Conference, but before entering upon that field he was transferred to the Mississippi Conference, and appointed to Port Gibson and Grand Gulf. "In 1835 he was made the Superintendent of the Chickasaw District," says Bishop Fitzgerald, 3 "and began the sort of work which thenceforth was to be peculiarly his own, the occupancy and organization of new fields of evangelization." In 1836 he was appointed to Natchez station one of the most difficult situations in the whole southwest which place he was occupying at the time of his appointment as mis- sionary to Texas. "His family," continues Fitzgerald, "was of the North Carolina Alexanders. They were a sturdy clan, Covenanters in Scotland, and among the very first to set the ball of liberty rolling in America. Two of them were signers of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence. It was a family much given to preaching, pedagogy and a patriotism ever ready to talk or fight for their country. They made Presbyterians of the strongest and best type. Such of them as became Methodists went their whole length as Methodists in theology and Christian experience. When one of them was a Hardshell he was hard indeed double-cased and almost impenetrable."

Alexander "mounted his horse" and set out for Texas in August, 1837. He crossed the Sabine on the nineteenth of that month, and on the same day preached his first permon in Texas at the house of a Mr. Walker. After a few days he proceeded to the McMahan settlement, where he held a few days ' meeting, at which were present James P. Stevenson and Messrs. Crawford, English and Johnson. Alexander spent a month in this section, reviving and organizing the work which had been begun in previous years. He held a quarterly conference, licensed two men to exhort, who afterward became traveling preachers, and organized the San Augustine circuit. Leaving the work here temporarily in charge of his two new licentiates, he hurried on to Austin County and got in touch with John W. Kenney and other Methodists in that section. His coming was hailed with delight by the faithful few in that region, who had time and again appealed to the Mission Board for a regular preacher. It was the announcement of the appointment of preachers to Texas, contained in a letter from the secretary of the Mission Board, and read a few months before at a little prayer meeting in Washington, that produced the "first Methodist shout in that place," according to David Ayers. Soon after Alexander's arrival a camp-meeting was appointed, which was held near the old camp ground on Caney, in October, 1837. At this meeting there were ten conversions, including the wife of John Babb and three children of David Ayers, and at the close the first missionary society in Texas was organized and subscriptions taken for the support of the work, amounting to an annual pledge of about $1,000. 4

Littleton Fowler arrived in Austin County and joined Mr. Alexander in November. He had set out on his journey to Texas in August, leaving Tuscumbia, Ala., where he had been serving as financial agent of LaGrange College. Mr. Fowler took a more circuitous route and made a more leisurely journey to Texas than his colleague, traveling by way of Memphis, Little Eock and

4 The following is a copy of the subscription paper, included in an account of this meeting, published in the Texas Christian Advocate in 1857. It was explained that many of the subscribers were not members of any church.

We, the subscribers, promise to pay the sums annexed to our respective names annually, as members of the Texas Missionary Society, auxiliary to the Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States, to John Eabb, Treasurer of the Texas Missionary Society, or Ms order. October, 1837.

First Regular Missionaries 75

through, the Choctaw Nation, where he had relatives, and where he was detained by illness. He entered Texas by way of Eed Eiver, traversing and preaching in the country where some efforts had been made twenty years before to plant the Church. Mr. Fowler kept a journal covering the period of his introduction into Texas, and from it some extracts are given. First, he sets down his reflections on leaving home:

Tuscumbia, Alabama, August 22, 1837. This day I leave this place for the Eepublic of Texas, there to labor as a missionary, having lately been appointed to this field by the Board of Foreign Missions of New York. The impression made on my mind to go as a foreign missionary to Texas is as strong as the one which first called me to the ministry; consequently I shall expect the presence and blessings of God to attend me. In view of the labor and privations which must await me my soul is firm and undaunted. I rather rejoice that I am worthy to labor and suffer for my blessed Master. Yet the fact of being severed from my country, my kindred, my friends and brethren fills me with deep sorrow and affliction.

On my departure from Arkansas I employed Rev. John B. Denton, a local preacher, to labor in the Texas mission. Sept. 30 we reached the Sulphur Fork praries. Travelled up the [river] sixty miles, where I preached at Bro. Duke's to fifteen hearers. . . . Held a camp-meeting near Clarksville, [Eed Eiver County}. ... In company of three others, with provisions packed for four days' travel, we struck out across Texas for Nacogdoches. On the way we passed the unburied body of a man who had been shot six weeks previously for horse stealing. We slept in the woods four nights, using our blankets for beds. . . . Eeached Nacogdoches Oct. 16, preached two sermons, one by J. B. Denton, one by the missionary. On 19th, in company of Brothers Spear and Denton we got to San Augustine, where I preached four nights in succession and held a two days' meeting. At the close of the meeting I began a subscription for lumber to build a church for the use of a Methodist Episcopal church. In less than two weeks from the time the suscriptions were opened, a lot was deeded to us 160 feet square, central in town, with three thousand five hundred and twenty-five dollars subscribed. Trustees were appointed and the house under written contract to be finished by the first of September next [1838]. . . . This success to raise funds to build a church was never equalled in the United States in any efforts which have come under my observations. . . . From Nacogdoches I travelled to Washington on the Brazos, then on twenty-five miles southwest to Brother Kenney's, where to my great delight I met on Sabbath morning, November 12, my coadjutor, Robert Alexander; here we held a two days' meeting [illegible]. It was the most impressive and delightful meeting I have seen in Texas. . . . On the night of the 14th I preached in Washington to a crowded assembly in a school house. Many stood out before the door and listened attentively. While in Washington Mr. Gay gave two lots, 100 feet by 120, on which to build a Methodist church, which is to be frame of plain character and moderate size. . . . From Washington I travelled to Houston through a poor and flat country. Arrived on Sunday morning, 19th [Nov., 1837] , preached in the afternoon to a crowded house that paid the closest attention. In this capital of the new Eepublic there is much vice gaming, profanity and drunkenness the most conspicuous. Houston is now ten months old, with eight hundred inhabitants, good State House, many stores, and a vast number of doggeries [saloons]. . . . Nov. 21, the Senate of the Texas Congress elected me chaplain for the remainder of the session. . . . Nov. 26, preached morning and night to large congregations in the Capitol. . . . Am busy visiting the sick and writing letters back to the United States. Steamboat arrived with 103 passengers. . . . Congress adjourned Dec. 19, 1837. . . . Dec. 21, this morning I leave for San Augustine to be absent nearly a month. Have obtained a deed for a lot in this place [Houston] for a house of public worship. The lot lies near the Capitol and is 125 feet by 250.

Some features of Mr. Fowler's narrative impress us that he had the eye of a church extension secretary, as he was much imbued with the idea of building in all the rising young towns which he visited. Thus on his first visits to San Augustine, Washington and Houston he

First Regular Missionaries 77

Leaving Mr. Fowler for the time being, we must drop back just a month and note the arrival of Dr. Euter in Texas. Fowler and Alexander had parted in Austin County, Fowler going to Houston and Alexander setting out for Natchez, to attend the session of his conference to be held there early in December. At Gaines's ferry on the Sabine he met Dr. Euter entering Texas, November 21. The two spent the night together, the most of it in conversation relating to the work in Texas.

Dr. Euter had had the longest journey of any of the missionaries in reaching Texas, having come from Meadville, Pa., where he had resigned the presidency of Allegheny College to accept the appointment to Texas. He had left Meadville in July (1837), and after bestowing his family at New Albany, Ind., he found that he would be compelled to remain in the upper country until frost, on account of the prevalence of yellow fever on the lower Mississippi. He came down in the fall by boat, landed at Eodney, La., and rode horseback across the country to Texas. Dr. Euter was fortunate in having for a traveling companion on this journey a well-informed Texas Methodist, David Ayers, returning from a journey to the East. Mr. Ayers wrote down his impressions of the Doctor and many incidents on the way, which we reproduce: 5

The Doctor preached his last sermon, before leaving for Texas, in the presence of the Indiana Conference, in session at New Albany, in November, 1837, Bishops Soule and Eoberts both being present. On Thursday afternoon he bade farewell to his wife and children, no more to meet them on earth. On the steamer on which he took passage for New Orleans the writer of this was his room-mate. He spent much of his time in private devotion and hi reading the Bible. He was never idle, and though quite cheerful and affable toward all with whom he mixed, yet his demeanor was marked by a calm dignity and thoughtfulness, which, with his great earnestness in devotion, indicated that his heart was burdened with the grandeur and importance of his mission.

The number of the passengers was very large. Among them was a company of actors, on their way to New Orleans. . . . Before reaching the mouth of the Ohio one of the passengers died. Dr. Kuter attended him in his last moments, offered him the consolations of the gospel, and when the boat stopped to bury him he read over his grave the beautiful burial service of our ritual. On Sabbath a committee appointed by the actors waited on Dr. Euter and requested him to preach to the passengers in the gentlemen's cabin. The Captain, all the hands that could be spared, and all the passengers attended, and he preached one of his best sermons. In the evening the ladies invited him to preach in their cabin, which he did to a large audience of both sexes.

We landed opposite Rodney and proceeded on horseback. The first night Dr. Euter spent in Texas was at Games' Ferry, on the Sabine, where he met Eev. Eobert Alexander . . . who had come this far to meet him, and was also on his way to the session of the Mississippi Conference at Natchez. They spent most of the night in conversation, consulting as to the plan of their fu* ture operations, and next morning separated. After a hard day's ride we reached San Augustine, and the Doctor resolved that if he could get a congregation he would commence his work in Texas. The school house was procured, lighted, the notice circulated, the school bell rung, and as soon as he obtained some refreshment he found a good congregation assembled, to whom he preached a plain, practical sermon.

Proceeding the next day (Saturday) to within eight miles of Nacogdoches, he determined to spend the Sabbath and preach in that place. His traveling companion was requested to precede him early on Sabbath morning, and having procured the court house, at the hour of service a large congregation, including the principal citizens, was assembled. Dr. Euter requested that some one would lead in the singing, when Hon. Adolphus Sterne raised the tune ; the whole congregation united with him, and a stranger would have supposed he was in the midst of an old Methodist society. A sermon of great interest followed.

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When about dismissing the congregation several persons simultaneously arose and requested that he should preach a second sermon, to which he consented, and in the evening addressed a crowded house. . . .

Nothing else of interest occurred until we arrived at Mitchell's [James Mitchell] west of the Trinity. In a conversation with the writer Mrs. Mitchell casually observed: "I have lived in Texas several years, and have not heard a gospel sermon during that time. ' ' Dr. Ruter, who was sitting by the fire reading his Bible, asked: "Did I understand you to say that you had not heard a sermon in many years?" Being answered in the affirmative, he said: "My good madam, if you will hasten your supper, clear off the table and call all the family, you shall not say that when you retire to-night." She complied with the suggestion, and Dr. Ruter held service with the same formality as if in a church ; reading the lessons, singing, praying, and preaching a most elaborate and instructive discourse, his congregation consisting of Mr. and Mrs. Mitchell, the children, one stranger and the writer. He was remarkably tender and fervent during this sermon. In the morning he asked for his bill. "I have no bill against you," said Mr. Mitchell; "but Doctor," he added, "if you are the good man I think you are, the first news that I expect to hear from you will be a report that you have stolen a horse, or run away with another man's wife." Seeing that Dr. Ruter was considerably startled by this remark, he continued: "You may expect all sorts of evil reports; you need not look for anything else. ' ' The Doctor was not fully aware of the suspicion engendered in the minds of the citizens of Texas by the many impostors and doubtful characters who were coming into the country. Mr. Mitchell told him to make his house his home whenever he came that way. He and his wife afterwards joined the Methodist church, and ever since Dr. Ruter preached there his house has been a home for the itinerant preacher, frequently a preaching place.

We suspend this narrative here to say that Texas had had perhaps more than its share of impostors, or wouldbe ministers whose character did not comport with their pretensions. Fowler records in Ms journal that he had encountered a prejudice on this account more than once.

In May, 1837, a "Committee of Vigilance " was organized by a few ministers who happened to meet in Houston. This committee included the names of Dr. Smith, then a Protestant Methodist ; Eevs. Mathews, Methodist Episcopal, and Morrel, Baptist. The object was to protect the public from ministerial impostors, by giving publicity to all such, and requiring that proper credentials should be produced before recognition should be extended. But the ministry was given a better standing in Texas more by the character of a few men who were now coming to the Republic, like Euter, Alexander and Fowler, with a few strong and faithful men of other denominations who soon began to labor here, than by the operations of any " Vigilance Committee/' though this agency perhaps served some good use.

To resume the course of Dr. Euter, the superintendent proceeded from Mitchell's to Washington, where he remained over Sunday and preached, and journeyed thence to Center Hill, then the home of Mr. Ayers. He visited J. W. Kenney, and accompanied by Kenney he went to San Felipe, and then rode thirty-five miles through rain and mud to a settlement on the Colorado, where he and Kenney preached and a class of nine members was organized. The Doctor then set out for Houston, reaching that city about the middle of December, where he met Mr. Fowler before the latter had departed for San Augustine. Dr. Euter reached Houston before Congress adjourned, arid by invitation he preached to both houses of that body and other officials of the government in Congress Hall. He also consulted with many of the leading men of the government about certain educational plans which were maturing in Ms mind.

a Z. N. Morrel, ' ' Fruits and Flowers, ' ' p. 74. The Methodist preacher, Mathews, mentioned was evidently Z. H. Mathews, whom we find named in but one other instance that of having performed the marriage ceremony in the case of the first license issued in Harris county, July, 1837, from History of Harris Co., S-W Hist. Q., XVIII, 4.

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with his limited supply of laborers, he thought would best take care of the work in Texas temporarily, and this plan he communicated to the Mission Board in a letter dated Houston, December 18, 1837. 7 In this he set forth his plan for the immediate formation of three circuits, v as follows: Houston circuit, to embrace Houston, Velasco, Columbia, Matagorda, Brazoria, Egypt, Texana, San Felipe and four other appointments not named, with Fowler in charge ; a Washington circuit, including seven or eight appointments which had already been visited by Alexander, with Alexander in charge ; a San Augustine circuit, having six appointments, to be supplied by such local preachers as he could command. In a later communication the superintendent points out that his plans had to be altered somewhat, without giving reasons, but indicating that the substitute arrangement was not as well pleasing to him. Alexander returned from the Mississippi Conference and took up the work on the Washington circuit, to which Dr. Euter had appointed him; and with the aid of local preachers he reached out and embraced a wide territory in his labors. Fowler remained at San Augustine, and spent the winter in that territory. The territory of the proposed Houston circuit went unsupplied, except as the Doctor himself, or an occasional local preacher, touched it. Dr. Euter had laid out for himself the greatest task of all, and that was during the winter to visit every settled portion of Texas, to see and study conditions at first hand, and to return late in the spring to the North and attend the meeting of the Mission Board and Bishops and lay the whole matter before them and ask for a large force of helpers. For a man of his antecendents, the energy and enthusiasm displayed by Dr. Euter in prosecuting this selfimposed task of endless horseback travel over the raw wilderness of Texas, through the rains and mud of midwinter, will ever remain a source of wonder to the readers of his journal. David Ayers says that he often went with the Doctor on some of his journeys, and that while he considered himself a hard rider, he found it no easy task to maintain the pace set by his companion. Thrall records that Dr. Euter rode a large hlack horse, always "in a sweeping trot," and that on one occasion when advised by a traveling companion to turn in and await better weather the Doctor insisted on continuing his journey with the remark that "the Master's business requireth haste. ' '

From Houston Dr. Ruter returned to the interior. He held a quarterly meeting at Center Hill in January, 1838, at which Mr. Alexander was present and the work of the Washington circuit was formally begun. This quarterly meeting was held in the woods, near Caney Greek, the members sitting on logs. Here Dr. Win. P. Smith transferred his membership to the Methodist Episcopal Church, with the same ministerial standing, and Dr. A. P. Manly and D. N. V. Sullivan presented their credentials as local preachers, both of whom later entered the traveling ministry. Dr. Ruter then visited Washington, Independence, Gay Hill and other places in that region, and then struck out for the frontier settlements to the west. He preached and organized a church at Bastrop, consisting of fifteen members, and traveled and preached among the upper settlements on the Colorado. He then returned to the lower country and made preparations for setting off on a tour of eastern Texas, after which he expected to proceed to the United States. But in the spring death overtook the great missionary and laid him low. Before taking up the account of Dr. Ruter 's last sickness and death we will lay before the reader many interesting extracts from his letters and reports showing the wonderful amount of travel and labor he was able to crowd into the few months he lived in Texas. These will be given in more or less continuous

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On Saturday the 9th we arrived at this place which, on account of its fruitfulness, is called Egypt, and in the evening preached, as we did also on the Sabbath, morning and evening, and formed a society of ten members. In the afternoon I gathered a small assembly of colored persons, and preached to them. The colored people in this country are not numerous. From this place I expect to proceed to Bastrop, on the Colorado, and to some settlements thirty or forty miles above that place; and if I can find an armed company in readiness to proceed to Bexar, on the San Antonio river, I intend going with them to that city. My object will be to know, by personal observation, the state of the inhabitants, and in what settlements they will readily receive preaching. Those who go at this time into that part of Texas generally go in companies of five, six or more, armed with pistols or rifles on account of the Indians ; but whether in company or alone, I shall carry no weapons made with hands. . . . Wherever any of us have been, we have met with a kind reception, and there seems to be general willingness that the gospel shall spread in the land. The immoralities of some that have come here, professing to be ministers of Christ, have created prejudices, and caused some of the people to act cautiously toward preachers of the gospel. But it is a remarkable fact that imposters in this community are very soon known, and persona of good standing in their own country are very soon duly estimated. . . . The accommodations, of course, are often poor. Many of the houses are cabins, without glass windows, and with but little furniture. The chief food is corn-bread, sweet potatoes and meat. Butter, cheese and milk are scarce. Though I find it necessary to dispense with most of the luxuries and comforts of life, yet how glorious the privilege of doing good among the destitute. ... I have just returned from a neighborhood lying fifteen or twenty miles from this place, one part of which is called Independence. The inhabitants are generally in good circumstances and some are wealthy. I found them ready to hear preaching, and some urged me to think of that place for the residence of my family, as they seem to take it for granted that I shall remove to Texas. . . . This neighborhood and Bastrop on the Colorado are two places which I have thought might be kept in view, if we all come to Texas. Washington, where I am now, will soon be a place of some importance in business, but being shut in by forests is not so desirable a spot. The country generally on the Colorado is said to be very fine. Beyond it is the San Antonio country, said to be the most brilliant part of Texas, but it has but few settlements, though the city of Bexar is in the midst of it. I expect next week to visit Bastrop and proceed above it forty miles up the Colorado, which I am told is as far as I can go safely, on account of the Indians ; but so far as they have expressed a desire for preaching I shall form a circuit to include them. The emigrants are generally aiming at the Colorado, and will soon form upon its banks a dense population. I have been down near the mouth of it, but the country there is not so healthful as farther north. . . . My labors in Texas will be directed to forming societies and circuits, establishing schools, and making arrangements for a college or university. Some of the people here are very rich, some are very poor, some religious and some profligate. But preachers are needed, and preaching beyond measure. I feel certain our mission will have entire success. We have now twelve societies. . . . Texas is a country where darkness, ignorance and superstition have long held their dominion. Profaneness, gaming and intemperance are prevailing vices against which we have to contend. The scattered state of the population renders it necessary to travel far between the appointments, and the want of convenient places for public worship serves to increase the obstacles in the way; yet amidst difficulties, dangers and sufferings we rejoice in being able to say that the great Redeemer's kingdom is rising in this distant and destitute land. I have just returned from Bastrop, one of the upper settlements of the Colorado river, where the inhabitants informed me that they had had but three sermons preached among them during the last three years. In coming to this place we passed through a part of the country not inhabited, but occasionally infested by Indian robbers who come on horseback from the north (travelling either by night or in the forests), for the purpose of stealing horses, and murdering and plundering the travellers whom they may find unarmed. I went in company with three friends armed with rifles. ... It has appeared to me that we ought, as soon as practicable, to establish in this Republic a well endowed university and several subordinate schools of different gradations. In two or three places subscriptions have been taken sufficient for buildings, and to provide permanent funds we propose obtaining donations in land. Many of the citizens are extensive land holders, and would, while lands are cheap, make large subscriptions. But as lands are rising in value, a fund thus invested would in a short time be sufficient for the above purposes. We propose to pursue a similar course in obtaining grounds for churches and parsonages. I have been hitherto prevented from visiting Bexar and its vicinity, as I had intended ; but it seems, in some instances, more needful to supply and occupy places which we have explored, than to explore others which we cannot occupy. . . . Under many disadvantages the glorious work of God is advancing, and thousands are not only willing but eager to hear the word of salvation. We have already formed twenty societies in Texas, have obtained a number of lots for churches and school, secured by deeds, and several meeting houses are commenced, with a prospect of being soon completed. I trust by the grace of God to lay the foundation for a glorious superstructure, and that the Church of Christ will be here established in its purity, power and glory. I have now travelled fifteen hundred miles in this distant and destitute land, over its prairies and forests and streams of water.

The impetus which Dr. Enter gave to the establishment of an educational institntion in Texas will be considered in another connection ; also a more exact report as to the condition of the Church at the time of his death. "We turn now to the sad records which lead to the close of his career. The last entries in his journal record the onset and progress of his fatal illness:

April 1, 1838, Sunday. Preached in the morning and evening to the white people; in the afternoon to the blacks. This was a day of comfort. Monday, 2. Eode to Brother Kesee's. Tuesday, 3. To Mr. Cochran's. This day makes me fifty three years of age, and I this day set out to devote myself more than ever to God; first, by more prayer; second, by more attention to the Scriptures; third, by general reading and meditation. Wednesday, 4. Bode to Mr. Ayers'. Thursday, 5. Rode to Mr. Cochran's and attended a marriage. Friday, 6. Rode to Mr. Bracey's. Saturday, 7. Being afflicted with fever, rode to Mr. Ayers and then to Brother Kenney's. Sunday, 8. Too ill to preach, and Brother Kenney went to my appointment and preached in my stead. Sunday evening. Find myself better, and my mind stayed on God, to whose service I hope to be devoted forever. Monday, 9. Eode to Mr. Ayers' ; still unwell and under temptation. Tuesday evening to Mr. Rabb's. "Wednesday, 11. To Mr. Kesee's. Feel somewhat improved in health. Thursday, to Mr. Hall's, trying to recruit my strength. Feel myself relieved in trusting in God, my only helper. Saturday, 14. Rode to Washington, and found at the post office letters from home, which gave me comfort. Consulted a physician concerning my health. Sunday, Rode to James Hall's, and preached to an attentive audience ; received one awakened sinner on trial ; then rode to Brother Kesee's. Monday. Amidst afflictions rode to Mr. Ayers'. Wednesday, 18. Rode to Brother Kesee's. Thursday, 19. Set off in company with Brother Chapel for the Red River, on my way home. Found at night my illness increas-. ing. Found Brother Chapel urgent to travel. Friday, 20. We reached a Mr. Rivers' where we stayed through the night. Saturday, 21. So ill I thought it prudent to take an emetic, and advised Brother Chapel (as he was uneasy) to go on alone. He delayed till 2 o'clock, and finding me no better, went on. Now here I am with a threatening fever, among strangers. But my trust is in the Most High; his mercies are abundant, and live or die, let me do and suffer his blessed will. I commit to him myself and dear family, wife and children, now and forever. Amen. Sunday, 22. Found myself somewhat relieved, but perceived that my disease was settling upon my lungs, and thought there was danger of serious injury. Being entirely without medical aid or advice, and too ill to venture on my journey, it seems judicious to return, if able, to Washington. Rode with more ease than I expected to Mr. Kennard's, twenty miles. After resting there I proceeded to Mr. Fanthorpe's, eight miles; then to Washington, arriving there on Monday, being seventeen miles.

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Here Dr. Ruter 's journal closes. He wrote letters to his family, explaining his inability to proceed home, but expressing hope of ultimate recovery ; also letters to Dr. Bangs, of the Missionary Society in New York, apprising him of his sickness, and giving a complete report of the work which had been accomplished. At Washington he was among his friends, including two physicans, Drs. W. P. Smith and A. P. Manly, and his faithful co-laborer, Robert Alexander. Alexander, not anticipating the end, was away to fill an appointment, when at 2 A.M., on May 16, 1838, Dr. Euter died. At 5 P.M. on the same day his remains were buried at Washington, after a funeral service conducted by Dr. Manly.

The news of Dr. Ruter 's death, as it spread over those portions of Texas which he had so recently visited, carried gloom to every heart that had known him ; and the intelligence, as in course of time it came to be published in the Church press of the United States, together with many of the Doctor's letters and reports, awakened a new interest in the field which had claimed his life. For many years there had been but few men better known throughout the Church at large, or who had rendered more distinguished service, than Dr. Ruter, and the fevers of Texas struck down no ordinary man when he fell. The career which ended at Washington on the Brazos in May, 1838, began at Charlton, Mass., where Martin Ruter was born April 3, 1785. The family removed to Bradford, Vt., and here in 1799 Martin was converted and joined the Methodist Church, which his parents had recently joined. The father was an honest, hard-working blacksmith, and unable to contribute much toward the education of his children. But Martin records that he had a taste for learning and a thirst for knowledge from his earliest recollections, and that he diligently improved every opportunity for study, both at home and in the neighborhood schools. His parents having removed to a neighboring town, Martin returned to Bradford to attend .school, where he boarded with and came under the strong and sympathetic impress of Mrs. Margaret Peckett. This lady, formerly Margaret Appleton, had come from England, where for three years she had served as housekeeper for John Wesley. She was staunch in the Wesleyan faith and she had imbibed much of the Wesleyan spirit. "Her home was not only a preaching place for the early itinerant, but was also a small seminary where Martin Euter, Laban Clark and four other young men received from her the Wesleyan impress and enthusiasm, arousing in them a desire and capacity for general reading and private study which was the secret of their success in subsequent life as pioneer Methodist preachers. " No one can read Dr. Euter 's journal, or go over his systematic and accurate reports, without noting the Wesleyan type.