Early, Texas - History (part 4 of 11)

From the Addison memorials we learn that the first Methodist church in the Eobertson colony section was organized by Robert Alexander at the house of J. W. Porter, on the San Antonio Prairie, a year or two before the arrival of Mr. Sneed the exact date not given. This church was composed of the following members : H. B. King, Susan King, John E. King, Rachel King, Peter Jackson, Susan Jackson, Elizabeth Scott, Jas. W. Scott, Patsy Scott, Philip B. Scott, Robert Scott, Isaac S. Addison, Sarah Addison, Joseph J. Addison. From the families which constituted this organization which was housed after a few years in Elizabeth Chapel, named after Mrs. Elizabeth Scott there went forth the following Methodist preachers in Texas : James "W. Scott, Oscar M. Addison, James H. Addison, John W. Addison,

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John E. King, Kufus Y. King, Willis J. King, Milton H. Porter, John Porter, and from the Scott's of the second generation, J. Fred Cox. It is not discoverable thus far that any community of Methodists in Texas has contributed so many of her sons to the itinerancy as did this one.

There came to be planted at an early day in this settlement one of the famous camp-grounds of the country, the old Waugh Camp-ground, located upon ten acres of ground donated by Isaac S. Addison. Nearly all the early preachers of the Church ministered here at different times, and many of the later preachers were converted here, besides hundreds of others. B. H. Carroll, one of the great Baptist preachers of Texas, was converted here "at two o'clock in the morning," having tarried, as was not uncommon in that day, until that hour, attended by the Methodist preachers in charge and a few saintly women.

This, then, was one of the points on the Nashville mission in 1840. The other appointments, which we decipher from a faded "plan" of the work, made out by Sneed himself that year, were: Nashville, Tenoxtitlan, Mount Prairie, Mrs. Smith's, Irish Settlements, Wheelock's, Franklin, Timmons on Navisot, Falls of Brazos, Stroud's, and Yellow Prairie. An extract from Sneed 's journal relates to his visit to the Falls of the Brazos :

Mondy, March 4, 1840. Eode with Mr. Porter from Franklin toward the falls of the Brazos, ten miles west of Mr. Stroud's, thence northwest up the river, passing one house and overtaking Mr. Porter's wagon near the Little Brazos, we encamped in the bottom. We kept guard all night to prevent being surprised by the Indians. The wolves howled around us, but I slept very soundly, waking but seldom. The Lord preserved us, and the next day we reached Port Milam, five miles from the falls of the Brazos, where I preached at night from Matt. 4-17. The garrison was commanded by Captain Holliday, one of Fannin's

There was a considerable settlement about the Falls of the Brazos, under the protection of the garrison at Fort Milam, but we have no record of any organization as yet attempted so far on the frontier.

Before turning from the Rutersville district we will add a report from the presiding elder, Robert Alexander, written to the Missionary Secretary in New York from Galveston on March 16, 1840 :

I have performed my first round on Rutersville district, and embrace the present opportunity of making a brief statement of our prospects and necessities in this very interesting field of ministerial labor. In this district we have seven circuits and one station as arranged by the bishop and his council, and circumstances seem to require the addition of another. These appointments are scattered over an extensive territory, including more than half of the settled portion of the republic, and the work is very laborious.

The preachers in their respective circuits are truly in the spirit of their work, and do not seem to regard the difficulties and privation with which they have to contend, but rather esteem it a privilege to range these wilds in search of the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and regard the swimming of creeks and rivers and sleeping alone in the prairies, surrounded by howling wolves and beasts of prey, as very trivial circumstances, while the people appear hungry for the bread of life. Frequently they publish the gospel to some who have grown up in this country to men and women who never before heard the gospel, and to others who once belonged to the church and enjoyed religious privileges but have long been deprived of the privileges they once enjoyed. These are grateful to God that they again have these privileges.

Our quarterly meetings have been well attended, except when the weather was so rainy or disagreeable that the people could not attend with any comfort. We have had some truly interesting meetings, and some have found the pearl of great price, and many others appear truly penitent. More than 100 members have been added to the church in this district by letter or on probation. Our prospects indeed are truly encouraging, though it is deeply to be regretted that some very important points are yet destitute. Victoria is not supplied, though I have made every effort in my power to get a supply, but have failed. We have a number of members scattered in that portion of country, but are as sheep having no shepherd, and every time I hear from them their request for help becomes louder and more importunate. They say, Send us a minister; we will do all we can to make him comfortable and to give him a support, but we have none to give. "Lord of the harvest, hear thy needy children's cry."

Brother 0. Fisher, of the Illinois Conference, came to this country last winter for his health, and he has labored efficiently on this circuit the past quarter; but he is compelled to return home, and Brazoria circuit is now destitute. This is an important point. The people are able to support their own preacher, and pledge themselves to do it, but we have none for them. Brother Fisher reports that the prospects on this circuit are encouraging. Shall it remain destitute?

Galveston has no Methodist preacher to take charge of the scattered members of our church in that city. The stationed preacher from Houston and myself held meetings here two days and preached to attentive hearers. We organized a church and a quarterly conference. When we collect all the scattered flock together we will have at least 30 members. Some have been faithful and zealous, and have held prayer and class-meetings, while others have grown cold in religion. On Sabbath the attendance was numerous, and never have I preached to more attentive hearers. Many wept and appeared to feel deeply, particularly at the communion table. It is cause of much regret that Galveston has not been supplied, as there is a population of about five thousand, and it is growing rapidly in every respect. The claims of the people are strong. They are willing to build us a church and to do all in their power to promote the best of all causes. Brother Summers, of the Baltimore Conference, has been looked for to take charge of this station, but we hear nothing from him. [Footnote : He will soon be on the way. N. Bangs.] I leave this place today for the interior to visit my

Turning now to look over the East Texas district, we have a territory almost as large as that embraced in the western district, but having fewer appointments within its bounds. Crockett appears for the first time as a center of operations, this section filling an intermediate place between the east and the west. The newly created Harrison circuit indicates the extension of the work northward, toward the Red River country in northeastern Texas ; and these two sections of Methodism are destined 'soon to unite and become one. One might suppose that along the East Texas line, far from the ground of the roving Comanches on the one hand, and the ever threatening Mexicans on the other, that peace and order might be found, where the institutions of civilization could grow up undisturbed. But conditions quite the contrary prevailed. The Cherokee Indians, occupying a section of ground in eastern Texas, and regarded as a "civilized tribe," became troublesome in 1839, which brought on the Cherokee War. But the Indians were not the only disturbers of the peace and safety of the inhabitants. The fact is, that certain sections of eastern Texas, particularly along the border, were the most lawless of any in the country. The climax of civil strife was reached in the "war" of the "Regulators and Moderators" in 1842- 44. Dr. John H. McLean, whose grandfather emigrated to Texas in 1839, bringing his own widowed mother and her children with him, and settled in Harrison County, about eight miles east of Marshall, says in his "Reminiscences" that conditions in that day were unsettled and chaotic. "Law existed scarcely in name still less in fact while organized bands of thieves depredated upon the property rights of the early settlers, stealing horses, negroes, and other species of property. Should a thief be arrested and committed to the log jail, the clan would liberate him by night and he would resume his depredations." Continuing, the narrator refers to measures adopted to restrain such gangs. The Capt. Eose referred to was Dr. McLean's grandfather.

Under this state of things Capt. Eose was chosen by the citizens to head an organization to rid the country of these lawless clans and characters. The inadequate protection of the law made it necessary for the citizens to organize in their own defense. This was not a mob, visiting summary punishment upon whom it might please, but a well organized company of reputable and responsible citizens, who, in case of an arrest for theft or other offense, gave the accused an impartial hearing, or trial, before a competent committee. If found guilty, he would receive the canonical number of stripes "forty save one" humanely administered with a hickory switch and the criminal would then be admonished to leave the country within ten days. If caught again and found guilty of like offense then might summary punishment be inflicted, but none were ever hanged the flogging sufficed, and the criminal sought a more congenial clime. This organization has been improperly known as the "Regulators" whereas the Regulators properly belonged to an organization in Shelby county. The best citizens were members of the Rose organization. The writer recalls Rev. James Gill, a local Methodist preacher, as a member, who was a most exemplary man and citizen, who died not many years since at Tyler.

The lawless spirit of the times often invaded the sacred precincts of religious meetings, and sometimes manifested itself in acts of the most shocking sacrilege. Dr. McLean relates the incident of a district judge who, in a drunken spree, administered the sacrament of the Lord's Supper in a saloon to several lawyers, using whisky and crackers for the elements. "We have seen the quelling effect of a hickory stick in one of Robert Alexander's meetings in the west. Here in Harrison County on at least one occasion severer measures were resorted to in one of Littleton Fowler's meetings. While Fowler was conducting a camp-meeting near Marshall a drunken desperado invaded a private tent while the occupants were attending service at the arbor near by, and began shooting up the tent and dishes on the table, one shot passing through the clothing of a servant girl with a babe in her arms, the intruder swearing all the while that he would kill the owners of the tent. The proprietor of the tent and others, hearing the disturbance, hastened to the scene, pistols in hand, and opened fire on the intruder, who ran to the arbor and fell wounded at the feet of Mr. Fowler, who at the time was calling penitents to the altar. The wounded man died next day.

The same tragic incident, with other interesting facts, is related by Dr. Job M. Baker, a local preacher who had settled in the country, and who was employed in 1840 by Fowler to supply the Harrison circuit. The following extract appears in Thrall :

In the year 1839 I moved my family to Harrison County. There was not a preacher of any kind in the county besides myself. I settled in the neighborhood of Mr. Page and his son-in* law, Mr. Josephus Moore, men of uneviable reputation. Mr. Page was an industrious, energetic man. He was hung by a company of "Regulators" from Red River County for an alleged murder. His family said the Indians committed the murder. I afterwards took the widow Page into the church, and baptized her by immersion. Her son John also became a useful church member. There was a good deal of horse and cattle stealing between the whites and Indians. The Indians stole from the whites and the whites stole from the Indians, as they said, by way of reprisals. It is hard to tell which party came out winner in this game, though I believe the whites a little more than held their own.

In the year 1839 the Cherokee war broke out. We moved into Fort Crawford, and for months had no flour, meat or coffee. We lived on corn pounded in a mortar. During this period I preached one sermon to a few hearers in Fort Crawford. At this time the war between the "Regulators" and "Moderators" was growing very bitter, and it was difficult to conduct religious services, though I occasionally had appointments to preach.

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Dissatisfied with the sparce population and bad society, 1 moved down near the Louisiana line. . . . The first camp-meeting held in Harrison County was in the neighborhood of Mr. William Scott's, about five miles from Marshall. This meeting had a very beneficial influence. The next was held in the neighborhood of Jacob Booker's, a local preacher from East Tennessee. He lived near the Sabine river. One of his sons died in the itineracy. . . . While Mr. Fowler was presiding elder a second camp-meeting was held near William Scott's. It was progressing finely until a desperado came on the ground and created a disturbance on Sunday night. Mr. Scott remonstrated with him and reproved him. This only made him worse, and he swore he would kill Mr. Scott. He went to Marshall, got drunk, armed himself, and came back to execute his threat. While hunting for his intended victim he was himself shot and mortally wounded. This broke up the meeting. The preachers exhorted the wounded man to repent and prepare for death. At first the dying man was defiant, but before his death he became penitent and asked the preachers to pray for him.

Baker and two or three others who appear in this field this year merit more than a passing word of introduction. For a third of a century Baker's name appears, more or less irregularly, in the appointments of different conferences in Texas. But when we turn for information to the minutes of the conference in which he labored longest, and in which he died, we are disappointed. Here, for example, is the memoir of the man in question, appearing in the minutes of the East Texas Conference for 1878 :

Job M. Baker died Feb. 5, 1878, at the home of his son, William, near Jefferson, Texas, aged 84 years and 20 days, having spent 60 years of his life in the ministry. Dr. Baker was of a high order of mind, well cultivated, and possessed of a large store of knowledge.

known him was asked at the eleventh hour to prepare a sketch of the deceased, and in the hurry of the occasion, and with only one or two facts in mind, the memorial writer drew forth an old envelope and upon the back of it composed the above gem to go into our historical records. And thus scores of our best men in the ministry have been allowed to drop into obscurity and go to their death with no adequate memorial left on record; and many of 'the founders of Methodism in Texas sleep in unmarked and some of them in unknown graves. Our present-day records, while usually showing more complete memorial notices of deceased preachers, nevertheless contain many examples of "how not to do it." 8

Concerning Dr. Baker, fortunately an old friend, Daniel Morse, had gathered from him the facts of his life, and these are contained in a long obituary appearing in the Texas Christian Advocate soon after Baker's death. From this we obtain the following items : Baker was born in Maryland in 1794. The family moved to Knox County, Tennessee, in 1798. His parents were Presbyterians. After ten years' residence in Tennessee the family moved to Ohio. While living in Ohio young Baker served as a volunteer under Gen. Harrison in his Indian wars. He united with the Methedist Church in 1812, but was not converted until two years later. He was licensed to exhort in 1815, and the same year was licensed to preach. In 1818 he was admitted into the Ohio Conference. On one of his circuits Marietta he was a colleague of Thomas A. Morris, afterwards Bishop. He was ordained deacon by Bishop Roberts, and ordained elder by Bishop McKendree. In 1824, on account of failing health, Baker located, and took up the study of for more than 25 years he was faithful to every trust. Nothing is known of his early life or parentage," etc., etc., and then follows a half page of general characteristics and words of praise; but a future historian would scan such an article in vain for facts.

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medicine. He graduated at the Medical College of Ohio in 1830. He practiced medicine in Indiana, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas. He re-entered the itinerancy in connection with the Missouri Conference, transferring later to the Mississippi Conference, and in 1851 he was formally transferred to the East Texas Conference, although he had lived in this territory for many years previously. We find Baker's name figuring prominently in the "History of Methodism in Mississippi" in the early thirties. A well-known church over in that state, which he assisted in erecting, was called after him, "Baker's Chapel."

Of Francis Wilson, who appears in this region in 1840, but little is known, for though he was a picturesque character in East Texas for several years, he became in later life somewhat embittered toward his Church, and declined to furnish information about his life when requested to do so. He came from Ohio, where he had been preaching for twenty years. Wilson was in charge of the camp-meeting at Jasper in October, 1841, which has been mentioned as being the last one attended by Henry Stephenson. At this meeting, we are told by E. L. Armstrong, in certain reminiscent sketches, a company of rowdies gathered in a grove near by for the purpose of holding a mock service, with the view of breaking up the meeting. Francis Wilson, a towering figure, appeared among them and proposed to lead their service. The gang dispersed without further trouble. Wilson in later life removed into Louisiana, and died there in 1867.

Moses Speer, another name appearing in East Texas in 1839-40, had already reached his three score and ten years when he came to Texas, and he is soon to find his grave here. He began preaching in Kentucky, but about 1804 appears on the Cumberland circuit about Nashville, Tenn. Soon thereafter he located and settled near Nashville, where he reared a useful family. Two sons entered the ministry in Tennessee. In 1838 we find Speer preach- ing on Red River, in connection with the Arkansas Conference. In 1839 he entered Texas, and was assigned by Fowler to the country in southeast Texas. As a result of his labors a flourishing church was organized at Jasper. At the close of that year he was assigned to the Montgomery circuit. In the summer of 1840 he died in the Robinson settlement, and was buried there.

Chapter Okganization Of The Texas Conference

IT was a welcome change for the preachers in Texas in the conference season of 1840 to be spared the long and toilsome journey into another state in order to attend conference. The General Conference, which met at Baltimore in May, 1840, set off the Texas Conference, "to include the Republic of Texas except that portion now embraced in the Arkansas Conference." The Bishops designated Bishop Beverly Waugh to visit the Republic and to assemble and organize the first conference.

Bishop Waugh resided in Baltimore, and was at this time in his fifty-first year, and the fourth year in the episcopacy. He was a great traveler and writer, a wise administrator and was described as a sound preacher. The announcement of his coming to Texas stirred not only the little band of preachers, but Methodists far and near as well as others made preparations to attend the conference. Bishop Waugh arrived in Galveston early in December, and accompanied by Thomas O. Summers, he immediately set out for the interior. They visited Rutersville, where the conference was to assemble, and where the embryo college was located, and went on to Bastrop and Austin. The Bishop and Dr. Summers preached in the capital on Sunday, December 20th, looked over the city and visited Congress on Monday, and then set out for Rutersville again, visiting and holding services in Bastrop on their return. They reached Rutersville on Thursday, December 24th, and on Christ-

This was the first time a Conference of Methodist preachers ever assembled in Texas. Our number was, indeed, small, consisting of nine members. There were six probationers, five only of whom were continued. We organized in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, nothing daunted at the fewness of our number, remembering, as we could but do, the first conference of our venerable founder about one hundred years ago, when the immortal Wesley and nine others convened to converse of the deep things of God ; and also the first annual conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church which convened on Christmas Day, fifty-six years ago, at which time the Church received her present organization. With these recollections, and especially in reliance on the faithfulness of our Lord Jesus Christ to fulfill his promise to be with his ministers "always, even unto the end of the world," we set up our Ebenezer on the soil of the republic of Texas. Small and feeble as was this beginning, when, after the lapse of half a century, some pious minister or Christian shall trace the operations of Methodism from her commencement, how will his enraptured soul exclaim, "Behold, what hath God wrought ! ' ' Our conference continued in session four days, with much love and harmony. During the session there were several sinners converted to God, and many of our members who were in attendance from far and near seemed to say by their excited looks, "Lord, it is good for us to be here." We received on trial four preachers, and readmitted one into the travelling connection. The number of members reported from the several circuits was eighteen hundred and fifty-three, and twenty-five local preachers.

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London, 2 the Texas Conference was organized a fact which the little band at Eutersville could but reflect upon, with rejoicing over the past and abundant hope for the future. And the rapidity with which the work had advanced in Texas it is worth while to recall a Texas mission circuit first officially appearing in the records in 1837 ; a Texas district in 1838 ; two districts in 1839, and an Annual Conference in 1840. Whether a parallel in development from a circuit to an Annual Conference in four years can be found in our history is doubtful.

"Our Conference continued in session four days" almost as long as the largest of our Annual Conferences, with two or three hundred preachers, holds to-day. But, then, neither the bishop nor the preachers, and least of all the people in attendance, were in a hurry to get through and be gone. There wasn't much business to transact, and the work of appointing the preachers was a small task. But there were four days Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday filled up with something. The bishop says that " there were many sinners converted," and that the people, "from their excited looks, seemed to say 'It is good to be here.' " It is easily assumed that this meeting looked very much like a great four days' revival meeting, leisurely carried on, in which preaching, singing and other camp-meeting exercises were prominent, interspersed with intervals of conference business. The records of the first few years of the Texas Conference were lost, and so an exact account of the routine followed cannot be given. From various other sources we learn that the business transacted consisted of the following items, though not necessarily in the order here shown :

2 "The first society of converts was brought together in 1739 and attached to a Moravian congregation in Fetter Lane, London. Wesley soon found it necessary to dissent from some doctrines taught by the Moravians, and in the following year he transferred his society to an old and disused government building known as the Foundry, and here in July, 1740, 'The Methodist Society in London' was formed." From art. "Methodists" in the author 'a Handbook of All Denominations.

2. The reports of the preachers, which summed up showed 1878 members within the bounds of the Conference 1623 white, 230 colored and 25 local preachers.

The result of these ministerial transactions gave, with those already in the active service, eighteen conference members and probationers to receive appointments at this session. There were no transfers to Texas shown at this conference. Abel Stevens was transferred out of the conference, he having returned to the North six months before.

7. The meeting of the "Texas Missionary Society, " which, as was shown in a previous chapter, was organized in 1835 at the Kenney camp-ground. This missionary society became the forerunner of the Conference Mission Boards, and this meeting at conference was the first of what later became the "anniversary" meetings of our Conference Mission Boards. This missionary society meeting at the Rutersville session was one of the great occasions of the conference. To quote again from Bishop Waugh :

It was my intention to present to your readers a sketch of the missionary meeting which was held on the last evening of the Texas Conference. ... I will only say that most happy should I be to witness in any portion of the United States a missionary meeting as fully imbued with missionary feeling, and as prompt to missionary action as I beheld at Rutersville, in Texas. The whole scene was a beautiful combination of Christian simplicity and moral grandeur. Never shall I forget the overflow of generous feeling which occured in connection with the following incident in the progress of the meeting. A brother who had been quietly and silently, though with deep emotion, observing everything that transpired, modestly arose, and with diffidence, addressed himself to the president of the meeting in the following words: "Silver and gold have I none, yet the Lord has greatly blessed me, and I want to do something for his cause. Such as I have I give unto you. I will give a quarter of a league of land, on the Brazos river, to the Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church." Here the suppressed feeling of the audience broke out into an audible applauding, which was as genuine as it was spontaneous. Every man, woman and child seemed to have forgotten everything else for the evening, and concentrated their thoughts, their feelings and their doings on the cause of Christian missions.

8. An address was prepared, by the authority of the conference, and transmitted to the government of the Eepublic at Austin. The address and the correspondence attending its presentation follows:

Sir: The Texas annual conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church during its first and late session, influenced by Christian and patriotic feelings, unanimously adopted the accompanying address to your excellency and the honorable congress, which, in compliance with a resolution of the conference, the undersigned have the honor to present. With distinguished respect, sir, we are, yours,

John Haynie

Gentlemen : It affords me unusual pleasure to transmit to the honorable congress the accompanying "Address from the annual conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church," which was presented to me on last evening.

This manifestation of patriotic zeal has emanated from the first session of the annual conference of that pious and distin* guished society, holden in our young republic. To those who believe that "righeousness exalteth a nation," and that "sin is a reproach to any people," the first meeting of such an assembly will be regarded as an auspicious omen, promising a more extended diffusion of the principles of the Bible, which are always coincident with the spread of religious and civil liberty.

David G. Burnet

To His EXCELLENCY, DAVID G. BURNET, President of the Republic of Texas, and to the honorable, the Senate and the House of Representatives of Texas, in Congress assembled :

Gentlemen: I take pleasure in complying with the request of the Texas annual conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, on the occasion of its recent organization, to present to your excellency and to your honorable bodies, the respect and affection which its members cherish toward you, as the constituted guardians of the independence, rights and privileges of this growing republic. The objects of this organization are religion, morality and literature. Believing that the peace, prosperity and perpetuity of this infant republic will be secured in proportion to the prevalence of sound learning, sound morality and sound religion, it will be the aim of the conference to promote these with energy and perseverence. While thus engaged, it confidently relies upon the ability and disposition of the government to extend to it the protection and privileges which are common to all Christian denominations, under the provisions of the constitution. It seeks no peculiar immunities, nor does it desire any special legislation in its behalf. The conference, however, in availing itself of the occasion to present this testimony of its patriotism, cannot refrain from the expression of its deep conviction of the importance of religion and morality, in every department of the government, and among all ranks of its fellow citizens. Without the protection and blessing of Him who setteth up or putteth down nations at His pleasure, what people can prosper or continue? Righteousness only can exalt a nation to true dignity, and secure to it permanence. Sin is a reproach to any people.

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time to time shall be elected to make and to execute the laws of the country, will give forth the conservative influence of good examples to the community before whom they occupy a ground so conspicuous. It is and shall continue to be the prayer of this body of Christian ministers, that the blessing of Jehovah may always rest on Texas for her glory and defense, and that her independence, peace and prosperity may continue while the sun and moon shall endure.

Signed by order, and in behalf of the Texas annual conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, at its first session, held at Rutersville, this twenty-ninth day of December, A. D., 1840.

B. Waugh

9. Another item of business was fixing the place, and the time as was customary in those days for the next Annual Conference. San Augustine was chosen, and the date fixed was December 23, 1841.

San Augustine District Littleton Fowler, P. E. San Augustine, Francis Wilson. Nacogdoches, to be supplied. Harrison, Nathan Shook. Jasper, Henderson D. Palmer.

And so, with the reading of the appointments, the first conference in Texas is brought to a close, and. after lingering farewells the people disperse, and the preachers mount their horses and ride off in various directions. Bishop Waugh remained in Texas two weeks longer, and that his heart was with the young conference which he had launched, and with the small band of preachers whom he had sent out, was abundantly manifested. For the first time since regular missionaries were sent into Texas, the Missionary Society of the Church was unable to contribute anything toward the support of the preachers here. "It was to me a source of great gratification," said Bishop Waugh, "to see the noble spirit of our brethren of the ministry and membership not to burden the embarrassed Missionary Society with the support of Texas missionaries. It was difficult to determine which ought most to be admired, the manly and Christian proposals on the part of the membership to assume the support of the preachers, or the noble confiding of the preachers in the good will of a people having more of the spirit of Christian honesty and kindness than available means for their practical manifestation. I could not draw upon an indebted treasury lest it might become bankrupt, but there was no dismissal nor withdrawal from the field on that account, for the people said : Give us the ministers of Christ, and we will divide with them the means of our subsistence; and the preachers said, Here are we, under such circumstances, send us. These were sent, and my prayers follow them, that they have the best year they have ever lived and labored."

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shall find it meager enough. It is worth while to note now that there was not a parsonage anywhere in Texas, nor the semblance of a woman's missionary society, to look after the comfort of the preacher and his family. The financial condition of the country and of the people was at the lowest ebb. And yet in the face of all, the charter members of the Texas Conference rode forth to disperse themselves over Texas, from Harrison County to Victoria, and from the Gulf to the Falls of the Brazos.

On Monday morning, December 21, 1840, a few days before the opening of the Texas Conference, Bishop Waugh and Thomas 0. Summers, while in Austin, walked up and surveyed the elevation upon which they were told the future capitol was to be erected. The capitol at that time was a small frame building, of inferior construction, picketed in with palisades as a protection against the Indians. The Bishop described the city as containing between eight hundred and twelve hundred inhabitants, occupying houses but little in advance of shanties and cabins. If, after more than eighty years, Bishop Waugh could visit the capital again and walk about that noble eminence upon which stands our present imposing state capitol, he would have reason enough to exclaim, "What hath God wrought." He could view, situated upon the capitol grounds and in the building, the monuments of the heroes of Texas the Alamo defenders, the Texas Bangers, the Confederate soldier, and the volunteer firemen. But he would also probably vision another hero, whose monument has not been erected there or elsewhere, but one whose labors have contributed perhaps more to the growth and stability of our civilization than any other; and if he had his due his monument would stand there among the others in the form of a pioneer preacher on horseback.

Chapter Xi Texas In 1840

WE have had glimpses here and there in the correspondence and journals of the preachers of conditions existing in Texas under which Methodism was planted of difficulties natural and moral, of Indian depredations and Mexican invasions j of floods of waters and scourges of fevers ; of lawmakers and of lawlessness. And much of the contemporary records simply descriptive of the country or reflecting the conditions of the times we have not used ; but it is proper that as we go along we should take some account of contemporary Texas history and of the conditions under which Methodist preachers labored. A movement like the one whose course we are following is not something apart from the general current of human affairsj but Methodism perhaps more than any other Church has always related itself to the life of the people, and its history and the history of the community where it works are always closely interwoven. And while Methodism is leavening the history of the people, it on the other hand is being influenced and colored by the course of human events. Texas Methodism has a character all its own, just as Texas the state and the people has had its peculiar history and has its own character.

The impression that early got abroad in the United States concerning Texas and which persisted more or less among the uninformed for a generation or more was that the population was largely made up of a wild, free and an uncouth people, among whom religion, education and "good society" could not be found. The bowie knife and the six-shooter were looked upon as peculiar Texas institutions, and the only instruments that made for law and order. Eeports of Indian horrors and threatened Mexican invasions, with more prospective Goliads and Alamos, were widely circulated and exaggerated, and the somewhat general belief which prevailed for years was, that Mexico would finally come hack and conquer Texas. These reports, combined with other unfavorable impressions, served to retard the full tide of immigration into the Republic for years until annexation to the United States in fact had removed this danger. It is likewise true, judging from the tenor of some of the appeals from Texas to the Mission Board, that the Church authorities in New York were at first not very enthusiastic about throwing forces and money into Texas. It is surprising at this day also to discover, as one may, that here and there in the United States, through the press or in the halls of Congress, voices were raised against the Texas revolution and its successful issue, charging that it was an insurrection of rebels and irresponsible bandits and adventurers, and protesting against the recognition of the independence of Texas.

That Texas and Texans were much slandered abroad in the early days is now evident to everyone; but that there was a modicum of truth in much that was published and circulated of an unfavorable nature cannot be denied. Still, in admitting this, it is only meant to say that Texas was no better nor worse in the character of its first settlers and the condition of its society than other new settled states of the West and Southwest. Texas was simply more in the public eye because of its recent tragic history and because of its claims for recognition as an independent nation, and the resulting question of annexation to the United States.

As to the trouble between Texas and Mexico, and the threatenings from that quarter, these continued almost up to the time of annexation in 1846. Mexico had re- pudiated the treaties entered into by Santa Anna with the Texan authorities after his disastrous defeat at San Jacinto, in which Texas was to be dissolved from all connection with Mexico, on the ground that the pledge was made under duress, while the Mexican president was a prisoner in the hands of the Texans. Of course Texas had fairly won her independence, and she was able to maintain it, and she meant to do so ; but the menace from below the Eio Grande hung there like a cloud for years. It would have been much less and would have ended sooner had it not been for provocations and irritations originating on the Texas side. For example, several hundred Texans, most of them from that adventurous "paroled soldier" class, joined with a few Mexican rebels in northern Mexico in 1839-40 to set up the ' Republic of the Eio Grande," and thus take from Mexico several of her states bordering on Texas. This ambitious scheme failed, and had no other result than further embittering Mexican feelings against Texas. Another ill-advised and ill-fated move, and this time by the express authority of the Texan government or, rather, of President Lamar, as the Congress of the Republic refused to appropriate funds for the enterprise was the Santa Fe Expedition, a caravan formed of more than three hundred soldiers and merchants, which set off in June, 1841, "to invite the people of Santa Fe to renounce the authority "of Mexico and join Texas." The claim of Texas to that portion of country rested only upon the action of its Congress in declaring that "the Eio Grande from its mouth to its source shall form the western boundary of the Eepublic." The expedition to Santa Fe, traveling through a new and an unknown country, lost its way in northwest Texas; the members of the party had numerous clashes with the Indians; the food supply became exhausted, and water could not be found, and in their extremity the forlorn party became reduced to eating prairie dogs and snakes. At length the expedition reached its destination, in the month of October, depleted in numbers, and in different straggling companies, only to be taken in hand as a hostile force by the Mexican authorities, and sent to the city of Mexico as prisoners. The survivors were finally released only through the good offices of the United States. The result of this adventure was, of course, further irritation of Mexico, and a depreciation of Texas in the eyes of her enemy, as well as among her friends in the United States. 1 The temper of the Texans at home, when reports reached them of the fate of the Santa Fe party, was retaliatory in the extreme. The Texan Congress passed an act ' ' extending the boundaries of the Eepublic so as to include portions of the states of Tamaulipas, Coahuila, Durango and Sinaloa, and the whole of Chihuahua, Sonora, New Mexico and the two Californias embracing a country of greater extent than the American Union at that time, and including two-thirds of the territory of Mexico, with two millions of her inhabitants." 2 This ridiculous and hot-headed measure President Sam Houston, who had come to the head of affairs for the second time, vetoed.

Under such conditions it is not surprising that Texas could not settle down to fixed and peaceful habits of internal development, nor afford that security to life and property which would have made it a more inviting field ito immigration. Fortunately for Texas there was on this side of the Eio Grande the stabilizing and peaceful influence of Sam Houston, twice president during the days of the Eepublic, and below the Eio Grande Mexico was for many years so exhausted and torn by civil war as to be unable to unite in an effort to reassert its claims over Texas, and could make but a feeble effort to strike i ' ' The wild-goose campaign to Santa F6 was an ill-judged affair ; and their surrender without the fire of a gun has lessened the prowess of the Texans in the minds of the Mexicans, and it will take another San Jacinto affair to restore their character." Gen. A. Jackson to Gen. Houston, May 25, 1842, quoted in Yoakum, II, 329.

back even when she deemed her own territory invaded. A Mexican army twice crossed into Texas following the Santa Fe expedition, but each time without serious results except in the last instance to draw an invading army from Texas into Mexico. This force dwindled to another adventurous band which ended in disaster. So the "war" with Mexico dragged on until the annexation of Texas transferred the quarrel to the United States.

The relations of Texas with her Indian neighbors were quite as unsettled as were those with Mexico. Of course the original ground of hostility of the savages was that which prevailed throughout all our history that of the gradual invasion and settlement of their country by the white man. But in Texas as elsewhere that hostility was often provoked into unnecessary activity by unwise governmental policy or by unfriendly dealings of individuals or communities. The Indian population of Texas was estimated in 1836 at 14,200 s of which 8,000 were embraced in the civilized tribes, such as the Cherokees and Choctaws, and the remainder divided among several hostile tribes, of which the Comanches were the largest about 2,000 in number. The Cherokees, the largest tribe in Texas, occupied a large territory in eastern Texas now included in Cherokee and Smith counties, having settled in that country in 1823, and by treaty with Mexico given possession of the land. Their peaceful occupation was not questioned by Texas until 1839. The gradual encroachment of the whites brought on occasional clashes between the two races, and charges and counter-charges of theft and depredations were made. In 1838 the Cherokees were charged with the murder of two white families and the breaking up of a white settlement which had been located in what is now the northwest portion of Cherokee County. The Cherokees alleged that the killings had been done by prairie Indians from the west. The events alarmed that section of country and aroused the civil and military authorities to take drastic steps against the Cherokees. The government had satisfied itself also that the Cherokees had allied themselves with Mexico in meditating a general onslaught on Texas. In a bloody conflict between Texan forces and the Indians in July, 1839, the Cherokee tribes were broken up and expelled from the country.

To the west and northwest the tribes that are best known in Texas history were: (1) the Wacoes, living in villages on the Brazos and pursuing the peaceful art of agriculture, though they were not free from the blood of the white man; (2) the Caddoes, a powerful and warlike tribe early driven from East Texas and settling near the present location of Fort Worth; (3) the Pawnees and the Anadaquas on the upper Brazos, the latter located near the present town of Graham, and guilty of at least one bloody incursion into the white settlements ; (4) the Apaches, located near Bandera Pass, allies of the Comanches. For a century it is said this tribe depredated upon the citizens of San Antonio; (5) the Townkawas, a small tribe on the Colorado, which through mortal dread of the Comanches always lived near the American settlements. They were sometimes guilty of committing petty thefts but were never openly hostile; (6) the Kiowas, having their homes in the Indian Territory and Arizona, but occasionally followed the buffaloes to the Brazos and committed depredations on the Texas settlements. And last of all (7) the Comanches, the largest and fiercest band of hostile Indians in Texas. As already noted the estimated number of Comanches in Texas in 1836 was 2,000; but the Texas Comanches were only the southern extension of a family which ranged over the west and southwest, whose numbers were variously estimated at from 12,000 to 30,000. The principal villages of the Texas Comanches were on the upper Colorado. The old San Saba mission, founded by the early Catholic missionaries, was established for the benefit of the Comanches.

Their estimated number as late as 1854 was 1,100. But whatever the number of the Comanches, it is certain that the trouble they caused along the Texas frontier was out of all proportion to their numbers. And whether always guilty or not, their reputation gained them the credit for nearly all the murders and burnings and captures perpetrated along our border for a generation.

The most noted Indian tragedies in our history, beginning in 1836 and running through the period we have been considering, were the following : *

The Parker's Fort massacre, of May 19, 1836. The Parkers and others, originally from Tennessee, but lately from Illinois, settled near the present town of Groesbeck, in Limestone County, in 1833. They were " Hardshell " Baptists, the elder Parker being a preacher of that faith. Daniel Parker, a relative, was the originator of the ' ' Two- Seed" doctrine, and he preached in the early days in East Texas. As a protection against the Indians the families of this community had "forfed up." On the above date the fort was visited by several hundred Comanches and Caddoes some say Kiowas who, by a show of friendship, induced Benjamin Parker to come outside, when he was instantly killed. The savages then made a murderous attack upon the company, killing four men and making prisoners of some of the women and children. A few escaped, making their way to the nearest settlement on the Brazos. Cynthia Ann Parker, then a girl eight years of age, was carried away a prisoner, and was never heard of until 1860, when she was taken and restored to the remnant of her people by a company under Captain Sul Boss. This fight occurred near * ' Medicine Mounds, ' ' on Pease Biver, in Hardeman County. The captive girl had married a chief of the Comanches, and one of her sons, Quanah Parker, regained with the Indians and became a noted chief.

One of the most heroic and memorable single-handed fights of a family in defense of their home against the Indians occurred in 1836 also, and was that of the Taylors, located on the Leon Biver, just below the present town of Belton. This point was remote from the settlements, and Taylor's was the " outside house" in that day. Notwithstanding his exposed position, Taylor's home was not molested for nearly a year after he had ventured to settle there. In November, 1836, however, the Caddoes paid him a hostile visit. The account which follows is that of Mrs. Taylor, related to a Methodist preacher who later visited her home : 5

A beautiful autumn day had ended, and the full moon which had just risen flooded the valley with its light as Captain Taylor observed a party of Indians approaching the house from the direction of the settlements below. As a small company had stopped at his cabin a few days before, on their way down the country, he supposed it was the same party returning, and felt no alarm at their presence. Instead of halting, they marched in silence in single file and passed beyond the house. Seeing that something was wrong the Captain felt some alarm, yet he knew not what to do. Before he could decide, the Indians stopped and the leader shouted out to the Captain in a loud, defiant tone:

This statement referred to a difficulty between Col. Coleman and a party of friendly Indians, found in possession of citizen's horses which by some means had become lost. The Indians claimed that they had been employed by the proper owners to find and bring them in, and were so doing. Coleman and his men chose to believe they had stolen them, and put them to death.

This peremptory challenge to battle on such short notice took the Captain completely by surprise. There were thirteen Indians, and the disparity of numbers gave them greatly the advantage. The Taylor family consisted of Taylor and wife and

Without further parley the savages opened fire ; but the door was promptly shut and preparations made for defense. There were two rifles on hand, but a scarcity of bullets. While a part of the family moulded a fresh supply the Captain used the rifle to the best effect, shooting through the openings between the logs. Depending upon their superior numbers the Indians became very defiant. What little English they knew had evidently been learned from bad white men. Consequently their vocabulary was limited mainly to curses and imprecations, which they dealt out with furious energy. For awhile there was no response to this from the Taylors, but at length the wife concluding that an answer in kind might show that the besieged were not dispirited, said to the Captain:

The Captain, having his own reasons for silence, neither replied to his wife nor to the Indians; seeing which Mrs. Taylor undertook to reply to the savages herself, and with the most horrid oaths and imprecations she could command, hurled defiance at the Indians.

The Indians displayed great personal courage in exposing themselves to the deadly fire of Taylor. At an early stage of the conflict one of them came to the door, which was too short to fit the opening, and placing his hands on top of it tried to break it down. Mrs. Taylor's vigilant eyes discovered him, and seizing an axe applied it to his hands and forced him to make a hasty retreat. One of the assailants being shot down near the house, a comrade ran up to bear off the body, but a well-directed bullet from Taylor's rifle laid him beside the other.

Although defiant toward the Indians, and constantly cheering her husband and the children, Mrs. Taylor made preparations for the worst. In the thickest of the fight she instructed her daughters to tie up in convenient bundles some of their clothes, that in case of their defeat and capture they would leave behind them a trail of torn bits of cloth to guide any searching party that might come after them.

The house was a double cabin of logs, with a hall between. During the fight the family were all in one room. The Indians thus had the unoccupied room between them and the Captain's rifle, and they could easily approach this end of the house protected and undiscovered. Taking advantage of this protection, they approached and fired the vacant end of the house. This made the situation of the family desperate in the extreme. After the fashion of that day the roof was laid on of loose boards, held in place by long poles. Mrs. Taylor with a board in her hand climbed up and succeeded in pushing off the poles and boards where the roof of the adjoining part of the house would communicate the fire to the occupied room, and by heroic work here, assisted by a liberal supply of vinegar to extinguish the flames as they took hold as there was not sufficient water in the house, but fortunately a barrel of vinegar on hand the occupied room was saved, though the other end of the house was completely burned down.

The savages had certainly expected the family to be destroyed and leaving them to their fate they had made off unobserved during the fire, leaving the two dead members of the party lying where they had fallen. After waiting and watching in suspense for sometime after the fire for a possible renewal of the attack, and this not occurring, the family removed their bedding and other household effects into the river bottom for the remainder of the night, one of the boys standing guard on top of the unburned part of the house while this was going on. The next day the Taylors made their way to the fort at the Three Forks of Little River, about three miles below. The next day a party of rangers went up to the Taylor house and found everything as it had been left the night before, and the Indians lying dead in the yard. The rangers cut off their heads and stuck them on long poles and raised them as a monument to the heroic defence of the Taylor home, and as a warning to other Indians that might pass that way.

Taylor County is named for the family that so heroically defended their frontier home in 1836, and the valley where they first settled also bears their name.

An Indian tragedy of the Bepublic days, a survivor of which remains to this day to tell the story, was that of the murder of Mr. and Mrs. Gilleland in Refugio County in 1842 and the attempted stealing of the chil- dren. The children were rescued, and one of them is Mrs. Rebecca J. Grilleland Fisher, widow of the Rev. Orceneth Fisher, who, at the age of ninety-one (Aug. 31, 1922) lives in Austin, and who has for many years filled the honored place of president of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas. Mrs. Fisher, in relating the horrible experience of her childhood, says : 6

The day my parents were murdered was one of those days which youth and old age so much enjoy. It was in strange contrast to the tragedy at its close. We were only a few rods from the house. Suddenly the war whoop of the Comanch.es burst upon our ears, sending terror to all hearts. My father, in trying to reach the house for weapons, was shot down, and near him my mother, clinging to her children and praying God to spare them, was also murdered. As she pressed us to her heart we were baptized in her precious blood. We, a brother and myself, were torn from her dying embrace and hurried off into captivity, the chief's wife dragging me to her horse and clinging to me with a tenacious grip. She was at first savage and vicious looking, but from some cause her wicked nature soon relaxed, and folding me in her arms, she gently smoothed back my hair, indicating that she was very proud of her suffering victim. A white man with all the cruel instinct of the savage was with them. Several times they threatened to cut off our hands and feet if we did not stop crying. Then the women, in savage tones and gestures, would scold, and they would cease their cruel threats. We were captured just as the sun was setting and were rescued the next morning.

During the few hours we were their prisoners, the Indians never stopped. Slowly and stealthily they pushed their way through the settlement to avoid detection, and just as they halted for the first time the soldiers suddenly came upon them, and firing commenced. As the battle raged the Indians were forced to take flight. Thereupon they pierced my little brother through the body, and striking me with some sharp instrument on the side of the head, they left us for dead, but we soon recovered sufficiently to find ourselves alone in that dark, dense forest, wounded and covered with blood.

Texas In 1840 167

Having been taught to ask God for all things, we prayed to our Heavenly Father to take care of us and direct us out of that lonely place. I lifted my wounded brother, so faint and weak, and we soon came to the edge of a large prairie, when as far as our swimming eyes could see we discovered a company of horsemen. Supposing them to be Indians, frightened beyond expression, and trembling under my heavy burden, I rushed back with him into the woods and hid behind some thick brush. But those brave men, on the alert, dashing from place to place, at last discovered us. Soon we heard the clatter of horse's hoofs and the voices of our rescuers calling us by name, assuring us they were our friends who had come to take care of us. Lifting the almost unconscious little sufferer, I carried him out to them as best I could. With all the tenderness of women, their eyes suffused with tears, those good men raised us to their saddles and hurried off to camp, where we received every attention and kindness that man could bestow.

The year 1837 witnessed the killing of two rangers under Capt. Geo. B. Erath in a fight with the Indians in Robertson's colony. A number of colonists were killed near Nashville, and James Coryell was killed near the falls of the Brazos. On the headwaters of the Trinity a scouting party of soldiers lost nine of their number in a fight with the Indians. In 1838 occurred the "Battle Greek Fight," in the Navarro County. A party of land seekers from Robertson County were attacked while surveying, and the party broken up, losing seventeen of their number. In the winter of 1838-39 the Indians attacked the settlements about the falls of the Brazos, killing several whites, which brought on a general conflict between the whites and Indians in that locality.

The years 1839-40 were red with the toll taken by tbe Indian from the white man, although the penalties exacted from the warriors were heavy also. In 1839, besides numerous clashes between the whites and the Indians in the west, occurred the " Cherokee War" in East Texas, already noticed. In March, 1840, occurred the " Council House Fight" in San Antonio, in which seven Texans were killed and many wounded. In August there followed a general invasion from Comancheland. More than four hundred warriors descended upon the western country, depredated upon Victoria and other settlements, and burned the town of Linnville on the coast. The Indians were intercepted on their retreat and .attacked by Texas forces, the fight being known as the 1 * Plum Creek Fight. ' ' But the invaders made good their escape without much loss. During this raid twenty-one white people were killed.

We have yet to recount more than one Indian tragedy occurring on the boarder of the North Texas country, in one of which John B. Denton lost his life ; but these will be noted when we return to that country in other chapters. But suffice it to say that the chief engagements noted above do not fill up the whole story. For a full decade, from 1836 to 1846, settlers, traders, surveyors and preachers, traveling beyond the borders of the oldest settlements, were in danger of attack by roving Indians, and for a full generation the Indian was an occasional menace all along the western and northwestern frontier of Texas.

Besides her troubles from without, the statesmen of the young Republic had their hands full of internal problems in those days. The chief problem, and one that was aver pressing and always growing, was that of raising money enough to keep things going. Texas found herself at the beginning of her separate national existence with ian empty treasury and a million and a quarter dollars in debt. With a scattered population of less than 50,000 raw settlers, with scarcely no internal improvements, and with her natural wealth undeveloped, it would seem that a modest and economical beginning in governmental mat- ters would have commended itself to Texas 's first statesmen. But the machinery of state was set in motion on an ambitious scale. The president of the Republic was to receive $10,000 a year, and other officers in proportion and there was no lack of officers and commissioners and foreign agents. At first there was a considerable standing army, until inability to pay and equip the troops made it necessary to release the larger part of them on parole. Continuous efforts were also made to fit out a "navy" as a defensive measure against Mexico. All of this national machinery required money, and yet more money, and yet funds in anything like adequate amounts could never be raised, though every method known to state financiering was used. Taxes and duties on imports brought in mere driblets. The raw public lands were drawn upon by the issuance of land scrip to be sold abroad at fifty cents an acre, but most of this went begging. It had no attraction to actual or prospective settlers, as they could obtain more land than they could use by simply settling upon it. Loans were sought here and there abroad, and on the prospect of these loans further princely expenditures were made. Finally paper money was issued as a medium of exchange, and this gradually depreciated in value until it reached the low mark of fourteen cents on the dollar. By 1840 the fiscal affairs of the country were gloomy enough. Gold and silver had about disappeared from sight, and the income of the government consisted mainly of its own promissory notes which it had made acceptable for taxes and customs. In his message to Congress at the beginning of his second administration in 1841, Gen. Houston said : "There is not a dollar in the treasury; the nation is involved from ten to fifteen millions ; we are not only without money, but without credit, and for want of punctuality, without character. Patriotism, industry and enterprise are now our only resources apart from our public domain and the precarious revenues of the country. ' '

With such a meager and uncertain income, with an expensive government to support, and with extravagant defensive measures against Mexico and the Indians, while at the same time often provoking attacks from these external enemies, it is plain that the Texas government had not the means, if it had possessed the inclination, to turn to internal improvements and development. The then settled portions of the Republic were in that part of the country supplied with the most numerous and the largest streams. The journals and letters of the traveling preachers of that day would indicate that these streams were nearly always on a "rise," and frequently overflowing the country; yet nothing was being done to bridge them or to confine them within bounds. In the winter usually and at the flood times the river bottoms and all the lower country were little less than seas of water and mud, so that trade and travel were not only difficult, but dangerous. Bishop Andrew, who visited Texas in 1842, and made the journey from Houston to the interior, after some observations on the commercial advantages of Houston, adds in his Journal: "Had there been a tolerable and certain communication established with Houston by means of a passable turnpike or canal, it would long have continued to command the trade of this fertile region; but on my way from Houston I passed a whole company of wagons encamped at Little Cypress, about thirty miles from Houston, many of which had been lying there two weeks, when one week's work with twenty hands would have thrown a good bridge across the stream; and at Johnson's Bayou, only nine miles from town, wagons are frequently detained a day or two, when ten hands could put up a good bridge in three days. These are only given as specimens, and whether it results from want of spirit or want of money, the effect is the same."

Texas In 1840 171

erable stream of immigrants, induced to move hither by the widely advertised offers of free lands to the settler. Texas from the earliest days was a good advertiser. The charm of her history and the lure of her vast and productive lands were more than an offset to the libelous stories and the specters of Indian and Mexican horrors which floated about in the States, and many a caravan .of "movers" continued to cross the border while Texas was still a ' 'foreign nation." The white population of Texas in 1836 was between 25,000 and 30,000. 7 Within ten years, or at the time of annexation, the population had increased to 100,000, and there were in addition some thirty-five thousand slaves. From these figures an estimate may be made of the average annual inflow, so that by the close of 1840 the white population of Texas may be set down at somewhere around fifty thousand. It is evident also from the large number of slaves present, that this population came mainly from the Southern States. But there were quite a few colonies of settlers from Germany made about this time and later, located for the most part in south and southwest Texas. Eo'ughly speaking the settled portions of Texas in 1840 were within the area bounded by the Nueces Eiver and a line drawn from San Antonio through Austin to Marshall, and again from Marshall to Eed Eiver, about Bonham. Much of this territory was only very sparsely settled.

Thus, briefly and imperfectly sketched, was the vast field into which rode those eighteen preachers from the Texas Conference at Eutersville late in 1840.

7 Population figures from ' ' School History of Texas, ' ' Barker, Potts and Eamsdell, pp. 157, 166. No census was taken in Texas until 1846.

Chapter Xii

WE left the Bed Biver country a few chapters back with only the merest beginnings made, with a scant and unsettled population, and with nothing substantial or permanent in the way of church organization. We have now reached a period when real foundations are being laid, both in the settlement of the country and in church building, and in the present chapter we will take account of conditions existing and the progress of our own work there from 1835 to the early forties.

A record which completely reflects early times in this section is a reminiscential sketch of Andrew Davis, 1 for more than fifty years a traveling Methodist preacher in Texas, and who gloried in the fact that he was born within her borders. Davis was born at Jonesboro, on the Texas side of Bed Biver, in 1827, his father having settled at that place in 1818. It was then Coahuila and Texas; the Mexican, Victor Blanco, was governor, and the seat of government was in far-off Saltillo. Of course in this remote corner of the Mexican dominions, where the Mexican claim was disputed, American population and American influence predominated, and, as we have shown, this portion of Texas, both as to its ecclesiastical and political connections, was for many years under the jurisdiction of Arkansas.

Contemporary Methodism. In Northeast Texas 173

a rough, free, honest frontiersman, a stranger to all the refinements of life, and indifferent to things religious. His first wife was a Tidwell, from the family which tradition says came the first class-leader of the Methodist society organized at Jonesboro in 1817. His second wife, of whom Andrew was born, was a devout Methodist, and a housewife of some note. An event in the family history was the sojourn of Sam Houston in the Davis home near Jonesboro, "to rest and feed up his horse," when Houston first entered Texas in December, 1832. It was but a month following Houston's visit, or in January, 1833, that Andrew's mother died. After this the elder Davis, with his only son and a negro servant, in whose charge Andrew had been placed, removed to Shelby County, in eastern Texas. Daniel Davis returned to the Red River country in 1836 and recruited a company for Gen. Houston's army, and this force had arrived within thirty miles of the General's camp when news reached them of the battle of San Jacinto. While living in East Texas Daniel Davis married his third wife, a widow named Mrs. Bascus, 2 the union being solemnized by Emory Rains, the Alcalde. Here also Davis became acquainted with the Farmers, the Teels, the English and other families noted in Texas and Methodist history, whose life-long friendship his preacher son enjoyed.

In 1836 Davis returned and located again in the land of his first love, northeastern Texas. Here we will let Andrew Davis take up the narrative and give his own recollections of the times :

When my father moved back to Red River he settled out on the prairies eight or ten miles from Clarksville to Paris. This settlement was made the latter part of the spring of 1836. . . . From 1834 on that section of country now known as Red River county filled up very fast. Pecan Point where I was born was the first place of any notoriety. Then sprung up out from the river on the prairie a little place LaGrange. There was a little store and blacksmith shop there. A small school also taught at La^ Grange before Clarksville existed. In 1835 Clarksville was located and named for James Clark, one of the old settlers of that portion of the country. In 1836 Richard Ellis and A. H. Latimer represented Eed River in the convention that declared the independence of Texas. At the same time Judge Ellis, son of Richard Ellis, represented the same territory as Miller county in the legislature of Arkansas. My father had located his land certificate in what was finally the territory of Fannin county, on North Sulphur, eight miles south of Honey Grove. In 1837 he moved on his own land. I do not remember dates, but our house was the outside one. We had not been there long until the Indian depredations in stealing and murdering became so alarming that father did not feel safe in keeping my step-mother and myself at the house at night. Late of evenings he would take some little bed clothes and carry my step-mother and myself and her own little baby girl about one year old a half a mile from the house into a dense thicket and put us down there until next morning. Father would return and with the colored people guard the house through the night. It was believed that the Indians never killed negroes ; that the worst to them was to take them prisoners. It was not often that they did that. When I look back to my first experiences and earliest memories they are a great mystery to myself. To think of little children spending long dark nights without saying a word above a whisper. Taken away from home and from all the other members of the family, out to where nature has never received a mark from human hand, or the slightest impress of civilization is to be seen anywhere, the children seemed to be filled with awe and alarm. Like little scared partridges they hover down as if trying to fill the least possible space. In the morning, after the sun is up and well out on his daily course, these little children assume their wonted life and cheerfulness. For a year or so I, with a little half-sister, were accustomed to this kind of life. I and that child joined universal nature in unbroken silence for the night.

At the now frontier home we were in camps for a month or two. Log houses were to be built, and until that was done we were in camps. Except whatever of childish fear of Indians, I felt I was able to enjoy myself more here in this frontier life than any place we had ever lived. I was now about nine years old, and had been trained to the use of a gun from the time I was five years old. I had been killing turkeys, squirrels and other things for sometime previous. An Indian had trained me to hunt for deer and other game. I had been bred and born in the woods. Game of some kind was in sight of the house almost every hour of the day. The bottoms of North Sulphur and its tributaries abounded in bear, panther and all the small varments.

: Here the writer relates how he, as a nine year old woodsman, accidentally discovered a bear asleep in a cave, and after scampering away in his first fright, recovered himself and returned and killed the bear, which gave him considerable notoriety. But we hasten on to the tragic ending of this frontier life.

My boyhood life would have been completely happy on the frontier but for the fact that the Indians were a just occasion of alarm. They were in the country during the light of every moon. The fattest and best cattle were being killed on the prairie and a small portion of the meat taken and the balance left. There never was a month that passed that horses were not stolen, and in addition to all this many valuable lives were being taken all along the frontier line for fifty or sixty miles. It was found to be necessary to go into a fort for safety. Immediately the place for the fort was selected and the fort built. It was some ten miles down the Sulphur Fork from our home, and that distance back in the settlement, father's being the outside house. Mr. Isaac Lidy was elected captain, and the fort took his name. There was, I suppose, twenty-five or thirty families that took protection in the fort. There was about the time a somewhat similar fort built on Bois D'Arc creek, where Bonham is located. This was first known as Gilbert's Camp, and afterwards as Fort English, after a prominent citizen, Bailey English. The families on the north and west, or the Red River section, went into it, while those on the south and east went to Fort Lidy. There was eighty-five men under Captain Lidy. He kept scouts out all the time, but the Indians would get through their lines by some means. Occasionally horses stolen and a man caught out and killed. There was therefore not much hunting done while we were in the fort. The scouts were constantly killing game and bringing the meat in to the fort. Wild game was plentiful, often buffalo would come and mingle among the cattle of the fort. Our cows would get greatly excited at the presence of the buffalo. They would collect in great numbers and bellow furiously, showing the wildest excitement. When you observe the cows so excited you knew the buffalo were among them. The captain always sent out a few men to kill them, and it was remarkable when they were so mixed with our gentle stock the men could ride close to them without being noticed and shoot them down. My father took cows to the fort for the milk and butter and a few hogs for fresh meat. ... It may seem strange to you who read this after the long intervening years to hear me say that all the men in the fort made good crops that year. They formed a company and all moved out of the fort together under a guard of twenty-five men from the fort. Bach man took all his teams and force, be it large or small ; they struck camps on a farm and worked it over, and then moved to another, and on in this way until all the farms were well and thoroughly cleaned. This was repeated the crop season through. But we are just now on the eve of a great change. There had been no Indian depredations of any kind for quite a while. All are anxious to get out of the fort. The fort would still be kept up and scouts would be out scouring the country all the time. All therefore decided to move out to their farms and ranches. My father moved home, his house eight or ten miles from the fort and the outside house. He had only been at home eleven days. On the morning of the twelfth day he was killed. ...

In another part of his narrative Andrew Davis relates the circumstances of his father's death, and of the breaking up of their frontier home, as follows :

I have said that he was industrious. He always went to bed early and arose early ; always got up at four o 'clock in the morning. The morning that he was killed he arose at his usual hour. He walked to the back door and called the cook woman, who occupied a cabin in the back yard. He called up the colored man also, who did the feeding of the stock. My father would never wear boots. He had a way in the morning of slipping his feet in his shoes, in a slip-shod manner, and walking in that way until he had made the calls as above, and then slip off his shoes and lie down again until just time to prepare for breakfast. He did this the morning he was killed. After father had been lying down a short time, Susie, the cook woman, came to the back door and called my step-mother and said, "Miss Margaret, there are Indians about the place." This kind of announcement would naturally panic a lady. She whirled to my father and said, "Mr. Davis, Susie says there are Indians about the house." Father arose with his usual self-possession, walked to the door and said, "Susie, what makes you think there are Indians about?" "Why," she called, "because I hear them hollowing at the lot like owls." "Well," said father, "that is just what it is it is nothing but owls you hear," and added, ' ' Susie you know you are a great coward. Now go back to the kitchen and see that you have your breakfast in time. ' '

Just about daybreak father got up, walked to the front gate, where he met Mr. Glothlin, a young man father had hired. They stepped out in front of the gate and were standing talking. At that moment the Indians fired on them from the horse lot, some sixty yards away. The young man was not hurt ; his clothes were torn some, and a lock of hair cut from his head. My father had one arm broken and received a deadly shot in the breast, ranging through the region of the heart and lungs. He died immediately.

The evening before my father was killed there had fallen a heavy rain. This rain drove twelve or fourteen scouts to our house, who had been out from Fort Lidy, looking for Indian signs. If they had not been at our house the Indians would have murdered the whole family. After they fired upon father and the young man they raised a terrifying Indian war-whoop, and came running like hyenas. Just at the time the Indians arrived at the yard fence, and some of them on the fence, these rangers threw the door open, which showed such a number of men that it made them afraid to venture. They dropped back and retired, and in a moment they were out of sight. The rangers, not apprehending any danger, were in no condition for immediate action. There was therefore not a gun fired at the Indians. I was a mere child at the time my father was killed, and was not at home at that time. The evening before father sent an old servant and myself to Fort Lidy after some hogs that he had left there, for the family had been in the fort with members of others families for twelve months. My father's was the outside house, eight miles from Honey Grove. They moved my father and the family to Mr. McFarland's, which was three miles from my father's, and on the road to the fort. The old servant and myself arrived at Mr. McFarland's about ten o'clock, to find my father a corpse, the family completely torn up, and the whole community filled with alarm.

With the recital of this Indian tragedy we will suspend this personal narrative for a time, and introduce the record as we have it of the work of the Methodist preacher in this section, which is now beginning to be felt.

In the fall of 1835 John H. Carr was appointed to Sulphur Fork mission by the Arkansas Conference. 3 His labors extended over Bed River and Lamar counties. Revs. Ramsey, Overby and John B. Denton had preached irregularly on this side of Red River in 1834 and 1835, while on Miller circuit in Arkansas. John H. Carr during 1836 laid out twelve appointments on Sulphur Fork mission. In the fall of 1836 this work was left to be supplied, but the presiding elder, R. Gregory, in February, 1837, moved E. B. Duncan over from the "Washington circuit, Arkansas, to the Sulphur Fork mission. About this time Wm. G. Duke, formerly a member of the Arkansas Conference, settled in Lamar County, near the Sulphur Fork. The first quarterly meeting ever held in this portion of Texas, of which we have any account, was held near where Clarksville was afterwards located, 11 commencing on the Saturday before the second sabbath in April," 1837. Robert Gregory, presiding elder, was in charge; William Duncan, preacher in charge, was

Contemporary Methodism In Northeast Texas 179

In the fall of 1837 John B. Denton was appointed to this work. He came over in company with Littleton Fowler, who was on his way to the interior of Texas to join his fellow-missionaries, Alexander and Ruter. Fowler and Denton traveled up the Sulphur Fork, and at the home of "Win. Duke Fowler preached his first sermon in Texas. During the year Denton spent on this mission it was arranged to hold a camp-meeting at a place known as Shelton's camp-ground, hut a short time before the time appointed for the meeting Indian depredations so demoralized the country that the meeting was not held. In the fall of 1838 Jacob Whitesides was appointed to Sulphur Fork. In September of the year 1839 a great camp-meeting was held in this country, located about three miles northeast of Clarksville. The preacher in charge, Whitesides, was absent on account of sickness. The preachers who conducted the meeting were R. Gregory, presiding elder, Wm. Duke, Wm. Craig and Wm. Mulkey. There were about thirty conversions at this meeting. This was the beginning of a general revival throughout that region, and sometime late in the year another camp-meeting was held at the camp ground near Clarksville, at which a larger number of persons were converted than before. In the fall of 1839 another circuit was formed in this region, called DeKalb, with S. Clark in charge. J. W. P. McKenzie was appointed to Sulphur Fork, and he was returned to the same charge the next year. The revival spirit which first manifested itself in 1839, continued to work through the next few years, and the Church throughout all this region prospered greatly.

During the next four years, or until this portion of the work came to be united with the main body of Texas Methodism, the preachers who labored here were successively James Graham and Wm. G. Duke on the Sul- phur Fork, and G-eo. Benedict, Jefferson Shook and David L. Bell at DeKalb, some of whom will receive further mention later. For the present we take special note of three of those who appeared here before 1840 John B. Denton, Wm. Mulkey and J. W. P. McKenzie. Denton did not serve long in the ranks of the traveling ministry, and soon took up the profession of a lawyer, and is really best remembered on account of the Indian fight in which he lost his life. He was the son of a Methodist minister, and was born in Tennessee in 1806. The family moved to Indiana, where his father soon died. He was then apprenticed to a blacksmith, who took him to Arkansas, about 1822. Denton 's youth was a hard one, spent in slavery under his blacksmith master, and he was reared without educational advantages, and, he says, " almost without clothes." But possessed of ambition and gifted with no mean talents, his conversion and frequent attendance upon Methodist meetings awakened him to the point where he abandoned the blacksmith trade and took up the ministry. His early marriage to a noble young woman also helped him up in the world. His wife taught him to read and write after two children had been born. Denton became much noted locally as an orator. He preached irregularly in Arkansas and Texas during the years, 1834 and 1835, and in 1836 he was admitted into the Missouri Conference. In the fall of 1837 he was sent into Texas. According to the extract already cited from the journal of Littleton Fowler, Denton accompanied Fowler into Texas as far as Nacogdoches and San Augustine; but he had not been " employed" for a work, as the latter puts it, but had been regularly appointed by his conference to Sulphur Fork mission, and he returned and filled out the year on that charge. At the end of that year or in the fall of 1838 Denton dropped back into the local ranks and settled at Clarksville, where he took up the practice of law, as the necessity of providing for a growing family led him to abandon the regular ministry. He formed a law partnership with John Craig, himself a local Methodist preacher. Denton figures in the political history of that section to the extent of being one year an unsuccessful candidate for the Texan Congress.

Denton participated in a memorable Indian fight in what is now Tarrant County in 1841, in which he lost his life. The hostile Caddo Indians had located their villages on what is known as Village Creek, and from thence made murderous incursions into the white settlements to the east. In May, 1841, a company under Genferal Tarrant attacked the savages in this locality and defeated them. After the battle Denton was sent out with a scouting party to locate the remnant of the Indians. We here append the account of this Indian fight and of the death of Denton left by Andrew Davis, who, though but a lad of thirteen at that time, had slipped away and joined the expedition against the Indians :

Denton was killed (as I might say) on our return home. ' On the day before the taking of the village a lone Indian was discovered. Gen. Tarrant divided the company and ordered them to cut him off from the timber and to capture him. This was nicely and quickly done. The capture of the Indian occurred on the high prairie some ten miles west of the village, at a point not far from where Fort Worth is located. Tarrant left the prairie and went into a secluded place on the river, where we remained all night. About sunset every preparation was made to kill our prisoner. He was placed upon an elevated spot a few paces from the company. He was then placed with his back against an elm tree, his hands were drawn around the tree and made secure, and his feet were tied together and secured to the tree. Then twelve men with their guns were ordered to take their position before the Indian. The scene was an awful one in its solemnity to me and to all. The men were ordered to present arms. At this moment the alarmed and terrorstricken Indian became greatly excited, and in great agony of spirit he cried aloud, "Oh man Oh man" While he did not utter the above words with distinctness, yet it was more like these words than any other. Gen. Tarrant sent Capt. Yeary with an interpreter to the prisoner to see if he would reveal anything, for prior to this he had been sullen and would not say a word. He was made to understand that if he would tell where the village was and how to find it he should not be hurt. He made a full revelation of the whole matter, and closed by saying, "We be friends. ' ' He was relieved, but kept under guard all night. After dark Tarrant sent ten men under Henry Stout, who was ordered to go to the village, reconnoiter the same and select the point of attack, and report by 4 o'clock in the morning. This was done, and by daylight all were in motion under guidance of our trusty pilot for the village, which was reached about 9 or 9 :30 in the morning.

From our position we could see the Indians passing about in every direction. We were ordered to deposit our baggage and free ourselves of every encumbrance, and be ready for the charge in five minutes. When the time was out Gen. Tarrant said: "Are you all ready?" The response was in the affirmative. Then Tarrant in a low, yet clear, distinct voice, said: "Now, my brave men, we will never all meet on earth again there is great confusion and death just ahead. I shall expect every man to fill his place and do his duty." The command to charge was given. A level prairie about three hundred yards wide lay between the command and the first huts. This distance was measured off in less than half the time I am telling it. In a moment the sound of firearms, with a voice of thunder, rang out over the alarmed and terror-stricken inhabitants of that rude city of the wilderness. Tarrant and James Bourland, with Denton, led the charge, while every other man followed with the best speed his horse could make. I was riding a mule, furnished me by Aunt Gordon. . . . Well, pardon the digression. That mule was a mule, and, just like its kind, it was slow and made me among the last to reach the enemy. As I passed the first huts I saw to my right a number of Indians. I fired into the crowd with the best aim my excited nerves would allow. In a moment our men came upon them from a different direction, and for a short time the work of death was fearful. It was here that my mule was shot from under me. I felt like that I had lost my best friend. The air was full of bullets, and I took a tree. In a moment, however, I saw a number of our men on foot, some of them from choice, and others, like myself, because they could not help it. I left my tree and joined them. In less than an hour the village was cleared of Indians, and it seemed like the work of death was done.

Covered with dust and dirt and wet with sweat, and almost famished both for food and water, Tarrant called the little company together at a little spring. On roll-call it was found that not a man had been killed. A dozen perhaps had been unhorsed. Quite a number were hatless. As many as eight or ten were slightly wounded, but none in a painful manner. Many had made narrow escapes from death, as their rent clothes abundantly testified. Tarrant commended the men for their good behaviour and said, "Thank God, we are all here. You have had water; repair to the nearest huts and get your hands full of dried buffalo meat, and in fifteen minutes be ready for further advance."

My My How the buffalo meat was used up by those hungry men. At the expiration of the fifteen minutes Tarrant called the men together and ordered John B. Denton and Henry Stout each to take a squad of twenty men and pursue the retreating Indians, as a great number went north into the Trinity bottom by two paths leading out of the village. It so happened that I fell into the squad commanded by Capt. Henry Stout, who took the trail which led out from the northeastern part of the village. John B. Denton with his men took the trail which led out from the northwestern part of the village. Within some sixty yards of the river the trails came together. When Capt. Stout came to this point he halted and addressed his men : "Here the trail from the west unites with ours; a great many Indians have gone out on both trails ; from the large cottonwoods in view we are near the river. I think it is imprudent for a little squad of men to enter such a trap, for if the Indians make a stand at all, it will be at the river."