Early, Texas - History (part 1 of 11)

Life Of A Methodist Itinerant

THE writer of the following chapters first became interested in the subject of which they treat in 1917, when some sporadic efforts were made to celebrate the centenary of Methodism in Texas. A plan was formulated by a MstoriMl -committee, organised at Dallas, whifch provided that each pastor should collect and have re-corded in his church conference minutes the history of his 'own local church ; each presiding elder should collect and put upon his district conference minutes the history of his district ; and the secretary of each annual conference was requested to collect and place iii Ms records the history of his conference. The plan was an admirable one ; but, lifee all previous plans set on foot for collecting and preserving our history, it met with but little response. The writer was then on the Vernon district, Northwest Texas Conference. With no interest whatever in the subject, but recognizing the value *>f the plan, he undertook to follow it out. He discovered that the history of the Vernon district was for many years the history of the whole of Panhandle Methodism, and in tracing it out he became deeply interested in the research. His investigations led him into other sections of Texas, an-d at length he opened up correspondence with some of the older men of the Church, with 'a view of arranging for some concerted effort toward the preparation of a complete history of Methodism in Texas. He found very little interest in the subject and but little encouragement, further than the general response that "it ought to be done."

Led, then, only by his own growing interest in the subject, the writer set out to make at least a beginning in this field. The present volume is offered as that beginning.

The materials covering the early period of our history have been gathered from various sources. In the summer of 1918 the writer came into possession of the collection of books and papers left by Oscar M. Addison, one of our pioneer preachers, and a man of decided literary and antiquarian habits. A voluminous correspondence carried on with the preachers and others of his day, covering a period of fifty years from about 1839, and all of which had been preserved, formed the most valuable part of this collection from a historical viewpoint. A liberal use has been made of these old letters and miscellaneous records in the present volume.

All of the old files of the Texas Christian Advocate now in existence have been examined, page by page, and almost item by item, and these have been drawn upon to a very considerable extent. Eeferences are made to this source from time to time in the following pages, and for the sake of brevity usually the initials only of this periodical (T C A) are used.

The Eev. E. L. Shettles, of the Texas Conference, a book collector of the widest knowledge and activities, has been the writer's most helpful advisor in the field of literature bearing upon Texas Methodist history, and he has been generous beyond words in supplying much rare material needed in preparing this volume.

The writer, and all future writers on Texas Methodist history, must acknowledge a debt to the "History of Methodism in Texas," by Homer S. Thrall, D.D., first published in brief form in 1872, and in a somewhat larger edition in 1889. The greatest fault of this work is its brevity. Thrall lived through most of the early period of our history, and he had peculiar advantages in personally knowing all the important persons and facts of those days, and he might have collected a vast storehouse of historical material. But in his book he gives us only the outlines of this great period. His collection of materials was evidently far from complete, as he was much given to devoting pages to unimportant details, and paragraphs, or only sentences, to more important events. He was careless, or poorly informed, in the statement of many facts and dates. But let it be said to his everlasting credit that he wrote and published much of what he knew of contemporaneous Methodist history, which but few of the makers of our history have done. The present writer gladly acknowledges his debt to this pioneer volume, and due credit is given herein when use is made of it.

The selection and arrangement of the materials which he has been able to command has been made according to the writer's own plan. The most painstaking regard for facts and figures, for names and dates, has been exercised, but prominence has been given to the human side of the story; and the purpose has been to make this book something more than a mere transcript of conference minutes. The conditions political, natural and moral under which the Church was planted in Texas, the problems and struggles of our pioneers, stories of their failures and of their triumphs all these are given a large place in this record. So far as possible the author has let the makers of our history speak for themselves and in their own way. This method he has thought adds to the interest of the subject in hand, and besides, he has felt that when our pioneers have written on matters of present historical interest, they are entitled to be heard, rather than some one else who might give only his version of their report.

The time and labor involved in sorting and comparing and organizing the materials in hand have been such as only those who have done similar work can appreciate. It looks simple and easy enough after it is finished.

X Preface

The field is a large one, and the present volume by no means pretends to exhaust it. And after all these years of unremitting search for facts, and after all the care exercised in their use, the writer admits it as possible that some future historian, more expert in these matters, may give the present work a "going over" and be able to point out numerous omissions and faults.

American Settlement And Early Conditions

IT was not until after the Louisiana purchase in 1803, whereby the United States suddenly expanded and became the big next-door neighbor of the Spanish territory on the southwest, that the wide domain called Texas began to slowly emerge from its long obscurity. On an old map of North America, published in the United States near the beginning of the last century, the name Texas appears in the neighborhood of the present commonwealth of that name, but the scant features of the country which are shown were evidently filled in by the imagination of the geographer. Before the period of American expansion, and the coming of the first American adventurers and prospectors, the history of Texas is a long dreary story of neglect and failure on the part of its Spanish claimant. Some efforts had been made by |j Spanish ecclesiastics to subdue and christianize the native || Indian population. Missions were established at an early f| day, and about these had gathered small communities of ft soldiers and settlers. But the first American visitors ;| found but three of these settlements in Texas ; namely, : 1 Nacogdoches in the east, first settled in 1716, restored in i;;|1779 as an outpost against French aggression from I I Louisiana; LaBahia (Goliad) in the southwest, founded in 1749 ; and San Antonio de Bexar, founded in 1718. The "Old San Antonio Road," running from the Eio Grande to Nacogdoches, which became a landmark in the subsequent development of the country, had been marked out. On the wide coastal expanse, fronting on a busy world of migration and trade, not a permanent settlement had been made, and no commercial ships ever put in to the Texas shores.

It was only, then, after American influence had begun to be felt that Texas history has any interest for us, for it is among the first American settlers that we shall find the beginnings of the special history which we have set out to trace. In 1800 the population of the United States had passed the five million mark. The energetic and restless frontiersmen already wanted more elbow room, and they were pressing upon the Mississippi and looking with longing eyes upon the vast unexplored regions beyond. The immediate demand was not so much for more land, however, as for unrestricted use of the great river whose outlet was in the hands of a foreign, power. Spain, which had held the Louisiana territory since 1762, had begun to feel the pressure of the American prospector, and in 1800 retroceded Louisiana to France, with the stipulation that it should not be transferred to any other power. Formal delivery of possession to France was delayed until 1803, and only twenty days after France had come into possession, Napoleon sold the vast territory to the United States, over bitter protest from Spain. The Spanish forces, which had not yet been withdrawn from the lower Mississippi, sullenly retreated westward only under the steady pressure of the advancing American.

A long-standing dispute between France and Spain over the boundary between the Louisiana territory and the Spanish claims on the west was inherited by the United States when Louisiana was acquired. France had contended that her territory extended to the Rio

American Settlement And Early Conditions 3

Grande, and on the basis of this claim American forces were set in motion, soon after the Louisiana purchase, toward Texas. Troops of the opposing Spanish claimant were encountered near the Sabine, and a clash seemed imminent. Bloodshed was averted by an agreement reached between the respective commanders to set aside a "neutral ground," to be occupied by neither side until the boundary question should be settled. Negotiations over this boundary dispute dragged on for years. Meanwhile all the territory adjacent to Texas was being rapidly settled up. Louisiana was admitted as a state in 1812. Arkansas territory was set off, and the Indian territory set aside as a reservation for the Cherokee and other Indian tribes. Indians and white settlers crossed over Eed River from the north and established themselves in Texas, on the assumption that they were still on American soil, as the United States claimed Eed River and its watershed on both sides. The Neutral Ground on the east became a refuge for many lawless characters from the States and a rallying ground for various expeditions into Texas. The Spaniards were again and on their last frontier feeling the weight of the American tide.

In 1819 the historic treaty was concluded with Spain, by which the United States acquired Florida, but conceded much to Spain in the west, relinquishing all claims west of the Sabine. In the meantime the Mexican provinces had revolted against the mother country, the first blow having been struck for independence in 1810. In 1821 the Spanish power was finally overthrown in Mexico and Texas, being succeeded first by the short-lived "empire" of Iturbide, and in 1824 by the constitutional republic of Mexico. The newly acquired independence of the country, and the reports of the natural resources of Texas disseminated by returned adventurers, awakened a lively interest in the province in many portions of the United States.

Moses Austin, a Missourian, who had gained concessions in that portion of Louisiana territory in 1798, while it was yet under Spanish rule, was attracted to Texas in 1820. He succeeded in obtaining from the tottering Spanish government the privilege of settling in Texas as many as three hundred American families. Austin died in 1821, but before his death committed to his son, Stephen F. Austin, the task of completing the enterprise. Despite the long and toilsome journeys required and the untold hardships endured by the immigrants, to say nothing of the difficulties which Austin himself encoun* tered in having his grant confirmed by the new government which had succeeded to power, the colony was established by the year 1825, the locality selected lying below the San Antonio Eoad, and "on the waters of the Brazos and Colorado." The first of these American settlers located on the Brazos, in what is now Washington County. Austin's success in this undertaking led him to secure other grants, which provided for the settlement of twelve hundred additional families. The Mexican government opened wide the doors to American immigration, and passed colonization laws providing liberal land grants to the new settlers, and special grants to the "empresarios," or promoters, who should fill their colonies. Under these inducements there were by 1830 as many as fourteen colonization grants in course of settlement, and almost the whole of southern, central and eastern Texas had been allotted in claims. Many of these contracts were only partly filled; some were cancelled or abandoned entirely, while only a few of them were carried to complete success. These new settlers came mainly from various portions of the United States, as the empresarios advertised widely for their recruits ; but the Southern States contributed the largest part of the inflow. One or two colonies were partly or wholly settled by native Mexicans, while one contract was entirely filled by Irish immigrants, whence comes the name

American Settlement And Early Conditions 5

San Patricio the Spanish form of St. Patrick County. Besides the population settled under the colonial grants, there were numerous independent settlers in eastern and northeastern Texas, and many families intended for the colonies stopped nearer the border, or turned aside and settled elsewhere. This great southwestern drift had planted in Texas by the year 1835 between twenty-five and thirty thousand Americans. 1

As to the character and condition of these first settlers of Texas, they were a mixed multitude, brought together from nearly every state in the Union, and from every condition of life. There were many adventurers and camp-followers, as well as an element who had left the ' ' States ' ' to escape a criminal or an unsavory reputation. There were professional men doctors, lawyers, a few teachers and preachers ; there were a few sof t-souled dreamers and idlers, who were soon lost in the wilderness; there were families of gentle breeding and manners, of education and religion, who readily and cheerfully adapted themselves to the raw conditions of this far frontier. By far the largest element in the new population consisted of honest and industrious planters, who took life seriously, and who had sought a home here in order to better their condition, those who had been slave-holders in the States bringing their slaves with them. 2 And those who had been mechanics, or of other trades, at home here adopted the occupation of farming or stock-raising, as land was the one thing which all could easily possess.

Mrs. Mary Austin Holly, one of the early settlers, and an early historian of Texas a relative she was of the first empresario reports in 1835 that there existed a " town-building mania" something which survives

2 ' ' From the beginning of American immigration into Texas, settlement and slavery went hand in hand. The Mexican government abolished slavery throughout the Mexican states in 1829, but Texas was soon after, at the request of Stephen F. Austin, exempted from the decree." Art. S-W Historical Quarterly, XVIII, 42.

with unabated ardor to this day. At the time of the publication of her work the following towns had been settled, or projected these in addition to the old Spanish settlements, Nacogdoches, Goliad and San Antonio, already noticed: San Felipe de Austin, Brazoria, Columbia, Anahuac, Gonzales, Bastrop, Bolivar, Matagorda, Washington, New Washington, Harrisburg, Galveston, Velasco, Victoria, Liberty, Lynchburg, and Houston. "Houston contains between three and four hundred building lots, and a large quantity of out-land, ' ' says the account.

We are, of course, here chiefly concerned in ascertaining as far as possible the state of religion and morals among this early people. If we accept the views of the narrator just quoted, conditions in this regard were almost ideal. Her idyllic descriptions of the country and people are charming to the imagination, but one is led to suspect from a perusal of her work that it was intended mainly as a piece of advertising literature on Texas for circulation in the States. Texas, she says, had been peopled by "the active and enterprising New Englander, the bold and hardy Western hunter, and the high-spirited Southern planter. " Their first homes here in the wilderness were built "on the cottage style"; the man with a rifle out after a turkey or deer for his dinner was always "leatherstocking." She knows much of the class of women who rode "fifty miles to a ball, with their silk dresses in their saddle-bags, " but her acquaintance with the calico-clad element, who were often put to it to subsist at all, seemed to be slight. For this happy, prosperous and free people their religion was appropriately of the same free and romantic sort, according to our author. Says she : 3 value of freedom of conscience, as well as of civil liberty. They accepted lands from the Mexican government on condition of becoming nominal Catholics . . . and though not Romans, they were so far Catholic as not to contend for points of faith, and had sense enough not to quarrel about forms and technics. The introduction of protestant preachers was contrary to law, and had it not been so the contests of sectarians would have destroyed the country. Hence all have been silent on the subject of religion, and there is not to this day a church in the colonies. Some have objected to Texas it is no place for them there is no religion there. "With their bibles in their hands, can they not carry their religion in their hearts and act it out in their lives, where there are none to molest or make them afraid? Can they be insensible to the profusion of good things which heaven, as by a miracle spreads out before them to the beautiful visions and the still voice, which cries, Eise, Peter ; kill and eat ?

Mrs. Holly, it is said, was a Unitarian in faith. At any rate it is certain that, whatever use her volume served in inducing people in the States to seek a home here, hers was not a true portrayal of religious conditions and needs in Texas at that day. But, fortunately for Texas, there were other voices raised in the colonies, and other views published abroad, to which consideration will be given in due time.

By the terms of the colonization laws of Mexico, all settlers were required to profess allegiance to the Eoman Catholic faith. An interesting reminiscence touching upon this point, as well as illustrating the living conditions of some of the colonists, is here given in part. 4

We landed at Harrisburg, which consisted at that time of about five or six log houses, on the 3d of April, 1831. Captain Harris had a sawmill, and there was a store or two, I believe. Here we remained five weeks, while Pordtran went ahead of us and selected a league of land. "While on our way to our new home, we stayed at San Felipe for several days at Whiteside's

* From the Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Assn., II, 227, translated from the German of Caroline von Hinueber by Eudolph Kleburg, Jr.

tavern. The court house was about a mile out of town, and here E. M. Williamson, who was then the alcalde, had his office. . . . S. F. Austin was in Mexico at the time, and Sam Williams his private secretary, gave my father a title to land which he had originally picked out for himself. My father had to kiss the Bible and promise, as soon as the priest should arrive, to become a Catholic.

After we had lived on Fordtran's place six months, we moved into our own house. This was a miserable little hut, covered with straw, and having six sides, which were made out of moss. The roof was by no means waterproof, and we often held an umbrella over our bed when it rained at night, while cows came and ate the moss. Of course we suffered a great deal in winter. My father tried to build a chimney and fireplace out of logs and clay, but we were afraid to light a fire because of the extreme combustibility of our dwelling. So we had to shiver. No one can imagine what a degree of want there was of the merest necessities, and it is difficult for me now to understand how we managed to live and get along under the circumstances. We were really better supplied than our neighbors with household and farm utensils, but they knew better how to help themselves. Sutherland used his razor for cutting kindling, killing pigs, and cutting leather for moccasins. My mother was once called to a neighbor's house, five miles from us, because one of the little children was very sick. My mother slept on a deer skin, without a pillow, on the floor. In the morning the lady of the house poured water over my mother's hands, and told her to dry her face on her bonnet.

At first we had very little to eat. We ate nothing but corn bread. ... At first we grated our corn, until father hollowed out a log and we ground it as in a mortar. We had no cooking stove, of course, and baked our bread in the only skillet we possessed. . . . The nearest mill was thirty miles off.

The country was very thinly settled. Our three neighbors lived in a radius of seven miles. San Felipe was twenty-eight miles off, and there were about two houses on the road thither. . . .

American Settlement And Early Conditions 9

which the earlier settlements in Texas were made, contained provision for "a competent number of pastors" for the new settlements ; but it appears from the fact that the first colonials were exempted from taxation for a period of six years, an empty treasury at the seat of government did not permit of a plentiful supply of "pastors" in Texas. And with scarcely no priestly oversight, it turned out that the Catholic faith was but slightly observed among the American settlers in Texas, or not observed at all except in compliance with necessary forms of law in perfecting land titles and in other legal transactions. "In the spring of 1831," we are told, 5 "Padre Michael Muldoon was sent to Texas to initiate the generally heretical colonists into the Sacraments of the Eoman Catholic Apostolic Church. He was a jovial, good-hearted Irishman. He baptized and remarried such families as assented to the duplicate ceremonies, and such as would not, he kindly let alone. No coercion was used, except the withholding his official certificate, which was indispensable to obtaining any extra concession of land. The prescribed headrights were granted irrespective of, or rather without inquiry into, his priestly ministrations. We know of one gentleman with a family who declined his supererogatory services, on the ground of a precedent administration; but, by doing so, he failed to obtain an augmentation of some five or ten leagues to which he was entitled by the usage in those early times, for a costly improvement then in process of completion." The following extract, taken from a contemporary source, may be inserted here to throw more light upon the religious and educational conditions which surrounded the early Texans : * in each division of each State; the other that children shall be taught reading, arithmetic, Roman Catholic religion and a catechism of all the arts and sciences. These laws amount to nothing. We really have no system of education. A few excellent private schools exist. As the country becomes more thickly settled these will increase.

Last week we had the pleasure of entertaining for the night Mr. T. J. Pilgrim, who about a year ago came out to Texas from New York. After many adventures he reached San Felipe de Austin, and was most kindly received by the great empresario, Austin. He at once opened a school, and soon had forty pupils, the most of whom were boys. . . . Mr. Pilgrim also organized a Sunday school, and this, too, was a great success until some trouble arose between a few of the settlers and some Mexicans; the Mexicans, much out of humor, came to San Felipe to settle the matter, and Austin fearing they would report to the authorities that he was violating the law (for, you probably know, we are not by law allowed to teach or believe the Protestant religion, though really I don't believe the officers care), thought best to close the Sunday school.

How often do we attend church? Don't be too shocked when I tell you we heard our last sermon in Virginia. If we wanted to go to church ever so much we could find in this part of Texas no church and no minister. I have heard that in other portions of the country a few preachers, in spite of the laws, do live and hold services ; but we have not even a Catholic church anywhere near us. Sunday is spent by most Texans in hunting, fishing, and breaking wild horses. All elections are held on Sunday. Some of us, however, observe the Sabbath, and try to live as if we were still in Virginia.

Evidences will multiply as we proceed that the religious and educational advantages of the Texan pioneers were of the most limited sort, reaching the point of entire destitution in all but a few local instances. The government was over-generous in offering wild land, which cost it nothing, to new settlers; but for the rest they could shift for themselves. Protestant worship was forbidden in the colonies by the terms of the same law which re- quired the observance of the Catholic faith. The general result was, that no public religious services of any sort were held, though there were occasional neighborhood gatherings for such purposes at private houses. And the Texas colonial settlements present the unique instance perhaps in the history of the English race, of a population of thousands gathered in a new country to make their home, and not a church building or a " meeting house " for public worship among them. The efforts at repression of all Protestant preaching and practice were not entirely successful, as we shall see ; but the fact that it was under the ban gave it a sort of "smuggled" character, and made it the more precious for all that to the few who enjoyed it. But the masses of the people, deprived of all the privileges and restraining influences of public worship, and in the freedom and excitement of subduing a new country, drifted into a state of religious indifference and moral carelessness.

But there was a vital leaven at work even then, which came in with the tide of immigration, and which could not be wholly destroyed, and we turn now to consider for our part the Methodist elements and activities among the first settlers of Texas.

Northeastern Texas

THE first American settlements in the province of Texas were made in three distinct localities ; namely, in the Eed River section of the northeast; in the " Redlands ' ' of the eastern portion ; and in the colonial grants, located in south-central Texas. It is in these regions, therefore, that we hear of the first activities of the Methodist preacher. Speaking in ecclesiastical terms, we shall find that it was within the bounds of the present Paris district, North Texas Conference, and in the Nacogdoches and Brenham districts of the Texas Conference that the first preaching and organization of our Church in this state occurred. The earliest of all these settlements was made in the Red River section, and to this region we must look for the first Methodist preaching on what is now Texas soil.

The first settlers on this side of Red River made their appearance there about 1815, before the boundary line between American and Spanish territory had been defined. It had not yet been determined which fork of the river Red River proper or Sulphur Fork was the main stream, and as the United States claimed "all the Red River water-shed on both sides" these pioneers from the States assumed that they were still safely within the bounds of their native country.

The first preacher of any denomination to visit these remote settlements was undoubtedly William Stevenson. It has been stated that Stevenson preached on this side of Eed Eiver as early as 1815, "at the house of a Mr. Wright, who had recently moved out from Smith County, Tennessee." 1 This visit must be placed a year or two later. The records of the Tennessee, Missouri, Arkansas, and Mississippi Conferences furnish us with a fairly complete history of Stevenson's ministerial career. He was admitted on trial into the Tennessee Conference, held late in October, 1815, in Wilson County, Tenn., about twenty-five miles east of Nashville. His first appointment was Bellevue circuit, in what was then the Missouri district (all of this territory at that time being included in the Tennessee Conference), Bellevue being located in Washington County, Missouri. All the available data on Stevenson's life show that he had lived east of the Mississippi Eiver up to the time of entering upon his first appointment. It is seen to be out of the question, therefore, to suppose that he could have appeared on Eed Eiver in 1815. In 1816 the Missouri Conference was created, embracing all of Arkansas. Two circuits were laid out in Arkansas, one of which was the Hot Springs circuit, embracing all the territory lying south of Arkansas Eiver. On this circuit, at the Missouri Conference in the fall of 1816, William Stevenson was placed, and he was reappointed to the same circuit in the fall of 1817. From certain biographical notes we learn that Stevenson settled in Hempstead County, in southwestern Arkansas, about 1816, and he lived here for about ten years, and the conference minutes show his name in connection with circuits and districts in this region through all these years. These facts furnish a substantial support, therefore, for some accounts of Stevenson 's preaching on this side of Eed Eiver as early as 1817 and through subsequent years.

The main point of entry into Texas in those days was known as Jonesboro, situated on this side of Eed Eiver. Many of the early settlers about that point unite in the testimony that a Methodist class was formed in Jonesboro in 1817, antedating by several years any other Protestant organization on Texas soil. How long the Jonesboro society existed, or who composed it, there are no known records in existence to show. 2 It has been quite generally stated by Thrall, Dr. McLean and Andrew Davis that the leader of this class was named Tidwell, a name associated with one of the early families of Jonesboro which gave us a Methodist preacher by the name of Andrew Davis. Andrew Davis was born at Jonesboro, the son of Daniel Davis by a second marriage. Daniel Davis settled at Jonesboro in 1818 with a first wife, whose name was Tidwell. Our Jonesboro classleader, then, was probably a brother or other near relative of the first wife of Daniel Davis.

Jonesboro nowhere appears in the minutes of the conferences of that day, and as the name soon dropped out of use there is some uncertainty as to the exact location of the place. Andrew Davis, a native of the village, says that the place now called Pecan Point on Bed Eiver was the old Jonesboro of his nativity. He ought to know. But others, among whom were the McKenzie's, who came in a later day to that region, say that the present village of Davenport on Red River is the successor of Jonesboro. The Methodists of that country should settle this question, and mark the spot.

Pecan Point whether the same as the present Pecan Point on Red River we do not know appears in the minutes in 1818. In that year the following appointments were made : Black River district, William Stevenson, presiding elder; Hot Springs circuit, Washington

2 Our knowledge of this Jonesboro society and of the date of its organization is furnished mainly by James Graham, an early day preacher. Dr. John H. McLean informed the writer that he had known Graham; that he had such information from him, and had been in possession of Graham's papers and letters until they were turned over to Thrall. A letter to the writer from John T. MeKenzie, of Clarksville, says that he himself had the fact and the circumstance of the Jonesboro class from an old lady who was one of the first settlers of the place.

First Methodist Preaching And Organization 15

Orr ; Mount Prairie and Pecan Point, William Stevenson and James Lowrey. In 1819 we have : Black River district, William Stevenson, P. E. ; Arkansas circuit, Washington Orr; Mt. Prairie, Wm. Stevenson; Pecan Point, Thomas Tennant. In 1820: Arkansas district, Wm. Stevenson, P. E. ; Pecan Point, Washington Orr; Hot Springs circuit, Henry Stephenson. So, besides Stevenson, other preachers who labored through this early period in this region were Henry Stephenson, Washington Orr, James Lowrey and Thomas Tennant. Of the last two we know nothing. Of Henry Stephenson we shall have much to say hereafter. Washington Orr was a useful preacher in this section from 1818 to 1823, when he located and removed to Missouri, where he. died in 1853. A brother, Green Orr, was one of the first settlers on this side of Bed Eiver, and for twenty years he labored in that country as a local preacher. He subsequently removed to Indianola, on Matagorda Bay, where he died. William Stevenson, the forerunner and leader of this early company of Methodist preachers who labored in southwestern Arkansas and northeastern Texas, was not only the first preacher to enter Texas, but he was the first regular itinerant to enter and preach in Arkansas as well. 4 He was the pathfinder for all the southwestern frontier of Methodism. Born in a frontier settlement of South Carolina in 1768, his long life of eighty-nine years was spent along the outposts of settlement and civilization in the west and southwest. His parents belonged to the Presbyterian Church, in which he was baptized in infancy. At the age of twenty-four he removed to Tennessee. Here he was converted, at the age of thirtytwo, joined the Methodists, and soon thereafter was licensed to preach. He labored as a local preacher with a good degree of success in the great revival which spread over Tennessee, Kentucky, and other regions during the early years of the last century. As we have seen he was admitted on trial at the session of the Tennessee Conference in October, 1815, and sent at once into the wilds beyond the Mississippi. We have already given some account of his labors during the years following his settlement in Arkansas. In 1820 he was elected a member of the first Arkansas territorial legislature, and was chosen speaker of the house, but this office he resigned on account of indisposition. 5

About the year 1826 Jesse Haile came on the Arkansas district as presiding elder. He was an ultra-abolitionist on the slavery question, and sought literally, and sometimes harshly, to enforce the rule then standing in the Discipline making a slave owner ineligible to hold official position in the Church, and requiring traveling preachers who might come into possession of slaves to emancipate them, or forfeit their ministerial standing. Haile 's outspoken views and his administration of the Discipline on this point produced much excitement and resentment in the church, and as a conseqiience many substantial Methodist families removed from this territory into northwestern Louisiana. Among them came William Stevenson and Henry Stephenson, though these preachers did not own slaves, and were not themselves victims of the "Haile storm," as this disturbance was long afterwards called. 6 This new community of Methodists, now living within the bounds of the Mississippi Conference, was soon afterwards visited by a presiding elder and a traveling preacher in connection with that conference ; a camp meeting was held, a new circuit was formed, called Nachitoches circuit, and William Stevenson placed in charge. The following year Stevenson transferred his membership from the Missouri to the Mississippi Conference, and he continued his relation to that conference until the creation of the Louisiana Conference in 1846, when his membership fell into that received the impress of Ms ministry before entering Texas. Stevenson is described by a fellow-laborer in the Mississippi Conference 7 as " a small man, compactly built, lithe and active, and capable of great endurance; with rather a small face, long nose, and a natural or accidental defect in the upper lid of one eye, by which the ball was about half obscured, which gave him, when quiet, a sleepy appearance. When in a state of repose there was nothing in his countenance to indicate his superior intellectuality but the luster of his quick, flashing and penetrating eye. He had not the shadow of a doubt as to the truth of the glorious and awful doctrines of the gospel, and he preached in view of the final results of the gospel scheme both to those who received it and those who rejected it. In all his public exercises he was short and direct. In his prayers, exhortations and sermons there was nothing redundant on the one hand, while on the other there was no deficiency. The most listless and captious hearers could not justly complain at the length of his prayers or sermons, and they could not be uninterested. He was a sharp-shooter, and everybody was apt to be hit somewhere who came within the range of his gospel missiles. He was in the proper sense a revivalist. He was, with his excellent wife, industrious and economical in his domestic affairs, and always seemed to have a comfortable living; but devoting himself so exclusively to the work of the ministry, mostly in new countries, he passed through his long life with but little property. ' '

Dismissing then our honored brother, except for a few incidental references, we return to consider another matter or two bearing upon Methodist foundations in northeastern Texas. The work in this region was for many years until 1844 in fact a remote extension of Arkansas Methodism, and beyond a few items which may be gathered from the conference minutes the records covering this period are extremely meager. In addition to the preaching and organization at Jonesboro, we are told that "in 1817 William Stevenson and Henry Stephenson preached on Sulphur Fork of Bed Eiver," and that preaching was afterwards kept up there. 8 But several years elapsed before the efforts of the first preachers in this rude wilderness appear to have yielded permanent results. The sparseness and roving disposition of the population, their freedom from legal restraint, together with the natural difficulties of the country, united to make this an unhopeful field. ' * Jonesboro was a hard place," writes John T. McKenzie, 9 "and its citizens were the same. In talking with an old lady who lived there for several years, and who was well acquainted with the old settlers of that community who have long since 'passed over the river/ she informed me that they told the preacher he must come back no more to preach, and if he did they would nail him up in a barrel and throw him into the river."

Besides the difficulties already noted, the Indian was then in the land, and the frequent incursions of the wilder tribes from the west made permanent settlement and a stable society a matter for future years. Andrew Davis, who was born at Jonesboro in 1827, and who spent 'his youth in that region, says in his autobiographical sketches : 10

My father came to Northern Texas and settled in Jonesboro in 1818. The settlers were few in number, and like all new countries, in a wholly unorganized condition, which made them an easier prey than they would otherwise have been. These Indian troubles caused my father to make a number of hasty moves. The community at Jonesboro was one well-nigh broken up. Many left there, some going to Arkansas, and others to

10 Written out by Davis in later life, but never published. Kindly loaned to the author by his daughter, Mrs. A. Laswell, Waxahachie, Texas.

Nacogdoches and San Augustine. ... A Mr. Trammel was the first man to move his family from this Eed Eiver country prior to 1825 to Nacogdoches. There had never been a road prepared that a wheeled conveyance could pass from one section to the other. Mr. Trammel, with chopping axes and hatchets, cut out a road from Pecan Point, or Jonesboro, to the East, so that pack horses could pass over it.

That settlements were "few and far between," even up in the thirties, is indicated from the fact that when General Houston came to Texas in 1832, "he crossed Eed Eiver at Jonesboro, 11 and proceeded from there to Nacogdoches, seeing but two houses on the way." 12

We have given a sketch or two in the preceding chapter illustrating the rude conditions under which the first settlers in Austin 's. colony lived. As a companion piece, portraying conditions on Eed Eiver in the earliest days, we will add the following from Andrew Davis :

I was not born in a mansion. The home was, with all its surroundings, of an humble character. A neighbor of my father's at the time of my birth described the place to me after I was a grown man. He said the house was a double-hued log house, with a ten foot entry between the rooms. The floor was of puncheons, laid down out of hewed timbers. All the houses were covered with boards rived from the oak timber of the country. The fire places were from three to six feet wide, and deep enough that large logs could be piled in them, making log fires. The cracks in the houses were first closed up with wood, over which clot boards were nailed on the outside, and the cracks were daubed with mortar. The doors and window shutters were made of boards. The windows were protected with a kind of

II An item of interest from Davis 's reminiscences: "My father was almost the first man to see General Houston on Texas soil. I feel warranted in saying that my father's house was the first house that General Houston entered in Texas. The information I have on this point is directly from Houston. I filled the pulpit in Huntsville a term just before the Civil War, and was frequently at General Houston's house. When he found out that I was a native of Texas, and born at Jonesboro, he said, 'Are you a son of Daniel Davis?' I told him I was. He then said that he rested at my father 's house eight or ten days after crossing Eed Biver. ' ' clarified raw-hide that admitted light into the rooms much better than anyone would imagine. The yard was large, with but little shrubbery, enclosed with an old-fashioned rail fence. This was the best character of homes in the early day. Most of the houses had dirt floors, and beds were often upon forks driven in the ground, on boards placed upon the poles. I have slept on such a bed-stead myself in my frontier ministry, back in the forties. Some people had feather beds; others used mattresses of the most common character, and all the under beds were made of the better quality of prairie grass. ...

My apparel was of course common character. The pantaloons were generally made of buck-skin, and also the vest and coats, or rather hunting shirts, for they were more common than coats. As time advanced the people began to make looms for weaving a coarse kind of cloth. The spinning wheel and cards came into use. The women made a coarse kind of cotton and woolen cloth, which began to take the place of buck-skin clothing. As to shoes, they were not to be had at all. A moccasin after the fashion of those worn by the Indians was common. I never wore a shoe until I was nine or ten years old. . . . The nearest place for supplies, both as to clothing and groceries, was Calafabra (now Camden), on White River, Arkansas. The living, therefore, was mostly on wild animals, beef and some kind of hominy ; and sometimes the hominy was not to be had because the corn was not in reach.

We shall take leave of this region for the present, which is as yet little better than a wilderness and a solitary place, to consider Methodist beginnings in other portions of Texas ; but we will return in later chapters, to find conditions improving and Methodism taking root in the Red River country.

Chapter Iii Methodist Beginnings In East Texas

WHEN we come to consider Methodist foundations in East Texas we at once meet the names of Stevenson and Stephenson, with which we became familiar in the last chapter. These pioneers have been often confused in published historical sketches, and the inference has been drawn that they were brothers, due to the similarity of their names and to the fact that they were contemporaries and labored much together in the same fields. But they were of different families ; they spelled their names after the forms used herein, and there is no evidence whatever that they were related. We have given an outline of the life of William Stevenson, in which it was noted that he was born in South Carolina in 1768. Henry Stephenson was born in Virginia in 1772, and, like Stevenson, of Presbyterian parentage. At the age of twenty he emigrated with the family to Kentucky, and later to Missouri, locating near the present town of St. Charles. Stephenson was soon thereafter converted and entered the membership of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He was licensed to preach by Jesse Walker in 1812. After his marriage he removed to Arkansas, first to Lawrence County, and in 1817 to Hempstead County. Here for the first time he came in contact with William Stevenson, and henceforth they are associated much together in pioneering for Methodism in the southwest. They removed with their families together into northwestern Louisiana in 1826, and after that time we

Methodist Beginnings In East Texas 23

As to which one of these preachers was the first to lift his voice on this side of the Sabine we cannot positively determine. There is some respectable testimony to the effect that William Stevenson visited and preached in the old town of Nacogdoches in the year 1817, while still a resident of Arkansas, the year being the same that marks his entry into northeastern Texas. Joseph P. Sneed, who was one of the first regular preachers to labor in Texas, leaves on record this item: "William Stevenson preached in Texas in the old stone house at Nachitoches in 1817, while traveling Nachitoches circuit, accompanied by Rev. Joseph Eeed, who died in Hempstead county, Ark." Before examining this scrap let us add another from a different source, which seems to confirm the main point. James P. Stevenson, a son of William Stevenson, lived through his later years in Stephens County, Texas, and died there in 1885. From The Texan, published at Breckenridge in that county, we have a clipping giving a sketch of Stevenson's life and something about his father, based upon information obtained from Stevenson himself. The story was written during Stevenson's lifetime, and is signed by Wm. W. Schermerhorn. The following is extracted from the article:

In 1817 William Stevenson, a Methodist minister, preached at the village of Nacogdoches to a mixed assemblage of citizens and Mexicans, who received the American priest by reverently kissing his hands in homage ,to his holy office. The strange priest departed, and the event, which may for a time have been theme for comment in the barracks and around the rude hearthstones of the pioneers, gradually faded from memory from those who had listened to the strange songs of praise.

In the Sneed account the names of places are a little mixed, he evidently having confused Nachitoches, La., and Nacogdoches, Texas. And the record is plainly against his statement that Stevenson was on the Nachitoches circuit in 1817. The minutes list him during that year as on the Hot Springs circuit, Arkansas. The Eev. Joseph Reed, or Reid, mentioned by Sneed as having accompanied Stevenson to Nacogdoches, we have been able to identify as a local preacher in southwestern Arkansas, and this is a circumstance in favor of the truthfulness of the account. The account from Stevenson's son in the Breckenridge paper appears to be authentic and clear on the main point. Still, after taking into account all the circumstances which seem to favor accepting the item as historical, we must say that the probabilities are strongly against it, when we consider the distance from Stevenson's home, in Hempstead County, Arkansas, to Nacogdoches, the greater part of it a trackless wilderness lying in an unknown and a foreign country. The fact that Stevenson first preached in Texas in 1817, and that in 1827 he was on the Nachitoches circuit in Louisiana, in close proximity to the Texas border, and could have easily made the visit alluded to in the latter year such a combination of dates and circumstances could have given rise to the tradition recorded above.

Another instance of early preaching and work in East Texas which has been advanced may be referred to here, although we have been unable to uncover more evidence than that submitted, or to arrive at more of the details. This relates to James English, a Methodist local preacher, who is said to have settled in Shelby County in 1825. In a letter from a later relative, but himself an old timer of Shelby County, 1 it is declared that English "was the first minister of the Church to enter what is now Shelby county ; he preached the first sermon, organized the first church, and built the first church house here. He was a faithful servant of the Master, and highly respected among all classes of people here. He located here in 1825 and remained here many years. He had a very large and influential family, being the eldest of six brothers, two of whom, Joshua and Jonas English, married two sisters, Candace and Martha Todd, who were sisters of my mother, Susan Todd, all of whom were well known to the old timers who are still surviving here." We find the name of James English mentioned once in the records left by some of the later preachers who labored in this section, referring to him as assisting in a revival held in 1834 ; but we have seen no reference anywhere to the church he is said to have organized, or to a church house credited to him.

Henry Stephenson, while serving a circuit in Louisiana, held a camp-meeting on the Texas border in 1829, probably on the Louisiana side, but many neighboring Texans attended this meeting. We have no further notice of preaching in this section until 1832, when Needham J. Alford, a Methodist local preacher residing in Louisiana, preached at San Augustine, Texas, and on the site of the present town of Milam. To J. P. Sneed we are indebted for an account of Alford 's preaching, as to him we are also indebted for many other incidents of our early history. No one had better opportunity of knowing the facts. Says Sneed, referring to the events of 1832 : 2

The first protracted or camp meeting held in East Texas was near the town of Milam, Sabine county, on the old King's highway at a little branch. The meeting was appointed for Nedon J. Alford and Bro. Turner [Sumner] Bacon, a colporter sent out by the Natchez; Tract and Sunday School society of the 0. S. P. Church [Old School Presbyterian]. The meeting was held by Bro. Alford, probably better known as the Bull-dog preacher. He was a Methodist preacher living in Louisiana, about twelve miles from the Sabine river on the road. As soon as the meeting was appointed it met with opposition from a Mr. Gomez Gaines, who owned the ferry on the Sabine, and who as an officer of Spain [Mexico] thought it his duty to oppose it, but especially by a Mr. Johnson who appeared on the ground before the preacher, Bro. Alford, arrived, with a long cow whip in his hand, declaring that he would whip the first man who entered the stand. Bro. Alford arrived in the midst of the confusion and threats, and was met by Jesse Parker an old friend who had known him from a boy. He walked up to him as soon as he arrived and said, "Nedom, I am glad to see you, I was afraid you would not come. ' ' During the conversation one of his sons came up and said, "Pa, Mr. Johnson says that the first man that goes into the stand I will put him out and whip him with my cow whip." On hearing this Bro. A. replied, "I am as able to take a whipping as any man on this ground I'll go on to the stand and see if hell pull me out and whip me." So he walked in and looked over on Johnson, who soon left the ground, and died soon after. Bro. A. preached with power. The meeting continued till Sunday night. Immediately after the commencement of the meeting the commander at Nacogdoches, Col. Piedras, was informed of it. He asked if they were stealing horses. The answer was "No." Are they killing anybody? No. He then replied, "Let them alone," and from that day there was no more opposition to Protestant preaching in that section of the country.

We are not to infer from BrotKer Sneed 's direct way of disposing of the bully Johnson that he died at once, from shock produced by Alford 's accepting his challenge. But at any rate we have the assurance that Johnson is dead. His threatenings, however, or the hostile attitude of the ferryman Gaines, seemed to lend caution to the next preacher who came the following year.

In 1833 East Texas received its first visit from a regular preacher, in the person of James P. Stevenson, then serving on the Nachitoches circuit, Louisiana. Stevenson's preaching tours and the work that was done on this side of the border that year are well authenticated, as we have not only his own account, but this is corroborated, on the facts which follow, by Joseph P. Sneed, a contemporary. 3 In May, 1833, Stevenson casually met some Texans in a store at Nachitoches, Louisiana, who invited him to preach in Texas. Stevenson replied that he was afraid to undertake it, as he understood that it was a penal offense to hold Protestant services in Texas. The Texans, Lowe and Milton by name, insisted, and the latter, a man of giant frame, gave a full guarantee of protection. "You come," he insisted, "and I'll stand at your back and see you through." In consequence of this interview a two days' meeting was appointed at John Smith's in Sabine County, where Milam now stands, and Stevenson was to preach at the house of Lowe on the Friday preceding. In due time Stevenson crossed over to proceed to his appointments, and true to his word Milton met him and conducted him to the place. A large congregation was awaiting the preacher at Smith's, where he preached without interruption. Col. McMahan, residing some eight or ten miles distant, sent an urgent invitation to the preacher to visit his house and preach on the following Monday, and Stevenson responded, being greeted here by another large congregation. Stevenson thought so well of his reception and of the opportunities in this locality, that before returning to Louisiana he appointed another meeting for the McMahan neighborhood, this time for the 4th of July. At that date he returned and held a three days' meeting, being assisted by local preachers Alford, McKinney and Matthews. He left another appointment for September, and this meeting was on even a larger scale. He was assisted this time by local preachers McKinney, Gordon and Dawdy, the last named having just arrived in the country. On Sunday of this meeting the people insisted on the organization of a church. Stevenson was not willing to leave a church organization as an open and a standing violation of the laws of the country. After some deliberation he organized a "religious society, ' ' consisting of forty-eight members, over whom he appointed Col. McMahan as "class-leader."

It is hardly correct to say that a church was organized at McMahan's in 1833, as Thrall and others state. Stevenson himself says that the organization did not take the name of church, and that none of the ordinances or formalities of the church were observed. Sneed did not regard the action taken as amounting to the formation of a church, and he says that after Stevenson left, "the society scattered and never met again." But while no church was formally organized here this year, the material was prepared and the foundation laid for the most historic Protestant church in Texas. There were many conversions at the meetings of 1833, and many of the persons who loosely united themselves in a temporary society became charter members of a regularly organized church which was set up here the following year.

James P. Stevenson, the first itinerant to hold meetings in these woods, was not returned by his conference, and after two years he ceased to travel. He was born in Smith County, Tenn., in 1808, the son of William Stevenson. He was converted under his father's ministry after removal to Louisiana. He attended school for a time at Augusta College, Kentucky, while Dr. Martin Ruter was president of that institution. At the age of twenty-two or twenty-three he was licensed to preach in Louisiana under his father as presiding elder. He was admitted into the Mississippi Conference (which embraced the state of Louisiana) in 1831, and continued in connection with that conference until 1835, when he located and removed into East Texas. He bore arms in the Texas revolution the following year, and after the war he settled down as a farmer and local preacher. In later years he removed to western Texas, locating in Stephens County. He died near Breckenridge in 1885, in his seventy-eighth year.

Methodist Beginnings In East Texas 29

of all the work in Texas. His appointment, with that of a colleague, Enoch Whatley, appears as Sabine circuit, in Louisiana (embraced in the Mississippi Conference) ; but Stephenson was instructed by his presiding elder to spend one-half of his time in Texas. In the spring Stephenson made a journey into Texas as far as the Colorado River, and again in the fall he returned to that section and assisted in a camp-meeting in Austin's colony, which will be noticed in the next chapter. In July of this year 1834 Stephenson held a camp-meeting at McMahan's, on the spot where James P. Stevenson had preached the year before. From some recollections written in later life Joseph P. Sneed says of this meeting: "The preachers present at this meeting were Henry Stephenson, Joseph P. Sneed, Uriah Whatley, Enoch Whatley, Jeptha Hughes, James English and a Cumberland Presbyterian preacher, Sumner Bacon. The congregations were considered large and well-behaved. There were several conversions. The society that Bro. James Stevenson formed and never met was scattered. Henry Stephenson formed one and appointed Bro. McMahan leader. This society remains to this day [1873]."

There is a note of certainty about this record, as there is the mark of permanency upon the work done. Stephenson, Sneed and the two Whatleys were all regular traveling preachers of the Mississippi Conference, who had come over in force from their circuits in Louisiana to unite in planting a church in Texas. And that they succeeded is borne out by the long period of subsequent history. The church planted at McMahan's in July, 1834, remained not only until 1873, the date Sneed writes, but it remains to this day, the oldest church having a continuous existence in Texas. The spot at which these early meetings were held and where the first church was organized was at the home of Col. McMahan, " which consisted of four cabins enclosing a court in which the especially by a Mr. Johnson who appeared on the ground before the preacher, Bro. Alford, arrived, with a long cow whip in his hand, declaring that he would whip the first man who entered the stand. Bro. Alford arrived in the midst of the confusion and threats, and was met by Jesse Parker an old friend who had known him from a boy. He walked up to him as soon as he arrived and said, "Nedom, I am glad to see you, I was afraid you would not come. ' ' During the conversation one of his sons came up and said, "Pa, Mr. Johnson says that the first man that goes into the stand I will put him out and whip him with my cow whip." On hearing this Bro. A. replied, "I am as able to take a whipping as any man on this ground I'll go on to the stand and see if he'll pull me out and whip me." So he walked in and looked over on Johnson, who soon left the ground, and died soon after. Bro. A. preached with power. The meeting continued till Sunday night. Immediately after the commencement of the meeting the commander at Nacogdoches, Col. Piedras, was informed of it. He asked if they were stealing horses. The answer was "No." Are they killing anybody? No. He then replied, "Let them alone," and from that day there was no more opposition to Protestant preaching in that section of the country.

We are not to infer from Brother Sneed's direct way of disposing of the bully Johnson that he died at once, from shock produced by Alford 's accepting his challenge. But at any rate we have the assurance that Johnson is dead. His threatenings, however, or the hostile attitude of the ferryman Graines, seemed to lend caution to the next preacher who came the following year.

In 1833 East Texas received its first visit from a regular preacher, in the person of James P. Stevenson, then serving on the Nachitoches circuit, Louisiana. Stevenson's preaching tours and the work that was done on this side of the border that year are well authenticated, as we have not only his own account, but this is corroborated, on the facts which follow, by Joseph P. Sneed, a contemporary. 3 In May, 1833, Stevenson casually met some Texans in a store at Nachitoch.es, Louisiana, who invited him to preach in Texas. Stevenson replied that he was afraid to undertake it, as he understood that it was a penal offense to hold Protestant services in Texas. The Texans, Lowe and Milton by name, insisted, and the latter, a man of giant frame, gave a full guarantee of protection. "You come," he insisted, "and I'll stand at your back and see you through." In consequence of this interview a two days' meeting was appointed at John Smith's in Sabine County, where Milam now stands, and Stevenson was to preach at the house of Lowe on the Friday preceding. In due time Stevenson crossed over to proceed to his appointments, and true to his word Milton met him and conducted him to the place. A large congregation was awaiting the preacher at Smith's, where he preached without interruption. Col. McMahan, residing some eight or ten miles distant, sent an urgent invitation to the preacher to visit his house and preach on the following Monday, and Stevenson responded, being greeted here by another large congregation. Stevenson thought so well of his reception and of the opportunities in this locality, that before returning to Louisiana he appointed another meeting for the McMahan neighborhood, this time for the 4th of July. At that date he returned and held a three days' meeting, being assisted by local preachers Alford, McKinney and Matthews. He left another appointment for September, and this meeting was on even a larger scale. He was assisted this time by local preachers McKinney, Gordon and Dawdy, the last named having just arrived in the country. On Sunday of this meeting the people insisted on the organization of a church. Stevenson was not willing to leave a church organization as an open and a standing violation of the laws of the country. After some deliberation he organized a "religious society, ' ' consisting of forty-eight members, over whom he appointed Col. McMahan as "class-leader."

It is hardly correct to say that a church was organized at McMahan's in 1833, as Thrall and others state. Stevenson himself says that the organization did not take the name of church, and that none of the ordinances or formalities of the church were observed. Sneed did not regard the action taken as amounting to the formation of a church, and he says that after Stevenson left, "the society scattered and never met again. " But while no church was formally organized here this year, the material was prepared and the foundation laid for the most historic Protestant church in Texas. There were many conversions at the meetings of 1833, and many of the persons who loosely united themselves in a temporary society became charter members of a regularly organized church which was set up here the following year.

James P. Stevenson, the first itinerant to hold meetings in these woods, was not returned by his conference, and after two years he ceased to travel. He was born in Smith County, Tenn., in 1808, the son of William Stevenson. He was converted under his father's ministry after removal to Louisiana. He attended school for a time at Augusta College, Kentucky, while Dr. Martin Ruter was president of that institution. At the age of twenty-two or twenty-three he was licensed to preach in Louisiana under his father as presiding elder. He was admitted into the Mississippi Conference (which embraced the state of Louisiana) in 1831, and continued in connection with that conference until 1835, when he located and removed into East Texas. He bore arms in the Texas revolution the following year, and after the war he settled down as a farmer and local preacher. In later years he removed to western Texas, locating in Stephens County. He died near Breckenridge in 1885, in his seventy-eighth year.

of all the work in Texas. His appointment, with that of a colleague, Enoch Whatley, appears as Sabine circuit, in Louisiana (embraced in the Mississippi Conference) ; but Stephenson was instructed by Ms presiding elder to spend one-half of his time in Texas. In the spring Stephenson made a journey into Texas as far as the Colorado River, and again in the fall he returned to that section and assisted in a camp-meeting in Austin's colony, which will be noticed in the next chapter. In July of this year 1834 Stephenson held a camp-meeting at McMahan's, on the spot where James P. Stevenson had preached the year before. From some recollections written in later life Joseph P. Sneed says of this meeting: "The preachers present at this meeting were Henry Stephenson, Joseph P. Sneed, Uriah Whatley, Enoch Whatley, Jeptha Hughes, James English and a Cumberland Presbyterian preacher, Sumner Bacon. The congregations were considered large and well-behaved. There were several conversions. The society that Bro. James Stevenson formed and never met was scattered. Henry Stephenson formed one and appointed Bro. McMahan leader. This society remains to this day [1873]."

There is a note of certainty about this record, as there is the mark of permanency upon the work done. Stephenson, Sneed and the two Whatleys were all regular traveling preachers of the Mississippi Conference, who had come over in force from their circuits in Louisiana to unite in planting a church in Texas. And that they succeeded is borne out by the long period of subsequent history. The church planted at McMahan's in July, 1834, remained not only until 1873, the date Sneed writes, but it remains to this day, the oldest church having a continuous existence in Texas. The spot at which these early meetings were held and where the first church was organized was at the home of Col. McMahan, " which consisted of four cabins enclosing a court in which the meetings were held." The ground, as described by Stevenson, was "on a high ridge, covered by an open growth of large hickory timber, interspersed with red oak, the opening between the towering forest trees being covered with a luxuriant growth of grass."

While more detailed reference to this church may be made in later chapters, we note now that this congregation completed its first church building in 1839, when the church took the name of McMahan Chapel. This building was displaced by a new one in 1872, and this one in turn gave place to another in 1900, all occupying in succession the same location, and situated on or near the first campmeeting site. The church is located about twelve miles east of San Augustine, and is now included in " Geneva circuit. ' '

The nestor of Methodism in this quarter was Col. Samuel McMahan, who removed with his family from Tennessee and settled in Texas in 1831, locating about twelve miles east of San Augustine. " While engaged in secret prayer on the bank of Aish Bayou in 1832 he was happily converted," says Thrall. J. P. Sneed thinks that Col. McMahan 's was the first conversion in Texas. That it was genuine was amply attested by the work and influence of his life. We have seen that lie was appointed the first class-leader of the first permanent church in Texas. A son, James B. McMahan, became a local preacher, and the Colonel himself was licensed to preach by Eobert Alexander at the first quarterly conference held in that section in 1837. It is also said that among those brought into the church by his instrumentality were J. T. P. Irvine, Enoch P. Chisholm, and Acton Young, all of whom married daughters of Col. McMahan, and all of whom subsequently became traveling preachers. Col. McMahan died in 1854, and sleeps in the grave-yard near the church which bears his name.

Methodist Beginnings In East Texas 31

organized a church at the house of George Teel, at which "a number of the Teels, Zubers and others joined the Church". 4 Among the others was Miss Eliza McFarland, the first to give her name, who had been a charter member of the first church organized in Monroe, La., and the daughter of a former distinguished family of Cincinnati. 5 She later married Dr. Lawhon, a Methodist local preacher. A daughter of this George Teel married Tom Farmer, a famous Methodist in his day: Farmer first settled after his marriage on Sabine Bay, and Stephenson visited the Farmer home and preached there in 1834. It appears that while the church formed at Teel's antedated by one month the McMahan church, to which more attention has been devoted above, and which dates from July of this year, 1834, yet we have no further account of the Teel organization, and, like the predecessor of the church on the Polygoche, it must have "scattered, and never met again."

At the session of the Mississippi Conference, held at Clinton, Miss., in November, 1834, Henry Stephenson was returned to the Texas field, this time by official appointment to the "Texas Mission." This is the first time that Texas, or any distinctive Texas appointment, appears in the minutes of any conference. It was attached to the Louisiana district, Preston Cooper, presiding elder. The province of Texas had long been looked upon as a great and needy field by the Mississippi Conference leaders, but they had been slow in sending a missionary across the border on account of the prohibitory laws against Protestant worship. But the movement of events in Texas now appeared to be toward revolution and independence from Mexico, and the time seemed opportune to plan a regular mission among that distant people. "Henry Stephenson was more than willing to take charge of this mission," says J. G. Jones, in his

" History of Methodism in Mississippi. " "For more than a dozen years he had kept his eye and his heart on the establishment of Methodism in Texas. He seemed to feel a providential call in that direction, and kept himself poor in worldly substance by devoting much of his time and labor, mainly at his own expense, to these pioneer preaching excursions. ' ' Stephenson removed to Texas early in 1835 and settled on Cow Creek, a branch of the Sabine, and made this new location his base of operations.

Chapter Iv Beginnings In The Colonies

THAT Henry Stephenson visited and preached in Austin's colony in the earliest days of its existence that he was, in fact, the first Protestant preacher to do so is without question. J. P. Sneed, a contemporary member of the Mississippi Conference, and who subsequently traveled in Texas over much of the country first traversed by Stephenson, says: 1 " Conversing a few days since with Sister Gates, who was the first or second white woman that crossed the Brazos at the Labahia [Goliad] crossing, where Washington now stands, and settled some seven miles below on the bank of the river. Her husband and herself were both members of the Methodist E. Church. The conversation turned on religion in those days, and the privations of the early settlers, which took place in 1822 [that is, the settlement of the Gates 's on the Brazos] . This country was then a Mexican province, and continued such up to 1836. No protestants were permitted to enjoy their religious privileges openly or publicly; but Brother Gates and a few others once and awhile united in the service of God. About one year after they had settled an old acquaintance (Henry Stephenson, a Methodist preacher) visited them and preached for them and a few other neighbors, not desiring to let it be known publicly. This was no doubt the first protestant sermon ever preached west of the Brazos." 2

2 The accounts of the earliest preaching in Texas of other denominations, as furnished to Yoakum by representatives of these Churches, is as

It appears from the same account that Stephenson had on this occasion "seven or eight hearers," and that on this journey he visited San Felipe, Col. Austin's new capital, but was not permitted to preach. Thrall names other places at which Stephenson preached on this journey, as follows: James Cummings's, on Cummings Creek; Andrew Jackson's, on Peach Creek; Nathaniel Moore's, on the Colorado; Samuel Carter's, near Columbus; and at Castlemen's and John Rabb's, near San Felipe. John Eabb fixes the date of this visit of Stephenson as June, 1824. The Moore's and the Babb's had originally settled in the Sulphur Fork country, in northeastern Texas, and they had known Stephenson there; follows: "The first Baptist minister who preached in Texas was the Key. Joseph Bays, who emigrated from Missouri, in company with Joseph Lindley, and preached on Peach creek, on the west side of the Brazos, in 1826. In the latter part of 1827 he removed to San Augustine, where he continued his labors until he was compelled by the Mexican authorities to leave. In 1829 Eev. Thomas Hanks from Tennessee preached at Moses Shipman's on the west side of the Brazos. ... In 1830 and 1831 Elders George Woodruff and Skelton Allphine emigrated to Texas, and immediately commenced preaching the gospel. A number of Baptists who had emigrated from New York, established in 1829 at San Felipe a sabbath - school the first in Texas. It was taught by T. J. Pilgrim, then interpreter of the Spanish language in Austin's colony." Yoakum, History of Texas, II, pp. 536, 537. This sabbath school at San Felipe was broken up, at the instigation of the Mexican authorities, as we have seen in a former chapter. Of the Cumberland Presbyterian pioneers, we have the following : "As early as 1828 Eev. Sumner Bacon penetrated as far as San Felipe. He was a native of Massachusetts, had served his period of enlistment in the United States army, and then became a minister of the gospel. . . . He continued preaching in Texas until 1832, when he obtained the appointment of bible agent. He scattered the Word of God from San Antonio to the Sabine. . . . While Bacon and others were preparing to hold a meeting not far from San Augustine, it was understood that certain persons would break it up. Col. Bowie, 'hearing of it, went to the place where the meeting was to be held, and making a sign of the cross on the ground, informed them that he was captain in those parts, and that the meeting should be held. They knew Bowie, and the meeting proceeded quietly. . . . About the year 1833 Eev. Milton Estill came to Texas, and established the first church of this order, in Bed Eiver county then supposed to be Miller county, Arkansas. In 1836 Bacon organized another church in San Augustine county." Ibid., pp. 542, 543. The first preaching and organization of the Protestant Episcopal Church occurred at Matagorda and at Houston in 1838, and in the same year the Eevs. Hugh Wilson, John McCulloch and Daniel Baker, preachers of the Presbyterian Church, began their labors in Texas, at San Augustine, Galveston and elsewhere. Ibid., pp. 532, 534. We have, however, the name of Henry Fullenwider, a Presbyterian preacher, appearing in our records as preaching in Austin's colony in 1835.

Beginnings In The Colonies 35

but in 1821 they removed to Austin's colony, settling on the Colorado. Eabb's account of Stephenson 's visit in 1824 is as follows : 3 "In 1824 I was driven by the Indians from the Colorado Eiver to the Brazos, and compelled to remain there one year before I returned. During my stay there, in June, 1824, the Eev. Henry Stephenson made his first visit to Western Texas. I lived or stayed at that time three miles below San Felipe. He came to see me where I was encamped with my wife and one child. There he preached the first sermon ever preached by a protestant minister in Texas, to a party of four families. Col. Austin knew nothing of his preaching until after he had gone."

Whether Stephenson preached first at Eabb's or at Gates 's is immaterial. It is certain that he made a considerable preaching tour in these settlements on this visit among the first Methodist families, some of whom he had known on Eed Eiver, and to whom he had preached before. Thrall records that Stephenson paid these settlements another visit in 1828 and again in 1830, but we have no account of his preaching on these subsequent visits. In fact we learn that it was quite other business that brought him on his long rides to the west in these latter years. Our account this time is from Lydia McHenry, a member of an early Methodist family in this region, who received her version of Stephenson 's visits from the preacher himself during a visit to her home in 1834. This writer * says that Stephenson had made two previous visits to the colony for the purpose of "collecting a debt. " As he had made three journeys before, we are left to infer that, as there is no account of his preaching on the visits of 1828 and 1830, his presence here during these years was on personal business, and is without significance. This writer says that Stephenson s Article, Texas Methodist Historical Quarterly, July, 1909, copied from Eabb's "Recollections," published in Texas Wesleyaii Banner in 1850. 4 Texas Christian Advocate, Feb. 16, 1860.

was a very timid man, and not disposed to disregard the advice of the officials of "the colony, his caution on this point leading him to refuse to perform a marriage ceremony on one occasion. On a former visit he had met Col. Austin, and discussed with him the subject of missions to Texas, but Austin gave him no encouragement. On the contrary, the empresario had expressed his unqualified disapproval, saying that "one Methodist preacher would do more mischief in his colony than a dozen horsethieves, ' ' by which our writer explains that "political mischief" was meant. But there is no evidence that Col. Austin ever displayed any friendly interest toward missionaries in Texas even when the danger of political mischief was past. This cannot be said of some other officials of the colony, as will be noted.

It is not intended to misrepresent the "Father of Texas" in the matter of his prohibiting public religious services in his colony. There is abundant evidence to show that Austin had little personal respect for the Roman Catholic hierarchy in Mexico, and that he deferred to that religion and forbade the public exercise of any other chiefly as a means of keeping the peace. He expressed the hope of ultimately securing complete religious freedom in Texas. It is plain that he regarded the Methodists as especially obnoxious at this time. In private letters he expresses himself on this point as follows : 5

The Methodists have raised the cry against me, this is what I wished for if they are kept out, or will remain quiet if here for a Short time we shall succeed in getting a free toleration of all Religions, but a few fanatics and imprudent preachers at this time would ruin us we must show the Govt that we are ready to submit to their laws and willing to do so, after that we can with some certainty of success hope to have our privileges extended.

Beginnings In The Colonies 37

I am of opinion that no evils will arise from family or neighborhood worship, or from the delivery of moral lectures, provided it is not done in a way to make a noise about public preaching, so as not to start excited Methodist preachers, for I do say that in some instances they are too fanatic, too violent and too noisy. Moral instruction delivered in that pure, chaste and dignified language and manner with which such instruction ought to be imparted to rational beings, will certainly not be objected to, by the government, on the contrary it will be highly approved of. I give this as my opinion. . . . The subject of preaching must be managed with prudence, for I do assure you that it will not do to have the Methodist excitement raised in this country.

During the ten years following Stephenson's first visit to the west in 1824 the country had been rapidly settling up with American families. Of course many of these had been members of Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian and other churches in the homeland, and the more substantial of these families continued to hold, and in some degree to exercise, the faith which they brought with them. It is certain that such families wielded no small influence on the moral life of the communities in which they settled. These families attracted the first preachers who came into the country to the communities where they lived, and thus began to form about themselves the first churches. Mention has already been made of the Gates family, whereas there were three Gates families who were early settlers in Austin's colony. 6 William Gates removed from Arkansas to the Brazos in 1821, arriving at the present site of old Washington in October of that year, and was one of the first of Austin's colonists to arrive on the ground. It may be seen, therefore, that "Sister Gates was the first or second white woman to cross the Brazos" in this locality, as Sneed says. Samuel Gates came with his family soon afterwards, and Amos Grates, a son of

The Old Three Hundred," L. G. Bugbee, Quafrjterly Texas State Historical Assn., I, 108; C. C. Crane, "Centennial Address," on Washington county ; Obituary of Amos Gates, T. C. A., 1883.

William Gates, arrived on the Brazos in 1824. Coming to the same locality at about the same time as the elder Gates there settled another substantial Methodist family, that of Josiah H. Bell. Bell's land was the first surveyed out in Austin 's colony, the first line being run on October 10, 1823, the surveyor being Horatio Chriesman, whom Austin had brought from Missouri. 7 Chriesman was a Methodist by persuasion, and subsequently joined this church. So that it may be said that the first peg driven in Austin's colony was a Methodist peg, so to speak. It is impossible, of course, at this day to pick out all the Methodist families included in the "Old Three Hundred" of Austin's first colonists, or to designate those who came in during the next few years. Some of these will be mentioned in other connections and in later chapters. For the present we can refer to only a few others. The Kerr family settled on Yegua Creek in 1824, and was from the first a center of Methodist influence. A. B. F. Kerr, in later years a prominent member of the Texas Conference, perpetuates the name. In 1830 Alexander Thomson, a brother of Mrs. Kerr, arrived on the Yegua with a company of immigrants intended for Eobertson's colony. Thomson had been a steward and class-leader in his native srate of Tennessee, and soon after arriving in Texas he "'commenced assembling a small company, including his own family and his sister's, Mrs. Kerr's, and some others, on Sunday morning, and holding a prayer meeting, or reading one of Wesley's sermons. This he continued until Texas was visited by regular preachers," says Thrall. A company of families from North Alabama, who settled on the Navidad River in the fall and winter of 1830-31, was composed of Methodists. "It would be impossible to estimate the influence which these North Alabama colonists have exerted upon the destiny of Texas," continues Thrall, who himself became acquainted with many of these and their descendants.

Beginnings In The Colonies 39

"They have occupied distinguished positions at the bar and on the bench, in conventions and legislative assemblies, in the pulpit and on the battle-field. They have especially exerted a wholesome moral and religious influence, not only where they first settled, but wherever they have been dispersed over the country." Among these families were the Heards, Menefees, Sutherlands and Rectors, and Samuel Rogers, a local preacher all of whom had been accustomed to filling official places in the Church. And this company made at least one contribution to the itinerancy in Texas Alexander Sutherland. There came in also, with the tide of immigration in the earliest days, a few Methodist local preachers and former members of conference, who brought their families to Texas to find a new home and improve their condition. The most of these, moved by the destitution of the settlements into which they had come, began to exercise their gifts here. The first of these who became active in Austin's colony, of whom we 'have any notice, was William Medford, who arrived in Texas in 1833. The following account of Medford and his work appears, without signature, in the Texas Christian Advocate in 1856 :

The first sermon I ever heard in Texas was delivered by Eev. Win. Medford, in the spring of 1833, at the house of Widow Kerr, now in Washington county. It was a funeral sermon on the death of the wife of Mr. George Kerr, now of Fayetteville, Fayette county. The house was crowded; the sermon was appropriate.

Mr. Medford had been a member of one of our Annual Conferences (I think Illinois), but having a large family to provide for he was induced by the offer of the Mexican government of a league of land to emigrate to Texas early in 1833. Immediately after his arrival he obtained an interview with Stephen F. Austin, introduced himself as a Methodist preacher, and asked Col. Austin if there would be any objection to his preaching. He first settled himself near Chappel Hill, and opened a school, which he taught five days in the week. His first attempt to preach was in the log hut in which he taught school. He soon formed a four weeks' circuit, and on his first round he walked. His course was to start on Saturday for his appointment, preach two sermons on the Sabbath, and return early on Monday morning to his schoojp His four appointments were, first, at his own house; second, at Walker's, on New Year's creek; third, at Cooper's, on Mill creek; fourth, at Clokey's, now known as Madison's, in Washington county. On his second round he was presented with horse, saddle and bridle. Quite a number were awakened and converted under his ministry. He was much more popular in his own immediate vicinity than elsewhere, and no man could command a larger congregation.

He lived to see the church regularly organized, his house a regular preaching place for the circuit minister, and the weekly class and prayer-meeting regularly held at his house up to the day of his death. The first Sunday school in that neighborhood was organized and kept in his house until long after his death.

Medf ord was from Missouri, and held membership in the Missouri Conference from 1826 to 1830, when he located. In Texas he fell into disrepute in his later years, due to some unnamed improper conduct, according to John Rabb ; but he was in a large measure exonerated and forgiven before his death.

There arrived at Washington on the Brazos in December, 1833, a Methodist local preacher and former itinerant who from that day fills a large place in the foundation period of Methodism in that region. This was John Wesley Kenney, who had traveled with his family, accompanied by a talented sister-in-law, Miss Lydia McHenry, all the way overland from Illinois. Kenney was cut out for an itinerant, and for places of distinction in the ministry, being a man of strong physical frame, of unusual mental endowments and gifted as a preacher ; but fortune, or rather personal misfortune, had led to his location and removal to Texas. Here he did itinerate, actually and officially, for something like thirty years, and here his talents found opportunity for the widest play.

Beginnings In The Colonies 41

Kenney was born in Pennsylvania in 1799, two years after his parents had arrived from Ireland. His mother had been converted under John Wesley's preaching. The family removed to Ohio, where young Kenney was converted, and where he began preaching at the age of nineteen. Here he became acquainted with Martin Ruter, the two, as we shall see, coming together again in Texas many years later. Kenney was a successful itinerant in Ohio and Kentucky until he located in 1828. In 1824, while on Fountain Head circuit, under Peter Cartwright as presiding elder, he was married to a daughter of Barnabas McHenry, one of the distinguished preachers of his day. In 1832 Kenney served as captain of a company of militia in Illinois against the Black Hawk Indians.

The town of Washington had been laid out in blocks and streets when the Kenney family arrived in 1833, but not a house had been built, says his daughter, Mrs. A. J. Lee, in her reminiscences of her father. 8 " Captain Hall gave father a lot, on which he soon built a log cabin, the first house in the town of Washington, which afterwards boasted of being the capital of the Republic of Texas. . . . He preached his first sermon at the house of Samuel Gates, not far from Washington, in March, 1834. I remember being at the house. This year he moved twenty-five miles southwest from Washington, and settled on his headright league."

It will be remembered that in 1834 Henry Stephenson, though officially appointed to the Sabine circuit in Louisiana, was instructed by his presiding elder to spend onehalf of his time in Texas. He had devoted much labor to East Texas through the summer, as we have noted, and late in August of this year he appears in the west. Soon after Kenney had settled in his new home, in what is now Austin County, 9 Stephenson and Kenney came to-

8 'Published in the Texas Methodist Historical Quarterly, July, 1909. 9 The old Kenney homestead was located four or five miles east of the present station of Kenney on the Santa Fe railroad.

In August, 1834, the Eev. Henry Stephenson again visited Western Texas. He consulted with the Eev. J. W. Kenney on the propriety or impropriety of holding a camp-meeting in Texas. They felt perfectly satisfied, so did all the citizens of Texas, that the general government had dissolved the constitution of 1824; that they were clear of their oath, although not more than one-fourth of the citizens had ever been required to take it. They determined in the name and strength of the Lord Jesus Christ to set up the blood-stained banner, although it was on enchanted ground. They appointed a camp-meeting which commenced on the 3d of September, assisted by the Rev. Mr. Fullenwider, of the old school of Presbyterians, to all appearances a man of God, and two other Methodist ministers, Mr. Babbit and Wm. Medford. ... On Saturday, the 5th, Father Stephenson preached the 11 o'clock sermon. After he was through he opened the door to receive members into the Church. I thought, what a venture on the devils' territory! The words had hardly passed from his lips before I had him by the hand. There were no others joined that day. I had professed religion about two months before this meeting, on the Colorado, in the woods. On Saturday night and Sunday and Sunday night, some eight or ten professed religion. On Monday morning we were called together, and Bro. Kenney opened the doors to receive members. We were seated together on a bench, eighteen in number. A few joined by letter, but the greater part were converted at that meeting. He then addressed us as the little band, for about thirty minutes, from the 2d chapter of 1st John : <{ Little children," &c. Our names were then all taken down, and the meeting dismissed, and we scattered to the east side of the Brazos river and to the Colorado. This meeting was held in the upper side of Austin county, on a branch of Caney Creek. I never pass that old camp ground without stopping and getting on my knees and thanking God that he then and there gave me resolution to join his Church.