COL. C. C. SLAUGHTER, 
 President Mission Board Baptist G. C. of Texas.
 
 HISTORY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 BAPTISTS OF TEXAS 
 
 A Concise Narrative of the Baptist Denomination in 
 
 Texas, from the Earliest Occupation of the 
 
 Territory to the Close of the Year 1906 
 
 WITH A COPIOUS TOPICAL INDEX 
 
 BY 
 
 B. F. RILEY, D. D., LL.D. 
 
 Author of A Physical Geography of Alabama, History of the Baptists of 
 Alabama, A History of the Baptists of the Southern States East 
 of the Mississippi, Ex-President of Howard College, and 
 Sometime Professor of Rhetoric and English Liter- 
 ature in the University of Georgia 
 
 "Traffc rtboiit Zion, and r/o rmtnd ahont her; tell the toiver>< thereof. 
 Mark ye well her Imlwarks, consider her palaces; that ye may tell it to 
 the <ieneration.t fnllowino/'—Ps. XLVIII; 12, t". 
 
 DALLAS, TEXAS. 
 
 rur.LLSHED FOR THE AUTHOR. 
 
 1907.
 
 Copyright 1907 
 
 RY 
 B. F. "RTLEY
 
 ex 
 
 So i^tV, 
 
 WHO HAS BEEN A FAITHFUL COMPANION FOR MANY YEARS, 
 SHARING WITH ME THAT WHICH LIFE HAS BROUGHT ; LOYAL 
 TO HER HOME AND THE SACRED INTERESTS OF THE FAM- 
 ILY ALW^\YS, AND SHEDDING THE GENTLE LIGHT OF AN 
 EXALTED PIETY ON THE CIRCLE OF THE HOME; SELF-SAC- 
 RIFICING AND PATIENT, WHEN THESE VIRTUES WERE DE- 
 MANDED, ALWAYS PREFERRING THE HAPPINESS OF OTHERS 
 RATHER THAN THAT OF HER OWN, AND NEVER SPEAKING ILL 
 OF OTHERS 
 
 (To ily WxU, 
 
 this volume is affectionately dedicated by 
 
 The Author. 
 
 488S14
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 The Baptists of Texas are a great people, and have 
 made great history. Their achievements are worthy of 
 permanent preservation. To rescue these records from 
 obscurity and to give them lasting life on the living page of 
 history, is the occasion of this narrative. To do this has 
 required much diligent exertion and scrupulous care. Here 
 and there were old records of one kind and another, cast 
 aside, and if not forgotten, neglected, on which the decay 
 of age and the stain of time had gathered. From obscure 
 corners these were rescued, and a record of the earliest 
 stages of the history of the Baptist denomination of Texas 
 was gleaned, and the facts set out in due order. Environ- 
 ment and condition were duly and thoughtfully considered, 
 in order that the amplest justice might be accorded to each 
 one who has been active on the stage of development. The 
 smallest incident often becomes a turning point in the history 
 of an individual, a people, a nation. To seize such seemingly 
 trifling events, and to trace their influence through the 
 thickets of future scenes, one must possess the instinct of 
 the historian. Nor must he be misled by the sudden flare 
 of an occasion which may pass away with the quickness of 
 the nightly meteor. In short, history is more than a mere 
 record of events ; it is a philosophic treatise of that which 
 reaches the core of the character of a people. No one can 
 be truly an historian who arbitrarily pushes his own views 
 to a conclusion, regardless of the principles which underlie 
 a train of events. He must "nothing extenuate, nor set 
 down aught in malice." The facts with which he must 
 deal in building a volume of history, are the facts made, no 
 matter by whom. To do other than to accord to each the 
 
 7
 
 8 PREFACE 
 
 merit of liis just desert, is unfair; to mete out ample justice 
 to a cause espoused by one who undertakes the record of 
 historical truth, is the plain and simple duty of the his- 
 torian. This, the writer of this volume has sought to do. 
 He has studiously sought to avoid straining facts out of 
 their proper relations, and has been concerned about record- 
 ing them as they have been made. In this he may have 
 erred, in certain particulars, but if so, he is not aware of it. 
 Nor has he gone be\'ond his reach merely to include the 
 names of individuals, tiie omission of some of which may 
 occasion disappointment. The clue found in the beginning 
 has been faithfully followed along the torturous windings 
 of the years, and the incidents rather than the individuals 
 have been made conspicuous. History and biography are 
 quite different. 
 
 As faithful as he is capable of being, has been the author 
 in the preparation of this volume. He has had before him 
 constantly a great denomination of Christians, whose track- 
 way he has followed through four-fifths of a century. There 
 have been struggles herculean, and victories resplendent ; 
 there have been periods of alternating darkness and light ; 
 there have been sacrifice and selfishness, order and dis- 
 order, wisdom, far-sighted and exact, and errors, not a few. 
 But out of it all has come a history of rare radiance, the 
 recorded deeds of which will serve to stimulate through all 
 the years of time. The darkness intermingled through these 
 deeds make the bright only the brighter. Just as they have 
 been found to exist, have the facts been recorded. The his- 
 torian has not made them, nor has he sought to modify 
 them. A fact cannot be unmade. It remains such for all 
 eternity. Fidelity to the truth has been the actuating 
 motive of the author throughout. How well he has illus- 
 trated this principle, or how far short he has fallen, will be 
 seen in these pages. 
 
 In order that certain conditions might be better appreci- 
 ated, he found it proper, at times, to refer to certain side 
 lights of secular history. While men take color from their 
 surroundings, they likewise give it. The action and reac- 
 tion of certain influences, secular and sacred, have not been 
 overlooked. Valuable aid has been derived from the cur-
 
 PEEFACE 9 
 
 rent histories of the state, those of Yoakum. Brown, 
 Wooten, Thrall, and Pennybacker, especially. Morrell's 
 "Flowers and Fruits," a work of genuine merit ; "The His- 
 torical and Biographical Magazine" of Rev. J- B. Link, 
 D.D., LL.D. ; Haynes's "Life and Writings of President 
 Burleson"; "Fuller's History of the Baptists of Texas," 
 have been utilized, while the numerous copies of minutes, 
 alike of the associations and of the conventions, have been 
 indispensable. ]\Iany have kindly lent the use of works of 
 value, which fact is hereby acknowledged. Among these, it 
 gives pleasure to name ]\Irs. G. B. Davis, Rev. R. F. Stokes, 
 Colonel C. C. Slaughter, Rev. S. H. Blair, Rev. H. M. 
 Burroughs, Rev. C. T. Alexander, Mrs. Rachel Stewart 
 and others. 
 
 A number of those already named gave substantial help 
 in other ways, without which the history could not have 
 been published. Li this connection, it is a pleasure to 
 express gratefulness for disinterested kindness and sub- 
 stantial assistance from IMessrs. W. T. Carter and J- W. 
 Neal, and from Hon. George ^^'. Carroll and Rev. J- L. 
 Gross. Unlimited encouragement has come from such 
 spirits as Doctors L. A. Little, L. T. Mavs, f. A. French, 
 W. M. Harris, and Revs. J. W. Gillon, W.'S. Splawn, P. E. 
 Burroughs, and others. 
 
 The work represents an honest effort to be faithful to a 
 great tiust.
 
 KEY. C. F. niLEY, D. D., LL. D., 
 Author Riley's History of Texas Baptists.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Chapter. Page. 
 
 I. Fountain Sources 13 
 
 II. A Broadening- Horizon 21 
 
 III. Solidification Under Difficulties 29 
 
 IV. Gaining a Solid Footing 39 
 
 V. Baylor University 51 
 
 VI. Education and Evangelization 64 
 
 \'II. An Eventful Period 75 
 
 yjll. Harmonious Activity 88 
 
 IX. A Period of Expansion 104 
 
 X. Sunshine and Shadow 122 
 
 XI. The Calm Before the Storm. 140 
 
 XII. The Storm of War 153 
 
 XIII. Destruction and Reconstruction 169 
 
 XIV. An Era of Activity and Agitation 194 
 
 • XV. The Combat Deepens 218 
 
 XVI. Brighter and Better Days 239 
 
 XVTI. The Throes Before Deliverance 255 
 
 XVIII. An Era of Reconciliation and Progress. . . . 284 
 
 XIX. Mingled Order and Disorder 311 
 
 11
 
 1 9 CONTENTS 
 
 J. V 
 
 Chapter. Page. 
 
 XX. Retrospective and Prospective 330 
 
 XXl. IMinglcd Darkness and Lioht 356 
 
 XXI r. The Combat Deepens 372 
 
 XXIII. Courts and Chnrclics 399 
 
 XXIV. Disaster and Consecration 417 
 
 XXY. A Period of Prosperity 433 
 
 XX\'I. The Prospect Broadens 450 
 
 XXMI. Closing Words 47^ 
 
 XXYIII. Some Prominent Texas Baptist Laymen. . . 474
 
 HISTORY OF 
 THE BAPTISTS OF TEXAS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 FOUNTAIX SOURCES. 
 
 The memorable battle of New Orleans, in 1815, was the 
 decisive signal for the beginning of the occupation of the 
 further west by emigrants from the older states of the east. 
 Up to the close of the Revolution, but few white settlers 
 from the states lying eastward, had ventured so far as Mis- 
 sissippi and Louisiana. The great regions lying west of 
 the Mississippi river were therefore still unexplored by 
 emigrants from the American states. True, as early as 
 1806, emigrants from the United States had entered Texas, 
 as it was a question open to dispute whether it was em- 
 braced in the indefinite and really unknown region included 
 in the Louisiana Purchase. There was an earnest conten- 
 tion on the part of some, at least, and of those who had re- 
 moved to Texas at that early period, that Texas was a part 
 of the territory purchase made of Napoleon. 
 
 So attractive to the venturesome emigrant were the rich 
 and wide plains, the limitless woods, and the abounding 
 game beyond the great river, that nothing more than a 
 bare presumption was needed that Texas was a virtual part 
 of the purchased territory. Vast and great as the region 
 was, and boundless in its possibilities, with its fabulously 
 fertile soils, its hills and mountains of treasure, its varied 
 and untouched forests of valuable timber, and peopled only 
 by roving tribes of Indians and a few Mexicans, whose set- 
 
 13
 
 14 II IS TO in: OF TI-]XAS BAPTJ8TS 
 
 tlements dotted the inunense domain here and there, it 
 served as a perpetual ahurement to the emigrant seeking an 
 improvement of his condition. Tlien, too, it was the para- 
 dise of the hunter. Across its plains grazed herds of deer 
 and buffalo and droves of wild mustangs, while its primeval 
 forests abounded in bears, panthers and the wild turkey. 
 The daring emigrant was not disposed to halt and quibble 
 over an imaginary boundary line on the banks of the Sabine, 
 nor regard an international dispute, when a region so en- 
 ticing lay just beyond. The occupation of Texas, by the 
 whites, was the occasion of much disquietude and blood- 
 shed for a period of three decades ; but upon its possession 
 the Anglo-Saxon had set his heart, and the result could be 
 easily foreseen. Not to pursue further a narrative more 
 specially political than otherwise, we turn now to trace the 
 history of a great denomination of Christians through a 
 period of four-fifths of a century. 
 
 The history of the Baptists of Texas began in 1824, 
 when Rev. Freeman vSmalley, a Baptist missionary from 
 Clinton county, Ohio, reached New Orleans, on his way 
 to the West, and made his way, on foot, up the Mississippi 
 and Red rivers, a distance of five hundred miles, and 
 preached at Pecan Point, on the Texas side of Red river. 
 Here he found a settlement of whites, and in the home of 
 William Newman preached the first sermon said to have 
 l)cen preached by a Baptist in Texas. He found that the 
 enterprising Methodist missionary had preceded him about 
 a half dozen years, and had established a mission at Pecan 
 Point. At that time Mr. Smalley was about twenty-nine 
 years old. He was fired with apostolic zeal, and was 
 undaunted by the hardships of pioneer life. How long 
 Mr. Smalley remained in Texas before his return home, 
 we have no means of knowing, but it must have been sev- 
 eral years. At any rate, he was so impressed by the oppor- 
 tunities of missionary effort in this new and untried region, 
 that he came to Texas again in 1848. 
 
 The year following that of JNIr. Smalley 's arrival in 
 Texas, in 1825, another Baptist missionary. Rev. Joseph 
 r.ays, came into Texas, and preached the first Baptist ser- 
 mon preached by a Baptist on the west side of the Brazos
 
 FOUNTAIN SOURCES 15 
 
 river. He was seeking his way to the Mexican settlement 
 at San Antonio, and stopping- at the home of Moses Ship- 
 man, near San Fehpe, the capital of Austin's colony, he 
 preached to the pioneers in Shipman's home. Proceeding 
 thence to San Antonio, which was given up to the worship 
 of the Roman Catholics, it being the only creed .recognized 
 by the Spanish government, to the non-tolerance of all 
 others, Mr. Bays began his missionary labors. He threw 
 himself with consuming zeal into the work under the most 
 discouraging conditions, but the impression made by him 
 was so pronounced that he was intercepted by the Romish 
 priests, who, invoking the aid of the civil authorities, suc- 
 ceeded in having Bays ordered away. For a time, disre- 
 garding the peremptory order, he was threatened with 
 imprisonment, with a hint of even direr punishment should 
 he not heed the order to leave. He therefore decided to 
 quit that region, not so much in his own behalf, as in behalf 
 of those who had befriended him, and who had no oppor- 
 tunity to leave, but would have to bear the consequences 
 of his persistency to remain. He was released from arrest 
 only on condition that he would quit Texas altogether. At 
 that time Roman Catholicism was so supreme in Texas that 
 no one was permitted to settle within its borders who 
 declined to take the oath of allegiance to that creed. That 
 an ecclesiastical law so rigid as that was not enforced, and 
 that it was not regarded as binding because compulsorily 
 taken, was clear from the fact that there is reason for 
 believing that there were Baptists in Austin's colony and 
 other Christian Protestants in other parts of the territory, 
 who had been in Texas for several years. 
 
 The next Baptist missionary to appear in Texas was 
 Rev. Thomas Hanks, who came from Tennessee in 1829, 
 and found a warm welcome and hospitable lodging in the 
 home of Moses Shipman, the Aquila of Texas Baptists, 
 who first welcomed Bays to preach the gospel beneath his 
 roof several years before. Mr. Hanks .was an unctuous 
 preacher, highly gifted with persuasive powers, of no mean 
 sort, and enjoys the ,-distinction among the Baptists of 
 Texas of procuring, under his preaching, the first recorded 
 profession of faith made in the state. Mrs. Lvdia Allcorn
 
 RRV. R. C. PTTKXER. DALLAS, TEXAS.
 
 FOUNTAIN SOURCES 17 
 
 was converted under his ministrations and made a public 
 confession, but the privilege of baptism was denied her for 
 ten }'ears, when she became a member of the church at 
 Independence on the occasion of its organization. 
 
 In 1834, Rev. Samuel Reed removed from Tennessee to 
 Texas, and began preaching in the region round about 
 Nacogdoches, one of the few^ Spanish settlements in the 
 state. His habit was to go from house to house, praying 
 and preaching as he went, notwithstanding he was stoutly 
 resisted by the Romish priests. Services were held with 
 more or less secrecy to avoid a clash with the priests and 
 the civil authorities. Waxing bolder with time and expe- 
 rience we find jNIr. Reed, in 1836. preaching openly to a 
 crowd gathered beneath a grove of oaks, about four miles 
 north of Nacogdoches, where a Baptist meeting house was 
 built some years later. Even before the establishment of a 
 permanent church Mr. Reed succeeded in inducing the set- 
 tlers to build a log house, in which services were regularlv 
 held. 
 
 Rev. Abner Smith, an anti-missionary Baptist, came to 
 Texas in 1834, at the head of a colony of thirty-two, the 
 entire membership of a church of which he was the pastor 
 on the Buttahatchie river, in Alabama. This colony located 
 on the Colorado river, twelve miles below the present site 
 of Bastrop, but Smith and his flock made no impression on 
 the life of the growing population of the new countrv, and 
 after a few years the organization became extinct. Rev. 
 Isaac Crouch was a member of this colony, but principle 
 compelled his severance from it. when he withdrew and 
 settled in Milam county, where, in 1836. he was murdered 
 by the Indians near the present location of Little River 
 Baptist church. Two other missionaries of the Baptist 
 faith reached Texas in 1835 — Revs. R. Marsh and Z. N. 
 Morrell. the former of whom was enfeebled by age and dis- 
 ease, and his career in Texas was a short one. Marsh 
 accompanied ]\Iorrell to Houston, then a settlement of tents, 
 where he, Morrell, preached the first evangelistic sermon 
 ever preached in that city. Rumors having become current 
 in the older states that Texas was a refuge for criminals 
 who fled hither to escape justice, and that the people of the
 
 18 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 state were lacking in morality and religion, a meeting of 
 ministers of different faiths was held in the office of Rev. 
 R. Marsh in Houston on May 8, 1837, to issue a statement 
 in behalf of the people of Texas, and to organize what was 
 called ''The Ecclesiastical Committee of Vigilance for 
 Texas." A statement was issued that under the great head 
 of the church and the benign influence of charity the com- 
 mittee would endeavor to maintain the purity of the Chris- 
 tian name and the honor and dignity of the ministerial 
 office and withhold sanction from all who came professing 
 membership from churches in the older states, unless such 
 profession was illustrated by a godly walk. This was cir- 
 culated throughout the country, and had the effect of cor- 
 recting an error and of deterring many from seeking to 
 impose themselves on the churches of a new region.* Mr. 
 Alarsh soon retired to the neighborhood of the San Jacinto 
 river, where he built a home, but later returned to Missis- 
 sippi, where he died. 
 
 To Z. N. Morrell belongs the distinction of being the 
 most daring, uncompromising and aggressive of the pioneer 
 Baptist preachers of Texas. Leaving his home in Ten- 
 nessee, where he had been preaching effectively for four- 
 teen years, and where his lungs became involved, he was 
 advised by his physicians to seek the brace of Texas air. 
 Forthwith responding to the suggestion he was making his 
 way with his family to Texas, wdien he was interrupted in 
 Yellowshuba county, Mississippi, by the receipt of the news 
 of the fierce conflict betw-een Texas and Mexico. Enlisting 
 in active work in the region of his sojourn he was actuated 
 to resume his journey toward Texas again in December, 
 1835, by the arrival at his home in Mississippi of a body of 
 emigrants from the region of his original home in Ten- 
 nessee, among whom was his family physician. Yielding 
 to the solicitations of the members of the party to accom- 
 pany them westward, he consented to go. 
 
 Crossing the Sabine the party pushed on to the Forks of 
 Little River, which locality was reached in the last days of 
 
 *"A Comprehensive History of Texas," edited bv Dudley Wooten, 
 Vol. I., p. 322.
 
 FOUNTAIN SOURCES . 19 
 
 the year 1835, where they found another party of Ten- 
 nesseans prospecting the country with a view to settlement. 
 Among these was a Mrs. Childress, a Baptist, and here 
 Morrell lingered for a season and preached. Meanwhile 
 he was greatly impressed alike by the salubrity of the cli- 
 mate and the immense means of doing good. On his return 
 trip to Mississippi to bring his family, he stopped at Nacog- 
 doches, where was gathered a mixed multitude of Mexicans, 
 Indians, and whites attending an election, and preached to 
 them from the text : "The wilderness and solitary places 
 shall be glad for them, and the desert shall rejoice and 
 blossom as the rose." The appropriateness of the text 
 caught the promiscuous crowd, and marked attention was 
 given the stranger. Mr. Morrell was long after a conspicu- 
 ous figure in Texas, as we shall have abundant opportunity 
 of seeing. It will be borne in mind that all these evan- 
 gelistic efforts, of whatever kind, were in direct violation of 
 the colonization laws under which Americans were permit- 
 ted to settle in Texas. But in defiance of these arbitrary 
 laws they worked and worshiped, not only as opportunity 
 afforded, but as they made the opportunities for themselves. 
 
 In this connection the name of Thomas J. Pilgrim, the 
 father of Sunday Schools in Texas, deserves honorable men- 
 tion. A native of Connecticut he came from New York in 
 1828, and became a teacher in the Austin Colony. In 1829 
 he conceived the idea of organizing a Sunday School. 
 Announcing his purpose in the school room, and naming the 
 following Sunday as a time when he would deliver a lecture 
 on the subject, he was surprised to find when the time 
 arrived, a large attendance, not only of the young, but of 
 the leading people of the colony, both of men and women. 
 These lectures he continued for weeks, accompanied by 
 other instruction in accord with the Scriptures, and the 
 exercises became so popular that people would come the 
 distance of many miles to attend them. For a considerable 
 period the school was continued, but it was eventually cut 
 short in its career by the interference of the ever-menacing 
 presence of Romanism. This was the first Sunday School 
 ever organized in the state. 
 
 Under these trying conditions there were sometimes
 
 00 IIISTOEV OF Tl-;XAS BAPTISTS 
 
 enacted scenes wliicli recall the strns^i^les of the early days 
 of Christianity. The secrecy with which worship was com- 
 pelled to be ol)scrved was often most afifecting-. Such a 
 scene was that on the occasion of the formation of the first 
 prayer-meeting known to have been organized in Texas. 
 Airs. ]\Iassie Millard, whose family had settled a few miles 
 north of the Spanish town of Nacogdoches, in the com- 
 munity where now stands Old Union lUiptist church, was 
 wont to gather her children together, at night, under some 
 trees across the river from her home, for the purpose of 
 holding family devotion. Uy degrees she induced others 
 to join her in this sacred retreat, and, free from molestation, 
 
 1 hey continued to hold these prayer-meetings for a period. 
 These devoted women would meet and pray at night, and 
 during the day "run" bullets for the rifles of their husbands, 
 wlio were engaged in the defense of their homes. 
 
 Scenes and experiences like these represent the con- 
 ditions under which the struggling colonists laid the founda- 
 tion of the Baptist cause in Texas. 
 
 'T^or out of the gloom future brightness is born, 
 As after the niQ-ht comes the sunrise of morn."
 
 CHAPTER 11. 
 
 A BROADENING HORIZON. 
 
 The period on which we now enter was the focus of a 
 number of questions which had been converging toward a 
 common center for more than three decades. It is one that 
 furnishes some of the most thrilling and romantic chapters 
 in our national history, but which can here only be hinted 
 at. Following the Louisiana Purchase, the consummation 
 of which was a violation on the part of Napoleon of a 
 secret understanding between Spain and himself, and against 
 which violation Spain was not in position to make vigorous 
 protest, because of her fear of the French emperor, came 
 the question of the relation of the territory of Texas to the 
 national bargain between Jefferson and Napoleon. Our 
 government asserted her claim to all the region lying east 
 of the Rio Grande, while Spain set up the counter claim 
 that not only was the territory of Texas hers, but a con- 
 siderable strip also lying east of the Sabine in western 
 Louisiana. In 1806 the dispute between America and 
 Spain was suspended on a mutual agreement to designate 
 a certain strip of territory lying between the Sabine river 
 and the Aroyo Hondo, a branch of the Red river, about 
 seven miles west of Nacogdoches, as neutral territory till 
 the question of the boundary could be settled. It is believed 
 that Spain was actuated to this concession solely by the 
 apprehension of the invasion of Mexico by Aaron Burr. 
 
 During the interval from 1806 to 1819, at which latter 
 date the boundary question was settled by the agreement 
 of the American government to relinquish all claim on 
 Texas, provided that Spain would sell to her the territory 
 of Florida, there were enacted some of the most thrilling 
 scenes in our history. It was a period of filibustering, which 
 has a history all its own, and one which has yet to be fully 
 
 21
 
 22 HISTOEY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 written. In this domain of No Man's Land were gathered 
 the worst elements possible, cnt-throats, gamblers, thieves, 
 murderers, the vilest of the vile, affording an illustration 
 of the immense lengths to which men will go when unre- 
 strained by the strong arm of the law. Romance, adventure, 
 crime of every hue, heroism, superhuman endurance, vice, 
 cruelty and sacrifice held high and varied carnival during a 
 brief period of little more than a dozen years. Successive 
 expeditions undertook to w'ring Texas from the grip of 
 Spain, but each in succession came to grief, however rosy 
 the prospects were when undertaken. 
 
 This era of filibustering was followed by one of colon- 
 ization. Fugitives from the ill-starred expeditions, escaping 
 to the older states, would tell the story of the goodly land 
 of Texas, far and wide, which led to the formation of 
 colonies, which under such inspiration sought the permis- 
 sion of Spain to locate in Texas. It may be easily seen 
 how the impression came to prevail that Texas w^as, and. 
 in the opinion of many of the uninformed, is still, a land of 
 disorder and general lawlessness. This request on the part 
 of Spain was granted under the imposition of the most 
 rigid oath of loyalty to the Spanish crown and of subscrip- 
 tion to the Roman Catholic religion. Following is the out- 
 line of the oath prescribed and required of every one who 
 at that time settled in Texas : 
 
 "In the town of .... before me .... came .... resid- 
 ing in this place and took a solemn oath of fidelity to our 
 sovereign, and to reside permanently in his royal domin- 
 ions; and more fully to manifest it, put his right hand on 
 the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, swearing before God 
 and the holy cross of Jesus Christ, to be faithful vassals of 
 his most Catholic majesty, to act in obedience to all laws 
 of Spain and the Indies, henceforth adjuring all other 
 allegiance to any prince or potentate whatever, and to hold 
 no correspondence with any foreign power without permis- 
 sion from a lawful magistrate, and to inform against such 
 as may do so, or use seditious language unbecoming a good 
 subject of Spain." 
 
 During this period there were twenty-six colonies 
 planted in different parts of Texas, to each of which was
 
 A BEOADENING HOEIZON 23 
 
 given a considerable grant of land. The subsequent history 
 of the state shows the character of most of the colonists 
 that came alike from the northern and southern states. 
 Various inducements served to attract them to Texas. 
 
 Looked at from this distance, it seems clear that Provi- 
 dence was bringing about a combination of conditions in 
 this flux of population in its character and in the scenes 
 being enacted in this bustling domain of the West favorable 
 to the steady development of a great empire. Even a casual 
 study of conditions w'ill reveal the fact that there were 
 drawn hither, from divers and remote directions, the very 
 agencies needed to accomplish this important end. The 
 people who came to Texas from the older regions of the 
 country were not the refuse of society nor the scum thrown 
 off as the result of criminal agitations elsewhere, but most 
 of those who removed hither during these early stages of 
 Texas history were men and women of conspicuous worth, 
 who saw in the vast domain toward the setting sun possi- 
 bilities for the accomplishment of great good to them- 
 selves, and through themselves to the world. True, there 
 was a modicum of the rift'-raff and vicious, the tares among 
 the wheat, the motive of which class was the same as that 
 of the same class left behind in the older states. From 
 the beginning in Texas this element was subordinated to 
 the higher stratum of social, moral, and religious life, so 
 prevalent among the installments of population which peo- 
 pled first the plains of the West. Besides their intrinsic 
 merits, which would have w^on recognition in any quarter 
 of the civilized globe, there w^as the heroic willingness to 
 endure hardship in placing the foundation stones in the 
 basis of a prospectively great commonw^ealth beyond the 
 Mississippi. IN'Iinisters of commanding ability and ripe in 
 wisdom and in piety ; teachers of eminence and of religious 
 character ; physicians of social prestige and of moral influ- 
 ence; lawyers, jurists and statesmen, distinguished at the 
 bar, on the bench and in the councils of the nation, many 
 of whom were men of established religious character; sol- 
 diers whose achievements were already permanently em- 
 balmed in their country's history, and capitalists, planters, 
 artisans, not a few, together with many noble women, whose
 
 24: IIIS'I'ORV OF TKXAS n.VPTlSTS 
 
 rftiiK'iiiciil, culture, and religious life were ecjual to those 
 of the l)est in American society — it was with a population 
 like this that Texas was first peopled. 
 
 From the Indian haunts far up the Red river, whither 
 he had gone in voluntary exile from the gubernatorial chair 
 of Tennessee, came from temporary obscurity Governor 
 Houston, whose valor was Spartan, whose leadership was 
 pronounced, and whose statesmanlike qualities peculiarly 
 fitted him for the crucial experiences demanded by an 
 embryonic empire struggling to the birth. He was destined 
 to become in after years a distinguished Baptist layman, 
 whose virtues were as emphatic in sacred circles as were 
 his bravery on the field, and his sedate wisdom in the coun- 
 cils of state. In his allusion to Houston, in his Life of 
 Henry Clay, Carl Schurz says : "He went to Texas for 
 the distinct object of wresting that country from Mexico. 
 There is reason for believing that President Jackson 
 was not ignorant of his intentions." 
 
 No student of history and of Providence can fail to see 
 the hand of God directing and molding the incidents and 
 events focusing at this period in this vast fertile empire, 
 where Nature was prodigal of her richest and rarest gifts, 
 and where possibilities of goodly achievement were without 
 limit. An opportunity so exceptional, at such a time and 
 under conditions so favorable, was e(iuivalent to the sudden 
 discovery of a fertile continent. 
 
 Rapid and active as \vere the forces of material develop- 
 ment, the religious elements were not a Avhit less so. ]Men 
 and women of God had come to Texas impelled by as 
 burning zeal as ever swayed prophet or apostle of olden 
 time, and with a mind to work. So soon as the ban of 
 interdiction was raised, by means of the declaration of 
 Texas freedom, churches began to come into existence and 
 to multiplx'. and. in consequence, religious agencies began 
 to thrive. The very checks and balances imposed on the 
 new and unacquainted population, which had been drawn 
 together from widely scattered regions, and the menacing 
 pressure of prevailing danger confronting the newly created 
 Republic at the threshold of tremendous endeavor, speedily 
 welded the people into congeniality of spirit and co-opera-
 
 A BROADENING HORIZON 25 
 
 tion of effort. With admirable grace and with the gentle 
 amenities of cultivated life, gentlemen and ladies, who had 
 left behind them elegant homes and environments of culture 
 in the older sections of the country, meted out hospitality to 
 the kindred stranger in the pioneer log cabin of the western 
 wilds, and shared with consummate willingness in the trials 
 and struggles of frontier life. The decisiveness of personal 
 choice was readily subordinated to popular consensus for 
 the general good, and ties of congenialitv were rapidly 
 formed. Thus came the cement of all elements impelled 
 by the single controlling desire to make Texas as good 
 materially, socially and religiously as it was vast in the sweep 
 of its immense territory. It was under conditions such as 
 these that the Republic of Texas entered on its career. Nor 
 has there been an abatement of this spirit as one of the 
 states of the Union in contributing to the expanding great- 
 ness of the nation of wdiich it became an important part. 
 Mexico, having become independent in 1824, continued to 
 extend to the colonists of Texas the same rights and priv- 
 ileges which they had enjoyed under the parent country — 
 Spain. But a time came in 1836, when the colonists who 
 had removed to Texas numbered 20,000, while the Mexican 
 population in the state did not exceed 5,000. From the 
 time when Spain, in 181Q, relinquished all claims to Texas 
 on condition that Florida be sold to the United States, there 
 had been great and growing discontent among the people of 
 Texas. They openly denied the right of the government 
 thus to effect a trade which involved their liberties. This 
 was enhanced by the sense of self-assertion and security 
 which came of the growth of numbers of the twenty-six 
 colonies occupying different parts of the state. Then, too, 
 Texas was a prize worthy the wanning. With 400 miles 
 of sea coast, and with an area of 170,099,200 acres embrac- 
 ing that which is comparable to the most fertile on the 
 globe, with a climate of rare salubrity, with limitless for- 
 ests, and with a varied productiveness — these were weighty 
 considerations when reinforced by the current belief that 
 Texas properly belonged to the United States, and in 
 denial of the right of the government to dispose of her in 
 the international market.
 
 2G IIISTOEY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 At any rate, the year 1836 found the people ready for 
 independence. At GoHad the citizens and soldiers had 
 already made formal declaration. So popular had the 
 spirit become, that a general convention was called to meet 
 at the town of Washington, on March i, 1836. The larg- 
 est room in the town was a blacksmith shop belonging to 
 a Baptist preacher, Rev. N. T. Byars. The declaration was 
 drawn and signed by about sixty men on March 2, 1836. 
 The war followed with its Goliad, Alamo and San Jacinto, 
 at which last-named place General Houston dealt a crush- 
 ing blow to Santa Anna, and procured the independence of 
 the Republic. 
 
 The last difficulty was now lifted from the path of the 
 emigrant. For years following, canvas-covered wagons 
 wended their w^ay from the older states to Texas, while 
 steamers laden with emigrants landed at the ports along the 
 gulf shore. Among those who came at this time were many 
 Baptists. While some had been in the state ever since 
 1822, they dared not undertake to establish a stated place 
 of worship, and call it a church. Now they were free to 
 do so. In his history of Texas, Thrall says that a Baptist 
 church was in existence in Austin's Colony as early as 
 1833, but in this he is evidently mistaken, and the statement 
 is doubtless due. to the seasons of worship held, as the or- 
 ganization of a church at that time was out of the question. 
 It was not till 1837 that a Baptist church was organized, 
 which organization took place at Washington w'ith a mem- 
 bership of eight. Application was at once made to the 
 Home Mission Society of New York for aid with which to 
 maintain the organization, as well as to be enabled to prose- 
 cute evangelistic work in different parts of the new Re- 
 public. An offer was made to appoint Rev. Z. N. Morrell, 
 as missionary, but he declined, when Revs. James Huckins 
 and W^ M. Tryon were appointed. 
 
 The organization of the church at Washington was fol- 
 lowed by that of others as rapidly as conditions favored. 
 In May. 1838, a church was organized about four miles 
 north of Nacogdoches, called Union, though it is some- 
 times know^n as the Old North Church, due perhaps to its 
 direction from Nacogdoches. It will be remembered that it
 
 A BROADENING HORIZON 27 
 
 was here that the intrepid Reed had been gathering for sev- 
 eral years a body of worshipers under the shades of the 
 trees, and while the privilege of building a meeting house 
 was denied him, under the legal restrictions of the land, 
 he evaded the literal construction of the law by erecting a 
 log house in Avliich he met the people and worshiped. On 
 the occasion of the constitution of the church, Reed was 
 aided by Rev. Robert G. Green. At the same time B. F. 
 Whitaker was received into the church and was baptized. 
 This w-as perhaps the first baptism administered in Texas. 
 During the year following, the church was greatly strength- 
 ened by a revival conducted by the pastor. Rev. Isaac Reed. 
 Already a shift had begun in the population of Texas, 
 which resulted in the extinction of the church organized 
 just the year before at Washington. Scarcely a year later 
 than the creation of the Union church in Nacogdoches 
 county, came that of Plum Grove church on the western 
 side of the Colorado river. This organization was effected 
 by Rev. R. G. Green who was aided by Rev. Eli Dancer. 
 The organization of this church was preceded by an awak- 
 ening in the community under the preaching of Mr. Morrell. 
 As a result, at the organization, nine were received for 
 baptism. A Mrs. Dancer was present on this occasion as 
 a candidate for baptism in the anti-missionary church, fur- 
 ther up the river. Rev. Abner Smith, the pastor of the anti- 
 missionary church, sent a request to Mr. Morrell to baptize 
 Mrs. Dancer, as her pastor was in too feeble health to per- 
 form the ceremony. The request was complied with, and 
 Mr. Morrell had the privilege of baptizing his first con- 
 vert in Texas. The organization of this church was fol- 
 lowed by a marked revival during which many passed into 
 the kingdom. When two wrecks later, the announcement 
 of an approaching baptismal occasion was made, a vast 
 multitude gathered to witness the scene. People came the 
 distance of forty miles from different directions to witness 
 it. It was verily a notable day in the history of the Bap- 
 tists of the state, w^hen in full view of assembled hundreds, 
 from points remote and near, nine persons were baptized in 
 the waters of the Colorado. A small building with a brush 
 arbor in front, had been erected, and Judge R. E. B. Baylor,
 
 o;^ IIISTORV OF TKXAS liAPTISTS 
 
 wlio had lately removed from Alaljama. preaehed with great 
 efifcctivcness. The impressiveness of the occasion was 
 s^reatly enhanced hy the ohservance of the Lord's supper in 
 this little log calkin, the first ohservance of that ordinance by 
 I5aptists in Texas. 
 
 In order of time, the church at Independence w'as next 
 organized, the constitution taking place on the Saturday be- 
 fore the first Sunday in September, 1839. The founder of 
 this -church was Rev. Thomas Spraggins, of Mississippi, 
 who organized the church wdiile on a visit to Texas. The 
 original membership was twelve, most of whom had come 
 from wSouth Carolina. It was here that Mrs. Lydia AUcorn 
 was received, though she had been converted under Hanks 
 several years before. The organization was followed by a 
 meeting of immense power conducted by Rev. W. M. Try- 
 on, and thirty-four were baptized, and twenty-one were re- 
 ceived by letter. This made the Independence church the 
 strongest in the Republic. Rev. T. W. Cox. late of Ala- 
 bama, w^as chosen pastor, and later Rev. W. M. Tryon was 
 chosen joint pastor. ( )n the retirement of Cox, in 1841, 
 Tryon became pastor. 
 
 During the same year, 1839, two other churches, Travis 
 and Lagrange were constituted. At the former of these the 
 convention met to found the first association in the state 
 — the L^nion. Rev. T. \\\ Cox became the pastor of both 
 these churches. They were germs of denominational 
 growth and power. From them sprang nuich that has made 
 the Baptists of Texas famous.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 SOLIDIFICATION UNDER DIFFICULTIES. 
 
 Organizations among tlie Baptists scattered over the 
 broad face of the territory of Texas, having once begun, 
 was continued without abatement. The dominant idea 
 among the leading spirits was to get closer together in com- 
 pact organization. This desire was whetted on the part 
 both of preachers and people, by reason of the former de- 
 nial of the privileges of social worship, excepting at inci- 
 dental times, and under apprehensive conditions ; and now 
 that the way to organization lay open, they hailed it with 
 delight. Still, disadvantages great and grave stood in the 
 way. Settlements, some of which w^ere small, were widely 
 scattered, and only a few Baptists were to be found in each. 
 The number of preachers was limited, and unless one hap- 
 pened to be near a given settlement, the opportunity to 
 preach was rare. Methods of travel were primitive, being 
 on foot or on pony-back. I'ecause of this segregation, com- 
 munity ties were difficult, and co-operation almost out of 
 the question. Preachers had to perform manual labor dur- 
 ing the week and preach on Sunday, commercial commodi- 
 ties were scarce, the homes of the people were the most 
 unpretentious, afifording only scant comfort, and each settler 
 was eking out a bare maintenance. The stiff, stubborn soil, 
 tliough fertile, was difficult of cultivation, with only the 
 most primitive implements at command, and they scarce. 
 Not infrequently the necessaries of life were in great de- 
 mand, and so cheap and common a commoditv as salt could 
 not always be had. On occasions of drought, which came 
 now and then, water was difficult to obtain, and the wild 
 game of the woods and plains, on which so many had to 
 rely for meat, would migrate to other quarters. Then over- 
 shadowing all, were the tierce Indian tribes who were liable, 
 
 29
 
 30 
 
 IllSTOHV OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 at any moiiK'iit, to spring from unconjcctured coverts and 
 deal out desolation and death. Discouragements like these, 
 and still others not named in this gloomy catalogue, barri- 
 caded the progress of the denomination at the period now 
 under consideration. 
 
 Still the uncon(iucral)lc Baptist i)rcachcr was abroad as 
 an evangelistic force, and was active everywhere. Making 
 
 Di;. v.. II. (AKKOLL. WAi 1 1, J i:XA.S. 
 
 the most of the slim advantages afforded, and grappling 
 with the grim problems of frontier life, these men prose- 
 cuted their work with unabated vigor. As occasion would 
 require, the preacher would shoulder his musket and share 
 in the dangers and casualties of battle, and while not thus 
 engaged, and while not necessarily employed on his little 
 farm, he would encourage and stimulate godliness and urge 
 to repentance.
 
 SOLIDIFICATION UNDER DIFFICULTIES 31 
 
 Among the most active of the missionary agents of the 
 time was Rev. James Huckins, who was working under the 
 auspices of the Home Mission Society of New York. A 
 native of Vermont, a self-made man, he graduated from 
 Brown University, mainly through his own exertions, and 
 served as pastor in New England, and later in South Caro- 
 lina and Georgia, as missionary of the Home Mission So- 
 ciety. It is believed that it was he who induced Jesse Mer- 
 cer to give $2,500 to the Home Mission Society to be used 
 in Texas. Coming to Texas in 1839, Mr. Huckins devoted 
 his exceptional gifts to the enormous demands of this terri- 
 tory. By means of his pen in private correspondence and in 
 the press, he furnished much valuable information concern- 
 ing the situation in Texas, and aroused much interest in be- 
 half of this region. Supplementing this with a visit to "the 
 states," he preached throughout the North on the importance 
 of taking time by the forelock, by beginning at once the 
 evangelization of the people of Texas. So impressed was 
 the Home Mission Society by the appeals of Mr. Huckins, 
 that it called for volunteers who were willing to labor in 
 the remote region of the Republic of Texas as mission- 
 aries. Seven responded with commendable promptness, 
 but only two of the seven ever came — James Huckins and 
 W. M. Tryon. The first notable service rendered by Huck- 
 ins was that of the organization of the First Baptist church 
 of Galveston, with a membership of nine, which organiza- 
 tion took place on January 30, 1840. The cosmopolitan 
 character of the population of Texas, even at that time, 
 and it is much truer today, may be seen from the fact that 
 of this limited membership the states of New Hampshire, 
 Massachusetts, Maine, New York, Connecticut and Louisi- 
 ana were represented. Among these were Gail Borden, of 
 condensed milk fame, and his wife Penelope Mercer Bor- 
 den, both of whom were baptized in the gulf, the first time 
 perhaps that these waters were thus ever disturbed. Mrs. 
 Borden was a niece of Jesse Mercer, and proved to be the 
 first visible fruits of the liberal contribution made by that 
 distinguished brother to the cause of this region. Little 
 more than a year later, on May 22, 1841, Mr. Huckins or- 
 ganized the First Baptist church of Houston. Between
 
 ;y2 IIISTOUV OF TKXA8 BAl'TiST.S 
 
 these two points he labored as missionary pastor, initil per- 
 manent pastoral settlements could be had. He supple- 
 mented his slender stipend by teaching, and was instrumen- 
 tal in founding the Galveston Lyceum, <jne of the institu- 
 tions which aided in making that city one of the most cul- 
 tured in the South. 
 
 The year 1840 was ushered in as one of gloom to the 
 young Republic. The accumulating troubles of the preced- 
 ing years were bequeathed for disastrous consummation to 
 this one. In swaddling clothes, the infant nation was seek- 
 ing to walk alone amidst obstructions the most appalling. 
 The affairs of the new Republic were precarious. The cur- 
 rency was demoralized, and, of course, business was de- 
 pressed. In some instances the conditions of the settlers 
 were deplorable. Failure of crops, resulting from the re- 
 peated call to arms, to check the depredations of the Indians, 
 brought temporary disaster. The depreciated currency of 
 the Republic was brought into .such straits of contempt, that 
 a Texas dollar was worth only fourteen cents in the market. 
 These conditions served as a severe and summary check to 
 immigration. The new Republic seemed ready to fall to 
 pieces of its ow^n incoherency, at the very threshold of its 
 being. The wisest of the leaders stood dismayed in their 
 inability to provide a remedy. While men brave of heart 
 and wise in council were grappling with the grave affairs of 
 state, the missionary was undaunted and unabated in his 
 work. Helplessness begot dependence, and dependence, in 
 turn, brought men and women on their knees in prayer. 
 \\'hen they were weak, then were they strong. Here as 
 always elsewhere, religion is the most powerful of dissolv- 
 ents. It was a time of earnest prayer. The very heavens 
 were daily rent with the earnest prayers of God's people. 
 Still the disasters grew. Not the flock of a cloud of hope 
 was on the horizon. 
 
 To add to the thickening troubles, the Indians, under the 
 instigation of the Mexican government, began a war of 
 desolation and extinction. Settlements were blotted out, the 
 homes and eff'ects of the people over the country were 
 burned, and helpless women and children were murdered. 
 Texas, to a man, was aroused, and a war of extermination
 
 SOLIDIFICATION UNDEE DIFFICULTIES 33 
 
 was begun against the savages. At the head of the Texans 
 was Col. Edward Burleson, a famous Indian fighter, who 
 was indebted to Rev. Z. N. Morrell for valuable informa- 
 tion which led to the complete rout of the Indians at the 
 battle of Plum Creek. In the ranks of the Texan army on 
 this decisive occasion were three Baptist preachers — Z. N. 
 Morrell, R. E. B. Baylor, and T. W. Cox. Braver men 
 never shouldered muskets. 
 
 In order to a more compact organization of the Baptist 
 forces, in the most populous part of Texas, it was deemed 
 wise to organize a district association. Accordingly in 
 June, 1840, a few met at Independence and resolved on 
 such an organization. Travis church was chosen as the 
 place of meeting, and October 8, 1840, as the time. At the 
 appointed time, messengers from three churches met, and 
 the Union Association was created. T. W. Cox was chosen 
 moderator, J. W. Collins clerk, and R. E. B. Baylor corre- 
 sponding secretary. A constitution, articles of faith, rules 
 of decorum, and a bill of inalienable rights were adopted. 
 This last anomalous element in the constitution of a Baptist 
 association seems the outgrowth of certain material differ- 
 ences of sentiment among the messengers. Short of some 
 compromise measure like this, it would seem that the or- 
 ganization of the body was out of the question. Subsequent 
 events will serve to shed some light on this peculiar situa- 
 tion. The bill of rights runs as follows : 
 
 "Article I. Each church is forever free and independent 
 of any and every ecclesiastical body, formed by men on 
 earth; each being the free household of Christ. Therefore 
 every ordination and power granted by the churches, ema- 
 nating as they do from the churches, those who are thus 
 ordained, or upon whom such power is conferred, must be 
 to her forever obedient. 
 
 "Article II. Each member shall forever have a full and 
 free right to exercise his or her discretion in contribution 
 to the support of missions, general benevolence, etc., and in 
 other matters that may not lead to immorality." 
 
 Just how a body like this could assume sovereign power 
 and designate and define what should be the duties of a 
 member of a Baptist church, is not clear. If its intention
 
 ;J4 IllS'l'oin' ()L^ TIOXAS BAl'TJHTS 
 
 was one of conciliation, because of the diverse views held by 
 the members, then it failed of its purpose, for at the next 
 session of the body that same bill of rights bore its legiti- 
 mate fruit. There is never apology for compromise or 
 sacrifice of principle. The name given the association was 
 one the intention of which was reconciliation — Union Asso- 
 ciation. While within the action there seems to lurk the 
 suggestion of conciliation and harmony, it was the roses 
 that covered a sharp sword. The first session closed on 
 Sunday with a sermon preached beneath some wide-spread- 
 ing live-oaks, in the presence of about one hundred and 
 fifty people. 
 
 Between the first and second sessions of the Union As- 
 sociation, which was the only general body of the Baptists 
 of Texas, and from which has grown all their institutions, 
 the j\Iount Gilead church in Washington county was or- 
 ganized. This took place in 1841, and was followed by the 
 rehabilitation of the church at Washington, which had dis- 
 solved a year after its organization, in 1837. The revival of 
 this suspended interest was due to the management and 
 activity of W. M. Tryon. Gathering the remnants of the 
 original membership together, and procuring the accession 
 of others to the ranks of the church, Mv. Tryon called to 
 his aid Judge R. E. B. Baylor in the reorganization, \vhich 
 reorganization took place on the second Sunday in March, 
 1 841, and the church was thereafter called Washington 
 church Number 2. Under Tryon the church assumed fresh 
 life. While in the reorganization there were only eleven 
 members, there was a revival in the church three months 
 later which resulted in the addition of twenty-five by letter, 
 and twenty-nine by baptism. This made it one of the strong- 
 est churches in the Republic. 
 
 The accession of W. JM. Tryon to the ranks of the Bap- 
 tist ministry of Texas at this period was most fortunate. A 
 native of New York, he w-as converted in his seventeenth 
 year, entered on the vocation of a tailor, and with his needle 
 supported himself and his widowed mother. In early man- 
 hood he removed to Augusta, Georgia, where later he en- 
 tered the ministry, went to Mercer Institute, now Mercer 
 University, and after a course of study of three years, was
 
 SOLlDIi^lCATION UNBEE DIFFICULTIES 55 
 
 called to Washington, Georgia, and subsequently to Lump- 
 kin and Columbus, and to Eufaula and Wetumpka, Ala- 
 bama, from which last point the summons came from New 
 York to cast his lot in Texas. 
 
 On October 2, 1841, came the second session of the 
 Union Association at the Lagrange or Clear Creek church, 
 in Fayette county. The attendance and the spirit of this 
 session was in excess of those of the year before. The min- 
 isterial strength of the denomination was present in full 
 force. Morrell, Baylor, Huckins, Tryon, Cox, Byars, Davis 
 and others were present. Such an array of strength would 
 lend dignity and power to a Baptist association anywhere. 
 The skies were brighter and the flash of hope was in the eye 
 of every leader. They had wrought well, and there was 
 an occasion for joy. Progress was the inspiring slogan of 
 the hour. W. AL Tryon was chosen moderator, and the 
 1:)ody set itself to the task of organizing a central board to 
 be known as the Home JNIission Society, as auxiliary to 
 the parent organization of the same name in New York. 
 A grateful acceptance of an editorial column in the Baptist 
 Banner and Western Pioneer, of Kentucky, was made, and 
 Huckins was chosen as the editorial representative from 
 Texas. In the paucity of denominational journals, the "cir- 
 cular letter," as it was called, served as a sort of mouth- 
 piece of the local associations in the South. This was 
 adopted by the Union Association, and Huckins was ap- 
 pointed to prepare such a letter for insertion into the Min- 
 utes. The letter was an able one, and addressed itself to a 
 review of Baptist principles and practices, and while it 
 abounded in inspiration and encouragement, it also sounded 
 a note of warning against any departure from the faith, 
 however slight. The occasion of such stress at this time 
 soon became manifest. 
 
 At this session of the association were planted the germs 
 of the Baptist institutions of learning in Texas. W. M. 
 Tryon was the originator of the movement to found an 
 Education Society, looking to the establishment of an in- 
 stitution of learning. He framed a resolution which was 
 read by the corresponding secretary. Judge Baylor, and 
 adopted. It was as follows :
 
 3G HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 '■Resolved, That this association recommend the forma- 
 tion of an Education Society, and that our friends and' 
 brethren be invited to become members of it." 
 
 This led to a partial organization on the spot, but the 
 society was not fully equipped for work till two years later. 
 
 The divergences which were sought to be harmonized 
 the year before, were aggressively developed at this session 
 of the body. Rev. T. W. Cox, the pastor, and also a mem- 
 ber of the church with which the association was meeting, 
 preached one night during the session. After the close of 
 the sermon, one or more candidates presented themselves for 
 membership, when Mr. Cox proceeded to receive them after 
 the manner adopted by the followers of Alexander Camp- 
 bell. Some of the messengers present insisted on a state- 
 ment of experience by the candidates, which gave rise to a 
 spirited discussion, in which Tryon and Huckins were the 
 most conspicuous. Cox defended with vigor his position, 
 and openly avowed his espousal of the views of Campbell. 
 The discussion was prolonged to a late hour of the night, 
 and the reception of the members was postponed. The in- 
 terest in the affairs of the association gave way to the sensa- 
 tion produced by the adoption of the new views by T. W. 
 Cox. It seems to have been generally understood that Cox 
 was congenially affected by the principles of Campbellism, 
 and it was known that he had been preaching in accordance 
 with them, and had received a number of members into the 
 churches according to the method prescribed by Campbell. 
 AVhether this previous knowledge on the part of some of the 
 messengers can be taken to account for the peculiar condi- 
 tion of a pastor occupying his own pulpit on an occasion like 
 this, is purely inferential; but it would seem that the mes- 
 sengers were as anxious to hear Cox as he was to be heard. 
 This seems to be the explanation of the improprieties of the 
 occasion. As a result of the procedure, ^lorrell was pre- 
 vailed on to remain to the meeting of the church conference 
 on the following Saturday, in order to procure the exclusion 
 of Cox from the church. Morrell was as courageous as he 
 was prudent, and though strong domestic demands were on 
 him to return home, he remained. The intervening time was 
 spent between JNIorrell and Cox in tactical maneuvers among
 
 SOLIDIFICATION UNDER DIFFICULTIES 37 
 
 tlie members, and Saturday found both confident and deter- 
 mined. 
 
 The day of the conference came. Morrell was present 
 and Cox ignored him and proceeded to preach. After the 
 sermon, Cox proceeded to receive a large number into the 
 church, in order, as was supposed, to forestall any action 
 on the part of Morrell. On the other hand, Morrell, who had 
 anticipated such an emergency, had provided himself with 
 documentary evidence from Judge Baylor, which evidence 
 he had placed in the hands of a member who, with many 
 others, was opposed to the course of Cox. Before a motion 
 was made to receive such as had offered themselves for 
 membership, Mr. Morrell arose and protested against the 
 proceeding on the ground of the heresy of the pastor. Cox 
 boldly demanded the proof of such a charge. At this junc- 
 ture the member to whom the evidence had been given, pro- 
 ceeded to read of the exclusion of Cox from a church in 
 Alabama, just before he came to Texas, the exclusion being 
 because of fraud. The church entertained the charges by a 
 bare majority. Then the contest began in earnest. Cox was 
 a man of no mean ability, vigorous and effective in speech, 
 incisive in thrust, ingenious in evasion, and persuasive in 
 power. He was more than a match for Morrell in the rough 
 and tumble of debate, but Morrell excelled in courage, in 
 coolness, and in prudence. He was amply able to parry the 
 blows of his adversary, because of the possession of these 
 qualities. So popular was Cox that it was difficult to induce 
 the church to recognize his guilt, even after it was estab- 
 lished. These charges brought to the surface others in 
 which Cox was proved to be guilty of false statements on 
 more than one occasion. A protracted discussion and in- 
 vestigation followed this episode, the result of which was the 
 exclusion of Cox. This action involved other churches of 
 which Cox w-as the pastor. Those in sympathy with him at 
 Independence were excluded, while he was sustained by the 
 Travis church, his followers being in the majority. They 
 accordingly voted themselves letters, and organized a church 
 in harmony with the views of Cox on Kentucky Ridge, of 
 which church Cox was made the pastor. Cox grew more 
 vicious, devoting much time to gambling and horse-racing,-
 
 -y llISTolfV OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 and eventually became an abandoned man. Rev. J. L. Davis, 
 another pastor in the association, who was in sympathy 
 witii Cox, withdrew from the Baptists soon after the exclu- 
 sion of Cox. The excluded members at Independence never 
 organized. 
 
 The course pursued by ]\Iorrell and others set the pace 
 of Baptist principles in these early days in Texas. Policy 
 would have prescribed a different course, when numbers 
 were few and the conditions unfavorable for disturbance, 
 but these men preferred principle to policy.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 GAINING A SOLID FOOTING, 
 
 By this time, 1842, the Baptists of Texas had at last 
 made a beginning". With the nucleus of a few well organ- 
 ized churches and one district association, the leaders were 
 encouraged to enter on a more extended work. A strenu- 
 ous campaign was begun to reach as speedily as possible 
 the stage where the denomination would be fully equipped 
 to engage equally in educational and missionary effort. 
 The Baptists were still a feeble folk, few in numbers, and 
 of limited means, but the population of the Republic was 
 steadily swelling, and there could be no doubt of the re- 
 sources, within a few years, with abundant natural elements 
 about them, as there was none of the loyalty of the denomi- 
 nation, judging from the type of character in the rank and 
 file of the Baptists. 
 
 Marked political changes were taking place which 
 augured the rapid improvement of the young Republic. 
 General Houston was at the head of the government, and 
 soon wrought a most beneficial change in the finances of the 
 Republic, while by a policy of conciliation, he subdued the 
 asperities of the Indian tribes. With these chief difficul- 
 ties out of the way, relief and confidence came again to the 
 struggling population. vStill there were difficulties arising 
 from an occasional invasion of Texas on the south, by the 
 Mexicans. This expression of hostility was due to the fact 
 that Santa Anna, who had come again to the head of af^ 
 fairs in Mexico, was anxious to prevent the annexation of 
 Texas to the "American Union. It had been given out at 
 Washington, that so long as Texas and Mexico were at 
 war, the United States, as a neutral nation, had no right to 
 espouse the cause of either. This encouraged Mexico to 
 
 39
 
 40 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 c-uiitiiuic to harass Texas, so as to create the impression that 
 the two countries were still at w-ar. 
 
 Another cause operated to deter a greater inflow of 
 population and to weaken public confidence, which was the 
 turbulence in eastern Texas, arising from the feuds and 
 conflicts between the Regulators and the Moderates. The 
 Regulators were those who had occupied the neutral terri- 
 tory named by Spain and the United States, an unsavory 
 class of freebooters, and the Moderates were those who 
 organized to suppress the others and were scarcely better. 
 These difficulties were greatly modified or overcome by 
 President Houston. Naturally, eastern Texas would be 
 the first part of the state to be developed, but the conditions 
 already named greatly hindered the progress of that region. 
 
 However, the work of the Baptist missionaries went 
 bravely on. Three more important churches had been or- 
 ganized, those of Chapel Hill, Providence and Gonzales. 
 The ministerial forces were being increased by recruits 
 from other states, among whom may be named as recent 
 arrivals Rev. Leonard Herrin, who came in 1841, and lo- 
 cated in the eastern part of the Republic, and Revs. Hosea 
 and O. H. P. Garrett, both of whom founded homes in 
 Washington county, and engaged in pastoral work in that 
 section. 
 
 The third session of the Union Association was not held 
 according to prearrangement by reason of serious disturb- 
 ances on the eastern and southern borders of the Republic. 
 However, Morrell, Tryon and Baylor conferred together 
 and determined to hold a meeting of the body at Mt. Gilead 
 church on November 26, 1842. Twelve churches were 
 represented, and three other new churches came into the 
 membership of the association at this session. The session 
 was more formal than usual, because all eyes were turned 
 toward the two centers of disturl)ance on the east and 
 south. Nothing practically w^as effected, as every man was 
 anxious to return home, not knowing at what moment he 
 might be summoned to take up arms. 
 
 Up to this time, but little headway had been made by the 
 Baptists in eastern Texas. To the political difficulties in 
 that region was added another of a more serious nature to
 
 GAINING A SOLID FOOTING 41 
 
 the cause of Christ. Anti-missionism was prevalent and 
 there were not wanting those who were active in the work 
 of dissension. Surprising as it may seem, Rev. Isaac Reed, 
 who had been so courageous and effective in his service in 
 the region of Nacogdoches, was one of the chief fomenters 
 in the disturbances as a stout opponent of missions. He 
 was a man of great zeal and influence, and by the aid of 
 others had succeeded in neutralizing the eflficiency of the 
 mission work in that quarter of the Republic. 
 
 While zealous work had been done in that region, yet 
 up to 1843 but one Baptist church had been organized in 
 eastern Texas, and that was the Old Union, which had 
 maintained its solitary existence for years together. But 
 the difficulties only nerved to new effort, and during the 
 year 1843, four other churches were constituted in eastern 
 Texas. These were Mt. Zion, in Nacogdoches county ; 
 Borden and Bethel, in Harrison county, and Bethel, in Sa- 
 bine county. Toward the close of the year these, together 
 with Old Union, entered into the organization of another 
 association which they called Sabine. Revs. Reed. Herrin 
 and Asa Wright were the leaders in the organization. But 
 the work was seriously retarded by the anti-mission senti- 
 ments of Reed. His motive in this course is difficult to be 
 understood. It was in direct opposition to the record which 
 he had made some years before as an indefatigable mis- 
 sionary, when he Avent so far as to defy the Spanish authori- 
 ties near Nacogdoches, and built a house of worship where 
 he held services regularly. Why he should now throw 
 himself across the pathway of tardy progress in the expan- 
 sion of the Lord's cause, and raise the banner of revolt 
 against the very cause which he had espoused with so much 
 vigor in former years, no one could understand. It was 
 not difficult for him to strike a popular chord under pre- 
 vailing conditions, when the people were struggling to get 
 a substantial foothold for actual maintenance in a new 
 country. If it was popularity which he sought, it may be 
 that his ambition was gratified. But strong as he was with 
 the people, Reed was not allowed to go unchallenged. Rev. 
 Lemuel Herrin, though not so able a man as Reed, took 
 up the cudgel of defense for missionary enterprise, and
 
 I»R. J. 1'.. r.INK.
 
 GAINING A SOLID FOOTING 43 
 
 withstood Reed to his face. But the spirit of anti-mission- 
 isni became infectious, and the existence of some of the 
 churches was threatened. For the time, the struggle was 
 transferred from the common enemy to that which was 
 being w'aged among the churches themselves. Some of 
 the most formidable leaders who had stood in the front of 
 the file, became discouraged because of the glaring defect- 
 iveness of those of whom they had a right to expect better 
 things. Even ]\Iorrell, than whom there never was a more 
 daring and intrepid missionary, saw but little hope of subse- 
 quent relief, and he was disposed to return to Alississippi. 
 A w-ave of anti-missionism Avas spreading among the 
 churches at the most inopportune time, if indeed it is ever 
 opportune. With a feeling approaching dismay, he saw that 
 the work seemed to be going to pieces, and the preachers, 
 or at least some of them, were stimulating the general de- 
 fection of the churches. From Plum Grove church, fifty 
 miles away, with a tangled wilderness lying betw'een, and 
 with savage danger lurking everywhere, he learned that 
 that noble little band, which he had nourished into life, was 
 about to go to pieces, because fomenters of trouble had 
 crept in to steal the people from their first love. His horse 
 had been stolen, and his oxen were too slow to take him 
 fifty miles before the decisive meeting could be held at Plum 
 Grove church. In his strait, a young friend proposed to 
 lend him his pony to take the long and arduous trip. With 
 his rifle across his saddle, the bold champion of the prin- 
 ciples of the gospel of Jesus Christ plunged into the dark- 
 ness of the night, across an uninhabited wilderness, on an 
 errand to save the church with which he had begun his 
 labors in Texas. The journey was a most perilous one 
 and the fatigue fearful, for he had learned of the proposed 
 meeting of dissolution at the close of a heavy dav's work, 
 and only eighteen hours before it should be held fiftv miles 
 off, but this man with the courage of a lion, and with iron 
 frame, reached the neighborhood of the church before the 
 appointed time. After slight refreshment, he appeared at 
 the church and preached at eleven o'clock on Saturdav. 
 Then followed the conference, during which certain mem- 
 bers proposed to make the question of missions a test of
 
 41 IIISTOUV or TKXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 fcUuwship. Through the efforts of Mr. Morrell, the whole 
 matter was amicably settled by granting to each the right 
 of private judgment, but at the same time retaining the 
 bonds of fellowship. A course so reasonable and right aj)- 
 pealed to all alike, the differences disappeared, the church 
 was saved. The occasion was made the mellower the next 
 (lay by the observance of the Lord's supper, after which the 
 peacemaker mounted his horse, rode back the distance of 
 fifty miles, and was ready to resume his manual labors on 
 Monday. This grinding drudgery, unceasing care, harass- 
 ments without number, excessive labor, and constant danger 
 made the call to Holly Springs, Mississippi, a great tempta- 
 tion ; but the Lord had yet much work for him in Texas. 
 
 The stress of the times increased and the element of dis- 
 cord waxed stronger. In 1844 there was organized on the 
 eastern border of the Republic an association composed of 
 four churches in Texas and one in Louisiana. Those in 
 Texas were Salem, Harmony, Mt. Olivet and Antioch, 
 W'hile the one in Louisiana was Antioch. In order that their 
 basis of principles might not admit of a doubt, they ex- 
 pressed them in the name given to the body : "The Louisi- 
 ana and Texas Regular Predestinarian Baptist Associa- 
 tion." They pronounced against all secret orders, benevo- 
 lent organizations and missionary boards of whatever sort. 
 In the body of the constitution appeared this lugubrious 
 article : 
 
 "Having for years past viewed willi distress that the fol- 
 lowing institutions and societies have brought upon 
 churches: that is to say (punctuation, capitalization and con- 
 struction exactly quoted) Missionary Effort Societies. Bible, 
 Baptist Conventions ; Temperance, Sunday-school Unions : 
 Tract Ministerial Education Societies ; and in a word all 
 the human combinations and societies of the day, set up in 
 order to advance the Redeemer's kingdom, as inimical to 
 the peace of Zion, and calculated in their nature to cause 
 schism, w^e therefore declare non-fellowship with all such." 
 
 Within a few years, this and the Sabine Association 
 perished from inanition, leaving nothing but the relic of a 
 name to tell that they had been. The year 1843 was one 
 of the darkest in the history of Texas. Deep gloom settled
 
 GAINING A SOLID FOOTING 45 
 
 on every interest, and stagnation and demoralization were 
 everywhere prevalent. Only the energy and the unquench- 
 able zeal of the missionary, now inured to hardship, in 
 grappling with western difficulties, saved the cause from 
 absolute wreck. Brave men, with hearts of iron and nerves 
 of steel, stood well to the fore, hoping against hope, with 
 an unshaken trust in God. Mexico continued to harass the 
 frontier on the south, and calls to arms to turn back the in- 
 vaders, left the growing crops in a precarious condition. 
 On the eastern border, the troubles between the Regulators 
 and the Moderates were kept up. On the floor of the Amer- 
 ican congress the year was made memorable by the agitation 
 of the question of the annexation of Texas to the Union. 
 The young Republic was rimmed around by troubles in- 
 numerable; Mexico had conceived the idea that she might 
 yet recover Texas, hence the continuation of the trouble on 
 the south. Every turn in the tide of events was one of dis- 
 couragement to Texas. Fortunately for the new nation at 
 so terrible a crisis, President Houston, with iron nerve and 
 cool judgment, held the helm well in hand. On this remark- 
 able man more than on all things else the situation turned. 
 In the rank and file of the citizenship of Texas, he found 
 his most ardent supporters in the Baptist ministry. 
 
 In October, 1843, the Union Association met with the 
 Providence church in Washington county. Two new 
 churches were admitted by petition — Dove church, 
 of Milam county, and Ebenezer, of Robertson coun- 
 'ty. The Bill of Rights had been dropped and the 
 articles of faith were adopted at this session of 
 the body. These articles of faith gave forth a 
 sound of New Testament principles that was not uncertain, 
 and showed that the body had come to realize that safety 
 and permanency lay in a strict adherence to the doctrines 
 of the Master. Never was there a more heroic body of 
 godly men gathered than were those who met in the Union 
 Association, in the gloomy year of 1843. They planned for 
 the future as though the prospect were the brightest, and 
 the encouragements the most inspiring. Plans were made 
 for aggressive work ; district meetings were arranged for ; 
 a day of fasting and prayer was named ; Sunday schools
 
 4(5 lllSTDHV OF TK.XA.S iJAI'TISTS 
 
 were recommended ; the manufacture, use and sale of spiri- 
 tuous liquors were condemned by unanimous vote ; the 
 chuixhes were requested lo defray the expenses of the mes- 
 sengers to the meetings uf the association, and correspond- 
 ence was opened with the Sabine Association. There was 
 life in the old land yet. These were not the men to repine 
 when disaster came. Not more faith did Jeremiah have 
 when told to purchase the field that was in Anathoth, than 
 had these men on tiie plains of Texas. With a ])ol(lncss that 
 was inspiring, they resolved to extend the field of mission- 
 ary effort. Heretofore, they had confined themselves to the 
 southern end of the Republic. Here was the strength of the 
 denomination, but other regions were being settled, and into 
 these they were determined to go. 
 
 The close of the year brought fresh hope. The negotia- 
 tions between Texas and ^lexico gave promise of a perma- 
 nent adjustment, which, together with the possibility of the 
 early annexation of Texas to the Union, stinudated afresh 
 the spirit of immigration. ^Meanwhile, financial conditions 
 had grown healthier. In addition still, the Indians had been 
 pacified by Houston, who knew the character of the savage 
 so well, by reason of his long-continued residence among 
 the wild tribes. Taking advantage of these conditions, Z. 
 N. Morrell felt that the time for renewed and vigorous 
 action for the Baptists had come. \\'ith somewhat of pro- 
 phetic ken, he saw that the gathering communities must 
 one day become towns and cities. Acting on this conviction, 
 he sold his little estate at the mouth of the Trinity river and 
 l)egan a vigorous campaign of evangelization. At this time, 
 excei)ting Houston and (lalveston, there were only two Bap- 
 tist churches between the Trinity and Brazos rivers. North- 
 ward was a vast fertile region into which there was a stream 
 of population pouring. At that time Montgomery county 
 stretched from the Brazos to the Trinity, and embraced the 
 territory now included in the counties of Grimes, Walker, 
 Madison and ^lontgomery. Into this territory, now being 
 rapitlly peopled, went Z. N. Morrell, from settlement to set- 
 tlement, preaching as he went. Large crowds greeted him 
 at every point. He found many Baptists, representing many 
 states, and as diverse in their views as thev were in cfeo-
 
 GAINING A SOLID FOOTING 47 
 
 graphical representation. He set his heart on organizing a 
 church at Huntsville, but here he encountered harsh oppo- 
 sition. The town was notorious for its roughness, and inter- 
 posed serious objection to being interfered with by rehgion. 
 However, he succeeded in organizing a church in Hunts- 
 ville in September, 1844, in which organization he was aided 
 by Thomas Horsely. Huntsville enjoys the distinction of 
 having the first Baptist church in "Middle Texas," as that 
 region was then called. A church was organized also at 
 Danville. ]\Iorrell encountered strong opposition in this 
 region on the part of James Parker, who was urgent in pre- 
 senting the rankest antinomian views, based on what he 
 called "the primitive order." James was the brother of 
 Daniel Parker of the "two-seed" notoriety, who had been 
 notorious for his extreme opposition to missions in Kentucky 
 and elsewhere. James was not the equal of his brother, 
 Daniel, save in his illiteracy, and therefore not so formid- 
 able. But what there was in James was summoned and ex- 
 ercised to the fullest in his opposition to Morrell. Numer- 
 ous difficulties were encountered by this brave man in the 
 prosecution of his work in the region of Huntsville. One 
 of these was the progress of the trial of a Baptist preacher, 
 named McClenny, who was alleged to have been accessory to 
 a murder. Seemingly a gentleman of affable manner, and 
 familiar with Scripture truth, his connection with such a 
 case did Morrell no good in his present campaign at Hunts- 
 ville. Added to this was the fact that Rev. R. G. Green, 
 who had aided in the formation of the Old Union church, 
 had been involved in a serious domestic trouble and was now 
 a wreck. He had been dividing his time between preaching 
 and carousing, and had brought into contempt the religion of 
 Christ. Then, too, those who had announced themselves as 
 Baptists were given over to frivolity and dissipation, and 
 this did not conduce to the encouragement of the stranger 
 missionary. Still Morrell had seen many sides of life, and 
 was not easily discouraged. 
 
 In November, 1844, the church at Anderson was consti- 
 tuted, and this was followed by the constitution of Post Oak 
 church. A line of cleavage had been made in middle Texas, 
 and the cause had thus obtained a solid footing.
 
 48 HISTOKV OF TKXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 Up to this time but little reference has been made to the 
 progress of the work in northern Texas. Nor has there 
 been much occasion to do so. Before the establishment of 
 Austin's Colony around San Filipe, there had been an 
 y\mcrican colony in the region of Red River, in the section 
 which afterward became Red River county. It was to this 
 settlement that Freeman Smalley had come and preached 
 first as a Baptist in Texas. The settlement was founded as 
 early as 1816. It seems that a Baptist church was not or- 
 ganized in this region till 1843, when the Concord church 
 was constituted with a membership of seven. Rev. Willis 
 jM. Pickett was the first pastor, he having been ordained to 
 the gospel ministry the same year, by Revs. N. T. Byars 
 and Benjamin Clark. 
 
 The fifth annual session of the Union Association was 
 held in 1844, i-inder favorable conditions, at Plum Grove 
 church. The messengers were especially encouraged by the 
 contributions made to all interests for the year, as they ag- 
 gregated $37.91 ! The gloom which had hung as a pall over 
 the country so long found an encouraging rift in the dis- 
 position to resume work with a will. Among the worthiest, 
 and yet one of the most unpretentious men of the period was 
 Rev. George Webb Slaughter, the father of Colonel C. C. 
 Slaughter. He was an unique character who came to Texas 
 from Louisiana in 1830. The following year he became a 
 member of the INIethodist church, but in 1844 was converted 
 to the Baptist faith by individual study of the Bible, to which 
 he was led by the preaching of Rev. Peter Eldredge, who 
 was the first Baptist preacher Mr. Slaughter had ever heard. 
 
 George W'ebb Slaughter was a type of the hardy yeo- 
 manry of the times, and his stocky frame had become so in- 
 ured to hard service that he was toughened and fitted for 
 almost any service that called for the exercise of muscu- 
 larity. He was extremely poor, and before coming to Texas 
 had split rails for bread in Louisiana. 
 
 When the war broke out between Texas and Mexico, Mr. 
 
 ' Slaughter responded with zestful alacrity. He proved to be 
 
 an invaluable scout to General Houston, and was one of his 
 
 most trusted lieutenants. Houston sent him to Fannin and 
 
 Travis with secret messages of the greatest importance, and
 
 GAINING A SOLID FOOTING 49 
 
 though the undertaking was attended with the gravest haz- 
 ard, it was bravely executed. A second time was Slaughter 
 sent to bear a message to the ill-fated commander of the 
 Alamo, but when he came within sound of the booming can- 
 non, he knew that the garrison was doomed. His plans up- 
 set by this unexpected occurrence, he hid himself in a 
 clump of woods on the edge of the prairie to await develop- 
 ments. On the day following the bombardment, he saw ap- 
 proaching, from across the plain, a man and w'oman, who 
 proved to be Mrs. Dickenson, the heroine of the Alamo, 
 and the negro servant of Colonel Travis, both of whom had 
 been spared by Santa Anna, to bear dispatches to Houston, 
 telling him of the slaughter of the garrison of the Alamo. 
 The two were directed to General Houston by Mr. Slaugh- 
 ter, who received fresh commendations for his bravery from 
 the commander. 
 
 After the cessation of hostilities. Slaughter obtained 
 leave of absence, returned home and married. His was the 
 first license granted in the new Republic, and his marriage 
 the first after the achievement of Texan independence. 
 
 His conversion to the Baptist faith followed, and he felt 
 impelled to preach. Going westward and engaging in the 
 cattle business, he preached without compensation in the then 
 western counties of Freestone, Anderson, Leon. Palo Pinto, 
 and others. He was a free lance, and preached in his own 
 unique way. He was one of the western Boanerges, and 
 thundered the anathemas of the gospel into the -ears of the 
 wrong-doers of the wdld frontier. Facile of speech, the tor- 
 rent of his words could not keep pace with the rapidity of 
 thought, and he would often leave his sentences incom- 
 plete, and remark to his hearers that they knew his mean- 
 ing. 
 
 No man was better fitted than he for the peculiar work 
 which he undertook. As fearless as a Turk, he faced all 
 the dangers of the frontier in going to his appointments, 
 and did not hesitate to call vices by their right names when 
 he stood before the uncouth audiences of the wild plains. 
 In his voluntary evangelism, his peculiar outfit consisted of 
 a Texas pony, a lariat, coffee-pot, rifle, a brace of six- 
 shooters, and a Bible. Between the years 1859 and '71, he
 
 50 JllS'l'oin' OF 'J'KA'AS JIAPTISTS 
 
 organized twenty-one churches, and Ijaptizcd nine hunch'ed 
 and seven persons. During his ministry he baptized 2,509 
 persons. His was a consistent life, and vicious men, who 
 were conspicuous in a subsequent generation, traced their 
 conversions to the preaching" of ( ieorgc A\'cbb Slaughter.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 BAYLOR UNIVERSITY. 
 
 In the preceding record there has been somewhat an an- 
 ticipation of that which is now to claim our attention. The 
 year 1845 was to Texas a most eventful one. For the space 
 of fifteen years Texas had been the theater of as much gen- 
 uine heroism, stirring romance and daring achievement, as 
 had ever before occurred elsewhere on the American conti- 
 nent. The romantic history of the state is yet to be written. 
 The men and women who came to Texas during this ro- 
 mantic period were those who were capable of courageous 
 achievement. The genuine hardihood and the indomitable 
 zeal of that time remind us of the traditional stories of an- 
 cient Greece and of the old Vikings. There never was a 
 severer test applied to Anglo-Saxon manhood and woman- 
 hood than was in Texas during the first two decades subse- 
 quent to its occupation by the whites. 
 
 Among the distinguished personages of that period, and 
 during a later period, indeed, was that of a man who has 
 been several times alluded to in these pages and whose 
 distinct individuality, genuine worth and eminent service 
 call for a more extended notice before the narrative shall 
 proceed further, Hon. and Rev. R. E. B. Baylor who came 
 to the state in 1839. He was the son of Colonel Robert 
 Baylor, who was a soldier of the Revolution and a member 
 of the military family of General Washington. Prior to 
 coming to Texas, Mr. Baylor had practised law in Cahaba 
 and Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and had served his district dur- 
 ing two terms in congress. Locating at Lagrange, Texas, 
 he taught for a period, during which time he was licensed 
 to preach. Brought into contact with Rev. Z. N. Morrell, 
 Judge Baylor was induced to preach as opportunity oflfered, 
 and for the most part, he made such opportunities during 
 
 51
 
 DR. S. r. BROOKS, TRKSIDENT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY, WACO, TEX. 
 
 (Born 1S03, MilledKCvillc. Ga. ; moved to Texas. 1868 : educated in 
 public schools, Johnson Co.; A. B. Baylor Univ., 1803; A. B. Yale Univ. 
 1894; A. M. Yale Univ., 1902; honorary LL. D. Richmond College, Va., 
 190,'; ; teacher in Baylor, 1895-01 ; President Bavlor Univ. since 1902 • 
 Correspondinir Secretary of Education Commission, 190.5-1907.)
 
 BAYLOE UNIVERSITY 63 
 
 tlie stirring years which followed his licensure. His career 
 in Texas was a varied one. He preached, occupied the 
 bench in different courts, served in the convention in which 
 Texas was admitted into the Union, was a member of the 
 Texas congress, and fought Indians and Mexicans. For 
 fifteen years he presided over circuit courts, and .served at 
 one time on the supreme bench. It is worthy of note that 
 in the city in which is located the institution which bears 
 his honored name, he held the first court ever held in that 
 city, and preached the first sermon ever preached in Waco. 
 At times, while holding court in different parts of Texas, 
 he would preside as judge during the day, and preach at 
 night in the same court room. Many times he would con- 
 duct simultaneously a session of court and a revival of 
 religion. He was most exemplary both as a layman jurist 
 and as a minister of the gospel. However pressing his en- 
 gagements, he would never subordinate religious duty to 
 the demands of secular obligation. On one occasion he 
 preached at the Union Association at eleven o'clock on Sun- 
 day, and rode fifty miles on horseback to a point where he 
 opened court the next morning. 
 
 An estimate of the conditions prevailing in Texas at this 
 time may be had from an extract from President Houston's 
 message as he retired from office in the closing days of 
 1844: "I leave the country tranquil at home and at peace 
 with all nations, excepting Mexico, which still maintains 
 the attitude of nominal hostility. I see and know that the 
 prospects of the Republic are brightening, its resources are 
 developing, its commerce extending, and its moral influence 
 increasing." 
 
 There was manifestly an auspicious turn in the tide of af- 
 fairs. The fact that the congress of the United States 
 opened the door of welcome to the Republic of Texas to be- 
 come one of the states, which action was taken at Washing- 
 ton, February 28, 1845, bred great confidence in the people. 
 Preparations were made for conventional action on the part 
 of Texas, which resulted in the acceptance of the national 
 invitation. In the florid language of Bancroft : "The Lx)ne 
 Star of Texas sank below the horizon, to rise again amidst 
 a constellation of unapproachable splendor."
 
 5 J. HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 The struggling" hopes of the Baptists who had wrestled 
 with every form of diffieulty in rooting the denomination 
 in Texas, were now revived. If they had achieved so much 
 against odds so fearful, what might they not now accom- 
 plish with so much in their favor? The one cherished object 
 toward which the Baptist brotherhood had bent their ener- 
 gies and directed their prayers for years, was a great denom- 
 inational school at which their ministry could be educated, 
 and the interests of the commonwealth promoted. The 
 institution was founded chiefly in the desire to improve the 
 ministry of the state. 
 
 So early as 1841, action favorable to such an enterprise 
 had been undertaken by the introduction of a resolution 
 before the Union Association looking to such a venture by 
 Rev. W. M. Tryon. The following year nothing was done 
 because of the distractions incident to the Mexican in- 
 vasions, but during the second year after the introduction 
 of the resolution, the proposed Education Society was for- 
 mally organized, but the venture did not assume definite 
 form till February i, 1845, when the Education Society was 
 chartered by the congress of Texas, which charter provided 
 for the appointment of fifteen trustees. The prime mover 
 in this enterprise was Rev. W. IM. Tryon, who was ably 
 supplemented in his efforts by Judge Baylor, who wrote 
 the charter and procured its grant by the congress of the 
 Republic. It is an interesting fact that when the charter 
 was presented the name of the institution was left blank. 
 Baylor suggested that the name of "Tryon" should supply 
 the blank space, but Tryon objected, and with commend- 
 able modesty said : "1 have had so much to do in bring- 
 ing the enterprise to a consummation that my motive might 
 be misunderstood should I suffer my name to appear in 
 such connection. Besides, it might injure the school at the 
 very outset." With this, Tryon took a pen and inserted 
 the name of Baylor in the blank, and so it became Baylor 
 University. 
 
 The original trustees were: R. E. B. Baylor, J. G. 
 Thomas, A. G. Haynes, A. C. Horton, J- E- Lester, R. B. 
 larman, James Iluckins, Nelson Kavanaugh, O. Drake. Eli 
 Mercer, Aaron Shannon, James L. Farquar, Robert S.
 
 BAYLOE UNIVERSITY 
 
 Aniistead, W. M. Tnon and E. W. Taylor. The trustees 
 were invited to meet at Independence on April 7, 1845, in 
 order to take steps toward establishing the school. No 
 quorum being- present, they were requested to meet on the 
 15th of Alay following, at Brenham. At the second meet- 
 
 DR. RUFUS C. IJUIILESOX, D. D., LI,. D. 
 
 ing a quorum was present and Judge Baylor was made 
 president pro tem of the Board, and E. W. Taylor, secre- 
 tary pro tem. After the adoption of certain rules for the 
 government of the Board, and after some discussion con- 
 cerning the opening of the bids for the location of the 
 school, it was resolved to adjourn and meet on the 13th
 
 5G IIISTOEY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 of the October following at Mt. Gilead church. During 
 the interim there was considerable activity shown on the 
 part of the friends of the several competing points which 
 desired the location of the school. 
 
 When the Board met at Mt. Gilead church several places 
 appeared as candidates for the location of the proposed uni- 
 versity. Eli Mercer presented the bonus from the town of 
 Travis, in Austin county ; Rev. Stovall, that of Huntsville ; 
 Aaron Shannon, the one from Prairie, and E. W. Taylor, 
 that from Independence. A committee was appointed to 
 examine the bids and report that of each, when it was found 
 that the valuation of the ofifer from Travis w^as $3,586.23, 
 the one from Huntsville, $5,417.75, the one from Grimes 
 Prairie $4,725, and the one from Independence $7,925. The 
 balloting resulted in ten votes for Independence, and one 
 for Huntsville. Mr. E. W. Taylor, a business man from 
 Independence, though not a member of a church, seeing 
 that the offer from Independence fell below that of some 
 of the other points contesting, withdrew the proposal from 
 that point, and increased it by a substantial individual gift. 
 
 Here was a spectacle which might serve to excite the 
 ridicule of some and the pathos of others. A body of pio- 
 neersmen meeting in a log church on the plains of a raw 
 country, proposing to establish a university on a basis of 
 somewhat more than seven thousand dollars, not in actual 
 cash, but in subscriptions ! But few of the number knew 
 what was meant by a college, and none had ever known 
 what was involved in the effort of establishing and main- 
 taining a great school of learning. But faith supplied the 
 deficiency of knowledge, and a grim determination nerved 
 these men to meet the unknown emergencies of so supreme 
 an undertaking. They recognized the extreme necessity of 
 a school of learning in order to maintain the ministry of a 
 state which was destined to be most conspicuous among 
 the states of the Union, and they faltered not to undertake 
 the enterprise, believing that with the advance of time and 
 the increase of information needed, they would be able to 
 rise correspondingly to confront the coming demands. The 
 spectacle of a scene like this is a positive inspiration. Money 
 was exceedingly scarce at this time, and but little of the
 
 BAYLOR UNIVEESITY 57 
 
 subscriptions represented cash. Think of a village making 
 the following offer for a great institution of learning: One 
 section of land, one yoke of oxen, five head of cattle, one 
 cow and calf, one bay mare, one bale of cotton, twenty days' 
 hauling, and cash to the amount of $200 ! If on the surface 
 it appeared ridiculous, it was buttressed on a faith similar 
 to that wiiich prompted a mere handful of fishermen to start 
 on the subjugation of the world to Christ. There were 
 stalwart heroes in those days. 
 
 Preliminaries were arranged for the collection of addi- 
 tional means, a building was projected, the Board was per- 
 manently organized, and thus in this rude log hut, Baylor 
 University w^as born. W. M. Tryon was made the first 
 president of the Board of Trustees, E. W. Taylor, secretary, 
 and A. G. Haynes, treasurer. At a subsequent meeting 
 held at Independence early in the following December, a 
 building committee was appointed, and Allen Hill was 
 selected as the site of the main building. At this same 
 meeting Rev. Henry L. Graves, of Georgia, was elected 
 president of Baylor University, and Henry L. Gillette, prin- 
 cipal of the preparatory department. Mr. Graves was a 
 native of North Carolina, a graduate from the university 
 of that state, was afterward professor of mathematics in 
 Wake Forest College, and at the time of his election to the 
 presidency of Baylor University, was teaching in Georgia. 
 Mr. Gillette came to Texas from Connecticut when a mere 
 lad of sixteen. He was a graduate from Trinity College, 
 Hartford, and was designed for the Episcopal ministry. 
 He abandoned that idea early in manhood, came to Texas 
 and taught a school which attained to local fame at Wash- 
 ington, on the Brazos. After his retirement from Baylor 
 University he settled on an estate on Galveston Bay, and 
 in 1866 became the founder of Bayland Orphans' Home. 
 Baylor University was opened on May 18, 1846, with Mr. 
 Gillette as the only teacher. The attendance at first em- 
 braced only twenty- four pupils. 
 
 President Graves arrived on the 4th of the following- 
 February, 1847, and took formal charge. The movement 
 to make Baylor a great school now began in earnest. 
 Agents were appointed to solicit funds and books not only
 
 Kin'. Wir.LIAM CAUKY CRANE, D. D., LL. 1).
 
 BAYLOE UNIVEESITY 59 
 
 in Texas, but throughout the states eastward. Along with 
 Doctor Graves came several men who became conspicuous 
 in the Baptist annals of the state — J. W. D. Creath, P. B. 
 Chandler and Noah Hill. 
 
 Creath was a Virginian and came of a family of preach- 
 ers. His collegiate course was taken at the Virginia Bap- 
 tist Seminary, now Richmond College. For nine years 
 before ofifering' himself to the Southern Convention as a 
 missionary to Texas, he served churches in his native state, 
 and for a period was a successful missionary of the Gen- 
 eral Association of that state. From the beginning he 
 made a most favorable impression on the Baptists of Texas, 
 which impression was deepened by a long period of useful 
 and eventful service. 
 
 Rev. P. B. Chandler was a native of Georgia. His edu- 
 cation, though limited, was consecrated to the service of 
 the gospel ministry. Marrying early in life, his opportu- 
 nities for scholastic training were abridged, but appreciat- 
 ing the importance of better equipment for the great work, 
 he sold his home when he was twenty-six years old, and 
 taking his wife and three children to Penfield, Georgia, 
 entered on his studies at Mercer University. For two years 
 he prosecuted his course largely at his own expense, and 
 afterward taught school at Social Circle, Georgia, where 
 he was ordained to preach the gospel. He was soon after- 
 ward appointed by the Domestic Mission Board to labor in 
 Texas. Making his way from Social Circle, Georgia, to 
 Montgomery, Alabama, by private conveyance, he took a 
 boat to Mobile, thence to New Orleans and Galveston. He 
 was accompanied by President Graves and by his pastor at 
 Social Circle, Rev. Noah Hill, also an appointee of the 
 Board. In NeW Orleans the party fell in with Rev. J. 
 W. D. Creath, who was en route to Texas. In some re- 
 spects Mr. Hill Avas the most remarkable man in the party. 
 Though born in Virginia, his childhood was spent partly 
 in North Carolina and partly in Georgia. He grew up in 
 ignorance, and was not converted till after his marriage. 
 At that time he could barely read, but feeling impelled to 
 preach, he deliberately renjoved with his family to Pen- 
 field, Georgia, and entered on his course at Mercer Uni-
 
 BAYLOE UNIVERSITY Gl 
 
 versity. He was both large and tall, weighing more than 
 two hundred and rising to the height of six feet, two inches. 
 Burly in appearance and of rugged brow, this giant from 
 the mountain regions was placed in the preparatory depart- 
 ment. Imagine his stalwart frame towering in the midst 
 of small boys to a class of which he belonged! In those 
 days Webster's "blue back" was the popular book in 
 orthography, and the words were "given out" to a file of 
 students who stood facing the teacher. Should a word 
 miss of spelling by one student, it was passed to the next 
 below, and if he was successful in spelling it, he took his 
 place above the one who had failed. The scene must have 
 been a comical one of this typical mountain preacher being 
 "turned down" in the spelling exercise, by a small boy. To 
 a man of less force of character, this would have been an 
 unbearable humiliation; but Hill was not the least discour- 
 aged, and would share in the merry glee produced at his 
 own expense. For a period of three or four years he pur- 
 sued his course at Mercer, when he was ordained and called 
 to the pastorate of the church at Social Circle. Possessed 
 of a strong frame, a stentorian voice, strongly marked and 
 rugged features and native intellectual endowments of a 
 high order, he became a great popular preacher in the land 
 of his adoption. 
 
 During the year 1846 the Baptist missionaries in Texas 
 were most active. The idea of having founded a college 
 gave immense impulse to the work. Every one regarded 
 the movement as meaning much to the future cause of 
 the state. Immense territory was sought to be occupied 
 by the few men laboring, but their efforts were unremit- 
 ting to occupy it as fully as possible. Z. N. Morrell 
 was not only a preacher of power, but was constitution- 
 ally a leader. In the large field assigned him, he organized, 
 during the year, 1846, a church at Leon, another at Spring- 
 field, and pushed his work northward into Navarro county, 
 where he touched the territory of Byars, who was then liv- 
 ing on Richland Creek, in that county. Fortunately Judge 
 Baylor was serving a district at that time in that part of the 
 state in which Morrell was laboring as missionary. With 
 his usual wisdom Morrell would so arrange his appoint-
 
 < < 
 
 
 ;2^ 
 
 c c 
 
 ►J < 
 
 C C5
 
 BAYLOE UNIVERSITY 63 
 
 ments as to have them coincide with the terms of court in 
 a given town, in order to be able to command the services 
 of Judge Baylor. As was his wont, Baylor would preside 
 in the court room during the day, and in the same place 
 preach at night. By this combination of service this won- 
 derful man swayed a marvelous influence on the uncouth 
 population with which he had most to do. 
 
 The seventh session of the Union Association was held 
 in 1846 with Dove church at Caldwell, Burleson county. 
 The session was distinguished by no remarkable action, 
 though there was the spirit of progress in the reports read 
 and in the discussions. Increased buoyancy was given to 
 the meeting by the prospect of a great school of learning at 
 Independence. This was the subject of general comment 
 among the members as the}- foresaw what a power it would 
 prove to the ministry of the state. Two new churches, 
 Rocky Creek and Bethel, had been organized during the 
 year, and were admitted into the body at the session at 
 Dove church. In order to promote evangelistic work and 
 arouse the churches to more intelligent zeal, the association 
 was divided into four districts and arrangements were 
 made to hold district meetings during the succeeding year. 
 Steps were also taken to establish, at Houston, under the 
 care of Rev. W. M. Tryon, a Bible depository, which 
 project failed because of the death of Mr. Tryon during 
 the next year.
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 EDUCATION AND EN'AXf lErJZATION. 
 
 The twofold work of the llaptists of Texas has heen, 
 from the outset, education and evangehzation. They are 
 co-operative and conjunctive. While Christianity saves the 
 souls of men, through the agency of preaching, it focuses 
 itself, as an organization, about teaching. It is an interest- 
 ing fact in the history of education, that every great insti- 
 tution of learning has been the outgrowth of religion. The 
 school is the anchor of the church. 
 
 This is neither the time nor place to discuss a question 
 already well-worn, but it is timely to call attention to the 
 fact that the early Baptists of Texas began, in the first 
 stages of denominational development, to plan for a school 
 of higher learning. Nor did they await a period of pros- 
 perity for such a beginning, but just so soon as a ray of 
 possibility pierced the gloom which hung over them for 
 years together, they conceived a great school, around which 
 the denomination would circle its interest and affection. 
 
 To some it might have seemed the climax of absurdity, 
 with not a little of the ridiculous, for a body of men, most 
 of w^hom were themselves imlearned and clad in the garb 
 of pioneersmen, gathered in a log house in the backwoods, 
 with a raw and ragged wilderness around, to take steps 
 to found a great institution of learning. Still, it was under 
 just such conditions as these that the intrepid and gifted 
 Tryon forecast such a school in 1841 in Concord church. 
 With marvelous sagacity these countrymen, relying solely 
 on the promises of God, and with a faith that pierced the 
 future, however unpromising their present environments, 
 took the first step in the direction of a great school of learn- 
 ing in Texas. Tryon lived to see only the prophetic blos- 
 som of the blessed fruit which has not only become the cher- 
 
 64
 
 EDUCATION AND EVANGELIZATION 65 
 
 ished object of a mighty denomination, but a benediction 
 to a great commonwealth and the regions beyond. If faith 
 ever had its reward, it certainly has been during the event- 
 ful years of the history of the educational institutions of 
 the Baptists of Texas. If these men wrought so mightily 
 by faith, when the resources were wanting, what obligation 
 does faith not now impose, when means are unlimited and 
 conditions are so favorable? The faith of the fathers, from 
 which has sprung our schools of learning and the unspeak- 
 able good which they have yielded, burden the Baptists of 
 Texas for all time with an obligation coterminous with 
 increasing demands which come with each recurring year. 
 
 The wise and heroic management of Baptist affairs had 
 brought the denomination to a stage from which the pros- 
 pect was encouraging. The initial difficulties of rallying 
 and cohering a people of a given faith in settlements widely 
 apart, and extended over a vast area of territory, were now 
 well behind. As courageous and devoted men as ever a 
 missionary field had, braved the terrors of a western wil- 
 derness and manipulated the scattered remnants of Bap- 
 tists, and bound them into cohesiveness, while they had 
 gradually brought the chaotic elements of a frontier society 
 into subjection to the principles of the gospel. It was the 
 gospel more than the sword, more than statesmanship, more 
 than any other agency, that had made possible the condi- 
 tions of a start, on the part of a mighty empire common- 
 wealth, toward a career of marvelous development. With 
 unflinching courage, and with no uncertain sound, these 
 early missionaries preached the gospel in its genuineness, 
 and eliminated uncertain elements which would prove a 
 brake to the wheels of progress in the years to come. These 
 pioneer apostles of the plain were men strong in faith, in 
 personal force of character, and pronounced proclaimers of 
 the truth as found in the Word of God. 
 
 In a region where there was so much evil, the tempta- 
 tion to trim and prune, in order to a show of growth and 
 success, was doubtless experienced ; but they stoutly re- 
 sisted wrong, and with apostolic ruggedness, denounced sin, 
 and at the same time led lives illustrative of the principles 
 proclaimed. The roots of the uncompromising position of
 
 66 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 Baptists in Texas today, and of their pre-eminent greatness, 
 run back through tiie years to the days of struggle when 
 these worthy fathers built well and deep, the foundation of 
 our cause. 
 
 A review of the conditions in the dawning days of 1847 
 show's that the positions gained by Baptists in Texas were 
 ably manned, while the outposts afforded cheer of the pros- 
 pect of unlimited progress. At Galveston, Huckins was 
 steadily building up a strong cause, Tryon was doing the 
 same at Houston, Hill had entered on his work with en- 
 couragement at Matagorda, while Chandler was rallying 
 and skilfully directing the forces at LaGrange. At Hunts- 
 ville, Creath was swaying a mighty influence for good, and 
 was proving equal to an arduous undertaking. Hosea Gar- 
 rett was active in Washington county, the charming natural 
 region of which was alluring immigrants from the distant 
 regions of other states ; while toward the north, Morrell and 
 Byars, true yoke-fellows, were uniting their forces, and 
 gradually paving the way for a great association. The 
 gifted Henry L. Graves and his cultured wife had taken 
 firm hold on the educational interests at Independence, and 
 w^ere gradually overcoming the difficulties which lay in the 
 way of organizing a great institution of learning, while 
 Judge Baylor, in his judicial rounds, was as really a gospel 
 preacher as he was a faithful officer of the law. 
 
 In the regions east of the Trinity river, the churches 
 were increasing in number, as faithful men, w'ithout abate- 
 ment of zeal, pressed the truth on the gathering thousands. 
 Up to this time the work had been mainly one of organiza- 
 tion, and the churches had been largely dependent, for in- 
 creased accessions, from immigration ; but now scores and 
 hundreds were being converted, and the churches were 
 growing steadily stronger by means of men and women 
 won from the ranks of sin. 
 
 The eighth annual session of the Union Association met 
 in 1847 ^t Houston. It was an eventful occasion. The 
 giants of the denomination, the intrepid veterans of the 
 plains and villages, were together in force. Tryon, Garrett. 
 Graves, Baxter, Rogers, Morrell, Ellis, Fisher, Taliaferro, 
 Horselv, Creath, Huckins, Chandler, Buffington, Hill and
 
 EDUCATION AND EVANGELIZATION (57 
 
 Woodruff were in attendance. J. H. Stribling, then a licen- 
 tiate, but who afterward rose to great eminence, was pres- 
 ent as a young man of promise. 'They were all with one 
 accord in one place." They were men of metal nerve, who 
 were fearless and sagacious in facing the future. They 
 were cheered not more by the achievements of the past 
 than by the promises of the future. God was opening wide 
 the doors of opportunity, in Texas, and they were respond- 
 ing with becoming alacrity. Two new churches had re- 
 cently become constituent members of the body — Concord 
 and New Year's Creek churches. This was the first ap- 
 pearance of J. W. D. Creath before a general body in the 
 state. He preached that year the introductory sermon before 
 the Association. News was brought of the organization of a 
 new association in the northern part of the state, and Z. N. 
 Morrell was appointed to open correspondence with that 
 body. The founding of the Southwestern Baptist Chron- 
 icle, at New Orleans, by W. C. Duncan during that year, 
 led to the adoption of that journal as a convenient medium 
 of communication. For the first time, it was proposed at 
 this session, to submit to the churches the feasibility of or- 
 ganizing the Baptist state convention. A central committee 
 was appointed to take the matter in hand, and if the re- 
 sponses from the churches should prove favorable, to name 
 a time and place where such body should be organized. 
 
 The progress made by the Association was indicated by 
 reports which showed that during the year one hundred 
 and forty had been baptized, and one hundred and twenty- 
 four had been received by letter. At this time there were 
 twenty churches belonging to the Association with a total 
 membership of seven hundred and sixty-one. At the ses- 
 sion" held at Houston, five of the churches applied for letters 
 of admission, in order to unite with others in the organiza- 
 tion of a new association. These were, LaGrange, Mace- 
 donia, Plum Grove, Bethany and Rocky Creek. A commit- 
 tee consisting of Garrett, Huckins, Tryon, Morrell and Hill 
 was appointed to aid in the formation of the contemplated 
 body. Within the next two months, the Colorado Associa- 
 tion was constituted at Rocky Creek church, in Lavaca 
 countv. It was constituted on Thursdav before the third
 
 (JJj 1118TOKV OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 Sunday in November, 1847. This was a most important 
 organization, as the churches entering into it represented 
 six counties which, at that time extended from the city of 
 Austin to the coast, and westward, as far as the Guadahipe 
 river. The first recording secretary of the Colorado Asso- 
 ciation was Thomas J. Pilgrim, the founder of the first 
 Sunday school in the state. 
 
 In July, 1847, the First Church of Austin was consti- 
 stituted, with an original membership of eight, and with R. H. 
 Taliaferro as pastor. Taliaferro was a Kentuckian who 
 had been sent to Texas as a missionary by the American 
 Home Mission Society. He was a preacher of unusual 
 eloquence and has been called "the Apollo of the Texas 
 Baptist pulpit." In connection with him, may be named a 
 man of far different type, but earnest, zealous and success- 
 ful, in the person of Rev. Richard Ellis. From being a 
 common laborer he became a preacher, and was a man cf 
 great usefulness in the region of the Colorado. He was a 
 most strenuous and stentorian preacher, and it is believed 
 that his premature death was due to undue exertion in the 
 pulpit. Mr. Ellis was the first moderator of the Colorado 
 Association. 
 
 During the year 1847 the city of Houston was visited 
 by a terrible scourge of yellow fever. A series of meetings 
 was in progress in the First Baptist Church when the fever 
 appeared. A wild panic ensued on its appearance, and, of 
 course, the meeting was brought to a sudden close. Pastor 
 Tryon at once turned his attention to the afflicted portion of 
 the community, and moved through the rage of the scourge, 
 a messenger of peace and consolation. Himself falling a 
 victim to the fever, he died on November 16, 1847, in the 
 prime of usefulness. The death of so eminent a man at 
 this time, was a sad blow to the rising cause in the state. 
 He was one of the foremost prompters of every interest 
 fostered by the Baptists of the state. He was the first to 
 suggest the founding of Baylor University, from which has 
 sprung the educational interests of Texas Baptists. No man 
 has left a brighter chapter in the Baptist historv of Texas 
 than W. M. Tryon. 
 
 The progress and glowing prospects in the west, in the 
 closing period of 1847. ^^'''^ offset bv the troubles in the
 
 EDUCATION AND EVANGELIZATION (ij) 
 
 eastern part of the state. The anti-missionary agitation, 
 already alluded to, became more aggravated as time went 
 on, and culminated this year in the dissolution of the Sabine 
 Association. It was not altogether undesired that the oppo- 
 nents to missions had withdrawn, as it was the signal for 
 renewed life in the ranks of the denomination proper, while 
 it marked the beginning of the decline of the churches and 
 other organizations which stood in the way of the progress 
 of missions. In consequence of the dissolution of the Sa- 
 bine Association four churches — Macedonia, Henderson, 
 Eight-Mile and Border, entered into an organization, the 
 distinctive name of which was an index of its principles — 
 The Eastern Missionary Baptist Association. The man 
 who had stood valiantly at the front, in behalf of New 
 Testament principles, against a strong pressure of opposi- 
 tion, was rewarded with the moderatorship of the new body 
 —Rev. Lemuel Herrin. Undaunted, this quiet but heroic 
 man, in a region which required pluck, had held at bay 
 the opposing forces for years together. He was one of 
 those heroes who, without the animation which comes of 
 surroundings, drew his inspiration from principle alone, 
 and never wavered the breadth of the hair at times when it 
 seemed that all was against him. He found a worth}^ and 
 timely coadjutor when Rev. Jesse Witt, of Virginia, a mis- 
 sionary of the Southern Domestic Mission Board, appeared 
 on the scene in eastern Texas. Together with Creath, Witt 
 had offered himself in the open session of the Southern 
 Convention the year before as a missionary to Texas. A 
 man of marked ability, and of profound and cool wisdom, 
 he was fitted to deal with a delicate and difficult situation. 
 He reached eastern Texas at a most opportune time, and 
 was largely instrumental in arresting the decay of the mis- 
 sionary spirit in that needed quarter. Witt's labors as a 
 missionary were confined, for a period of years, to San Au- 
 gustine county, after which he became pastor at Marshall. 
 The fate of the churches which severed themselves from 
 the missionary body was that which might have been ex- 
 pected. They organized what they called the Freewill Bap- 
 tist Association at Agish Bayou Church, ' and when they 
 came to embody their principles, they emphasized free sal-
 
 HON. CHARLES B. STEWART. HOUSTON, TEXAS.
 
 EDUCATION AND EVANGELIZATION 7 J 
 
 vation and freedom of the will, to the exclusion of the 
 sovereign grace of God. They adopted open communion, 
 and rejected the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints. 
 The fanatical extent to which they were betrayed found ex- 
 pression in the following : 
 
 "Resolved, That this Association recommend to the 
 prayerful consideration of all the friends of the Redeemer, 
 that instead of building tents out of wood on such occasions 
 (as those of worship) each head of the family make a tent 
 of cloth, and take their wagon with enough forage to feed 
 their horses for a few days, and enough of light diet to feed 
 their families and approach the door of the sanctuary as the 
 Israelites did the tabernacle. Take God at his word, and 
 lay hold of his promises, and see if He will not pour you 
 out a blessing that will fill your heart with gladness and 
 make you rejoice in place of mourn, when you come to press 
 a dying pillow." 
 
 It is scarcely necessary to add that this organization 
 made no headway, and after the lapse of a few years became 
 extinct. 
 
 As a result of the herculean toils of jMorrell and Byars 
 in the region of the Trinity river, the Trinity River Asso- 
 ciation was organized on Saturday before the third Sunday 
 in July, 1848. These indefatigable men had been active for 
 years in this region as well in that lying toward the north, 
 a number of churches had been formed, and now they find 
 a culmination in their work in the constitution of this asso- 
 ciation, which was destined to become one of the strongest 
 in the state. Z. N. JMorrell was chosen the first moderator 
 of the new body, into which came the Leona, Society Hill, 
 Springfield, Union Hill, Corsicana, and Providence 
 churches. The association was constituted at the last- 
 named of these churches, which was in Navarro county. 
 From the beginning, this was a strong and progressive 
 body. 
 
 Most of those who were coming to the state at that time, 
 were planters, who bought land and located in the country, 
 and yet there were others who located at points which rap- 
 idly grew into towns, and eventvially into cities. The Bap- 
 tists were sufficiently wide awake to see the necessity of
 
 72 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 forecasting time by establishing places of worship in these 
 embryonic centers. In the eastern part of the state, Mar- 
 shall had grown to be a town of considerable size, and here, 
 on May 8, 1847, the First Baptist Church was organized, 
 with twelve members. The organization was effected by 
 Revs. G. W. Baines, Sr., and John Brice, the latter becoming 
 pastor of the new church. 
 
 While the work was assuming larger proportions in the 
 eastern, western and northern parts of the new state, its 
 vitality was somewhat on the wane in the southern end. A 
 staggering blow had been given the cause by the untimely 
 death of Tryon and the visitation of the yellow fever. In 
 Galveston, Huckins had wrought marvelously and had 
 organized a strong church. He had raised a sufficient 
 amount of money to build a good house of worship, partly 
 within the church and partly as a result of a soliciting tour 
 through the states. In due time, the house of worship was 
 dedicated, shortly after which Mr. Huckins resigned. The 
 two events, the death of Tryon and the resignation of Huck- 
 ins, left a serious breach in the southern part of the state. 
 Some time later Professor J. F. Hillyer was called from the 
 chair of natural sciences in Mercer University to the pas- 
 torate of the First Church of Galveston, and Rufus C. 
 Burleson became the pastor of the church at Houston. 
 
 By this time, conditions had greatly improved in Texas. 
 The people were beginning to erect substantial homes, val- 
 uable plantations had been brought into tillage, some good 
 public roads had been established, business houses and meet- 
 ing houses had in many instances supplanted the miserable 
 makeshifts of the past, and all over the regions where coun- 
 ties had been organized and populated, good court houses 
 and other public buildings were being reared. Nor were 
 the spiritual forces less active. Every advantage gained 
 was a stepping-stone to something higher and nobler. No 
 horizon bounded the hopes and expectations of the people 
 of God. That which they proposed to accomplish was 
 without limit. By this underlying principle, which is insep- 
 arable from Christianity, the earfy Baptists of Texas were 
 actuated. There was never satisfaction with present prog-
 
 EDUCATION AND EVANGELIZATION 73 
 
 ress. There was alwa3fs more to be done than had been 
 done. Will this not be true to the end? 
 
 The prosperity attained by the people generally and the 
 organization of churches and associations, so far from 
 diminishing the labors of the ministry, really increased them. 
 Indeed, the demands on the ministry, both of the missionary 
 on the field and of the pastor in the local church or churches, 
 greatly increased with time. Immigrants were pouring in 
 from every quarter and establishing their homes over the 
 land. The small centers were multiplying and the larger 
 ones were growing. To knead the divers elements into con- 
 sistency and harmony was not an easy task. The early 
 Baptists had set the pace of conformity to rigid orthodox 
 principles, had firmly declined the slightest allegiance with 
 all else, and had stoutly set themselves against the faintest 
 semblance of compromise. On whatever other points there 
 might have been a variance among the Baptists of Texas 
 at this time, on the maintenance of sound doctrine they 
 were a unit. Zealous in the prosecution of a much-needed 
 work and anxious that Baptists coming from other states 
 be gotten into active organization, and that the masses be 
 saved, still they would not vary in the slightest or bend a 
 principle in the least to procure an increase of membership 
 to the churches. Campbellism and its misleading doctrines 
 had been expelled and the opponents to the spreading of 
 the gospel had been left to themselves and the orthodox 
 churches were holding on their way, reliant on the truth to 
 vindicate itself. Besides the questions already alluded to as 
 settled in the Baptist churches, another just as vexatious 
 appeared at a later time — that of alien immersion. Of 
 those coming into the state from Virginia, Kentucky and 
 Tennessee many were followers of Alexander Campbell, 
 and others were members of Pedo-baptist churches, though 
 they had been immersed. In different quarters the pressure 
 was brought against Baptist churches to recognize the 
 validity of the ordinance as thus administered, but with a 
 firmness as pronounced as it had been in other instances 
 pastors and churches declined to yield. This unflinching 
 consistency gave the Baptists of Texas a reputation from 
 the beginning.
 
 74 UISTOKY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 The changes of pastors at Galveston and Houston, which 
 occurred ahnost simuUaneousIy, occasioned by the resig- 
 nation of Pastor Huckins and the death of the devoted 
 Tryon, had for a time left conditions in these fields in a 
 doubtful state. The vacancy left by two such men was a 
 serious one, especially in southern Texas. To this was 
 added another misfortune, that of the retirement from 
 active labor of Rev. Z. N. Morrell. In the closing days of 
 1847, broken health netessitated his partial retirement. He 
 had been the most zealous and arduous of the missionaries 
 in his labors, and toughened as he was by the exposures' 
 on the plains and in the varying conditons of weather, he 
 was admonished that if he did not desist at this time, his life 
 would pay the cost, and he resigned as the missionary of 
 the Domestic Mission Board, and went to his little farm. 
 But the fires of the missionary still burned within the bosom 
 of this devoted man of God, even in his home beside the 
 Brazos. As a self-appointed missionary he continued his 
 labors in the region of his home, radiating from it as a 
 common center. For the dire emerg.encies frequent on a 
 field like this, no one was more many-sided in experience 
 and wisdom than was Morrell. Nor was he allowed to be 
 quiet from solicitation, from counsel, and the exercise of 
 his remarkable wisdom. Without pretension he bore him- 
 self naturally on all occasions and preached the truth always 
 with unvarnished simplicity, but always with efifective force. 
 He would jocularly call himself the "canebrake preacher"' 
 and "the briar-cutter," but with the people he was second 
 to none of his contemporaries in the sway of power. And 
 in the ambitious outreach of the denomination for great 
 schools of learning, he was a foremost advocate and friend. 
 With the advent of 1848 conditions had immensely improved 
 in the Baptist ranks in Texas.
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 AN EVENTFUL PERIOD. 
 
 The results of the labors of the Christian missionary 
 were now manifest in many parts of Texas. He had made 
 possible every step of progress that had been taken in church 
 and civic life. Nothing that had contributed to the im- 
 provement of the common weal or to the expansion of 
 public interest was without his share. Within the heart of 
 every movement his influence dwxlt. He had borne con- 
 tentment to the dweller in the home in the wilderness, 
 which had been exchanged for another and better far away ; 
 he had cheered with encouragement in seasons of depres- 
 sion, which at intervals came to the immigrant ; he had 
 stood in the ranks of hostility with his musket when neces- 
 sary to assist in turning back the foe ; he had blazed the 
 way through the jungles of the untamed wilderness and his 
 presence had inspired confidence in periods of doubt ; he 
 had often been the bond to unite differences between man 
 and man and had served to restore amity in communities 
 w here passion had held sway ; he had made possible, courts 
 of justice, and had lent them strength in the exercise of 
 their special functions ; he had been the uncompromising 
 eliminator of vice, and had stamped with the brand of con- 
 demnation crime in all its forms; he was the pioneer of 
 education in a great state, slowly emerging from pristine 
 savagery and, most of all, he had infused that sense of 
 recognition of God and of his claims on every soul, and 
 had thus been the chief lever in raising the growing popu- 
 lation of Texas to a higher condition of real life. 
 
 What marvelous changes had been wrought within a 
 brief period of time ! Twenty years ago Texas was a wil- 
 derness, the sway of which was divided between the wild 
 beasts that roamed its plains and the equally wild savage. 
 
 75
 
 76 
 
 mSTUKi OF TKXA8 BAPTISTS 
 
 with the rare occasional settlement of Spaniards, whose 
 civilization was only elementary, and whose communities 
 were so far separated that they were scarcely known to 
 exist. But for the presence of the Anglo-American, condi- 
 tions such as he found in Texas would have remained un- 
 changed for all time to come. Between these widely separated 
 
 REV. M. V. SMITH. 
 
 settlements of Mexicans or Spaniards there ran the zigzag 
 trail along which, at occasional intervals, would pass short 
 caravans of scrawny mustang ponies laden with the crude 
 pelfry of savage commerce. During favored seasons the 
 half-nude Indian hunters would descend into the plains and 
 virgin forests, gather stores of meat from the abounding 
 game, and again leave the fertile wilderness in its wanton-
 
 AN EVENTFUL PEEIOD 77 
 
 ness of untamed grandeur. Meanwhile resources that would 
 have thrilled the commerce of the world slumbered in its 
 deep, rich soils, in its treasured quarries of stone, its un- 
 touched mines of ore, and its forests of valuable timbers, 
 with their solitudes yet unbroken by the sound of the ax or 
 the swish of the saw. 
 
 After twenty years, what? A thrifty population had 
 spread over the plains, and goodly homes nestled in con- 
 tentment and plenty on well-tilled farms ; villages and towns 
 now dotted the broad land, and the bustle of business and 
 the hum of commerce now filled the air ; highways of com- 
 munication knitted the centers into comity of interest, and 
 peace and prosperity reigned ; temples of praise to God had 
 been reared in country and town alike, and the name of 
 the Most High was adored, and justice was meted out, 
 rights and privileges respected, and the laws were enforced. 
 Besides, schools of learning had been built, libraries and 
 lyceums established, and refinement had taken the place of 
 savagery, and the light of learning was dispelling the dark- 
 ened ignorance. The Christian missionary had come, and 
 the attendant train of advantages was inevitable. 
 
 The year 1848 broke auspiciously on the Baptist cause 
 in Texas. It was destined to witness a great stride on the 
 part of the denomination, which had up to this thne over- 
 come every obstruction, and had grounded itself throughout 
 the state, its achievements being limited only by the boun- 
 daries of the swelling population. As has been said, the 
 gaps occasioned in the pastorates at Galveston and Houston 
 had been filled. Professor Hillyer had succeeded Mr. 
 Huckins, but his pastorate was as brief as it was unevent- 
 ful. After eight months, he retired from the pastorate and 
 left it again vacant. Houston was more fortunate. Mr. 
 Burleson assumed charge of the First Church of the latter 
 city in the beginning of 1848, and with consuming enthusi- 
 asm and unquenchable energy, for which he was always 
 noted, he began to bring things to pass. The name of 
 Burleson was one not unfamiliar to the ears of early Tex- 
 ans. General Ed. Burleson, a distinguished cousin of Rufus 
 C, had long been the idol of the pioneer army. He was 
 distinguished by qualites of a rare combination. At another
 
 78 HISTOEY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 time and further on, there will be occasion to refer to him 
 more in detail. 
 
 Rufus C. Burleson had enjoyed exceptional advantages 
 in scholastic training, for the time in which he lived, was 
 ardent in temperament, exceedingly but commendably ambi- 
 tious, facile in speech, commanding in person, inimitably 
 energetic and possessed of a self-confidence and assertive- 
 ness that cjualificd him for the difficult tasks which Provi- 
 dence imposed in a new region, while these qualities brought 
 into exercise every power of his being. Another with 
 equal capability but with reserve, would have led a life of 
 plodding mediocrity ; but Mr. Burleson, with a full appreci- 
 ation of his own inherent power and without apology for 
 the full exercise of his gifts, by dint of asserted merit made 
 himself a recognized force among men and rose to distinc- 
 tion in the state and in the ranks of his own denomination. 
 He was just budding into usefulness when, with conse- 
 crated spirit, he entered on his wonderful career in Texas. 
 Reaching Galveston on January 5, 1848, where he preached 
 on his way to Houston, he was delighted with his first im- 
 pressions of Texas. Arriving in Houston, he assumed his 
 ])astorate under peculiar difficulties. The church had be- 
 come demoralized by the prevalence of the yellow fever 
 during the preceding fall, the pastor had died, the congrega- 
 tion was badly scattered, and but little church life was left. 
 Other unfavorable conditions met him at the threshold of 
 his work in the Bayou City. The town was filled with 
 straggling soldiers who were returning from the close of 
 the Mexican war, while the news of the discovery of gold 
 in California had set the people wild, so that little else was 
 thought of or talked about. 
 
 Shortly after beginning his work, he was urged by Mr. 
 Hillyer to go to Galveston to hold a meeting. He was 
 reluctant to respond favorably to so inviting a call because 
 he had just begun his work, but his visit to Galveston and 
 the meeting which followed were attended with the richest 
 results and arrested the evident decline of interest in that 
 city beside the sea. Returning to Houston he took up the 
 work of rehabilitation in a most difficult situation. The 
 conditions were trying and the progress slow. The tact
 
 AN EVENTFUL PERIOD 79 
 
 and energy of the young pastor were sorely tested, but 
 he brought a gradual change to the situation. Nor were 
 his subsequent labors confined to the city of his pastorate. 
 Other points called into exercise his gifts and he was sum- 
 moned here and there to conduct meetings. The most 
 urgent of these came from Brenham, where Mr. Burleson 
 held a remarkable meeting and laid the basis of the Baptist 
 cause in that town. 
 
 While these events were occurring in southern Texas, 
 others equally as notable were taking place in other parts 
 of the state. With a consecration worthy of the first days 
 of the Christian era, men were laboring in Texas with 
 amazing ardor and success. Everywhere the cords were 
 being lengthened and the stakes strengthened. As far north 
 as the frontier extended the cause had been carried, and as 
 vantage grounds were gained they were held with a firm 
 grip. N. T. Byars, whose name is inseparable from the 
 heroic in early Texas Baptist history, was laboriously and 
 unremittingly touring the regions along the western banks 
 of the Trinity. Often his was a house-to-house campaign, 
 but gathering a crowd when he could, he would tell the 
 tidings of great joy, but finding a solitary auditor if none 
 other could be found. On the western side of the river 
 Pickett, Briscoe, Piland and their colaborers were working 
 to establish another association well toward the north. 
 
 The elTorts to organize the state convention were encour- 
 aging. There was a general desire on the part of the 
 churches for the organization, and the times were ripe for 
 such an undertaking. There were now four associations 
 well equipped and as solidly compact in sentiment as men 
 and women ever were. These associations were extended 
 over immense areas of territory, each being many times 
 larger than such bodies now are. These associations were 
 the Union, Eastern Missionary, Colorado and Trinity River. 
 The Union had been the general rallying ground of the 
 churches for a long period, when the churches were few 
 and covered only a limited amount of territory. But others 
 had now grown into equal importance and the general desire 
 was to combine into a central body. Accordingly, Septem- 
 ber 8, 1848, was the time named for the gathering of the
 
 80 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 messengers to organize the state convention, and Anderson 
 was the place named. At this time there were about thirty- 
 five Baptist churches in the state, twenty-one of which 
 entered into the original organization. These were Inde- 
 pendence, Washington, Dove, Providence in Washington 
 county, Houston, Rocky Creek, Post Oak Grove, Antioch, 
 Concord, New Year's Creek, Matagorda, Gonzales, Austin, 
 Cuero, Bedais, Mount Gilead, Galveston, Hamilton, Whar- 
 ton, LaGrange and Bethany. President H. L. Graves, of 
 Baylor University, had been chosen to preach the intro- 
 ductory sermon with Noah Hill as alternate, but for some 
 reason neither would preach, though both were present, 
 and the old veteran, Z. N. Morrell, was pressed into service 
 and preached. He claimed in beginning that he had no 
 reputation to make as a preacher, and none to lose. His 
 discourse was founded on Isaiah 9 i/. "Of the increase of 
 his government and peace there shall be no end." The ser- 
 mon was one of inimitable simplicity and of that earnest 
 ruggedness that bespoke the struggles of the missionary on 
 the plains, as he was impelled in his labors by the one con- 
 trolling motive — the unlimited possibilities of the kingdom 
 of Christ. One advancement of his people only served to 
 lead to that which was higher and greater. By that sign 
 God's people should be able to conquer. 
 
 After the sermon the body was formally organized by 
 the election of H. L. Graves, president; J. W. D. Creath, 
 Hosea Garrett and James Huckins, vice presidents ; J- G. 
 Thomas, recording secretary ; R. C. Burleson, correspond- 
 ing secretary ; and J. W. Barnes, treasurer. Committees 
 were named to prepare reports on education, foreign mis- 
 sions, home missions, the colored population, finance and a 
 Baptist paper for Texas. The report on education was a 
 ringing appeal in behalf of the needs of Baylor University, 
 which became an absorbing topic, and from the outset was 
 regarded the anchor of the convention. Special stress was 
 laid on the importance of contributing means for the edu- 
 cation of the ministry in order to meet the growing demands 
 of the state. In the discussion of the report on education 
 the unlettered preacher vied with his more favored and 
 scholarly brother in the urgency of this appeal.
 
 AN EVENTFUL PEEIOD 81 
 
 With respect to foreign missions the following was 
 adopted : 
 
 "Resolved, That we most highly approve of and deeply 
 sympathize with foreign missions, and will assist by our 
 humble prayers and incessant efforts." 
 
 The report on domestic missions engaged itself chiefly 
 with the inadequacy of the means to meet the demands in 
 Texas. Fields were white unto the harvest, but the har- 
 vesters were wanting. The report on the colored population 
 was an earnest appeal in behalf of the slaves in our homes 
 and on our plantations. The startling statement was made 
 that large numbers of the black population in our state had 
 not heard the gospel for years together, and that the time 
 had come when attention to their spiritual welfare was a 
 burning obligation. The paper question was one of absorb- 
 ing interest, as the need of a denominational organ was 
 already urgent ; but it was urged that when established it 
 be managed entirely as an individual enterprise. 
 
 The receipts of the year were : For general purposes. 
 $71; for China missions, from Matagorda church, $11.50; 
 and for African missions, from the colored members of the 
 Matagorda church, $11.50. This represented the meager- 
 ness of contributions, at that time, but it was the acorn in 
 which slumbers the forest. Houston was named as the next 
 place of meeting, and the convention adjourned. As far as 
 could be true affairs were now well in hand. There was at 
 least the encouragement of a beginning. Organized on- the 
 basis of the two cardinal principles of education and evan- 
 gelization, the equipment of agencies necessary to promote 
 these on lines entirely distinct and yet thoroughly har- 
 monious was that which now engrossed the attention of the 
 Baptist leaders of Texas. 
 
 After his retirement from the Galveston pastorate Mr. 
 Huckins was employed as the financial agent of Baylor Uni- 
 versity with a twofold object: to erect adequate buildings 
 and to provide a suitable and ample endowment. His was 
 a herculean task and one that involved the most irksome 
 labor. Mounted on his pony, this gifted man threaded the 
 plains, following the cattle trails from one settlement to 
 another, and was sometimes compelled to swim swollen and
 
 82 UlSTOKY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 bridgeless streams. Money was scant, and the disposition 
 to give it sometimes scantier, and the rewards of the ardu- 
 ous efforts of the university agent were gifts of wild lands, 
 beeves, cows and calves, dried hides, tallow and mustang 
 ponies. He came more nearly procuring the elements of a 
 museum for the school than an endowment. Only insig- 
 nificant sums of money were realized. Two difficulties lay 
 in his way : the people were without the means to give, and 
 they were without the disposition. They had never been 
 trained in the grace of giving. The work of Huckins and 
 of every other at that time was fundamental and prospective. 
 The men of that early time were educators of those of the 
 times to come. Their work was not misspent nor their 
 labors lost. The most liberal contributor to the endowment 
 of Baylor University at that time was General Morgan L. 
 Smith, a rich sugar planter in the region of Old Caney, who 
 gave $200 to the cause of education, and his gift was 
 accounted a most munificent one. Elsewhere Mr. Huckins 
 traveled with the vain hope of enlisting the gifts of those 
 of other states in behalf of education in Texas, but the 
 people of the older states hooted at the idea of building a 
 university in the wilds of Texas, so little did they know of 
 the real situation in this strenuous quarter of the Union. 
 Not until the Baptists of Texas emerged from their incip- 
 ient struggles in gaining a firm foothold, largely by their 
 own unaided efforts, were the eyes of the people elsewhere 
 opened to the fact that the enterprises set afoot here were 
 not visions, but genuine realities. When the Baptists of 
 Texas built themselves into astonishing greatness it was a 
 revelation to many thousands who were indebted to their 
 imaginations for their assumed facts. After the most oner- 
 ous eft'orts for five years, Mr. Huckins was able to report 
 that he had accumulated the sum of $1,300 in cash for the 
 endowment of the university, together with notes of sub- 
 scription for $30,000, besides some such appurtenances as 
 books and apparatus. Meagerly paid himself for his serv- 
 ices, it became necessary for Mr. Huckins now and then 
 to make a draft on his own slender income to enable the 
 college to keep going. • 
 
 P.nf- nnthins conld daunt or deter the invincible Texans.
 
 AN EVENTFUL PERIOD 83 
 
 Their faces were forward and the question of supremacy 
 between them and the difficulties which embarrassed them 
 was one that had to be settled on the field of contest. 
 Inured to obstructions, their experiences had made them 
 brave and invincible. They yielded to nothing, and the for- 
 lorn hope of an enterprise was of greater value to them 
 than immediate success would have been. In quarters of 
 the country where conditions were oppositely different — 
 where environment of culture and of wealth prevailed — it 
 would have been pronounced absurd to undertake to do 
 that which Texas Baptists were seeking to do ; but the 
 logic of the years has vindicated the grit and wisdom of 
 these early Baptists. The seeds of the harvests of these 
 schools have been prolifically scattered throughout the 
 broad Union. As though possessed of the amplest means 
 it was determined at this time to establish a law department 
 in connection with Baylor University. The services of the 
 faculty of this new venture were altogether gratuitous. 
 Judges Lipscomb and Baylor proposed to deliver the req- 
 uisite lectures with such aid as might be given by Presi- 
 dent Graves. At the same time the stone building, so long 
 talked of, was begun. These movements stimulated confi- 
 dence, without which the school would have before this 
 perished. 
 
 On the field there was a slow and plodding success 
 attending the efforts of the missionaries and pastors. As 
 new difficulties would arise they would be met with cool 
 wisdom and heroic determination. One of the chief diffi- 
 culties was that of the growth of prosperity. After the 
 fierce struggles of years, in overcoming prodigious natural 
 barriers, and after much privation, the people were begin- 
 ning to realize the rewards of industry. The fertile lands 
 yielded their increase, which was so far in excess of that 
 attendant on similar efforts in the original states, that the- 
 people were becoming more absorbed in the matter of gain, 
 to the exclusion of other and graver concerns of life. Then, 
 too, the discovery of gold in California had a demoralizing 
 influence and kept the public mind in a fever of excitement. 
 
 During the year 1848 the Red River Association was 
 organized at Honey Grove church. Eight churches entered
 
 ^4 IIISTOKY Oh' TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 into the constitution of the body : Clarksville, Shiloh, 
 Salem, South Sulphur, Liberty, Bethel, New Salem and 
 Honey Grove. Rev. Benjamin Clark was the first modera- 
 tor. The territory of this new body was embraced in the 
 counties of Bowie, Red River, Lamar, Fannin, Titus and 
 Hopkins. The organization was largely due to the com- 
 bined efiforts of such tireless missionaries as Benjamin 
 Clark, W. M. Pickett, John Briscoe and others. 
 
 REV. J. B. GAMBRELL, D. D. 
 
 Corresponding Secretary Baptist General Convention of Texas. 
 
 The flow of population into the state continued, new 
 churches were organized, and large accessions were being 
 gained alike as a result of immigration and of conversions 
 from the faithful preaching of the gospel. Pastors and 
 missionaries were never busier. To reach Baptists as they 
 would arrive, and enlist them as speedily as possible in 
 church work, left little time for leisure. The world has 
 never known more diligent workers or wiser organizers
 
 AN EVENTFUL PERIOD 85 
 
 than were the Baptist preachers in this state at that time. 
 Among those who came were fresh accessions to the ranks 
 of the ministry, but unless these proved readily adjustable 
 to the novel conditions of a new region, they were of small 
 worth. Frequently all traditional ideas concerning pastoral 
 work and preaching had to be surrendered in adjustment 
 to the stirring, and not infrequently novel, conditions found 
 in Texas. Often the wisdom of a pastor -was taxed to the 
 utmost in the settlement of perplexing questions arising 
 from an efifort to fuse into harmony the variant sentiments 
 of members coming from different quarters of the country, 
 and holding divers and diverse views. Sometimes a min- 
 ister would be attracted to Texas by the general report of 
 an offer of a wide field of usefulness, but when he would 
 come to learn what it meant he would seek again his orig- 
 inal haunts. The idea of ease and leisure was unknown 
 to those who had joined in the thick of the fight in molding 
 and shaping affairs into harmonious symmetry hi this great 
 state. In the older states customs and practices had become 
 traditional ; in this new and great state they were in a 
 formative condition and were destined to remain so for 
 many years to come. A minister coming to a Texas pas- 
 torate was unprepared and unfitted, until he was ready to 
 comply w'ith the apostolic injunction to "endure hardness 
 as a good soldier." Yet never were rewards of labor, 
 greater than were those which crowned the preacher and 
 pastor on the busy fields of Texas. 
 
 In the ranks of the churches were frequently found men 
 and women, humble, modest and unpretentious, but who' 
 when laden with burdens in the sacred cause, became the 
 worthiest of pastoral assistants. In many respects church 
 work in Texas differed widely from that in other regions 
 of the country. There were frequently unusual complica- 
 tions arising from incoherency of membership and a diver- 
 sity of view on points of doctrine as well as on many ques- 
 tions in the conduct of church affairs. Fortunately 
 the original promoters of the Baptist denomination in 
 Texas were men of unconquerable zeal, of boundless 
 energy, of cool wisdom, of uncompromising principle, and 
 they were men of prayer. A generation of Baptists reared
 
 86 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 under such conditions was ready to transmit to the genera- 
 tions of the future conditions Hke these, and it is not a mat- 
 ter of surprise that at present the Baptists of Texas are so 
 pre-eminent. A long period of apathy and of spiritual de- 
 generacy would be necessary to change the denominational 
 complexion in Texas. The fundamental reason of this goes 
 back to the foundation builders of our cause in the initial 
 stages of our history. 
 
 Heretofore we have been more concerned with local 
 details than we can hereafter be. For a period of years the 
 work was fractional. These small beginnings, finding ex- 
 pression here and there over a vast area of country, were 
 important. They were the fountain sources, the rills of 
 which were slowly converging toward a great central cur- 
 rent. The wise manipulation of these primal sources was 
 the work of the pioneer preacher in these Texas wilds. For- 
 tunately there was wise concert of action on the part of these 
 master builders. The history of Christianity afifords no 
 wiser men than those who wrought first in this tremendous 
 undertaking. They are worthy of such a record as that 
 which embodies the immortals in the eleventh chapter of 
 Hebrews. Nor are those whose names have already ap- 
 peared conspicuously in these pages, a whit more worthy 
 than are those of unnamed hundreds who moved in the pri- 
 vate and unofficial walks of life. There were consecrated 
 laymen not a few, and women as noble as those whose names 
 are radiant on the inspired page. In regions obscure and 
 far removed from the gaze of the world, men and women 
 prayed and labored unknown, save to God. The names of 
 thousands of such are unknown to. us, but their names are 
 in the Lamb's Book of Life. 
 
 The year 1849 was one of material disaster throughout 
 the South. It came with crushing force on the people of 
 Texas. A heavy frost fell on the night of April 16, and 
 the growing crops were laid low. In the southwestern part 
 of Texas corn was killed in the tassel ; cotton with half- 
 formed bolls was entirely destroyed, and the growing crops 
 of sugar-cane severely injured. To add to a disaster so 
 overwhelming, this was followed by a long drought, which 
 prevented the people, even at this late season, from planting
 
 A-JS EVENTFUL PEKIOD S7 
 
 again. This created a general stampede. Many abandoned 
 their homes and lands, and went to California to engage in 
 gold digging. Others sold their lands at any price they 
 could get, and returned to the old states. 
 
 It is not necessary to say what a stunning effect this 
 disaster had on the struggling cause in Texas. When the 
 state convention met on May ii it was slimly attended, 
 due, in part, to the disastrous freeze in April, and, in part, to 
 the rumor that the Asiatic cholera was raging in Houston. 
 Neither the preacher appointed to deliver the convention 
 sermon nor his alternate was present, nor was the president 
 of the convention. Only twelve churches were represented, 
 making a total membership of the convention just twenty- 
 three. But little was done at this session. A collection of 
 $15.15 was taken for educational purposes and $11.90 for 
 foreign missions. The convention declined to consider fur- 
 ther the publication of a denominational paper, and recom- 
 mended the Soiithzvcsfcrii Chronicle at New Orleans, as 
 the most appropriate medium of communication. The cor- 
 responding secretary reported that the Baptist ministry of 
 the state numbered at that time twenty-nine, of whom twenty 
 were regular pastors. Two general missionaries were to 
 be provided for to labor, the one in the eastern part of the 
 state, and the other in the western, so soon as conditions 
 favored. The convention adjourned to meet the following 
 year at Huntsville. 
 
 Two associations — the Elm Fork and the Eastern Texas 
 • — were organized during the year 1849. The territory of 
 the former of these embraced portions of Dallas and Den- 
 ton counties and the large counties of Kaufman and Collin. 
 By the organization of the Eastern Texas Association a 
 blow was given to the opposing elements to missions, from 
 which these opponents never recovered. At this time there 
 were six district associations in Texas and seventy-five 
 churches, with a total membership of 2,000. The progress 
 seems slow, but the work was permanent, and gave an 
 earnest of better things.
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 HARMONIOUS ACTIVITY. 
 
 "The secret of success is constancy to purpose." So 
 says DTsraeli, and so were the Baptists actuated in the 
 beginning of 1850. They had met sore disasters, but were 
 ready for others if need be, only that their uUimate pur- 
 poses might succeed. 
 
 Emerging from the gloom of the preceding year, they 
 set their faces steadfastly toward the future, with more 
 determined and prayerful resolution than ever before. That 
 which had been done was only an earnest of that which 
 could be accomplished in the name of the Master. The 
 year 1850 was one of quiet, steady and harmonious effort. 
 Sufficient general organizations had been effected for the 
 churches, each, to find a place as a constituent member of 
 an existing association, hence no efifort was made to create 
 a new association during the year. However, the year was 
 signalized by other events of denominational importance, 
 ^lost of the attention was now being directed toward Bay- 
 lor University, which was still in the toils of harassing 
 embarrassment, because of the inadequacy of the means to 
 prosecute the work. That it should be accomplishing so 
 much under the prevailing stress of conditions was wonder- 
 ful, but it was hampered and hindered at every point of 
 progress. Every possible plan was conceived for providing 
 the necessary means, but still the college hobbled. 
 
 In June, 1850, President Graves was elected for a term 
 of two additional years, and Mr. Huckins was continued as 
 general agent for the school. A system of scholarships 
 was devised with the hope of receiving sufficient revenue to 
 enable the school to be conducted without embarrassment. 
 The scholarships were offered for sale and were designated 
 as follows ; Permanent scholarships at $500 : family schol-
 
 HAEMONIOUS ACTIVITY 89 
 
 arships at $ioo; church scholarships, $200; individual 
 scholarships from $100 to $150, and charity scholarships, 
 $50. It was resolved to enlist the largest gifts of the 
 denomination in raising the sum of $10,000 or more, toward 
 the endowment of the chair of the president. In order to 
 raise so stupendous an amount six agents were placed in the 
 field — President Graves, J. W, D. Creath, J. H. Stribling, 
 R; C. Burleson, G. W. Baines and R. H. Taliaferro. It 
 was a fortunate acquisition to the ministerial ranks of the 
 Baptists of Texas, when Rev. G. W. Baines removed from 
 Louisiana to this state. Born in North Carolina, his parents 
 removed first to Georgia, then to Alabama, when George 
 was not more than eight or nine years old. By his own 
 unaided efforts he succeeded in graduating from the Uni- 
 versity of Alabama with the high degree of Master of Arts. 
 His conversion followed his graduation, and occurred while 
 he was teaching a country school in Alabama. Ordained to 
 the ministry, he went first to Arkansas, then to Louisiana, 
 and finally came to Texas. For a period of thirty-two years 
 his name is found in an unbroken series of the minutes of 
 the Baptist State Convention of Texas. Such was his 
 prominence, that his name and the records of his deeds will 
 appear many times hereafter in these pages. 
 
 The third annual session of the state convention was 
 held in 1850 at Huntsville. Only fourteen churches sent 
 representatives to the meeting. The usual reports con- 
 taining a summary of the year's work were read and gave 
 indication of steady progress. Two general missionaries, 
 Byars and Chandler, had been employed during the year, 
 one on the extreme eastern boundary and the other on the 
 western. The report on education shows that seventy stu- 
 dents were in attendance on the departments of the two 
 sexes at Baylor University, together with two ministerial 
 students. The collections for all purposes for the year 
 aggregated $377-8o. 
 
 The year 1851 came with many important changes. 
 There was a revival of activity in all denominational 
 spheres. Missionary work was more vigorously prosecuted, 
 and as a consequence new churches were organized. Rein- 
 forcements, alike to the ranks of the churches and of. the
 
 y(j HISTORY 01' TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 ministry, were constantly had from other states. Among 
 those who had recently come as ministerial acquisitions were 
 Revs. Jonas Johnston, from South Carolina, and Thomas 
 Chilton, from Alabama. Among the churches organized 
 this year was that of the First Church of Waco. Rev. 
 N. T. Byars had been sent as. a missionary to what was 
 known as "The Waco country," in 1850, and 'finding the 
 frontier village of Waco without a Baptist church, resolved 
 to plant one there. He could find only four Baptists in the 
 straggling frontier village, and with these he constituted the 
 First Church on May 31, 1851. The four original members 
 were James C. Johnson, George T. Holman, Noah Wood 
 and Matilda Johnson. The church was organized in a small 
 board shanty near the present intersection of Jackson and 
 Second streets. Rev. N. T. Byars was chosen the first pas- 
 tor, which position he held for two years, when he was suc- 
 ceeded by Rev. S. G. O'Bryan. W'orship was continued in 
 this rude shanty till 1857. 
 
 During the year 1851 a most important change took 
 place at Baylor University. The crippled condition of 
 the institution had greatly discouraged some of its most 
 ardent friends, among which was the faculty of the 
 school. The conviction had for some time been grow- 
 ing that the establishment of the school was prema- 
 ture and that it was doomed to failure. It was urged 
 that it had been demonstrated that society in Texas was 
 too crude, and the people too much engrossed in bringing 
 into subjection the natural barriers of a border state, in 
 order to a prosperous beginning, to maintain a school of 
 such pretentions as Baylor University. The history of the 
 institution for the last five or six years would seem to jus- 
 tify such a conclusion. It had been a period of sore wres- 
 tling, wdth no visible signs of subsequent relief. Sacrifice 
 had been added to sacrifice, and plan had succeeded plan, in 
 the efifort to maintain the institution until the utmost limit 
 seemed to be reached. Consequently, at the commencement 
 in June. 1851, the president and faculty of Baylor Univer- 
 sity resigned, and the trustees, though duly warned of such 
 a crisis, were perplexed above measure by the dire extremity 
 in which thev found themselves. It was believed bv manv
 
 HAEMONIOUS ACTIVITY 91 
 
 that the school was on the brink of destruction, and in this 
 conviction the faculty shared. Efforts were made to induce 
 Doctor Graves to reconsider his resignation and to make 
 an effort to weather the storm, but he was immovable. He 
 believed that the school was gone. 
 
 At this juncture Judge Abner S. Lipscomb, who had 
 been impressed by the versatility of the young pastor at 
 Houston, Rev. R. C. Burleson, presented his name to the 
 Board of Trustees as the successor of Doctor Graves. Mr. 
 Burleson accepted the position under certain stipulations 
 named by himself. At that time he was only twenty-seven 
 years old. He was possessed of a striking personality, being 
 tall and erect, handsome, with a shock of raven hair and 
 black, piercing eyes. He was ardent in enthusiasm, quick 
 in action and determined in resolve. To a marked degree 
 he had one essential element of a successful college presi- 
 dent — fertility of resource. In the function just assumed, 
 he would find the amplest field for the expenditure of that 
 quality. The condition of the school was critical, and its 
 down-grade movement must be promptly arrested. 
 
 The rumor went abroad that the school was given up 
 because of the withdrawal of the former president and 
 faculty, and it spread throughout the Baptist constituency. 
 Every means was employed to contradict this report, and to 
 counteract other agencies which were making against the 
 institution at this time. Giving up his Houston pastorate, 
 Mr. Burleson removed at once to Independence, and began 
 to set things in order. He personally superintended the 
 necessary changes to be made in the growing buildings, 
 which changes had been ordered by the Board of Trustees, 
 and sent out circulars over the state, offering inducements 
 to students to attend the school. The tardy, weekly transit 
 of the mails was too uncertain for his purposes, and he 
 engaged private carriers to visit, on horseback, the different 
 regions in which the population was, to correct the errone- 
 ous impression, and to stimulate confidence. None could 
 have done more nor could it have been better done. 
 
 To succeed Mr. Burleson at Houston, Rev. Thomas Chil- 
 ton, of Greensboro, Alabama, was called. He was a man 
 of varied learning, of large experience in different spheres.
 
 REV. GEORGE W. TRUETT, D. D., DALLAS, TEXAS.
 
 HARMONIOUS ACTIVITY yy 
 
 and a preacher of exceptional power. He had, before his 
 removal ' to Alabama, represented Kentucky in congress. 
 His first sermon at Houston was greeted by such a popular 
 demonstration that he found difficulty in seating the crowds 
 which thronged on his preaching. Large accessions were 
 gained to the church, but it seems that the acquisitions were 
 more numerous than substantial. The church grew in num- 
 bers, but not in efficiency, a fact not due to pastoral inca- 
 pacity, but to certain discordant elements. While Chilton 
 was winning the multitudes to hear him at Houston, the 
 brilliant Taliaferro was doing the same at Galveston. He 
 had been called to succeed Professor Hillyer, and with his 
 rare pulpit power, supported by genuine wisdom, adminis- 
 trative qualities and personal piety, was bringing things to 
 pass on the gulf. Contemporaneous with these was the pas- 
 torate of George W. Baines, at Huntsville. He was a man 
 of uncommon parts, both of intellect and of heart, the influ- 
 ence of whom was not restricted to his own membership, 
 but was forcibly felt throughout the adjacent region. 
 Indeed, throughout the state the pulpits were ably filled, and 
 the missionaries were accomplishing wonders in the waste 
 places. JMeanwhile, Baylor University had opened its ses- 
 sion under the new administration, and the attendance was 
 such as to prove its continued vitality and its right to live 
 — even in Texas, a land supposed eastward to be one of a 
 social compound, and therefore inconsistent with the main- 
 tenance of a school of higher learning. 
 
 It is fitting here to allude to the death of General 
 Edward Burleson, who during the last twelve years of his 
 life, was an humble member of a Baptist church. He de- 
 serves to be ranked in the foremost file of the early defend- 
 ers of Texas freedom. He was a born soldier, being the 
 son of a captain, under Jackson, in the Greek war. • His 
 qualities of soldiership peculiarly fitted him for border war- 
 fare, and his courage and intrepidity won for him the 
 station of leadership which he so worthily filled. In their 
 familiar fondness for him, his troops called him "Ed. Burle- 
 son," and their confidence in his valor was supreme. In 
 warfare he was eager and dashing, but not a hotspur. Both 
 in the ranks of the army and in the private walks of life, the
 
 94 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 people honored him. As vice president of the RepubHc, he 
 was as useful as he had been on the field of battle. Devoid 
 of petty qualities that mar genuine manhood, he aspired 
 only to usefulness. Deprived of scholastic advantages, 
 . nature had largely atoned for this deficiency by gifts of 
 judgment and prudence, which found full exercise in the 
 developed needs of a new.^and struggling government, as 
 it gradually attained to its full stature. To the courage of 
 the lion, in the character of General Burleson, was added a 
 gentle afifableness without the weakness of effeminacy. 
 
 Religious activity continued throughout the state with 
 increasing cheer. New churches were being constituted, 
 among which, at this time, was that at Seguin. That church 
 was organized on December 28, 1851, by J. A. Kimball and 
 T. J. Powell. Its original membership embraced but two — 
 A. Swift and A. J. Martin. In the following March the 
 church received two other members, and called J. A. Kimball 
 to the pastorate of the church. Kimball had but recently 
 come to Texas from the east. He was a native of New 
 Hampshire, and was the son of Congregational parents. 
 Personal investigation led him to become a Baptist, and he 
 had to go many miles from his home to find a Baptist 
 church in order to join and be baptized. He was educated 
 at the famous Worcester Academy, and was a scholar of 
 more than ordinary ability. Premonitory symptoms of 
 consumption led him westward, first to Ohio, then to Ten- 
 nessee, later to Mississippi, and finally to Texas. Though 
 first a lawyer, then a teacher, he at last became a minister 
 of the gospel. He wielded a facile pen, with which he 
 enriched and ornamented the periodicals of the time, and his 
 productions were deservedly popular. The young New 
 Englander with his polish of learning, and of manners, was 
 charmed by the novel conditions of pioneer life, which he 
 found prevailing in the region of Old Caney. Without 
 effort, but with humorous relish, he readily adjusted himself 
 to the rough and tumble conditions of frontier experiences, 
 and rapidly won the hearts of the people. His reminiscences 
 of those early days in Texas are pervaded by a quaint hu- 
 mor, which bespeaks the marvelous adaptability and inherent 
 character of the man. He founded manv churches in south-
 
 HAEMONIOUS ACTIVITY 05 
 
 ern Texas, and was a practical and zealous missionary. 
 Near the beginning of the Civil War he became the editor 
 of the Texas Baptist. He finally removed to Louisiana. 
 The heroic and oftentimes voluntary work done by the Bap- 
 tist ministry of that time, was bringing into harmonious 
 conjunction the growing communities of the state. If bar- 
 riers lay in the path of the missionary, he had the courage 
 and the grace to meet them. Perils and hardships did not 
 prevent the missionary from penetrating any region, or 
 traversing any tract of country in the prosecution of his 
 work. Harmonious union was preserved between the pas- 
 tors and the missionaries as they jointly worked in the ex- 
 pansion of the unreached regions of Texas. 
 
 The Baptist State Convention, which met at Independ- 
 ence, in 1 85 1, was a large, enthusiastic and influential gath- 
 ering. Representatives from twenty-nine churches assem- 
 bled at that time, in the new college building, on the campus 
 of Baylor University. The spirit of the body was excellent, 
 but there was one spot in the feast — the crippled condition 
 of the college. With the exhaustion of all plans, and the 
 equal exhaustion of all resources, the situation was a puz- 
 zling one. The Board of Trustees appealed to the conven- 
 tion for aid, and the convention responded by an expression 
 of confidence in the ability of the Board to extricate the 
 university from its extremity, all of which found its final 
 result in reliance on President Burleson to be able to grap- 
 ple with the situation. The reports of missionary labors 
 made to the body, were of the most stimulating character. 
 A new sphere of Christian work had been opened by Dea- 
 con T. J. Pilgrim, who had been appointed the Sunday- 
 school secretary of the convention. He reported the organ- 
 ization of twenty-two Sunday-schools in the Colorado Asso- 
 ciation alone, with an aggregate membership of one thou- 
 sand, and with six thousand volumes in their libraries, ex- 
 clusive of Bibles. Set over against this, was the report of 
 three counties, in which there were Baptist churches, but 
 not a Sunday-school in any of the three counties. The 
 distribution of religious literature had often claimed the 
 attention of the convention, but the lack of facilities pre- 
 vented the adoption of a practical course. The proposal
 
 96 IllSTOEY Oi<' TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 was transmitted to the convention from the Virginia and 
 Foreign Bible Society, to give $500 worth of Bibles for 
 distribution in Texas, provided that the supplementary 
 amount of $150 be given by the Texas Baptist Convention, 
 but the inability to raise the amount in the convention led 
 to the failure of the undertaking. Missionary work among 
 the slaves on the plantations of Wharton, Matagorda and 
 Brazoria counties, by Noah Hill, produced a profound im- 
 pression on the convention. The urgent calls for aid from 
 such points as Austin and Brownsville, which were most 
 inviting mission fields, occasioned no little embarrassment 
 in the light of the straitened condition of the treasury of 
 the body. The result of the collections for the year 
 amounted to $823.67. 
 
 In December, 1851, the Cherokee Association was organ- 
 ized at Mt. Zion church, in Smith county. Only three 
 churches entered into the organization — Mt. Zion, Harris 
 Creek and Sharon. The Association rapidly grew, however, 
 till it came to embrace within its territory the counties of 
 Rusk, Smith, Wood and Van Zandt. The following year, 
 1852, was marked by more beneficent results to the Baptist 
 .:ause. Every interest was taking on a brighter hue. Con- 
 fidence in the ultimate success of Baylor University was 
 growing, by reason of the practical methods of the new 
 administration, and no less because of the enthusiastic con- 
 fidence of the young president. Mr. Huckins was regularly 
 employed on the field, as the financial agent of the school, 
 and was untiring in his efiforts to raise funds for the strug- 
 gling institution. The attendance of the first year of the 
 new administration was such as to give assurance to ]\'Ir. 
 Burleson that he would ultimately succeed. He was for- 
 tunate in finding so congenial a co-worker in ^Ir. Huckins. 
 While funds came slowly in response to the unremitting 
 efforts of Huckins, he and Burleson were able to keep the 
 college out of the shallows. The financial agent rendered 
 a double service : while he collected money for the school, 
 he broadly advertised it. 
 
 To focus Baptist sentiment on the two great interests of 
 the State Convention and Baylor University was the unani- 
 mous effort of every pastor and mis'^ionary. nf the president
 
 HARMONIOUS ACTIVITY 97 
 
 of the university, and the financial agent. There was not lack- 
 ing more or less murmuring in certain quarters of the state, 
 because of the inability of the State Board to provide mis- 
 sionaries for the sections in need. Just this question con- 
 fronted the State Convention when it held its annual session 
 at Marshall, in 1852. That the radiating centers were of 
 prime importance, there could be no doubt, but experience 
 was necessary to the dictation of a less restrictive policy. 
 The meeting of the convention so far to one side of the state, 
 failed of so large an attendance as was had the year before. 
 Many had ridden more than a hundred miles on horseback 
 or in stage coaches to attend the annual session of the con- 
 vention. Here was established, for the first time, fraternal 
 relationship between the Texas Baptist Convention and 
 other bodies from without the state. Corresponding mes- 
 sengers were present at Marshall from the conventions both 
 of Louisiana and Mississippi. This led to the appointment, 
 on the part of the Texas convention, of fraternal messengers 
 to the two bodies already named, as well as to the Arkansas 
 convention and the Southern convention. 
 
 While the reports from the different quarters of the field 
 were encouraging, the convention found itself freshly embar- 
 rassed to meet the demands which came from new portions 
 of the state, which had become populated within the last 
 year. The convention was not able to keep pace with the 
 growth of population. The scarcity of ministers was a sub- 
 ject of general regret and of no small amount of perplexity. 
 To overcome this deficiency, pastors were seeking as far 
 as practicable to cultivate fields which were adjacent to 
 their own, but this was only a makeshift, and did not meet 
 the prevailing necessity. Large and important fields were 
 left untouched. San Antonio, with a population of six 
 thousand, was without a Baptist preacher, so were Seguin, 
 with a population of fifteen hundred, and Bastrop, with a 
 population of one thousand. These were important and 
 growing centers, with no other preaching than that which 
 was afforded by the occasional visit of a missionary. The 
 immense region lying between the Brazos and Colorado 
 rivers was rapidly filling with an industrious population, 
 and villages and towns were springing up, and the region
 
 98 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 was one of great invitation, but there were not men to be 
 had to supply the wants. In all that expansive region there 
 was not a single Baptist preacher. The occasional death of 
 a preacher left a gap which could not be filled. By the 
 recent death of Pastor Mays, the two counties of Limestone 
 and Freestone were left without a liaptist preacher. 
 Churches had been organized by this indoniitalile worker, 
 but when he fell, they were left without a shepherd. To all 
 this were added appeals from both the northern and south- 
 ern extremities of the state. Skirting the Red river for a 
 considerable distance, were populous counties, where the 
 people were massing, but there was no visible possibility 
 of reaching them, because men could not be had. Some of 
 the residents of these counties on the Red river, had been 
 there since 1816, and yet in some quarters, Baptist preaching 
 had never been heard. Before another year, other settle- 
 ments w^ould be formed in other quarters of the state, and 
 there were no other supplies to be had. Every Baptist 
 preacher was as active as could be, and the demand far 
 outran the supply. After long years of straining efifort, this 
 was the situation which confronted the convention which 
 was gathered at Marshall. The situation was one of posi- 
 tive oppression. It was a sore and serious problem, and 
 men of less nerve would have been staggered by the tre- 
 mendousness of the situation, but these men turned to- God 
 in prayer. The burden of the prayers of the ■Marshall con- 
 vention, was for more laborers in the vineyard. Yet they 
 had the consciousness of having done their best. During 
 the past year, thousands of miles had been traveled on horse- 
 back or afoot, thousands of sermons had been preached, 
 scores had been baptized, and churches and Sunday-schools 
 had been constituted. All this was being done at great 
 personal sacrifice. The chief of the missionaries at that 
 time was Creath, and he was one of the most effective 
 preachers in the state, and yet he w^as paid only $400 for 
 his services. This exceeded the salary of any other of the 
 many who were engaged in missionary work. On the 
 slenderest stipen-ds men were doing a prodigious work. 
 
 One of the chief topics of discussion before the conven- 
 tion was that of the eff'orts to Christianize the African slaves
 
 HARMONIOUS ACTIVITY 99 
 
 on the plantatfons. This subject was gaining increased 
 momentum every year. The special missionary to the 
 negroes, was Rev. Noah Hill who was responded to with 
 tears of sympathy, when he told in pathetic tones of the 
 eagerness with which the slaves would throng on his preach- 
 ing, and of the joy experienced by him in seeing, so many 
 saved. There was a tone of consecrated judgment ex- 
 pressed in the annual report of the Board of Directors, when 
 that board, after indicating the prevailing destitution, took 
 occasion to add that no man of ordinary ability would be 
 able to cope with the complicated situation in any part of 
 the state. The board regarded it as folly to undertake to 
 meet the clamorous demand for men, by sending other than 
 those of wisdom, as well as of pulpit ability. Even at that 
 early day, Texas Baptists were disposed to label men in 
 proportion to their intrinsic worth. 
 
 The report borne from Baylor University gave fresh 
 hope and courage. The order was reported good, the work 
 most satisfactory, an excellent faculty was in control, and 
 the $10,000 with which to endow the chair of the president, 
 was almost all raised, and during the session, 165 students 
 liad been enrolled. 
 
 At this session of the convention was raised a question, 
 apparently local and insignificant, and yet it was one that 
 was prolific of troubles that ran through almost thirty-five 
 years. Like a stone rolling down the mountain side, it 
 gathered fresh momentum at each bound, and wrought 
 havoc in its wake. This was, of course, unforeseen, but it. 
 was the rill that led to a sea of storm and trouble, and one 
 which, in its most turbulent periods, seemed to threaten the 
 existence of the denomination in Texas. 
 
 The church at Tyler proposed to the convention to estab- 
 lish a school for girls in that town. The bare suggestion 
 of another school enterprise brought a shudder to the brav- 
 est heart. With the accumulated energy and efifort of the 
 denomination at Independence to save Baylor University 
 from wreck, and with that institution just emerging from 
 the waves which threatened to swamp it. and with the 
 clamor for missionaries and means to push the gospel in 
 quarters in dire need, it was thought most untimely to sug-
 
 KEV. JAMES B. CRANFILL, DALLAS, TEXAS. 
 
 (Born Parker Co., Texas, Sept. 12. 1858: converted July, 1§76 : 
 ordained, Jan., 1890; married to Miss Ollie Allen. Sept. 1, 1878; taught 
 school 1877-78: practiced medicine 1879-83; established Gatesville Ad- 
 vance 1882 ; editor Waco Advance 1886-88 : Financial Secretary Baylor 
 Univ. 1888-89; Supt. of Texas Bapiist Mission work 1889-92: with 
 M. V. Smith established The Baptist Standard. 1892 : Prohibition nominee 
 for Vice-President 1892: editor The Baptist Standard 3 892 1904; elitor 
 The Baptist Tribune 1905-07 : publisher "Carroll's Sermons," 1895 ; 
 author "Words of Comfort, or Sunday Morning Thoughts," 1899 ; author 
 "Cranflll's Heart Talks," 1906.)
 
 HARMONIOUS ACTIVITY lOJ 
 
 gest the founding of another school. Could an auxiliary 
 school have been established at Tyler at that time, it would 
 have been most helpful, but to repudiate the application 
 outright, was productive of harvests of trouble. With a 
 show of courteous diplomacy couched in the refusal to 
 entertain the suggestion which came from Tyler, the con- 
 vention said: "As we deem it incompatible with the con- 
 stitutional province and design of this convention to solicit 
 and raise funds for the establishment of any literary insti- 
 tution, our educational efforts extending only to the aid of 
 ministers of the gospel, and as we have under our patron- 
 age the Baylor University, designed especially for this pur- 
 pose, we cannot consistently promise aid to any other insti- 
 tution nor extend to such a fostering or controlling influence. 
 We would therefore recommend the proposed institution to 
 the patronage of the Baptist church at Tyler, and the edu- 
 cational boards of those associations that may think proper 
 to favor, and engage in the enterprise." 
 
 There was an evident apprehension lest the convention 
 overreach itself. Yet the future proved that the convention 
 grew more by expansion than by contraction. The policy 
 of the denomination a half century later, was the opposite 
 of that voiced by the convention at Marshall. But then 
 time brings ripened wisdom and 
 
 "Experience joined to common sense 
 To mortals is a providence." 
 
 The results of a mistaken policy at this point led to the 
 first great division in the Baptist ranks of Texas, and it was 
 a breach which widened with time, and resulted in untold 
 divisions in after years. The question was sullenly let drop, 
 only to rise hydra-headed in the future. 
 
 The necessity of beginning a denominational paper was 
 again emphasized. Heretofore it was dismissed as being 
 out of the question, but its importance was again brought 
 forward, and a resolution looking to the establishment of 
 a denominational organ was offered, and the matter was 
 referred to an appropriate committee. This committee was 
 to make a thorough canvass of the sentiment of the denomi-
 
 10-,' HISTOKY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 nation in the state, concerning the feasibihty of such a 
 venture, and report at a later time. 
 
 The prospect seemed clearer to the messengers of the 
 convention as they turned homeward from the Marshall 
 convention. The work along all lines was resumed with 
 unusual vigor. On September 25, following the adjourn- 
 ment of the body, a strong association, the Bethlehem, was 
 organized, five churches entering into the organization of 
 the body. These churches, Sardis, Indian Creek, Zion, 
 Providence and Bethel, represented the Baptist influence in 
 seven large and flourishing counties, Jasper, Newton, 
 Orange, Tyler, Polk, San Augustine and Jefi^erson. From 
 the outset, the Bethlehem Association was a vital and vigor- 
 ous body. Its leading spirit was Rev. T. L. Vining, who 
 had come to Texas from Florida, in 1850. He was nat- 
 urally qualified to lead in the progressive work in a new 
 region of the state, which was being rapidly developed. 
 
 \Mth equal vigor was the work pushed in the western 
 part of the state. Rev. A. W. Elledge, one of the oddest 
 of characters, and yet a man of great usefulness, was labor- 
 ing with much zeal and effectiveness on the western border 
 of the state. Frank, blunt, fearless and naturally disputa- 
 tious, he reveled in a discussion with those of a different 
 faith from himself. He had a most remarkable memory, 
 rarely forgetting anything which he heard or read. He 
 had possessed himself of the arguments of "Carson on 
 Baptism" and had committed to memory the different Greek 
 terms which Carson had rendered in English, and Elledge 
 would quote these with a glibness which impressed an 
 unclassical disputant with the idea that he was more than 
 an ordinary Greek scholar. He was fond of exhibiting his 
 stores of learning, and was not averse at any time to engage 
 in a discussion. On a wintry day he stopped at a farm- 
 house to warm. He was, as usual, poorly and clumsily clad, 
 and the good housewife took him to be an ordinary farmer 
 or "drover." In the current of conversation, which he 
 precipitated so soon as he was seated, he ascertained that 
 the housewife was an ardent iMethodist, and was free in 
 the expression of her belief. Among other things which 
 escaped her in the conversation, was the fact that she did
 
 HAEMONIOUS ACTIVITY 103 
 
 not like those Baptists who had lately removed to the com- 
 munity, as they violated the Scripture which commanded 
 baptism "with water/' while these Baptists insisted on bap- 
 tizing "in water." She did not know that she had an Ajax 
 in disputation beneath her roof, and one who delighted in 
 hearing her say what she did. Without undertaking to 
 engage her in debate outright, Elledge asked to what use 
 she devoted that dye-pot in the corner. She innocently 
 described how she dyed her yarns, specimens of which 
 were even then before the fire, in beautiful blue hanks. She 
 very carefully proceeded to enlighten the stranger with the 
 process, how she used indigo and dipped the yarn into it 
 three different times, after which the color was fixed and 
 permanent. Mr. Elledge listened with the closest attention, 
 and when she was through he remarked that that was the 
 process by which Baptists were made. They were baptized 
 zvith water, to be sure, by dipping the candidates in it, and 
 when they were "sure enough Baptists," they were just like 
 the dye in the hanks, the grace remained in them. 
 
 On another occasion he was attacked by a Methodist 
 minister named Fly, and sermons were controversially ex- 
 changed between the two. Elledge was in his glory in dis- 
 cussing the subject of baptism with Fly, for here he was 
 able to uncover his stock of Greek lore. Unable to meet 
 Greek with Greek, Fly suggested to some of the friends of 
 Elledge that he would have Mr. Boswell, the presiding 
 elder, respond to the scholarly arguments. When this was 
 told to Elledge he expressed great satisfaction, for said he : 
 "I have been bothered long enough wath this little green 
 
 fly-" . 
 
 Aside from his oddities, Elledge was an exceedingly 
 useful man. He was a free lance, going as and when he 
 pleased, and doing as suited him. Besides being deputa- 
 tions, he was pugnacious. While not morbidly sensitive, he 
 never let an opportunity pass for resenting if violence, if 
 necessary, any attack on his person or honor.
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 A PERIOD OF EXPANSION. 
 
 By this time, Texas had assumed in her population and 
 in her institutions, the conditions of a well regulated state. 
 ■ Her affairs were wisely administered, and society had set- 
 tled to a normal basis. Phenomenal as had been the growth 
 of the population, vast leagues of her desirable territory 
 were still untaken by the immigrant, and her leaders, 
 including her progressive governor at this time, Elisha M. 
 Pease, were desirous of increased immigration. Chief 
 among the difficulties experienced by the state was that of 
 a lack of railroads. To encourage these, the legislature 
 offered the astonishing inducement of sixteen sections of 
 land for every mile of railway laid, provided that so many 
 as twenty-five miles were built by any corporation, before 
 it should be entitled to the oft'er. The offer went even 
 beyond that — if such projectors of railways should lack 
 capital, it was proposed by the state, to lend such on favor- 
 able terms. So, early as 1848, a charter had been granted 
 to the Houston & Texas Central Railroad, but work did 
 not begin on it till 1853, and when the Civil War began, 
 in 186 1, the work had not extended more than eighty miles. 
 In 1852 the Buffalo Bayou, Brazos & Colorado Railroad 
 was begun, but barely made a fair beginning before the out- 
 break of the war. That short line has developed into what 
 is known now as the Southern Pacific system. 
 
 Still, the state w^as prospering. In this general pros- 
 perity the Baptists, of course, shared. Times were steadily 
 growing more easy, and money was becoming more abun- 
 dant. Highways of travel were being improved, and move- 
 ment from place to place was not so difficult. Intervening 
 areas of territory — wide gaps between settlements — were 
 being gradually occupied, as the people continued to come. 
 
 104
 
 A PEEIOD OF EXPANSIO^i 105 
 
 not only from the states east of the Mississippi, and north 
 of the Ohio, but from Europe, as well. It was a period of 
 intense activity. 
 
 As a result of the improved material conditions through- 
 out the state, a number of district associations were enabled 
 to supplement the efforts of the general evangelists, by the 
 appointment of local missionaries. The scarcity of minis- 
 ters continued to be a serious hindrance to the progress of 
 the denomination. Twice as many ministers as were em- 
 ployed by the denomination, could now have been profitably 
 engaged. The widening reach of the population in all 
 directions, and a massing of constant accessions of immi- 
 grants in the regions already peopled, demanded an increased 
 evangelistic force which could not be had. Some of the 
 old veterans who had been at the front of the column since 
 the early thirties, were now falling by the wayside. While 
 there were constant accessions to the ministerial ranks from 
 other states, the number was vastly disproportionate to the 
 multitudes, whose canopy-covered wagons streaked the rich 
 plains, as they moved to their places of final settlement. In 
 the direction of denominational affairs. Baptists were fortu- 
 nate in the possession of men of foresight. They never lost 
 an opportunity to plant a church in a prospective center, 
 and thus seize every possible strategic point. Many of the 
 strong Baptist churches in Texas today had their begin- 
 nings in the prompt action of far-seeing, but often plain 
 men, who rallied the initial forces, though few in number, 
 and thus secured the nucleus of a church. It was in this 
 way that the people called Baptists gradually became the 
 formidable folk that they are, with a destiny in Texas that it 
 would be reckless to predict. In this particular, the Baptists 
 of Texas, in laying the basis of denominational strength, 
 differed materially from those of most other states. In 
 other states it was largely true that the Baptists clung first 
 to the country districts. They were a rural folk. Shady 
 groves, big springs and clear brooks were the favorite 
 accompaniments, for generations, to the Baptists of other 
 states. They seemed reluctant to enter the strongholds of 
 population, according to the principles of New Testament 
 evangelism, and begin with the rising tide. There seemed
 
 106 IIISTORV OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 to be a tacit consent to leave the. centers to others. Hence 
 it was, that in some of our great cities, chmxhes had to be 
 begun under special missionaries, sustained by general 
 boards. Hence, too, we find ourselves so sadly behind other 
 denominations in not a few of our cities. Unlike all this, 
 the Texas Baptists sought to be the first to lay fast hold on 
 the keys of a commanding sittiation. They sought to cast 
 the leaven of their influence into the mass and rise witli 
 the rising tide. May this not, as much as anything else, 
 account for the phenomenal strides which Texas Baptists 
 have made in all directions, and sometimes to the astonish- 
 ment of other denominations in other states? May not the 
 fact that the Baptist forces of Texas have outstripped 
 organizations elsewhere, that far preceded the pioneer efforts 
 on the raw plains of the west, be attributable to the sagacity 
 of missionaries and evangelists, in forecasting the promi- 
 nence of the points of interest, and of being among the first 
 of gospel agencies on the ground ? That they did this, is a 
 bright fact in the denominational history of the state; that 
 others, older in organization and with opportunities just as 
 great, did not, is shown in the disparity of Baptist strength 
 in a number of our Southern cities. 
 
 According to the principle just mentioned, the church at 
 Bonham was constituted in November, 1852, by Rev. J. R. 
 Briscoe, with a membership of not more than six. The year 
 before, Mr. Briscoe had organized the New Hope church, 
 four miles east of Bonham, but it had only a temporary 
 existence. Following the indications with a sort of prophetic 
 ken, Briscoe founded the church at Bonham during the fol- 
 lowing year. In this connection may be named a distin- 
 guished minister, who afterward became pastor of the Bon- 
 ham church — Rev. A. E. Clemmons. First, a Methodist 
 minister, he had been led to a change of view by a careful 
 study of the New Testament, and in 1847, came to the Red 
 River country of Texas. The spiritual destitution of that 
 region led him to devote much of his time to voluntary 
 work of his own accord, and in association with the daring 
 missionary, G. W. Pickett, he rendered invaluable service 
 to north Texas. Mr. Clemmons was not without ample 
 means, as he owned a fertile plantation on Red river, and
 
 A PEEIOD OF EXPANSION 107 
 
 there was no stint of expenditure in assisting to establish 
 the cause on a substantial basis, in that quarter. He was 
 intimately connected with the spiritual development of that 
 region, and in after years, was engaged in educational work- 
 in Louisiana, assisting materially in raising the funds neces- 
 sary for establishing the school at Alt. Lebanon, in that state. 
 Later still, he was pastor at Alarshall and Bonham, in Texas. 
 
 It is not so difficult to understand the steady progress of 
 the Baptists in the state, at that time. The veterans of 
 earlier years were working with the same ardor with which 
 they labored when the difficulties were immense, and with 
 so many advantages now in their favor, the results were 
 correspondingly as great. So far from resting on the laurels 
 won, they took encouragement from continual progress and 
 labored as in the days of yore. Even when laid aside, as 
 was the case with Z. N. Morrell, by reason of broken health, 
 these men w'ent as they could, and labored with each tem- 
 porary recurrence of strength. They were thus the occa- 
 sion of stimulating the activity of many, who else w^ould 
 have lapsed into ease and indifference. So much for the 
 power of example in religious work. The faithful Chris- 
 tian often multiplies himself manifold in his unconscious 
 influence on others. Life involves a double light, and acts 
 and words have many brothers. At this period the heroes 
 of many victories were still at the front of the file, rousing 
 the energies of many another. 
 
 Conspicuous among the class just mentioned w-ere J. W. 
 D. Creath and James Huckins, the former general mis- 
 sionary and the latter financial secretary of Baylor. The 
 complete records of their deeds will never be chronicled on 
 any earthly page, but they are known above. They were 
 still the fortunate possessors of robust manhood, and were 
 now in the thick of the fray, and with wisdom whetted by 
 constant contact with hard and difficult conditions, these 
 men were as active as ever. Disregarding exposure to the 
 varying moods of the weather, braving the turbulence of 
 swollen streams, and the terrors of deep prairie mud, and. 
 though many times disappointed in the accomplishment of 
 proposed endeavor, these genuine heroes often hoped against 
 hope, and drew inspiration solely from an abiding trust in
 
 KEV. J. M. CARROLL, SAX MARCOS, TEXAS.
 
 A PEEIOD OF EXPANSION' iOy 
 
 God. That He reigned and turned into the great current 
 of His providence even the feeblest effort made in His 
 name, gave them cheer in despondency, and enabled them to 
 rejoice in their tribulation. More and more difficulties at 
 Baylor were yielding to the persistent pluck of President 
 Burleson, and the school was gradually taking on new life, 
 and assuming gratifying proportions. The schools for both 
 sexes were under the general supervision of Mr. Burleson, 
 though the girls were under the special care of Rev. Horace 
 Clarke, with a competent corps of instructors. 
 
 On May 5, 1853, the university sustained the loss of its 
 financial secretary, by the reacceptance, by Mr. Huckins, of 
 the pastorate of the First Church of Galveston. It was 
 immensely to his credit that this gifted man w^as recalled to 
 his old charge, after an absence of five years. Few men 
 can resume a pastoral work when they once retire from it. 
 His return to Galveston was the occasion of a most cordial 
 greeting, not only on the part of the members of the First 
 Baptist church, but by the people of the entire city. 
 
 The sixth session of the state convention was held in 
 1853, at Huntsville. It proved to be the largest yet held in 
 the state. Messengers were present from thirty-five 
 churches and four associations. The work of the year had 
 been such as to give encouragement. Not a discordant note 
 was borne to the annual meeting. The continued activity 
 in all spheres of denominational work emphasized anew 
 the necessity of a denominational organ as a means of inter- 
 communication. With the possibility of constant touch of 
 workers, the one with the other, it would be impossible to 
 estimate the results. As it was, next to nothing was known 
 of the work which was being done the one by the other, and 
 the stimulus of vying was absent from the churches. A 
 committee had been appointed at the last session of the con- 
 vention to take under advisement the question of beginning 
 a Baptist paper in Texas, and at the present session recom- 
 mended that the enterprise be undertaken, so soon as a list 
 of one thousand subscribers could be had. It was further 
 recommended that the paper be located at Independence, 
 with Professor J. B. Stiteler as editor, and Revs. G. Tucker 
 and J. H. Stribling as corresponding editors. It was further
 
 110 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 recommended that the convention engage the services of a 
 pubhsher. A prospectus was to be issued at once, and a col- 
 lection was asked for with which to issue the prospectus, 
 resulting in $15.30. Efforts had been made to co-operate 
 jointly with the Baptists of Louisiana, in establishing a com- 
 mon organ between the two states, but without satisfactory 
 success. While the reports from the missionary field of the 
 state were encouraging, there was the continued cry o-f des- 
 titution. Important sections and centers were in need of 
 attention. Among these points of interest were Seguin, New 
 Braunfels, San Antonio, and Brownsville. Besides these, 
 there were entire counties in northern and southeastern 
 Texas, w'hich were suffering from destitution. The Board 
 of Directors in its appeal, expressed the conviction that with 
 $2,000 it would be able to meet the prevailing destitution. 
 The interior and local work of the individual associations 
 was valuable, and served to strengthen the work at the base. 
 The enrollment at the University for the past session had 
 been one hundred and sixty, including several young men 
 looking toward the ministry. The endowment of the presi- 
 dent's chair with $10,000 had been completed, and a similar 
 endowment of the chair of Natural Sciences was being 
 sought. The varied interests of the denomination, both 
 special and general, were duly considered, but the expres- 
 sion was frequent that nothing could be done without a 
 paper. With an organ, the impression was that the results 
 of the work of a year would be doubled. The Baptists had 
 not been as yet taught to give. INIany well-to-do men who 
 were ministers, served churches gratuitously, which was 
 most hurtful to the development of benevolence. The 
 means were not wanting ; in truth, they were abundant, but 
 a collector for a sacred cause was regarded a pest, and 
 what was given, oftentimes more nearly represented one's 
 desire to be rid of him, than to assist in a worthy cause. The 
 country was prosperous, and many Baptists had grown 
 wealthy, but the collections for all causes for the year aggre- 
 gated only $1,247.73. The men of the time w^ere more 
 solicitous about procuring believers than they were dollars. 
 That evangelism is of prime importance, there can be no 
 doubt, but it is as much a duty to give, as it is to pray.
 
 A PERIOD OF EXPANSION HI 
 
 Constructive organization was the controlling thought of 
 the time about which we now write, and yet while it was 
 expansive, so far as organic system was concerned, its ten- 
 dency was toward contraction without the development of 
 beneficence. 
 
 The Baptist forces then were gradually crystallizing into 
 compactness* and when a group of churches was organized 
 in a given section, the next care was to mold them into an 
 association. By October, 1853, a sufficient number of 
 churches had been organized about Bonham, to form an as- 
 sociation. Accordingly, messengers from four churches, 
 Bonham, Pleasant Hill, Salem and New Hope, met at the 
 time already named, at the Pleasant Hill church, and con- 
 stituted the Sister Grove Association. Though not a strong 
 body, having a membership of only one hundred and fort}'- 
 five, a missionary board was organized, and vigorous opera- 
 tions at once begun in the population of that region. 
 
 The strides now being taken by the Baptists of Texas 
 were not without much attendant difficulty. Some of these 
 have already been indicated, but others there were which 
 served to reduce the situation to one of absolute sincerity 
 and consecration. It was a time that tested the. piety of 
 people. Nothing short of the love of Christ would have 
 prompted the cool disregard of comfort, and the full ac- 
 quiescence in the abounding disadvantages, as well as the 
 genuine sacrifice of this period. It is doubtful that there 
 were, at this period, more than a half dozen comfortable 
 houses of worship belonging to the denomination in the 
 state. Outside a few centers of population, the places of 
 worship were the most uninviting. The question was not 
 one of attractiveness and of taste, nor even one of ordinary 
 comfort, that drew the people together in assemblages of 
 worship, but unadulterated devotion. Churches and asso- 
 ciations, and even colleges, were organized in log cabins, 
 and in so uncomfortable places as these, the people wor- 
 shiped for years together. During the cold season, with 
 the wintry wind whistling through the crevices, the con- 
 gregations would gather, sit on backless seats, which oftener 
 than otherwise were split logs, with the flat surface turned 
 upward, and supported by strong underpinning of pegs.
 
 110 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 Many people in the interior, where goods were scarce, 
 were often poorly and grotesquely dressed. A congrega- 
 tion would often huddle together, some wearing the robes 
 of buffaloes, and others of bears, with open windows and 
 doors (for sash was as rare as comfort), would worship 
 with ardor, and placidly listen to a sermon, rarely so short 
 as an hour in length. Yet many of these people had left 
 behind therrr in their original homes in the other states, con- 
 ditions far different. There was a pious patriotism that 
 drew them unto unity, and consolidated sentiment. In it 
 all, there was a faith in a better future, that was as unshak- 
 able as the rocky hills. The things which, in later time, 
 would be regarded as improper in the conduct of worship, 
 were taken with native common sense as a matter of 
 course. An incident may afford an illustration. On the 
 occasion of the organization of New Hope church, four 
 miles east of Bonham, the zealous missionary, J. R. Bris- 
 coe, was preaching in a small log cabin, in which the 
 church was constituted, which cabin served the devoted 
 family in the double capacity of dwelling and smoke-house. 
 At the end of the room, where the preacher stood, there were 
 suspended from the joists, huge sides of bacon, plump hams, 
 and sausages strung on long rods. He stood behind a plain 
 table of pine, on which lay open the large family Bible. In 
 his violent gesticulations, the hand of the preacher struck 
 one of the huge sides of bacon, and down it came about his 
 ears, and fell with a thud at his feet. Without a break in 
 his remarks, he grasped it on two sides, raised it to the 
 table, spread his large bandana handkerchief over it. laid 
 the large Bible on it, and went on as though nothing had 
 occurred. Incidents which would stampede an audience in 
 later and more fastidious times, were then unnoticed. 
 
 In the erection of a house of worship, congregations 
 would sometimes unite with the fraternity of Masons in 
 building a house with two floors, on the lower of which 
 the people would worship, while the brethren of the mystic 
 tie would conduct their exercises above. That one may 
 understand the disadvantages experienced, even in centers 
 that have become fashionable, we will allow Deacon Speight, 
 one of the earliest settlers of Waco, to describe the First
 
 A PEEIOD OF EXPANSIOiN 113 
 
 Church of that city, as it appeared as late as 1857. He 
 says: "This rude structure (though a good one in primi- 
 tive times in Waco village) was constructed by planting 
 cedar poles upright in the ground, and weather-boarding 
 the same with oak clap-boards, the roof being made of the 
 same material, the floor of cedar puncheons, and the shut- 
 ters to the windows and doors of rough cedar plank. The 
 house was owned, or controlled, by the Methodists, and 
 it was by their courtesy that the church used it for a while, 
 for one Sabbath and Saturday preceding, and afterwards 
 for two Sabbaths in the month. At that time, it was the 
 common preaching place for all denominations, the Bap- 
 tists, Methodists and Presbyterians being the only ones 
 represented in the village for several years after." And yet 
 when a more commodious house of worship was finally 
 built, some of the older members were reluctant to quit a 
 place to which their memories clung with fond affection, 
 as it was to them a Bethel, where they had so often met 
 with God in worship. For years together, many churches 
 were maintained by meeting in court-houses. It was fre- 
 quently the case that Judge R. E. B. Baylor would conduct 
 a session of court and a revival simultaneously — administer 
 justice during the day, and preach hope and salvation at 
 night. In but few churches was the presence of an organ 
 tolerated. One was put by some one unknown, into the 
 First Church of Houston, and became the occasion of no 
 little disturbance. The consciences of some of the saints 
 were wounded by the presence of so ungodly a thing, and 
 the agitation reached such a pitch, that the instrument sud- 
 denly disappeared. It was afterward found in the bottom 
 of Buffalo Bayou, which flows through the city, going as it. 
 came, it is not known how. Fifty years have wrought vast 
 changes in the sentiments of the people. It sounds strangely 
 enough today after the lapse of fifty years, that when an 
 application was made for an appropriation of $75 for a 
 year to sustain the cause at Waco, one of the Board of 
 Directors should have said: "Waco! Where's Waco?" It 
 had not then appeared on the map of Texas. 
 
 From conditions like these, the Baptists of Texas have 
 risen within the brief period of half a century. Yet the
 
 REV. JESSE L. WARD, WACO, TEXAS. 
 
 (Born on Deep Creek, in Wise Co.. Texas., Sept. 24, 1866: converted 
 in Aug.. 1S79 ; married Miss Jennie Beard, Jan. 11, 1885 : baptized into 
 the Springtown Cliurcli, I'arker Co., Texas, in Aug.. 1887 : ordained to 
 tiie ministry by the same cliurch. June 10, 1802 : began work as a 
 minister by serving four country and village churches near Springtown, 
 as pastor ; resigned pastoral v.ork to enter Baylor University in the 
 fall, 1893 : studied in Baylor University three sessions ; became pastor of 
 Decatur Church, July 1, 1890, serving four years; became President of 
 Decatur College, July 1, 1900: resigned to accept Corresponding Secre- 
 taryship of Texas Education Commission, June 1, 1907 ; began public 
 life as a clerk in a dry goods store in Sept., 1883 : began business as a 
 merchant, in Springtown, June 6, 1887 ; sold out business, Jan. 1, 1893, 
 to give entire time to the ministry ; wife died Feb. 20, 1907.)
 
 A PERIOD OF EXPANSION 115 
 
 transformation backward, from that time, for a period of 
 twenty years, was comparatively as marvelous as within 
 the period of fifty years forward, from 1853. Baptists of 
 this time not only kept abreast of the expanding greatness 
 of the state, they were no small part of the creators of 
 that greatness. Their schools of learning, though strug- 
 gling in the throes of perplexity, their able ministry and 
 uncompromising and progressive missionaries were the 
 pioneers of agencies which have helped to make Texas 
 what it has come to be. The promulgation of Baptist prin- 
 ciples has been no inconsiderable element in the -creation, 
 formation and perpetuation of republican America, and in 
 Texas, these principles found as pronounced expression as 
 ever they did in Rhode Island, or Virginia. 
 
 The course adopted at the convention at Marshall, re- 
 specting the application for establishing a school at Tyler, 
 now began to bear bitter fruit. It would seem that such 
 inevitable consequences might have been easily forecast by 
 as wise men as stood at the helm at that time ; but they 
 were not, and the way was opened for disturbance. Hap- 
 pily the means of communication were scant and slow, else 
 the results would have been far more disastrous. Deeply 
 grieved by the action of the convention at Marshall, the 
 progressive people of Tyler and of the neighboring region, 
 assumed an aggressive attitude, and under the leadership 
 of the Baptist pastor in the town. Rev. G. G. Baggerly, who 
 was a man of some scholarship, and who was to have been 
 the head of the proposed school, a revolt was raised against 
 the Baptist State Convention. Positive, and even stern, if 
 not resentful, Mr. Baggerly advocated a total disregard of 
 the general body, and at the same time injected into the 
 agitation charges of a grave nature against certain distin- 
 guished members of the convention, alleging a gross mis- 
 appropriation of the funds of the body. He went further, 
 and charged serious mismanagement and sectional favor- 
 itism. A contest of petty sectional rivalry was aroused and 
 vehemently engaged in. Some of his charges were not 
 without a plausible basis, because of the lax methods in the 
 management of some of the affairs of the convention, but 
 no one who knew the men thus charged with a misappro-
 
 IIG HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 priation of funds seriously credited the allegations. But 
 where passion supersedes judgment, and the desire for vic- 
 tory rises above that of truth, men, especially in a religious 
 controversy, become doubly dangerous. The cause of 
 religion has suffered no little at the hands of men who, 
 from motives wholly selfish, at bottom, contending under 
 the guise of religious fervor, and ostensibly for principle, 
 have precipitated disturbances that have been exceedingly 
 hurtful. But for the fact that God makes even the wrath 
 of man to praise Him, Christianity would long ago have 
 been wrecked. A half truth is often more hurtful than a 
 falsehood. 
 
 Mr. Baggerly, as the champion of the Tyler issue, was 
 tireless in his efforts to turn to practical advantage any de- 
 tected flaws in the situation, as represented by the State 
 Convention, and by plausible manipulation, put the Conven- 
 tion on the defensive. Nothing is easier, and oftentimes 
 more hurtful, than catch-words and striking mottoes, in a 
 campaign. Great issues have frequently turned on the 
 popular currency of meaningless slogans. Ringing the 
 changes on what he was pleased to call, by wav of com- 
 parative disparagement, the "Convention of the West," Mr. 
 Baggerlv aroused, in eastern Texas, much unfavorable sen- 
 timent in opposition to the Convention. So pronounced were 
 his charges, and reckless his statements, that he found it 
 easy to gain the consent of many to engage in the forma- 
 tion of another body of Baptists, where it would be free of 
 the taint of the original convention. There is a singular 
 similarity between that wdiich took place then, to some other 
 occurrences in the future history of the denomination in 
 the state. At any rate, the movement culminated in the 
 organization of the "The Texas General Convention," at 
 Larissa, in November, 1853. While the ostensible purpose 
 was to fuse the elements of the state into progressive har- 
 mony, the real design seems clearly to have been rivalry 
 with the State Convention, and direct opposition to Baylor 
 University. The ardent promoters of the undertaking 
 counted without their host, however, for when the real pur- 
 pose was disclosed, the leaders in east Texas declined to 
 enter into the foment of strife, or to do anything that would
 
 A PERIOD OF EXPANSION H'J' 
 
 in the least retard the progress of the denomination. A 
 reaction set in after the organization, and such men as Witt, 
 Bledsoe, Tucker, Stokes, and others, declined to be a party 
 to a movement that sought the dismemberment of the gen- 
 eral body. These men were pronounced in their discredit 
 of the reports circulated against some of the best men in the 
 convention. Internal dissatisfaction having taken place 
 within the new body, its decline was so rapid, that it found 
 its funeral in its second meeting, for it was dissolved at 
 that time, b'ill, this left two decided factions, without the 
 reconciliation of which hurtful results were sure to follow. 
 This found a temporary solution, as we shall see, as we fol- 
 low the chronological order of events. 
 
 During the latter part of 1853, the Judson Association 
 was formed at Larissa, in Cherokee county. It was a 
 strong body, having seventeen churches and eight hundred 
 members — the largest of the associations yet organized. It 
 is a noteworthy fact that General Houston was present, as 
 a messenger from the church at Independence, into the 
 membership of which he had been recently baptized by 
 Doctor Burleson. At this session he gave ^330 for min- 
 isterial education at Baylor University. The gift was 
 accounted a most munificent one, and was highly prized, 
 as it was greatly needed. 
 
 The fact must not be overlooked that during all this 
 time the churches were rapidly multiplying, and at almost 
 every session of a district association, churches, newly 
 formed, would apply for admission. As new territory was 
 occupied, and new counties were constituted, tides of popu- 
 lation would pour in, and with each fresh installment would 
 come a number of Baptists. Nor must it be forgotten that 
 this work was chiefly the result of the sacrifice of pastors 
 and missionaries on the field, and of the liberality of the 
 churches of Texas. Much has been said of the expendi- 
 tures of the Domestic Mission Board in the early stages 
 of Texas history, and the assertion has been frequently 
 made that that board largely made the denomination in 
 this state. That the board was generous, and aided to the 
 extent of its ability, there is no doubt, but during the first 
 ten years of its history it contributed to the cause in Texas
 
 118 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 an amount not exceeding $5,500. This fact is stated, not 
 with the view of disparaging the history of the Domestic 
 (now the Home) Mission Board, but to accord the merits 
 of their just deserts to the heroes of the border, who spent 
 their hves in the tremendous work of rooting Baptist prin- 
 ciples in Texas, and at great personal sacrifice. 
 
 The year, 1854, was one fruitful of results for good to 
 the cause and one which derived increased momentum from 
 the successes of the past. During this year, the denomina- 
 tion strode far in advance of the preceding years. Among 
 other events of importance was that of the settlement of 
 Rev. S. G. O'Bryan as the pastor of the church at Waco. 
 For two years, Rev. N. T. Byars had been doing founda- 
 tion work in that field, which w^as full of difficulties, as it 
 was well toward the frontier. Its membership had grown 
 from the number of four to that of twenty. Mr. O'Bryan, 
 who now became the pastor, had just retired from the 
 chair of mathematics in Baylor University. A graduate 
 from Wake Forest College, North Carolina, he came to 
 Texas in 1852, and after a service of two years at Baylor, 
 took charge of the church at Waco. His work greatly 
 prospered, and at the end of six years, the church numbered 
 two hundred, after wdiich time he succeeded in building a 
 substantial brick house of worship. 
 
 In the early part of 1854, another influential church had 
 its beginning — the First Church of Paris, which was con- 
 stituted on April 23, with a membership of six, by Rev. 
 W. M. Pickett, who became the first pastor. This year, too, 
 marks the beginning of Baptist journalism in Texas. For 
 years together, there had been a burning demand for a 
 denominational organ. The claims of such an enterprise 
 had been suggested again and again, and vigorous efforts 
 had been made to set it on foot. The fact that the denomi- 
 nation seemed almost ready at dififerent times to realize the 
 consummation of the enterprise whetted the desire to in- 
 tense keenness. It was at last reduced to a business basis, 
 and it was ascertained that $1,200 was necessary to buy an 
 outfit, but $900 was the limit that could be reached at Inde- 
 pendence, whereupon the enterprise failed. At the session 
 of the convention in 1853 the Board of Directors was in-
 
 A PERIOD OF EXPANSlOiN Hy 
 
 structed to prosecute the work of seeking to establish a 
 paper, and finally arrangements were made for the pub- 
 lication, by the assumption of all financial obligation for 
 one year, by twenty-five brethren. It was decided not to 
 locate at Independence, as was first deemed advisable, but at 
 Anderson, where was one of the strongest churches in the 
 state. The change of proposed location necessitated a 
 change in the proposed editorship of the paper, and as Pro- 
 fessor Stiteler had been chosen the editor by the conven- 
 tion, he resigned the proposed position, and agreed to take 
 a subordinate place on the paper under the editorship of 
 Rev. G. W. Baines. At this time Mr. Baines was the 
 popular pastor of the church at Anderson, and was one 
 of the strongest and safest men in the state. Necessary 
 preparations had to be made, so that the first issue of the 
 paper did not appear till January, 1855. 
 
 At the commencement at Baylor University there was 
 conferred the first diploma ever granted by that institution, 
 which diploma was given to Stephen D. Rowe, who re- 
 ceived the degree of bachelor of arts. The convention for 
 1854 was held at Palestine. The body was organized by 
 the election of James Huckins, president ; J. W. D. Creath, 
 J. M. Maxcy and S. G. O'Bryan, vice presidents ; G. W. 
 Baines, recording secretary, and R. C. Burleson, corre- 
 sponding secretary. 
 
 While the work on the local fields was not without dis- 
 couragement, this was so overbalanced by encouragement 
 and hopefulness, that it afforded fresh inspiration for the 
 future. There was a manifest growth in the missionary 
 spirit, and greater emphasis than ever before was laid on 
 foreign missions. The report on foreign missions mentions 
 an encouragement of the work in China, where the aspirant 
 to the throne of the empire had been led to embrace Chris- 
 tianity as the result of a tract given by a Baptist missionary 
 named, I. J. Roberts. The destitute fields in Texas, the 
 growth of population and the enforced retirement of mis- 
 sionaries because of lack of support, were urged as a basis, 
 for increased beneficence. Work among the slaves was 
 progressing and encouraging. The convention lent its influ- 
 ence and support to the temperance cause, which was then
 
 l-iQ lll8Tt)in UF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 agitating the public mind. The general work in the state 
 had found a potent factor in the colportage system, which 
 at last came into existence, and $300 worth of books had 
 been sold by Mr. Clabaugh within six weeks. The activity 
 of the missionaries had resulted in many baptisms, and the 
 organization of a number of churches. The central and 
 populous points, of which there were now not a few, were 
 extending the work in the neighboring regions, and as far 
 as possible the intervening territory was being supplied. 
 Only the most glowing report came from Baylor Univer- 
 sity, the Board of Trustees of which said in the annual 
 report that the school was- "in a most flourishing condition 
 and was increasing in public confidence." The value of the 
 university, property was placed at $40,000. 
 
 An adjourned meeting of the body w"as to be held at 
 Gonzales, but the object of such a meeting is not named, 
 nor has any record of it been preserved. The matter of 
 gravest concern at this time was, how couM the denomina- 
 tion meet the constantly increasing demands which were 
 being made to supply the destitution of the state. During 
 the first decade and a half, they had been able to cope with 
 the situation, but they w-ere now face to face with an emer- 
 gency. New regions were being opened, new interests 
 springing up, new installments of population added, and 
 new centers created. Little idea was had outside Texas of 
 the vast and novel changes which were taking place in the 
 state. Communication was meager between Texas and the 
 older states, and private information was regarded as being 
 highly colored. Transportation was difficult and irksome, 
 and people of other regions were totally unaware of the 
 expenditure of the wonderful heroism which was being 
 undergone, as they were of the order and well regulated 
 society prevailing, and of institutions of promise which were 
 rapidly assuming shape. To the workers on the field, 
 whether in civic or religious life, the situation was one of 
 profound seriousness. The problems growing out of the 
 situation in Texas were unique. They differed in some 
 essential particulars from those encountered in any other 
 American state. The extent of territory from one point 
 of view, was desirable, but carried with it serious embar-
 
 A. PERIOD OF EXPANS^O^' 13] 
 
 rassments. Within a given year settlements, hundreds of 
 miles apart, would be formed with vast areas of plains lying 
 between, and with none other than the ordinary means of 
 original communication between them. To wield existing 
 agencies so as to amalgamate these widely severed interests 
 and settlements, taxed the statesmen as well as the mission- 
 ary. At this period, such important fields as Brownsville, 
 San Antonio, Indianola, Port Lavaca, Richmond and other 
 points, where there were Baptists, were without preaching. 
 Along the Red river, wdiere colonies had settled, there was 
 an alarming spiritual destitution. Yet every preacher 
 seemed to be doing his utmost, and the churches were being 
 plied with appeals for means with which to supply the exist- 
 ing wants. 
 
 It was a time when no fixed methods of evangelization 
 could be established. The inflow and perpetual shift of a 
 restless population, put afifairs quite beyond the reach of 
 even the wisest administration. The plans of one year had 
 to be modified or completely upset, for the activities of the 
 next. This was the condition wdien the year 1855 dawned 
 on the Baptists of Texas.
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 SUNSHINE AND SHADOW. 
 
 The year 1855 opened auspiciously to the Baptists of 
 Texas. An immense difficulty had been removed by the 
 establishment of a denominational paper, a difficulty which 
 had seriously retarded the work, especially within the last 
 few years. The denomination was fortunate in having so 
 valuable and competent an editor as G. W. Baines, Sr, He 
 commanded universal esteem because of his numerous quali- 
 ties, not least among which were his incisive intellect and 
 acute discrimination. Conciliatory, wise, scholarly, and 
 withal a man of unquestioned piety, no one was better fitted 
 for a position, at once responsible and onerous, than was Mr. 
 Baines. He was the unanimous choice of his brethren, 
 because he was admirably fitted for this initial endeavor in 
 journalism, at such a time, and under such conditions. Nor 
 did he in the least disappoint the expectations of his friends. 
 Otiite on the other hand, he grew steadily in denominational 
 confidence and esteem. 
 
 We come now to a period when the country was being 
 agitated by a question which was assuming portentous pro- 
 portions — that of African slavery. The abolition press and 
 pulpit of the North, in the denunciation of African slavery, 
 was equaled only by its vehement defense in the South. The 
 question never found its way into the Southern pulpit, but 
 the press of the South made itself potent in defending the 
 institution against the assaults of the North. It found its 
 way, as a burning question, into our institutions of learning, 
 and into text-books by Southern pens, in the sphere of ethics, 
 which books were set for the defense by African servitude. 
 These expressions on both sides of Mason and Dixon's line, 
 
 122
 
 SUNSHINE AND SHADOW 133 
 
 derived their inspiration from the national Congress, the 
 halls of which rang with the eloquence of leaders arrayed 
 on opposite sides of this ardent issue. Indeed, in the discus- 
 sion of the question of the annexation of Texas, the question 
 of slavery was paramount. Northern leaders w^ere correct in 
 the conclusion that such annexation would more complicate 
 the grave question now stirring the country to its depths, 
 -for Texas would inevitably be a slave-holding state, and 
 Southern leaders were the more insistent for its annexation 
 because such would be true. For years preceding this 
 period about which we now write, the question had been 
 waxing hotter, but now it was clear that nothing short of 
 war would settle it. The question became more engrossing 
 till the country was convulsed by the thunders of w^ar. . 
 
 The establishment of The Texas Baptist soon began to 
 bear fruit. Its circulation was at first tardy, but the postal 
 facilities were poor, and gradually by dint of merit it found 
 its way into the Baptist communities throughout the state. 
 It was a dynamic force to the general denomination work 
 in the state, and really marks an era in its history. 
 
 This was distinctively an era of material, social and 
 religious progress in Texas. Centers of population were 
 assuming an air of consequence, and private residences and 
 public buildings, both of a substantial and comfortable 
 character, were being erected. It was not an uncommon 
 occurrence, even in the largest towns, to find huge stumps 
 still remaining in the streets, and the streets themselves 
 sometimes impassable, in a rainy season because of the deep 
 prairie mud, so rapid was the improvement wrought and so 
 quickly was a town built, but patience, endurance, and a 
 bigger hope possessed the people, and the prospective re- 
 sults were unquestioned. 
 
 A serious question now came before the Baptists of the 
 state, and one that occasioned no little apprehension. Up to 
 this time, Baptist columns had been massed in solidity. No 
 wedge of severance had been permitted to enter the denomi- 
 nation at any point. Differences there were, but they were 
 minor, and cool judgments and consecrated hearts settled 
 them, as can always be done when differences arise. The 
 question of momentous importance was. What will be the
 
 J. H. GROVE, BROWNWOOD, TEXAS. 
 President Howard Payne College. .
 
 SUNSHINE AND SHADOW 1^6 
 
 outcome of the sloughing off of Ihe churches in eastern 
 Texas? An organization in opposition to the State Con- 
 vention had been set up in 1853, bearing the rival name of 
 "The Texas Baptist General Association." Eighteen 
 months had now gone, and to the founders of this organiza- 
 tion they were months of activity. Charges of a serious 
 character were brought against at least two of the best 
 men of the denomination, and a serious reflection on the 
 entire general body. The Baptists were just now ready to 
 move formidably forward in their work. From a mere hand- 
 ful, they had come to number more than 10,000 in the state, 
 and with unanimity of purpose, illimitable possibilities were 
 before them. Those who felt keenest the failure to procure 
 the sanction of the State Convention to establish a school 
 at Tyler, had gained a solid start in the successful establish- 
 ment of a rival organization. From contending against a 
 common enemy, were the forces of the Baptists now to be 
 divided and become colliding factions? Rev. G. G. Bag- 
 gerly was active in eastern Texas in the iteration and reit- 
 eration of charges, for the basis of which he was not with- 
 out some documentary evidence, when only one side was 
 presented in a partisan light. But set over against this, was 
 the granite character of the men assailed, and when the 
 matter should be brought to judicial light, it would be seen 
 how easy it is to displace sometimes, the most unquestioned 
 testimony. Baggerly went too far, as men are liable to 
 do under such conditions — he overreached himself ; for back 
 of all surface evidence, stood the invulnerableness of char- 
 acter against which nothing can prevail. Do what he might, 
 the characters of Baines and Creath would remain un- 
 touched and unsullied before a fair-minded public. No 
 assault, however subtle or plausible, can move a granite 
 character. Indeed, the man who tampers with such, will find 
 in the end, that the force comes back on himself with re- 
 bounding violence. Reaction in the public mind against one 
 who seeks to undermine character by reckless speech and 
 unfounded assertion, brands him for all time. England's 
 greatest , dramatist never uttered a sager sentiment than 
 when he put into the mouth of one of his characters this 
 language :
 
 126 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 "Be advised ; 
 Heat not a furnace for your foe so hot 
 That it do singe yourself ; we may outrun. 
 By violent swiftness, that which we run at, 
 And lose by overrunning." 
 
 The dissatisfaction in eastern Texas, resulting from the 
 repeated charges against honored brethren, was so decided, 
 that when the second session of the Texas Baptist General 
 Association met at Tyler, in May, 1855. it found itself under 
 the necessity of organizing a less pretentious body, for which 
 the following paved the way : 
 
 "Resolved, That we dissolve any previous organization 
 as a General Association or Convention, and that we now 
 stand ready to go into an organization on proper principles, 
 with the delegates present from the different churches, for 
 the purpose of organizing an Eastern Texas Baptist Con- 
 vention, in accordance with the recommendation of the 
 Soda Lake Association." 
 
 This at once settled the question of rivalship with the 
 Baptist State Convention, and while even that which was 
 adopted seemed inopportune, the failure to organize a gen- 
 eral and opposing body was most fortunate. A constitution 
 was adopted which named as its objects the co-operation of 
 the Baptists of eastern Texas, the formation of plans fof 
 the revival of religion in the state and elsewhere, assistance 
 in giving effect to useful plans of district associations, pro- 
 viding the creation of a fund for the education of young 
 men contemplating the ministry, and the promotion of pious 
 and useful education in the Baptist denomination. If the 
 body was to be created, it could not have adopted a better 
 basis of action. This done, and then came the following: 
 
 "Resolved, That the convention now go into a commit- 
 tee of the whole for the purpose of investigating the charges 
 and difficulties, together with all matters of difficulty be- 
 tween Brother Baggerly and the State Convention." Ample 
 time was given for the investigation of the books, and for 
 probing the depths of the charges so repeatedly made against 
 the inaccuracy of the accounts of the convention, which not 
 only involved a deficit, for which J. W. D. Creath w^as
 
 SUNSHINE AND SHADOW lj}7 
 
 responsible, but involved also Rev. G. W. Baines. the treas- 
 urer of the convention. The final report fully vindicated 
 the brethren charged, though certain minor discrepancies 
 were found to exist. The substance of the report was that 
 the calculations of the agent and of the State Convention 
 had been derived from the receipts of the treasurer, as pre- 
 sented by G. W. Baines, and were found to be correct and 
 balanced within a few cents. But Mr. Baggerly had reached 
 his conclusions from calculations based on the reports of 
 the financial secretary, or agent, of the convention, J. W. D. 
 Creath, which reports had not been carefully prepared. If 
 there was as much in the hubbub as Mr. Baggerly had so 
 vehemently insisted, there would have been a discrepancy 
 that meant more than a .few cents. Given more to preaching, 
 day after day, than to a careful and accurate statement of 
 funds collected, it is strange that the discrepancy was not 
 more than it actually was. It was clear to all unbiased 
 minds that the discrepancy, about which there had been so 
 much ado, and which derived its real nutriment from the dis- 
 appointment in founding a school at Tyler under the sanc- 
 tion of the convention, was just that which might arise in the 
 accounts of any one unfamiliar with balance sheets. That 
 the accounts should have been more accurately and exactly 
 kept, no one was freer to admit than Mr. Creath himself, but 
 this was a matter altogether different from that of chal- 
 lenging the honesty of a faithful servant of God. Why were 
 not these complaints or criticisms brought to the attention 
 of the convention? Or why was not the attention of Mr. 
 Creath called to the matter? Would there have ever been 
 anything said about the whole matter if the school had been 
 sanctioned by the convention? Queries like these arose in 
 the minds of many, and transferred the sting from the breth- 
 ren accused to other quarters. At any rate, the proceeding 
 at Tyler cleared the atmosphere and, excepting where men 
 were intent on believing the contrary, at any rate, every one 
 stood fully vindicated. Then came the following: 
 
 "Resolved, That we regard the difficulty as existing be- 
 tween the East and West to be amicably adjusted, and 
 recommend that the brethren retract all unkind and unscrip- 
 tural words or articles that they may have spoken or written
 
 12S lil8'rUJiV OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 concerning each other."' This constituted the bulk of the 
 business of the body, and after the appointment of the com- 
 mittees for the next session, the body adjourned. 
 
 Pious wisdom prevailed at a genuine crisis in Baptist 
 affairs, and one that bade fair at one time to sunder in twain 
 the united hosts of the denomination, at a time when it was 
 least prepared for such a juncture. To such choice spirits 
 as Witt, Bledsoe, Tucker and others, the denomination is 
 indebted for a result so fraught with good for the present, 
 as well as for the future. Men breathed more freely when 
 the storm had swept past. 
 
 How fortunate it was that at such a time the denomina- 
 tion was possessed of a paper as a medium of communica- 
 tion, and how equally fortunate that, it had such an editor as 
 G. W. Baines ! Though deeply wronged, Mr. Baines had 
 only words of conciliation in his rapidly growing paper. 
 Conditions having resumed their normal relations, the paper 
 proved a most valuable ally in restoring good will in the 
 denomination. It gave an impulse to the work, and became 
 a general denominational bond. Henceforth there were the 
 two general bodies of Texas Baptists, distinct and yet one, 
 operating in two different geographical parts of the state — 
 east and west. 
 
 The recurrence of the State Convention, which met in 
 1855 at Independence, was an occasion of assurance and of 
 cheering prospect. The stakes had been strengthened and 
 the cords lengthened. The central churches had grown 
 steadily stronger, while the number in the outlying regions 
 had been multiplied. In the organization, James Huckins 
 was made president, G. W. Baines, H. L. Graves and R. C. 
 Burleson, vice presidents, J. !>. Stiteler, corresponding sec- 
 retary, and J. M. Maxcy, recording secretary. Great dili- 
 gence had been shown by the Board of Directors in the 
 promotion of religion in all quarters possible. The number 
 of missionaries had been increased, and a considerable work 
 had been done. The board was exultant over the fact that 
 the convention was at last the possessor of a paper. The 
 Texas Baptist had procured eleven hundred subscribers 
 and had reached the close of the year in debt, and that 
 without affording the editor a cent of compensation for his
 
 SUNSHINE AND SHADOW 129 
 
 service. The necessity of the organ, it was urged by the 
 board, imposed on the convention the duty of making it a 
 permanent and inseparable institution, in connection with 
 the general work. A better basis was prepared for the 
 paper for the next year. The reports from the broad field 
 occupied by the missionaries, were encouraging, but the 
 reports of extended destitution and unoccupied territory per- 
 plexed more than ever. Since the last meeting of the body 
 four of the useful ministers of the state had died — E. Vin- 
 ing, Thomas Chilton, John O. Walker and A. Coker. 
 
 From Baylor University came the cheering news that 
 the attendance had increased to 193 in both the departments. 
 The Board of Trustees had been active during the year, in 
 raising funds for a new building on the campus, and had 
 been able to collect $5,000 for that purpose, and needed 
 $3,000 more for its completion. It w^as also announced that 
 $3,000 more was needed to complete the endowment of the 
 chair of Natural Sciences. The convention promptly raised 
 $3,250 for the endowment of the chair named, and $1,225 
 for the new building. Even in their poverty and undevel- 
 oped condition, the Texas Baptists were princely givers. 
 
 Among the men who were making their impress on the 
 state at this time was James H. Stribling, who by sacrifice 
 and achievement, had already won a distinguished position 
 in the denomination. Reared a poor boy in Pickens county, 
 Alabama, and having but slender advantages, he made con- 
 ditions possible to equip himself for great usefulness. At 
 this time, he was the pastor at Gonzales, where he served the 
 church for seven years, and when he left, the church was 
 solidly entrenched in the faith of the gospel, with a vast out- 
 look for usefulness. He became a prominent figure in the 
 circles of the denomination, and enjoyed the distinction of 
 being the first ministerial student of Baylor University. 
 
 The work of the two conventions, that of the state, and 
 that of eastern Texas, now began in earnest. Perhaps, after 
 all, it were better that these two bodies were now organized. 
 The spirit of rivalry which was sought to be engendered 
 by some, in the inception of the eastern convention, had dis- 
 appeared under the manipulation of consecrated wisdom, 
 and had given place to a commendable vying between the
 
 HOWAKI) PAYNE COLLEGE. BROWNWOOD, TEXAS.
 
 SUNSHINE AND SHADOW 131 
 
 two bodies. There can be no doubt that they acted and 
 reacted on each other at a time when, perhaps, there was 
 needed such a stimuhis for the development of these two 
 great sections of the state. It seems that the results justify 
 this conclusion, just as it was timely for all to coalesce, at 
 a period when unity was more essential to success than 
 division. In all the upheav-als through which the denomina- 
 tion has passed, there has been the evident guide of the hand 
 of Jehovah. For the time, it ma\' not have seemed wise that 
 divergences should come, nor that storms should now and 
 then break over the denomination, but no people have ever 
 been more divinely guided than have been the Baptists of 
 Texas. God's thoughts are not as man's, neither are his 
 ways like the ways of man. As a distinct body, taking to 
 itself a distinct territory, the association in the eastern part 
 of the state felt impelled to vindicate its voluntary procedure. 
 This led to the forth-putting of efifort wdiich perhaps would 
 not have been under original conditions. Had it entered the 
 field as a combatant, as was first contemplated, the results 
 would have been injurious, but the prevalence of wise coun- 
 sel in its inception, gave to it a pace and a place in which 
 its efforts would contribute to divine glory, and finally enable 
 it to become an agent in the fusion of the separate bodies 
 into a mighty wdiole. More than once, attention has been 
 called to the fact that the Texas Baptist brotherhood has 
 never lacked for appropriate leadership in the different eras 
 of its eventful history. Indeed, the assignment of men to 
 the spheres for which they were peculiarly fitted, when the 
 crises came, and when peculiar gifts were needed, seems a 
 distinct feature in Texas Baptist history. It is not urged 
 that they were better than others, but the fact remains that 
 the denomination, not even from the beginning, has ever 
 been wanting in men of rare consecration and wisdom. 
 Whatever the future of the denomination may be, this fact 
 runs backward like a golden thread through the fabric of 
 our denominational history, with a purity and brightness 
 which it is impossible to disregard. 
 
 It was several years after the organization of the East- 
 ern Texas Convention, before it got fairly afoot and was 
 able to accomplish much. Factional differences among the
 
 133 HISTORY or TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 members of the bodv retarded the work. A second session 
 of the body was held during? the year 1855, the latter being 
 in November, at Henderson. Reports and resolutions look- 
 ing more to the future than to the brief history of the past, 
 consumed the time of the session at Henderson. Among 
 the steps taken was that of looking to the founding of a 
 school for girls in eastern Texas. The question was re- 
 ferred to a committee for settlement, which committee was 
 to report at the following session. Since the meeting held 
 during the preceding May, $40 had been collected for con- 
 ventional purposes, and $32 for missions. The association 
 was concerned about the growth of population on the eastern 
 border of the state, and recognized its obligation to give heed 
 to the call which Providence was making. The body was 
 fortunate in the possession of men like Tucker. Witt, Clem- 
 mons and D. B. Morrill, men of wisdom and of wide views, 
 in a region where just such were needed. 
 
 During this year, there came to the eastern portion of the 
 state, a young man from Alabama, who was destined to be 
 of great service to the denomination. H. M. Burroughs, who 
 was then only about twenty years old, reached the village 
 of Palestine, in the fall of 1855. Here he resided for two 
 or three years, when he moved westward. At Palestine he 
 met M. V. Smith, who was just then beginning to preach. 
 Both these played conspicuous parts in the development of 
 the denomination in Texas. Mr. Burroughs did valuable 
 service in the regions of Lampasas. Luling and other por- 
 tions of the state, and became one of the officials of the State 
 Convention. 
 
 In December, 1855, the first diploma given to a young 
 lady graduate at Baylor University, was awarded to Miss 
 Mary Gentry Kavanaugh. 
 
 With the year 1856 came the presidential election, which 
 brought into sharper issue the opposing sides of the question 
 of slavery. Events were gradually converging toward an 
 inevitable clash of arms. Still, the country was prosperous, 
 and no part of it was more so than Texas. The two great 
 modern civilizers, the newspaper and the railroad, were be- 
 ginning to wield an influence in the state, and gave promise 
 of possibilities that were boundless. A strikingly evident
 
 SUNSHINE AND SHADOW 133 
 
 change was coming over the entire land in the prosperity 
 which everywhere prevailed, and which, while it stiffened 
 confidence, was menaced by the distant rumble of coming 
 war. There were not wanting some who felt that it was 
 inevitable, and the portents were regarded with great con- 
 cern. 
 
 With the rapid populating of the state, and the just as 
 rapid adjustment of communities into thriving and peaceful 
 settlements, the Baptist cause was settling into a level of 
 uniformiity, with nothing unusual to vary the ongoing prog- 
 ress. Now and then a movement of promise would be 
 undertaken in a populous region, but conditions in Texas 
 had reached such a stage, that measures as well as men had 
 to vindicate their merit before they would command public 
 confidence. In this connection may be mentioned an educa- 
 tional movement, which, though beginning under conditions 
 unpretentious enough in themselves, was destined to become 
 an influence in denominational life second to none other. 
 Prompted by the progress elsewhere prevailing in denomina- 
 tional circles, and appreciating the necessity of the creation 
 of scholastic advantages for the rising youth, the Trinity 
 River Association, as early as 1855, took the first step toward 
 the founding of a school of learning suited to existing needs 
 in the growjng village of Waco. The conditions under 
 which the school originated were infantile enough, but what- 
 ever other deficiencies existed, they were atoned for by the 
 ambitious name given the embryonic seat of learning — the 
 Trinity River High Male School. Even though the founders 
 were not sufficiently . discriminative to recognize the impor- 
 tance of a transposition of certain terms, in the name as- 
 signed, in order to avoid a ludicrous ambiguity, they were 
 men who meant execution of purpose. They were deter- 
 mined to give to their children the advantages which had 
 been denied themselves. In meeting the urgency of a pres- 
 ent necessity, these hardy pioneersmen little dreamed of the 
 destined evolution of a school, the influence of which, in its 
 products, would rank with that of the great institutions of 
 the country. In its initial steps, this infant enterprise was 
 nurtured and guided in the Baptist Church of Waco, and 
 was at first presided over by the pastor, Rev. S. G. O'Bryan.
 
 134 HISTOKY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 The president of the first Board of Trustees was J. W. 
 Speight, the usefiihiess and intluence of whom deserves 
 more than a bare mention of his name, liy dint of merit he 
 was for many years recognized as one of the leading citizens 
 of Waco. Favored with a Hberal education and with a force- 
 ful utterance, his voice and pen were often employed to great 
 advantage in the promotion of public good, and in the prog- 
 ress of the interests of the Baptist denomination. He was 
 exactly fitted to the denominational conditions arising in a 
 rapidly growing field, such as Waco and its surroundings 
 were. In his local church, as well as in the aspiring schoal, 
 in the district association, and finally in the larger body of 
 the (jeneral Association, his broad and liberal spirit contrib- 
 uted immensely to their promotion. 
 
 The ninth session of the State Convention in 1856 was 
 signalized by its meeting again at the place of its birth, 
 Anderson, which at that time was one of the most influential 
 of the denominational centers of the state. The convention 
 had grown in importance, and in its return to its natal place, 
 was possessed of a vigorous, progressive and commanding 
 body of Christian gentlemen. James Huckins was again 
 made president, and G. W. Baines. R. C. Burleson and H. L. 
 Graves, vice presidents, Horace Clarke, recording secretary, 
 and A. Daniel, corresponding secretary. The convention 
 was largely attended, and the spirit which animated it was 
 excellent. The most cheering report came from Baylor 
 I'niversity, the enrollment of which was now 240 in both 
 the departments for the sexes. Improvement and enlarge- 
 ment of the buildings were continued in order to meet the 
 demands of continued growth. The influence of the school 
 had gone far beyond Texas, and students were present from 
 a number of states. The reports from all quarters were 
 good. Already Texas had become the adopted home of 
 many from remote and dififerent nationalities, as was shown 
 by ]\Iissionary Kiefer. who was laboring among the Ger- 
 mans, and who reported that there were already 30,000 of 
 his people residents of Texas. This was at once recog- 
 nized as one of the problems im])Osed on the convention to 
 solve, especially in view of the fact that ^Ir. Kiefer re- 
 ported that more than one-half of his nationality in Texas
 
 SUNSHINE AND SHADOW 135 
 
 had renounced the divinity of Christ and the inspiration of 
 the Scriptures. In addition to this, it was stated that six 
 imported Cathohc priests, some of whom could not 
 speak EngHsh, were laboring among these Germans. Be- 
 sides these, there were twenty Lutheran preachers laboring 
 among them. With commendable enterprise the Methodists 
 had founded, at Galveston, a denominational paper published 
 in the German language. 
 
 Attention was called to the fact that there were 40,000 
 negro slaves in Texas, many of whom had been imported 
 direct from Africa. No little interest was aroused in behalf 
 of the enslaved population, and the report on that subject 
 urged every church and minister to diligence in the spiritual 
 elevation of the slave. The irrepressible T. J. Pilgrim, the 
 father of the Sunday-school in Texas, was present and 
 aroused fresh enthusiasm by his advocacy of that interest. 
 The Texas Baptist was in a healthy condition, as it had been 
 adopted as the organ of both the general bodies, and its 
 circulation had increased to fifteen hundred. At this time 
 the paper was committed entirely to the care of Mr. Baines 
 as sole editor and proprietor, with the sole requirement that 
 he should furnish the denomination with a paper. 
 
 The veteran missionary, N. T. Byars, whose work was 
 now^ confined to the evangelization of the Indians, while 
 doing most effective work, was inadequately supported, but 
 the board was crippled in its efforts, because of the insuffi- 
 cient means in the treasury. During the year, there had 
 been collected on the field $2,542.66, and many interests 
 were languishhig because of the continued inadequacy of 
 means. 
 
 The harmonious session held at Anderson gave increased 
 vigor to the work on the field, as the messengers returned 
 to the resumption of their labors. The Eastern Texas Con- 
 vention was held at JMarshall, in November, 1856, and the 
 proceedings showed that the body was still in a formative 
 stage. The plans were prospective rather than actual. 
 There was a lack of organization and of aggressiveness. 
 Three or four men, in their own spheres, were laboring to 
 the utmost, but the effort to harmonize all the churches on 
 a common basis of action, was not so easy. However, a vig-
 
 UEV. J. M. GADDY.
 
 SUNSHINE AND SHADOW 137 
 
 orous effort was made at Marshall to infuse new life into 
 the organization by the appointment of a financial secretary 
 in the person of Rev. George Tucker, on a salary of $i,ooo. 
 
 The year 1857 brought with it a protracted drought. 
 Only the slightest rains fell from one end of the year to the 
 other. The attendant consequences were terrible, water 
 ceasing from the streams, then from the springs, and finally 
 from the wells. Animals, both wild and domestic, died in 
 great numbers and the air was laden with a most unsavory 
 stench. Sickness among the people ensued, and to the 
 horrors of the general situation was added that of much 
 personal suft'ering. The grass refused to grow and the 
 trees in many places were leafless. The earth was so dry 
 and scorched that crops were a total failure, and the com- 
 modities of life had to be brought from distant ports, at 
 great expense. The limy earth was rent in great fissures, 
 wide and deep, which rendered overland travel perilous. 
 A dearth so phenomenal brought matters to a standstill, and 
 imposed fearful privations on the people. 
 
 Still, it was a year of singular prosperity to the Baptist 
 cause. The work was unusually successful in all the spheres 
 of Baptist endeavor. The history of Christianity shows 
 that God's cause prospers more during seasons of adversity 
 than during those of prosperity. It was a year of reliance 
 — of faith in God. The very extremity to which the people 
 of the Lord were reduced, evoked trust, and trust never 
 fails of wholesome spiritual results. Zion travailed, and 
 sons and daughters were born. If it was an era of ma- 
 terial adversity, it was one of spiritual prosperity. More 
 money was raised and reported for all causes, than during 
 any previous year. Baptiht schools were better attended, 
 and there was more marked activity than during any year 
 before. This was shown by the organization of two district 
 associations during the year— the Austin and Mt. Zion — 
 thirteen churches entering into each. The former was 
 organized at Austin, where only a few years before, a small 
 church was struggling for an existence. Now, the region 
 round about had become populous, and the churches had 
 multiplied and grown. 
 
 The State Convention, which was appointed to meet
 
 138 IIISTORV OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 this year at Caldwell, was, for some reason changed to 
 iluntsville, where the body met on October 24, 1857. H. L. 
 (iraves was made president; G. W. Baines, Hosea Garrett 
 and J. W. D. Creath, vice presidents ; W. A. Montgomery, 
 corresponding secretary, and H. Clarke, recording secre- 
 tary. The chief concern of the convention, at this time, was 
 Uaylor University. From it was to be derived the future 
 ministry of the state, and its healthful maintenance was 
 regarded as indispensable. Its success was most gratifying, 
 as in all the departments of the school there were enrolled, 
 during the past session, 328 students. The law dei)artment, 
 created the year before, was doing most gratifying work. 
 The results contemplated by the endowment of the two 
 chairs of- the president and of natural sciences were not 
 being realized. The policy adopted for the management of 
 the funds relating to this matter was a mistaken one, and 
 brought inevitable failure. The principal w'as allowed to 
 remain in the hands of the original donors, and stated pay- 
 ment of interest on the fund was all that w'as required. 
 Such inevitable changes came that the fund was unavail- 
 able and unreliable. Some of the donors had died, others 
 had become negligent and indifferent, and as the matter was 
 piirely voluntary, some repudiated the obligation altogether. 
 This left the fund in a precarious condition, and furnished 
 no basis of reliance for future calculations of income. 
 
 Enthusiastic comment was made on the merits of TJic 
 Texas Baptist to which the denominational strides, taken 
 in the face of seemingly insuperable difficulties, were chiefly 
 due. The dignity and loftiness of tone which characterized 
 its columns made it a w-elcome visitor in all Baptist house- 
 holds, and its popularity had overborne many of the obstruc- 
 tions which had for years prevailed. A paper of less 
 cogency would have exercised only a measurable influ- 
 ence, but the vigor and incisiveness of Baines, coupled with 
 the wisdom of utterance, made The Texas Baptist an agent, 
 not only popular, but prolific of unsjieakable good. The 
 editor of a solidly religious paper multiplies himself mani- 
 fold, and reproduces that which his journal conveys in con- 
 crete character and good works. This conception of the 
 religious journalist was equaled in the elder Baines. Though
 
 SUNSHINE AND SHADOW 139 
 
 the year had been the hardest in the history of the conven- 
 tion, the receipts were the largest, the collections amounting 
 to $3,480. This session of the convention marked the first 
 decade of its history. From being a handful, it had grown 
 into an army. Its boundaries had been greatly extended, 
 the churches had been immensely strengthened,, and it had 
 made possible an illimitable work in the state of the Lone 
 Star. Many of the old veterans, whose voices had been 
 lifted in the convention ten years before, had fallen on 
 sleep ; others, shattered in health, but stronger in faith, lin- 
 gered on the shore, to cheer and stimulate, and to join in the 
 general rejoicing of denominational prosperity. 
 
 Amidst so much harmony and advancement, it was un- 
 fortunate that a serious juncture arose about this time in 
 the university circles of. Baylor. President Burleson, pre- 
 suming that he was the chief executive of the institution 
 in all the departments, exercised his functions accordingly. 
 Rev. Horace Clarke, the principal of the college for girls, 
 denying such authority to the president, declined to recog- 
 nize it. The result of this was friction and disorder. For 
 three years, this continued with constant clashing of author- 
 ity and confusion of discipline. The unfortunate differ- 
 ences produced divided sentiment among the students and 
 the people of Independence, and so serious did the situation 
 become that it claimed the earnest attention of the Board of 
 Trustees. The troubles were from time to time allayed, 
 but would now and then find an occasional vent, much to 
 the detriment of the school, until, in 1857, ^^ became neces- 
 sary to sunder the schools for the sexes, making them two 
 distinct schools under different governments. This was the 
 first link in a chain of causes which led to the ultimate 
 severance of President Burleson from the school at Inde- 
 pendence, and of his removal, from choice, to Waco, where 
 he built an institution of learning, which is the glory and 
 pride of the Baptist denomination of Texas.
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 THE CALM BEFORE THE STORM. 
 
 During the years which intervened between the period 
 now under contemplation, and that when the storm of war 
 burst over the land, the construction of railroads was a 
 subject of absorbing, popular interest. Lines w^ere pro- 
 jected in dififerent directions, but the one which gave prom- 
 ise of greatest usefulness was that of the Houston & Texas 
 Central, which was built to Milligan before the Civil War 
 began. No less important was that which was known as 
 the Austin Branch, a deflection of the road named, which 
 was intended to penetrate the country to the state capital. 
 It seems that the promoters of the line were desirous of 
 passing Independence, and of penetrating that part of Wash- 
 ington county, noted from the beginning, for its beauty and 
 fertility, but the concessions necessary to secure the passage 
 of the road through that particular region, were not made, 
 and it consequently turned elsewhere. This left Independ- 
 ence aside from a great thoroughfare, and put it at an im- 
 mense disadvantage, as a center of education. It is impos- 
 sible to say w'hat the results would have been, had the road 
 gone by Independence, but there is little doubt that its fail- 
 ure to do so, precipitated the movement for the removal of 
 the school to some other point. The construction of the 
 road might not have retained the school at 'Independence, 
 but certain it is, that its failure to procure its passage by the 
 town, w^as one of the chief causes of its removal. Other 
 causes were operating to the detriment of the development 
 of the southern end of the state. Once the seat of empire, 
 and the scene of struggle as well as of independence, its 
 original glory was already departing for a season, as the 
 fertile lands were taken toward the north. Nor did a reac- 
 tion come, till the population had spread elsewhere through- 
 
 140
 
 THE CALM BEFOEE THE STOKM 141 
 
 out the state, and the varied population found itself seeking 
 the varied conditions of southern Texas. So when the Cen- 
 tral Railroad turned aside from Independence, and left it 
 a considerable distance in the country, its hope to become 
 then a permanent center of education, was doomed. None 
 foresaw this more clearly than President Burleson, who 
 urged that the necessary concessions be made, in order to 
 procure the road, but his counsel was of no avail. This was 
 an additional link in the causes which led him to go else- 
 where. Still, for many years, Baylor remained at Independ- 
 ence, and around the institution clustered the affection of 
 the Texas Baptists. It was the cherished object of many 
 prayers, of untold sacrifice and of unspeakable labor. In all 
 these, President Burleson shared. Most of his litt'.e fortune 
 went into the institution of which he was the loyal head. 
 Nor is any one worthier of a higher place in the affections 
 of the Baptists of Texas, than this man, whose toil was unre- 
 mitting, whose zeal knew no abatement, and whose ambi- 
 tion was to crown the eminence, on which stood the college 
 buildings, with one of the great schools of the country. 
 
 Unlike the preceding year, that of 1858 was ushered in 
 as one of great material prosperity, and it proved to be one 
 of equal religious prosperity to the Baptists of the state. 
 Many of the gravest difficulties had been removed, harmony 
 prevailed in the councils of the denomination, the people 
 were becoming more generous in their gifts to all causes, 
 progress was astir, and a tone of hopefulness existed every- 
 where. The two conventions were laboring side by side in 
 concord, and not a ripple of disturbance was known. On 
 the borders, in all directions, the missionary was as untiring 
 as his predecessors had been, when first the gospel was 
 heard on the plains of Texas. Just as active were the 
 forces in the interior. Alongside the growth of the towns, 
 was that of the churches. New and modern meeting houses 
 were displacing the old structures, which had served as 
 sacred temples, for years together. Conditions were becom- 
 ing staider and more settled, and a comity of interest and 
 sentiment was binding the members of churches into sym- 
 pathetic union of effort. Even in the country, commodious 
 and comfortable church buildings were erected, pastors
 
 143 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 became more settled, and the work of Christian activity was 
 progressing. 
 
 The Baptist ministry of the state was now far in advance 
 of anything which it had been in the past. The leading 
 churches were ably supplied, and the membership of each 
 was rapidly increasing. Great meetings had become com- 
 mon in the state, with an annual increase that gave promise 
 of a coming denomination of immeasurable power. Baptists 
 were progressive, and were not lacking in the zeal of press- 
 ing their claims, as a people, on the growing population of 
 the state. It was an era of denominational prosperity. The 
 growth of Baylor University was occasioning real embar- 
 rassment, because the increasing patronage was crowding 
 it beyond its capacity of accommodation. President Burle- 
 son and his coadjutors were gradually elevating the standard 
 of the school, and making it more conspicuous as a seat of 
 learning. Indeed, the several departments of denomina- 
 tional work seemed to be vying with each other in the prog- 
 ress which was being made. 
 
 The time of the meeting of the State Convention having 
 been changed from the summer to the fall, it rhet on October 
 23, 1858, in the town of Independence. R. C. Burleson was 
 chosen president ; J. W. D. Creath, George Tucker and 
 Hosea Garrett, vice presidents ; H. Clarke, recording secre- 
 tary, and W. A. Montgomery, corresponding secretary. This 
 was the beginning of the second decade of the history of 
 the convention. The progress of the year's work, was ex- 
 hibited in the reports of the eleven missionaries, who had 
 gone into every possible quarter of the state. P'ourteen new 
 churches were constituted, the baptism of three hundred 
 and eleven persons, together with the collection of 
 $3,353.59, represented a portion of the labor performed. 
 
 For the first time, the c|uestion was raised at this session 
 of the body, of the legal relations of Baylor University to 
 the convention. The matter was submitted to a commit- 
 tee which, after wrestling with it for a time, reported its 
 inahUity to deal with a question of so profound import, and 
 recommended that another committee be appointed to pro- 
 cure a legal opinion and report at tha next session of the 
 body. This questian originated in the agitatj'on of the
 
 THE CALM BEFOEE THE STORM 143 
 
 removal of the school from Independence, for though the 
 school remained in its original location for a number of 
 years, the agitation of taking it elsewhere, was already agog. 
 In order to fortify themselves against any possible con- 
 tingency, the Board of Trustees sought to settle the ques- 
 tion in the most summary way by the adoption of the 
 following resolution : 
 
 "Resolved, That the trustees do hereby declare that the 
 removal of this university is both inconsistent with our 
 charter and impracticable, and we consider its location per- 
 manent and not debatable." This ipse dixit on the part of 
 the anxious board did not prevent continued discussion, 
 which was stayed during the war, but, in due time, renewed. 
 The discussion at this time seemed to be due to two chief 
 causes : the remoteness of the school from the new railroad, 
 and the internal feuds which had been- engendered in the 
 school. President Burleson had taken it as a grievous 
 reflection on him, that the school had been sundered into two 
 parts, and placed under two separate heads of government. 
 While the friction was partly relieved. President Burleson 
 chafed under the restrictions, and never really recovered 
 from them. However, in 1858, it seems that a mutual and 
 amicable settlement was reached between President Burle- 
 son and the board, and a calmer outlook was promised. 
 This tranquillity was somewhat disturbed in 1859, when 
 Doctor Burleson was offered the presidency of Union Uni- 
 versity, IMurfreesboro, Tennessee, to succeed Doctor Eaton, 
 who had recently died. The committee from Murfrees- 
 boro which negotiated with Doctor Burleson was composed 
 of Doctors J. R. Graves and J. \V. King. This, was 
 acknowdedged bv Doctor Burleson to be a tempting offer, 
 and it was; for a time, thought that he would accept, but 
 he finally decided to remain at Independence. It was now 
 agreed on all hands, to co-operate together, for a greater 
 Baylor, and for the erection of still another building to the 
 university proper. 
 
 A broader policy was begun, so as to bring the university 
 into co-operative conjunction with both the general bodies 
 of the Baptists of Texas, the one in the east and the other 
 in the w^est. Still, the meeting of the convention at Waco,
 
 REV'. J. FRANK NORUIS, MANAGING EDITOR THE BAPTIST 
 STANDARD, DALLAS, TEXAS. 
 
 (Born Sept. 18. 1877. at Dadeville. Ala. Was reared on farm, near 
 Hubbard City. Texas. After teaching three years, entered Baylor Univer- 
 sity at the age of 21 ; graduated with the A. B. degree. During his 
 college course he won two important debates. Entered ministry just 
 before going to Baylor, and duiing his school course was pastor at Mt. 
 Calm : 1903, entered the S. B. T. S. at Louisville : received degree Master 
 of Theology in two years ; has been at McKinney Ave. Church, Dallas, 
 since finishing at the Seminary. Thirteen members met the new pastor in 
 a temporary structure on a leased lot the first Sunday. Today that 
 church has a membership of 350. with church property worth $35,000 : 
 preached Convention sermon at Waco in 1906; is President and Manager 
 of The Baptist Standard, which has the largest circulation of any paper 
 in the Baptist world.)
 
 THE CALM BEFOEE THE STORM 145 
 
 in 1859, ^^'ss "Ot unconducive to future derangements. The 
 school at Waco was assuming proportions of greater im- 
 portance, and it bade fair to become a rival of the original 
 school at Independence. It is doubtful if President Burle- 
 son himself ever knew what effect his visit to Waco, in 1859, 
 to attend the State Convention, had on his future plans and 
 purposes. The convention met on October 22, 1859. The 
 officers were : R. C. Burleson, president ; H. L. Graves, J. 
 W. D. Creath and George W. Baines, Sr., vice presidents ; 
 O. H. P. Garrett, recording secretary, and M. Ross, cor- 
 responding secretary. Doctor J. R. Graves was present at 
 this meeting, and by special request preached the mission- 
 ary sermon. The meeting was well attended, and the reports 
 from all quarters, encouraging. During the year, the special 
 committee having in hand the matter of settlement of the 
 question of the relations between Baylor University and the 
 convention, had been seriously considering the question, and 
 submitted an exhaustive report, which was printed, and a 
 thousand copies distributed. A recent gift of $1,500 to the 
 convention, by Mrs. Eliza Vickers, for mission purposes, 
 necessitated the incorporation of the convention, which fact 
 received appropriate attention. Baylor University was re- 
 ported as having the largest attendance of its history. As 
 many as 350 students in all departments, had been enrolled 
 during the year, among whom were eight ministerial stu- 
 dents. At the last commencement sixteen law diplomas had 
 been conferred. About $1,200 had been raised to purchase 
 additional apparatus for the school, and buildings of stone 
 had been projected, the contemplated cost of which would 
 be about $30,000. One of these was already in course of 
 construction. As far as the school at Independence was 
 concerned, its prospects were brighter than ever before. In 
 fact, the work in all the departments of denominational 
 work was steadily expanding. The twelve missionaries of 
 the convention had baptized 300 persons, and organized thir- 
 teen Sunday-schools, and twenty new churches. Though 
 there was a debt on the board of $519.48. the work had 
 been so gratifying, and so eminently satisfactory, that the 
 amount was promptly raised. The matter of Sunday-schools 
 received unusual attention at this session, and the impor-
 
 146 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 tance of establishing libraries for the schools was empha- 
 sized. The Texas Baptist was still growing in power and 
 influence, and had become the most influential agency in the 
 state. Great confidence was expressed in the future success 
 of the work of the convention, and greater harmony never 
 prevailed in any body. This convention was destined, in its 
 results, to exert a might}' influence on the future of the 
 denomination in the state. The facts establishing this state- 
 ment will be developed in the future years of the body. 
 
 As the history of the denomination broadens, it will be- 
 come necessary to confine our attention more to the general 
 current of affairs, and less to individuals and localities. Great 
 momentum was now given to the work in all spheres of 
 activity. The limits of Baptist activity had been pushed 
 sufficiently far westward, to enable the constitution of a new 
 and large association, which has become one of the most 
 commanding in the state, the San Antonio. Only a few 
 years before, this region, now covered by the territory of 
 the San Antonio Association, was hardly-contested mission- 
 ary ground. But the missionary had been abroad in western 
 Texas, and the result was the multiplication of churches, so 
 that it became necessary to found an association. To the 
 zeal and wisdom of one man, more than any other, is the 
 success of the cause in the city of San Antonio due, and 
 that man is J. W. D. Creath. His heart was burdened, for 
 years, with the cause in that Romish stronghold, and with 
 an ardor unqvienched, he addressed himself to the work, and 
 ceased not till it was accomplished. With Pauline wis- 
 dom he recognized the fact, that having San Antonio un- 
 der the sway of the truth, meant much for the region round 
 about. 
 
 Scarcely less important was the organization of the 
 San Marcos Association, during the same year, 1838. This 
 last association was largely, if not entirely, carved out of 
 the Colorado Association. During the same year. 1858, 
 four other associations came into being, all of which lay 
 west of the Trinity river, namely : Richland, Leon River, 
 Brazos River and Tryon. 
 
 Meanwhile, the Baptists of eastern Texas were slowly 
 moving apace in their work. They were still intent on
 
 THE CALM BEFORE THE STORM 147 
 
 founding a school of learning, the cause which led to their 
 severance from the State Convention. Their missionaries 
 were now astir, churches were being built, and the general 
 work of the denomination was being pushed. During the 
 year 1858. three of their efficient workers died — Jesse Witt, 
 Isaac H. Lane, and Matthias Lepard. Witt was a man of 
 undoubted ability, of cyclonic eloquence, of ripe judgment, 
 and of deep piety. He spent almost his entire ministerial 
 career in eastern Texas. He was an indispensable agent 
 of good, in a region where his services were greatly needed. 
 The Baptists of eastern Texas met in convention in the 
 summer of 1859, in the town of Bonham, when the follow- 
 ing resolution, bearing on a subject which had been agitated 
 for years, w^as oiTered : 
 
 "Resolved, That this convention take into consideration 
 the propriety of building up a denominational school of 
 such character as will meet the wants of the denomination 
 in eastern Texas.'' A committee of fifteen was appointed 
 to select the location for such a school, and the committee 
 was especially charged to contract no debts which would 
 involve the convention in pecuniary liability. The political 
 situation in Texas, at this time, was not without some sig- 
 nificance to the Baptists of Texas. General Houston, hav- 
 ing closed his second term as United States senator, of- 
 fered for the governorship of the state, on an independent 
 ticket, and defeated the regular Democratic nominee by a 
 large majority. It was most fortunate that he came to the 
 gubernatorial helm at such a time as this. On the borders 
 of Texas, depredations were being committed, alike by the 
 Indians and the Mexicans, and a firm will was needed to 
 stamp out such disorders. A daring Mexican, named Ne- 
 pomicino Cortina, conceived the idea of conducting a ma- 
 rauding expedition from Mexico into the southwestern part 
 of Texas, at the head of four hundred freebooters. Gover- 
 nor Houston appealing to President Buchanan for aid. 
 Colonel Robert E. Lee was dispatched with a body of troops, 
 to drive out Cortina and his band, and, if necessary, to pur- 
 sue them into Mexico, and exterminate them. This prompt 
 action on the part of the national government led to the 
 speedy retirement of Cortina and his band across the Rio
 
 148 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 Grande, and the incident closed. On the north, the Indians 
 gave trouble, when Governor Houston ordered out a de- 
 tachment of militia, and drove them back. These disturb- 
 ances immediately preceded the great Civil War, which was 
 ardently talked of in i860. For more than a generation, 
 sectional passion had run riot, placing at a discount the 
 cooler and soberer elements of the two regions. North and 
 South. It is not necessary to name the causes of the pro- 
 tracted struggle, and only to allude, in passing, to the effects 
 of secession. In the intense sectional passion which swayed 
 the masses, Texas shared with the other states of the South. 
 During the year i860, little else than politics was discussed. 
 The country rang with impassioned speech-making. Every 
 town, city and even every hamlet, was the center of political 
 ferment, where politics was discussed, and speaking wildly 
 indulged in. Extravagant predictions, born of heated pas- 
 sion, were made concerning the results of the war, which 
 was now inevitable. The nomination of Abraham Lincoln 
 was the darkest portent on the horizon of the immediate 
 future. Should he be elected, the struggle would certainly 
 come. Among the seething masses of both sections, there 
 moved a few cool spirits who would have averted the dis- 
 aster, if possible, but it was folly to interpose. Among those 
 who shared in the desire to settle the sectional differences, 
 was Governor Houston. Of his patriotism there was no 
 doubt, because it had been tested in two wars ; of his loyalty 
 and devotion to the South, there could be no question, for 
 that had been abundantly proved ; of his familiarity with 
 the pending discussion, no one could gainsay, for he had 
 shared in it on the floor of the senate. He regarded the 
 secession movement with more than doubt ; it was with a 
 feeling akin to dismay. Sharing in sentiment with him 
 were a few, as devoted Southerners as lived beneath our 
 fervid skies, but they were exceedingly doubtful of the 
 policy of secession. 
 
 It is at this juncture that we gain the first glimpse of a 
 majestic figure which, for considerably more than a genera- 
 tion, has moved among the Baptists of Texas, towering 
 among his brethren, loved and honored by all who are capa- 
 ble of appreciating genuine greatness and goodness. About
 
 THE CALM BEFOEE THE STOEM 149 
 
 this time, there was a tall stripling at Baylor University, at 
 Independence, named B. H. Carroll. He was about seven- 
 teen or eighteen years old, and was easily ranked the leader 
 among his fellows. A youth of unusual insight, and as it 
 proved, of foresight, as well, a young man of a wide range 
 of independent thought, far exceeding in its compass those 
 about him in scholastic walks, he was, even now, considered 
 a prodigy. Independence shared in the intense fervor which 
 burned like the fires of the volcano throughout the South, 
 but beneath all this storm of commotion, young Carroll de- 
 tected a snare, and beyond the smoke of contest he foresaw 
 disaster. In the speech-making, the mania of which had 
 seized on the people of Independence, as it had all other 
 places, Harvey Carroll was raised to a goods box on the 
 corner of the street, in Independence, by his fellows, to make 
 a speech on the pending issue. Surrounded by the impetu- 
 ous elements of secession, this tall, beardless youth delivered 
 a speech in direct opposition to the sentiments which swayed 
 the surging crowd about him, with reasoning so cogent, and 
 tongue so eloquent, that it made a profound impression. 
 With a courage that would have done credit to a gladiator 
 in the arena, and with a coolness and solemnity that chal- 
 lenged the admiration of those against whose views he de- 
 claimed, and with a prophetic ken that would have ranked 
 him with the most sagacious of his time, this young man 
 was able to point out with unerring precision the folly of 
 secession, its ultimate failure in dire struggle, and to pre- 
 dict, in detail, its fearful consequences. The sentiments from 
 the lips of the boy orator found a vindication in the history 
 of subsequent events, a vindication in the description of 
 events as literal as though he had translated him.self to the 
 years to come, and was speaking from the future, rather 
 than from the present. These sentiments did not deter him 
 from entering the ranks of the army of the Confederacy, 
 and from rendering most valiant service in the famous 
 Texas Rangers. At different times, in the camps of his 
 command, where for diversion and personal improvement, 
 debating societies were maintained, he repeated the same 
 sentiments, speaking always as a loyal Southern soldier, and 
 predicted the events which were destined to occur in the
 
 150 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 issue of the Urril)lc struggle. We practicall)- lose sight of 
 him for a ])eriod of time, till 1869, when he reappears on 
 the scene, to continue for several eventful decades, as the 
 most conspicuous figure among Texas Baptists. The year 
 i860 came with its forebodings of darker days. The air 
 was vibrant with the voice of war. 
 
 In the midst of this prevailing commotion, the Baptist 
 cause moved right on. The sagacious among the Baptists 
 foresaw imn^ense trouble, v/hile the masses were inspired, 
 rather than dismayed, by the pending conflict. During the 
 two years of 1859-60, Texas was visited by another drought 
 of intolerable intensity. The air was like the heat of a burn- 
 ing furnac^e. Verdure failed from the fields, and the cotton 
 and corn became as tinder. Birds and beasts died in great 
 numbers. Planters and herdsmen were forced, in many in- 
 stances, to drive their flocks to distant regions in search of 
 water, and in many places the earth was riven as by an 
 earthcjuake. The drought and the excitement of the period 
 had a most telling eft'ect on the operations of the missionary 
 on the field, and only $2,148 w^as collected for all purposes 
 during the entire year. 
 
 It was in the midst of gloom that the Convention held 
 its annual session, in i860. It was held at Independence, and 
 organized by electing Hosea Garrett, president: J. \\\ D. 
 Creath, W. H. Bayless and R. H. Taliaferro, vice-presidents; 
 O. H. P. Garrett, recording secretary, and D. R. Wallace, 
 corresponding secretary . While there were evident indi- 
 cations of demoralization in the general work, there was 
 prosperity at Baylor University, the enrollment of which, 
 during the year, was 375 pupils, in all classes and depart- 
 ments. During the year the law department had sufifered a 
 serious interruption by the resignation of the faculty of 
 that school, but others had been found to take their places, 
 and the w'ork went on as before. 
 
 It was about this time that Rev. James Iluckins, pastor 
 of the church at Galveston, retired from that pastorate, and 
 accepted the charge of the Wentworth Street Church of 
 Charleston, South Carolina. So extensive had been the 
 labors of this godly spirit in Galveston, sharing in all that 
 was promotive of good in the city, that on his retirement
 
 THE CALM BEFOEE THE STOKM 151 
 
 he was presented with a handsome silver service. This was 
 not confined to the church, for the entire community joined 
 in the tribute. About this time also, Rev. F. M. Law re- 
 moved from Alabama to Texas. He located first in Wash- 
 ington county, and became the joint pastor of the churches 
 at Brenham and Providence. His name will be so conspicu- 
 ous in the future annals here recorded, that it is not neces- 
 sary now to comment on his immense worth to the state of 
 his adoption. 
 
 Among the most worth)- laymen of this period was Hon- 
 orable Albert Gallatin Ha}nies, who deserves more than or- 
 dinary mention. He was a princely spirit, a man of great 
 heart, of earnest practical piety, of devotion to his denomi- 
 nation, and one of the best friends the preacher could have. 
 His home was an abode of hospitality, his interest in his 
 fellows as broad as the world, and his purse was responsive 
 to all appeals for aid. He was a tower of strength in the 
 town of Independence, and a most worthy ally of the presi- 
 dent of Baylor University. Mr. Haynes was unstinted in 
 the measure of his service to his denomination, and his sage 
 judgment was brought into frequent requisition in the coun- 
 cils of his church, and in those of the Convention. He was 
 a nobleman by nature, and men instinctively honored him. A 
 benefactor of the noblest type, he foimd pleasure in doing 
 good wherever an opportunity was afiforded. 
 
 It was an event in the history of the denomination when 
 the Waco Association was organized, in. i860. Perhaps no 
 similar body, in Texas, has exerted more influence on the 
 denomination. In the history of the body is involved much 
 that has entered into that of the Baptists of the state, since 
 its organization. On its territory grew up and flourished 
 the greatest of Texas schools, which at this time was known 
 as the Waco Classical School. Attention has been called to 
 the school, which at first bore a different name, and the one 
 which it now bore was destined to develop into the Baylor 
 University, which now is. 
 
 The Baptists of the eastern border came at last to realize 
 that for which they had labored and longed for years to- 
 gether — a denominational school. This was settled when 
 the convention in that quarter met in June, i860. Five
 
 152 HISTOEY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 places appeared as contestants for the location of the school, 
 and it was finally decided to locate it at Tyler, to be called 
 the East Texas Baptist Male College, and placed under the 
 charge of the joint principalship of Revs. W. B. Feathers- 
 ton and J. R. Clark. 
 
 This occurred just before the beginning of the Civil War.
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE STORM OF WAR. 
 
 We come now to the gloomiest and bloodiest period of 
 our history. For decades, the elements had been gathering 
 for the terrific storm which broke over the nation in 1861. 
 Repeated efforts had been made on the floor of Congress, in 
 certain representatives of the press, and in divers pulpits 
 throughout the country, to avert a calamity so disastrous, 
 but nothing short of war would satisfy the roused American 
 spirit. It was a question of the survival of the most re- 
 sourceful, for it must be a war that would be fought to the 
 exhaustion of one or the other section. The vaunted boast 
 was made on all hands, by those least informed, that the 
 South would so quickly overwhelm the North, it would be 
 pastime, but the sedater well knew that it would be Ameri- 
 can against American, and the successful issue of two for- 
 eign wars had proved that the American would fight, 
 whether he came from South Carolina or Massachusetts. 
 Back of all other questions which precipitated the long war 
 of blood was the institution of American slavery. 
 
 The history of negro slavery in the American states, 
 in many respects, is a peculiar one. From an original ques- 
 tion of commerce in human souls, it became one of con- 
 science in human liberty. In New England, the original 
 storm center of American abolitionism, the institution of 
 African slavery flourished, until the black slave, imported 
 from Africa direct, became profitless on the arid clay hills 
 of the province of Puritanism. As the newer section of the 
 Southern states was developed, and as its cotton lands be- 
 gan to yield the valuable staple beneath the warm skies of 
 the South, the negro slaves were sold southward. The 
 cotton plantations of the South were the seemingly natural 
 resorts of the negro. By degrees, there grew up a senti- 
 
 153
 
 154 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 mcnt in Xew England in opposition to slavery, which senti- 
 ment gathered force with the years, till it swelled into the 
 proportions of a general tempest. From the outset, it wore 
 a hostile front, and sought vent through the press, the pul- 
 pit, and the platform. Romance, ethics, oratory, poetry 
 and the Bible were laid under tribute in the assaults which 
 were made on African slavery. 
 
 I'V)r years, the halls of Congress were the Ijattle-ground 
 on which were fought to the finish, in gladiatorial debate, 
 all the questions which gathered around that of African 
 slavery, as it prevailed in the states of the South. The 
 giant intellects of the North and South were mutually ag- 
 gressive, both defensively and offensively, in the discussion 
 of this overshadowing question. Various efforts at com- 
 promise were made, at divers times, by the calmer elements 
 on both sides, but in the end, all temporizing was but the 
 damming of the mountain torrent. When it did burst the 
 bounds, it came like an overflowing flood, and sentiment 
 was translated into blood. Naturally sectional, the terms 
 X'orth and South actually became opprobious epithets in 
 the two hostile divisions of a common country. That slav- 
 ery was indefensible, from any possible point of view, how- 
 ever shrewd and plausible the arguments urged in mainte- 
 nance of the institution, few, if an}-, w ill now deny. From 
 the earliest days of Southern history, there had not been 
 wanting those in the states of the South who favored one 
 form or another of manumission of the slave. Up to the 
 ])eriod when the thunder of Sinnter's guns awoke the na- 
 tion to the realization that a war had actually begun along 
 our borders, there were many throughout the South who 
 had misgivings of the Tightness of the cause. On the other 
 hand, it is a matter of history, that some wdio became very 
 conspicuous in the struggle between the states on the side 
 of the North, were themselves the owners of slaves when 
 the war broke out. Among such may be named the idol 
 of the Northern army, Ulysses S. Grant. This is not said 
 with attempted disparagement, nor to that of any in the 
 same class, but only to show how complicated the situation 
 was. It was further complicated in that there v.ere ardent 
 sympathizers, alike in the North for the South, and in the
 
 THE STORM OF WAR 155 
 
 South for the North. Then, too, there were those who 
 while devoted to their respective sections, were diametric- 
 ally opposed to the method of withdrawing from the Union 
 in order to give emphasis to their sentiments. Among these 
 were some of the choicest spirits and manliest leaders in 
 the South. In this last view General Houston shared. 
 and for the advocacy of which he incurred great unpopu- 
 larity among the people who once idolized him as a leader 
 and a deliverer. The estimate of human greatness is sub- 
 ject to the fickleness of human sentiment. The people who 
 one day raise the hosanna of coronation, may on the mor- 
 row lift the cry of crucifixion. 
 
 The sentiment of secession rose to the pitch of a passion 
 in the South, which was equaled alone by the wild clamor 
 of abolitionism in the North. While sober minds and sage 
 hearts viewed with ominous forebodings the impending 
 conflict, it was seen to be inevitable. Nothing save war 
 could quell the public clamor — nothing short of war could 
 save the country. The union of the states must be cemented 
 into closer compactness by the best blood of the nation. All 
 things of earthly value, and of heavenly, too, as to that, 
 must be purchased by sacrifice. It is an immutable law of 
 the universe. 
 
 Conditions in the South were such in the opening 
 months of the memorable year of 1861, that despite one's 
 views, he must ally himself with his neighbors, or become a 
 pronounced traitor to his section. This admitted of appli- 
 cation to many both North and South. Strong convictions 
 of policy, however ardent, must yield to the pressure of sec- 
 tional demand. This brought more than embarrassment ; 
 it was positively humiliatingly perplexing. In this condi- 
 tion, some of our best men found themselves at the thresh- 
 old of the long and bloody struggle. 
 
 The initial notes of war were heard throughout this 
 broad land of states. Hostile demonstrations converted 
 the South into a vast drill camp. Every town and city had 
 one or more bodies of volunteer troops, making ready for 
 the fray. Texas joined in the procession of states that 
 were passing out of the Union. In the notable secession 
 convention which assembled in Austin, January 28, 1861,
 
 REV. J. B. TIDWELL, TRESIDENT DECATUR COLLEGE. 
 
 (Born Blount Co., Ala., Oct. 8, 1870: educated Walnut Grove Acad- 
 emy ; is A. B. of Howard College, M. A. of Decatur College, and has 
 done much correspondence work in Chicago University : during his work 
 as teacher, has been pastor of churclies near Decatur and held meetings 
 during the summers, in which 1,000 have been saved and 700 baptized ; 
 has had charge of finances of Decatur College seven years and was 
 elected to the presidency to succeed Rev. J. L. \Yard in May, 1907 ; was 
 married Apr. 24, 1887, to Miss Kausis L Reid : was converted at 20.)
 
 THE STOEM OF WAR 157 
 
 the ordinance of secession was passed by a vote of one hun- 
 dred and sixty-seven against seven. Submitted to the peo- 
 ple it was overwhehningly ratified on February 23. All 
 state officers were required to take the oath of allegiance 
 to the new Confederate Government, just set up, and fail- 
 ure to do so, meant ejection. Though an intense South- 
 erner, Governor Houston was by principle a Union man, and 
 declined to yield to the demand, insisting within his rights, 
 as he claimed, that neither the convention nor the legislature 
 had a right to deprive him of an office to which he had 
 been elected by the people. The sentiment against him was 
 not a little enhanced by the fact that he had won, in his elec- 
 tion, on an independent ticket, and he was originally op- 
 posed by many who were now in position to make a de- 
 mand which would involve the surrender of his original 
 platform of principles. He was inexorable in hir resolve to 
 hold steadfastly to his principles, and the legislature was 
 just as firm in its demand. In cool disregard of his protest. 
 Lieutenant-governor Clarke was sworn in as the governor 
 of Texas, and Houston was ignored by the legislature. 
 
 Texas was now fully committed to the struggle. Dem- 
 onstrations broke out in every direction. The people were 
 intoxicated by excitement. Commissioners were appointed 
 to demand, in the name of the Confederacy, the surrender 
 of all the arms and ammunition in the forts within her 
 borders, which were garrisoned by Federal troops. Every 
 place surrendered without resistance. Many officers were 
 duly paroled, while others, together with some of the troops, 
 joined the fortunes of the new Confederacy. Now began a 
 protracted war, which was destined to continue for four 
 long years. 
 
 Conditions rapidly changed. The flower of Texas man- 
 hood enlisted in the cause, and swelled the armies on the dis- 
 tant field. In thousands of instances, women assumed con- 
 trol of business afifairs on the plantations and elsewhere, 
 while husbands and sons went to the front. Like other 
 ports, Galveston was blockaded, and it was not long before 
 Texas was an isolated province. It is not proper that the 
 narrative of the struggle be continued, only as it touches 
 the work of the denomination in the narrative of events.
 
 158 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 Like all (.jlhcr interests, religious enterprises were 
 brought to a practical standstill. Baptist affairs in Texas, 
 in 1861, had reached a gloomy stage. The most that could 
 be hoped for by the Baptists was to hold intact the denomi- 
 nation, and preserve the organization of their forces till the 
 struggle should end. It was a period of dark portents, and 
 everything was swallowed up in the one idea of war. The 
 population of the state was rapidly depleted of men, and, by 
 degrees, even of boys above sixteen years of age. In some 
 instances, lads not exceeding thirteen and fourteen years 
 of age went to the front. In consequence, the schools of 
 the state were practically closed, excepting those for the 
 education of girls and small children. The faculty of Bay- 
 lor University resigned in a body, and under the lead of 
 Doctor Burleson went to Waco University, the school pre- 
 viously alluded to, which had now grown into much larger 
 proportions. Several causes conspired to bring about this 
 action on the part of the faculty, some of which have al- 
 ready been alluded to. The pressure of the times forced 
 the suspension of the publication of The Texas Baptist, and 
 missionary work was practically at an end. 
 
 The Baptist State Convention met, in i86r, at Huntsville, 
 but the meeting was devoid of interest. It was more in the 
 interest of the preservation of the organized forces than for 
 work. II. L. (jraves became ])rc>i(U'nt. j. \\ . I), ("reath, 
 S. (i. (JTJryan and M. Ross, vice presidents; (.). H. F. (iar- 
 rett, recording secretary, and H. Clarke, corresponding sec- 
 retary. The convention shared in the patriotism of the 
 times, and in the provision for services, special arrangements 
 were made for "prayer to be made to the God of battles for 
 our beloved Confederacy.'' But little had been done during 
 the past year. Pledges were taken to the amount of $1,004 
 for mission purposes, to be paid when the crops were sold, 
 or at the next session of the Convention. G. \V. Baines 
 was requested to take the chair of the prcsidencv of Baylor 
 University, for the period of a year, or till a president could 
 be chosen. A man of many parts, Baines was laid under 
 tribute in different emergencies of the denomination, and 
 never failed to respond with signal ability. He was fur- 
 nislied with a faculty, and the work went on at Baylor as
 
 THE STORM OF WAR 159 
 
 though nothing had occurred. It was a novel situation to 
 the Baptists of Texas when they could not be zealously 
 engaged in missionary work. For fourteen years the Con- 
 vention had been the most aggressive and progressive 
 agency in the state, and had wrought wonders in overcoming 
 the most obstinate difficulties and in transforming the face 
 of a new society in a new state. They were the first to 
 open the doors of an educational institution in Texas, which 
 institution, in spite of its struggles, had commanded con- 
 spicuous influence from the outset. 
 
 During the years of the past, Baptists had been largely 
 instrumental in converting Texas from primitive conditions 
 to those of the most advanced civilization. They had not 
 accomplished all that had been done, for the Methodists 
 had been equally active and aggressive, but it certainly 
 seems that the Baptists could not have done more. To be 
 suddenlv checked in so determined a course of progress, 
 placed them in an anomalous situation. They must now 
 stand still in patient reliance on the same promises on 
 which they had stayed themselves during the years of 
 energy and struggle. There was an heroic hope that they 
 might be able to resume the publication of the paper within 
 a short while, but it was really more a wish than a sub- 
 stantial hope. 
 
 The Huntsville Convention was t\i)ical of others held 
 during the war. Nothing practically was done save the 
 determination to preser-ve and hold together till a change 
 should come. Fortunately for all the people, the crops were 
 generally good, and just as fortunately the obedience, fidel- 
 ity and respectful demeanor of the slaves remained un- 
 broken during all these years of peril and disaster. Cut 
 off from general operations, and instinctively missionary, 
 the Baptists of the state now turned for the exercise of their 
 missionary spirit to the slaves on the plantations. Pastors 
 and voluntary evangelists spent much of their time, during 
 the sacred day, in the quarters, preaching to the blacks. 
 This was only a continuation of the work which had been 
 carried on among them for many years. 
 
 It is fitting here to say that a more remarkable condition 
 never before existed in any country. Ignorant as the blacks
 
 160 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 of the South were, they were not altogether unaware of the 
 nature of the great war wiiich was being waged. The havoc 
 which these people might have wrought in a single night 
 throughout the South, is awful even in imagination. But 
 few white men were left in the homes of the South, and 
 such as were, were usually feeble and aged. These aged 
 ones, together with millions of helpless women and chil- 
 dren, might easily have become victims to the wildest lust ; 
 and fire and sword, rapine, plunder and massacre might 
 have made the South a vast holocaust in any single night. 
 With such a possible contingency, the armies of the Con- 
 federacy would have melted like frost before the sun, and 
 the consequent results would have been such as the world 
 had never witnessed. There were reasons which perhaps 
 put this beyond the pale of possibility. As a rule, the slave 
 was devoted to his master and his family. That there 
 were instances many of fearful cruelty practiced by a class 
 of masters on their slaves, cannot be denied ; and that the 
 tendency of servitude was toward cruelty and barbarity is 
 just as undeniable ; but there is another fact which is 
 equally true, that there were thousands of slave owners 
 whose treatment was humane and kind throughout, and 
 who would not suffer the imposition of harshness on their 
 slaves. Cruelty to the slave was not the rule in the South, 
 as the abolitionist would have every one to believe. After 
 granting, and even admitting, the horrible cruelty which 
 was practiced by some, there were yet thousands of slave 
 owners who were exceedingly careful about the welfare of 
 their slaves. Almost without exception, domestic servants 
 in Southern homes were a highly favored class. The duties 
 of thousands of them were nominal ; they were well fed, 
 comfortably, if not genteelly clad, and in many instances, 
 received untold benefits in mental training by reason of 
 contact in the homes of the South with the young gentle- 
 men and ladies of the families. Alaster and slave worshiped 
 in the same church, listened to the same preacher, and re- 
 ceived equal advantages in all the features of divine wor- 
 ship. By contact with the most cultured of the whites, the 
 favored slaves by the ten thousand absorbed a knowledge
 
 THE STORM OF WAR 161 
 
 of the conventionalities of culture and the amenities of so- 
 ciety. Thousands were incidentall}- taught the rudiments 
 of learning, and other thousands were trained to be speak- 
 ers and orators. In sickness, the slave had the attention 
 and service of the best medical skill, and in death his burial 
 was decent and solemn. It is no defense of the institution 
 of slavery, which is bad enough at best, to say that the pall 
 of serfdom in the South was shot through by many rays of 
 sunshine. Necessarily, there were bonds of union between 
 the slave in the quarters and the family "in de big house." 
 On no other basis can the devotion of the slave to his mas- 
 ter be accounted for. 
 
 When the shock of war came, and the master and his 
 sons were summoned to the tented field, the black slave was 
 impelled more by a desire to protect the defenseless home, 
 than to destroy it. What might have been the result, if in- 
 cendiary agents had sought to incite the slaves to an up- 
 rising, is a matter entirely of conjecture. Under the most 
 favorable circumstances possible for such a venture, it 
 would seem that it would have been well nigh impossible 
 to procure such concert of action as to make probable the 
 execution of such a fell purpose. The slave knew but little 
 else than subordination to authority, and revolution would 
 have been so antipodal to his accustomed servitude and do- 
 cility, and, it may be said also, to his nature, that the dififi- 
 culty of procuring unity of action would have been well 
 nigh impossible. During the dark days of the war, it was 
 not unusual to hear, in the rude and simple worship of the 
 slave, in his quarters at night, prayers raised to the Most 
 High in behalf of the absent master and his boys. 
 
 It is not going too far to say that the Southern people 
 owe a debt of gratitude to the black race, for its loyalty and 
 devotion, during a period when its white families were pro- 
 tected, and when its armies were fed by the slaves on the 
 plantations of the South. Whatever else may be said, the 
 negro slave was certainly faithful to the cause of the whites 
 during the long and bitter struggle, which could not have 
 been prosecuted without him. This fact was recognized by 
 the Christian instinct of the devoted pastors and mission- 
 aries, who gave so much of their time and attention to the
 
 THE STOEM OF WAE 163 
 
 spiritual welfare of the blacks during the years of the strug- 
 gle. 
 
 Henceforth in the continuation of this narrative, atten- 
 tion must be divided between the events occurring in con- 
 nection with the two institutions of learning, the one at In- 
 dependence, and the other at Waco. President Burleson 
 saw in the growing town of Waco, and in its aspiring in- 
 stitution, great prospects of usefulness which he felt sure 
 would henceforth be denied the school at Independence. 
 While he went there under such conditions, this did not 
 sever the loyalty of the denomination from the school at 
 Independence. That a change in the location of their chief 
 seat of learning w^ould have to come sooner or later, was 
 recognized by many of the thinking ones, and that it would 
 have come soon but for the interposition of war, they rec- 
 ognized. 
 
 The year 1862 brought but little change to the general 
 depression of the country. With the waxing of the conflict, 
 and the vacancy of chairs in thousands of Southern homes, 
 rose a corresponding determination to press the struggle to 
 the bitter end. When the fifteenth annual session of the 
 State Convention was held in Waco, in 1862, the body was 
 harassed by debt incurred in seeking to prosecute a limited 
 work in missions. The pledges made at the last session 
 were not paid, and some of the missionaries had to go un- 
 paid for an entire year. This brought not only embarrass- 
 ment, but demoralization. The eyes and hearts of people 
 were fixed on a different struggle. The schools, both at 
 Waco and at Independence, w'ere kept going, after a 
 fashion, but necessarily both w^ere hobbling. With this 
 meeting of the Convention, missionary work on the field 
 was practically suspended, and the precarious condition in- 
 duced by the war, was becoming normal. The ebb and 
 flow of the conflict was just such as to excite confidence, 
 and to generate a more stubborn resistance. The success of 
 General Magruder, at Galveston, stiffened confidence, in 
 which all classes alike shared. 
 
 As the war progressed into 1863, the hardships of the 
 people increased. The depreciated currency of the South- 
 ern Confederacy, while it was abundant, was of such indif-
 
 164 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 ferent value that it could not procure even the necessaries 
 of life. It sounds ridiculously enough when a barrel of 
 flour was quoted on the market at $250, and an ordinary 
 horse was valued at $2,000, a gallon of liquor estimated to 
 be worth $150, and a turkey gobbler w^ould bring $175. 
 Medicine could scarcely be had at any price, and foreign 
 coffee was unknown. All sorts of decoctions were resorted 
 to for table beverages, and for medical purposes. For the 
 table, vile decoctions evoked from parched corn, wheat and 
 rye, and leaves and herbs gathered from the woods and 
 fields ; and as for medicines, roots and herbs were relied on, 
 and botany held the sway in the medical world. The seri- 
 ous straits to which the people were reduced recalled to the 
 old settlers the trying pioneer days on the plains. For 
 clothing, people relied on the cotton and woolen goods of 
 their own manufacture, and for hats, on the spikes of the 
 young palmetto of the swamp, which was stripped into 
 strands, dried, plaited and sewed into the shape of hats. 
 Ingenuity was taxed to devise substitutes for commercial 
 commodities. But the seasons were generally favorable, 
 and the earth yielded her increase. Cattle and swine were 
 abundant, and on domestic commodities the people had to 
 rely to maintain life. Shoes and boots were made from 
 home-tanned leather, and manufactured from pegs made 
 from the tough wild elm. With cheerfulness the people ac- 
 quiesced in the existing conditions, and with the flash of 
 hope in every eye, they looked to the ultimate success of 
 the Southern cause. The press ingeniously, if not scrupu- 
 lously, stimulated such hope, by giving a favorable color to 
 defeat on the field, and when a successful issue at arms 
 would come, the same press buoyed the popular spirit by 
 extravagant representations. 
 
 On July 26. 1863, General Sam Houston died at his 
 home at Huntsville. During the time between his enforced 
 retirement from the gubernatorial chair, two years before, 
 and the present, he was not re-established in the affections 
 of the people of the state, yet to him more than to any other 
 were the people indebted for that which made them first an 
 independent Republic, and later, the largest of the sover- 
 eign states. It was necessary for the acerbities of war to
 
 THE STORM OF WAE 165 
 
 give place to the gentler sentiments of peace before Hous- 
 ton could be restored to the position won by his undoubted 
 merit. That time came later, and his ability, alike in the 
 cabinet and on the field, won for him the distinction of "The 
 Napoleon of the West." Nothing can mar the bright chap-' 
 ter due him in the annals of American history, as a warrior, 
 a statesman and a Christian gentleman. It is not surprising 
 that one of his biographers, and himself a Northern man,* 
 alludes to him as "among the greatest of the post-Revolu- 
 tionary statesmen of the Republic." 
 
 The strenuosity of the times did not prevent repeated 
 efforts being made to renew missionary work by the Bap- 
 tists of the state. Only two missionaries were in the field 
 during the year 1863. Each local church was seeking to 
 hold its own, and the general meetings were held, not for 
 the purpose of devising new plans and making fresh en- 
 deavors, as in all the years of the past, but simply to hold ' 
 things together. The retirement of Doctor G. W. Baines 
 from the presidency of Baylor University, which position 
 he assumed only temporarily, led to the election of Rev. 
 William Carey Crane, D. D., as the president of the school. 
 He came from Mount Lebanon, Louisiana, where he was 
 the president of the Baptist college of that state. Doctor 
 Crane brought to his new position a record of scholarship 
 and of pulpit ability. A Virginian by birth, he was edu- 
 cated at Columbian LTniversity, Washington, D. C, and at 
 Madison University. He taught in the Virginia Baptist 
 Seminary, now Richmond College, and later at Talbotton, 
 Georgia. Later still, he was connected in the double ca- 
 pacity of agent and professor in Union University, Mur- 
 freesboro, Tennessee, and served as associate editor with 
 Doctor R. B. C. Howell, in the conduct of The Baptist, at 
 Nashville, Tennessee. He afterwards removed to Missis- 
 sippi, and was pastor at Columbus, A^icksburg, and Yazoo 
 City, and taught and preached at Hernando. Subsequent 
 to this, he was the president of a school at Center Hill, Mis- 
 sissippi, w^hence he removed to Mount Lebanon, Louisiana. 
 No time could have been more inauspicious than was that 
 
 *C. Edwards Lester: "Life and Achievemeuts of Sam Houston."
 
 166 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 when he became the president of Baylor. It was when the 
 belief was prevalent that the college was virtually dead. Yet 
 he met the condition with calmness. He was called to the 
 First Church of Houston, but declined, and accepted the 
 presidency of Baylor. He labored with zeal, and hoped 
 
 REV. DAVID O. lI.^iUSE, AUBREY, TEXAS. 
 
 (Born at Smithl.and. Livingston Co., Kentucky, .July 7, 1848 : his parents 
 died while he was a child ; he worked his way through the '•subscription 
 schools," and then through college, by teaching during the common school 
 term : he attended the Law University of Ind., after which he was 
 admitted to the bar by the Supreme Court of 111. ; he located at Denison. 
 Texas, in 1883, where he was elected three times as city attorney, and 
 served one term as judge of the criminal court ; he was ordained "to the 
 ministry by the First Baptist Church, of Denison. in July, 1896, since 
 whicii time he has given his whole time to the work of his Master ; he 
 is a man of singular purity of life and character, and is wholly con- 
 secrated to his Master's work — faithful to every trust, he is a model 
 Christian and a courtly gentleman.) 
 
 against hope. To the labors of president, he added those 
 of pastor, preaching for the church at Independence and 
 for pastorless churches in the country. The school was an 
 incessant drain and strain on him. His aged father dying, 
 in i866. Doctor Crane was left a small patrimony of seven 
 thousand dollars, all of which he sacrificed in trying to
 
 THE STORM OF WAR 167 
 
 prop a declining institution. He was a writer of ability, and 
 contributed to many of our denominational journals. In 
 the stress of the times, he sought to establish a Baptist organ 
 in Texas, but the odds were against him. 
 
 The sixteenth annual session of the Baptist State Con- 
 vention was held at Independence in October, 1863. The 
 organization resulted in the election of H. L. Graves, presi- 
 dent; J. W. D. Creath, S. G. O'Bryan and Horace Clarke, 
 vice-presidents ; B. S. Fitzgerald, recording secretary, and 
 W. A. Montgomery, corresponding secretary. But little 
 had been done within the range of denominational activity 
 during the year, and small were the opportunities offered. 
 Every interest was in the throes of a struggle for self-main- 
 tenance. About the only interest that claimed the attention 
 of the denomination was Baylor University, and as has been 
 shown, that was in a declining condition. However, it 
 was holding its own under dire conditions, and had in both 
 the departments of the school an attendance of just two hun- 
 dred. Special eft'ort was to be made to provide the means 
 for the education at Baylor University of such young men 
 as desired to enter the ministry. During the session of the 
 Convention, it was resolved to raise $Jo,ooo to be devoted to 
 sending missionaries to the army, and to destitute regions 
 of the state. 
 
 The fact was disclosed that there was an alarming scarc- 
 ity of books and periodicals west of the Mississippi river, 
 and only one religious journal published, which journal was 
 liable to suspend at any time. At a subsequent meeting 
 of the Board of Directors, it was resolved to raise a fund to 
 educate the young men at Baylor who had been disabled 
 in war, as well as the sons and daughters of deceased sol- 
 diers. 
 
 Waco University, over which Doctor Burleson presided, 
 held its own during these troublous years of war, and was 
 one of the few schools of the South to do so. Thus it was 
 that the effort was made to keep intact every possible in- 
 terest, and to the highest standard possible. But the dis- 
 cordant conditions were against every enterprise, however 
 herculean the effort. It finally came to pass, that the most
 
 168 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 that was undertaken was to preserve worship in the local 
 churches. 
 
 More and more the war had come to absorb every pos- 
 sible interest. The possession of the Mississippi river by the 
 Federals, severed Texas from the other states of the South, 
 and the people of the state were reduced to the necessity of 
 relying absolutely on their own resources. Meanwhile the 
 war was reaching an inevitable end. The Confederacy was 
 severed into triple divisions, the army was poorly clad and 
 fed, thousands of the young men of the South were in un- 
 timely graves, the armies, reduced in numbers, if not in 
 spirit, were unable to cope with a foe formidable in num- 
 .bers and resources, only old men and children had been left 
 to the homes of the South, and the conditions were fast 
 becoming desperate. 
 
 The close of the war came with its gloom and long cata- 
 logue of disasters. The crucial extremity had been reached. 
 Every interest in the South was prostrated. Commerce had 
 languished to its lowest point, and even the cultivation of 
 the land was done at the greatest disadvantage. Still, hope 
 remained. The press stimulated the people by every possible 
 appeal to patriotism, by keeping from view the real 
 condition of affairs. With an army in tatters, and with the 
 implements of war scant, there was still a belief on the part 
 of the bulk of the population of the South that the Southern 
 armies were invincible. The sole question had come to be. 
 How can the people survive and maintain the armies at the 
 front ? Instead of being daunted or discouraged by disaster, 
 these reverses served only to whet into keenness the deter- 
 mination of the people. Yet the battered ranks of the armies 
 were being more and more thinned, under the repeated 
 blows of war, with no possibility of replenishment. Sca/cely 
 was one to be found in the homes of the South between the 
 ages of sixteen and sixty, unless he had been disabled by 
 the casualties of war. 
 
 The year 1864 passed with its gloom and grim disasters. 
 The closing year of the struggle was ushered in, and when 
 the warmth of springtime came in 1(865. the climax of dis- 
 aster to Southern arms was reached by the surrender at 
 Appomattox.
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 DESTRUCTION AND RECONSTRUCTION. 
 
 The close of the war found the Baptist affairs of Texas 
 in a demorahzed condition. Many of their organizations 
 had become practically extinct, and the methods which were 
 in such successful vogue four years before no longer ex- 
 isted. The organization of the forces had gone to pieces 
 under the demoralization of the war, and the wrecks strewn 
 in all directions seemed to mock any effort to rehabilitate. 
 There were left, however, the two schools at Waco and at 
 Independence, both of which had weathered the storm, after 
 a fashion, by keeping their doors open to students. But the 
 changed affairs upset all calculations, and it seemed mocked 
 all hope. It was manifest that a change in all matters of 
 management and in all policies was inevitable. 
 
 The new order ushered in by the close of hostilities, stag- 
 gered even the bravest and wisest. The sudden emancipa- 
 tion of the slaves had removed the underpropping of the 
 commerce of the South. Had it been expected, the people 
 might have been prepared, and would have provided against 
 the suddenness of the crisis, but it was not contemplated 
 up to the hour of the receipt of the news of the capitulation 
 of the armies. The people had never dreamed of anything 
 but Southern independence, and hooted at the idea of fail- 
 ure of Southern arms. But now, that all was over, and the 
 labor of the slave was no longer to be relied on, the whole 
 system of the South's commerce came down with a crash. 
 The freedom of the slave came with the suddenness of the 
 earthquake, and this on the heels of a most disastrous war, 
 which would itself have largely unsettled conditions, even 
 though the slave had been retained. A situation no less 
 acute than this confronted the people of the South in April, 
 1865. The soldier returning to his home found his young 
 
 169
 
 iro 
 
 HISTOKY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 crop pitched, but with none to cultivate it. The armies of 
 the conqueror had swept over lar.c^e portions of the coun- 
 try and had left them destitute of the means of life. Under 
 such conditions young men and women, bred in luxury 
 and unused to lalDor, had in many instances to assume the 
 
 REV. J. H. CLOUSE, STliATFORD, TEXAS. 
 
 (Born in Green Co., Tenn., April 1, 1869: was married to Miss Dora 
 Dalton in Madison Co., N. C, March 22, 1888; joined the Clear Branch 
 Church in Unicoi Co.. Tenn., in 1890, where soon afterwards was ordained 
 a deacon: came to Howe, Grayson Co., Texas, Feb. 1, 1891; removed to 
 Waco, Dec. 1, 1893, where he studied in Baylor University 5 years. 
 While in Waco he was licensed to preach by the Second Baptist Church, 
 April 14, 1895 : Dec. 1, 1898, was called to the care of the Second Church, 
 Longview, Texas, where he was ordained Dec. 18, 1898. Aside from work 
 as Missionary of the Baptist General Convention of Texas, he has served the 
 following churches : Second Church, Longview, First Churches at Wills 
 Point, Graham, Jacksboro : now pastor of the First Church, Stratford; 
 in connection with regular pastorates, has preached to a number of 
 smaller churches.) 
 
 functions of tillers of the soil, or those of domestic servants 
 in the home. The country was generally stripped of horses 
 and mules of value, which -added increased embarrassment 
 to the one absorbing question of the time, How can life be 
 maintained ? In this thought all people shared, to the 
 exclusion of everything else. If possible the conditions of
 
 DESTEUCTION AND RECONSTRUCTION 171 
 
 Texas were worse than in the earhest years of pioneer Hfe, 
 when the future wore a flush of hope. Then the outlook 
 was inspiring. The inspiration of the hope of success 
 came with each plodding step. Each recuriing year 
 brought its quota of stimulation to greater achievement. 
 Difficulties there were, but they were such as would yield 
 to the stern efforts of determination. But now the results 
 of almost three decades of unspeakable labor and sacrifice 
 were seemingly swept away. The effort to revive a sus- 
 pended interest is greater than that of its original crea- 
 tion. Discouragement now brooded over the land. There 
 were the churches, but they were poverty-stricken ; the 
 general bodies remained in name, but they were without 
 means of operation, and the plans and methods of a genera- 
 tion of hard and wise service had crumbled, and not a ray 
 of hope lighted the future. Yet, after all, God remained. 
 His promises were yea and amen forever. His people 
 had been in straits before, and He had never left nor for- 
 saken them. There are no difficulties with Him. To Him 
 hearts turned by the thousand in a time of perplexing dark- 
 ness. When the convention met at Anderson in 1865 it 
 was a period of gloom. Some were present who had seen 
 other dark days, and they were not without hope. The 
 usual formality of organization was gone through by the 
 election of H. L. Graves, president ; W. C. Crane, J. W. D. 
 Creatli and J. H. Stribling, vice presidents ; G. W. Graves, 
 recording secretary, and H. Clarke, corresponding secretary. 
 The annual report of the corresponding secretary is so full 
 of interest, and so completely sets forth the conditions of 
 the time, that it is given here in full : 
 
 "Dear Brethren : The constitution of the convention 
 has made it the duty of the corresponding secretary to pre- 
 sent at each convention a general review of the operations 
 of the Board of Directors during the conventional year. 
 Never has this duty been performed under circumstances 
 like those which now surround us. The year commenced 
 under the pressure of a war unsurpassed in its magnitude, 
 and involving in its issue the independence of our people, 
 their wealth and, in a great measure, their dignity and 
 their happiness. The anxiety of the public mind while
 
 173 HISTOEY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 these issues were pending ; its agitation when the probabil- 
 ity of an adverse decision grew into a terrible certainty 
 and the doubt and distress necessarily accompanying the 
 upturning of the foundation of our social system have 
 paralyzed to a great degree all our benevolent enterprises 
 and suspended midway our best matured schemes for the 
 promotion of objects for which this convention was organ- 
 ized. The Christian, however, cannot be bereft of the 
 conviction that no plan or purpose of Almighty God can 
 be defeated — that in the midst of the turmoil, agitation and 
 strife incident to human affairs, the mind of God is serene, 
 the virtue of the atonement is unimpaired, human instru- 
 mentality preserves its place in the divine economy, and the 
 will of God, concerning the redemption and salvation of 
 man, is being accomplished. He works with us for our hap- 
 piness and good and without us for his own glory. But 
 wdth us or without us the will of God is done. Let us con- 
 tinue then, although the clouds may lower and the storms 
 of temporal adversity assail us, to seek a place as humble 
 co-w^orkers with Him in the spread of divine truth, and in 
 the intellectual and spiritual growth of the human race. 
 
 "At the commencement of the conventional year the 
 attention of the board was directed most earnestly to the 
 spiritual wants of our brave defenders in the army, and the 
 paramount necessities of this caused the domestic field to 
 be, for the most part, neglected. Great caution was exer- 
 cised in the selection of men for this work, and none but 
 tried men, such as had shown themselves w^orkmen approved 
 of God, were sent. Elders William T. Wright, J. S. Allen, 
 J. W. D. Creath, J. G. Thomas and besides many volunteer 
 laborers, acting under the solicitations of the board, labored 
 in this field and, so far as reports have been rendered, with 
 gratifying results. Upon the disbanding of the army these 
 brethren returned to their homes, and since then no mission- 
 ary labor has been performed under the auspices of the 
 board. There are funds in the treasury to settle in full 
 with all the appointees of the board, and a small surplus 
 for the operations of the ensuing year. It is gratifying to 
 add that the convention comes out of the trials of the last 
 four years entirely free from debt, and can enter upon the
 
 DESTRUCTION AND RECONSTEUCTION 173 
 
 duties before her unfettered by that greatest of all evils — 
 financial embarrassment. 
 
 "The subject of a denominational organ has a large 
 share of the attention of the board, and but for the extraor- 
 dinary events of the past year would have been presented 
 to this convention accompanied with some evidences of suc- 
 cessful eflfort. A printer of great experience was found 
 who, with a list of five hundred subscribers, would assume 
 all the expenses and risks of publication. Editors were 
 appointed by the board, who were to render their services 
 gratuitously. A prospectus was issued and a specimen 
 number, and the brethren invited to the support of The 
 Christian Herald. But just at this point the crisis in our 
 national affairs was reached and the enterprise abandoned 
 as for a time hopeless. 
 
 "But the necessity of a paper grows more pressing every 
 day. It is impossible to gather and wield the strength of 
 the denomination without it. Brethren become strangers to 
 each other ; Christian sympathy and affection are dimin- 
 ished ; our benevolent enterprises langviish and fail for the 
 want of a united support ; we are exposed to assault without 
 any available means of defense, and misrepresentation with- 
 out the power to correct. We cannot publish to the denomi- 
 nation an item of general intelligence without asking it as 
 a favor of a secular paper, or paying for it with money that 
 ought to go to the support of our own interests. There is 
 scarcely a head of a family in our denomination but cark 
 take a weekly religious newspaper and pay for it in advance 
 ^ — he then has, besides his own intellectual and religious 
 improvement and that of his family, the pleasure of creat- 
 ing and placing in the hands of the church an instrument 
 of unmeasured good. Should a Baptist paper be offered 
 you during the present year professedly devoted to the 
 interests of the Baptist denomination in Texas we would 
 urge you to hasten to its support ; give it an honest trial, 
 and if it does not fairly meet the wants of the denomina- 
 tion drop it and wait for one that does ; for such an one 
 will surely be established if the brethren demand it and will 
 sustain it. 
 
 "At the recent meetins: of the Union Association the
 
 174 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 preliminary steps were taken for the assembling of a Sun- 
 day-school convention at Independence upon the Saturday 
 before the fifth Sabbath in October. To this convention 
 Sunday-schools, churches, sister associations and this con- 
 vention were invited to send delegates. When assembled 
 and organized it will be an independent body of Baptist 
 brethren created for the support of encouraging, promoting 
 and fostering Sabbath schools for the religious training of 
 the young. It is hoped that the request of Union Associa- 
 tion wall receive the consideration which the importance 
 of the object in view demands. 
 
 "Domestic missions are the cornerstone of the conven- 
 tion. The contribution of the brethren are for the most 
 part directed to this object, and the Board of Directors is 
 employed during the recess of the convention in selecting 
 and sending forth suitable men to carry the gospel into 
 destitute parts of the state. What will be the extent of 
 these operations during the present conventional year is an 
 inquiry of great interest. The board in making appoint- 
 ments does not go beyond the means in the treasury, and 
 the present condition of the country does not warrant us 
 in looking for large contributions as a basis for missionary 
 appointments. Whatever amount is placed at the disposal 
 of the board will no doubt be so disbursed as to accomplish 
 the greatest good. But few have an adequate idea of the 
 extent of territory covered by this convention. It would 
 take one hundred missionaries to supply the destitute places 
 with preaching once a month and annual contributions of 
 fifty or sixty thousand dollars. The contributions for sev- 
 eral years before the war w^ere not sufficient to send out 
 more than four or five missionaries. Of course, almost the 
 entire field is left unoccupied. It is not surprising that 
 many churches and associations, not being aware of the 
 magnitude of the work and the limited means of the con- 
 vention, should think themselves neglected and become in- 
 different to the convention and its interests. A statement of 
 facts which could easily be made through a denominational 
 paper would go far towards restoring the confidence that 
 ought to prevail between all the associations and churches 
 and the convention.
 
 DESTRUCTION AND RECONSTRUCTION 175 
 
 "It has been a matter of serious doubt in the minds of 
 some whether the present plan of operations is exactly 
 adapted to the existing facts. The extent of territory is 
 such that the board, located at a given point, must depend 
 almost entirely on evidence, and that given frequently by 
 incompetent parties, in determining upon destitute fields and 
 upon those of the greatest importance. That mistakes 
 should sometimes be made is, under such circumstances, un- 
 avoidable. Some think that the work should be left alto- 
 gether to the association, and for this strong reasons exist. 
 Others believe that while all contributions for domestic mis- 
 sions should be sent to the convention, the associations 
 should be requested to designate the field within their 
 respective bounds most proper to be occupied, and also the 
 missionary or missionaries they would prefer should be 
 appointed. This would unquestionably secure the best ap- 
 pointments in the most destitute places, and would perhaps 
 go far in bringing all the associations into harmonious 
 co-operation with the convention. Under any circumstances 
 all individual Baptists, all the churches, all the associations 
 and the convention should regard each other as working 
 together in a common cause, as bound by a common bond, 
 and as actuated by none but the highest and holiest motives 
 — as working for the glory of God and the good of man. 
 
 "The time has fully arrived when the Baptists should 
 be a united body ; when all differences sliould be repressed, 
 so far as they affect the strength of usefulness of the de- 
 nomination, and, when all, seeing eye to eye, standing shoul- 
 der to shoulder with hearts filled with the all-pervading love 
 of God, sympathizing with each other's trials, bearing each 
 other's burdens, and fired with a holy zeal for God and for 
 His truth, shall dwell together in unity, be bound with 
 mutual sympathy and affection, and together look for that 
 glorious crown of rejoicing which the blessed Redeemer 
 has prepared for those wdio labor faithfully and wait pa- 
 tiently for his appearing." 
 
 This faithful picture of the situation brings fully before 
 us the stressful condition of the Baptists of Texas during 
 the closing months of 1865. But God was directing agen- 
 cies through which light was to break in the prevailing
 
 COL. \V. L. WILLIAMS, DALLAS, TEXAS.
 
 DESTEUCTION AND EECONSTRUCTION 177 
 
 gloom. New accretions of strength were being prepared 
 to relieve by a gradual process, a situation which was lit- 
 tle short of the direful. One of these was in the person 
 of a man who appeared on the scene at a time when he was 
 most needed. 
 
 In the early days of 1865, the Domestic Mission Board 
 of the Southern Convention sent J. B. Link to the Trans- 
 Mississippi Department to aid in the direction of its mission 
 work in the army west of the Mississippi. In Texas his 
 work was scarcely begun when the war came to an end. 
 Naturally endowed with gifts which fitted him for journal- 
 ism, Mr. Link directed his attention toward Texas as a 
 sphere for the exercise of his endowments. Aside from 
 his natural aptitude for such work, he was equipped with 
 other powers which, when combined with those of the 
 editor, fitted him to become a leader. Providence had pre- 
 pared a large sphere for him in Texas, and through a long 
 period of years he occupied it with such distinction that he 
 won the confidence and honor of his brethren, while he 
 contributed most patiently to the resuscitation of the cause 
 in Texas during the crucial years which followed the close 
 of the war. 
 
 J. B. Link brought to his new sphere in the West an 
 educated mind and a consecrated heart. Born in Virginia 
 in 1828, he was converted at the early age of ten and entered 
 the ministry when he was twenty-two years old. Graduat- 
 ing from Georgetown College, Kentucky, he pursued his 
 theological studies to graduation in Rochester Theological 
 Seminary. He served as pastor in Missouri and Kentucky, 
 and while in Missouri was employed as financial agent of 
 William Jewell College and raised $20,000 for that institu- 
 tion. He served as chaplain during most of the time of the 
 war between the states. In 1865, as we have seen, he was 
 providentially led to Texas. To him the situation in Texas 
 was not such as to inspire confidence. The Baptists had 
 been without an organ for years, there were frictional dif- 
 ferences in the denominational ranks, and these differences 
 served little to relieve the general depression. Mr. Link 
 would have abandoned the thought of undertaking a paper 
 but for the timely advice of brethren whose judgment he
 
 178 HISTORY 01^ TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 respected. Associatini; witli himself Revs. R. H. Taliaferro 
 and D. B. Morrill, Doctor Link began the publication of the 
 Texas Baptist Herald in December. 1865. I'^or more than 
 twenty years J. 15. Link was a prominent leader among 
 Texas Baptists, fully sharing in the ordeals of a period that 
 tested the hearts of men, and no name is mentioned with 
 more honor in Texas than that of J. B. Link. His record 
 will be embraced in the subsequent chapters of this record. 
 
 Crushed as the peo]ile were it was not a time for idle 
 repining. The veterans of the r)aptist cause had experienced 
 dark days before, and were therefore not unprepared to 
 meet the emergencies of the hour. The land-marks must 
 be restored, the stakes reset and the languished cause again 
 placed on its feet. Rehabilitation was the watchword of 
 the hour. Men of God must relegate differences to the rear 
 and subordinate themselves to the will of Providence in 
 re-establishing the prostrate interests of a common cause. 
 Such happily was the spirit which actuated them in a trying 
 period and such was the sanction of the paper begun by 
 J. B. Link in 1865. Conservative and conciliatory from 
 the outset it won the confidence of the leaders and the peo- 
 ple, and let in a beam of light on the prevailing gloom. 
 Great things were not at first attempted, but practicable 
 measures were adopted, which measures carried with them 
 prophetic possibilities. The political situation was by no 
 means assuring, but quite the contrary, was just such as 
 to aggravate the most trying of situations. With that flexi- 
 bility for which the Anglo-Saxon is noted, and with that 
 spirit of endurance and hopefulness which rarely deserts 
 him, the people calmly met the issue of the times and 
 awaited the future. 
 
 While the political situation in the South grew grad- 
 ually worse, there were such shifts and changes as to 
 awaken among the Baptists of Texas a promise of better 
 things. There was life in the old land yet, and God reigned. 
 As rapidly as possible advantages were seized and pressed 
 to still others. In February, 1866, the Law Department in 
 Baylor L^niversity was revived with a corps of competent 
 professors, at the head of which was placed R. T. Smith. 
 The friction which had long existed between the depart-
 
 DESTRUCTION AND RECONSTRUCTION 179 
 
 ments of the two sexes at Baylor University, and which had 
 been the occasion of much disturbance, was happily ended 
 in September, 1866, when the two departments by act of 
 the legislature were resolved into two separate and distinct 
 institutions, the one for women and girls being called "Bay- 
 lor Female College." 
 
 The allusion made in the annual report of the corre- 
 sponding secretary, Rev. Horace Clarke, to the Sunday- 
 school convention called by the Union Association to meet 
 at Independence, is recalled by the fact that the convention 
 was held at the time appointed and with the most whole- 
 some results. It gave impetus to that branch of the work 
 in the state which needed revival after the close of the ter- 
 rible conflict between the states. 
 
 When the Baptist State Convention met at Independence 
 in 1866 there were some signs of returning life. Many rep- 
 resentatives were present as correspondents from other bod- 
 ies, among whom were those from the Louisiana and the 
 Domestic Mission Board of Marion, Alabama, the Sunday- 
 school and Colportage Union and the East Texas Conven- 
 tion. Reports showed that there was a resumption of activ- 
 ity on the field in Texas with hopeful signs of returning 
 spiritual prosperity. The officers of the State Convention 
 in 1866 were: H. L. Graves, president; W. C. Crane, J. H. 
 Stribling and P. B. Chandler, vice presidents ; G. W. Graves, 
 recording secretary, and B. S. Fitzgerald, corresponding 
 secretary. The Bible Board, which had been created the 
 year before, was enabled to report some progress in the 
 work undertaken. Nor had the subject of general missions 
 been neglected. Agents had been active in reviving interest 
 in foreign and home missions, and Doctor William Howard, 
 as the agent of the latter interest, had collected during the 
 year $4,000. This was the introduction of Doctor Howard 
 to Texas Baptists. A typical Englishman, he had all the 
 sterling qualities of a genuine representative of his people. 
 Deliberate, solid, broad, a gentleman of pleasing address 
 and of superior mental equipment,. he was a valuable acquisi- 
 tion to the ranks of the Texas ministry. His gifts made 
 him a popular preacher, while his warm heart and cordial 
 spirit brought him into affectionate relations with the lead-
 
 180 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 ing men of the ministry of the state of his adoption, as well 
 as with those of the Southern Convention. 
 
 After a brief struggle to get afoot, the Texas Baptist 
 Herald finally became a permanent fixture under J. B. Link, 
 and was the chief agency in removing a number of local 
 difificulties and in reuniting the scattered forces of Texas 
 at a time when it was most needed. The paper met precisely 
 the demands of the situation, and with the return of denomi- 
 national prosperity the Texas Baptist Herald was in the 
 lead. The finger of Providence had pointed J. B. Link to 
 Texas for such a time as this. 
 
 The churches of Texas now began slowly to return with 
 becoming loyalty to the promotion of the general work, 
 the efficiency of which had been practically suspended dur- 
 ing the period of the Civil War. This was a time of sore 
 trial to the people of the entire South. Reconstruction 
 was doing its deadly work, and its record is one of the 
 darkest chapters in American history. Military domination 
 was a fearful barrier to the resuscitation of Southern inter- 
 ests. Prostrated by the war, the condition under reconstruc- 
 tion imposed a burden twice as great on the people of the 
 South, and hope and prediction were unable to pierce the 
 darkness of the future. Endurance was put to the severest 
 test, and nothing was left but to wait. 
 
 It does not belong to the province of this narrative to 
 descend into the details of the political history of this 
 period and furnish the horrible details and diabolical out- 
 working of the system called reconstruction, but it cer- 
 tainly illustrates equally the dominant statecraft of the 
 time, as well as the narrow, revengeful spirit of the suc- 
 cessful section in a terribly unequal conflict. Be it said to 
 the credit of Southern Baptists in this era of trial, that so 
 far from being betrayed into hostility toward the unfortu- 
 nate negro about whom now gathered all questions politi- 
 cal, and who in his blindness and ignorance, while flushed 
 with the sudden boon of freedom, was emboldened to un- 
 natural lengths of impertinence, our people came to his 
 rescue and sought to lead him aright. The conditions 
 growing out of the mercenary use of the ex-slave by a 
 horde of unscrupulous adventurers arrayed against the
 
 • DESTEUCTION AND RECONSTEUCTION 181 
 
 negro the passions incident to such a time when he needed 
 just the friendship which the Baptists gave. He was re- 
 garded with pity, and efforts in his behalf were unremit- 
 ting. It was a time when the negro iieeded spiritual as 
 well as political freedom. In the Baptist State Convention 
 of Texas in 1866 when passions were fiercest-, it was pro- 
 posed to adopt such measures as would contribute to the 
 welfare of the negro, and both by secular and sacred 
 instruction, bring him into a- proper appreciation of his 
 new relations and seek to make of him a citizen and a 
 Christian. 
 
 The new organization which had come into existence 
 in 1865 through the agency of the Union Association, and 
 which came to be known as the Texas Baptist Sabbath 
 School and Colportage Union, had within a year entered 
 on a useful career. The period was propitious, and the 
 efforts employed in so commendable an undertaking were 
 timely. In its organization the purposes of this new body 
 were set forth in its constitution : "The objects of this 
 Union shall be the promotion of the Sabbath school enter- 
 prise by providing the ways and means for the establish- 
 ment of Sabbath schools throughout the state, where they 
 do not exist, and in general take all necessary measures for 
 the furtherance of this great religious interest. It shall 
 also be the object of this Union to establish'and carry out 
 a system of colportage through which a sound religious 
 literature suitable to all our religious wants may be pro- 
 vided for the people of Texas." 
 
 The prime movers in this enterprise included such men 
 as R. E. B. Baylor, W. C. Crane, F. M. Law, Hosea Gar- 
 rett, J. W. Terrell, S. S. Cross, M. V. Smith and J. H. 
 Stribling. In 1867 the name of the body was changed to 
 that of the Texas Baptist Sunday School and Corportage 
 Convention. The operations of this body brought timely 
 relief to many quarters of the state, and revealed a destitu- 
 tion which, had it not been supplied by its opportune inter- 
 vention, might have resulted in serious social and moral 
 disaster. In a number of counties the active corresponding 
 secretary of the Sunday-school Convention, Rev. S. S. 
 Cross, found no Sunday-schools and was able to organize
 
 MUS. W. L. WILLIAMS, DALLAS, TEXAS. 
 
 (\A'as l)()rn noar (ireonficld. Mo.. Feb. 5, 1,S44. Tier father, IJev. 
 Simpson I<. Hcoklcy, was a IJaptist ininistor, and tlip home life of their 
 large family was strictly relifrioiis. Ilor ('(hiealional advantasies were 
 meager, allhont;!! the Ix'st thr frontif-r afforded. From the rime that she 
 was a mere child slic oajjrcrly availed hcrst'lf of every opiiortunity to learn 
 something. She read and absorbed every book ami paper that was per- 
 mitted to be brought into her father's home At the age of 12 she joined 
 the Kaprist ("hurch at (Jreentield. The experiences and vicissitudes of the 
 Civil War seemed only to strengthen and develop the fine traits of her
 
 DESTKUCTION AND EECONSTEUCTIOX 183 
 
 such. Many schools were begun which in after years 
 proved to be proHfic sources of rehgious sentiment, which 
 made a significant contribution to the growing greatness of 
 the denomination. No interest was more popular, and the 
 generous response on the part of the public showed the 
 recognition of the existing need. 
 
 To the disasters entailed by the war and imposed by 
 reconstruction, was added in 1867 the scourge of yellow- 
 fever. While confined to the southern border of the state, 
 its influence was depressing throughout Texas. For a period 
 of months it ravished the coast country and its infectious 
 touch spread far inland. It occasioned the delay of the 
 meeting of the State Convention for that year, and the ses- 
 sion was held at Gonzales in November. The attendance 
 was thin, there being only thirty-nine messengers, but under 
 the prevailing conditions this was thought to be an encour- 
 aging attendance. Up to this time the convention had 
 not resumed the direction of its general evangelistic agen- 
 cies, and whatever missionary work had been done was 
 accomplished entirely by local associations under the sanc- 
 tion of the board. Even so early as this was there the rec- 
 ognition of the necessity of a Baptist history of the state, 
 and resolutions looking to the preparation of such a work 
 were adopted, but with no practical result. The officers 
 of the Gonzales Convention were : H. L. Graves, presi- 
 dent; W. C. Crane, H. F. Buckner and J. W. D. Creath, 
 vice presidents ; H. Clarke, recording secretary, and B. S. 
 Fitzgerald, corresponding secretary. It was reported 
 that both the schools at Independence had been forced to 
 suspend because of the yellow fever, but that they had 
 
 character. She came to Texa.s and was married to W. L. Williams, Feb. 
 l.S, 1866. Rev. Richard B. Burleson officiating. She and her husband 
 moved to Dallas in the winter of 1<S67. and they, with nine others, 
 organized the First Baptist Church, July .30, 1868.' From that day to 
 the present, even with the care of rearing her large family, her heart 
 has been in her church work. She took part in the organization of the 
 various societies which have come into existence with the development of 
 the church. She was elected President of the Baptist Women Mission 
 Workers at their annual meeting at Belton in 180.5. She was re-elected 
 each succeeding year till 1906. when the health of her youngest son failed 
 and she offered herself a voluntary exile from her church and home and 
 friends to go to another climate in search of health for her loved one. 
 Being thus removed from the headquarters of the state work, she re- 
 signed it to take up with her characteristic devotion, this last "labor of 
 love.")
 
 184 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 reopened with the advent of frost in November. The ranks 
 of the convention had been seriously invaded by death 
 during the past year, and a number of the valuable members 
 of the body had passed away. Among these were T. J. 
 Jackson and John Stamps, members of the board, and such 
 valuable preachers as S. G. O'Bryan, J. H. Thurmond and 
 M. H. Parr. The financial agent, J. W. D. Creath, had 
 collected during the year $1,380.16. For the first time the 
 plan of publishing a full list of the Baptist ministry of the 
 state was undertaken, together with their postoffice ad- 
 dresses. This was due to the enterprise of Doctor Link. 
 
 The history of the Baptists of Texas would be incom- 
 plete without a proper record of the struggles undergone 
 by Doctor Link in seeking to establish the Texas Baptist 
 Herald on the heels of the war. Already allusion has been 
 made to the occasion of undertaking such a v-enture, but so 
 important an ally to the work of the denomination during 
 the period of its emergence from the wreck and ruin of 
 war deserves that more be said concerning it. Assuming 
 entire responsibility in the publication of the Texas Baptist 
 Herald, Doctor Link exhausted his resources in the first 
 edition to the limit of two dollars and fifty cents. The first 
 issue gave great satisfaction and awoke much interest by 
 its solid and intrinsic merit. The enterprising proprietor 
 realized that no permanent success could be achieved inde- 
 pendent of personal ownership of the fixtures necessary for 
 such publication. To enable him to procure the outfit neces- 
 sary a number of brethren came to his relief and furnished 
 the means. There were J. W. Barnes, J. L. Green, R. S. 
 Thomas and David White, each of whom furnished $150, 
 while E. A. Forester, Ira M. Camp and Willet Holmes 
 each contributed $100 with which to purchase an outfit. It 
 was then, as it has been since with Texas Baptists, when 
 a juncture was reached requiring an expenditure to promote 
 denominational enterprises, God has raised up men with 
 willing hearts to supply the financial deficiency. This has 
 been the honorable record made in this state from the 
 beginning, and the increasing demands with the growth 
 of greater enterprises have been met by men of correspond- 
 ingly great means. Back of the enterprises which have
 
 DESTEUCTION AND EECONSTEUCTION 185 
 
 made Texas Baptists great, and which have brought them 
 into the gaze of the world, have been Hberal spirits whose 
 consecrated means have been ready when the juncture 
 came. Doctor Link, with characteristic energy and wisdom, 
 pressed the claims of the new venture on the denomination, 
 and in the efforts to increase its efficiency and. to establish 
 it on a more substantial basis he was sanctioned by noble 
 men in different parts of the state. Among his most ardent 
 and substantial siipporters was Rev. Jonas Johnston, who 
 was the fortunate possessor of a large estate, and found 
 pleasure in dispensing with liberal hand the means at his 
 command. His sympathy and aid at this time were most 
 invaluable. 
 
 As the times improved there came a revival in the edu- 
 cational spirit of our people. This had languished, as had all 
 things else during the war, but with the coming of better and 
 brighter days came the old-time spirit of education. There 
 still lingered in the minds of many the controlling thought 
 that Baylor University should be removed, and this senti- 
 ment grew slowly with time. Waco University, under the 
 nominal care of Waco Association, was increasing in attend- 
 ance and usefulness. The records show that in 1867 Doctor 
 Burleson enrolled 253 pupils. The direction of separate and 
 rival Baptist interests in the state was such as to bring all 
 these enterprises into harmonious union. The time was not 
 yet when through a great general body in any department 
 of effort, the denominational affairs of the state could be 
 conducted. As yet separate organizations were necessary 
 in a territory so large as is Texas, and these organizations 
 were the agencies which were gradually leading up to the 
 consummation of great common interests about which the 
 Baptists could center. Necessarily detached and segregated 
 at a time when methods of travel were imperfect, and when 
 intercommunication was tardy, these interests were destined 
 to flow together and form a prodigious whole when Provi- 
 dence should open the way. The Baptist Convention of 
 Eastern Texas, after a struggling existence of years, with 
 some omissions of its annual sessions, found itself in 1867 
 in a precarious condition. The session for this year was 
 held at Ladonia. There was a sparse attendance and but
 
 18G HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 little spirit. Life had Ijceii perix'tuated in the organization, 
 chietly through the agency of 1). 1>. Alorrill, who was the 
 financial secretary and general missionary of the body. 
 Among the results mentioned in his annual report were 
 those of arduous labor, extensive travels over wide regions 
 of country, the baptism of four hundred people in connec- 
 tion with his efforts for the year, the collection of $804.08 
 in cash, and pledges to the amount of $1,263.42. At the ses- 
 sion of 1867 the name of the organization was changed to 
 that of "The Baptist General Association of Texas,"' which 
 name it retained for many years. 
 
 Conditions at this time in eastern Texas were not en- 
 couraging. There was abundant lethargy in the churches, 
 and much of the activity which did exist was directed 
 against the State Convention, as it was regarded a mer- 
 cenary body. In genuine democratic spirit the proposed 
 change of name was submitted to the churches for ra;:Tnca- 
 tion or rejection, and after all had spoken on the subject the 
 president, D. B. Morrill, was to call- a meeting of the body 
 that the result might be formally announced. This called 
 convention took place at Tyler, when the announcement was 
 made that the change of name was unanimously adopted. 
 Three missionaries were appointed to labor in different 
 parts of the territory, and the body under its new name 
 seemed to enter on a new lease of life. Delegates w^ere 
 steps taken that indicated a revival of life. 
 
 This session of the body was soon followed by the death 
 of the presiding officer, D. B. Morrill, than whom there was 
 not a better or more useful man among Texas Baptists. 
 Rising from obscurity, his first employment being that of 
 a hack driver between Galveston and Alatagorda. he came 
 to be, by dint of personal effort and by the grace of God, 
 one of the foremost preachers of his time and a wise leader 
 among his people. Pushing his way through Baylor Uni- 
 versity at Independence, where he labored arduously as a 
 student during the week and preached to poor churches on 
 Sunday, he c([uipped himself for his life work. The former 
 part of his life was spent on the frontier plains of western 
 Texas and the latter part in eastern Texas. His business 
 eve soon detected the confused condition of the affairs of
 
 DESTRUCTION AND RECONSTRUCTION 18? 
 
 the denomination in that quarter, where discordant elements 
 from the older states had injected conflicting questions, and 
 to bring order out of disorder in that region, and place the 
 cause of Christ on a basis of decency and dignity, was one 
 of the purposes of his life. The revival of interest and the 
 settlement of affairs in eastern Texas were largely due to 
 the efforts of this gcdly man. The brethren found delight 
 in honoring him as opportunity offered, both in eastern and 
 in northern Texas, in both of which regions he labored. At 
 the time of his death he was president of the General Asso- 
 ciation and assistant editor of the Tc.vos Baptist Herald. 
 His death scene was one most remarkable and triumphant. 
 He died as he had lived — an example of joyous trust in 
 Christ. 
 
 There was deep meaning in the current political phrase 
 of the tmie — "accepting the situation." To this the people 
 of the South were steadily coming in adjusting themselves 
 to the changed order of things, which was little less than a 
 reversal of the civilization of the South. The people had 
 to begin to live over again, starting from a new point of 
 existence. The next ten years from 1868 marked the era 
 of transformation. There was a dogged persistency and a 
 philosophic resolution to face the inevitable, making the 
 most of all that came in the way. This was the political 
 redemption of the South, and put the states of this section 
 in control of their own affairs. It was a time when saga- 
 cious capitalists in the North saw that Texas was destined 
 to be a region of immense population and prosperity, and 
 thither they began earnestly to direct their attention for 
 investment. The liberal off'ers made by the state for build- 
 ing railways were accepted, and immense lines were being 
 projected and rapidly built in Texas not only, but into the 
 Republic of Mexico as well. Signs of prosperity began to 
 show themselves and the buoy of hope came again to the 
 people. With characteristic vim the Baptists kept abreast 
 of the material development of the state, and the leaders of 
 our hosts were already seeking the wisest means of adjust- 
 ing themselves and the mterests of the denomination to 
 the new and changed conditions. As in all other spheres of 
 activity the Baptists had to begin anew. One of their first
 
 188 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 cares was to restrict the district associations as far as prac- 
 ticable to the counties, or to restrict the territory of each 
 body in order to the greatest efficiency and compactness of 
 work. The population of the state was growing rapidly, the 
 lands here and there were being eagerly taken, new towns 
 and settlements were springing up and the means of com- 
 fort of travel improving. Many of the counties had already 
 become populous and were destined within the next few 
 years to be more so, and the wise counselors of the denomi- 
 nation felt that a time had come for the great advancement. 
 The chief difficulty lay in the fact that their forces were 
 so badly scattered that it was impossible to bring all into 
 harmonious action on any given basis or policy. In order to 
 security in adopting any line of policy it was necessary for a 
 thorough discussion of plans, and this required time. Up 
 to this time, the State Convention had not regained a solid 
 footing as a result of the war, but its promise at this time 
 was most assuring. 
 
 Nothing was plainer than that existing conditions could 
 not continue consistently with denominational progress. 
 General organizations were rivals in spite of themselves, and 
 questions of limitations of territory as belonging to this 
 body or that, were already producing friction in certain 
 quarters. The same was true of rival institutions of learn- 
 ing. Denominational sentiment could not thus remain di- 
 vided and accomplish that which was possible for a body 
 such as the Baptists of Texas were. With less wisdom than 
 the denominational leaders of Texas had in such a juncture, 
 a single misstep might have been disastrous. Most fortu- 
 nately those who were directing affairs at this time were 
 men of judgment rather than of passion ; of cool deliberation 
 and firm conviction rather than precipitate. In the intense 
 desire to move forward, much grace was needed at this 
 juncture to make men patient. 
 
 Conditions in Texas differed most materially from those 
 in any other state. Fresh installments of population were 
 being injected into the state every day of the year. Many 
 of those who came were being received into the churches 
 every Lord's day. These had brought with them to the West 
 preconceived notions of church life and customs, and on
 
 DESTKUCTION AND RECONSTEUCTION 189 
 
 changing many methods already existing some would address 
 themselves, and only the wisest generalship in pastoral posi- 
 tions could avail to save from absolute wreck. Tact and in- 
 genuity buttressed on piety only, could save the situation 
 where raw recruits were frequently more assertive than were 
 genuine veterans. This had always been measurably true of 
 the Baptists of Texas, but it was now immensely and in- 
 tensely so. That there was friction is no wonder. That it 
 should not have been more serious is a greater wonder. That 
 the denomination should have thriven with increasing vigor 
 under such conditions, and that many of the serious diffi- 
 culties are far behind and only a matter of memory, is the 
 greatest of wonders. The sage and pious leadership of the 
 Baptists of the state is the strand on which is strung the 
 historic greatness of the denomination in the state. 
 
 Men are as veritably raised up as divine agents now 
 as was true when the call came to Moses, to John the Bap- 
 tist and to the apostles. In all the ages men are called to 
 special functions in the turning points of providential his- 
 tory. To question this is to question the existence of God. 
 No more striking illustration of this principle is afforded 
 than in the inner working of Providence in the direction of 
 affairs in this- large and growing commonwealth. Steadi- 
 ness and sturdiness, deliberation and consecration, and the 
 single aim of doing God's will in the face of opposition 
 oftentimes, and in contention with obstructions which now 
 and then seemed insurmountable — -this is the record trans- 
 mitted by those who have guided Texas affairs to the gen- 
 erations of the future. To direct the interest of a people, 
 the independent will of each of whom had to be swayed, not 
 by ecclesiastical dictum, but by persuasiveness, requires the 
 diplomacy of the statesman, the far-sightedness of the 
 seer, the wisdom of the philosopher and the grace of the 
 Christian. Deeds wrought in such a sphere are without 
 the flare of publicity such as is given to the great in national 
 council and on fields of blood, but the elements of great 
 management as really prevail in one as in the other. On 
 no other basis can the progress of the Baptist denomination 
 be accounted for in Texas. 
 
 We are now approaching one of the turning-points in
 
 190 HISTORY OP TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 tlic I')a])tist (lenoniinational history of Texas. Tlie changes 
 in contemphition had to he those of years. Suddenness 
 would have produced a shock and would have carried within 
 itself the elements of disintegration. Maturity presupposes 
 growth, and growth requires time. "Soon ripe, soon rotten." 
 One of the distinct policies of the Baptists of Texas was 
 that of the occupation of the strong and promising centers 
 
 REV. M. T. ANDREWS, PASTOR, MARLIN, TEXAS. 
 
 (Born in Miss., 1865; educated Gillshurg Institute and ^Uss. Col.; 
 taught several years ; was converted at 17 ; joinpd Baptist churdi ; was 
 uiar-ried IS.Sti to Miss Tlieodosia Ernest Coolc ; ordained 1889; was pastor 
 .\mite City, La., lour years ; came, to Texas, 1898 ; was pastor at Marstiall 
 five years, since wliicli time he has been pastor at Marlin ; his labors are 
 much sought in the evangelistic field.) 
 
 of ]:)()pulati()n with men of ahility, and of such ahility as 
 would he adjustable to the peculiar conditions of each field. 
 At certain i)oints they labored through many years to main- 
 tain interests, and for decades together it was a struggle, 
 and in few Texas cities did churches become strong until 
 within a comparatively late period. Among such may be 
 named the city of Dallas. ■ From the village days of that 
 prairie city efforts had been made to root firmly a Baptist
 
 DESTEUCTION AND EECONSTRUCTION 191 
 
 church. But a combination of circumstances stood directly 
 in the way. One was that but few Baptists removed to 
 Dallas in its infantile days, and really not until it assumed 
 the pretentions of a city were there sufficient Baptists to be 
 found within it to constitute a church. This was not true 
 of other denominations. They were enabled to plant 
 churches there and to maintain them long before the Bap- 
 tists could gain the semblance of a footing. Repeated 
 efforts had been made to constitute a vital church, but with- 
 out avail. It is said that Rev. Davis Myers was the first 
 Baptist to preach in Dallas. He is certainly the first who 
 is known to have done so. He visited the village on June 
 I, 1846, while on a missionary tour, and preached to a small 
 crowd. At intervals missionaries in their tours toward the 
 west and north would stop in the settlement and preach. 
 On October 19, 1857, a church organization was efifected 
 through the combined efforts of Revs. J. M. Myers and 
 C. N. Pierce. Rev. Jacob Routh became the first pastor 
 of this infant enterprise, which was destined to be short- 
 lived, for it became extinct in i860. It seems that there were 
 certain conditions in the way of the maintenance of the 
 church, and other conditions had to be created before there 
 was a show of permanent success. So on the day follow- 
 ing the dissolution, the First church was organized, wdiich 
 was February 13. i860. This latter organization w^as 
 effected by Jacob Routh and Joshua W. Terrell, with a mem- 
 bership of fourteen. Though there seems to have been 
 valuable material accessible for the constitution of a new 
 church, the undertaking could make no headway. One of 
 the principal reasons was that the Baptist preachers of that 
 region were farmers, including the pastor himself. These 
 resided in the country, and sought to maintain stated worship 
 in the grow'ing town by preaching at regular or irregular 
 intervals, depending mainly on the condition of the weather 
 and the roads. This placed the Baptist cause in marked con- 
 trast wdth other denominations which continued regular and 
 consistent worship, as well as pastoral oversight and dili- 
 gence. Then, too, the most substantial portion of the mem- 
 bership of the young and struggling Baptist interest were 
 themselves residents of the country, who would drive to
 
 192 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 town on occasions of Sunday worship, and would be seen no 
 more till the return of the next Sabbath, and not then unless 
 the weather was favorable and the roads good. The inef- 
 fectual efforts to observe and maintain regular services 
 because of the inconvenience which resulted to the country 
 membership, finally induced the removal of the First church 
 to Pleasant View school-house, three or four miles toward 
 the northeast. This surrendered again the growing town 
 to other denominations. The church at Pleasant View 
 became a prosperous country church, but it failed to touch 
 the growing population of the town. The name was finally 
 changed to that of Pleasant View Baptist church, which 
 change took place on August 15, 1863. The repeated fail- 
 ures to establish a Baptist church in Dallas induced the 
 erroneous conclusion that such a thing was out of the ques- 
 tion. Dallas became a proverbial terror to the missionary, 
 and was commonly referred to as "a desperately hard place 
 for Baptists," and after so many fruitless efforts no preacher 
 could be found who had the heart to undertake another 
 church in the town. There were Baptists scattered through 
 the population of the town, but they were either going into 
 the ranks of other denominations or else had lapsed into 
 indifference. It was reserved for a Baptist layman. Colonel 
 W. L. Williams, to revive the interest, twice abandoned. 
 Removing to Dallas in 1867 he could find few or none in 
 Dallas who claimed to be Baptists. From the members of 
 the nearest church at Pleasant View he learned of the 
 whereabouts of certain members in the town. The year 
 following other pronounced Baptists than Colonel Williams 
 settled in the town. With these Colonel Williams united in 
 an effort to hold a series of meetings, which served to induce 
 some from their hiding-places, and the meeting resulted in 
 bringing together eleven Baptist members, and on July 30, 
 1868, another effort was made to found a church which has 
 been perpetuated to this day as the First Baptist church of 
 Dallas. Another regular constitution was entered into and 
 W. W. Harris became pastor. Again the church entered on 
 an irregular career of service, and after some months the 
 pastor resigned. The former history of the enterprise seemed 
 about to be repeated, but the sturdy membership under
 
 DESTEUCTION AND. RECONSTRUCTION 193 
 
 Colonel Williams was determined to maintain worship at all 
 hazards. For almost three years the church was in a pastor- 
 less condition, but the little band continued steadfast in the 
 faith and declined to forsake the assembling of themselves 
 together as the manner had been aforetime. Finally they 
 hit on the happy expediency of organizing a prayer-meet- 
 ing. It was not till October 8, 1871, that Rev. C. A. Stan- 
 ton was chosen pastor for half of his time. Meanwhile Mrs 
 A. E. Prather had been received on profession of faith and 
 was baptized at Trinity by Rev. S. S. Cross. Not to pursue 
 the history of an individual church further, here is afforded 
 an apt illustration of the admonition : "Be not weary in 
 well-doing, for in due season ye shall reap if ye faint not," 
 and of that proverb so supplementary of the last quotation : 
 "If ye faint in the day of adversity thy strength is small." 
 Faith wedded to strength of will is destined to bring whole- 
 sale results. That which Colonel Williams did without 
 falter of faith was what might have been done years before 
 when Dallas was shunned, even to practical abandonment by 
 Baptist missionaries and others.
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 AN ERA OF ACTIVITY AND AGITATION. 
 
 Three years of renewed activity since the close of hos- 
 tilities between the states, had resulted in much fundamental 
 denominational work in Texas. The trying political condi- 
 tions had prostrated every interest, and there was little heart 
 to labor where the odds were so immense. Many succumbed 
 entirely to the stress of the times, but the men in the ranks 
 of the Baptists, who had been the file leaders in the past, 
 were still achieving, still pursuing. The cessation of gen- 
 eral activity during the war, followed by the peculiar condi- 
 tions of the reconstruction era, led to the creation of new 
 questions, to some of which allusion has already been made. 
 Various suggestions were made concerning the future plans 
 and policies of the denomination, and divergent views were 
 indulged in which made the period a pivotal one. Original 
 differences were not forgotten, and in some instances efforts 
 were made to revive them. One of the most serious of 
 these was the division of sentiment between those who re- 
 sided in eastern Texas and those in other parts of the state. 
 Time was necessary to heal these, and the policy recom- 
 mended by wisdom was that of patience. Another question 
 which gave rise to contention was that of the removal of 
 the two schools from Independence. The attendance on 
 Baylor University was declining, while that on Waco Uni- 
 versity was steadily increasing. President Crane was wres- 
 tling with giant difficulties in the face of waning hope. But 
 the railway lines and the rapid peopling of the fertile lands 
 in northern Texas were against him, and mocked his plucky 
 efforts to hold out against odds. The sore experiment in 
 eastern Texas, alone prevented at this time the attempt to 
 revive another and third educational interest in that part of 
 the state. Conditions were now such that if the educational 
 
 194
 
 ACTIVITY AND AGITATION 195 
 
 question could be settled, it would prove a dissolvent of the 
 chief difficulty with which the denomination was beset. Yet 
 sentiment was not sufficiently ripe for decisive action on this 
 all-important matter. To have forced action on that ques- 
 tion at this time would have invited disruption, and that 
 which the denomination mostly needed and desired were 
 unity and peace. At such a time it was fortunate that the 
 denominational organ was conducted by one so cool and 
 conservative as was J. B. Link. He rendered a supreme 
 service at this juncture, and was gradually paving the way 
 toward a consummation yet not in sight, but none the less 
 inevitable. Then fortunately, too, subsidiary questions were 
 diverting sentiment to themselves, which questions were 
 being providentially woven into the methods which were 
 gradually but slowly leading to a solution. Among these 
 was the work which was being done by the Sunday-school 
 convention and by the colporteurs. On these the denomina- 
 tion was a unit, and they were therefore cemental in their 
 influence. In 1868 the Sunday-school and Colportage con- 
 vention met in Waco, and while there was a timely and help- 
 ful discussion of topics relative to the work, some disappoint- 
 ment was experienced, as the results of the year's labors did 
 not equal the general expectation. The matter of entrust- 
 ing this work to the care of the two boards to be appointed 
 respectively by the State Convention and the General Asso- 
 ciation was one of discussion at this session, but the proposal 
 failed to materialize. Stimulus was given to the work, espe- 
 cially of Sunday-schools, by a healthful vying among the 
 churches as to which could report the largest attendance at 
 the annual meetings of the body. At the convention of 
 1868 the First church of Waco led with an enrollment of 
 nineteen teachers and one hundred and ninety pupils. Bren- 
 ham First church came next with an enrollment of fifteen 
 teachers and one hundred and eighty-five pupils. The State 
 Convention held its annual session in 1868 at Independence. 
 H. L. Graves was elected president ; J. H. Stribling, W. C. 
 Crane and H. F. Buckner, vice presidents ; H. Clarke, re- 
 cording secretary, and O. H. P. Garrett, corresponding sec- 
 retary. The interest of the session was grouped about the 
 two questions of missionary endeavor and the schools. J.
 
 REV. GEO. B. BUTI.EII. PASTOR, RRYAX, TEXAS. 
 
 (Born in Miss. ; converted in old Bethany Church under ministry Rev. 
 Norvell Robertson ; educated public schools, Miss. Col., S. B. T. Sem. : 
 pastor Lexington and Natchez, Miss. : baptized his uncle, Ex-Gov. A. II. 
 Longino, Miss., founder and Pres. Texas Woman's College, 1905-1907 : 
 has built |30,000 church, Bryan.)
 
 ACTIVITY AND AGITATION 197 
 
 W. D. Creath, the general agent of the convention, rendered 
 an inspiring report and he, together with the other mis- 
 sionaries, had raised $1,150 during the past year. 
 
 But the question which assumed dominance during 
 the session was that of education. The situation was becom- 
 ing serious at Baylor University. The attendance had 
 dwindled to seventy-two students, and the gravity of the 
 question was such that a committee was appointed to con- 
 sider the propriety of creating a state education convention, 
 and the general agent of the convention was charged with 
 the work of giving special interest and attention to educa- 
 tion in his tours over the state. The pressure of the neces- 
 sity of combining all educational interests was felt, but just 
 how to effect it with so many odds in the way was not clear. 
 
 The General Association met at Chatfield on July 17, 
 1868. This was the first session held after the change of 
 the name of the body. It was saddened from the beginning 
 by the absence of D. B. Morrill, who had died during the 
 year. His presence had always been a benediction, and his 
 death was a subject of universal comment. Under changed 
 conditions the work was that of another stage of prepara- 
 tion for doing things, consequently most of the time was 
 taken up in reports and discussions. Three boards were 
 appointed as the channels through which the newly-named 
 body was to conduct its operations. A Sunday-school Board 
 at Marshall, a Missionary Board at Ladonia, and a Bible, 
 Colportage and Education Board at Waco, constituted the 
 machinery of the body in its new start. Rivalry in educa- 
 tional matters was indicated by the recommendation of the 
 Waco University, the High School at Ladonia, the Charn- 
 wood Institute at Tyler and the school for girls and young 
 women at Paris. 
 
 There was just that in the atmosphere of this meeting 
 in the utterances and reports to show that the issue was 
 squarely joined between the General Association and the 
 State Convention. On one interest alone were the Baptists 
 of the state at this time united, and that was the Texas Bap- 
 fist Herald. This much at least was fortunate. No respon- 
 sibility could have been greater than that imposed on the 
 editor just at this time. A single spark would have caused
 
 198 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 an explosion, while the conciliation of the paper, and its pol- 
 icy of adhering: to a high tone of journalism and to infuse 
 love rather than debate and hate, made it a popular medium 
 in both bodies. In a firm, dignified way the paper prose- 
 cuted its course and toned a healthful sentiment as became 
 Christianity throughout. Verily, Link had come to the 
 kingdom for such a time as this. The year 1869 came with 
 its changes. Activity prevailed along all lines and as a 
 consequence sentiment concerning matters of difference be- 
 tween the two general bodies was becoming more taut. The 
 question of the removal of Baylor University was becoming 
 more urgent, even in southern Texas, and in the region or 
 territory of Waco University there was a deeply interested 
 silence on the subject. The question had reduced itself to 
 one of intense practicalness and the denomination was com- 
 ing to see that it could not be swayed by the natural and 
 logical opposition to removal, which existed in the locality 
 of Independence. 
 
 For the space of more than a year the Texas Baptist 
 Herald, located at Houston, had been forced first to suspend 
 and then to be issued bi-weekly, but it was once more fairly 
 afoot, freshened and enlarged. This gave new elasticity to 
 the cause in all quarters. An attempt had been made to 
 publish a little paper at Jefferson, called the Christian Com- 
 panion, but the enterprise was given up after the trial of 
 somewhat more than a year. This occurring just at the 
 time that the Texas Baptist Herald took on a new lease of 
 vitality gave to this latter journal a fresh propulsion. Edi- 
 tor Link appreciated the opportunity, and did some of the 
 best work of his life at this time. The cautious, conciliatory 
 tone of the paper was now bringing things to pass. This 
 was the year 1869 that witnessed the advent of B. H. Car- 
 roll at Waco. He was then a young man of twenty-six 
 and, while practically unknown to the denomination, was 
 ripened by a varied experience of spiritual struggle, and 
 of broad and varied observation, and of considerable read- 
 ing and research. He had taken a course at Baylor Uni- 
 versity at Independence, and in the prime of young man- 
 hood had served for four years in the Confederate army. 
 Unostentatious as his conduct was, there were marked indi-
 
 ACTIVITY AND AGITATION lyg 
 
 cations of his gigantic gifts, even during his career as a 
 soldier, still his power was unknown save to a few of his 
 comrades. At the close of the war he went to Burleson 
 county, where he divided his time between teaching and 
 preaching, and in 1869 was invited to Waco to conduct a 
 meeting. In this great revival his power came first to be 
 recognized, which resulted in his being chosen assistant 
 pastor of the First church of Waco. During his long con- 
 nection with that church as its pastor, his fame spread over 
 the whole continent. The conspicuous part borne by him 
 during the stirring times which followed his advent at 
 Waco will appear throughout the remainder of this record. 
 For four years, or since the close of the war, the State 
 Board had been operating without a distinct policy. The way 
 had not been clear up to this time for the formation of a 
 pronounced policy, and the work had been fragmentary and 
 by piecemeal. What missionary work was done was largely 
 under the separate district associations. The board was 
 divided in sentiment as to the policy which should be 
 adopted, some preferring to work through the associations 
 by inviting them to name certain men for positions as mis- 
 sionaries, while others favored the more general plan of 
 the supervision of the work from the headquarters of the 
 board. The condition of the country was such as to prevent 
 any aggressive course on the field at large, and thus things 
 were merely drifting, awaiting the return of such times 
 when a different policy might be adopted. The denomina- 
 tional organ was the only agency that was creative of senti- 
 ment on any subject, and it was hedged about by such 
 restrictions and conditions that it had to be cautious and 
 conservative in tone. To keep itself free of partisanship 
 and serve all with equal fidelity within a prescribed com- 
 pass, was the evident policy of the paper. But a change 
 was necessary, and the convention proceeded to make such 
 a change when it next met. 
 
 That body met in 1869 at Galveston. The meeting 
 proved to be one of the distinct epochs in the history of the 
 denomination. The action of the convention was far-reach- 
 ing, and within were elements which extended far into the 
 years, and which found culmination nearly twenty years
 
 200 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 later in the period of unification. Struggles were inevitable, 
 as advocates of different plans and policies would anon 
 assert themselves, but in the end it were better that these 
 struggles had been, as they solidified the denomination 
 after all theories had been tested, and when once 
 the denomination turned into the same direction. The con- 
 vention at Galveston chose H. L. Graves president ; W. C. 
 Crane, P. B. Chandler and J. Beall, vice presidents; O. 
 H. P. Garrett, recording secretary, and H. Clarke, corre- 
 sponding secretary. The question uppermost in the minds 
 of the messengers was that of what course should be adopted 
 in the direction of educational affairs. Stronger than ever 
 had the sentiment of removal of the schools from Inde- 
 I)endence become. The life which now began to animate the 
 Baptists of the state was shaping itself into practical the- 
 ories at least, and it was evident that institutions, both stable 
 and accessible, were needed. This slowly rising sentiment 
 rendered the retention of the schools at Independence less 
 sure. Yet it was clear that the agitation of this matter was 
 sure to result in a struggle. Meanwhile the General Asso- 
 ciation was watching with keen interest the drift of senti- 
 ment respecting educational matters in the State Conven- 
 tion. That the sentiment which obtained at the Galveston 
 convention would have been more pronounced for the early 
 removal of the schools from Independence seems inevitable, 
 but for the increased attendance on the schools during the 
 preceding year. Still this was attributed by some, more to 
 the return of improved conditions throughout the country 
 than to the growth of popularity of the schools. There 
 was much significance attaching to the creation of an educa- 
 tion convention by the body when it met the year before, 
 and greater significance lay in the fact that this met with 
 such popular approbation. The determination having been 
 reached to organize such a body, arrangements were made 
 at Galveston during the session to appoint a place of meet- 
 ing for it. 
 
 When the subject at last came before the body for dis- 
 cussion, it was the occasion of a great struggle, and of much 
 acrimonious debate. Positive as the advocates of removal 
 were, their insistence was moderate as compared with the
 
 ACTIVITY AND AGITATION 201 
 
 temper of those who resisted the proposed measure of 
 removal. The latter class was vehement, and the speeches 
 were not exempt from expressions bordering on bitterness. 
 These opponents were most insistent, and occupied much of 
 the time of the convention in their speeches of opposition. 
 The battle raged through hours with great w-armth of pas- 
 sion. It was seen that the time was not propitious for final 
 action and the convention wisely cut short the discussion 
 by the adoption of conciliatory resolutions, one of which 
 was: 
 
 "Resolved, That we are satisfied that it is impracticable 
 now, or at any future time, to remove Baylor University or 
 Baylor Female College." Another and evidently a more 
 sincere resolution was also adopted : "That it is the sense 
 of this convention that it is inexpedient to consider the 
 question of the removal of Baylor University from its pres- 
 ent location." Both parties found equal satisfaction in these 
 resolutions, the opponents considering them as final, while 
 the others regarded them as merely tentative. What the 
 result was the history of subsequent years will disclose. As 
 might naturally be expected, the results of the labors of the 
 few missionaries during the past year were meager. De- 
 tached work was done here and there over the field, and 
 much voluntary service had been rendered by pastors, who, 
 leaving their own fields, went into the neighboring regions 
 and preached as they had opportunity. The meajis gathered 
 from the churches amounted for the year to $1,143.25. 
 
 But the convention was to have its missionary work done 
 no longer at haphazard. The convention at Galveston was 
 the turning point in the history of missionary work in the 
 state. Here the convention resolved to reinstate the original 
 policy of general and aggressive work in every part of the 
 country, or to the extent of the resources which it might be 
 able to command. The time for such a movement was 
 propitious. Railway travel had immensely improved, new 
 towns and settlements had grown up, there were signs of 
 religious activity in all directions, and there had come again 
 comparative prosperity. During the year the Sunday-school 
 and Colportage Convention had been exceedingly active, and 
 many books had been sold throughout the country, while
 
 203 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 many Sunday-schools had Ijccn brought into being. A 
 large assortment of books had been procured from Smith 
 Sheldon, as a gift, through the kind offices of Colonel Morgan 
 L. Smith, a prominent sugar planter and a I'aptist who spent 
 much of his time in New York, learning the process of mak- 
 ing refined sugar. He was the pioneer of this enterprise in 
 
 UEV. EliNEST GALE TOWNSEND, BELTON, TEXAS. 
 
 (Boru in Missouri: at the ajro of seven, he removetl with his parents 
 1o Texas; his childhood was spent on a ranch in Southwest Texas and 
 liis earlv school daj-s in San Antonio. He took a full course at Baylor 
 University and the Theological Seminary at Louisville; he held for a 
 short while the pastorate of the Central Baptist Church of Dallas ; in 
 1897 he was married to Miss Hollie Harper, of Dallas ; 18 months after 
 her marriage, she died, leaving, a little son. Gale Harper Townsend ; for 
 three years Mr. Townsend had charge of the Chapel Car work in Texas ; 
 he was married to Miss Elli Moore in the fall of 1899 ; he had for a 
 few months the pastorate of East Waco Church ; since 1901 he has lived 
 in Belton ; for the first year he was engaged as teacher in Baylor College, 
 and in 1902 became pastor of the Belton Baptist Church.) 
 
 Texas, was liberal, and greatly interested in the moral and 
 spiritual development of the state. Contributions of books 
 had also been made by the American Baptist Publication 
 Society and the National Sunday-school Convention. For 
 all these timely donations the Sunday-school and Colportage
 
 ACTIVITY AND AGITATION 203 
 
 Convention was indebted to the influence of Colonel Mor- 
 gan L. Smith. 
 
 With the close of the convention held at Galveston came 
 a renewal of the discussion of the removal of the schools 
 from Independence. The rivalry between the schools located 
 respectively at Independence and at Waco had become 
 sharp, and was productive of some friction. Both schools had 
 encountered certain difficulties in making their way through 
 the years of the immediate past, but Waco had evidenl 
 advantages, while Independence had none. With the ebb 
 and flow of events, each would take fresh courage or expe- 
 rience depression. Independence was destined to succumb 
 by reason of inaccessibility and isolation, while, about this 
 time, Waco suffered from a scourge of typhoid fever, which 
 led Doctor Burleson to express the doubt of seeking to 
 make it a great educational center. When, however, the 
 fever had spent its force and the sanitary conditions had 
 been improved, his buoyancy returned and his doubts were 
 dispelled. The agitation of educational matters begun at 
 Galveston continued through fifteen years before they were 
 settled to the satisfaction of the denomination. 
 
 About this time a step was taken by the faculty and 
 Board of Trustees of Waco University, which seemed to 
 give promise of easy and prompt solution of the agitation 
 which was now usurping the thought of the denomination. 
 That action at Waco was so magnanimous in its tone that 
 it seemed no further trouble could come of the much agi- 
 tated matter. Below are given such extracts from the com- 
 bined resolution of the faculty and board as bear directly on 
 the situation. Omitting certain parts of the resolution, its 
 substance was expressed in the following : 
 
 "Whereas, The general progress of our age and country, 
 of which the grand, munificent foundations springing up on 
 all sides are but the indices and promoters, not only suggest 
 but demand corresponding facilities on the part of the Bap- 
 tist denomination. * * * Unless we provide facilities 
 up to the times instead of assisting in educating others, as 
 we ought to do, our own sons and daughters, the more 
 ambitious and talented of them, will betake themselves 
 * * * where such provisions of thorough culture can
 
 204 HISTOEY or TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 be found. * * * In our opinion nothing will tend to so 
 harmonize and engender good feeling among our wide- 
 spread brotherhood and make them resist all disintegrating 
 tendencies, whether political or religious, as one great edu- 
 cational center, * * * unifying us and making us a 
 brotherhood indeed ; now, therefore, 
 
 "Resolved, That we, the trustees and faculty of Waco 
 University, do hereby publish to the denomination generally 
 our readiness and willingness to unite with them in build- 
 ing up such an educational interest for our denomination, 
 without reference to any party, men or place, ignoring 
 entirely any little claims we might feel w^e have here of a 
 local character, and we hereby pledge our best efforts to 
 the building up of a great intellectual center, let it be 
 located where it may." 
 
 Of this movement Doctor Burleson was supposed to 
 have been the originator, and it awoke fresh concern in 
 the circles at Independence. There was no mistaking the 
 language of this action, for it was free of all ambiguity. It 
 reallv struck the chord of the general sentiment of the 
 denomination throughout the state, excepting at Independ- 
 ence, where was the natural disposition to hold the school 
 where it was originally planted. This action taken at 
 Waco, as expressed in this preamble and resolutions, seemed 
 to have but one object, and that was that all claims were 
 to be subordinated to the one idea of founding a central 
 institution of learning which would command denomina- 
 tional influence and patronage, and at such place as would 
 l)e deemed wisest and best to adopt. President Burleson 
 had previously favored such a movement, and now the same 
 sentiment was adopted and embodied in the preamble and 
 resolutions published to the world. It gave heart and hope 
 to the education convention which was in contemplation. 
 Prior to this, similar expression had appeared in a report 
 made before the General Association. General Speight, 
 one of the prime movers and promoters of the school from 
 which had sprung Waco University, and one of the leading 
 members of the Board of Trustees of the school, and a 
 deacon in the First church of Waco, favored the movement, 
 as did also General Harrison, another member of the board.
 
 ACTIVITY AND AGITATION 205 
 
 President Burleson, as we have seen, gave it his fullest 
 endorsement, and President Crane was quoted as having 
 been induced to give it his sanction. 
 
 The way now seemed clear to an easy solution of a prob- 
 lem which threatened the denomination with an agitation 
 that might lead to serious and permanent division. Noth- 
 ing was now thought of or talked about but a great uni- 
 versity which would be an honor to the Baptists of the 
 entire Southwest. Great enthusiasm was the result of a 
 prospect so cheering and inspiring. The temporary storm 
 raised at Galveston w-as forgotten, in the prospect of the 
 general harmony and prosperity which such a movement 
 would bring. 
 
 When the General Association met, just subsequent to 
 the action taken by the faculty and board of Waco Uni- 
 versity, there was a total omission of the mention of Waco 
 University. This fact gave increased signiticance and con- 
 fidence. The result was a general elation throughout the 
 denominational circles of the state. By a sudden turn of 
 the wheel sentiment seemed to have been thrown to a com- 
 mon center. In the report on education before the General 
 Association it abstained froin allusion to any school, but 
 said : "Schools should be encouraged in every community, 
 and especially the united energies of the entire Baptist 
 fraternity of this association should be directed to the estab- 
 lishment of a college conmiensurate with the wants of the 
 people, and equaling the best colleges in our government 
 in intrinsic merit. Such a college should occupy a central 
 position geographically in the state, and when once estab- 
 lished, should be forced to stand by its own inherent 
 strength. It is not intended to recommend opposition to 
 any one of the schools now in progress in the state, neither 
 do we recommend the adoption of any of them as the school 
 of the General Association." All this was follow^ed by a 
 special hour for the discussion of the subject of education 
 by the members of the General Association. 
 
 The work of the General Association, which was held in 
 1869 at Tyler, had been prosecuted with some degree of 
 success during the preceding year. The several boards, the
 
 20G HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 Bible, Missionary and Sunday-school, reported the collection 
 of $465.10 on the field during the year. 
 
 The encouraging hope awakened at Tyler gave a fore- 
 taste to the coming State Convention, which was to be held 
 in the fall at Brenham. Nothing now stood in the way of 
 a mighty spring forward. The presidents of the two chief 
 institutions had now struck hands in harmony on the pro- 
 posal to build a great school, in the way of which the 
 schools of which they were the respective heads, should not 
 stand. Rivals for patronage became friends, and every- 
 thing was to be sunk out of sight for the general good. 
 However, while Doctor Crane acquiesced in the sen- 
 timent which had come to possess the people generally, there 
 was not wanting some distrustfulness at Independence of 
 the sincerity of the action at Waco. It was regarded as 
 a maneuver to produce such a condition as would eventuate 
 in the selection of Waco University as the point so much 
 desired as the place for the central location of the proposed 
 school. Some insisted that subsequent events would prove 
 the suspicion to be a correct one. Nowhere else, however, 
 was such suspicion entertained, and when it was known that 
 it was feared at Independence that there was insincerity 
 beneath it all, this was attributed to the sensitiveness of the 
 community relative to the proposed removal of the schools 
 from that place. To such a pitch had the educational excite- 
 ment grown that when the convention met at Brenham, it 
 was agreed to name a time and place to begin steps toward 
 the founding of the proposed great school. 
 
 In due time, the State Convention was held at Brenham. 
 Never were men more buoyed by hope. Officers were 
 chosen by making H. L. Graves president ; W. C. Crane, 
 J. H. Stribling and F. M. Law, vice presidents ; O. H. P. 
 Garrett, recording secretary, and H. Clarke, corresponding 
 secretary. Tw^o general missionaries or agents had been 
 active during the year — Revs. J. W. D. Creath and W. A. 
 Mason. Mr. Creath had given most of his time to the col- 
 lection of funds, and Mr. Mason had been devoted to mis- 
 sionary effort for the most part, though both had combined 
 the work in a general way during the year. For the state 
 work Creath had collected $1,195.45, and for the proposed
 
 ACTIVITY AND AGITATION 207 
 
 church at San Antonio, $1,020. Mason had collected $628.60 
 and had baptized sixty persons. Rev. W. A. Mason had 
 been for years at work and had been instrumental in the bap- 
 tism of many hundreds, and assisted in the organization of 
 several associations, and done much other denominational 
 work. A cloud had suddenly come over the convention as the 
 result of a called meeting of those interested in denomina- 
 tional education. There were conspicuously present at this 
 called meeting- the prominent correspondents from Waco, 
 those who had so vigorously urged such a movement, to- 
 gether with the presidents of the two Baptist colleges. When 
 the general question embraced in the preamble and resolu- 
 tions from the Waco University was presented, there was no 
 little astonishment to learn that both Presidents Burleson 
 and Crane were opposed to it. It was soon ascertained that 
 nothing could be accomplished here, and on motion of 
 Judge C. R. Breedlove a meeting was appointed to be 
 held at Bremond two months later. The mysterious change 
 whereby opposition was encountered just where encourage- 
 ment was expected shook the confidence of many, but did 
 not deprive them of hope. When, during the session, there 
 was a call for a readoption of the resolutions which had 
 been previously adopted, disapproving of the removal of 
 the schools from Independence, they met no opposition, as 
 it was supposed that the approaching meeting at Bremond 
 would settle all questions in dispute. 
 
 The corresponding secretary. Rev. Horace Clarke, in 
 submitting an elaborate report to the body, gave a brief 
 summary of the work of the convention from its inception. 
 He said : "Seventy missionaries have been employed, 
 ninety-five churches organized, one hundred and twenty- 
 five feeble churches have been aided, seven associations 
 organized, secured the erection of fifty-five meeting houses, 
 the ordination of sixty-five deacons and twenty ministers, 
 her missionaries have baptized about 4,000 persons — in one 
 year six hundred — and have organized seventy-five Sunday- 
 schools. A total has been collected by the agents of the 
 convention of about $35,000 and through co-operating asso- 
 ciations about $45,000 — total about $80,000." 
 
 General attention was now directed toward the ap-
 
 208 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 l)roaching education convention at Bremond. What the 
 result would be no one could foretell. Ardent hope had 
 somewhat cooled, and the brightness of the future had been 
 dimmed by the unexpected turn given affairs at Brenham 
 two months before. However, the education meeting was 
 held in December. 1870. There were present forty-seven 
 
 MRS. ELLI MOORE TOWNSEXD, BELTON, TEXAS. 
 
 (After graduating at Baylor College in 1S70, studied in Philadelplii.i 
 and traveled in Europe ; for more than a quarter of a century, her ambi- 
 tion has been that the daughters of Baylor may be as "corner-stones 
 polished after the similitude of a palace." Her interest in her Alma 
 -Mater is shown in the little book, "Our Baylor" ; in 1893 she inaugu- 
 rated a plan by which ambitious girls without means for paying regular 
 college boarding rates might live in a home and do their own housework 
 and at the same time pursue their college course ; she began with twelve 
 girls and in a few years the number under her care reached 200 ; this 
 work is now entering upon the fifteenth session with Mrs. Townsend as 
 manager. In 1899 she was married to Kev. E. G. Townsend.) 
 
 representatives and a canvass showed that fully seven- 
 eighths of them were favorable to the much-talked-of move- 
 ment to establish a new^ and famous school, while the presi- 
 dents of the two schools, at Waco and Independence re- 
 spectively, made common cause in their opposition. Not- 
 withstanding past deliverances. President Burleson now
 
 • ACTIVITY AND AGITATION 209 
 
 opposed the concentration of the educational interests of the 
 Baptists of the state. He had reached the conclusion that 
 a state so large as Texas demanded more than one institu- 
 tion. President Crane was just as pronounced, and felt that 
 the creation of a great school meant the total absorption of 
 all others. He feared that the founding of a school such as 
 was contemplated meant to say to President Burleson and 
 himself: "Take charge of an academy after all your years 
 of toil." Among the many who favored the movement were 
 Doctors Link and Law, General Harrison and others. All 
 these expressed the opinion that it was the only solution of 
 the question which was burning in the hearts of the people. 
 President Burleson felt that the matter could not be fairly 
 settled at that time, and advised delay. He wanted the 
 question to come up upon its merits before the General 
 Association when it should meet next year at Fairfield. 
 Editor Link insisted that the creation of a school of great 
 merit at some central point would impart fresh life to the 
 schools already existing, and showed that the attempt to 
 remove Madison University to Rochester and the subse- 
 quent establishment of a school at the latter place had really 
 infused new life into Madison, without which it would have 
 perished. 
 
 The result of the meeting was — nothing. The question 
 was postponed for future consideration at Fairfield, but the 
 agitation was kept up in the columns of the Texas Baptist 
 Herald. The hope of a speedy solution of the educational 
 question was thus dashed. The occasion afforded new 
 opportunity for fresh division and new dissension. Divers 
 efforts were made to quiet the discussion of the question in 
 the columns of the Texas Baptist Herald, among which 
 was that of a new paper, the Missionary Baptist at Corsi- 
 cana by Rev. Thomas H. Compere, but before living through 
 a year, it died. 
 
 The summer of 1871 witnessed the gathering of the Bap- 
 tist hosts at Fairfield, where the General Association was 
 held and where it was hoped that the question might be 
 brought to some practical termination. Yet this hope was 
 dimmed when it was learned that President Burleson had 
 been exceedingly active in the cultivation of opposition to
 
 210 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 the iiKiNcmont, and had created a scntiinent against it. The 
 gathering- at Fairfield was a large one. Fresh occasion for 
 friction arose from the fact that the meeting of the asso- 
 ciation was held within the territory of the Ba]itist State 
 Convention. This was representative of the sensitiveness 
 of the times, as well as a sad lack of the unity in the ranks 
 of the denomination. Among the visitors present were 
 Revs. T. C. Tcasdale, representing the Sunday-school Board 
 of the South ; E. C. Eager, of the Domestic Mission Board, 
 and Dr. J. R. Graves, editor of the Tennessee Baptist and 
 representative of the Southern Baptist Publication Society. 
 
 New life seems to have come to the General Association, 
 and its activity during the preceding year had been pro- 
 nounced. The work done had been more comprehensive 
 than ever before, and the life and snap of the body were 
 most inspiring. Bible colportage, missionary activity, Sun- 
 day-school work, and aid to ministerial students, entered 
 into the work of the year. The corresponding secretary, 
 Rev. R. C. Buckner, recommended large sums of money to. 
 be raised and expended during the succeeding year in the 
 promotion of denominational interests. The report on edu- 
 cation was quite different in its tone from the one of the 
 preceding year, as it suggested the founding of chartered 
 schools, the endowment by the alumni of the president's 
 chair of Waco University of not less than $10,000, and, 
 if possible, of $30,000, with the privilege left the donor of 
 changing the endowment at will to another institution, or 
 another president. Endorsement of the schools at Tyler, 
 Ladonia. Paris, Cleburne and Pennington was given, while 
 fraternal regard was expressed for Baylor Utiiversity. 
 Favorable consideration was asked for the Education Union, 
 the plans of which were mentioned as maturing. 
 
 When those interested in the movement for education 
 came together, it was found that the sentiment had not 
 changed from that which prevailed during the preceding 
 December, when the meeting was held at Bremond. Here, 
 as at Bremond, Presidents Burleson and Crane stoutly op- 
 posed the movement, taking positions similar to those taken 
 on the previous occasion, and they only looked with disfavor 
 on the contemplated college. Doctor Wallace, who had pre-
 
 ACTIVITY AND AGITATION 211 
 
 viously opposed the scheme, now favored it, and coming as 
 he did from Waco, this was regarded as favorable to the 
 undertaking. The opponents of the proposed undertaking 
 asked that the matter He over for a period of five years, 
 before it should be renewed, but in this they failed. It was 
 agreed that so soon as $10,000 could be procured active work 
 would begin to found the proposed institution. This amount 
 was immediately raised and the committee called a meeting 
 for August, 7, 1872, when it was proposed to organize the 
 Education Union. 
 
 The once promised era of good feeling was gone. That 
 which gave assurance of so much good had vanished like 
 the mist of the morning. So far from an extrication from 
 the toils of difficulty, they were just begun. The brightness 
 of a year ago had given place to a coming tempest, the mut- 
 terings of which were already audible. The Texas Baptist 
 Herald continued its advocacy of the proposed new 
 school and its columns were laden with articles for and 
 against the enterprise. There was no possibility of settle- 
 ment of the question at this stage, and the conflict was 
 necessary before the desired end could be reached. 
 
 The fall of 1871 found the State Convention in session 
 at Bryan. W. C. Crane was chosen president; J. H. Strib- 
 ling, William Howard and F. M. Law, vice-presidents; 
 O. H. P. Garrett, recording secretary, and G. W. Graves, 
 corresponding secretary. The session was devoid of special 
 interest. The only topic of interest was that of the new 
 university. Rev. Horace Clarke having resigned from the 
 presidency of the Baylor College for Girls, Dr. H. L. Graves 
 had been chosen to succeed him. Thus passed the year 187 1 
 with no material change in the Baptist situation. It was, 
 however, a year of great spiritual ingathering to the 
 churches. News of meetings of power came from every 
 source, and during the year churches were immensely 
 blessed. From a mere handful the Baptists had now come 
 to number 50,000 in Texas and their number was steadily 
 growing with the weeks. Again were all eyes turned to the 
 education meeting which was to be held at Bryan, in August. 
 The result was the organization of the Education Union, 
 which was afterwards chartered. There was no limit to
 
 212 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 the plans of an immense institution of learning, at some 
 central point, which was destined never to be. Agents were 
 appointed and placed in the field to raise $200,000, which 
 was regarded as sufficient to make a fair beginning. It was 
 agreed that the donors were to name the place of the loca- 
 tion of the school, which location was to be determined by 
 the bonus offered, together with the eligibility of the point 
 thus indicated. Without delay notes were given and lands 
 donated to the enterprise, all of which was estimated at 
 $30,000. It was about this time that Dr. Samuel Freeman, 
 ex-president of Howard College, Alabama, settled at Jeffer- 
 son, Texas, as pastor of the First Church. He lived but a 
 short time after reaching the state. He had begun well, 
 had made a most favorable impression on the district asso- 
 ciation which he had the opportunity to attend, but had 
 scarcely begun his work when he was called to his reward. 
 While reference has been made several times to Dr. 
 R. C. Buckner, the philanthropist-preacher of Texas Bap- 
 tists, no extended notice has as yet been given him in these 
 pages. He came from his native state, Kentucky, to Texas, 
 in the fall of 1859. I" ^'^'^^ twelfth year he was baptized by 
 his father, Daniel Buckner, at Somerset, Kentucky, and was 
 a preacher at seventeen. He was converted, baptized, 
 licensed and ordained in the same church, and also adminis- 
 tered the ordinance of baptism first in the church in which 
 he was reared. Educated at Georgetown, Kentucky, he be- 
 came pastor of the church at Albany, Kentucky, when only 
 twenty years old. His first important pastorate was at 
 Owensboro, Kentucky, where he succeeded Dr. S. L. Helm. 
 Later he was the general agent of the Domestic Mission 
 Board for Kentucky for a while before his removal to Texas. 
 He became pastor of a little struggling church at Paris. 
 Texas, which was called by derision "the calico bonnet 
 church." For fourteen years, with the intermission of about 
 a year, when he was released by the church to serve the 
 General Association as its financial secretary. Doctor Buck- 
 ner was pastor at Paris, where he was greatly beloved by 
 the people generally. At the time of his resignation he left 
 the church at Paris in excellent condition, with a commo- 
 dious and well-built house, which was without a cent of
 
 ACTIVITY AND AGITATION 213 
 
 debt. He was the pioneer of woman's work in the state, 
 being the first, certainly in north Texas, to organize a 
 ladies' aid society, if it was not the first in the state. During 
 his pastorate at Paris he conducted, with great success, many 
 revivals, the most notable among which were at Clarksville, 
 Bonham, Jefferson and Sherman. He it was who awoke 
 from indifference Major Penn, at Jefferson, who, though a 
 professed Christian, had lapsed into apathy. After Doctor 
 Buckner's meeting at Jefferson, Major Penn became an 
 active worker, which resulted finally in his beginning to 
 preach, when he became one of the first revivalists of the 
 South. When Doctor Buckner began his meeting at Sher- 
 man it was held in an old school house ; when the meeting 
 closed, it was a strong church, which was immediately or- 
 ganized. The rest of his career is so intimately woven into 
 Baptist affairs in Texas from this period forth, that it is not 
 necessary to anticipate that which will appear in these pages. 
 Gentle, suave in disposition, generous to a fault, with a 
 warm, affectionate heart, he is a universal favorite among 
 his brethren. 
 
 In 1872 the General Association held its fifth annual 
 session with the Rowlett Creek Church, in Collin county. 
 The meeting was lacking in the animation and power 
 which attached to it during the preceding session, for 
 despite the elaborate plans of the session next preceding, 
 and the call for enlarged means, the association fell im- 
 mensely behind. After as liberal exhibit as the facts would 
 justify, the corresponding secretary was forced to express 
 deep regret at the sparseness of the results of the work of 
 the year. But when the State Convention met in the autumn 
 the condition was practically the same. It was a period of 
 dearth of interest in Baptist aff"airs. The State Convention 
 met at Independence. W. C. Crane was elected president; 
 W. H. Dodge, P. B. Chandler and J. H. Stribling, vice-presi- 
 dents ; O. H. P. Garrett, recording secretary, and W. W. 
 Fontaine, corresponding secretary. The contributions of 
 the year scarcely exceeded $1,200, about one-third of which 
 was given for the erection of a house of worship at San 
 Antonio. The report from Baylor University was somewhat
 
 Ki:V. JAMES A. FRENCH. TH. M., D. D.. PASTOR FIRST CHURCH, 
 AUSTIN, TEXAS. 
 
 (Reared in Richmond, Va. ; educated at Richmond College, Univ. of 
 Va.. and S. B. T. S. ; pastor at Orange and Gordonsville, Va., Paris and 
 Shelbyvllle, Ky., and Talladega, Ala. ; became pastor of First Church, 
 Austin, Tex., July 1, 3S96; is in close touch with Univ. life and depart- 
 ments of state in Capitol city : was for several years, until it was merged 
 into work of State Mission Board, Pres. of State S. S. and C. Con. : is 
 member of Education Commission : is a careful student, good sermonizer 
 and vigilant pastor ; his present charge has greatly increased during his 
 pastorate ; two churches have gone out from the membership, and another 
 is contemplated.)
 
 ACTIVITY AND AGITATION 215 
 
 better, as the number of students in attendance was slightly 
 in excess of that of the previous year. H. L. Graves had 
 retired from the head of the college for girls, and Colonel 
 W. W. Fontaine had succeeded him. 
 
 Early in 1873 the purpose was conceived of inviting the 
 meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention for 1874, to 
 Texas. That great body had never held but one session 
 west of the Mississippi, and then at St. Louis, and the Bap- 
 tists of Texas were anxious to have it meet in this state. 
 A strong delegation from Texas attended the Southern 
 Convention, which met in 1873, at Mobile, Alabama. The 
 Texans became conspicuous on the floor of the convention 
 at Mobile by their liberal contributions to the Southern Bap- 
 tist Theological Seminary. It was a matter of great interest 
 to Doctor Boyce, the president alike of the convention and 
 of the seminary, that so many Texans were ready to make 
 donations of fertile lands to the seminary. 
 
 When the questions of time and place of the next session 
 of the body were to be determined, Jefferson, Texas, was 
 named, and Major W. E. Penn, who was at that time a 
 member of the bar of Jefferson, made an elaborate speech in 
 behalf of the city of which he was a resident, and invited 
 "everybody and his wife" to come to Texas and to "test 
 Texas hospitality." He was ably seconded in his appeal by 
 Revs. Z. N. Morrell and J. W. D. Creath. The offer was 
 accepted. 
 
 It was in 1873 that what was known as the Centennial 
 Commission was conceived by Doctor Cutting, the object 
 of which commission was to raise a large fund from the 
 Baptists of the United States for educational purposes in 
 Baptist schools and colleges. Attending on the meeting of 
 the commission in New York, Dr. R. C. Burleson was ap- 
 pointed its agent in Texas. On his return he entered on 
 his work in the interest of the existing denominational 
 schools, but declined to represent in his pleas the Education 
 Union, which had been created by the denomination, to 
 found a general and central university for the Baptists of 
 Texas. This was an additional occasion for fresh division, 
 and necessitated action on the part of those having in charge 
 the Education Union, to insist on proper recognition at the
 
 216 HISTOKY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 hands of the agent, and to be included in the uniform move- 
 ment throughout the country. In this appeal to the Central 
 Commission in New York the Education Union came to be 
 recognized and was included. 
 
 In the year 1873 Texas had another serious visitation 
 of the yellow fever epidemic, with its attendant depression 
 and demoralization. The State Convention was to have been 
 held that year at Huntsville, but it was deemed wise to 
 change both the time and place of the meeting of the body, 
 and so the convention met with the First Church at Austin 
 on November 15. In its organization W. C. Crane was made 
 president ; W. H. Dodge, William Howard and J. H. Strib- 
 ling, vice-presidents ; O. H. P. Garrett, recording secretary, 
 and W. W. Fontaine, corresponding secretary. The year 
 was remarkable for the great meetings which had been held 
 throughout the state. Among the active participants in this 
 work were certain ministerial students at Baylor University, 
 and here appear the names of some young men who have 
 since become prominent in the denomination. The young 
 men studying for the ministry at Baylor had such represent- 
 atives in the field as J- M. Carroll, George W. Baines, Jr.', 
 M. M. Haggard and C. B. Hollis. These young men re- 
 ceived special mention at the hands of the Board of Direct- 
 ors in its annual report to the State Convention. At this 
 session of the body J. W. D. Creath found it necessary to 
 withdraw from the general work, in order to procure funds 
 for building a meeting house for the Baptists in the city of 
 San Antonio. On this special work he set his heart, and in 
 order to its consummation he resolved to give to it his entire 
 time. In his last report to the convention he stated that the 
 convention, from the time of its organization in 1848, had. 
 through its missionaries, organized one hundred and fifteen 
 churches and had baptized seven thousand persons on a pro- 
 fession of faith. The annual report showed that the sum 
 of $800 had been collected on the field during the preceding 
 year. The activities of the missionaries of the convention 
 were equaled by those of the General Association, the annual 
 report of which body shows that there had been ten churches 
 organized, and thirty-one persons baptized, by the mission- 
 aries of that organization. The collection'; on the field,
 
 ACTIVITY AND AGITATION 217 
 
 however, \yere meager, as only $398.25 was reported as the 
 result of the year's work. At this session of the General 
 Association the Sunday-school and Mission Boards were 
 merged and located at Dallas. During the year special effort 
 had been made in Sunday-school work under the efficient 
 agency of Rev. M. V. Smith, who, in addition to the organi- 
 zation of new schools, was engaged also in the collection of 
 Sunday-school statistics. 
 
 The evangelistic activity of the denomination during the 
 year 1873, awoke fresh hope and stimulation. All that was 
 needed at this time was a solid front of denominational ag- 
 gressiveness. No people Avere ever more ready for a for- 
 ward stride and for the accomplishment of brilliant achieve- 
 ments. But the divided condition unfitted them for the work 
 which seemed so inviting. 
 
 On December 30, Judge R. E. B. Baylor, for whom the 
 university is named, died at his residence, at Gayhill, Wash- 
 ington county, and was buried, at his own request, on the 
 campus of Baylor University, at Independence. His simple 
 grave may be seen just a short distance to the rear of the 
 first edifice which was erected on the campus of the old 
 buildings, in the town of Independence. The name of 
 Robert Emmett Bledsoe Baylor will ever be inseparable 
 from the early struggles and splendid achievements of the 
 Baptists of Texas. His was a remarkable career of fealty 
 to his state as a soldier, a civilian, a statesman, a jurist, and 
 to his denomination as a devoted member, a man worthy 
 of imitation in the piety of his life and as a simple preacher 
 of the gospel. His impress will abide when the stars 
 shall fade.
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 THE COMBAT DEEPENS. 
 
 The year 1874 gave but little assurance of harmony in 
 the ranks of the Baptists of Texas. They were riven in 
 twain on the educational question, with no visible hope of 
 subsequent peace. The year was ushered in with a new 
 Richmond in the field. The surge of battle had provoked 
 the existence of another Baptist paper, and a paper born 
 under such a stress as now prevailed, was indicative of any- 
 thing but concord. It meant that the line of battle was to 
 be organized anew and that execution, not wholly amicable 
 and fraternal, was to follow. The Religions Messenger 
 began its existence at Paris, Texas, January 3, 1874. It 
 meant much that Rev. R. C. Buckner was the editor. Ami- 
 able in disposition, persuasive in power, skillful in argu- 
 ment, popular, and of unquestioned sincerity, he appeared in 
 the editorial arena amply qualified to wield a trenchant pen 
 in advocacy of what had come to be called "the Waco pol- 
 icy," which was only another name for protesting against 
 the centralization of the Baptist schools into one large insti- 
 tution of learning, perhaps distinct and apart from either of 
 those already existing. On the other hand, the Texas Bap- 
 tist Herald had for years, under Doctor Link, been urging 
 an opposite policy. As close unity as the new paper under 
 Doctor Buckner advocated was that of the maintenance of 
 two general bodies, such as the State Convention and the 
 General Association were, and two large institutions of 
 learning. 
 
 The advent of the Religious Messenger was hailed with 
 delight by those who coincided with the policy of divided 
 interests, which policy grew in popularity and rapidly won 
 esteem and a large following. This heightened the intensity 
 of the relations already strained to a considerable tension, 
 
 218
 
 THE COMBAT DEEPENS 219 
 
 and blotted all apparent hope of a reconciliation of the 
 Baptists to a common unity. Nor did the attitude of Presi- 
 dent Burleson to the Education Union afiford any relief. His 
 lack of sympathy for this institution prompted him to throw 
 all of his influence, as the representative in Texas of the 
 movement begun by Doctor Cutting, against the commission. 
 The commission felt encouraged in the prosecution of its 
 work by the generous reception given it, and by the prompt 
 response to the appeal for the first installment of $10,000 
 as a basis for beginning the work. 
 
 Thus were arrayed against each other the ablest men 
 of the denomination, each party with its organ and organi- 
 zation. The battle waxed hot from the outset, and the 
 possibility of agreement receded as the tide of conflict rolled 
 on. With the utmost abandon men indulged in the full 
 expression, which was not always tempered by fraternal 
 love. Vitriol flowed in the columns of the papers, each of 
 which was increased in circulation, as each grew in popular 
 esteem, within the boundary of its constituency. From the 
 Panhandle to the Gulf, and from the Sabine to the staked 
 plains, Texas was the battle ground of contending Baptists. 
 There was no stint of utterance, no chariness of sentiment. 
 Apart from the expediency of such a course, there can be 
 no doubt that this copious and unreserved expression of 
 liberty, this freedom of utterance, was the safety valve of 
 the denomination during a period when everything was 
 needed to be fully understood. To have disguised and dis- 
 sembled at such a time would have involved future trouble, 
 whereas a thorough unmasking of every possible position 
 now, prepared the way for the consummation which lay in 
 the distant future, and without which complete understand- 
 ing, no such culmination would ever have been reached. This 
 is no justification of many things said and done during a 
 time when passion was supreme to judgment, but the unre- 
 strained lengths to which men went, and the full exposure 
 of every position enabled them to judge with accuracy of 
 each other, as they could not have done had it been other- 
 wise. 
 
 The freedom of speech in which Baptists have always 
 indulged has frequently won for them undeserved censure,
 
 230 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 especially from the unthoughtful. Baptists have oftentimes 
 been reprehended for unrestrained liberty of speech, espe- 
 cially when freely indulged in among themselves, and yet 
 all history shows that that principle is the basic one of every 
 free institution that has found existence under the sun. That 
 it may have drifted into license at times, is not denied ; but 
 that is the inevitable accompaniment of every aspect of 
 human freedom. Liberty of speech is the vent of freedom 
 
 REV. B. L. SPRINGER, ABILENE, TEXAS. 
 
 (Born in Lee Co., Miss., .July 27, 18C2 ; educated in the public school 
 .it Bluff Springs ; came to Texas in 1877 ; left the railroad service in 
 1890 and was ordained to the full work of the ministry by the church at 
 Lometa, Texas, in August, 1891 ; he has held a number of important 
 pastorates and has baptized about 500 people during his ministry ; he is 
 now at work as evangelist of the Sweetwater Association, and his labors 
 are richly blessed of God.) 
 
 everywhere. In the exercise of such liberty, Baptists have 
 waged verbal contests, such as was carried on during the 
 period now under consideration, but the cyclone purifies the 
 atmosphere and precedes the permanent calm. This liberty 
 of speech on the part of Baptists, sometimes at its 
 height, would seem to give but little promise of the ultimate 
 peace sought, yet it has come anon, and following it has
 
 THE COMBAT DEEPENS 221 
 
 come a solidity of permanency which would never have 
 been attained independent of distraction arising from a full 
 expression of view. A cause or principle which cannot 
 survive a stormy discussion, and finally emerge into the 
 clear light of vindication, furnishes thereby the strongest 
 evidence of its unworthiness. The principle of free speech 
 has done more to make compact the numerous units of Bap- 
 tist forces, and to make formidable the independent churches 
 which are unbound by ecclesiastical dogma or supervision, 
 than could have been effected without unrestrained freedom 
 of speech. This principle has found its vindication in the 
 press of the greatest republic the world has known, and it 
 is the underlying principle of every great government. 
 Muzzle speech, and the vent hole of liberty is stopped and 
 disorder is bred. Churches, while sacred, are still human. 
 In order to development there must be breathing-space; in 
 order to expansion, elbow-room. In all Baptist struggles, 
 sanity has eventually prevailed, and its ultimate dominance 
 has been made the stronger because of the preceding contest. 
 It was unfortunate that the Baptists of Texas could not 
 see alike in the present contention, as it always is, but in this 
 contest the darkness had to precede the dawn. In this con- 
 tention between the two divisions of Baptists there was evi- 
 dent advantage on the side of the General Association. Its 
 constituency was practically a unit. Within the confines of 
 the body was a school which was flourishing in a growing 
 town. Its able paper was making rapid headway, and the 
 region embraced within the territory of the association was 
 increasing in population and developing at a most encourag- 
 ing rate. On the other hand, while the organ of the State 
 Convention was ably conducted, the school within its terri- 
 tory was on the rapid decline, and stood opposed to the pol- 
 icy advocated by the paper, and was thus far in full accord 
 with the opposition. Everything conspired to favor Waco 
 as an education center, while absolutely nothing was helpful 
 to Independence. The population had poured northward, 
 the strength of the Baptists in the upper regions of the state 
 had stranded Baylor University at Independence, and wise 
 men could not close their eyes to facts. It might have been 
 occasion for regret, atid was ; but the fact remained, and
 
 223 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 wisdom proceeds along the line of fact and not of empty 
 sentiment. I'^or Baylor University in its original location 
 the hour of opportunity has passed, never to return. 
 "The mill will never grind with the water that is past." 
 
 It was only a question of time when the loyalty of the 
 denomination, dictated by wisdom, would concentrate its 
 educational interests elsewhere. Then, too, the time had 
 come to American institutions when they would leave the 
 eddies of population and seek the deep currents of human 
 life, in the crowded centers. Sentiment of location and 
 misconceived notions of freedom from vice in retired nooks, 
 has become traditional, and the institution which would 
 avail most must find an abiding quarter where life is most 
 illustrative and tensest. 
 
 In May, 1874, the Southern Baptist Convention was held 
 at Jefferson. In some respects the meeting was a mem- 
 orable one. The body had never before met in Texas, and 
 the presence of so many lights of the denomination, and the 
 scope of the work, brought for the first time to the atten- 
 tion of the large delegation of Texans present, produced a 
 profound impression. Through the management of Dr. 
 J. B. Link and others, the generosity of the railway lines of 
 the state was enlisted in giving to the members of the con- 
 vention a free excursion throughout Texas. The object 
 was two-fold — on the side of the Baptists of Texas, an ex- 
 pression of hospitality hitherto unequaled; on the part of 
 the railroads, to give broad advertisement of the attractions 
 of Texas. The state was traversed throughout, along all 
 the main lines of railway, and, by prearrangement, Baptists 
 and others along the route w^ould meet the crowded trains 
 of tourists with abundant refreshments during the day, and 
 provide for their accommodation in the cities at night. It 
 was a lavish display of generosity and hospitality, and the 
 result was the awakening of a widespread interest in behalf 
 of Texas. An embarrassing episode, in connection with 
 this marvelous railway pilgrimage, occurred at Dallas, then 
 a booming town, where the enterprising mayor and other 
 citizens, bent on making the best impression possible, ar- 
 ranged for a reception of the tourists at the opera house. 
 Carriages bore the delegates thither, where the most cordial
 
 THE COMBAT DEEPENS 223 
 
 greeting was extended by the mayor, in which were expres- 
 sions compHmentary to the great Baptist denomination. 
 Among others who spoke in reply, was Dr. J. H. DeVotie, 
 of Georgia. Among other things said by him, he spoke of 
 soul-h'berty as a cardinal principle of Baptists, which prin- 
 ciple, he alleged, has been won through the ages without the 
 taint or stain of blood on the escutcheon of the denomina- 
 tion. This he compared to the propagation of the religion 
 of Romanism by the sword and fagot. The fact was subse- 
 quently disclosed that the mayor himself was an ardent 
 Roman Catholic. This was an incident that awoke great 
 regret and from none more than from Doctor DeVotie him- 
 self, for he was the impersonation of a chivalrous gentleman. 
 It was an indiscretion into which he blundered, and while it 
 was true, the proprieties of the occasion forbade its utterance. 
 
 In July, following the meeting of the Southern Baptist 
 Convention, the General Association held its seventh annual 
 session at Dallas. It was clear that The Religious Messenger 
 had aroused greater interest in denominational enterprises. 
 The attendance on the meeting was good, and the enthusiasm 
 in the different branches of denominational effort was en- 
 couraging. The reports of the two general missionaries, 
 E. B. Hardie and J. E. Sligh, showed progress in new fields, 
 while the Sunday-school work, which went along parallel 
 with the other, through the years, was one of great en- 
 couragement. The receipts from the field amounted to 
 $403.75. In the report on education, the Waco and Shreve- 
 port Universities were endorsed. The grave financial de- 
 pression prevailing throughout the country at this time, and 
 especially throughout the South, seriously hindered all de- 
 nominational effort. Affairs were greatly unsettled, and 
 under the regime of reconstruction and the present financial 
 stress, the masses were intolerably harassed. 
 
 The State Convention for 1874 was held at Galveston. 
 W. C. Crane was made president ; W. H. Dodge, William 
 Howard and j . H. Stribling, vice presidents ; O. H. P. Gar- 
 rett, recording secretary, and W. W. Fontaine, correspond- 
 ing secretary. The proceedings had lapsed into merely 
 formal exercises, and there was but little spirit in the body. 
 The future gave but little assurance of the restoration of
 
 224 lilSTOEY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 order and a stable basis on which the country might safel\ 
 proceed. The convention felt insecure in the projection of 
 any new plans based on financial safety. One missionary 
 alone had been employed by the board, and help had been 
 rendered several district associations in the prosecution of 
 their local work. Practically but little was being- done, and 
 the agitated condition of the denomination was productive 
 of anything rather than of assurance. During the year, 
 collections from all sources aggregated $1,050.50. Still the 
 leaders were not without hope. How the tangled condition 
 of their educational affairs would be unraveled no one was 
 bold enough to predict. The opposing divisions seemed 
 each intent on the accomplishment of a given end, which 
 lay respectively wide apart, with no visible possibility of a 
 single point of contact or agreement. The Texas Baptist 
 Herald hoped to realize vast results from the centennial 
 movement, yet the Education Union was confronted by the 
 opposition of Doctor Burleson, who, by reason of his being 
 the agent for that movement in the state, was in position 
 to hamper it most seriously. Hope was directed to a forth- 
 coming meeting of the Education Union to be held in 1875 
 to devise a method of procedure with respect to the centen- 
 nial movement. Meantime there was no abatement of the 
 discussion through the rival papers, which swallowed all 
 else. With the advent of 1875, came the hope that the 
 troublous question might in some way be solved and settled. 
 As has already been said, the opposition of Doctor Burleson 
 was somewhat neutralized by the ability of the Education 
 Commission to succeed in gaining recognition from the 
 headquarters of the movement in New York. After this 
 was effected, the plan was adopted by the Education 
 Union of inviting a meeting of representative Bap- 
 tists at Bremond on June 23, 1875. In advance of the 
 proposed convention at Bremond, a number of leading men 
 met at Navasota to devise a plan of action at the proposed 
 meeting. They came from all quarters and were represent- 
 ative of every phase of sentiment. The presidents of the 
 two schools were there. Doctors Burleson and Crane, to- 
 gether with Drs. B. H. Carroll, R. C. Buckner, J. B. Link 
 and Jonas Johnston. For an entire night this advance com-
 
 THE COMBAT DEEPENS 225 
 
 mittee wrestled with the problem, and the decision was 
 finally reached so to combine the two existing schools as to 
 make them one, which institution was to be known as Bay- 
 lor University. By this arrangement the school at Inde- 
 pendence was to become academic and theological, while 
 the one at Waco should become purely classical. A further 
 arrangement was proposed, by which an endowment of two 
 or three hundred thousand dollars was to be raised, the first 
 twenty-five of which was to be devoted to the school at Inde- 
 pendence. The schools were to be accepted just as they 
 were, and no bonus was to be required of either locality. 
 
 Presuming on the action of the convention some years 
 previously, in which there was expressed disapproval of the 
 removal of Baylor University from Independence, the trus- 
 tees of that school declined to consider the proposal. By 
 some, this action of the trustees was regarded as most for- 
 tunate, as it was believed that such action as was originally 
 proposed would have involved perpetual friction between 
 the two divisions at Waco and Independence. This left the 
 advance meeting held at Navasota valueless, and the way 
 was entirely clear for freedom of action when the proposed 
 convention should assemble at Bremond. The wide publica- 
 tion of the meeting soon to be held, together with its 
 purposes, brought a large and representative body of Bap- 
 tists from every part of the state. The original plan hav- 
 ing failed and gone to pieces, the perplexity still was what 
 procedure should be adopted at Bremond. No one had 
 another plan to propose, and the matter was left open till 
 the representatives should come together. 
 
 When the convention assembled it was found that there 
 were four interests to be respected — Baylor and Waco Uni- 
 versities, Dallas College and the Education Union, An 
 organization was perfected by the election of J, H. Stribling, 
 president, and J. M. Lewis and G. W, Baines, Jr,, secre- 
 taries. On motion it was agreed that all the interests 
 present be allowed to appoint three members of a pro- 
 posed committee, to which was to be added three others by 
 the chair, making a committee of fifteen, and this commit- 
 tee was to retire and report a plan of procedure. For 
 almost an entire nisfht the committee was assembled with-
 
 22G 
 
 ITFRTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 out being able to reach any agreement as a base of action. 
 The air was full of distrust. The next morning the com- 
 mittee met again, and Dr. J. P. Boyce, president of the 
 Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, who was present, 
 was invited to meet the committee and offer any advice 
 wliicli he niiuht sec fit to "ive in aid of the solution of the 
 
 REV. ADONIRAM JUDSOX HOLT, TASTOR, KNOXVILLE, TENX. 
 
 (Born Dec. 1. 1847 ; educated at McKenzie College and S. B. T. S. ; 
 D. D. by three colleges, A. M. by Alma Mater ; 18 years a pastor ; 22 years 
 a missionary and mission secretary ; editor of Texas Baptist Herald and 
 Baptist Reflector ; author of "Miriam Heth," "Parthenia," "Missionary 
 Manual" ; has traveled in Europe, Asia and Africa ; preached 7,600 ser- 
 mons ; dedicated 13G church houses ; baptized 1,825 people ; preached the 
 first sermon and baptized the first person among the wild Indians ; 
 visited 75 state and several conventions and 425 District Associations 
 up to the time he was 60 years old. Has six living children and four 
 grandchildren ; was Manager, Treasurer and Supt. of Tenn. Baptist 
 Orpliaus' Home, many years, in connection with his missionary work.) 
 
 problem. Others followed Doctor Boyce, and the occasion 
 was turned into a prayer-meeting of great power. Among 
 other proposed measures was that of making Baylor Univer- 
 sity at Independence the central Baptist educational interest, 
 but the motion failed of adoption. A similar effort was 
 made with respect to Waco University, with the same
 
 THE COMBAT DEEPENS 237 
 
 result. At this juncture Dr. J. B. Link outlined a plan 
 which was adopted. The plan proposed the appointment of 
 a committee of thirty members, to be called the Central 
 Baptist Education Commission of Texas, which committee 
 was to be charged with the work of raising $250,000, $100,- 
 000 of which amount was to be invested, and the donors of 
 the amount named should have the privilege of locating the 
 proposed school, respect to be had for the largest bonus 
 which should be offered by any one place and for the eligi- 
 bility of said place. The plan further proposed that the 
 interest accruing from the invested funds be subject to the 
 direction of the donors in being applied to the chartered 
 schools already existing. A further provision was that all 
 funds in the hands of the Education Union be transferred 
 to the commission, that the Education Union be dissolved, 
 that no impediment be thrown in the way of any agent of 
 any existing school, and that agents of such schools be re- 
 quested not to obstruct the work of the proposed commission. 
 This came within one of the unanimous adoption by the com- 
 mittee of fifteen. An agreement so sudden and unexpected 
 provoked tears and confessions of indiscreet utterances. 
 The agreement was signed by B. H. Carroll, F, M. Law, 
 W. C. Crane, R. C. Burleson, J. A. Kimball, Hosea Garrett, 
 H. W. Dodge, J. B. Link, T. J. Drane, J. W. Speight, 
 W. E. Clark, Abram Weaver, G. T. Wilburn and Jonas 
 Johnston. John McKnight, of Independence, alone declined 
 to enter into the agreement. The committee was forthwith 
 resolved into a prayer and praise meeting. Among other 
 things President Burleson said that he had such sacred awe 
 for the occasion and for that which it had brought forth, 
 that he felt like taking off his shoes, for he felt as though 
 he was on holy ground, so impressed was he with the pres- 
 ence of God on the occasion. The eft'ect was electrical, and 
 men wept as though they were babes. All felt that every 
 trouble of the Baptists of Texas was now at an end, and 
 that only a glorious future awaited them. 
 
 In the afternoon the plan was submitted by the commit- 
 tee to the convention, several questions were asked and 
 answered, and after a brief discussion, the report was 
 adopted bv a rising vote. Among those who spoke in praise
 
 228 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 of tlic plan and who gave it public endorsement were Presi- 
 dents Burleson, Crane and Wilburn, of Dallas College, B. H. 
 Carroll and others. The adoption of the report aroused 
 great enthusiasm, and the convention sang the doxology in 
 grateful praise. The proposed commission was organized 
 on the spot, and it was agreed to hold its meetings in con- 
 nection with the annual gatherings of the two chief bodies 
 — the State Convention and the General Association. After 
 the appointment of an executive board of twelve members 
 Doctor Burleson nominated Dr. B. H. Carroll as the agent 
 of the commission to raise the proposed mount, but he 
 promptly declined to consider it. 
 
 With buoyant hearts all turned again homeward. No 
 one seemed to doubt that the solution of the difficulties and 
 perplexities which had so long afflicted the denomination 
 were now at an end. Never was hope more buoyant, never 
 a prospect brighter. When the General Association met 
 at Sherman a month later there was not a quorum of the 
 commission present, but business was transacted and made 
 subject to the ratification of the commission when a quorum 
 should be present. This meeting w^as held in connection 
 with the eighth annual session of the General Association. 
 The reports from different quarters of the territory of the 
 association showed genuine progress, but there was a wail 
 of stringency in financial matters. There Avas a lack of 
 harmony, however, in matters of a local nature on the field, 
 though with respect to all general denominational matters 
 there was thorough accord and acquiescence. In the re- 
 port of the corresponding secretary allusion was made to 
 the meetings of power w'hich had been held during the year, 
 to the financial stringency, to the numerous accessions to our 
 ministerial ranks from other states, and to the approaching 
 centennial movement as a period liable to become "a year 
 immortal in the memory of man." A restrictive policy was 
 adopted relative to the membership of the body, requiring 
 that only such should be recognized as members who were 
 sent from churches belonging to the General Association. 
 This was taken to mean that a cordon of defense should 
 be placed about the body against certain influc;";tial mem- 
 bers from other sections of the state, who were co-oper-
 
 THE COMBAT DEEPENS 229 
 
 ating with the body as messengers from remote churches. 
 A note of harmony was sounded, however, when both 
 of the papers were endorsed. The report on Home Mis- 
 sions showed that within the last nine years the Domes- 
 tic Board at Marion, Alabama, had expended in the state 
 $7,199.06 and had received in return during the same 
 time $12,370.50. " The centennial movement, which began 
 a month before at Bremond, was earnestly endorsed, and the 
 effort to found a central educational institution was ap- 
 proved. A movement looking to the unification of the Sun- 
 day-school work found expression in the proposal to hold a 
 convention for that purpose during the following November. 
 Dr. R. C. Buckner was appointed the general missionary of 
 the association, and E. B. Hardie and J. E. Sligh were con- 
 tinued as general agents. 
 
 The meeting of the General Association was followed by 
 a comparative calm, as it was generally conceded to be a 
 foregone conclusion that at last the denomination had 
 reached a basis of agreement on the educational question. 
 This general impression put a quietus on the denomination, 
 and gave a sense of universal relief. 
 
 When the State Convention met at Calvert on October 
 2, 1875, interest centered in the educational movement. All 
 minds and hearts were turned toward that one absorbing 
 thought. This, taken in connection with the uniform move- 
 ment, proposed on the part of the Baptists of the United 
 States to raise an immense sum in 1876, for educational pur- 
 poses, in celebration of the centenary of religious liberty, 
 produced a thrill of religious patriotism everywhere. In 
 view of this proposed movement the following was adopted : 
 
 "Resolved, That we most heartily approve the resolution 
 of the Education Commission assembled at Bremond. 
 Texas, June 23 to raise two hundred and fifty thousand 
 dollars to establish and endow an institution of higher 
 learning for the state of Texas to be located by the donors 
 when the money is raised." During the year $1,458.55 had 
 been raised by the representatives of the convention for all 
 purposes. The trustees of Baylor College for Girls an- 
 nounced the resignation of Colonel Fontaine, the president 
 of the school, and the election of Dr. William Royall as his
 
 230 HISTORY or TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 successor. Doctor Royall had enjoyed exceptional advan- 
 tages in his scholastic course, having been a student in South 
 Carolina College under such men as Thornwcll, Hooper, 
 Elliott and Lieber. He was converted under the preaching 
 of Richard Fuller, and w^as baptized by the elder Basil 
 Manly. He was a trained teacher, a fervent student and 
 was possessed of a well-poised character. 
 
 At the convention at Calvert steps were taken to reach 
 the colored ministry, and through that means to affect, 
 through evangelistic effort, the negroes of the state. During 
 the session of the body, the Education Commission held a 
 session, at which the financial secretaryship was again ten- 
 dered to Dr. B. H. Carroll, but he again declined even to 
 consider it. This furnished a ground of opposition to the 
 movement on the part of President Burleson, who had sup- 
 ported the measure, as it would now appear, with that end 
 in view. At any rate, the declination of the financial secre- 
 taryship by Doctor Carroll cooled the ardor of Doctor 
 Burleson, and his enthusiasm at Bremond, when he had felt 
 that he stood on holy ground, was turned into opposition. 
 What other basis of opposition he may have had is perhaps 
 not known, but that he became one of its stoutest opponents 
 is a matter of historic fact. With the declination of Doctor 
 Carroll, the position of financial secretary was tendered to 
 Dr. F. M. Law, and he accepted it. That the choice of 
 Doctor Law was a wise one, the cool business which he 
 injected into it and the success which crowned his efforts 
 abundantly justify. It is a matter of doubt if any other at 
 all could have accomplished more than did he. 
 
 It was in 1875 that Major W. E. Penn began his mar- 
 velous career as an evangelist. Allusion has already been 
 made to the part played by Doctor Buckner, during the 
 conduct of a meeting held in Jefferson, in evoking into ac- 
 tivity the dormant energies of i\Iajor Pemi. For years to- 
 gether he had been content with a plodding professionism of 
 religion, but his slumbering soul was quickened by the power 
 of the preaching of Buckner, and that was the turning-point 
 in the life of Penn. An attorney, he sought to give activity 
 to his aroused powers in the Sunday-school, to which work 
 he became ardently attached. While attending a Sunday-
 
 THE COMBAT DEEPENS 331 
 
 school institute at Tyler, where J. H. Stribling was pastor, 
 Penn was invited to conduct a prayer meeting in the Tyler 
 church the very morning on which he had arranged to re- 
 turn to his home at Jefferson. Major Penn reluctantly 
 yielded to the solicitations of the pastor, conducted the 
 meeting, and it was attended with such results that the pastor 
 prevailed on him to remain and to conduct a similar meeting 
 at night. It was on this occasion that Penn made his first 
 direct appeal to the unsaved, with such result as positively 
 to surprise the lawyer himself. In order to prevent Major 
 Penn from executing a purpose to return home the follow- 
 ing morning, Doctor Stribling sought an expression from 
 the audience relative to its wishes about the return of Penn 
 to his home. By a rising vote there was an unanimous 
 public protest against his quitting the meeting. Yielding to 
 a pressure like this, Major Penn remained, the meeting lasted 
 five weeks, the town was shaken as never before, men unac- 
 customed to attend worship came to the services, and were 
 converted, and fully one hundred were led to Christ through 
 the instrumentality of Major Penn. Here began his fame 
 as an evangelist. He gave up his profession as an attorney, 
 devoted himself to evangelistic work, and became famous 
 throughout the states of the South. For many years he was 
 a conspicuous revivalist, and his services were sought far 
 and wide. 
 
 In this connection it is not improper to give a more 
 extended notice to one or more distinguished laymen, whose 
 ])rominence was such that their names cannot be passed over, 
 in justice, by a merely casual mention. One of these was 
 General Joseph Warren Speight. His parentage was dis- 
 tinguished in the state of North Carolina, where General 
 Speight was born. His father was a congressman from 
 that state and afterward a United States senator from Mis- 
 sissippi. The son began life as a young lawyer at Aberdeen, 
 Mississippi, when he was only twenty years old. His health 
 declining, he sought the salubrious West, and located in 
 Waco, as a planter, when it was a mere straggling village. 
 Here he was converted, and for many years was identified 
 in numerous and conspicuous ways with the Baptist cause 
 in that citv, and indeed in the state. He was deacon and
 
 HON. W. B. DBNSON, GAINESVILLE, TEXAS. 
 
 (Born in Alabama, Dec, 1837; came to Texas. 1853; graduated from 
 Baylor University, 1857, receiving first honors of his class ; graduated in 
 Law Dept. Tulane University, N. O., La., 1859 : entered Confederate army 
 as a private, April, 1861 ; when war closed in May, 1865, was Lieut.-Col. 
 commanding the 6th La. Cavalry; practiced law in Galveston until 1899, 
 wjien he retired and moved to Gainesville, Tex. Joined Baptist church 
 In 1854 ; baptized by Dr. R. C. Burleson. Has been an active deacon in 
 the church 31 years : loves his office and the Master's worlj ; has been 
 Vice-Pres. H. G. C of Texas a number of times.)
 
 THE COMBAT DEEPENS 233 
 
 clerk in the First Church of Waco, having grown up with 
 it from the beginning and was moderator of the Waco Asso- 
 ciation, president of the General Association, and the first 
 president of the Board of Trustees of Waco University. 
 
 His career as a soldier is a most meritorious one. He 
 entered the army as the colonel of a regiment in the army 
 of the Trans-Mississippi Department, was promoted to a 
 brigadiership, was wounded at Pleasant Hill, Louisiana, and 
 left the army with a most honorable record. Public-spirited, 
 he was connected with every enterprise that was conducive 
 to the development of Waco and of the university. When 
 the consolidation came, in 1886, he cheerfully gave up his 
 beautiful home and grounds for a site for the university. 
 
 Appropriately coupled with him in a connection like this 
 may be named General James E. Harrison, who was de- 
 scended from a distinguished ancestry, reaching from the 
 Revolution, in which his great-grandfather was an officer 
 who belonged to the military family of Washington. Gov- 
 ernor Benjamin Harrison, of Virginia, one of the signers of 
 the Declaration of Independence, President William Henry 
 Harrison, and others of the distinguished name, were those 
 from whom he descended on his father's side, while on the 
 maternal side he was related to the Hamptons of South 
 Carolina. While a senator in the Mississippi legislature. 
 Harrison was the man who nominated Jefferson Davis for 
 the United States senatorship. Settling on a plantation on 
 the Brazos, near Waco, some years before the Civil War, 
 he was chosen a delegate to the secession convention of 
 this state, and was called the "Patrick Henry" of that body 
 because of his rare oratory. His career as a Confederate 
 soldier began as a lieutenant, and by degrees he rose to be 
 a brigadier-general. When the petition for his last promo- 
 tion was endorsed by General E. Kirby Smith, because of 
 his "distinguished skill and bravery upon many battlefields," 
 President Davis recalled the man who had nominated him 
 for the senate in the Mississippi legislature, and promptly 
 signed the petition for his promotion. 
 
 Returning from the war, he resumed the function of a 
 planter on the Brazos, and was frequently called into service 
 by his denomination. As one of the Board of Trustees of
 
 234 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 Baylor University, as moderator of the Waco Association, 
 and as president of the General Association, he rendered 
 signal service, as well as in many other capacities. The 
 town of Harrison, on the Waco branch of the Texas Cen- 
 tral, commemorates the locality of his settlement in Mc- 
 Lennan county. 
 
 In January, 1876, Tlic Religions Messenger, which had 
 been published since its inception at Paris, was removed 
 to Dallas and the name was changed to that of The Texas 
 Baptist., Points of difference continued to exist between the 
 two papers, especially since the efifort to combine all the edu- 
 cational interests into unity, and they w^ere in every respect 
 rivals, before the denomination, for its patronage. There 
 were vital differences between the journals, not only on the 
 educational question, but on several points of denominational 
 policy. Both papers urged consolidation, but from different 
 points of view, and dififerent bases — that of the Texas Bap- 
 tist Herald being more restrictive than that of The Texas 
 Baptist. 
 
 The year 1876 was looked forward to with exceeding 
 great hopefulness by the Baptists of the country, and a most 
 favorable opportunity was afforded for tremendous results 
 to the cause of education, but that which was known as 
 "the centennial movement" proved to be, from mismanage- 
 ment, a practical failure. With the injection of business 
 principles into the movement its yield would have been 
 monumental, but it failed because of an absence of that 
 element. In some of the states the year was turned to 
 tolerable account, but the mistaken policy of expecting that 
 every Baptist would contribute one dollar each to educa- 
 tion, and the restriction of all to that amount, however 
 poor or rich, w'as a miscalculation. IMuch of the valuable 
 opportunity was lost in empty oratory about soul liberty 
 and freedom of conscience, and the endurance of persecu- 
 tion on the part of the Baptists in the past, all of which was 
 entertaining and perhaps instructive enough, but this did 
 not yield the results of the original purpose of the under- 
 taking. While the instruction given during the period 
 stirred to elation denominational pride, it eventuated in 
 financial barrenness. In Texas, fortunately, the interest of
 
 THE COMBAT DEEPENS 335 
 
 the undertaking was entrusted to the hands of a safe and 
 sane business man, and more was derived from the under- 
 taking perhaps than in most other states. In the prosecu- 
 tion of his arduous work Secretary Law was met with gen- 
 erous sympathy; but in view of the stringency of the times, 
 there was a general hesitation about incurring obHgations 
 which extended into the future. And yet by October, 1877, 
 he was enabled to report the total assets of the commission 
 to be $80,500. The final outcome of assets was $96,673.60. 
 This amount Doctor Law was enabled to raise in the face 
 of opposition which was, at times, stout, and even stubborn. 
 But the delayed hopes of many, impaired confidence, the 
 movement was finally abandoned, and the results turned 
 over to the existing schools. The Baptists of the state 
 were not ready for the decisive step in educational matters, 
 but the agitation of the question was not without vast good, 
 and gave propulsion to the period of satisfactory consum- 
 mation. The failure of Texas Baptists to utilize advanta- 
 geously the centennial movement by raising a substantial 
 centennial fund, was largely atoned for by a general denom- 
 inational uplift, which ensued as a result of the centennial 
 agitation. 
 
 The year 1876 witnessed the election of a distinguished 
 Baptist layman to the governorship of the state. Richard 
 Bennett Hubbard was a native Georgian, a graduate from 
 Mercer University, and a graduate of "law from Harvard 
 University. He was brought into public life by his peculiar 
 fitness for that sphere, and served his state and the country 
 in many important positions, every one of which he adorned. 
 
 The year 1876 was signalized by a remarkable visita- 
 tion of revivalism and evangelism. A tidal wave of spir- 
 ituality swept through the state and thousands were saved. 
 Alajor Penn had now given himself wholly to the work of 
 an evangelist, and his meetings were attended with mar- 
 velous demonstrations of grace. Among the churches which 
 experienced these blessings was the First Church of Waco, 
 which, but for the withdrawal of eighty-two members, to 
 form another church, the membership would have been 
 doubled as the result of his work and preaching. Reports 
 of gracious meetings came from every quarter of the state.
 
 236 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 Many churches, which for a period of years had been 
 largely inert, were aroused during the eventful period, and 
 began a career of usefulness which has continued with 
 expanding breadth till now. 
 
 For a period of years the people of the state had suf- 
 fered from much financial depression. It is a noteworthy 
 fact that the Spirit often chooses such periods for the^ rich- 
 est displays of His power and grace. The tendency of de- 
 pendence is toward devotion. In the light of revealed 
 truth the philosophy of this is easily seen. "Before I was 
 atiflicted I went astray; but now have I kept thy word." 
 "It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I might 
 learn thy statutes." Prosperity tends to arrogance; ad- 
 versity, to dependence. Many never hear God's voice save 
 in the dark clouds. So long as the memory of the year 
 1876 remains, it will be recalled by the people of Texas as 
 one of a remarkable display of grace. From denominational 
 distraction the people turned to devotion. 
 
 So far as the organized work of the denomination was 
 concerned, little was being done through the appointed chan- 
 nels, unless it be that the work of the Education Commission 
 was effective, in the way already described. When the 
 General Association met at Waco in 1876 the burden of the 
 reports was that of meetings of singular power, held during 
 the year within the territory of the body, while the interests 
 fostered by the General Association had accomplished but 
 little. So far as missionary effort was concerned it had 
 apparently accomplished but little, as everything was taken 
 up on the current of revivalism which swept everything 
 before it. Indeed, but little else was thought of, or talked 
 about, during the session but the marvelous meetings. 
 
 During the year many worthy pastors were called to the 
 state from other quarters of the country. This was largely 
 due, no doubt, to several causes, among which may be 
 named that of the tour of the state by the members of the 
 Southern Baptist Convention just about two years before, 
 and that of the growing importance of the state and its 
 rapid development. Every possible agency was employed 
 to induce worthy immigrants to Texas, and in this the 
 denominational organs were not a whit less enterprising in
 
 THE COMBAT DEEPENS 237 
 
 inducing pastors to come to the state, provided that they 
 had a mind to work. Worthy men have never failed of 
 cordial welcome, because there was room for all such, 
 while there has never been in this busy state the slightest 
 space for the idler and lounger. Men in search of easy 
 positions have always found a disappointment in Texas, 
 while the actively disposed have never lacked for oppor- 
 tunity for the fullest exercise of their gifts. In no part 
 of the world is one more readily labeled than in Texas. 
 Worth is estimated at its true value, and according to the 
 estimate of the individual himself. The state is too young 
 for traditional fame and family name, which boot as little 
 in the bustling West as in any quarter of the globe. 
 
 In the ebbs and flows of denominational eflfort, for 
 unity of movement was now greatly lacking, the Sunday- 
 school and colportage work had dropped somewhat out of 
 sight. For a period of years it held the first place in de- 
 nominational endeavor, but the urgent claims of divers in- 
 terests had crowded it somewhat off the track. Still, the 
 organization was preserved, and the convention continued 
 to hold its annual session. In 1876 the Sunday-school and 
 Colportage Convention was held at Brenham, where the 
 board was located, and the utmost that could be reported 
 was that Dr. H. L. Graves, who had served as agent a part 
 of his time, reported that some Sunday-schools had been 
 organized and some books sold from the depository. Still 
 there were many Sunday-schools flourishing in different 
 parts of the state, and in most of the principal churches. It 
 was a time of serious reflection, and under-currents were 
 moving in the direction of greater things. Brighter and 
 better days were in store for the Baptists of Texas, and 
 while there were but few visible signs of progress, it was 
 nearer than the most hopeful could dare anticipate. 
 
 There were stirrings of greater things in the State Con- 
 vention when it met, in 1876, at Independence. In the or- 
 ganization W. C. Crane was made president; F. M. Law, 
 H. L. Graves and Horace Clarke, vice-presidents ; O, H. P. 
 Garrett, recording secretary, and F. Kiefer, corresponding 
 secretary. In some respects the same barrenness of results 
 was apparent that was seen in the General Association, but
 
 238 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 the outlook was anything but discouraghig. The signs on 
 the horizon gave enlarged hopes and prospects of future 
 results. After long-continued effort on the part of J. W. D. 
 Creath to build a suitable house of worship in San Antonio, 
 his hopes were about to be realized. The efforts which he 
 had made for several years past were without any special 
 connection with the convention, but now that an atmosphere 
 of hopefulness hung over that Catholic town, and now 
 that the work had assumed such proportions, the convention 
 was willing to adopt it "as one of its special fields for mis- 
 sion work." This indefatigable work on the part of Creath 
 led still further, and suggested to the convention anew the 
 duty of seeking to save the gathering thousands of Mex- 
 icans within the borders of Texas. Beyond that yet, the 
 suggestion ran, and it was proposed, that as soon as prac- 
 ticable the Baptists of Texas would take up a mission enter- 
 prise in Mexico. Besides all this there was, among the ini- 
 tial suggestions of greater things, that of more earnest 
 effort in behalf of the German population, which was gath- 
 ering in many of the growing centers of the state. Rev. 
 F. J. Gleiss, the German Baptist missionary, had rendered 
 some valuable service among his people, but what was 
 needed was an organized effort. 
 
 There was an evident uneasiness and a restlessness on 
 the part of the convention lest it was letting slip the oppor- 
 tunities which God was bringing within reach. The mighty 
 displays of His grace moved their consciences and quickened 
 their energies. Evidently there was a reawakening, and 
 men were growing seriously dissatisfied with conditions as 
 they were. Fountain sources were being sprung, and the}' 
 were destined to carry a fructifying influence through the 
 vears to come.
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 BRIGHTER AND BETTER DAYS. 
 
 The ups and downs of Texas Baptists for the last dozen 
 years, since the close of hostilities between the states, were 
 not due to a contentious spirit, which would indicate a 
 fondness for strife, for all alike deplored the situation, but 
 it was due to an intense desire, to settle on a permanent 
 l)asis, the interests of the denomination which all alike cher- 
 ished. The spirit of assertion between factions had within 
 themselves a goodly purpose. That it could have been 
 otherwise, in view of the intensity of the loyalty of leading- 
 Baptists for the accomplishment of the best possible, seems 
 impossible. That difference of opinion, in the ardent ad- 
 vocacy of methods, might have found, at times, calmer 
 expression, is granted even by those who in review of the 
 stir of events, when passion takes color from surroundings, 
 readily admit; but earnest men give emphatic expression to 
 their views, and in the surge of effort, they are least pre- 
 pared to brook opposition. It is evidently the purpose of 
 God, in the varied and profound changes wrought by grace, 
 never to change one's temperament. That is one element 
 of nature that is never changed. An ardent man remains 
 one to the end— a phlegmatic spirit never changes. 
 
 The year 1877 opened auspiciously to the people of 
 Texas. In political history it marks the end of reconstruc- 
 tion in the South. The war was ended after twelve years 
 following the capitulation at Appomattox, Henceforth the 
 people of the South were to be left to adjust themselves to 
 the chaotic conditions into which they had been brought as 
 a result of the Civil War. The removal of armed troops 
 from the South by President Hayes, marks the turning- 
 point in the history of this section. 
 
 Not to be perverted by the political situation, we return 
 
 2H9
 
 BRIGHTEE AND BETTER DAYS 341 
 
 to the current of denominatidnal affairs in Texas. It is 
 true that the irritation of contentii)n was still fresh in cer- 
 tain quarters, and sporadic symptoms were destined still 
 to show themselves, as we shall see, yet like the careering 
 herd of the plain, where everything seems confusion, all 
 head the same way. 
 
 Changes came for the better in 1877. still they were not 
 such as to give assurance of a sudden settlement of divi- 
 sions — they only gave greater promise of things yet to 
 come. That the current was swinging toward unification 
 was evident, but it sometimes took a circuitous turn. The 
 educational question was still in the front of denominational 
 thought, but that which was, at one time, so full of prom- 
 ise, had failed of realization, and not a few lost heart. 
 Opposition assumed one form or another, and the progress 
 gradually waned, only to take new form for the future. 
 Meanwhile new plans on a broader basis were being laid, 
 but they were such as would require time for development. 
 
 The year 1877 was the seed-time of a new era to the 
 Baptist cause in Texas. Much had to be overcome, the 
 earth had to be broken up afresh, new harvests had to be 
 projected, but time and labor were necessary to prepare for 
 the reaping. Men and women had grown tired of strife, 
 and their eyes w'ere being turned to the better things of the 
 future. Hope came again amidst the dust of battle, and God 
 would yet direct his people to greater things. That the 
 revivals which had swept the state had softened asperities 
 and dispelled many differences, was evident. This perhaps, 
 more than all things else, brought the rift in the smoke of 
 battle. Nothing is truer than the famous saying of John 
 Lothrop Motley : "Religion on all great historical occa- 
 sions has been the dissolvent of difificulties." 
 
 At this period progress was astir in the state. From 
 every quarter of the globe thousands were finding homes 
 in Texas, and among those who came w^ere many Baptists. 
 But most of the immigrants came seeking financial advan- 
 tage. Vast domains were being peopled, and towns and 
 cities were growing at a rapid rate. New lines of railway 
 w^ere reaching out toward all points of the compass, and 
 no one could predict the ultimate possibilities of the state.
 
 242 IIISTOEY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 Never was a duty more urgent than was that imposed on 
 the Baptists at this time to greet the incoming tides of the 
 people with a pure gospel. New men fresh from achieve- 
 ment in other fields, were coming to the Baptist pulpits 
 of Texas, where a sphere sufficiently broad for the rarest 
 gifts and the exercise of the best energy might find amplest 
 opportunity. It was the year for the beginning of great 
 things by Texas Baptists. 
 
 Among those who came about this time was Rev. C. C. 
 Chaplin, who in the beginning of this year assumed charge 
 of the First Church, at Austin. Born in Danville, Virginia, 
 and educated at Richmond College, he had held pastorates 
 at Danville, in his native state, where he was chiefly instru- 
 mental in establishing a college for girls and young women, 
 and at Owensboro and Paducah, Kentucky. A man of 
 resistless energy and of great heart, of strong pulpit ability, 
 and of administrative qualities in pastoral work. Doctor 
 Chaplin's advent to Texas was hailed with a cordiality of 
 welcome. His influence permeated every interest of the 
 denomination in his adopted state, and the impress of his 
 ability was on all. 
 
 The Sunday-school work of the state which at one time 
 had assumed such commanding importance, had declined, 
 as has already been shown, because of the pressure of the 
 claims of other denominational interests. In order to a 
 revival of the suspended interest in this important branch 
 of church work, a convention was called to meet at Ander- 
 son. Through the efforts of Rev. W. W. Keep, the pastor 
 at Anderson, and his efficient Sunday-school superintendent, 
 Deacon W. R. Howell, the gathering at Anderson was a 
 conspicuous one. Many of the most prominent pastors of 
 the state were present, together with a number of eminent 
 visitors, among whom was Doctor S. H. Ford, of St. Louis. 
 An elaborate programme of practical subjects was dis- 
 cussed, in which participated such spirits as J. B. Link, 
 W. C. Crane, S. H. Ford, J. M. Carroll, George W. Baines, 
 William Royall, Rufus Figh and M. V. Smith. There was 
 earnestness and determination in the host, and the meeting 
 proved the best in the interest of Sunday-schools that had 
 ever been held in Texas. During the year Rev. W. D.
 
 BRIGHTER AND BETTER DAYS 243 
 
 Powell was engaged as the missionary secretary of the 
 Sunday-school convention. 
 
 The results of the general work in the state were not so 
 marked as were the indications of better times. The annual 
 session of the General Association was held at Paris, in 
 1877. Texas had now become easy of accessibility from 
 other quarters of the country, and a number of visitors were 
 present at this meeting, among whom were M. T. Sumner, 
 of Alabama; S. H. Ford, G. W. Smith, and W. S. Huff, of 
 Missouri ; F. C. Johnson, of Georgia, and A. J. Holt, of the 
 Indian Territory. Senator Maxey was present, and fol- 
 lowed a report on colored population, submitted by Doctor 
 B. H. Carroll, in a speech on our duty to evangelize the 
 negro. Doctor F. M. Law was heard on the claims of the 
 Education Commission, but^ as has been said, interest in 
 the Commission had declined after the failure to produce 
 expected results during the preceding year. As a result of 
 the work on the field of the General Association, during the 
 year, not. more than $302.65 was collected. Decided inter- 
 est was shown in the Southern Baptist Theological Semi- 
 nary, at Louisville, by giving to Doctor Sumner, who rep- 
 resented the seminary, pledges amounting to one thousand 
 dollars. 
 
 There were decided indications of progress in the state 
 convention which met at Bryan on October 6, 1877. The 
 spirit of the meeting was excellent, and there were gratify- 
 ing signs of an appreciation of a broader field of exercise. 
 The income of population and the increased facilities for 
 mission work were facts which appealed most earnestly to 
 the body. The claim of state missions found expression in 
 able addresses from such men as Link, Pickett and Breed- 
 love, after which a collection was taken in cash and pledges, 
 amounting to $1,416.75. Conditions were improving, and 
 men felt the thrill of encouragement. The cause at San 
 Antonio was still a hiatter of profound interest. Rev. 
 W. H. Dodson, who had been called there as pastor, asked 
 for $1,800 with which to complete the house of worship in 
 that city. The question of German evangelization in Texas 
 was revived, and Revs. Gleiss and Keifer were appointed 
 to labor among these foreigners. Before the close of the
 
 244 HI8T0HV UF TKXA8 BAPTISTS 
 
 session $7,500 was raised for various objects, and this was 
 regarded as one of the most favorable signs of the times. 
 
 It was in December of 1877, that Doctor R. C. Buckner 
 first conceived the idea of founding a home for orphan 
 children, irrespective of denomination, or of any other con- 
 sideration, save that of orphanage. As the editor of The 
 Texas Baptist Doctor I'Juckner had written a series of open 
 letters in his paper relative to the proposed enterprise, and 
 these letters led to a convention of deacons at Paris, July 
 17, 1878. Here Doctor Buckner had served as pastor for 
 al30ut fourteen years, and hither where he was best known, 
 he went to lay the contemplated enterprise on the hearts of 
 the men who had stood by in other enterprises. 
 
 The publication by Doctor Buckner of the contemplated 
 venture evoked not a few dire predictions of failure. 
 Friends imixjrtinied him to desist from an undertaking so 
 hazardous, among whom was a United States senator, all 
 of whom were solicitous about an enterprise which carried 
 with it predictions of failure, because it was violative of all 
 principles of business. But the founder had counted the 
 cost, the' conception of the enterprise was in his great heart, 
 and .staying himself on God, he persisted. It was soon evi- 
 dent that the proposed orphanage was not to be without a 
 home, for an offer came from Tarrant county, of a bonus 
 of 1,200 acres of land, another, from another quarter, of 
 300 acres, while an offer of Si. 000 cash came from eastern 
 Texas. JiJut on account of criticism the first was with- 
 drawn, and the second was paralyzed by certain opposition. 
 
 While the matter of selecting a permanent location was 
 pending, temporary quarters were rented in the city of 
 j^allas. in which quarters there were at first gathered only 
 three orphans. It was not until September 25. 1880. that 
 a permanent site was bought for the orphanage, which site 
 is about four miles of the city limits of Dallas, on the Texas 
 & Pacific Railway. Two days later, September 2y, 1880, 
 the Orphanage was dedicated in a small one room house, 
 built in the early days of 1841, of logs of cedar, by John 
 Neely Bryant. It was the first house built within a radius 
 of one hundred miles of the present city of Dallas. For a 
 time it served as the first postoftice building of Dallas, and
 
 BRIGHTER AND BETTER DAYS 245 
 
 was finall}- removed to the point where it was purchased to 
 serve for the initial stages of the Orphanage. Feeble in its 
 inception, and clouded by predictions of speedy disaster, 
 the Buckner Orphans' Home was destined to become one 
 of the chiefest and most cherished interests of Texas Bap- 
 tists, and one of the largest of the benevolent institutions 
 of the whole land. With its spacious grounds and its 
 imposing edifices crowning an eminence which overlooks 
 the great and growing cit}' of Dallas, it stands today a 
 monument of the faith of its philanthropic founder and 
 superintendent of many years. 
 
 But to return to the drift of denominational history, the 
 failure of the Baptists of Texas to concentrate their ener- 
 gies, together with the continued controversy between the 
 two papers, the divided sentiments on the educational ques- 
 tion, and other minor differences, were having a disintegrat- 
 ing influence on the cause. Demands came from many 
 quarters for the preaching of the gospel, and yet it seemed 
 that there was lacking just that eilticiency in the organiza- 
 tion of the forces which was necessary to respond to these 
 opportunities. Discontent and restlessness were the result, 
 and on December 12, 1877, a movement of disintegration 
 took place at Overton, where a convention of Baptists met 
 to consider the propriety of establishing a permanent organ- 
 ization for mission work in eastern Texas. Messengers 
 from nineteen churches assembled at this initial organiza- 
 tion. The basis of organization was founded on the idea 
 of local necessity, and stated in the following : 
 
 "The strength and power of the two great missionary 
 organizations in the state are directed to the supply and 
 cultivation of other territory, and there exists the same 
 necessity for the organization of the third body, as there 
 ever was for a second." 
 
 Then came the following resolutions : 
 
 "Resolved, That as the result of painful experience in 
 the past, we now regard it as an inevitable necessity for us 
 to do our own w^ork, in the best way we can, if we are ever 
 to meet our obligations to Christ and our fellow men. 
 
 "Resolved, That we do now in the fear of God, and de-
 
 246 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 pending on liini fur help, proceed to organize a general 
 missionary body for eastern Texas." 
 
 All this was followed by the adoption of a constitntion, 
 which defined the object of the convention to be, "to encour- 
 age and foster the missionary spirit in our churches, and to 
 
 UEV. E. E. KING, TASTOR FIRST CHURCH, McKINXEY, TEXAS. 
 
 (Born in Miss., Sept. 4, 1850 ; was left an orphan at 7 : A. B. of Miss. 
 Col. ; attended S. B. T. Seminary while it was at Greenville, S. C. ; con- 
 verted at 13 ; joined the Methodists ; after two years of prayer and Bible 
 study, joined Baptist church, Brownsville, Miss. ; began preaching at 
 18; was ordained, Aug., 1873; filled important pastorates in Miss.; was 
 married May 8, 1877, to Miss Gussie Frink : came to Texas as pastor of 
 San Antonio First church, Mar. 1, ISOO, where he labored seven years, 
 receiving 700 members and organizing South Side, Prospect Hill and 
 Calvary mission churches; has been pastor at McKinney since .Ian. 1, 
 1897 ; is Mod. Collin Co. Assn. : has received 853 members at McKinney, 
 built pastor's home and $25,000 house of worship ; member Board of 
 B. G. C. of Tex. ; Trustee S. B. T. S., Baylor College and Westminster 
 Institute; D. D. of Baylor I'niv.. ISDO.) 
 
 develop the power and resources of this section of the 
 state." 
 
 Doctor Andrew E. Clemmons was chosen the president 
 of the new organization and Rev. W. O. Bailey, its corre- 
 sponding secretary. With what success this new venture 
 was enabled to meet the demands of the urgent necessities
 
 BRIGHTER AND BETTER DAYS 247 
 
 prevailing- in eastern Texas we shall have opportunity to 
 see later. 
 
 It was during the year 1877, that that now influential 
 organization known as the Baptist Pastors' Conference, 
 held in connection with the state convention, came into 
 heing, at the Bryan session of that body. This Confer- 
 ence has continued a power, with varying stages, from that 
 time to this. 
 
 When the year 1878 came the Baptists of Texas seemed 
 further from unity than ever. Instead of two general or- 
 ganizations of the year before, there were now three. Con- 
 centration of interest was now seemingly more remote than 
 at any time in the history of the denomination in the state. 
 Where would be the point of convergence, no one could 
 now even remotely predict. Meanwhile each of the three 
 separate organizations was moving along its own prescribed 
 course. The first event of importance occurring in the 
 year 1878, was the meeting of the Sunday-school and Col- 
 portage Convention, at Calvert, on July 12. The meeting 
 of the preceding year, at Anderson, had been attended by 
 results so encouraging that hope was freshly turned toward 
 the Calvert convention. An elaborate programme had been 
 prepared and it was ably discussed. The interest of the 
 meeting centered, for the most part, in the thrilling report 
 of the missionary of the body, Rev. W. D. Powell, who 
 had visited almost every Baptist church in about twenty 
 counties, and had found great destitution in some places, 
 and lack of efficiency in others. He had organized seventy 
 Sunday-schools and eight Sunday-school conventions. The 
 report aroused much enthusiasm and Mr. Powell was con- 
 tinued in the field. 
 
 Shortly after the meeting of the Sunday-school Con- 
 vention came the meeting of its eleventh annual session of 
 the General Association, at Fort Worth. The work of the 
 body had been more satisfactory during the past year, than 
 it had been for a number of years past. While little was 
 being done in Bible and colportage work, the board repre- 
 senting these interests, known as the Bible, Colportage and 
 Education Board, was able to report the completion of the 
 boarding hall for students, at Waco. Four or five mission-
 
 248 IllS'l'oin' OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 aries had Ijccn cnipldyed, (hirinj^ the year, and the results 
 of their work were i^ratifving-. Six churches had been 
 constituted, five Sunday-schools organized, eighty-five had 
 been baptized, and there had been collected on the field 
 $1,039.85. Rev. A. J- Holt had been laboring among the 
 wild Indian tribes, he being the first w^iite man sent among 
 the wild Indians. Holt was a typical missionary, and 
 adopted the Indian garb and the customs of the wild men, 
 hunted and fished with them, and thus won his way to their 
 hearts. Previous to the appointment of Holt, John Mcin- 
 tosh, an Indian, was the Association's missionary to these 
 people. While laboring among them, Mcintosh taught 
 them the Lord's prayer, which he wrote out in their own 
 language. A copy of this prayer in the Comanche tongue 
 was sent to Dr. Buckner, editor of The Texas Baptist, and 
 his son-in-law, John L. Goode, by the use of his pocket- 
 knife so changed the metal type as to give the requisite 
 prcMiunciation to the peculiar language for the use of Eng- 
 lish readers, and the prayer was thus published in The 
 Texas Baptist. 
 
 The Texas Baptists had reached a period when there was 
 a dead level of uniformity in the recurrence of general meet- 
 ings, the election of officers, and the stated order of reports. 
 There w'as no boldness of plan, no projection of enterprise, 
 nothing beyond the routine of a stated meeting. Apathy 
 seems to have fallen as a blight on the churches, and they 
 seemed content to plod along a formal course with an indif- 
 ference that was appalling. The proceedings of a meeting- 
 could have been easily forecast, and many became indiffer- 
 ent thereto. The State Convention for 1878 was held with 
 the church at Lagrange. \V. C. Crane was elected presi- 
 dent; F. M. Law, H. L. Graves and Pinckney Harris, vice 
 presidents ; Pinckney Hawkins, corresponding secretary, 
 and G. B. Davis, treasurer. The meeting was without inter- 
 est, save that of preserving intact existing institutions. Rev. 
 J. W. D. Creath, who had previously resigned from the 
 financial secretaryship of the Convention, was now again 
 serving in that capacity. The receipts for the year amounted 
 to $2,447.50. Pledges for the continued prosecution of the 
 work were given to the amount of $1,824. The announce-
 
 BRIGHTEE AND BETTER DAYS 24!) 
 
 nient was made at this session of the retirement of Doctor 
 Royall from the presidency of the school for girls at Inde- 
 pendence, and of the choice of Doctor J. H. Luther to suc- 
 ceed him. • Each of the general bodies was prosecuting its 
 own work with no defined limits of territory, and with no 
 special fraternal regard for each other, while the rival 
 papers were constantly colliding in sentiment. The work 
 which was being done was executed at great disadvantage 
 and in the midst of not a little confusion. Friction and 
 complications were frequent, and through the tangled vista 
 there was not a ray of relief. To add to the confusion there 
 was local division even wathin the territory of the respective 
 general bodies themselves. TJic Baptist Herald was stoutly 
 opposed in its educational policy by Baylor University at 
 Independence, and the result was deadening to most other 
 interests. AMiat a power the Baptists might have been, could 
 their forces have been allied at this time ! But the set time 
 for union had not yet come. In the General Association, 
 conditions were scarcely better. There was a strong under- 
 current of dissatisfaction due largely to the stern advocacy 
 by Doctor Burleson of his educational views. By some he 
 was regarded as more than partisan, and as being positively 
 arbitrary. 
 
 Indeed there was a general ferment throughout the state. 
 This was about the only sign of activity to be found. Men 
 clung sullenly to their views, localities were vehement in 
 the assertion of their respective claims, and none of the dis- 
 agreement was tempered by gentleness. 
 
 Still another year came without any material change in 
 the situation. Appointed events went on as before, the 
 usual meetings were held, the ordinary process was adopted, 
 and but little was done. Early in July, 1879, the Sunday- 
 school and Colportage Convention held its annual session 
 at Luling. This convention had come to be the most vital 
 organization among the Baptists of Texas. The report of 
 the missionary, W. D. Powell, showed remarkable activity. 
 Ninety-five Sunday-schools had been organized during the 
 year within the confines of twelve associations. He re- 
 ported immense destitution in every part of the state which 
 he had visited. The Sunday-school and Colportage Con-
 
 250 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 ventioii was well manned with Deacon W. R. Howell, 
 reputed the best superintendent in the state, the president 
 of the body, J. M. Carroll, the corresponding secretary, and 
 W. D. Powell, the field missionary. The unusual attend- 
 ance on this meeting-, and the enthusiasm aroused, quick- 
 ened the interest in the cause throughout the state. 
 
 Following the meetings of both the bodies just named, 
 came that of the twelfth session of the General Association 
 which was held at Pittsburg, on July 25. Two missionaries, 
 A. J. Holt and J. L. Simpson, submitted their reports, and 
 they each bewailed the scantiness of the results of a year's 
 hard labor. The session was enlivened by a source of fresh 
 disturbance emanating from a provisional meeting which 
 had been previously held at Piano. A document was borne 
 to the session by Rev. J. H. Curry, pastor of the First 
 Church of Dallas, which set forth certain grievances against 
 the General Association, chief among which were the undue 
 domination of the body b}- the two agencies, Waco Uni- 
 versity and The Texas Baptist. The paper was respect- 
 fully received, its complaints briefly discussed, and it passed 
 into oblivion. For the first time, at this session, The Texas 
 Baptist was formally recognized as the organ of the Asso- 
 ciation. The new organization, the East Texas Convention, 
 seemed to be the most active of the three existing bodies. 
 Born of an evangelistic spirit, it had placed four or five 
 active missionaries in the field, as was reported at its second 
 session held this year at Henderson. The State Convention 
 which met on October 4th, at Independence, was devoid of 
 interest. The officers of the preceding year were chosen by 
 acclamation, but the same dearth of results was reported. 
 Life seemed to have gone from the body, and the splendid 
 plans of a few years before had gone to pieces. The rage 
 of controversy had marred every interest. 
 
 Early in the year 1880 the discord which had been ram- 
 pant so long in the state assumed a most regrettable phase 
 at Dallas. Two years before, those interested in the work 
 of education with Doctor Law, deemed it wise that Doctor 
 J, B, Link remove to Dallas in order to assist the general 
 agent in his work in the northern part of the state. Mean- 
 while half interest in The Texas Baptist Herald had been
 
 BEIGHTEE AND BETTEE DAYS 251 
 
 sold to Rev. Jonas Johnson, while Rev. O. C. Pope was 
 induced to remove from Tennessee to Texas to become the 
 local and joint editor of the paper. While the paper bore 
 the imprint of Dallas and Austin, it seems that it was still 
 being published at Houston. The removal of Doctor Link 
 to Dallas, within the confines of the General Association, 
 aroused some grave suspicion on the part of some of the 
 leaders of the General Association, and to them seemed to 
 bode no good. He was watched in his proceedings, but 
 opposition to his removal found no outspoken expression 
 until he became a member of the First Church of Dallas. 
 There were but few present on the night of the midweek 
 prayer-meeting when he offered himself for membership 
 with the church. No objection was at the time urged 
 against his action, but afterward objection found expression 
 in a letter addressed to the church, and signed by a large 
 number of members, perhaps fifty or more, requesting that 
 the action whereby Doctor Link was received into the First 
 Church be rescinded. This the church declined to do, and 
 the matter became a source of much disturbance, which 
 extended through two years. 
 
 Failing to have accorded to it the consideration which the 
 protesting party felt was due it, the aggrieved members 
 prepared a memorial to the First Church, in which memorial 
 was set forth the objections to the retention of Doctor Link 
 as a member of the church. Those who signed the memorial 
 alleged that they were really the First Church of Dallas 
 rather than those who had received Doctor Link, and de- 
 clared a disfellowship with those who had assumed to 
 receive him. The matter was one of serious gravity, 
 because Doctor R. C. Buckner was among those who pro- 
 tested, and was frank in his declaration that for several 
 reasons he could not fellowship Doctor Link. Efforts at 
 reconciliation were of no avail. A crisis was reached on 
 January 7, 1880, when they withdrew fellowship from those 
 who had declared fellowship for the church. Doctor Buck- 
 ner and the others retired to another part of the city, estab- 
 lished another organization, called Rev. S. A. Hay den to be 
 pastor, and proceeded as before, in the observance of stated 
 worship as an independent church.
 
 ^5- 
 
 niSToKV OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 lUil there were other sides to tlie f|ueslion which gave it 
 increased gravity. Doctor lUickner was one of the officers 
 of the General Association and the editor of its organ. 
 'Hiose who exchided him and others from the First Church 
 did not recognize him as a memlier of the church, and the 
 churcli itself was a nieniher of the ( jeneral Association. 
 
 l:i;\'. W. K. I'ENROD. I'ASTolt. CI.KMl itxi:. Ti:XA8. 
 
 { Koru Mar. 17, 18.">8. at Penrod, Ky. : attended school In country and 
 at Lewisburg, Ky. ; taught school in Kentucky and Texas ; married in 
 JSSl to Mi.ss Francos Acock; has three children: converted at 14; joined 
 church at B;iui;li Sta.. Ky.. Xov. 1876 ; ordained at Dalton church, K.v., 
 May, 1880 : pn-achcd two years to country churches ; attended S. K. T. S., 
 1889-90: pastor at Cloverport and Hawesville. Ky.. during that time; 
 came to Pine Hluff. Ark., as pastor Sept., 1890. where he remained six 
 years; church pr(jsp('red greatly under his ministry: pastor at Paducah. 
 Ky., Sept.. 189(i. to .Tan.. T.tOU ; came to Ennis. Texas, 1900, where he 
 remained till May. lOii.j. then goiug to Cleburne. Tex., where he is now 
 OHstor of the I'irst Church ; during the two yesirs' time, 400 members have 
 been added, i 
 
 The complications of the situation hecame seriously embar- 
 rassing. The whole community was stirred, and the dis- 
 turbance became a matter of common comment. That the 
 knotty situation might be unraveled, a meeting of the Gen- 
 eral Association was called in special session. The novelty
 
 BRIGHTEE AND BETTER DAYS 253 
 
 of the occasion and of the cause drew together a large at- 
 tendance. The meeting was held in Dallas, and as the 
 messengers arrived on the ground partisan sentiment ran 
 higher. As the president of the preceding session of the 
 body, Doctor Burleson ruled that all who were members 
 of that body would be recognized as members of the pres- 
 ent session. The assembly became a battle-ground from 
 the outset. Every step was closely watched by each side, 
 and every position taken was resisted. The ruling of the 
 chair was frequently called in question and other phases of 
 disorder prevailed. Able disputants confronted each other 
 on either side, and the discussion was gone into with fervor. 
 After prolonged discussion the majority of the members 
 voted that the disturbance was one of a personal nature, 
 and must be settled l)y the churches involved, that Doctor 
 Buckner was a member of a regular Baptist church, and 
 that therefore that he and all others associated with him 
 were members of the General Association. The local irrita- 
 tion was intensified by the decision of the general body, 
 and each of the divisions asserted itself as the First Church. 
 Time, which softens all asperities and passions, brought 
 gradual relief. After that the results of the occasion had 
 spent their force, a reaction began, and there were fortunate 
 suggestions of a reconciliation. Still, there was little dis- 
 position to }'ield, the one to the other. What was needed 
 was a sword which would cut the Gordian knot. Rev. R. T. 
 Hanks, who had some time before the original disturbance 
 become the pastor of the First Church, was the fortunate 
 dissolvent of the difficulties of the situation. In the spirit 
 of wise conciliation, he frankly said from his own pulpit 
 that one was as much the First Church as the other. This 
 was the key that unlocked the door, and opened the way 
 for the return of those who had two years before gone out. 
 Every step was one of conciliation, no questions being asked, 
 no requirements made, but a fraternal flowing together of 
 those who had been so long separated. By the combined 
 action of the two todies. Hanks was chosen pastor, the 
 church of which Hayden was pastor became extinct by this 
 mutual action, and things went on as before. What the 
 action which resulted in the choice of Hanks to the exclu-
 
 254 IITSTOKY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 ^^ ' 
 
 sion of Haydcn had to do with much .sul)sc(|ncnt trouble in 
 the Dallas church is not known, but there are those who 
 believe that this action on the part of the church was the 
 fountain source of much that followed. 
 
 On the part of the combined church itself no evil results 
 followed. No irritation lingered to hinder the local work. 
 The differences were honest, the sentiments expressed sin- 
 cere, and when the hour of reconciliation came, the differ- 
 ences belonged to the past. No subsequent occasion arose to 
 recall the painful experiences through which all had passed, 
 and save the possible disturbances between S. A. Ilayden and 
 the pastor in the subsequent publications in the paper of 
 the latter, nothing more came of the rupture. The triumph 
 of the result more than atoned for the disruption. There 
 was a studious care afterward to avoid friction, and men 
 feared it as they did fire. This triumphant settlement, hon- 
 orable alike to all, was one of the links in the chain which 
 was being providentially forged for binding the Baptist 
 hosts of the state into closer bonds. A better and brighter 
 day was dawning, but even the tints of its advent were not 
 yet visible to the eyes of the colliding hosts. 
 
 As w^e turn into the year 1880, the general situation was 
 practically unchanged, but invisible agencies were at work 
 Ijeneatb the surface storm which were moving toward a 
 goal which would bring ultimate gladness and a fresh im- 
 pulse to action. A conflict cannot live on itself alone. It 
 must have new material to feed on, or it will collapse. 
 Already good men were tired of the continued contention, 
 and were raising the question: "Why all this?" Leaders 
 were respected, even honored, but they were themselves 
 exhausted and humiliated by the continued strife. A reac- 
 tion was already setting in, though the struggle was destined 
 to continue yet for a period.
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 THE THROES EEFORE DELRTiRANCE, 
 
 The five years which followed the beginning of 1880. 
 witnessed the ebb and flow of the contest which had been 
 waged with shifting results for about ten years. The oppos- 
 ing sides were so evenly divided, that there was no visible 
 prospect of surrender of either, and as for compromise, that 
 was impossible, in view of the firm and energetic men ar- 
 rayed against each other. The work went sluggishly on 
 under the sev-ered organizations, each regarding with some 
 suspicion every other. An equal expenditure of opposition 
 against the accumulating forces of evil in Texas, would, at 
 this time, have been of incalculable benefit to the general 
 cause of Christianity ; but men, churches, communities, and 
 even entire sections, were taken up with denominational dis- 
 agreements, and the sacred work lagged, in consequence. 
 
 While ostensibly in accord, the two institutions, the one 
 at Independence, and the other at Waco, were really op- 
 posed to each other, and the insistence of the claims of the 
 merits of one, was an occasion of discredit by the other. 
 Meanwhile it was becoming more manifest, as time went by, 
 that the interest in Baylor University was waning, as the 
 patronage of the school was turning elsewhere. It was 
 equally clear that Waco was becoming, in the very nature 
 of things, the educational center of the demonination in the 
 state ; while the struggling institution, known as Dallas 
 College, the friends of which had at one time hoped that it 
 might be the chosen favorite of the Education Commission, 
 if the central idea of denominational education was success- 
 ful, was really on its last legs. The principle was rapidly 
 becoming one of the survival of the fittest, of which Waco 
 University was the apt illustration. There was pathetic 
 pluck in the manly fight which President Crane was making 
 
 255
 
 256 IIISTOKV OF TKXAS P.Al'TJSTS 
 
 agaiiisl tliL' iiic\ilal)k' al I iKkpciuk'iice-. Init lliu dcjoin of the 
 school was ah-cady ct-rtain. \\'ith unc(>nqufra1)le energy, for 
 which he was noted, President Burleson was pushing to 
 higher proficienc}- the I'niversity at Waco, and, in conse- 
 quence, was drawing toward himself a growing confidence 
 on the part of the pu])lic. With the schools thus related to 
 the general public, it did not require a prophet to foresee the 
 result. 
 
 Several causes conspired at this time to justify the con- 
 clusion just expressed, chief among which perhaps was the 
 fact that a marked advantage was in favor of the institution 
 at Waco by reason of the support which it enjoyed of the 
 advocacy of a strong religious journal, while Independence 
 had none. The Texas Baptist, to be sure, was no more 
 favorable to one school than the other, but the immense 
 advantages enjo} ed by Waco over Independence in so many 
 respects enabled it to derive just as great advantages from 
 the friendship of the journal, as though it were its special 
 advocate. On the other hand, the attitude of the Texas 
 Baptist Herald was such that, while it did not materially aid 
 the school at \\'aco, its opposition to maintaining either spe- 
 cially had the efifect of direct opposition to the institution 
 at Independence at a time when it most needed a journal- 
 istic advocate. The unsettled condition of things was more 
 conducive to Waco University than to any other interest 
 fostered by the denomination in the state. Under prevailing- 
 conditions the policy advocated by neither paper was entirely 
 practicable. The severed denomination could never be 
 brought to see the policy of abolishing both schools out- 
 right in order to adopt a third, nor was the denomination 
 content to maintain both institutions. When it should come 
 to a choice between the two, and when the denomination was 
 brought face to face with this proposition, it was easy to 
 see what the conclusion would be. 
 
 Sober-mindedness was gradually assuming sway, and 
 men were coming to see that a continuance of the course so 
 long pursued by the denomination meant eventual wreck- 
 age. There was too much strength and wisdom in the de- 
 nomination for it to continue much longer to w^aste its 
 resources of power in unprofitable wrangle. Really, the
 
 THROES BEFORE DELIVERANCE 257 
 
 struggle had been carried to the point of exhaustion, and 
 ah-eady men were seeking to find a turning point at which 
 they might discover a basis of general reconciliation. As 
 was intimated in the preceding chapter, the eyes of those 
 who occupied the outlooks, and who had come to view the 
 situation with more or less conservatism, were gravely con- 
 cerned about where there might be found a point at which 
 they might meet and strike the hands of cofraternity. With 
 the spirit abroad in the state, with the disposition shown on 
 the part of many of the churches to resume aggressiveness, 
 if only the opportunity were ofifered the united brotherhood 
 of Baptists, there was a feeling that they could enter on 
 a fresh career of denominational prosperity. For this all 
 were beginning to long, and the drift was turning unques- 
 tionably in that direction. But the providential hour had 
 not yet struck. At certain points the irritation was yet fresh, 
 and time was necessary to heal some wounds. The extreme 
 had been reached, and it was now unsafe to press any of the 
 old claims unduly. The idea long entertained, yea, even 
 cherished by some, of abolishing all educational interests 
 had practically vanished. Still this much had been accom- 
 plished — the conviction had been reached that the denomi- 
 nation must get together and focus its interests, or disrup- 
 tion and disintegration were inevitable. Nothing was more 
 evident than that factionalism and division must cease, and 
 give place to harmony and denominational unity and effort. 
 
 When the General Association met at Ennis on July 23, 
 1880, confidence was shown in Dr. R. C. Buckner by choos- 
 ing him president of that body, with J. L. Whittle, W. D. 
 Lair and Josiah Leake, vice presidents, S. J. Anderson, re- 
 cording secretary, and W. H. Parks, corresponding secre- 
 tary. Much significance attached to the expression and 
 temper of the report on schools and colleges, which report, 
 among other things, says : 
 
 "We have a school at Waco known as Waco Univer- 
 sity, which has stood the pelting storms of adversity and 
 the cyclones of opposition for years, which, instead of super- 
 inducing a failure in its work, has caused its roots to deepen 
 and its top to grow taller and wider until it has gained the
 
 258 HISTOKY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 sympathy and admiration of a host of friends, and put to 
 silence its most determined and merciless enemies." 
 
 To this report was appended a resolution which is self- 
 explanatory : 
 
 "Resolved, That a committee of five be appointed by this 
 body to confer with the Board of Trustees of Waco Univer- 
 sity and with Waco Association with reference to organic 
 connection of this General Association with Waco Univer- 
 sity as her denominational school, provided that such trans- 
 fer of property as shall be satisfactory to all parties can be 
 secured, and report to this body at its next annual meeting. 
 Provided, further, that this General Association assumes no 
 pecuniary obligation." 
 
 There was no mistaking what this meant. The General 
 Association was by this action irrevocably committed to 
 Waco University. This much was decisive. More than 
 ordinary activity had been shown by the association during 
 the year, there being eight missionaries in the field and 
 twenty mission stations sustained entirely or in part, among 
 which stations were McKinney and Texarkana. Cash col- 
 lections on the field amounted to $2,622.87, sixty-four 
 prayer-meetings had been organized, sixteen churches con- 
 stituted and seven hundred and eighty-one had been bap- 
 tized. The Bible, Colportage and Education Board was 
 rendering excellent service in a field where such an agency 
 was much needed. A liberal donation of books was made 
 at this session to continue this work. 
 
 Previously the Buckner Orphans' Home had been under 
 the auspices of the General Association and was regarded 
 as being exclusively a resort for Baptist orphans, but at 
 the suggestion of Doctor Buckner the liberal policy of 
 admitting to its fostering care all orphans was adopted, 
 and that has been its policy ever since. 
 
 The most of the active work done in the state was now 
 confined to the two general bodies, the State Convention 
 and the General Association. With exactly similar institu- 
 tions and agencies, they were vying with each other in the 
 accomplishment of results. In some respects one excelled, 
 while in others the other surpassed. In matters educational 
 the advantage was with the General Association, where
 
 THROES BEFORE DELIVERANCE 259 
 
 there was the utmost unity, while in the convention there 
 was division of sentiment. 
 
 Following the meeting of the General Association at 
 Ennis, came that of the State Convention in October at 
 Austin. This was conceded to have been the best session 
 of the convention for years. The pastors' conference, which 
 was held in advance of the meeting of the convention, was 
 the most successful ever held. Rev. Manly J. Breaker, a 
 young man fresh from the seminary, was the popular pastor 
 of the church at Austin at this time. Dr. W. C. Crane 
 declining re-election as president of the body, Rev. C. C. 
 Chaplin was chosen. The vice presidents for this session 
 were W. C. Crane, H. L. Graves and F. M. Law, while 
 O. H. P. Garrett was made recording secretary, and Pink- 
 ney Hawkins, corresponding secretary. 
 
 The work of the year gave great encouragement. Two 
 financial agents, J. W. D. Creath and William Howard, 
 had been stimulating the benevolence of the churches, while 
 such outposts as San Antonio and Corpus Christi were held 
 with a firm grip. At San Antonio the vision of Creath was 
 at last realized in having a substantial house of worship 
 in that papal stronghold. For years together he had borne 
 the cause of San Antonio on his heart, as the ancient 
 prophet carried the divine burden. Astride an old black 
 horse, Creath had ridden for years across the plains of 
 Texas pleading for San Antonio. He was at first greeted 
 with ridicule, as the city was thought to be so thoroughly 
 entrenched in Romanism that it could never be wrested 
 from its clutch. But now an excellent house of worship 
 was occupied by the Baptists of that city and, besides, they 
 had a comfortable home for the pastor. There was still a 
 slight debt of $i6i resting on the valuable property. At 
 Corpus Christi Rev. J. M. Carroll was making a good 
 beginning in an interest fostered by the convention. Work 
 on the field had been of a gratifying nature during the year, 
 as there had been brought into the treasury $4,572.67. 
 Nothing gave more joy than the announcement that the 
 church at San Antonio had become self-sustaining, and 
 would no longer rely on the board for aid. More than to 
 any other, the cause at San Antonio is indebted for its
 
 .'' 
 
 r 
 
 MRS. F. S. DAVIS, DALLAS, TEXAS, I'RES. TEXAS B. W. M. W. 
 
 (Mrs. F. S. Davis, uee Mary A. IliU, was born in Ga., removing with 
 her parents, Waid and Margaret Hill, to Texas in early childhood ; in 
 1898 was elected Roc. Sec. of Texas B. W. M. W., which she resigned in 
 1906 to accept the presidency of the same body; in May, 190G, she was 
 elected Vicc-1'resident for Texas of the W. M. U. of the S. B. C, to which 
 position she was re-elected May, 1907 : previous to her official connection 
 with these bodies, she had been in close touch with the women's work 
 of the First Church, Dallas, of which she is a member, and of the work 
 in wider fields ; she is one of the ablest and most useful leaders the 
 Southern Baptist women's work has known.)
 
 THROES BEFOEE DELIVERANCE £61 
 
 existence to J. W. D. Creath. The ditificulties of procuring 
 funds for this strugghng cause, so far from suppressing 
 the ardor of this indefatigable man of God, really stimulated 
 it. Toward the close of the year 1880 the Central Baptist 
 Convention was organized at Dublin. The new organiza- 
 tion defined its object to be missions and Sunday-schools. 
 It was felt that a large scope of territory was unreached 
 by the other agencies, and from a sense of sheer self-pro- 
 tection this body came into being. While this indicated 
 greater severance and division, it showed at the same time 
 that there was spirit in the people. Thus it was not without 
 its bright side. 
 
 The East Texas Convention was held in 1880 at Tyler. 
 It was doing good work through the agency of nine active 
 missionaries. There was at this time manifest activity in 
 the Baptist ranks, but it was ill-directed. If the forces 
 could only have been united what might the results at .this 
 time not have been ! 
 
 The denomination, taken as a whole, was a strong body. 
 It had men of power, but they were more nearly rivals for 
 certain interests, more or less local, and everyone had been 
 in such touch with one or more of the existing bodies 
 that his influence was impaired and he was unfitted to head 
 a general movement looking to consolidation. Never was 
 there a leader more in demand for a great cause than at 
 this time in Texas. The continued growth in numbers and 
 wealth, the increasing number of church organizations, 
 growing largely out of the perpetual flow of population, and 
 the rapid enhancement of property values throughout the 
 state, were causes of serious concern ; but the denomination 
 was not in condition to utilize these agencies. There could 
 certainly be no complaint concerning Baptist liberty at this 
 time, for it was supreme. Scattered over a practically 
 boundless region of country were churches and so-called or- 
 ganizations, hundreds of miles apart, each pursuing its own 
 course, exercising to the fullest its own liberty, and each 
 recognizing itself as the equal, if not the superior of every 
 other, the outlook at this time was anything but one of en- 
 couragement. Nothing short of a marvelous providence 
 would extricate so independent a people from a condition
 
 262 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 SO precarious and bind them into indissoluble oneness. At 
 this time nothing seemed more remote. In the horizon of 
 the future of the denomination there was not visible a ray 
 of hope for a consummation so devoutly wished. New 
 and strong men were coming into the state from other 
 quarters of the country, only to find themselves embarrassed 
 by existing conditions. They found themselves under ob- 
 ligation to assume the espousal of one interest or another, 
 as they might be geographically situated. However, there 
 were two occasions of hopefulness, one a visible one and the 
 other invisible. The visible occasion was found in the con- 
 tinued activity of the Baptist forces. While the forces were 
 scattered, they were active. Lethargv or indifference would 
 have been denominational death. So long as the waters 
 were agitated they could not become stagnated. The in- 
 visible occasion for hope was in the profound concern of 
 thousands. The tendency toward disintegration was the 
 cause of positive apprehension on the part of many through- 
 out the state. God was moving in a round-about way to 
 unify the Baptists of Texas into a body of formidableness 
 that would challenge the admiration of the continent. 
 
 The year 1881 found the Baptist General Association in 
 session at Waco. New life seems to have come to the body, 
 as there were present about 350 messengers from eighteen 
 associations and 181 churches. R. C. Buckner was again 
 chosen president, while the vice-presidents were B. H. Car- 
 roll, W. J. Brown and W. D. Lair. S. J. Anderson was 
 again made recording secretary and W. H. Parks corre- 
 sponding secretary. Correspondents were present from 
 the Central Texas Baptist Convention and the Good West- 
 ern Association (colored). Among the visitors from with- 
 out the state were Dr. J. R. Graves, of Memphis, Tennes- 
 see ; B. M. Townsend, of Alabama ; J. C. Post, of Kansas, 
 and S. H. Wooding, of Kentucky. Much enthusiasm was 
 the result of the glowing reports from every quarter of the 
 field. Besides the general financial agent, there were twelve 
 missionaries in the field during the year, the aggregate 
 results of the labors of whom were the supply of thirty-nine 
 mission stations, 420 baptisms, 328 added to the churches 
 by letter, twenty-nine Sunday-schools and eighteen churches
 
 THEOES BEFOEE DELIVERANCE 263 
 
 organized, and much religious literature distributed. At 
 the preceding session of the body W. B. Bagby, missionary 
 to Brazil, had been adopted by the General Association, 
 which assumed his support. At the preceding session of 
 the Waco Association that local body had tendered Waco 
 University to the General Association, but the ofifer was 
 neither accepted nor declined ; there were reasons for de- 
 ferring action on this important matter, as there were indi- 
 cations that it might one day become the chosen school of 
 the denomination. 
 
 In the conduct of its work the General Association had 
 differed from the State Convention in that it did not solicit 
 aid from another quarter, such as the Home Mission Board, 
 preferring to do its own work in its own way. Its course 
 had been one of gradual progress, and it was freer of fric- 
 tion than was the parent body. Aside from past differences 
 there was not the slightest reason why these two general 
 bodies should not have united. There was not the slightest 
 difference between the works or operations of the two 
 bodies. The only point of separation was that they were 
 operated from two different or separate headquarters. This 
 did not escape the attention of thousands of Baptists, and 
 while there was bad blood, many could not see why this 
 could not be subordinated to the general good. It would 
 seem that all that was necessary was for some one to take 
 the initiative. 
 
 When the State Convention met in 1881 at Galveston 
 there was a lack of energy and interest in the meeting. It 
 was slenderly attended. There was a sluggishness in every 
 movement and an apparent desire merely to preserve the 
 form rather than the spirit. The officers of the former ses- 
 sion were retained by acclamation. Later in the session 
 Rev. O. C. Pope, who had been serving on the staff of the 
 Texas Baptist Herald, was elected to the corresponding 
 secretaryship of the body. So far as the work of the State 
 Mission Board was concerned, this session of the body 
 marked a new departure. Pope was both aggressive and 
 progressive. For the first time Dr. A. T. Spalding was 
 present with the convention. Soon after this he became the 
 pastor of the First Church of Galveston, The situation at
 
 2G4 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 Galveston was at that time peculiar. There were two Bap- 
 tist churches in the city, located on adjoining blocks, and 
 yet there was an ocean of silence between them. They 
 were greatly estranged, and there was a disposition to unite 
 if they could agree on one man. That man was A. T. 
 Spalding. He had come from the Second Church of 
 Atlanta, where his pastorate had been a most successful 
 one, and he was the man of the hour at Galveston. In the 
 union of the two churches came harmony, which was 
 nurtured under the wise leadership of Doctor Spalding, and 
 two months after the assumption of the work, he began a 
 new house of worship at a cost of $30,000, which was the 
 house destroyed by the storm in 1900. Dr. S. W. Marston, 
 representing the Home Mission Society of New York, was 
 in attendance on the Galveston convention. The conven- 
 tion considered quietly, but seriously, the vast destitution 
 which was prevailing throughout the state. The body was 
 more ready to recognize the needs than it was to undertake 
 their supply. It was a time of prevalent stringency. The 
 entire South was still wrestling with serious problems. 
 The people of the South were groping their way through 
 the general gloom, not knowing what the future had in 
 store for them. It was regarded a misfortune at this time 
 that a man was an extensive land-owner. The land was 
 practically valueless in the market, and the taxes were 
 burdensome. This, added to the scarcity of money, made 
 the situation a difficult one. 
 
 To the Baptists of Texas conditions seemed to be grow- 
 ing worse rather than otherwise. Some of the portions of 
 the state first settled had lapsed into spiritual destitution, 
 and th€ cause seemed to be decaying; in certain other parts 
 the lands were being taken up rapidly, the population was 
 swelling and but scant preaching was had ; and especially 
 on the western 1)ordcr, population was massing, and there 
 were no visible means of supplying the wants of the people. 
 No wonder that there was discontent among the Bai)tist 
 masses, as they were l)reaking into fragmentary organiza- 
 tions, seeking to meet the demands ! In their extremity 
 the Baptists turned to the Home >\Iission Board of the 
 Southern Baptist Convention, but no encouragement came
 
 THEOES BEFORE DELIVERANCE 2G5 
 
 from that source. Facing the problem of destitution, they 
 sought aid of the Home Mission Society of New York. 
 
 Just a few months before the meeting of the Convention 
 at Galveston came a wail from the Sunday-school and Col- 
 portage Convention, which met at Gonzales, concerning the 
 growth of destitution throughout the state. At Galveston 
 the echo of this outcry from Gonzales was heard. The 
 matter became first urgent, then oppressive to the Con- 
 vention. The leading members realized that the funda- 
 mental idea of all active Christian work had been lost sight 
 of in the dust of battle, where secondary matters had been 
 given the first place. So seriously did the matter become 
 at Galveston that a discreet committee was charged with 
 presenting some plan of relief, and in order that something 
 might be effected if possible during the session of the body, 
 as prompt report as possible was recjuested. Doctor Pope 
 reported to the convention that he had personally supported 
 Rev. J. O. Westrup in the initial work in Mexico by collec- 
 tions raised for that purpose. After the murder of Westrup 
 by the Mexican Indians, Rev. W. M. Flournoy had been 
 supported by Doctor Pope in the same way. 
 
 The turning point in the matter of supplying the pre- 
 vailing dearth in missionary work came when the commit- 
 tee presented as its report a plan of co-operation between 
 the Texas Baptist Convention and the Home Mission 
 Society of New York. There was abundant reason for 
 believing that the Home Mission Society would co-operate 
 in this work. Hence the committee presented a report, 
 proposing that the Convention and the Home Mission 
 Society co-operate, by the Convention, through its board, 
 nominating the missionaries, assign each his respective ter- 
 ritory and indicate the salary, and if such missionaries were 
 approved they were to be under the appointment of the 
 Home ]\Iission Society, with this special proviso, that the 
 commissions of the missionaries were to bear the imprint : 
 "The American Baptist Home Mission Society, in co-opera- 
 tion with the Texas Baptist State Convention." The mis- 
 sionaries thus appointed were to make quarterly reports. 
 each to the Convention and the Society ; a superintendent 
 was to be appointed as a joint representative of the two
 
 266 
 
 HISTOKY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 bodies, who should report in the same manner as the mis- 
 sionaries, and for each dollar raised for this work in the 
 state, one was to be given by the Home Mission Society, to 
 the amount of $3,000 annually, but not beyond that amount. 
 This furnished a possible guarantee of $6,000 as a basis of 
 
 REV. G. S. TUMLIN, ROCKDALE, TEXAS. 
 
 (Born in Bartow Co., Ga., Dec. 16, 1852 ; educated at Bowdon Col- 
 lege and the State University, receiving the degrees of A. B., A. M., B. L. 
 and D. D. from said institutions ; in 1872 united with the Baptist church 
 in Cartersville, Ga. ; 1S77 was ordained to preach by same church ; 
 practiced law a few years successfully and was county Judge ; In 1874 
 married Miss Alice Gilreath ; from that union there are nine children ; 
 he served first some country churches in Barton county : then was pas- 
 tor at Marietta and La Grange ; in 1895 moved to Texas ; has served 
 churches in Brenham, Sulphur Springs and Fort Worth ; is now la 
 Rockdale, Tex.) 
 
 operation till the churches could get afoot and rally from 
 the demoralization from which they W'ere suffering. 
 
 Arrangements were provided for a payment of salaries 
 each quarter, and all applications for funds for church- 
 building were to be endorsed by the state board prior to 
 being sent to the Home Mission Society. While all this 
 was a timely interposition on the part of the Home Mission
 
 THEOES BEFORE DELIVEEANCE 267 
 
 Society, it was unfortunate that it was due to the pecuHar 
 conditions in the state at that time. There was not wanting 
 disposition on the part of the people to respond when a 
 door of opportunity opened, as was shown at the mass 
 meeting held in the interests of Sunday-schools on Sunday 
 of the Convention at Galveston. At that meeting $2,415 
 was pledged to the work. 
 
 The report was formally presented to the body that the 
 veteran missionary. Rev. J. W. D. Creath, had died during 
 the preceding July, while serving as general financial agent 
 of the Convention. Another of the landmarks passed away 
 with the death of J. W. D. Creath. Noted for many excel- 
 lences, he perhaps surpassed in the fervor of exhortation. 
 While he warned, urged, implored the unsaved, his placid 
 face was radiant as with supernatural light. -While not a 
 great preacher, as the world counts greatness, he was peer- 
 less in the urgency of appeal, and the projectile power of 
 the man, and the attendant results made him emphatically 
 great. Only three missionaries were at work under the 
 state board during the year, but aid had been rendered the 
 churches at Hempstead and Corpus Christi, and the San 
 Saba and Perdinales Associations had been helped in their 
 local work. The collections for the year aggregated 
 $6,640.97. 
 
 Beginning under a shadow, the Galveston Convention 
 closed in a glow. A vista had opened and the pros- 
 pect beyond was one of cheer. Really, this was a decided 
 turning point in Baptist work in Texas. From this time 
 forth the State Convention began to take on new accretions 
 of strength and to receive fresh momentum, and it has not 
 ceased after the lapse of more than a quarter century. The 
 Convention and its work assumed a dignity and importance 
 which it had never before possessed. Its dormancy gave 
 place to activity, and its indifference and listlessness were 
 exchanged for an aggressiveness never before known. 
 Without hesitation it began outright the invasion of desti- 
 tute quarters, and the land rang with the voice of the living 
 preacher. Around the State Convention was beginning to 
 center the interest of the cause in the state. Hearts mel- 
 lowed under the influence of the strides which were now
 
 3G8 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 being taken, and the despondency which had so long held 
 the hearts of the people was exchanged for optimism. It is 
 amazing how rapidly pervasive hopefulness becomes when 
 once it begins to prevail ! 
 
 Both the General Association and the Convention were 
 now assuming proportions not hitherto enjoyed, and the 
 General Association was the body to take the initial step 
 toward a reunion of the Baptist forces. About this time 
 Doctor R. C. Buckner, the corresponding secretary of the 
 General Association, prepared a letter for the board of that 
 body, which letter was to be forwarded to the correspond- 
 ing secretary of the State Board, Doctor Pope. This letter 
 was most fraternal in its tone, and solicited mutual recogni- 
 tion between the two boards, and even hinted that something 
 more than mutuality of recognition might come if such 
 action were now taken. This letter was sent to Dr. O. C. 
 Pope, the corresponding secretary of the State Board, and 
 while it was received by him, the board, for some reason, 
 was kept in ignorance of this fraternal action on the part 
 of the board of the General Association. But for this event 
 reconciliation might have come in i88r. It was just that 
 for which the people w'ere longing, and a publication of the 
 fact of such a step being taken would have sent a thrill 
 throughout the state. As it was, fresh irritation was engen- 
 dered, as the General Association Board felt that its over- 
 tures were ignored by the board of the State Convention, 
 when in truth the members of the last-named board were 
 not aware of the existence of such a communication being- 
 sent till years afterward. 
 
 Under O. C. Pope, the new superintendent of missions 
 of the state board, the work began at once to grow. New 
 fields were invaded, and at last the State Convention found 
 itself in possession of a distinct policy. The policy insti- 
 tuted by O. C. Pope was one that continued for many years, 
 if indeed it has been more than slightly modified at all. Pie 
 was the man to institute vigorous cam])aigning on the west- 
 ern border and to accompany with tlie liihlc the advance 
 guard toward the setting sun. It was during his adminis- 
 tration that the foreign populations in the state received 
 the respect due them ; it was at the same time that great
 
 THKOES BEFORE DELIVERANCE 269 
 
 emphasis was laid on church buikUng, and as far as the 
 resources at command would allow, the work was made 
 state-wide. Pope was administrative, but he was lacking 
 in the element that persuaded men to his side. His policy 
 was more aggressive than concessive. The points of angu- 
 larity in his character prevented that full sweep of power 
 which he might have had at a time when just such was 
 needed. Still he did a marvelous work in providing new 
 channels of operation for the activities of the board. 
 
 While the work in Texas was assuming changed phases, 
 there were changes in other directions which were destined 
 greatly to affect local state work and to give it a fresh 
 propulsion. God was working in other remote ways for the 
 promotion of the work, not in Texas alone, but elsewhere 
 throughout the South. The old systems needed overhaul- 
 ing, and new policies adjusted to the conditions of the times 
 were in demand. Original executive power which could 
 preserve intact the things that remained, and yet wheel them 
 into new directions and compel the opening of new doors, 
 was in demand. In a college in Alabama was a man on 
 whom God laid His hand, who came to the kingdom for 
 such a time as this. I. T. Tichenor, the president of the 
 Agricultural and Mechanical College of Alabama, was a 
 man whose soul was on fire for missions. The boundary of 
 his vision was the world. His great and fertile brain was 
 productive of new plans, which, if not always practical, 
 were at least luxuriant of suggestiveness. His great heart 
 yearned for the salvation of men in the remote parts of the 
 world, and his soul was on fire for the perishing millions 
 of the earth. But God had for him another sphere than 
 that for which he pined. For Tichenor was reserved, not 
 to labor in foreign fields, but to do work of a fundamental 
 character in the southern end of the American states. 
 Without missions at home, missions abroad are impossible. 
 If the Moravians did no more for the world, they illustrated 
 the fact that foreign missions cannot be prosecuted inde- 
 pendent of missions at home. 
 
 The Southern Baptist Convention, which met in 1882 at 
 Greenville, South Carolina, by a single stroke wrought a 
 radical change in the system of missionary work in the
 
 270 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 South. The Home Mission Board was removed from 
 Marion, Alabama, to Atlanta, Georgia, and Dr. I. T. Tiche- 
 nor became the new secretary. He promptly assumed con- 
 trol with the hand of a master, and with characteristic en- 
 thusiasm. His policy was to bring the entire South into 
 vital touch with the Home Mission Board. He saw at once 
 that this could not be done by remaining in his office and 
 making appeals through the denominational press, accord- 
 ing to the policy hitherto pursued, but that his presence was 
 needed continually on the field, where, by personal contact 
 with existing conditions, he could familiarize himself with 
 the needs of the field, and then follow this practically by a 
 provision of means for each emergency. He found vast 
 need of just such an agency as the Board, to the head and 
 leadership of which he had been called. No portion of the 
 vast field of the South was left unvisited by the new secre- 
 tary. New visions of spiritual prosperity sprang into the 
 mind of this statesman-preacher, new and immense ques- 
 tions came with the breadth of his information of conditions 
 in the South, and in consequence new life was infused into 
 the work which had so long been dormant. 
 
 The fifteenth annual session of the Baptist General Asso- 
 ciation of Texas was held at Sulphur Springs. R. C. Buckner 
 was again chosen president of the body. Dr. I. T. Tichenor, 
 who only had a short while before been made secretary of 
 the Home Board, was present and made a liberal offer of 
 aid to the Association on certain conditions of a specified 
 amount being raised by that body, but there was some 
 reluctance to accept the offer at once, because of the inabil- 
 ity to procure the services of a competent field and financial 
 agent. Doctor Buckner finally consented to accept this 
 work, and there was the infusion of new life at once im- 
 parted to the cause in that quarter. The results of the 
 year's effort were encouraging. The territory of the Asso- 
 ciation had been materially broadened, and new interests 
 were brought into being. The Sunday-school work was the 
 most prosperous branch of the service, for during all these 
 years this interest was sedulously fostered by the Association. 
 At this session of the body, Waco University was formally 
 accepted by the Association and became organically con-
 
 THROES BEFORE DELIVERANCE 271 
 
 nected with it. A commission was appointed to raise $60,- 
 000 for endowment, and the citizens of Waco proposed to 
 erect a central building on the campus at a cost of $20,000. 
 The people of Waco asked for more time to make good 
 their proposal. 
 
 In the autumn following the meeting of the General 
 Association came the meeting of the Convention at Belton. 
 C. C. Chaplin was again made president; W. C. Crane, 
 F. M. Law and J. H. Stribling, vice-presidents; O. H. P. 
 Garrett, recording secretary, and O. C. Pope, correspond- 
 ing secretary. The visitors from abroad were Drs. I. T. 
 Tichenor, of the Home Mission Board, and S. W. Marston, 
 of the Home Mission Society. Fraternal messengers were 
 present from the East Texas, North Texas and Central 
 Texas Conventions. The lingering notes of disagreement 
 found expression in a resolution offered by Doctor Crane 
 with reference to the reception of correspondents from 
 other bodies, to the effect that the reception of visitors from 
 such did not commit the Convention to an endorsement of 
 the actions of the bodies thus represented, nor to their 
 ecclesiastical standing. The past year had been one of the 
 most active and prosperous in the history of the Convention, 
 if, indeed, it had not been the most signal in results. Sec- 
 retary Pope had, with enterprising zeal and wise move- 
 ment, pushed the boundaries of denominational endeavor 
 far beyond its original limit on the frontier of the west, 
 while the interior was not neglected. He had wisely seized 
 such strategic points as Laredo, El Paso and Abilene, where 
 churches were organized during the past year. The occu- 
 pation of San Antonio with so much success had encour- 
 aged that of Laredo and other points. The sainted Creath 
 had passed away with the notes almost on his dying lips : 
 "On to Laredo!" El Paso and Laredo were properly re- 
 garded as gateways to the Republic of Mexico. Pope had 
 also succeeded in bringing into co-operation with the State 
 Convention both the Central Texas and the North Texas 
 Convention, while three outside associations were also 
 brought in. A large corps of twenty-one missionaries had 
 been actively at work in the field during the year. Among 
 their achievements was the constitution of thirteen new
 
 273 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 churches. The detailing of the substance of the annual 
 rej'jort of the secretary gave great enthusiasm to the body 
 and awoke new energy. So impressed was the Convention 
 with the accomplishments of Secretary Pope, that Doctor 
 Spalding offered a resolution of thanks in the Convention 
 to Doctor Pope for his energy and fidelity during the past 
 
 REV. ALLEN B. INGRAM, WACO, TEXAS. 
 
 (Born in Russellville, Ala., April 29, 1§59 ; early cliildliood spent in 
 Miss, and N. C. : mother died in 18G2; moved to Grayson Co., Texas, in 
 1874 ; attended school at I'rairie Valley ; converted at 17 ; joined Prairie 
 Valley Church, which church ordained him to the ministry in 1880 : 
 married to ^^.ss Elizabeth E. Draper, Jan. 12, 1871); has Ave sons and 
 three daughters : attended Basin Springs Academy, 1881-83 : was suc- 
 cessively pastor at Rock Creek, Basin Springs, missionay of Shiloh Assn. 
 and pastor at Whitesboro, resigning in 1889 to attend S. B. T. S. ; has 
 been pastor of Second Church, Dallas ; Lampasas, Caldwell, Corsicana, 
 Gainesville, and is now pastor of Columbus Street Church, Waco. ; all 
 these churches have prospered greatly under his efficient leadership ; 1,000 
 souls have been converted under his ministry : is known as a pastor- 
 evangelist ; served as Gen'l Miss'y a short while ; has been member of 
 State AUssion Board eleven years.) 
 
 year. The mission of Doctor Alarston to the Convention 
 was to elicit interest in behalf of the Negroes. Pie was 
 invited to hold as many institutes as possible among the 
 colored preachers, and was pledged the united support of 
 the pastors in his praiseworthy work.
 
 THEOES BEFORE DELIVERANCE 273 
 
 Sunday was devoted to the interests of Sunday-schools 
 and state and foreign missions. The speeches were of a 
 most inspiring character, and the Convention was thrilled 
 as never before. W. D. Powell had but recently become the 
 missionary to Mexico, and at a mass-meeting held in the 
 afternoon, at which several made addresses, pledges were 
 taken for $2,225. This was followed by a sermon at night 
 by B. H. Carroll, the character of which was such as to 
 intensify the sentiments of the day and to prepare the way 
 for a large collection by General A. T. Hawthorne, who 
 was then representing the Foreign Board in Texas. A 
 similar offer to that made by Doctor Tichenor to the Gen- 
 eral Association was tendered the Convention and readily 
 accepted. For all purposes there had been raised during 
 the year the unprecedented amount of $62,087.12. This 
 embraced funds for all purposes, including the amount con- 
 tributed to the work by the Home Mission Society. 
 
 At this session of the Convention was recognized for 
 the first time that important branch of work known as 
 woman's work. To Mrs. Fannie Breedlove Davis is due 
 the distinction of beginning this work in Texas. A woman 
 of unusual native power, with which was coupled a heart 
 of consecration, she steadfastly pressed the claims of this 
 work and was its indwelling spirit for full thirteen years. 
 She saw the fulfillment of her initial vision in the perma- 
 nent establishment of this most worthy cause among the 
 Baptist women of Texas. 
 
 The Convention at Belton was the beginning of greater 
 things to Texas Baptists. The seeds planted in the epochal 
 Convention at Galveston the year before were already yield- 
 ing a harvest. Besides the work done by Doctor Pope and 
 his worthy colaborers on the field, there were other indica- 
 tions of a most encouraging nature. One of these was that 
 of the consolidation of several of the minor organizations 
 with the State Convention. Then the presence of B. H. 
 Carroll at this session of the Convention was most sig- 
 nificant. Brethren were beginning to see eye to eye. 
 
 Matters were looking more propitious in all directions. 
 Objections which had heretofore been urged against the 
 State Convention and its tardiness in occupying the waste
 
 274 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 places, which objections were not without basis and which 
 had largely been the occasion of the creation of minor bodies 
 and the division of the denomination into segments, were 
 now being forgotten in the gigantic strides which were being 
 taken, so easy is it to forget darkness when the light ap- 
 pears. Yet it must not be forgotten that the Convention 
 was seriously crippled, up to this time, by its financial inabil- 
 ity to meet recognized demands, a situation for which the 
 Convention was not responsible. Still it cannot be denied 
 that the preaching of the gospel as the fundamental power 
 of God among men had been too easily lost sight of in the 
 pressure of other matters to the denominational front. 
 
 Besides, the times were far more favorable. Railways 
 were now ramifying the state in every direction and facili- 
 ties of travel had multiplied manifold. If the railroads in- 
 duced a greater population and a multiplication of centers, 
 they afforded readier means of reaching alike the populous 
 rural regions and the villages, towns and cities. What was 
 needed was a man who could lead and direct the forces. 
 Such a man seemed to be Dr. O. C. Pope. The recent 
 combination of conditions gave a brighter and fresher 
 future to the cause in the state. By means of the facilities 
 of travel the Baptist brotherhood was brought into more 
 frequent and intimate touch and ease of correspondence. 
 Distance and enforced silence had done much hitherto to 
 keep open the breaches in the denominational ranks in the 
 state. The situation was assuming such shape that hope 
 of better things was coming, even to the most despondent. 
 
 Not a little had been learned from the dissensions and 
 divisions of the past. Yet there still remained difficulties to 
 be overcome, of which the educational question was the 
 most serious. It was clear that so long as two rival Bap- 
 tist institutions remained there could be no real unity, and 
 consequently, no substantial progress. Then, too, rival de- 
 nominational papers, each of a most pronounced type, kept 
 the gaps in the Baptist ranks open. With all the favorable 
 signs, no way seemed possible as yet to clear the way of 
 serious difficulties, but as the people were drawing closer 
 to God, lie was drawing closer to them, and in His own
 
 THROES BEFORE DELIVERANCE 275 
 
 good time that which now seemed insuperable would be 
 overcome. 
 
 The year 1883 was in some respects a most eventful one 
 in the history of the state. Material and educational inter- 
 ests had been conspiring for a period of years to fruit forth 
 in a most auspicious way. The state had been favored with 
 a succession of governors, the patriotic aim of whom was 
 to promote to the highest the welfare of the people. Lib- 
 eral policies of State had induced much capital to Texas, and 
 this had rapidly changed conditions from the primitive into 
 that of the most progressive. 
 
 During the year 1883 normal schools, both for whites 
 and blacks, were established, and this was the year which 
 witnessed the birth of the State University, at Austin. The 
 decided advancement of the educational institutions of the 
 State emphasized to the Baptists the importance of rallying 
 their forces lest they lose their educational identity in Texas. 
 These movements on the part of the State had somewhat to 
 do with the important concentration of Baptist forces some 
 time later, or at least it was an indirect reminder of the 
 necessity of self-preservation. 
 
 It was in the year 1883 that the new building of the 
 First Church of Waco was completed. The original church 
 having been destroyed by fire, Dr. B. H. Carroll and his 
 people entered at once on the erection of another, the con- 
 templated cost of which was $40,000, the finest Baptist 
 meeting house ever erected in the State up to that time. It 
 was completed in time to welcome the session of the South- 
 ern Baptist Convention, which met in May of this year in 
 the new structure. But one time before had the great con- 
 vention met in Texas, and the inducement offered by the rail- 
 roads of an excursion to Mexico served to bring together a 
 large attendance of Southern Baptists, to say nothing of the 
 free and copious hospitality enjoyed before. Waco Baptists 
 were at their best in dispensing hospitality rarely equaled ; 
 and in providing for the tour into Mexico, the Baptists of the 
 State fairly outdid themselves. The tour was arranged and 
 conducted by Dr. O. C. Pope, to whom, in token of their 
 appreciation, the Baptist tourists while at San Antonio, en 
 route to Mexico, presented a handsome silver service. The
 
 2'^6 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 meeting of the Southern Convention contributed not a little 
 to the tendency of good feeling which had already set in in 
 Texas. 
 
 The year 1883 marks the date of the removal of the 
 Texas Baptist Herald from Houston to Austin. As has 
 before been said, while the scjuthcrn part of the State fur- 
 nished the heroes of Texas, the scenes of their exploits, the 
 historic battle grounds and the transactions of independence, 
 a time came when it was gradually abandoned, and central 
 and northern Texas became the empire of population. In 
 going to Austin, and later to Waco, Doctor Link was simply 
 seeking to keep in the current of state life. 
 
 Shortly after his removal to Austin, Doctor Link went 
 to Gatesville in the interest of his paper, when he met a 
 man who was destined to exert a potent influence and 
 accomplish that which no other accomplished in one of the 
 fiercest of denominational ordeals. While at Gatesville, 
 Link met J. B. Cranfill, who was editing The Gatesinllc 
 Advance, and was a teacher of the Bible class in the Sun- 
 day-school. Taking a place in the class on Sunday morn- 
 ing, Doctor Link w^as much impressed by the force fulness 
 and clearness alike of the thought and the diction of the 
 young teacher. It occurred to Doctor Link that Cranfill 
 was excellent timber for an editor, and frankly told him 
 so and sought to persuade him to remove to Austin and 
 become associated with him in the conduct of the Texas 
 Baptist Herald. The trained editor saw in the beardless 
 youth the embryo of a coming newspaper man. The con- 
 ditions of the removal of Cranfill were not favorable, and 
 he declined the offer made by Doctor Link. 
 
 In September, 1883, Major Penn held a remarkable 
 meeting at Fort Worth, and before quitting the city was 
 instrumental in constituting a new church, which was first 
 named the Southside Church, but afterward became the 
 Broadway Church. It has had a varied career, but is at 
 present, under the pastoral leadership of Rev. P. E. Bur- 
 roughs, one of the strong churches of the state, with a 
 membership of 950. 
 
 The headway gained by the Baptists in San Antonio 
 was a sufficient inducement for the State Convention to
 
 THEOES BEFORE DELIVEEANCE 277 
 
 be held in that city in 1883. Here was a dawn of greater 
 things to the Baptists of Texas. The Convention was the 
 largest ever held, the enthusiasm the greatest, the year's 
 work the best. Messengers were enrolled from sixty-six 
 churches, from every part of the State, besides those from 
 fourteen associations. The officers of the preceding ses- 
 sion were unanimously re-elected, itself an indication of 
 harmony and good will. The Convention began at high 
 tide, and continued with increasing enthusiasm throughout. 
 The older members, in referring to it, found delight in the 
 comparison of it with former conventions. 
 
 Early in the session Rev. W. D. Powell, who had been 
 a missionary for several years in Mexico, presented to the 
 body two prominent Mexicans, the mayor of Saltillo and 
 the superintendent of instruction of the Republic, who, 
 together, tendered to the Baptists valuable property on 
 which they might found an orphanage and an institution 
 for the higher instruction of women. Reference of the 
 offer so kindly made was made to a committee, which com- 
 mittee recommended that action be referred to the Foreign 
 Board at Richmond, Virginia. 
 
 The interest of the body centered in missions, to which 
 Doctor Tichenor contributed by his earnest appeals. Dur- 
 ing the year Secretary Pope had collected by his own efforts 
 $8,716.25. There had been raised and disbursed during the 
 year, $32,803.32, while on church building there had been 
 expended $59,337.04. This, of course, included all churches 
 built within the territory of the Convention during the 
 period of the year, but it showed the progress which was 
 being made in the State. The winter of the history of the 
 Baptists of Texas was passing, and the rejuvenation of 
 spring-time had come. 
 
 The amounts expended on the field in the interest of 
 missions were distributed among thirty-seven missionaries, 
 as against twenty-one the preceding year, through the 
 labors of whom there were 556 baptized, and 677 received 
 by letter, while under their supervision nine meeting houses 
 had been built. The amounts received from without the 
 State had been doubled since the appropriation of the Home 
 Mission Board, and the results on the field had been trebled.
 
 278 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 Tlie work of the year surpassed that of any other in the 
 history of the denomination in the State, and the session 
 of the Convention for 1883 closed with enthusiasm, which 
 was imparted to many quarters of the state by the return- 
 ing messengers. On December 19, 1883, Rev. Z. N. Mor- 
 
 REV. G. H. M. WILSON, BEEVILLE, TEXAS. 
 
 (Born in Barber Co., Ala., May 25, 1848; moved to La. in 1855; 
 united with Pleasant Grove Church in Jackson Parish, La., in 1865 ; 
 baptized b.v Rev. Jno. L. Mayes : moved to Texas in 1867 ; married to 
 Miss Martha E. Young, Jan. 2, 1870, by Rev. Geo. W. Green ; ordained 
 to the gospel ministry in Grimes Co., Tex., Sept. 7, 1873, by the Union 
 Hill Church ; married the second time, Sept. 11, 1894, in Bee Co., Tex., 
 to Miss Oleetha Allsup, by Rev. A. N. Barber ; not one day has passed 
 since his ordination that he has not been actively engaged as pastor or 
 missionary ; now pastor of Kenedy and Choate churches.) 
 
 rell died, lacking only twenty-eight days of being eighty- 
 one years old. He had left a valuable record in a work 
 entitled, "Flowers and Fruits of Texas," which was edited 
 by M. V. Smith. His last words to his son in the gospel, 
 M. V. Smith, were : "I will soon be safe at home." He 
 lies buried at Kyle. 
 
 The General Association for 1883 met at Cleburne. It 
 was an unusually lai'ge gathering, there being messengers
 
 THROES BEFORE DELIVERANCE 279 
 
 from ninety-two churches and fourteen associations. R. C. 
 Buckner was chosen president; B. H. Carroll, J. R. Clark 
 and W. J. Brown, vice presidents; S. J. Anderson, record- 
 ing secretary, and A. J. Holt, corresponding secretary. 
 Doctor I. T. Tichenor was present to represent the Home 
 Board, and J. A. Hackett, of Louisiana. The amount of 
 $3,000, which had been proposed on certain conditions to 
 be given by the Home Board during the past year, it seemed 
 for a time would not be available. Doctor Buckner was 
 appointed financial secretary to raise on the field the req- 
 uisite amount, but after a time he found it impracticable to 
 accept it, when Rev. G. W. Pickett was chosen to raise it, 
 but he, too, gave it up after a period, when Rev. A. J. Holt 
 was appointed. It had been a year of activity with the 
 General Association. Sixteen missionaries had been em- 
 ployed, and their work had been attended with gratifying 
 results. The budget for the next year was prepared and 
 the work projected. The people of Waco notified the Asso- 
 ciation that its quota of $20,000 was in the bank awaiting 
 the completion of the share of $60,000, which amount had 
 been assumed by the Association as its contribution to the 
 University at Waco. Among the reports submitted at this 
 session was one on "Relations to Other Bodies," presented 
 by B. H. Carroll. Its insight into the situation, and its fore- 
 cast of the future in part, justify its insertion in full. It is 
 as follows : 
 
 "Your committee, to which was referred the considera- 
 tion of the relation of this body to other Baptist general 
 bodies of this State, respectfully submit the following re- 
 port: We find the subject one of great difficulty and re- 
 quiring the wisest treatment. There are facts involved, 
 all of which it might not be prudent to submit in detail. 
 We are therefore much embarrassed in determining just 
 how much to say and in what way to say it. Also in recom- 
 mending the surest and purest methods of relief from any 
 existing trouble. The supreme object desired is peace with 
 all our brethren and fraternal co-operation in the work of 
 Christ. 
 
 "South of us lies the Baptist State Convention, a body 
 older in organization than our own, one for which we
 
 280 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 cherish the ])r()f()un(lcst love and respect for its glorious 
 record of work in the Master's cause in the many years of 
 its history. To the east, and along our northwest and west- 
 ern borders, are respectively the Kast Texas, North Texas 
 and Central Texas Conventions, having in great measure 
 undefined and undefinable boundaries. 
 
 "It is a fact with Baptist churches that no arbitrary 
 lines can be drawn fixing definite boundaries, as each church 
 inherits the inalienable right to form any associational con- 
 nection, or none, at its own election. Hence, on all sides, 
 the territory of the dififerent bodies intermingles. If the 
 Spirit of Christ were to govern all counsels, if brotherly 
 love always prevailed, and if churches were left alone to 
 determine for themselves their associational relations, no 
 trouble would grow out of this. But from whatever cause 
 (and we make no accusation) the fact remains that district 
 associations have been divided in council ; some rent asun- 
 der ; churches have been torn by faction, brethren alienated, 
 and strife engendered. More than this — the saddest and 
 most lamentable antagonism has been developed on the 
 mission fields. By every consideration of our holy religion 
 this ought not to be. 
 
 "We venture to express the conviction that with the 
 overwhelming majority of the churches and brethren in all 
 five general bodies, there is love for each other, and no 
 desire for any such conflict. On the contrary, they deplore 
 this evil and are impatient of its continuance. Now, there- 
 fore, we recommend that this General Association send fra- 
 ternal greetings to all general bodies in this State in corre- 
 spondence w'itli us, and respectfully request of each a com- 
 mittee of five to meet with a similar committee from other 
 bodies to confer in the Spirit of Christ about this matter. 
 And, furthermore, that these committees, if agreeable to 
 other bodies sending them, confer together on state unifica- 
 tion under the heads: i. Is it desirable or expedient? 
 2. Is it practicable? 3. If so, under what form? And 
 that our committees be instructed to report back to this 
 body for action." 
 
 This was the most distinct and definite action in 
 the matter of the restoration of cordial relations that
 
 THROES BEFORE DELIVERANCE 281 
 
 had yet been taken. What had been needed all along 
 was for some one who could tower above others in the 
 spirit of conciliation, and take the step which Dr. B. H. 
 Carroll took at- this time. Thousands were ready to re- 
 spond, and only a few were disposed to disregard an over- 
 ture so fraternal, so cordial, so unqualified in its tone. This 
 was a token for good, and was indicative of the fact that 
 conditions throughout the State were growing better. From 
 every quarter of the State came news of progress. Great 
 meetings were being held here and there, and churches, 
 which a few years ago were obscure, had become prominent 
 in the cause of Christ. The immediate effect of the revival- 
 ism throughout the State was to soften the asperities which 
 had so long prevailed, to the estrangement of brethren and 
 the rending of churches and associations. 
 
 The seemingly impossible had been undertaken. Rival 
 interests were on the field, and who would be willing to sur- 
 render for the sake of the cause, was the question which dis- 
 turbed not a few. But the report of Doctor Carroll was as 
 leaven among the Baptists of the State. It was the subject 
 of universal comment, and had set in motion a tide of senti- 
 ment which nothing could stay. That sentiment was destined 
 to grow with the rising tide of prosperity and the develop- 
 ing spirit on the part of the denomination. 
 
 When the General Association held its next annual meet- 
 ing at Paris in 1884, the spirit of the body was saturated 
 with the sentiment expressed in the manly report of the year 
 before. The body was duly organized by the election of 
 R. C. Buckner, president; B. H. Carroll, S. B. Maxey and 
 J. H. Boyet, vice presidents ; S. J. Anderson, recording sec- 
 retary, and A. J. Holt, corresponding secretary. The sum- 
 mary of the work was inspiring, the best report being sub- 
 mitted that had ever been presented to the body. Many 
 baptisms were reported, twenty-four churches and twenty- 
 four Sunday-schools had been organized, and $8,534.33 had 
 been collected on the field, which, when added to the $3,450 
 appropriated by the Home Mission Board, gave a sum suffi- 
 cient with which to do much efficient work. It was reported 
 at this session that the balance due by the Association on 
 the endowment fund of Waco University was in hand, and
 
 282 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 that the proposed $60,000 was now raised. This balance 
 was raised in cash and subscriptions on the spot by Rev. 
 S. L. Morris, who during the preceding year had been made 
 the financial agent of Waco University. The accomplish- 
 ment of this end led the Association, under the suggestion 
 of A. J. Holt, the corresponding secretary, to seek to raise 
 $20,000 for missions during the next year. 
 
 There was a division of sentiment respecting the coming 
 meeting of the State Convention at Waxahachie. This was 
 considerably within the territory of the General Association, 
 and while by some it was intended somewhat as a banter 
 and was therefore a menace, by others it was considered 
 an indication of the coming unification. No matter, noth- 
 ing more clearly showed the uselessness and folly of denomi- 
 national division than the fact that the convention should 
 meet at Waxahachie. Here and there, along the invisible 
 borders of the several bodies, there was constant overlap- 
 ping, and this had been going on for years. While it fur- 
 nished occasions for gloating on the part of some, it was 
 regarded as unfortunate by most of the Baptists of Texas. 
 
 In the autumn of 1884 the State Convention met at 
 Waxahachie. All the officers of the preceding session were 
 re-chosen for this session. H there were those who rejoiced 
 in the fact that "the enemy's country" was pierced to the 
 center by this meeting, as it was near the heart of the 
 asserted territory of the General Association, there were 
 many others who regarded the conditions as ominous unless 
 reconciliation should speedily follow. Certainly, if such 
 invasion meant victory, it was bought at the price of de- 
 nominational harmony. This was the view taken of the 
 situation by the more serious. There had been appropriated 
 to the work during the year $19,000, which had been dis- 
 tributed among thirty-five missionaries. It was reported 
 at this session that the North Texas Missionary Convention 
 had become consolidated with the State Convention, and 
 that the Texas Central Convention continued its co-opera- 
 tion. These were but foretokens of the coming union. 
 
 This was the last session that Dr. C. C. Chaplin was 
 ever permitted to attend. Before the meeting of the next 
 session he died, and so did Dr. W. C. Crane. The place left
 
 THEOES BEFOEE DELIVERANCE 383 
 
 vacant by the death of President Crane at Baylor University 
 was temporarily filled by Rev. Reddin Andrews. More and 
 more the situation was being simplified, and God was pre- 
 paring the way for unification. The death of President 
 Crane, while universally regretted, saved him from much 
 anguish of spirit, which would have been inevitable because 
 of the final agreement to combine the educational interests 
 of the Baptists of the State. He had struggled with all the 
 power which was his to save Baylor University, had spent 
 his little fortune in the effort, and had he come to the final 
 consummation, it would have been unspeakably embar- 
 rassing. 
 
 Thus ended the year 1884 — a year crowned with success 
 and full of hope for the future. The dawn of a brighter 
 day was now plainly visible through the clouds of difficulties 
 which still overhung- the future.
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 AN liKA OF RECONCILIATION AND I'KO( IKKSS. 
 
 Uefore entering on a review of the eventful year of 
 1885 and of the more stirring periods which followed, let 
 lis glance over the field and bring within the range of vision 
 the situation of the Baptist cause in Texas. For the last 
 several years the cause had been moving at a marvelous 
 pace. In spite of division and of collisions, great success had 
 crowned the efforts of God's people. By methods direct and 
 indirect, He was guiding the people toward a common 
 ground, where they could once more strike hands in fellow- 
 ship, and, with heart responsive to heart, move abreast to 
 the consummation of great epds. Tremendous problems lay 
 in the years of the future, and immense labor and sacrifice 
 would be necessary to their solution. Could the Baptists 
 have foreseen that which awaited them, the stoutest hearts 
 would have quailed, but "it is the glory of the Lord to con- 
 ceal a thing." If there were enormous undertakings, there is 
 the promise which spans with golden archway the future of 
 (jod's people — "Lo, I am with you alway." 
 
 The Baptists of Texas had already become a great peo- 
 ple. From the eastern boundary to the plains of the west, 
 and from the Panhandle to the mouth of the Rio Grande, 
 they had aggressively planted themselves, and had infused 
 their influence into the great mass of population which had 
 settled within the confines of the State. Representatives 
 from their ranks had been called to the highest stations of 
 State, were among the chief law-makers of the nation, and 
 wore the ermine on the judicial bench. Many were among 
 the sharers of the great material prosperity which had come 
 to the people of Texas. Their pulpits were manned by men, 
 the preaching of many of whom would have been accounted 
 superior in any quarter of the English-speaking world. Dis- 
 
 284 "
 
 RECONCILIATION AND PROGRESS 285 
 
 tinguished educators were theirs also. Institutions of learn- 
 ing had been established and maintained with zeal and abil- 
 ity from the birth-year of the State. In the numerous and 
 growing centers of population they had founded and main- 
 tained churches of commanding power. Throughout the 
 broad rural region of Texas theirs was the most popular of 
 the Christian denominations of the State. Far out beyond 
 the boundaries of civilization, among the rude ranchmen of 
 the west, their intrepid missionaries had gone, and Bap- 
 tists were in the advance of an expanding civilization towkrd 
 the further west. 
 
 What more could they ask as means and encouragement 
 to progress? It were sheer madness not to recognize and 
 prize the boundless blessings which God had given. Yet 
 they were severed into discordant segments. As is too often 
 the case, some were contending more for victory than for 
 truth. It not unfrequently happens that there is slowness 
 in the willingness of a jealous mind to relinquish its favorite 
 error for a conflicting truth. Men needed to come humbly 
 on their knees for light. A house divided against itself can- 
 not stand. Without a united front, irrevocable disintegration 
 must ensue. To concede all, to ground prejudice and 
 predilection for God's sake, in order to achieve the most for 
 Him, was the demand of the times. Such was the policy 
 wisdom would recommend, such the precaution prudence 
 would suggest, such the conclusion for which genuine devo- 
 tion clamored. For years, pious men and women had been 
 praying that this consummation might be reached. That 
 clamor and tumult might give place to peace, good-will 
 and co-operative fellowship, was the devout wish of thou- 
 sands. Dr. B. H. Carroll had sounded the bugle note of 
 hope just two years before, and it was equally the knell of 
 doom to prevailing disorder. 
 
 We turn now into the current of events. 
 
 The chief difficulty which had for years lain in the path 
 of consolidation of the Baptists of Texas was that of its lit- 
 erary institutions. For many years Baylor University at 
 Independence had been the cherished interest of the Bap- 
 tists, especially of southern Texas. The fortimes and the 
 life-blood of many had gone into that institution. It was
 
 C. H. BRIGGS, DEACON FIUST BAPTIST CHURCH, DALLAS, TEXAS. 
 
 (Born in Indiana ; came to Dallas, Texas, 1882 ; was Supt. of First 
 Church S. S. : member Board of Trustees Baptist Sanitarium and Board 
 of Directors, B. G. C. Is known in every good work in his church and in 
 Baptist work in the state.)
 
 EECONCILIATION AND PROGEESS 287 
 
 the Mecca of their hopes and joys. With others in the cen- 
 tral and northern parts of the State, Waco University had 
 been for a long period of time, the one interest around 
 which centered the affections of the Baptists of those sec- 
 tions. But nothing was clearer than that Baylor University 
 would have to succumb to the inevitable. Every possible 
 effort had been made to prop its tottering fortunes in its 
 original location, but the adverse conditions of years had 
 grown gradually worse, till hope had almost ceased to be a 
 virtue. While it had steadily declined, despite the herculean 
 efforts made to save it, Waco University had just as stead- 
 ily grown. The growing contrast in the public mind was 
 altogether unfavorable to the school at Independence. 
 President Crane had died while bravely struggling against 
 the tide, and Rev. Reddin Andrews, who had become a tem- 
 porary successor, reported that only sixty-four students had 
 been enrolled during the session following the death of the 
 lamented Crane, with an average attendance of forty. No 
 arrangements had been made for a faculty for the ensuing 
 session, as there were no provisions for the support of the 
 school. 
 
 On June 3, a joint session of the boards of Baylor Uni- 
 versity and of the school for women was held, at which 
 meeting, Harry Haynes offered a vigorous resolution of pro- 
 test against the removal of the schools. The question of 
 removal was referred to a joint session of the boards of the 
 two schools, to be held at Brenham on June 16. At this 
 meeting Dr. William Howard, of Austin, presented a resolu- 
 tion which recognized the necessity of the removal of the 
 two schools from Independence as a painful fact. This gave 
 occasion for much animated debate, which finally resulted 
 in the reference of the whole subject to the Baptist State 
 Convention, which was to meet during the following Octo- 
 ber at Lampasas. The cleavage once made in this difficult 
 and embarrassing question, the rest followed with easy, 
 logical sequence. Until this time there were reasons for not 
 pressing the matter, not least among which was the supreme 
 regard for Doctor Crane, who in his vain endeavors to save 
 the school had wrecked his health and fortune. 
 
 This movement was only one among many, the tendency
 
 288 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 of wliicli was toward unification. This sentiment got into 
 the air. it was voiced from Hp to Hp, from ear to ear, and 
 rose Hke a tide over the State. It began to reflect the state- 
 ment in the eventful report by Dr. 15. H. Carroll, to 
 which report reference has already been had several times, 
 that the rank and file of the denomination were kept in 
 estrangement because of certain discordant agencies 
 operating here and there in certain quarters of the State. 
 So soon as the rift came in the clouds of dissension, it was 
 hailed with joy by the churches in all parts of the State. 
 
 The Baptist General Association met at Ennis in July, 
 1885. There was a large and representative attendance 
 from ninety-one churches and twenty associations. Doctor 
 lUickner, whom the Association stood ready to re-elect the 
 presiding officer again, desiring most of all that the jjros- 
 pective harmony should be promoted, and who, as has been 
 shown, sought to bring this about several years before, de- 
 clined re-election and nominated Honorable L. L. Foster 
 for this position, and he was chosen by acclamation. 
 B. H. Carroll, J. H. Boyet and H. M. Furman were elected 
 vice-presidents ; S. J. Anderson, recording secretary, and 
 A. J. Holt, corresponding secretary. From the outset the 
 meeting was one of thrilling harmony and spiritual enthusi- 
 asm, The results of the work of the year far exceeded that 
 of any previous year. Fifty-seven missionaries of the Asso- 
 ciation had baptized 829, received by letter 1,163, organized 
 fifty-one churches and eighty-nine Sunday-schools, consti- 
 tuted ninety-five prayer-meetings, and had gleaned from the 
 field in incidental collections $3,514.72. Secretary Holt had 
 collected personally $9,166.88. During the session $700 was 
 pledged for the Brazilian Mission. The following resolu- 
 tions were ofifered by Dr. S. A. Hayden : 
 
 "Whereas, The Baptists of Texas, led, as we believe, by 
 the Spirit of God. are seeking some practical basis of 
 fraternal union ; and, 
 
 "Whereas, We believe the prayer of Christ, that His 
 people 'might all be one,' is destined to a com])lete fulfill- 
 ment ; and, 
 
 "Whereas, Institutions of learning are powerful agents
 
 EECONCILIATION AND PEOGEESS 289 
 
 for good or evil, as they are directed by Christian or anti- 
 Christian influences; and, 
 
 "Whereas, We can only hope to educate our youth by 
 providing facilities for attaining knowledge equal to the 
 secular institutions of the country ; and, 
 
 "Whereas, The securement of the perfect accord of our 
 people in Texas centers largely upon our educational inter- 
 ests ; therefore, 
 
 "Resolved, i. That in order to remove any obstacle 
 that may be in the way of our future concert of action in 
 advancing the I^aptist cause in Texas, it is, in our judgment, 
 desirable that all our denominational institutions of learning 
 in Texas be united into one Baptist State University. 
 
 "2. That we, the Baptist General Association of Texas, 
 pledge ourselves to meet any proposition looking to such 
 consolidation of schools upon principles of fairness and 
 equality. 
 
 "3. We believe that we do but express the sentiment 
 of the great Baptist family of Texas, as well as provide for 
 the best interest of the proposed consolidated university in 
 making it a condition of such consolidation, that Rufus C. 
 Burleson, D.D., LL.D., the only survivor of the great men 
 who have laid the foundation of Baptist education in Texas, 
 who has spent his entire life in that work, be made the 
 Chancellor for life of the said consolidated University, with 
 adequate salary. We believe also that we do but voice the 
 sentiment of all the Baptists of Texas in suggesting that the 
 proposed consolidated University bear the honored name 
 of R. E. B. Baylor. 
 
 "Resolved, further. That we hereby appoint L. L. Foster, 
 president of this body, S". L. Morris and Henry Furman a 
 committee to visit the State Convention at Lampasas and 
 inform that body of the action of this Association. That in 
 the event a consolidation of schools shall not be acceptable to 
 the Convention, then we request the board of trustees of 
 Waco University to select some suitable site on the hills near 
 Waco for the permanent establishment of Waco University, 
 and we pledge ourselves to use our best energies to raise 
 within the next five years an endowment of $500,000 for 
 said University, and do all in our power to secure for the
 
 290 ITTSTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 youth of Texas a Baptist University worthy of the name. 
 It is understood that nothing in these resohitions shall be 
 construed to suspend any plan to collect endowment notes 
 or securing pledges that the Board may deem expedient. 
 
 "Resolved, That nothing in the reports adopted at this 
 meeting shall be construed as in conflict with these resolu- 
 tions." 
 
 These resolutions were promptly adopted, and so far as 
 the General Association was concerned, it seems to have 
 gone to its utmost in the resoration of harmony in the Bap- 
 tist ranks. In the urgency of the plan proposed, Doctor 
 Hayden insisted that nothing short of harmony would ever 
 enable the Baptists of the state to work out their destiny as 
 Providence seemed to have indicated. He pleaded for har- 
 mony and consolidation as the two essential elements of the 
 future success of the Baptists of the State. The resolutions 
 and the addresses seemed to express all that could be desired, 
 and served to quicken the enthusiasm of the body. Unifica- 
 tion became the topic of the hour. Men talked of little else, 
 and Doctor Hayden was congratulated on all hands as being 
 a timely peace-maker. It was thought to be the solution of 
 the difficulties of the prevailing situation. 
 
 In order to the fullest accomplishment of the ends 
 sought, Rev. T. S. Potts offered the following- 
 
 "That it is the sense of the Association that under the 
 existing circumstances the interest of our denomination in 
 the state would be best subserved by the existence of one 
 general body, and that this Association is willing to co-oper- 
 ate with other general bodies for the accomplishment of this 
 end on terms honorable and equal to all." 
 
 This was also adopted with marked enthusiasm, when 
 J. R. Malone offered the following: 
 
 "Resolved, That the committee previously . appointed, 
 viz., L. L. Foster, S. L. Morris and Henry M. Furman, be 
 instructed to procure the revision of the charter of Waco 
 University, and that its property and management shall be 
 vested in the Baptist General Association of Texas." 
 
 The rapidity with which the action was taken by the Gen- 
 eral Association in urging the claims of unification suggested 
 to some sedate minds that after all there might lurk in the
 
 RECONCILIATION AND PROGRESS 291 
 
 proposed action of the body that which might, in the pos- 
 sible tension of sentiment in certain minds, be regarded as 
 wearing a front of hostility rather than one of amity. 
 Whereupon, Doctor Hayden, in order to allay any possible 
 misconstruction of the action of the Association, offered the 
 following : 
 
 "Whereas, It has been said that the resolutions passed by 
 this body, proposing a union of our denominational schools 
 in Texas, contain a threat to the State Convention if they 
 reject the proposition ; therefore, 
 
 "Resolved, That the intention of the resolution referred 
 to was to assure the friends of Waco University that there 
 was no design to injure that institution, but to guarantee it 
 against any loss that might arise from delay in collecting the 
 endowment, and the conditions are not intended to dictate 
 to the Convention." 
 
 In order further to guard against any possible friction 
 or misunderstanding, R. T. Hanks offered the following : 
 
 "Resolved, That the committee to the State Convention 
 go uninstructed as to the details of consolidation, and that 
 they do not incorporate in their communication to that body 
 any of the resolutions except those on the main point of 
 consolidation." 
 
 The General Association adjourned to meet at Pittsburg 
 the next year, but in the providence of God, this one, at 
 Ennis, proved to be the last one ever held, excepting a 
 called meeting of the body, of which we shall learn later. 
 A whirlwind of events followed the gathering at Ennis. 
 The news of its action was heralded over the state, and the 
 conciliatory resolutions of Doctor Hayden, so full of all 
 that was desired by the denomination at large, were hailed 
 as a harbinger of peace and good will. A commotion of 
 favorable sentiment swept the State from end to end, and 
 Hayden was thought of as the messenger bearing the olive 
 branch of peace and love. The approaching State Con- 
 vention was confronted by an obligation which it could not 
 disregard, even if it was so disposed. There was a strong 
 current in all directions setting toward thorough reconcilia- 
 tion, and it became the universal topic throughout the State. 
 In July following the adjournment of the General Associa-
 
 292 IIISTOEY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 tion, the East Texas Convention dissolved in order to merge 
 widi the State Convention. Similar action was taken 
 by tlic Central 'J'cxas Convention, the North Texas Con- 
 vention ha\inj4- ])re\i()usly taken the same stcjjs two years 
 before. 
 
 All eyes were now turned toward the State Convention 
 which was to meet at Lampasas in October. As the time ap- 
 
 REV. T. .J. DODSo.N, SKCUIX, TEXAS. 
 
 (Born in Miss., Jan. 22, 1854: educated Miss. Col. and Baylor Univ., 
 graduating from latter with A. B. degree : pastor at Seguin 27 years ; 
 has baptized more people and conducted more funerals than any preacher 
 who ever lived in his town or county ; resigned at Seguin because he 
 thought a younger pastor who could speak both Eiiglish and German 
 should be chosen there; is now devoting all his time to country churches.) 
 
 proached the interest in the coming convention increased. 
 Many resolved to attend who had never been at a session of 
 the body. What w^ould the parent body do? It semed im- 
 possible for it to disregard overtures so urgent, and, as it 
 seemed to many, so imperative. Consequently there was 
 a large attendance at Lampasas. There were messengers
 
 RECONCILIATION AND PEOGRESS 293 
 
 present from one hundred and ten churches and twenty as- 
 sociations. Two causes conspired to bring together so large 
 a number. One was the activity of the representatives of 
 the State Board during the year, in exciting interest in the 
 general work, and the other was that of the action of other 
 bodies favoring unity of interest, and the prevailing desire 
 to see what the action of the parent body would be. Both 
 the president of the convention, Doctor Chaplin, and the 
 first vice-president, Doctor Crane, having died during the 
 preceding year, the body was called to order by Doctor 
 Stribling. The organization resulted in the election of 
 Doctor F. M. Law, president; Reddin Andrews, M. V.. 
 Smith, and J. H. Stribling, vice-presidents ; O. H. P. Gar- 
 rett, recording secretary, with M. P. Matheny, as assistant. 
 George B. Davis was retained as treasurer, and Doctor O. 
 C. Pope, having retired from the corresponding secretary- 
 ship. Rev. W. R. Maxwell was chosen in his place. 
 
 The year had been a most trying one financially, and 
 yet Secretary Pope was able to report large collections by 
 himself and the missionaries on the field. He also reported 
 that the Baptist meeting house at Monterey, Mexico, had 
 been finished and furnished at a cost of $5,175.54. The 
 enterprise was without a cent of indebtedness. The first 
 Baptist meeting house in Mexico was thus built exclusively 
 by Texas money. Doctor Pope had conceived the under- 
 taking, and had carried it to completion by his own exer- 
 tions. It was with regret that he gave up the work at this 
 stage, but a broader field had been offered him in connection 
 with the Home Mission Society, of New York, and he had 
 accepted it. In taking leave of the work in Texas, he says 
 in his annual report: "Never had man, in any service, a 
 grander constituency, a more harmonious board, or a more 
 godly or self-sacrificing corps of workers. What success 
 has been attained, has been, in the main, due to these." His 
 retirement from the work was the occasion of general re- 
 gret. During the year, forty-six missionaries had been em- 
 ployed, five of whom were German preachers, who labored 
 among their own people. The Convention gave expression 
 of its gratitude in resolutions respecting the services of 
 Doctor Pope, and also for the liberal appropriations made
 
 294 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 by the Home Mission Board and the Home Mission So- 
 ciety. 
 
 Interest in missions was shown by pledges of $8,000 as 
 the result of a mass meeting on Sunday. In addition to this 
 amount for State Missions, $778 was pledged General Haw- 
 thorne for Foreign Missions. Appropriate memorial exer- 
 cises were held in memory of Doctors Crane and Chaplin, 
 both of whom had died since the session of the Convention, 
 next preceding. In response to the expression from the 
 General Association favorable to the consolidation of the 
 educational interests, the Convention appointed a committee 
 to confer with the one sent from the General Association 
 after the adoption of the following : 
 
 "Whereas, A desire has been widely expressed for the 
 consolidation of our missionary bodies in this state, there- 
 fore 
 
 "Resolved, That a committee of five be appointed to con- 
 fer with any like committee that may have been, or may 
 hereafter be appointed by the other bodies, and report some 
 suitable expression from this body on that subject." 
 
 In addition to this resolution was another : 
 
 "Whereas, There has been much agitation in the bounds 
 of this Convention on the subject of the removal of Baylor 
 University from Independence ; therefore 
 
 "Resolved, That this matter be placed before the Con- 
 vention for the action of said body on the question." 
 
 A large committee was appointed to take under advise- 
 ment the feasibility of the removal of the two schools from 
 Independence. In due time the committee recommended 
 that : "These institutions be removed to some more eligible 
 locality, and that a committee of fifteen be appointed to 
 take this whole matter of removal and location, and all ques- 
 tions that may arise pertaining thereto, etc., in conjunction 
 with the boards of the two schools, and that they at once 
 take such steps as may be necessary to the earliest practica- 
 ble accomplishment of this important work, and that the 
 schools remain at Independence, at least this year, but that 
 everything .should be ready for opening at the new location, 
 or locations, by September, 1886, and that the present build- 
 ings, grounds, libraries, apparatus and furniture be ten-
 
 EECONCILIATION AND PKOGEESS 295 
 
 dered the Union Association, for educational purposes, and 
 maintained at Independence, and that the endowment al- 
 ready raised be subject to the will of the donors to remain 
 with the schools at Independence or be carried with the 
 University and College to the new location, as each donor 
 may elect. Any endowment of the donors, any of whom 
 may be dead, shall be left with the schools at Independence." 
 
 The report was signed by fourteen of the committee 
 appointed. The committee to which was referred the ques- 
 tion of the consolidation of the schools, reported through 
 the chairman, A. W. Dunn, as follows : 
 
 "Your committee on consolidation of the educational 
 interests of the Baptists of Texas, beg leave to report that 
 it is the sense of this Convention that the consolidation of 
 our institutions of learning is desirable, and that we will 
 consider any proposition that may be presented on the basis 
 of fairness and equality to all parties interested, and we rec- 
 ommend the reference of this question to the committee al- 
 ready appointed in connection with the Boards of Trustees 
 of Baylor University and Baylor Female College." 
 
 All of this was cordially acquiesced in bv the Conven- 
 tion, and a brighter day had come to Texas Baptists. The 
 news of this action on the part of the Convention was sped 
 over the country, as Baptists throughout the South had 
 shared profoundly in the tension of sentiment so long exist- 
 ing in the denomination in this State. An adjournment of 
 the Convention was hurried by reason of a terrible epidemic 
 of dengue fever at Lampasas, the disease having invaded al- 
 most every family. Till almost midnight of Monday, the 
 Convention prolonged its session, and finally adjourned 
 without the completion of its work, leaving unfinished items 
 to the Board of Directors. That Board held a brief meeting 
 the following morning, and adjourned to meet at Brenham 
 two weeks later, in conjunction with the committee of fif- 
 teen already appointed, together with the boards of the two 
 schools at Independence. 
 
 To this session of the body there came as a mes- 
 senger from the Gatesville church, J. B. Cranfill, 
 whose paper, The Gatesville Advance, was gaining much 
 prestige as an exponent of the temperance reform. He
 
 296 HISTOKY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 was made chairman of the committee on the Hquor traffic 
 and presented a ringing report thereon, which was unani- 
 mously adopted. It was the first state-wide liaptist body- 
 he had ever attended. 
 
 The somewhat precipitate adjournment of the Conven- 
 tion two weeks before, at Lampasas, imposed on the Board 
 of Directors now met at Brenham, the duty of completing 
 the unfinished work of the Convention. Accordingly a 
 vigorous campaign for State ]\Iissions was projected on a 
 basis commensurate with the increasing demands of evan- 
 gelization in Texas. The Directors also consummated ar- 
 rangements for the creation and establishment of a new 
 board, known as the Board of Relief for Disabled Ministers, 
 suitable provision for which action had been made by reso- 
 lution, in the Convention. A number of aged ministerial 
 veterans, the vigor of whose manhood had been spent in 
 active service, always with limited compensation, were now 
 in straitened circumstances. To provide for their wants 
 w^as the object of the creation of the new board, which was 
 located at Lampasas with Rev. H. M. Burroughs as the 
 superintendent. 
 
 The odds and ends of the Convention being completed, 
 the cjuestion of the removal of the schools was next con- 
 sidered. Acting separately, the trustees of the two schools 
 acquiesced in the expressed will of the Convention. As 
 the General Association had taken the initial step toward 
 the consolidation of the schools, that body was deferred to 
 by those assembled at Brenham, and it was requested to go 
 further and appoint a committee to co-operate with a com- 
 mittee appointed by the Convention, considering meanwhile 
 bids for a location. L. L. Foster, president of the General 
 Association, promptly called a special meeting of that body 
 to be held at Dallas on November 25, 1885. When that 
 body met, it proceeded to appoint a committee each for the 
 consideration of the subjects respectively of the consolida- 
 tion of the schools, and of the general bodies of the Baptists 
 of the State. December 9, of the same year, was named as 
 the time, and Temple, selected as the place of meeting. 
 
 At the time and place named, the two committees met. 
 twenty-five from the State Convention, and thirty-one from
 
 EECONCILIATION AND PEOGEESS 297 
 
 the General Association. A formal organization was en- 
 tered into, and R. T. Hanks was made temporary chairman, 
 and G. W. Smith, secretary. Later, a permanent organiza- 
 tion was effected of which W. H. Trollinger became the 
 presiding officer, and M. V. Smith, permanent secretary. 
 Sub-committees of five from each of the two general com- 
 mittees were appointed to report on a basis of permanent 
 consolidation of the two general bodies. The following re- 
 port was the result : 
 
 "We, your committee, believing that the consolidation of 
 the general bodies is desirable, recommend : 
 
 "i. That the Baptist General Association of Texas be 
 consolidated with the Baptist State Convention of Texas. 
 
 "2. That the name of the consolidated body shall be, 
 The Baptist General Convention of Texas. 
 
 "3. That the basis of representation of the first meeting 
 of the consolidated body shall be the same as heretofore — - 
 those coming from the State Convention territory, enter the 
 consolidated body on the same terms on which they for- 
 merly entered the State Convention, and those from the 
 General Association have membership upon the same terms 
 on which they formerly entered that body. 
 
 "4. That the mission work be continued, as heretofore, 
 till the first meeting, under the direction of the two general 
 bodies respectively, and be reported to that meeting. 
 
 "5. That the first meeting of the consolidated body be 
 held at Waco, beginning on Tuesdav after the first Sundav, 
 in July, 1886." 
 
 The following resolution was offered by Doctor S. A. 
 Hayden and adopted : 
 
 "Resolved, That the phraseology used in the consolida- 
 tion of the two general bodies, was an accommodation to the 
 legal status of affairs, and not in any sense to be construed 
 as an invasion of the equality of the two bodies entering into 
 the consolidation." 
 
 A charter was afterward procured in accordance with 
 the articles of consolidation. 
 
 Necessary steps having been .taken for the merging of 
 the two bodies into one, the next important step was in the 
 direction of the unification of the two schools. In order to
 
 298 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 do this, five from each of the general committees were ap- 
 pointed as a subcommittee to formulate a plan of action. 
 From the Convention committee there were appointed, C. R. 
 Breedlove, J. B. Link, M. V. Smith, R. J. Sledge, and F. 
 M. Law. From the General Association, L. L. Foster, R. C. 
 Biickner, J. L. Whittle, W. B. Dunn, and B. H. Carroll. 
 The result was the following report : 
 
 "i. That Waco and Baylor Universities be consolidated. 
 
 "2. That the name of the school shall be Baylor Univer- 
 sity. 
 
 "3. That Baylor University be located at Waco ; and we 
 further agree that the female department continue there as 
 it now exists, provided that Waco give a bonus (a) of the 
 old grounds and buildings of Waco University; (b) the 
 $60,000 already secured for an endowment; (c) $45,000 
 additional building fund, and (d) twenty acres of land suit- 
 able for a new site for the University; provided, further, 
 that at the expiration of ten years, the continuance of the 
 system of co-education, at Waco, be determined by a ma- 
 jority of the consolidated general body to which the institu- 
 tion, with its funds and property, shall belong. 
 
 "4. That as very many Baptists oppose co-education, 
 Baylor Female College be located at some other central 
 point, the place where located, to give a bonus at least in 
 suitable grounds and buildings, and that Baylor Female 
 College, then located, be also the property of the consoli- 
 dated general body. 
 
 ' "5. That the endowment of the present Baylor Univer- 
 sity go to Waco with the new Baylor University, according 
 to the terms agreed upon by the State Convention, and pub- 
 lished in those Minutes. 
 
 "6. That the act of locating Baylor Female College be 
 referred to the following persons: F. M. Law, A. W, 
 Dunn, H. W. Waters, C. R. Breedlove, G. W. Capps, J. B. 
 Link, R. J. Sledge, Reddin Andrews, O. H. P. Garrett, M. 
 V. Smith, Harrv Havnes, G. W. Breedlove, Hosea Garrett, 
 A. W. Mclver,' William Howard, J. H. Stribling, S. A. 
 Beauchamp, W. R. Maxwell, C. C. Garrett and S. F. Styles." 
 
 The way now seemed clear to complete harmony. For 
 many years men had contended honestly for that which to
 
 KECONCILIATION AND PEOGEESS 299 
 
 them seemed best, and yet they had encountered forces dia- 
 metrically opposed, but just as honest in purpose. This had 
 occasioned discontent on the part of yet other classes which 
 had sloughed off, and formed separate organizations. These 
 colliding movements occasioned strife, and in not a few in- 
 stances, bitterness. Under such conditions, the judgments of 
 good men were beclouded, and their opinions warped. Un- 
 consciously, under circumstances like these, men are some- 
 times swayed by a desire for victory rather than for the 
 truth. Their vision is blurred by the smoke of battle, and 
 they yield to impulses to which, under quieter conditions, 
 they could never succumb. A calm retrospection of conduct 
 under heated conditions prompts any honest man to regret, 
 and impels him to a point of view from which he is enabled 
 to discover how his bearing might have been different. 
 
 Great expectations were aroused by so amicable an ad- 
 justment of Baptist affairs, and the first meeting of the con- 
 solidated body was looked forward to with intense interest. 
 It was destined to be an eventful meeting. 
 
 It was during the year 1885 that a memorable debate on 
 the Prohibition question took place at Crawford, in Mc- 
 Lennan County, between J. B. CranfiU and Roger Q. Mills. 
 A local Prohibition election having been ordered, the whis- 
 key men induced Mr. Mills, who was at that time a mem- 
 ber of Congress, to come to Crawford and speak in their 
 behalf. It was at this village that Dr. Cranfill had taught 
 school when he was quite a young man. It was there that 
 he married when he was not yet twenty. The citizens of the 
 little town remembered him well, and had followed his 
 career with loving interest. When they learned of the com- 
 ing of Mr. Mills, whose mission was to fasten the liquor 
 traffic on the precinct, they wired Dr. Cranfill to come down 
 and meet him in joint debate. He came. The debate was 
 held. Inasmuch as it was Mr. Mills' appointment, he both 
 opened and closed the discussion. It was an occasion long 
 to be remembered, and the result of the contest was that 
 Prohibition was adopted in the precinct by an overwhelming 
 majority. Dr. Cranfill regards it as the greatest forensic 
 victory of his life. While Mr. Mills is a very able man in 
 debate, he was on the wrong side of the question, and Dr.
 
 300 HISTOEY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 Cranfill utterly routed him in the discussion. That night, 
 the brass band of the town, led by Elmon Armstrong, sere- 
 naded Dr. Cranfill, but Mr. Mills, having met a clistinct 
 Waterloo in the discussion, left the town on a midnight 
 freight train. 
 
 REV. J. F. DOBBS, LIBERTY, TEXAS. 
 
 (Boni in ('lierokee Co., Ala., Dec. 2G, 185.3; .iolned Mt. Pisgah church 
 Sept., 1870: ordained to the deaconship of Piedmont church, 1878: 
 moved to Montgomery Co., Texas, 1881 : ordained to the ministry by 
 Pleasant Grove church, June, 1882 ; elected missionary of P^vergreen 
 Assn., May, 1882 : served three years ; served country churches in Mont- 
 gomery, Grimes and Waller Counties : has been pastor at Hempstead, 
 Alvin and Madisonville and is now pastor at Liberty ; editor of South 
 Texas Baptist from 1882 to 188G, and of Baptist News from 1900 to 
 1903 ; has been married twice, first to :Miss Sarah Savage, of Spring- 
 garden, Ala., Feb., 1875 ; second, to Miss Mary Ilande, of Spring, Texas, 
 July, 1S<)7.) 
 
 The first session of the new or consolidated body met at 
 Waco, on June 26, 1886. After twenty-five years of separa- 
 tion and counter-separation, the baptists of Texas were 
 again brought together. It was an eventful occasion, being 
 the largest assemblage of Bai)tists ever brought together in 
 the state. Men who had planned and wrought in opposition.
 
 EECONCILIATION AND PEOGRESS 301 
 
 were now seeing eye to eye. The energy and determination 
 which had heen exhihited in the promotion of separate in- 
 terests, were now concentrated into luianimity. Representa- 
 tives were present from two hundred and fifty churches and 
 twenty-two associations. They came from every quarter of 
 the state. An organization of the body was promptly ef- 
 fected by the election of A. T. Spalding, president ; Reddin 
 Andrews, Tully Choice and F. Kiefer, vice-presidents ; O. H. 
 P. Garrett and S. J. Anderson, secretaries, and A. J. Holt, 
 corresponding secretary and superintendent of missions. 
 
 It will be seen that there was a disposition to be mutually 
 courteous and conciliatory by the retention, as far as prac- 
 ticable, of all the old officers of both the original bodies. 
 It is an interesting fact that thirty-eight years before, at the 
 original organization of the convention, the number of 
 churches was precisely equal to the number of associations 
 which now existed in the state. Even in division, the Bap- 
 tists had become a great people. 
 
 The first care of the newly organized body was the prepa- 
 ration of a new constitution, to prepare which a committee 
 of five was appointed, viz. : B. H. Carroll, F. M. Law, R. T. 
 Hanks, W. H. Dodson, and E. Z. F. Golden. The constitu- 
 tion was maturely prepared and duly presented and adopted. 
 The meeting was largely prospective, and concerned itself, 
 for the most part, with planning for the greater things of 
 the future. To have witnessed the men who were now hap- 
 pily co-operating, one would never have thought that there 
 had ever been the slightest variance in their councils. Vast 
 plans for future work were projected, and the Convention 
 adjourned with a burst of affectionate enthusiasm. The 
 clouds were gone, and the light was streaming. Every heart 
 was buoyant as the members turned again homeward. It 
 would have seemed impossible that another storm could ever 
 burst over such a body of men. 
 
 At this Convention, J. B. Cranfill was again named as 
 Chairman of the Committee on Temperance, and read a 
 ringing and aggressive report. Two notable speeches on 
 the report were made — one by Major W. E. Penn and one 
 by Rev. I. B. Kimbrough. During the year 1885, while a 
 local prohibition campaign was pending in McLennan
 
 302 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 County, United States Senator Coke, after anathematizing 
 the preachers, had said : "Scourge the preachers back, and 
 stop their rations." This expression had aroused the Texas 
 Baptist ministry on the temperance question as they had 
 never been before. Addressing himself to the report and to 
 the situation then pending in the State of Texas, Rev. I. B. 
 Kimbrough said: "Before I would close my mouth con- 
 cerning the iniquity of the liquor traffic, I would live on 
 corn-cobs and stump-water," 
 
 Dr. Kimbrough's presence and address on this occasion 
 recalled an incident of his earlier career in Tennessee, when 
 he was the financial agent of Carson and Newman College. 
 Busied with the work of raising money for the young min- 
 isters, he was held up in going from one appointment to an- 
 other by two highwaymen. They made their appearance as 
 he was traveling a secluded forest road. Presenting their 
 revolvers, they ordered him to dismount and hand over to 
 them all of his money. He said : 
 
 "Very well, gentlemen, please give me a little time, and 
 I will obey your orders." 
 
 After dismounting, he laid his money in two piles, then 
 turning to the highwaymen he said : 
 
 "Gentlemen, this small pile of money is mine ; you are 
 at liberty to rob me of that ; the larger pile is God's money, 
 and I dare you to touch it. I collected it for the young 
 preachers of the state who are struggling for an education at 
 Carson and Newman College." 
 
 The earnestness and courage of the man attracted the 
 attention of the robbers, and they began to inquire into the 
 work in which he was engaged. He told them he was a 
 Baptist preacher, and explained to them his mission. After 
 hearing what he had to say, the elder of the two men 
 said : 
 
 "We will not take either your money or the money of 
 the young preachers," 
 
 Turning to the young men, and looking them full in the 
 face, Dr. Kimbrough added : "Young men, you are in a 
 mighty bad business. I believe you ought to give it up. In 
 the meantime, I wdll be grateful if you will help me in the 
 work in which I am engaged."
 
 EECONCILIATION AND PEOGEESS 303 
 
 Following this appeal, the robbers gave him $5 each for 
 the young preachers, whereupon the faithful minister 
 mounted his horse, and all rode away, going in different 
 directions. 
 
 Naturally enough after a consolidation of the schools, 
 Doctor R. C. Burleson was retained as the president of the 
 combined interest. He had maintained a large and success- 
 ful school for many years together, at Waco, and hailed with 
 delight the impulse given to the work under new and 
 changed conditions. Indeed, 1886 will ever remain one of 
 the most eventful epochs in the annals of the Baptists of 
 Texas. A new era had come, and the years of the future, 
 though obscured by storms, have been years of increasing 
 growth and expansion. Nothing has been able to stem the 
 flow of denominational prosperity. 
 
 One matter alone barred the way to complete unity, and 
 that was the continuance of two denominational papers, 
 edited respectively by J. B. Link and S. A. Hayden. The 
 latter had come to succeed Doctor R. C, Buckner as the 
 editor of The Texas Baptist. Already suggestions were made 
 that the two papers merge, but under the new constitution 
 it was wisely provided that the Convention could not become 
 involved in such an enterprise as was proposed by some. 
 Doctor Link proposed that both papers be sold to some or- 
 ganization that would bear a vital relation to the Convention, 
 to which Doctor Hayden was opposed. Indeed, none were 
 found who were willing to assume any responsibility in such 
 connection. Several committees were appointed at different 
 times to aid in the adjustment of the "paper question," as 
 it was called, but the utmost that could be settled was, that 
 in the event of consilidation the paper should be published 
 at Dallas. This was done, the vote being for Dallas by a 
 bare majority. Dr. B. H. Carroll and the delegates from 
 Waco church refrained from voting. If they had voted aye, 
 Waco would have been chosen and the current of Texas 
 Baptist history radically changed. The final result was that 
 Doctor Link sold the Texas Baptist Herald to Doctor Hay- 
 den in July, 1886, and it thenceforth became the Texas Bap- 
 tist and Herald. 
 
 Conditions in the state had grown immensely better, in
 
 nOl IIISTOT^Y OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 every respect within llie last few years, and a sentiment 
 was becoming- dominant that a movement looking to the 
 total ex]iulsion of li((uoi' from the state should be started, 
 as it was believi'd tliat such a movement woidcT result in 
 its banishment. This was the year that the Prohibition 
 Party was organized in Texas. J. B. Cranfill made the 
 call for a convention for the organization of that party in 
 July, 1886, and the party was organized at Dallas in Sep- 
 tember, 1886. Doctor Cranfill was made the chairman of 
 the State E.xecutive Committee, and the party polled the 
 largest vote in its history. The ballots of 19,186 gave 
 encouragement to believe that a movement could be begun 
 for ridding Texas of the saloon, and that movement was 
 begun in 1887, of w'hich we shall hear more later on. 
 
 The removal of the college for girls from Independence 
 and the provision of a new location for that school, as a 
 separate institution, resulted in the selection of Belton, 
 where the "Pjaylor Fema-le College" was opened in Sep- 
 tember, 1886, with Doctor J. II. Luther, who had served 
 with efficiency at Independence, retained as president. The 
 town of Belton gave eleven acres of land for the school, and 
 $31,000 as a building fund. The school prospered from the 
 beginning, there being enrolled the first year two hundred 
 and two students. 
 
 Under the new order of things the work began well 
 throughout the state. New life came to the denomination 
 and new movements began most auspiciously to come into 
 being. This year marked the formation of what w^as called 
 the Baptist Women Mission Workers in the state, at the 
 head of which movement was Mrs. Fannie Breedlove Davis, 
 to whom allusion has already been made. Without a jar 
 or jostle, the work went smoothly on in the forgetfulness 
 of the past. 
 
 The Baptist General Convention of Texas met in 1887 
 with the First Baptist Church of Dallas, and the wisdom of 
 unification was abundantly shown in the large assemblage 
 from every quarter of the state, in the results accomplished 
 during the year, and in the admirable oneness of spirit ex- 
 hibited in the convention. A. T. Spalding was re-elected 
 president, G. W. Baines, F. M. Law, and R. T. Hanks, vice-
 
 EECONCILIATION AND PEOGEESS 305 
 
 presidents; S. J- Anderson, recording- secretary, and M. P. 
 Matheney assistant secretary. The attendance on the con- 
 vention numbered about four hundred and fifty messengers. 
 The past year had served to give a concrete ilhistration of 
 a forcible statement made by Secretary Holt the year be- 
 fore : "The pressure of past perils has brought to the front 
 some able workers." 
 
 The work of the State Board had been vastly enlarged 
 during the past year, the number of missionaries having 
 been increased from eighty-one from the year before to 
 one hundred and twenty. Most of the district associations 
 of the state had been brought into co-operation with the 
 General Board, and immense fields of destitution had been 
 reached. Yet the fact remained that there were eighty-five 
 counties in the state which were almost, if not entirely, des- 
 titute of the preaching of the gospel. There were 100,000 
 square miles of solid destitution in Texas. The Rio Grande, 
 skirting the distance of 1,500 miles along the western bor- 
 der of the state, watered a region which was being rapidly 
 peopled, and yet but two missionaries were serving in that 
 vast region. Of the 120,000 Baptists in the state at that 
 time fully 100,000 of them were giving not a cent to mis- 
 sions. Yet the cash collections for the year amounted to 
 $31,960.28. This was the substance of the report of Sec- 
 retary Holt to the convention in 1887. Among the com- 
 mendable efforts of the State Board during the year was 
 that of seeking to reach the growing centers. Houston, 
 Galveston, Dallas, Denison, Texarkana, Laredo, El Paso, 
 Clarksville, Eagle Pass and Henrietta were points that had 
 engaged the claims of the attention of the board. Under 
 the new relations the schools had begun well. The people 
 of Belton had shown every possible kindness to the college 
 located there, and it was destined to grow rapidly in popu- 
 lar esteem. A fresh infusion of life had been imparted to 
 Baylor University, and the attendance had materially grown. 
 S. L, Morris was retained as financial agent of the school, 
 and the prospect of an enlarged endowment was encourag- 
 ing. Among the liberal donors of the year was a man hum- 
 ble in life but a prince among godly men. Jackson Bradly, 
 of Johnson county, just before his death, gave $1,000 to
 
 306 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 the endowment fund of Baylor University, and stated that 
 it was the happiest day of his Hfe when he was able to do 
 for others that of which he had been denied. His name 
 and memory are worthy of permanent record. At Lam- 
 pasas Rev. H. M. Burroughs had under his watchcare 
 twenty-six aged and destitute ministers, together with 
 
 REV. J. p. GILLIAM AND WIFE, GENERAL MISSIONARY, 
 Jacksonville, Texas. 
 
 (Born in Sumner Co., Tenn., Sept. 21, 1854; taught school; was 
 baptized in 1875 ; was ordained by Independence church, Tenn., 1878 ; 
 served country churches until 1892, after which he served town churches ; 
 in 1901, came to Texas, was called to Hico church ; resigned to accept 
 work of General Missionary in 1907 ; Jan. 10, 1878, was married to Miss 
 Belle I'ardue.) 
 
 six widows and- some orphan children, and for his new 
 board he was gradually gathering an endowment. 
 
 During the year Rev. O. H. P. Garrett had died. For 
 a long period of years he had been a conspicuous and yet 
 modest figure in the ranks of the convention. For many 
 years in succession he had served with marked efficiency
 
 EPJCONCILIATION AND PEOGRESS 307 
 
 as the recording secretary of the body. He was among the 
 pioneer young men who came from the states eastward to 
 Texas in its earliest days. OHver Hazard Perry Garrett 
 removed to Texas in 1838, and with the exception of a brief 
 stay in his native state, South Carolina, after his return to 
 that state, where he was married, he was identified with the 
 varying fortunes of Texas till his death in 1886. He was 
 a man of varied usefulness and enjoyed the esteem of his 
 neighbors and the love of his brethren to the close of his 
 life. 
 
 After the removal of Baylor University from Independ- 
 ence there was an effort made to establish a school in the 
 original buildings, which school took the name of Crane 
 College. But it was short-lived, having to resist the natural 
 conditions which brought inanition to the university while 
 there. 
 
 The year 1887 will ever be memorable in the history of 
 the state as one during which there was the fiercest moral 
 campaign ever waged in Texas. By a special act of the 
 legislature an amendment to the state constitution relative 
 to prohibition was submitted to the people, which action 
 involved a stirring canvass of many months. Beyond a 
 doubt, the large Prohibition party vote of the year before 
 precipitated this legislative action. Dr. B. H. Carroll was 
 released from his pulpit to canvass the state in the interest 
 of prohibition, having been chosen as the champion of that 
 cause, and Governor Coke was selected to oppose him. 
 Coke proved unequal to the task, and Senator Roger Q. Mills 
 was next selected, and he was content to meet Doctor Car- 
 roll one time only. The contest was most exciting through- 
 out, and while the campaign was waged it went from one of 
 intense excitement to one of bitterness. Not a few of the 
 most prominent men in the state espoused the cause ot 
 prohibition, among whom were Senator S. B. Maxey, Con- 
 gressman Culberson, the father of one of the present sena- 
 tors of the state, and Hon. J. W. Bailey, then a young man, 
 but at present one of the United States senators from 
 Texas. 
 
 An illustration of the intensity of feeling dominating 
 the people of the state during that stormy campaign is fur-
 
 308 ITT8T0RY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 nislicd by an cxi)criciicc of Doctor Carri)11 at San Antonio. 
 A IVIcthodist minister of that city, in undertaking to discuss 
 the merits of the consuming question then before the peo- 
 ple, had been viciously slapped in the face by the mayor of 
 the city, which was an indication of the intolerance of the 
 liquor men, and this sensationally closed the discussion for 
 the time in the city of the Alamo. On hearing of this epi- 
 sode Doctor Carroll, who has the courage of the lion, felt 
 toward San Antonio somewhat as Paul felt toward the 
 Roman capital: "And I would see Rome also." The 
 intrepid disputant yearned for the city where the demon- 
 stration of official intolerance was so notorious, and accom- 
 panied by Colonel Herndon he went to San Antonio, the 
 veritable stronghold of the liquor forces. On reaching the 
 city the brace of prohibition disputants found that the oppo- 
 nents of the cause which they represented had rented every 
 hall in the city in order ,to prevent the engagement of any 
 by the prohibitionists. Through General Young, a friend 
 of Colonel Herndon, though an anti-prohibitionist, a plat- 
 form was erected on the grounds of the Federal garrison in 
 the city, the local commander having kindly consented to 
 the arrangement. Later, however, and before the time came 
 for the addresses, the Federal court-room was tendered to 
 the speakers. In order to protect the speakers from vio- 
 lence the Federal commander had a battery stationed near 
 the grounds, and while not espousing the cause of either 
 side, swore that no man who spoke under the protection of 
 the national flag should be molested by a mob. The violent 
 crowd gathered within easy distance, abundantly armed with 
 such missiles of hostility as rotten eggs, but they dared not 
 venture to make an open demonstration. 
 
 Colonel Herndon spoke without annoyance, and by his 
 eloquence won the ear of the onlooking multitude, and when 
 Doctor Carroll arose he related a telling anecdote, which 
 completely disarmed the turbulent mass, and hundreds 
 pressed eagerly up to hear him. In the opening remarks 
 of his speech he deprecated the fact that in the city of the 
 Alamo, where blood had been shed to cement the foundation 
 of constitutional freedom for Texas, any speaker in 
 discussing a constitutional question should have to stand
 
 EECONCILIATION AND PEOGKESS 309 
 
 on Federal ground and under the national flag to be pro- 
 tected against the outbreak of a mob which sought to deny 
 him this right. The horde gathered in opposition to the 
 speakers began to slink away, the most of them coming for- 
 ward to hear the eloquent pleading of the man for a sacred 
 cause. Thus was disarmed all opposition, and the speakers 
 were able to have the cause of prohibiton properly pre- 
 sented, -even in San Antonio. In the issue the amendment 
 failed of adoption by at least 92,000 votes, but moral seed 
 were sown by the work of that year, the harvests of which 
 have been gathered ever since. But for that campaign 
 Texas would not be as vigorous in its opposition to liquor 
 as it is today. No means were left unemployed by the forces 
 arrayed against the cause of civic virtue to defeat the meas- 
 ure before the people at that time. At a period when no 
 restrictions were imposed on the ballot in Texas these des- 
 perate advocates of the brew^ery and dramshop even resorted 
 to the debased method of putting negro women in the garbs 
 of men and marching them in blocks and hordes to the bal- 
 lot-box and voting them. How many of these black Sene- 
 gambian amazons thus voted it is impossible to say, and can 
 never be known. There were also outrageous frauds on the 
 ]\Iexican border, beyond doubt many Mexicans from across 
 the Rio Grande having been imported by the liquor men. 
 
 It was most unfortunate for the fame of ex-President 
 Jefferson Davis, then living at Beauvoir, Mississippi, that 
 just prior to the election he was induced by liquor influence 
 to send a letter to Texas in pronounced opposition to 
 prohibition. His letter was quoted over the state, was 
 printed and posted everywdiere, and his picture was dis- 
 played in thousands of drinking saloons throughout Texas. 
 That this had much to do in turning the tide against pro- 
 hibition at that particular juncture is true. That a name so 
 famed should have been connected with such scenes as have 
 already been described for the consummation of the full 
 purpose of the opponents of virtue and decency, is a most 
 imfortunatc fact of history. 
 
 It is a remarkable fact that every prominent man who 
 then arrayed himself in opposition to a measure that looked
 
 310 HISTOEY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 to the elevation of the morals of the state, sank from public 
 view never to rise again. 
 
 During the campaign the leading editorial champion of 
 the prohibition cause was J. B. Cranfill, whose paper, The 
 Gatesville Advance, had in December, 1886, been removed 
 to Waco and had become TJie Waco Advance. It was 
 conducted as a daily and weekly during the memorable 
 struggle, and did a remarkable service in forwarding the 
 fight against the liquor traffic.
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 MINGLED ORDER AND DISORDER. 
 
 While the progress of the denomination was continuous, it 
 was interrupted by two causes which were injected into the 
 flow of the harmonious current. One of these was the in- 
 troduction of a strange heresy by Rev. M. T. Martin, a 
 member of the First Church of Waco. His views, at first 
 local, attracted but little attention, and affectionate interest 
 in his behalf by his pastor, Doctor Carroll, and others who 
 sought to divert him from his purpose of giving undue 
 prominence to his peculiar views, while they endeavored to 
 dissuade him from his errors, were of no avail. With a zeal 
 worthy of a better cause, he persisted, to his personal detri- 
 ment, as well as to that of the Baptist cause. 
 
 By a strange combination of doctrinal views, such as that 
 of two births, one of the Spirit and the other of the Word ; 
 the precedence of sanctification to conversion ; positive as- 
 surance, which he insisted must precede baptism ; a prac- 
 tical denial of repentance as a doctrine, and a discourage- 
 ment of prayer, both by sinners themselves and by others 
 for them ; this was the stock of his views as this erratic man 
 preached and talked as he had opportunity. Ideas so con- 
 glomerate were scarcely noticed at first, but doctrines as 
 absurd, even, as those of Mr. Martin were destined to gain 
 headway. Admonition of the friendliest sort from his pas- 
 tor and others were totally disregarded by Mr. Martin. 
 Finally deprived of his ministerial credentials, he was 
 granted a letter of dismission by the First Church of Waco, 
 a mistake of genuine friendship growing out of the desire 
 not to injure him, and hoping to emphasize his error so un- 
 mistakably that he would go elsewhere and desist from fur- 
 ther promulgation of his erroneous views. 
 
 Removing from Texas, Mr. Martin went to Georgia, 
 
 311
 
 31:^ HISTORY OF TIOXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 joined the church at Woodstock in that state, and was H- 
 censed again to preach. Returning to Texas, he became a 
 member of the church at Alarhn, and in due time was reclad 
 with full ministerial functions. This w'as an occasion of 
 fresh trouble. Mr. Martin again began promulgating his 
 peculiar views, unsettling the faith of not a few, and occa- 
 sioning dissension wherever he went. Many of the un- 
 thougiitful and ill-advised were induced to repudiate their 
 baptism and submit to a second administration of the ordi- 
 nance, among whom were some of the prominent members 
 of churches. The agitation found its way into the Waco 
 Association, to which body were borne special charges 
 against the church at Marlin by the First Church of Waco, 
 the result of which was that the church at Marlin was ex- 
 cluded as a constituent member from the Waco Association 
 on the charge of fostering heresy. The agitation was con- 
 tinued for years, and finally Martin left the state and died, 
 his peculiar views dying with him, and the Marlin church 
 was restored to its fellowship in the Waco Association. 
 
 The other difficulty, also local at first, became state wide 
 in its effect, and prepared the way for a difficulty, the sad- 
 dest and fiercest ever knowai to the Baptists of Texas, and 
 one that wrought much havoc, was one that arose at Dallas. 
 An unfortunate and distracting controversy was sprung on 
 the denomination in the state by Doctor Hayden through 
 the colunms of the Texas Baptist and Herald respecting 
 Rev. R. T. Hanks, then pastor of the First Church of Dal- 
 las. The charges against Mr. Hanks were of a most serious 
 and damaging character, and were of a nature to work seri- 
 ous detriment to the cause locally at Dallas, and through so 
 prominent a source, to the denomination at large. Had the 
 charges been presented at the, bar of the church, there could 
 not have been so serious influential damage, but when they 
 were presented in the columns of the only denominational 
 journal in the state, and were circulated not in Texas alone, 
 but elsewhere in other states, they assumed proportions that 
 were of a most hurtful nature. Crave as the charges were, 
 they certainly were not such as should find ]^lace in llu- 
 columns of a religions pajX'r until sustained by the most un- 
 questioned facts. The local church was the tribunal before
 
 MINGLED ORDEE AND DISOEDER 3 13 
 
 which the pastor as a member should be arraigned, and not 
 in the open columns of the Texas Baptist and Herald. After 
 the stupendous blunder had been committed, a council was 
 called to consider the case and to advise the church con- 
 cerning it, in advance of which council there was an agree- 
 ment between Doctor Hayden and the church that the deci- 
 sion of the council should be final. The church accepted 
 the decision of the council, which did not agree with the 
 allegations of Doctor Hayden, yet he resumed openly the 
 reiteration of the charges. Later he left the First Church, 
 under charges from that church, and joined another. By a 
 combination of conditions a matter purely local was forced 
 into such prominence by the only Baptist paper in the state 
 that it became a general and oiYensive topic, and purely as a 
 matter of self-protection, those interested in the welfare of 
 the First Church felt impelled to create an organ through 
 which they could find expression of defense against the 
 statements of Doctor Hayden. The nature of the assaults 
 made by Doctor Hayden was such as largely to paralyze 
 the denomination in the state. 
 
 The situation was the more distressing because of the 
 unity so lately secured, and the prospect which it opened to 
 protracted peace and prosperity. In bringing this condi- 
 tion to pass. Doctor HaN'den. as we have seen, w'as conspicu- 
 ous. But prevailing conditions assumed so much gravity 
 that the necessity of creating an organ as the mouthpiece 
 of those who felt that they were being wronged seemed im- 
 perative. A small paper called The Baptist Neivs, which 
 was begun in December, 1888, at Honey Grove by Lewis 
 Holland and J. H. Boyet, was removed to Dallas, and Mr. 
 Boyet withdrawing, R. T. Hanks bought a half interest in 
 the paper. It was enlarged and called The Western Baptist. 
 This was finally evolved into The Baptist Standard, as we 
 shall see later on. 
 
 The influences named. did not affect general denomina- 
 tional progress. Excepting the limited number which fell 
 immediately under their sway, the distractions were a cause 
 of general regret, but men were too intent on seeking to re- 
 gain that which seemed to have been lost by the occurrences 
 of the past to turn aside to fresh wrangling. On the field
 
 REV. O. L. E[AILEY, COMMANCHE, TEXAS.
 
 MINGLED OEDEE AND DISOEDEE 315 
 
 as missionaries, and in their pastorates, men were busy. The 
 schools were developing- into greater proportions and all the 
 denominational agencies promised well in spite of the in- 
 terruption of the general harmony by the incidents already 
 alluded to. Secretary Holt with untiring effort was pushing 
 the cause of state missions into the waste places of the state. 
 It became necessary to place the work on the frontier under 
 the care of Rev. S. A. Beauchamp as a local superintendent. 
 Forty mission stations were supplied by four men in this 
 growing region. They were unable to meet the demand in 
 a region so vast, but the utmost possible was being done. 
 The most difficult class among the foreigners to be reached 
 were the Germans. Four most efficient German mission- 
 aries were appointed to labor among that people — Revs. 
 Keifer, Gleiss, Becker and Shafer. While on a visit to San 
 Antonio in June, 1888, for the medical treatment of one of 
 his children Dr. W. D. Powell, the missionary to Mexico, 
 labored for some weeks among the Mexicans of that city, 
 which resulted in the salvation of some. Among others 
 who were baptized was Manuel Trevino, who had been 
 serving in the capacity of a Presbyterian preacher in that 
 city. He became a missionary under the State Board and 
 did effective work in conjunction with Miss Mina Everett, 
 a returned missionary from Brazil. Among the negroes ex- 
 cellent results were flowing from the work of Rev. A. R. 
 Griggs, who was laboring under the direction of the State 
 Board. Including all workers, there were as many as one 
 hundred and thirty missionaries in 1888 laboring through- 
 out the state. The strongholds of population were seized by 
 Secretary Holt and manned by efficient missionaries. Among 
 these were Austin, Dallas, Bastrop, Texarkana, Laredo, Cor- 
 pus Christi, Wichita Falls, Brenham and Henrietta. 
 
 Among those who died during the year were several who 
 had been prominent in denominational life. After laboring 
 in the ministry in Texas for more than fifty years Rev. N. T. 
 Byars died in 1888. He was among the men who periled 
 all for the independence of the Republic of Texas and who 
 faced every hazard in preaching the gospel in the earliest 
 days of Texas occupancy. The Declaration of Texas Inde- 
 pendence was signed in his home in Washington county,
 
 316 HISTOEY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 and his patriotism was as conspicuous in the matters of state 
 as in those of the church. He was a man of no mean pulpit 
 abiHty, and many a church in Texas today owes its existence 
 to N. T. Byars. Rev. Hosea Garrett had also died. He had 
 come to Texas in the forties from his native state, South 
 Carolina, and was a man of broad usefulness in different 
 spheres of denominational life. His quiet wisdom and un- 
 erring judgment led to his election to many posts of honor, 
 among which was that of the presidency of the Board of 
 Trustees of Baylor University during its stay at Independ- 
 ence, For forty-six years he was a preacher in Texas. 
 
 The annual session of the Baptist General Convention 
 was held at Belton in 1888. A. T. Spalding was again 
 chosen president, F. AI. Law, R. T. Hanks and J. H. Strib- 
 ling vice presidents, J. B. Cranfill and J. M. Carroll record- 
 ing secretaries and A. J. Holt corresponding secretary. As 
 nearly as possible the campaign of the State Board had 
 been during the year state-wide in its operations. The mis- 
 sionaries bore to the convention stimulating reports of their 
 labors. They had baptized 3,689 persons and had organized 
 fifty-four churches and sixty-five Sunday schools. Secre- 
 tary Holt emphasized the importance of compacter and 
 completer organization of the Baptist forces. Immense dis- 
 tances separated between many churches in the state, and 
 it seemed well-nigh impossible to reach them and marshal 
 their strength. IMuch as had been eft'ected through the 
 movements of the last three years since the period of co- 
 operation, it w^as only the beginning of better things. Noth- 
 ing short of an earthquake of sentiment would bring the 
 mighty host together into closer bonds. That earthquake 
 came in what came to be called "the paper war." Without 
 this convulsion it is doubtful if they could ever have been 
 brought together in such consummate oneness. The dis- 
 order came as a result of the recognized necessity of another 
 paper than the Texas Baptist and Herald to represent the 
 sentiment of the state. That this paper was sowing the 
 seeds of dissension in the state was the general conviction, 
 and that there should be a stul)1xjrn resistance made to check 
 this disintegrating influence w'as equally the popular con- 
 viction. The Texas Baptist and Herald had an opportunity
 
 MINGLED ORDER AND DISORDER 317 
 
 for doing good unequalled by that of any other paper in the 
 states of the South. Doctor Hayden, as the editor, was in 
 a position to sway the great denomination for good. Rarely 
 does there come to one an opportunity to wield so potent an 
 influence as came to Doctor Hayden in the period immedi- 
 ately following the reconciliation in which he was so con- 
 spicuous. But the unfortunate direction given the paper 
 produced alarm for the safety of the denomination in a 
 most critical period. More than all else, this paper ques- 
 tion became the absorbing topic in the Baptist circles of the 
 state. It was a most perplexing question, as the tone of the 
 Texas Baptist and Herald was trenchant and its utterances 
 fervid in declarations which were felt by many to be pro- 
 ductive of much injury to the interests of the denomination. 
 
 The year 1888 also marked the first entrance of J. B. 
 Cranfill upon active denominational work. In July of that 
 year he sold his paper. The Waco Advance, to the Texas 
 Prohibitionist, at that time published in Dallas, and the fol- 
 lowing September, having spent the month of August in 
 Colorado lecturing on the subject of Prohibition, he began 
 work as Assistant Financial Secretary of Baylor University. 
 Rev. S. L. Morris was the Financial Secretary. He resigned 
 this position on January i, 1889, and J. B. Cranfill was 
 elected in his stead, which position he, in turn, resigned in 
 October, 1889, to accept the position of Corresponding Sec- 
 retary of the Baptist General Convention. His brief work 
 for Baylor University was characterized by signal success, 
 and the Board of Trustees regretted very much to have him 
 retire from that position. 
 
 During the year 1889 the state suffered the loss by re- 
 moval of one of its most scholarly pastors, Rev. Alexander 
 M. Averill, who had located at Lancaster as pastor in 1878, 
 where he remained for twelve years. He was a ripe scholar, 
 and to the last devoted his time to the translation and inter- 
 pretation of the Old Testament scriptures. He had been 
 of vast service to the denomination during his sojourn in 
 Texas, and his removal from the state was much regretted. 
 Prior to coming to Texas he had served a number of im- 
 portant churches in New England. As an author of some 
 note, and as a contributor to the magazine literature of the
 
 318 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 country, he was an ornament to the Baptist ranks in this 
 state. He died at his home in Somerville, Mass., on Febru- 
 ary 13, 1904.* 
 
 It was in 1889 that Rev. J. N. Prestridge, now the editor 
 of The Baptist Argtis, became the pastor of the First Church 
 of San Antonio. During his brief pastorate of six months 
 in that city he did a marvelous work. The original church 
 building was overhauled completely, a branch church build- 
 ing erected, and the money raised for another, before declin- 
 ing health forced his resignation. 
 
 The Baptist General Convention was held in 1889 at 
 Houston. The officers were : A. T. Spalding, president ; 
 F. M. Law, J. H. Stribling and R. C. Burleson, vice presi- 
 dents ; T. S. Potts and A. E. Baten, recording secretaries, 
 and during the session J. B. Cranfill was elected the corre- 
 sponding secretary and superintendent of missions. The in- 
 terest of the convention largely centered in the report of the 
 corresponding secretary. It was known that he had en- 
 countered serious obstructions during the year because of 
 the excessive rains and other causes, but it was not known 
 what the result was. 
 
 In reviewing the situation in his annual report. Secretary 
 Holt called attention to the change of plans of the Board 
 during the year, relative to the withdrawal of all collecting 
 agencies from the field, with a view of imposing the matter 
 of raising funds directly on each pastor. While the Board 
 was correct in the step taken, it nevertheless had the tend- 
 ency during the period of transition of checking the receipts. 
 This was the experience of Secretary Holt during this year. 
 That the Board was coming to appreciate the fact that sys- 
 tematic and business-like order was necessary in order to 
 the execution of a successful policy was manifest, and while 
 it had its initial disadvantages, it was destined to work a 
 radical change for good, as the subsequent history of the 
 work shows. 
 
 As far as possible the Board had met the demands of the 
 situation during the trying year. A large number of towns 
 and cities had been materially helped, among which were 
 
 *ne was the father of Mrs. C. C. Slaughter.
 
 MINGLED OEDER AND DISORDEE 319 
 
 Galveston, Dallas, San Antonio, Waco, Bastrop, Lockhart, 
 Austin, San Angelo, Palestine, Texarkana, Corpus Christi, 
 Laredo, Victoria, Columbus, Eagle Lake, Stephenville, Mid- 
 land, Pecos, Big Springs, Center Point, Uvalde, Del Rio, 
 Sealy, Richmond and other points. Clarksville, Taylor and 
 Cisco, all of which had been helped the year before, were 
 now self-sustaining. All the points named ultimately be- 
 came so, and are now strong points of interest. The frontier 
 field embraced a vast area, the portion of which covered by 
 the Rio Grande Association is larger than the state of West 
 Virginia, while the Red Fork Association, which embraced 
 the Panhandle, exceeded in size the state of Ohio. 
 
 This summary of the work presented by Dr. A. J. Holt 
 indicated the scope of his undertakings. When it is remem- 
 bered that while these vast regions were to be cared for, to- 
 gether with the centers in the interior and in the face of 
 obstructions such as have been named, it will be seen how 
 tremendous was the undertaking. It became necessary for 
 the Board to subdivide its work into districts in order to get 
 it well in hand. By this timely means the difficult and 
 more remote parts of the state were gradually brought into 
 sympathy with the work of the Board and thus large sec- 
 tions of the state were saved to the denomination. 
 
 To labor on the field in Texas, to traverse its boundless 
 leagues, and to hold intact the forces in every part of the 
 field required more than ordinary administrative ability. 
 The organization of a new mission district on the western 
 frontier, with Rev. J. T. Harris as assistant superintendent 
 of missions, was one of the new enterprises of the Board. 
 
 In closing his elaborate report Doctor Holt expressed 
 the opinion that the churches of the state should give $50,000 
 to state missions and sustain 200 missionaries ! At that time 
 this would have appeared the limit of ultimate possibility, 
 yet within a few years the churches of Texas were giving 
 more than twice the amount of the limit which he set, and 
 the laborers had multiplied immensely beyond his possible 
 and prospective figure. There were at the session of the 
 State Convention held at Houston certain difficulties which 
 arose to the retention of Dr. A. J, Holt as superintendent of 
 missions. He was associated with Dr. S. A. Hayden as
 
 r520 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 jdint editor and owner of the ])a]K'r on which tlie constit- 
 uency of the Board was divided. This was a hindrance to 
 Doctor Holt in his heroic work, and none felt it more keenly 
 than himself. In addition to this, there were certain local 
 difficulties with the local church of which he was a member. 
 This led to criticism, which was largely overcome by the 
 
 DR. ALBERT THEODORE SPALDIXG, ATLANTA, GA. 
 
 (Born in Elbert Co., Ga., Oct. 20, IS.Sl ; graduated from Mercer I'ni- 
 versity in 18.">1, and from Mercer's Tlieologi<al Seminary in 1853 : 
 ordained and married in Ail<en, S. C, to Miss Constantia Rosamond 
 Schaffner, of Charleston ; he was pa.stor in Madison, Ga., I'hiladelphia, 
 Pa., Selma and Mobile, Ala., then of tlie AValnut St. Church, Louisville, 
 Ky., then 10 years at the Second Church, Atlanta, <ia., and then 10 
 years at First Cliurch, Galveston, Tex. lie has now been preaching r»6 
 years and is 76 years old, in good mental and physical condition : he 
 began the Orijhans' Home of Louisville. Ky. ; lie was tlirce times president 
 of the Texas Baptist General State Convention.) 
 
 correction of objections involving his dissolution with the 
 Texas Baptist and Herald, and Dr. B. H. Carroll, in a state- 
 ment before the Convention, reviewed the situation and 
 earnestly recommended the re-election of Doctor Holt to 
 the position which he had occupied w-ith ability so signal. 
 But in a statement in which there was exhibited excellent 
 spirit. Holt voluntarily declined re-election. On motion of
 
 MINGLED OEDER AND DISORDER 321 
 
 Dr. B. H. Carroll that J. B. Cranfill be elected corresponding 
 secretary, which motion was seconded by S. A. Hayden, 
 who in seconding asked that the election be by acclamation, 
 the Convention chose Doctor Cranfill to succeed Doctor 
 Holt. This was followed by a resolution offered by J. B. 
 Hardwicke : 
 
 "Whereas, Rev. A. J. Holt, D.D., has decl'.-ed to accept 
 the position of corresponding secretary of this convention ; 
 be it 
 
 "Resolved, That we express our appreciation of the abil- 
 ity and fidelity with which he has discharged his official 
 duties during the term he has served the Convention." 
 
 The special effort which was being made by the Baptist 
 women of Texas at this time to effect a thorough organiza- 
 tion of their forces was the occasion of special endorsement 
 by the Convention, and especially of the mission of Miss 
 Mina Everett, who had been appointed to travel the state 
 over in the promotion of such organization. 
 
 Little more than a statement of the fact that Baylor Col- 
 lege had been moved to Belton has as yet been made in this 
 record. The human factor in this location of the college 
 was Rev. M. V. Smith, at that time pastor at Belton. Mr. 
 Smith was one of the strongest, ablest and most useful men 
 Texas Baptists ever knew. He was renowned for his gen- 
 tleness and sweetness of character, for his far-sighted busi- 
 ness acumen, for his industry, patience, pluck and perse- 
 verance, and for the loving persistence with which he cham- 
 pioned any cause near to his heart. He was at once the 
 leader in the location of Baylor Female College at Belton, 
 and the inspiration which gave it its high standing and suc- 
 cess. It is also true that to Dr. F. M. Law the college ai 
 Belton was largely indebted for its remarkable success in 
 the beginning and for many years following. In the great 
 work achieved by this splendid institution. Dr. Law, as presi- 
 dent of the Board of Trustees, was a distinct and important 
 factor. He and M. V. Smith labored together as the 
 Jonathan and David of this great school. Another whose 
 name should be mentioned here, and who for many eventful 
 years gave the best that was in him to the institution was 
 Dr. John Hill Luther, whose magnificent service as presi-
 
 ,-^09 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 (k-nt will never be forgotten. He, as president of the school, 
 was one of this immortal trio. While he made no preten- 
 sion to financial ability, his was the head and heart that led 
 in the work of directing the internal affairs of the college. 
 It is, moreover, true that no reference to this period of the 
 Hfe of Baylor Female College could be complete without 
 due mention of Mrs. Luther, the beloved wife of Dr. John 
 Hill Luther. She was one of the most potent factors in the 
 success of the school. Her queenly life, through her gentle 
 ministrations as matron, has been stamped upon hundreds 
 and even thousands of the hearts of Texas w^omen, and 
 through this work her name and fame must endure forever. 
 Charged with the chief general work of the denomina- 
 tion, Rev. J. B. CranfiU entered w^ith zest on his new duties 
 as secretary of the Board. He was young, active, unusually 
 bright, resourceful and popular. The great state work was 
 just beginning to loom into prominence. The widely-severed 
 district associations showed every disposition to enter into 
 co-operation, but the hand of a master was now needed to 
 wield executiveness of a superior type to weld the mass into 
 co-operation. The task was herculean, the barriers moun- 
 tainous. While much effective work had been done at the 
 cost of titanic effort and immense treasure, and while the 
 field was not uninviting to the man who w^as proof againsi 
 discouragement, there seemed but slight inspiration, after all, 
 when fully one-half of the state still remained untouched by 
 evangelistic effort. Barring the obstruction of a newspaper 
 controversy, the new conventional year opened auspiciously. 
 The new secretary, J. B. Cranfill, was buoyant and was rein- 
 forced by as strong Board of Directors as the Baptists of 
 Texas could aflford. Among them w^ere such men as B. H. 
 Carroll, W. R. Maxwell, M. V. Smith, W. H. Jenkins, W. 
 L. \Mlliams, J. C. Gentry and W. H. Dodson, representing 
 genuine ability, wisdom, conservatism, piety, progress and 
 aggressiveness. Stupendous plans w^ere projected and meas- 
 ures commensurate were promptly adopted. The scope of 
 the work was the evangelization of practically countless 
 multitudes with limited resources at command, and this 
 suggested a policy of the most rigid economy, endeavoring 
 meanwhile to elicit and combine means and men hitherto
 
 MINGLED OEDER AND DISORDER 323 
 
 untouched by that which was a burden to those who knew 
 well the situation in the state. 
 
 Throughout the interior the population was rapidly 
 growing, while toward the grazing lands of the west, where 
 vast herds flecked the plains, a wonderful transformation 
 was taking place in the alteration of expansive ranches into 
 crowded centers and blooming farms. The effort must be 
 made to make the moral and spiritual growth of that far- 
 reaching region equal to the progress in commerce and agri- 
 culture, and the Baptists felt called on to undertake this 
 work. Then, too, special and distinct effort must be made 
 to save the negro population, as well as the gathering thou- 
 sands of Mexicans, the sturdy Germans, and the mild Scan- 
 dinavians. No state was more liberal in its policy toward 
 the negro than was Texas. Repeated efforts had been made 
 to elicit the interest of the Home Mission Society of New 
 York in a special effort on behalf of the colored people, but 
 not till 1889 was this help afforded. The same solicitude, 
 the same effort was made in behalf of the negro that was 
 made for the whites. 
 
 The year following the adjournment of the convention 
 at Houston was one signalized by remarkable activity on the 
 part of Secretary CranfiU. The wisdom of the Board in 
 placing Harris on the extreme western frontier in charge of 
 the work in that vast region was duly justified by the results. 
 This was equally true in the upper or Panhandle district, 
 where Beauchamp was wisely directing denominational af- 
 fairs. In the latter region there were about fifty-two coun- 
 ties, which, while they had some natural disadvantages, were 
 tertile and productive, and the lands were being rapidly 
 taken up and towns growing as by magic. Secretary Cran- 
 fiU was proving to be a man of affairs, and was directing 
 with consummate skill the divers interests of the state work. 
 He was able to report to the convention which met in 1890 
 that "co-operation on the part of associations, churches and 
 individuals obtains throughout the state. If there is dis- 
 affection on the part of any association or church it is un- 
 known to us, and without exception the co-operation is 
 everywhere spontaneous and hearty." 
 
 The convention which met at Waxahachie in October,
 
 324 HISTOEY OF TRXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 1890, was organized by the election of L. L. Foster, presi- 
 dent; A. T. Spalding, J. H. Stribling and R. C. Burleson, 
 vice presidents ; T. S. Potts and A. E. Baten, secretaries, 
 and J. B. Cranfill, corresponding secretary. The report of 
 the corresponding secretary showed that the greatest work 
 ever done in a single year in the missionary work in Texas 
 had been done that year. Economy being one of the prime 
 policies of the Board, more had been accomplished with the 
 same facilities than ever before. The same field was occu- 
 pied, the same territory fostered, but the methods had been 
 improved. The missionaries employed during the year num- 
 bered one hundred and twenty, who had added to the mis- 
 sion churches 4,160 members, organized one hundred and 
 three churches and two hundred and fifty Sunday-schools, 
 and built thirty-nine churches at a cost of $29,965, while 
 the amount contributed to the work aggregated $35,299.62. 
 The fact was developed that Texas was doing one-third of 
 the mission work which was being done within the territory 
 of the Southern Baptist Convention. Not only was the Board 
 at the session of the Convention held at Waxahachie de- 
 clared out of debt, but there was a balance in the treasury of 
 $2,601.89. There had been advancement in every direction 
 — more missionaries employed, more work accomplished, 
 more churches and Sunday-schools organized, and a great 
 increase in the churches and associations to the work. Not 
 only were all the associations existing the year before in 
 cordial co-operation with the Board, but new associations 
 had been organized and swung into line. Missionaries and 
 missionary pastors had been sustained who, taken together, 
 were located in thirty-three of the towns and cities of the 
 state. The aid rendered many points in the nick of time 
 enabled them to become self-sustaining by the close of 
 the year. The spirit of liberality was among the people. An 
 illustration of the generous disposition of the times, as well 
 as an expression of sympathy for the work now being done, 
 is afforded in the liberality of Miss Eliza McCoy in per- 
 sonally providing the salary of Manuel Trevino, the local 
 superintendent of the work among the Mexicans in the 
 region of San Antonio, and in other parts of southern 
 Texas.
 
 MINGLED ORDER AND DISORDER 325 
 
 Reports from other interests of the Baptists were just 
 as inspiring as were those from different parts of the mis- 
 sion field. Baylor University reported a corps of twenty- 
 six instructors and an enrollment of 600 students. Baylor 
 Female College had just opened with the largest enrollment 
 in its history. That school was manned by twenty teachers 
 and five assistants. 
 
 Buckner Orphans' Home, which had been from its in- 
 ception in 1880, just ten years before, one of the most cher- 
 ished of the Baptist institutions, was thriving and grow- 
 ing. Its consecrated founder, Dr. R. C. Buckner, was doing 
 the work of several men in the maintenance and promotion 
 of this institution. He reported its steady enlargement and 
 the increased acquisition of orphaned inmates. It was keep- 
 ing pace with the progress of all the other denominational 
 interests in the state, and with commensurate zeal ana 
 unflagging devotion Doctor Buckner was planning for 
 greater things in response to the constant demand for the 
 care of orphans. 
 
 A pleasing incident of the convention was the presenta- 
 tion by Dr. A. T. Spalding, in behalf of Dr. A. J. Holt, of a 
 gavel of olive wood, cut from the Mount of Olives, which 
 had been recently visited by Doctor Holt. An important 
 step taken at this session of the convention was that of the 
 appointment of Rev. J. M. Carroll as the statistical secre- 
 tary of the convention. 
 
 The resignation of J. B. Cranfill as financial secretary 
 had left the Baylor University Board without an active rep- 
 resentative on the field. This position had been filled for 
 a short time by Dr. A. J. Holt, when he felt it his duty to 
 resign and accept work elsewhere. It was at this time that 
 the prevailing interest in the welfare of the institution led 
 J. B. Riddle and R. F. Jenkins to write to Dr. B. H. Car- 
 roll, in which letters they mentioned the name of a young 
 man, one George W. Truett, who was at that time teaching 
 at Whitewright, whom they felt would be able successfully 
 to fill the position of financial secretary of the institution. 
 J. B. Riddle in his letter spoke especially of the fact that 
 the remarkable thing about young Truett was that he had 
 the power of making people do what he asked them to do.
 
 32 G HISTOEY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 These letters led Dr. Carroll to write to young Truett and 
 to ask him to attend a missionary mass meeting which was 
 to be held in January, 1890, at McKinney in the interest 
 of all the Baptist causes, missionary, educational and other- 
 wise. Truett came and this was his introduction to the 
 denominational work in Texas. What that work is and has 
 been, neither this nor any • other earthly record can fitly 
 show. The chronicler pauses here, however, to say that 
 there was never a more momentous day in Texas Baptist 
 
 REV. ISAAC SELLERS, VALLEY MILLS, TEXAS. 
 
 history than the day which welcomed George W. Truett 
 to the arena of its successes and its conflicts. When later 
 he accepted the position of financial secretary of Baylor 
 University, and in conjunction with B. H. Carroll went forth 
 to raise the grinding debt with which the institution was 
 harassed, he was by Dr. Carroll denominated the "Young 
 Joseph" of the. Texas Baptists. His success in this position, 
 in which he was so ably seconded and supported by Dr. 
 B. H. Carroll, president of the Board of Trustees, stamped 
 him as a man of extraordinary power. These two men
 
 MINGLED OEDER AND DISORDEE 327 
 
 within a comparatively short space of time raised the entire 
 debt of over $92,000, and thus succeeded in an achievement 
 that at that time seemed impossible, and which, considered 
 from any standpoint, was colossal. Later on Mr, Truett 
 entered Baylor University as a student, from which insti- 
 tution he subsequently graduated with high . honors. 
 
 Young Truett entered on the Baylor University work 
 with great misgivings. While he had never saved a dollar in 
 his life, he at once pledged $500 to the payment of the Bay- 
 lor debt, and this he paid out of the small salary that he 
 received while engaged in the service of the University. 
 This was characteristic of the man. He not only gives him- 
 self to every undertaking to which he turns his hand and 
 heart, but he gives freely of his money. Once when a fra- 
 ternal discussion of his salary was being held between two 
 of his deacons in Dallas, one of them said to the other: 
 "It does not make any difference how much salary we pay 
 Bro. Truett. It all comes back to the Church. If we would 
 pay him $10,000 a year, he would give it all back to the ob- 
 jects represented by the Church." This has been charac- 
 teristic of the man throughout, and there is no department 
 of our denominational life that has not felt the impulse of 
 his gifts. 
 
 As the population of Texas grew and its remoter parts 
 came to be settled, it was evident that other schools than 
 those already existing would have to be created to meet the 
 growing demand. The schools founded at this time and in 
 the years of the immediate future, with the exception of 
 Simmons College, became auxiliary to the two central de- 
 nominational colleges already existing. Through the lib- 
 erality of Rev, J. B. Simmons, D.D., of New York, the 
 college bearing the name of the founder was established at 
 Abilene. While a charter was executed for Simmons Col- 
 lege in 1890, the school was not prepared to open till 1892. 
 Doctor Simmons, the liberal founder of the school, wisely 
 and broadly planned for an institution that was destined 
 to grow in proportions commensurate with the development 
 of that empire region of which the beautiful town of Abilene 
 is the center. 
 
 While the founding of Simmons College was due to the
 
 338 HISTOEY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 beneficence of one great heart — that of Dr. J. B. Simmons, 
 of New York — it is indebted more for its soHdity and suc- 
 cess to Rev. L. R. Scarborough, the beloved pastor at 
 Abilene, than to any other human agency. Mr. Scar- 
 borough is one of the coming young men of Texas who 
 has already come. A graduate of Baylor and Yale Uni- 
 versities, he prepared himself for the practice of the law, in 
 which his distinguished uncle, Hon. John B. Scarborough, 
 won such excellent success. But God had planned for the 
 young man higher things, and called him to be a preacher of 
 His word. He has had many tempting ofifers to leave Abi- 
 lene, and thus give up his watchcare over Simmons College, 
 but each time, after mature deliberation and agonizing 
 prayer, he has decided for his western field of work. Evan- 
 gelistic to the core, strong in intellect, gentle in heart, of 
 strong and masterful executive ability, this young servant 
 of the Lord has, even up to this time, wrought a work that 
 renders him immortal." 
 
 During 1890 a charter was obtained for Howard Payne 
 College at Brownwood, of which Rev. J. D. Robnett was 
 the founder and first president. Dr. Robnett, who was a 
 native of Missouri, gave to this institution the strong and 
 effective labors of the best years of his life. Indeed, to 
 those who know the facts, there is no doubt that he really 
 laid his life upon its altar. After having founded the insti- 
 tution and given it that caste and standing that was at once 
 the glory of its founder and the harbinger of its success, 
 he accepted the call to the pastorate of the Washington 
 Avenue Church at Dallas. He labored here, however, but 
 a short time, and died during 1898, never having fully re- 
 covered from the strain incident to the establishment of this 
 magnificent Baptist school. Prof. J. H. Grove is now the 
 honored president of the institution, and of him and his 
 connection therewith a more extended reference is made in 
 another place in this record. It is proper to say in connec- 
 tion with Howard Payne College that in its establishment 
 Rev. J. D. Robnett was ably seconded by. his consecrated 
 wife, Mrs. Dollie P. Robnett, who is now Mrs. Isaac Sellers, 
 of Valley Mills, Texas. She is one of the most gifted and 
 most useful of our Texas Baptist women.
 
 MINGLED OEDER AND DISOEDER 329 
 
 The year 1890 closed with every indication of future 
 prosperity to the denomination for the remaining years of 
 the decHning century. But for the discordant utterances 
 of the Texas Baptist and Herald no situation could have 
 been more tranquil. As it was, however, there were ominous 
 signs of future trouble. Repeated efforts were made to still 
 the distraction, but it was useless. During this year the 
 Southern Baptist Convention met at Forth Worth, The 
 handsome new house of worship, which had been built by 
 Rev. J. Morgan Wells, furnished a meeting place for the 
 convention. The cause in this rapidly-growing city was 
 comparatively young, the First Church having been organ- 
 ized only seventeen years before, in 1873. After a check- 
 ered career of years, Doctor Wells was called from Mount 
 Sterling, Kentucky, and new life came to the Baptist cause. 
 The stone building in which the Southern Baptist Conven- 
 tion met in 1890 was the finest that had ever been built in 
 the state. It was an occasion of serious regret that the 
 gifted pastor was quite ill during the session of the conven- 
 tion, and could not be present excepting on one incidental 
 occasion. 
 
 As usual, the Convention held in Texas was largely at- 
 tended by people from every quarter of the state. The 
 enthusiasm of the great gathering was imparted throughout 
 the state, and some questions settled by that session had an 
 important bearing on the future policy of the denomination 
 in Texas.
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 RETROSPECTIVE AND I'ROSPECTIVE. 
 
 The changes wrought within little more than three score 
 years by a single denomination of Christians within a region 
 which had to be tamed from the raw conditions of a wilder- 
 ness, are most interesting in their retrospect. Sixty-six 
 years ago Freeman Smalley lifted his voice in the rude camp 
 on Red river as perhaps the first of the Baptists to do so in 
 these western wilds. Two generations have since come and 
 gone. The tongues of the fathers have long been silent. 
 They fought a good fight, they kept the faith, they finished 
 their course, and have entered into the possession of their 
 crowns. But their successors have been just as worthy. If 
 the advantages of the successors were greater and their 
 tasks easier of performance, they were equally onerous with 
 those who went before by reason of the excess of accom- 
 plishment. 
 
 The years have waxed more strenuous as they have in- 
 creased, and the multiplied advantages have brought com- 
 mensurate results. For a long period, the pack-horse was 
 the only means of transportation across the wide plains, over 
 the broad face of which were here and there dotted the 
 cabins of the settlers. In those days of primitive customs a 
 scrawny pony bearing his peculiar western brand was con- 
 sidered a great luxury. It was a period of peril when the 
 Baptist missionary, astride his jogging palfrey, with his 
 stufifed saddle-bags thrown across, and equipped with his 
 rifle and Bible, scoured the broad plains in search of widely- 
 scattered settlements that he might bear to the isolated 
 pioneer the Bread of Life. The lurking Indian savage and 
 the treacherous Mexican were alike objects of constant ap- 
 prehension to the man who found his way alone across the 
 treeless plains. 
 
 330
 
 EETEOSPECTIVE AND PEOSPECTIVE 33 1 
 
 But a better and brighter day was in store for the strug- 
 ghng men of the untamed prairies. The tramp of thousands 
 from different and distant quarters was heard with increas- 
 ing vohmie as the years crept by. The elements of civiHza- 
 tion were finding their way across the Father of Waters 
 into the boundless and unpeopled plains of the Far West, 
 and anon roads were opened up, vehicles were brought 
 slowly into use, the wagon and the stage-coach rumbled 
 across the great plains, home life was improved, the com- 
 forts of clothing and shoes were once more enjoyed and, most 
 of all, political independence and absolute religious freedom 
 were accorded, and the land bounded forward- on its onward 
 march of advancement. The meeting house for sacred wor- 
 ship and the school house for educational training rose side 
 by side, and these twin sisters of civilization began a work 
 of progress upon which all else was to be buttressed. Vil- 
 lages began to cluster over the prairies; plains covered with 
 coarse, wiry grass from times primeval were breaking out 
 in the radiant bloom of cultivation, and the black soil, with 
 its hidden treasures of wealth, yielded its luxuriant results. 
 The hum of industry now filled the land, and the goddess 
 of plenty poured from her cornucopia the elements of pros- 
 perity over a region where only a few years before the 
 buffalo roamed unmolested and the wild herds grazed with- 
 out fear. Then came a long and bloody Civil War, and ac- 
 tivity came to a standstill, while the youth of the land found 
 untimely graves on distant fields of battle, and the scene at 
 home was changed to one of orphanage and widowhood. 
 Scarcely less disastrous was the period which followed. De- 
 struction and reconstruction were practical synonyms to the 
 people of Texas. Prostration, stagnation, desolation, came 
 like a triple nightmare to all pursuits. Fertile farms, once 
 the domain of proud owners, became valueless only as the 
 proprietors eked out a bare subsistence, as the gateways of 
 commerce were closed, while the tyrant of reconstruction 
 held sway. Men grappled with difficulty like giant wres- 
 tlers in the Olympian games. The heel of the tyrant was 
 on the neck of Southern chivalry, the test of whose prowess 
 had failed in honorable warfare. 
 
 But as winter toughens the fiber of the wood, even so
 
 332 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 in the providential planning of the period, men were uncon- 
 sciously becoming- stronger for the new spheres which 
 awaited them in the immediate future. When the tide did 
 turn it found giants ready to grasp the situation with steady 
 hand, and bear the fortunes of the state to a consummation 
 
 REV. JEFF D. RAY, PASTOR OF JAMES STREET, WACO, TEXAS. 
 
 (Born Victoria Co.. Toxas.. Nov. 24, 1860 : ancestors were pioneei's, 
 being citizens of the Republic of Texas ; was converted at Lockhart, 1879 ; 
 joined Bastrop Baptist church, and licensed to preach, 1880 ; graduated 
 at Baylor University, ISSU ; married Josephine Ward, at Brcnham, 1885; 
 except two vears a"s Supt. of Tex. S. S. work, has been pastor all his 
 ministerial life; Louisville Seminary, 1895 to 1S97 ; D. D., Baylor Uni- 
 versity, 1903 ; member Trustees Baylor Univ., Board B. G. C. of Tex., 
 Mod. and Pres. Board Waco Assn., i'res. Tex. Pastors' Conference.) 
 
 undreamed of by the pioneers of other days. Providence 
 always has its compensations. If darkness falls on life it is 
 like the black thunder cloud in the bosom of which 
 always sleeps the brightest lightning. From affluence to 
 poverty the South \vas reduced, but the days of darkness 
 w-ere contributive to the stalwart equipment of men and
 
 EETKOSPECTIVE AND PEOSPECTIVE 333 
 
 women to meet the returning tide of prosperity. If the old 
 things of the South pass away, with the many dehcate 
 touches and civiHties known only to the social life of the 
 section, and if along with these went the misconceptions of 
 what genuine life is, its people were schooled in adversity 
 to seize with substantial and practical grip the elements of 
 prosperity of a" new era and turn them to ready account. 
 The moral and intellectual fiber of the South was strained 
 to its utmost, but it proved to be the training time of giants. 
 Preserving that which was best in the traditions of the 
 South, the people emerged from the thrall of gloom strong- 
 er and sturdier than before, without a stain of honor, but the 
 rather, wearing the laurels of victory because of their mar- 
 velous endurance. 
 
 With the return of better and more buoyant days came a 
 propulsion in all quarters of activity, and to wider and more 
 effective spiritual endeavor. Churches and schools were re- 
 habilitated, and though hindered, the cause grew. An ap- 
 parent check was experienced in the division of honest sen- 
 timent in the ranks of the Baptist denomination. For the 
 time all energies seemed ill-directed and the forces broken 
 and scattered. Long and sore was the struggle, doubtful 
 the issue ; but God reigned, and from the dust of strife the 
 churches emerged the better for the contest. The fruitful 
 germ of Providence is in all seeming disaster, and no bright- 
 er illustration is found than in the cordial reunion of long- 
 contending Baptist forces. 
 
 "God moves in a mysterious way. 
 His wonders to perform." 
 
 When the Baptists of Texas entered the gateway of the 
 final decade of the nineteenth century they were as serried 
 as the panoplied ranks of an army of ancient Greece — and 
 just as aggressive. From the past they had brought lessons 
 of caution and wisdom, the present pulsed with stimulative 
 energy, and the future was brightened with the flush of hope. 
 That which had survived through a long period of darkness 
 and of doubt, gave fresh nerve and kindling enthusiasm for 
 the undertakings yet to come. From the outset of the career
 
 334 HISTOEY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 of the denomination wisdom had been shown by a prompt 
 seizure of the germs of prospective towns and cities, no 
 matter what the cost of effort or of means, and while never 
 neglecting the country districts, they did not commit the 
 error of some of the older states of expending on the coun- 
 try all energy, to the disregard of the central seats of popu- 
 lation. 
 
 The Baptists of Texas shared in the spirit of adventure 
 and enterprise and kept pace with the advancing step of the 
 commercial column in all the spheres of denominational 
 activity. After the lapse of little more than sixty years, 
 during much of which time they struggled for every inch 
 of ground which they occupied, they had succeeded in plant- 
 ing strong churches from the gulf to the Panhandle, and 
 from Louisiana to the plains of the west. In every city 
 the Baptists had -gotten a footing. Their church edifices 
 were stately, their congregations large, their pastors strong. 
 In all the spheres of activity, in commercial, social, judicial 
 and political life, the Baptists were potent. From a single 
 representative in a colonial camp on the river, little more 
 than sixty years before, they had come to be a mighty host 
 of 200,000. They were the pioneers of education in Texas ; 
 many of the most conspicuous leaders, alike on the field and 
 in the forum, in the formative stages of the new empire 
 were Baptists. Their institutions of learning were founded 
 sufficiently in advance of the subsequent development of 
 the state to enable the students from Baptist schools to 
 become principal sharers in this work. From the schools of 
 Baptists in Texas had gone those whose fame was already 
 continental, and whose eloquence had thrilled some of the 
 most cultured assemblages of the nation. Along with other 
 things has been the preservation in this empire state of the 
 most unadulterated loyalty to the form of sound doctrine. 
 While Baptists are rigid in orthodoxy, just as rigid as the 
 r>ible prescribes and no more, they are as broadly conserva- 
 tive in tone as the preaching of the Son of God. Mean- 
 while they have been aggressively progressive, as they have 
 widened the scope of their work in response to the demand 
 of advancing eras. To be sure, heresies have anon crept in 
 with forbidding front and discordant tone, but they were
 
 RETEOSPECTIVE AND PROSPECTIVE 335 
 
 never tolerated in the ranks of Baptist people. With pa- 
 tience and forbearance always, heresy has been dealt with, 
 but it was duly expelled when the hour of necessity came. 
 Denying to no one ever to hold what views he might, yet 
 if he entertained and sought to promulgate views in the 
 ranks of the denomination while under a hostile flag, this 
 privilege was promptly denied. Preserving intact the mold 
 of doctrine. Baptists of Texas have been scrupulously con- 
 sistent throughout. If men must teach heresy they must do 
 so outside the Baptist pale. The cause advocated by the 
 people called Baptists in Texas may have been marred by 
 seasons of divided sentiment of policy, but by heresy, never. 
 The one could be cured by readjustment of conditions, but 
 the other was vital and fundamental in its wreck and ruin. 
 As one generation of Baptists has followed another, it has 
 come into an atmosphere unclouded by distorted doctrine 
 and free from the miasm of newfangled belief. The 
 preaching of the gigantic men who grappled with the prob- 
 lems of pioneer civilization was lofty in spirit and apostolic 
 in tone, and they were the men to set the pace of a denomi- 
 nation the power and influence of which was destined to 
 be felt to the utmost confines of the globe. Through the 
 years Baptists have sought to honor God by a strict adher- 
 ence to the principles which He has given for human guid- 
 ance and development, and in turn God has honored them. 
 A mighty force, the Baptists of Texas enter on the work 
 of the years of a declining century. Other struggles await 
 them in the not remote future, other and peculiar difficulties 
 are yet to be met and other battles are to be fought before the 
 field is cleared; but the grace of Christ hadmade them victors 
 before, and it would do so again. Efforts at disruption will 
 be made, discord the harshest will come, but they were too 
 well seasoned in the kiln of adversity and too well drilled in 
 the school of conflict to balk at the obstructions which selfish 
 ambition might roll in the way in the years to come. They 
 had met and overcome before, and could do so again. They 
 were soon to be called on to face the most insidious and 
 persistent difficulty yet encountered, but their ranks were 
 now too solid to be seriously broken ; their eyes were too 
 steadfastly fixed on the urgent demands of a period big
 
 336 IIISTOEY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 with possibility, and their hearts too resolutely set on the 
 accomplishment of great things for the Master to be turned 
 aside, even by the most ingenious devices ever conceived in 
 the hearts of men. They were not to be misled by sinister 
 motive, nor made pliant to the demands of vaulting ambi- 
 tion. Among them were leaders who were seriously thought- 
 ful, devoutly consecrated, conspicuous for greatness, and 
 amply able to grannie with the sorest of problems and the 
 most gigantic sordidness. 
 
 Notwithstanding the financial pressure of the time, the 
 year 1891 opened auspiciously to the Baptists of Texas. The 
 forces were never more active, and work was never done 
 with more telling effect. Every available agency within 
 reach was laid under tribute to the promotion of the cause. 
 Barring the newspaper difficulty, every condition favored 
 denominational advancement. Could a wise and consecrated 
 organ at this time have led the way, it is impossible to cal- 
 culate what the advantage would have been. The pulpits 
 of the state were never so ablv manned as at this time. Dr. 
 B. H. Carroll, who had long been a prince among the Bap- 
 tists, was the pastor of the church at Waco, and in the 
 projection of vast plans of denominational endeavor was 
 ably sanctioned by Rev. A. M. Simms, of Dallas ; Rev. E. E. 
 King, of San Antonio; Dr. J. H. Stribling, of Rockdale; 
 Rev. C. D. Campbell, of Cleburne; Rev. R. B. Garrett, of 
 Austin ; Rev. M. V. Smith, of Belton ; Rev. Jeff D. Ray, of 
 Huntsville ; Rev. J. B. Hardwicke, of Luling ; Rev. T. S. 
 Potts, of Dallas; Rev. A. E. Baten, of Fort Worth; Drs. 
 J. L. Lloyd and F. M. Law, of Bryan ; Rev. A. J. Fawcett, 
 of Tyler ; Revs. W. C. Friley and J. M. Carroll, of Taylor ; 
 Dr. A. T. Spalding, of Galveston, and hundreds of others. 
 
 The several institutions fostered by the Baptists of 
 Texas were also ably equipped. President Burleson was pre- 
 siding with the ripeness of years and with skilled ability 
 over Baylor University, while Prof. P. H. Eager was direct- 
 ing with success the girls' school at Belton. Buckner Or- 
 phans' Home was expanding with each successive year 
 under its affable and philanthropic founder. Dr. R. C. Buck- 
 ner, who w^as rapidly reaching the hearts of thousands, and 
 aside from the immediate work of rearing orphans and ol
 
 EETROSPECTIVE AND PROSPECTIVE 337 
 
 fitting them for the rough encounters of the world, was aid- 
 ing in a material way in the development of the beneficence 
 of the denomination by eliciting its sympathy and aid for an 
 institution which, because of its good work and the noted 
 prominence to which it had attained, had come to be known 
 far beyond the confines of the state. Rev. H. M. Burroughs 
 was prosecuting with energy and with pathetic zeal the 
 interests of the Ministers' Relief Board by rendering aid to 
 the aged and infirm servants of Jesus Christ — men who had 
 grown gray and infirm in building the great fabric of a 
 denominational system, to the cause of which they were un- 
 able longer to devote their energies. Against a strong tide 
 of financial hindrance. Rev. J. B. Cranfill was engineering 
 the state mission work, which touched and afifected most 
 vitally every denominational interest in the state. He had 
 infused into the work a marvelous spirit of enterprise, and 
 under a splendid administrative ability was guiding its af- 
 fairs with singular power. Not less conspicuous were the 
 noble Baptist women of Texas, at the head of whom was 
 Mrs. Fannie Breedlove Davis, of San Antonio, who with 
 devoted coadjutors in dififerent quarters of the state, was 
 extending the organization of their forces in the centers, 
 and penetrating, far and wide, the churches of the interior. 
 The zeal of consecrated womanhood of the early days of 
 Christianity was being reproduced in Texas. 
 
 From the beginning, Texas Baptists had been blessed by 
 the possession of strong and wise laymen who gave immense 
 reinforcement to the management of Baptist affairs, not 
 alone in the local churches, but in the general movements 
 of the denomination. Among many others of this period 
 may be named Colonel W. L. Williams, of Dallas, long noted 
 for his calm counsel and ripe wisdom; George B. Davis of 
 San Antonio, who was second to none in business capability, 
 and one on whom the Baptists of Texas had leaned for 
 many years as one of their chief props in the management 
 of their afifairs ; W. H. Jenkins, discreet and firm and most 
 tenacious of purpose, whose services had many times proved 
 valuable to the denomination; F. L. Carroll, as benevolent 
 as he was firm, and as modest as he was pious ; J. B. Scar- 
 borough, noted for his keen discrimination and legal acu-
 
 338 HISTOEY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 men, whose service was in frequent demand and was always 
 copious and liberal ; L. L. Foster, whose skill as a presidinj^ 
 officer and whose judgment in the councils of the denomina- 
 tion were in frequent demand. These were a few of the 
 men in the pew who were rendering valuable service at a 
 time when the denomination w^as in need of just such de- 
 voted leaders. Others still were coming into prominence 
 under the steady development of the churches by progressive 
 
 REV. W. T. McMULLEN, I'AtiTOU HUNTINGTON, TEXAS. 
 
 (Has been preaching 26 years; all bis active ministry has been in- 
 Angelina Co., where he was converted ; he joined the church at Center, 
 where he was a member 24 years, and pastor 20 years ; has baptized 
 1,UUU converts and has married 150 couples.) 
 
 pastors. Among these may be notably named C. C. Slaugh- 
 ter, W. B. Denson and George W. Carroll, all of whom were 
 destined in the near future to hold conspicuous stations in 
 the ranks of the denomination. 
 
 licsides these, still a number of young ministers was just 
 coming into view, of whom we shall have occasion to hear 
 in tlie subsequent pages of this narrative. George W. Truett, 
 financial secretary of Baylor University, was called into the
 
 EETROSPECTIVE AND PROSPECTIVE 339 
 
 service for a period by reason of his peculiar gifts and recog- 
 nized ability to assist in relieving the financial stress of that 
 institution. It was during this year that he first won distinc- 
 tion as a young man of ability, whose early efforts were pro- 
 phetic of the power since shown. A. J. Harris, unique and 
 eloquent as a preacher, was well to the front iii the Baptist 
 ministry of the state ; J. B. Riddle, vivacious of spirit, ready 
 of utterance and consecrated in purpose, was already being 
 sought in the councils of the denomination, and J. M. P. 
 Morrow, whom the people heard gladly — these were among 
 the young ministers of the period toward whom and others 
 the denomination was turning its eyes for the stations of the 
 future. 
 
 A brief review of the history of the denomination has 
 been summarized in the preceding pages and we now deal 
 with the living present. 
 
 With the increasing ease of accessibility afforded by the 
 railroads to every part of the state, and with the liberality 
 shown to the active workers of the denomination, a fact 
 which the Baptists of the state can never forget, as espe- 
 cially in times of financial stringency the railroads were 
 found to be the readiest and most timely of assistants, the 
 denomination was able to penetrate every part of Texas in 
 the promotion of its work. Never before were churches in 
 any part of the continent and, indeed, of the world more rap- 
 idly organized, or district associations more rapidly formed. 
 Every one who had a mind to work seemed adjusted to his 
 proper relations and was active in his sphere. For the 
 period and the stage of progress reached by the denomina- 
 tion, the organization of the Baptist hosts could not be com- 
 pleter than it was in 1891, yet many churches were yet un- 
 reached by the vitality which had come of recent years to 
 the denomination. Still there were difficulties, pregnant of 
 evil, growing athwart the way of denominational progress. 
 There was a lingering hope that these might be averted, yet 
 the gathering storm gave but little hope of escape. With 
 extraordinary patience the journalistic difficulty was borne, 
 because the denomination was loath to be drawn into fresh 
 friction for any reason whatsoever. Hopeful that some 
 favorable turn might come in the current of affairs, wise
 
 340 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 leaders were reluctant to take any decisive step to avert 
 what seemed a disastrous difficulty toward which it was 
 being rapidly borne. Every possible conciliatory effort was 
 made to stem the tide of journalistic trouble, but up to this 
 time these attempts had been unavailing. No way of relief 
 was yet open. The conviction was becoming deeply rooted, 
 however, that another paper would have to be established 
 to offset the influence now prevailing. Men, wise and good, 
 desirous of turning to advantage the vast facilities which 
 Providence had placed within reach, looked toward the 
 future not without ominous foreboding. Under the pres- 
 ent stress progress could not be made equal to the advan- 
 tages afforded. Every branch of denominational activity 
 was suffering from partial paralysis, because of untimely 
 journalistic utterances. Relief from a situation so dis- 
 tressful was not yet within sight of mortal vision. 
 
 According to appointment, the Convention for 1891 met 
 at Waco on October 9. L. L. Foster was again chosen 
 president, J. H. Stribling, R. C. Burleson and F. M. Law, 
 vice presidents, and T. S. Potts and A. E. Baten, secre- 
 taries. The spirit of the convention found an appropriate 
 voice in the introductory sermon of the occasion, preached 
 by R. B. Garrett, of Austin, from the text: "Go forward." 
 A number of distinguished visitors was present, among 
 whom were W. H. Whitsitt of the Southern Baptist Theo- 
 logical Seminary, I. T. Tichenor of the Home Board, J. M. 
 Frost of the Sunday-school Board, S. H. Ford of the Chris- 
 tian Repository, W. P. Harvey of The Western Recorder, 
 E. E. Folk of The Baptist and Reflector, T. P. Bell of the 
 Foreign Board, and W. D. Powell of Mexico. 
 
 Around the report of the corresponding secretary of the 
 State Board was grouped the interest of the body. Diffi- 
 culties of more than ordinary character had been encoun- 
 tered by Secretary Cranfill during the year, and there 
 was some anxiety lest the work might fall short of its past 
 record. The reading of the report was listened to with 
 deep interest. A sense of relief came to the Convention 
 as the comprehensive results of the year's work were un- 
 folded. The statement in the outset that "in many respects 
 it is the largest year's work ever done in the history of
 
 EETROSPECTIVE AND PROSPECTIVE 341 
 
 Texas missions" brought relief, cheer and stimulation. 
 Notwithstanding it was a period of severe financial depres- 
 sion, the achievements of the Board had been marvelous. 
 Less than ever before outside help had been derived, yet 
 6,041 new members had been added to the churches during 
 the year, almost two-thirds the number reported by the 
 Home Board, operating in fourteen states, two territories 
 and the island of Cuba. 
 
 It had been a year of phenomenal activity, in which 
 one hundred and forty-three missionaries had been em- 
 ployed, who, among other important feats, had been mstru- 
 mental in the organization of one hundred and seven new 
 churches and two hundred and six Sunday-schools, while 
 there had been collected for state missions an amount ag- 
 gregating $35,510.35, to which the Home Mission Board 
 had added $5,015.45. Co-operative work with the district 
 associations had been broadened, and in five of the largest 
 centers, the State Board had aided in city evangelization. 
 The salaries of pastors in seventy-three towns and cities 
 were supplemented, as the churches at those points were 
 helped forward toward the point of self-maintenance. The 
 work had been very prosperous in the western and Pan- 
 handle districts, where churches not organized eighteen 
 months before, had sufficiently increased in numbers as to 
 form one or more associations. In the case of the Llano 
 Estacado Association every church had been organized with- 
 in the last year and a half. Five associations, not organized 
 one year ago, had been constituted and brought into active 
 co-operation. Other and distinct branches of the work had 
 similarly prospered. Work among the negroes, under the 
 able leadership of one of their number, Rev. A. R. Griggs, 
 the superintendent of the colored mission work, had thriven 
 throughout the year, as had the work among the Ger- 
 mans, Mexicans and Scandinavians resident in Texas. 
 
 The convention showed its loyalty to the Southern Bap- 
 tist Theological Seminary by responding to the appeal of 
 Doctor Whitsitt in behalf of the students' fund with the sum 
 of $1,210. With equal readiness it pledged its continued sup- 
 port to the Foreign Mission Board with $2,844.25 in response 
 to appeals from Drs. Bell and Powell. Rev. H.M. Burroughs,
 
 343 nrSTORY OF TF.XAS BAPTISTS 
 
 the corresponding' secretary of the Ministers" Rehef Fund, 
 reported collections from all sources for that work to the 
 amount of $4,609.75. The increased growth of the schools 
 was signal, as during the past session 678 students had been 
 enrolled at Baylor University, and the present session had 
 opened auspiciously. During the preceding year there were 
 forty-seven ministerial students at Baylor University. For 
 seven months, as has heretofore been noted, George W. 
 Truett, the financial secretary, had lent signal aid by raising 
 funds for the school. Dr. B. H. Carroll had been released 
 by his church to take the field in the same interest. The 
 past year had been one of an active campaign in behalf of 
 denominational education, the claims of which had become 
 more urgent because of the growth of advantage enjoyed 
 by the institutions of the state. As a result of the campaign 
 many friends were won to Christian education. For obvious 
 reasons the convention aligned itself with the National Bap- 
 tist Education Society, which had been organized to assist 
 Baptist colleges throughout the country. For the cause 
 represented by Dr. B. H. Carroll and Rev. George W. 
 Truett the members of the Convention pledged $6,345. 
 Baylor Female College had enrolled during the past year 
 256 students, and the popularity of the school had so grown 
 that additional buildings were necessary, and for this pur- 
 ])t)se $25,000 or $30,000 was needed. The custom then 
 being to make an appeal for pledges for the state work for 
 the year following, in order to have a nucleus for beginning 
 the work, $5,816 was the amount promised as the result of 
 an appeal. 
 
 The work of J. M. Carroll, the statistical secretary of 
 the Convention, proved to be in many respects fundamental, 
 as it furnished a clew to many existing difficulties. Yet the 
 statistics as reported by him were acknowledged to be 
 partial and imperfect. There were in round numbers at 
 this time, so far as could be ascertained through corre- 
 spondence sent over the field, 125,000 Avhite Baptists in 
 Texas, 1,971 ministers, of whom only 889 were pastors. 
 There were 2,221 churches, 376 of which were without 
 pastors. The development still necessary and that which 
 excited deeper interest in the State Board work, was that
 
 EETROSPECTIVE AND PEOSPECTIVE 343 
 
 1.3 1 8 churches contributed nothing to associational mis- 
 sions; 1,410 contributed nothing to foreign missions, and 
 only 188 gave anything to Home Missions, while nearly 
 one-half failed to contribute to any mission cause whatever. 
 In view of the rapid growth of the denomination, to the 
 churches of which there was a net gain of almost if not- 
 quite 9,000 during the past year, the work of welding these 
 incoherent forces was a tremendous one. If, on the one 
 hand, the denomination was inspired by the accomplish- 
 ments of the past, it saw in the future of the work difficulties 
 of immense proportions. 
 
 Buckner Orphans' Home had at this time 203 inmates, 
 and during the year $23,000 had been expended in main- 
 taining the Home and in the erection of necessary build- 
 ings. The sum of $1,061.16 was pledged for the work for 
 the next year. At that time the Sunday-school Board of 
 the Southern Baptist Convention was in its infancy. Up to 
 the time of its creation, a year or two before, the field had 
 been occupied by the American Baptist Publication Society. 
 At this session the convention committed itself to the new 
 Sunday-school Board by the adoption of the following as 
 offered by B. H. Carroll : 
 
 "Resolved, That we earnestly approve of the creation 
 by the Southern Baptist Convention of a Sunday-school 
 Board, and pledge our sympathies, prayers and contribu- 
 tions in furtherance of the objects for which the Board was 
 created. 
 
 "Resolved, That we earnestly recommend to the 
 churches composing this convention the Sunday-school pub- 
 lications as in every way worthy of their patronage and 
 support." 
 
 •At this session of the body was given the first distinct 
 recognition of the movement on the part of the organiza- 
 tion of the Baptist Young People's Union in the state by a 
 series of emphatic and cordial resolutions offered by R. T. 
 Hanks. Prior to the meeting of the State Convention at 
 this time, the young people had organized their own Con- 
 vention in June at Fort Worth, of which T. S. Potts, of 
 Bonham, became the first president, and A. E. Baten the 
 corresponding secretary. The movement was destined to
 
 344 
 
 IIISTOEY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 exert an immense influence on the denomination in the 
 state. During the same year, the first session of the National 
 Convention of the young people was organized at Chicago, 
 and Texas was honored with the position of the first vice- 
 presidency of that body, to which position J. B. CranfiU was 
 elected, and he was elected to the same position the follow- 
 ing year. 
 
 As has before been said in these pages, there was a 
 growing recognition of the creation of schools secondary 
 
 HKV. \VM. A. IIAMLETT, PASTOR SECOND CHURCH, DALLAS, TEX. 
 
 to the chief schools for the sexes in the state. Two others 
 of these schools, the North Texas Baptist College at Jacks- 
 boro, and the Northwest Texas Baptist College at Decatur, 
 were incorporated in 1891. The creation of these schools 
 was one of the signs of the progress, development and 
 enlightenment abroad among the Baptists of the state at 
 this time. The following year, 1892, was destined to bring 
 many important changes. The first of these, which oc- 
 curred near the beginning of the year, was that of the resig- 
 nation of J. B. Cranfill as corresponding secretary and su-
 
 RETROSPECTIVE AND PROSPECTIVE 345 
 
 perintendent of missions of the State Board. His resigna- 
 tion was to take effect in February of that year, but he 
 yielded to the desire of the board to withhold action in the 
 matter till the end of the first quarter. 
 
 In order to simplify the work, and in order, too, to 
 greater compactness of organization, most of the State 
 Board deemed it wise to consolidate the mission work in 
 the state by dispensing with the representative agents of the 
 two general boards, the Home and Foreign. Submitting 
 the plan to the two boards, the action or desire of the State 
 Board of Texas was acquiesced in. At the same time that 
 J, B. Cranfill resigned from the secretaryship of the State 
 Board, B. H. Carroll tendered his resignation as the presi- 
 dent of the Board. J. M. Carroll was chosen to succeed 
 J. B. Cranfill, and C. D. Campbell, of Cleburne, succeeded 
 B. H. Carroll. 
 
 Coincident with the announcement of his retirement 
 from the secretary-ship of the State Mission Board, J. B. 
 Cranfill became associated with M. V. Smith in the pur- 
 chase of The Western Baptist. This purchase was effected 
 in February, 1892. The proprietors of The Western Bap- 
 tist were Rev. Lewis Holland and Rev. R. T. Hanks. M. V. 
 Smith and J. B. Cranfill bought the paper from them, and 
 took actual possession of it on March i, 1892, changing the 
 name from The Western Baptist to The Texas Baptist 
 Standard. The paper continued to be published in Dallas 
 until the following July, at which time it was removed to 
 Waco and its publication begun under new conditions. 
 When Smith and Cranfill bought The Western Baptist Dr. 
 J. B. Gambrell, then of Mississippi, was assisting M. V. 
 Smith in a meeting at Belton. He had been asked by Dr. 
 Smith to come at that time, partly because of the contem- 
 plated purchase of the paper. He was asked to join Smith 
 and Cranfill in the publication of the paper as joint editor 
 and proprietor. He sympathetically considered the matter, 
 and went so far as to write a few editorials for the paper 
 under its new management, but after returning to his home 
 in Mississippi he found that his engagements there were 
 such that they could not be easily relinquished, and he there-
 
 346 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 fore did not take up the work that Smith and Cranfill were 
 so anxious for him to undertake with them. 
 
 Afifairs had reached such a pitch in denominational jour- 
 nahsm in the state that many wise brethren thought that a 
 movement looking to the creation or publication of another 
 paper was absolutely necessary to the welfare of the de- 
 nomination. The sentiment in favor of such an enterprise 
 was pronounced throughout the state, that a journal repre- 
 sentative of the interests of the State Board and its work 
 was indispensable to the continuance of that work. In this 
 sentiment the best and wisest men of the denomination in 
 the state concurred. It was most fortunate for the denomi- 
 nation that the two men who assumed the proprietorship of 
 the paper were those who were in every way adapted to 
 the undertaking. Rev. J. B. Cranfill was born to the pen. 
 To natural aptitude was added that of a clearness of style 
 that is unique, all of which is characterized by an under- 
 tone of humor that gives a delightful flavor to his produc- 
 tions. Deprived of scholastic advantages, he is favored 
 with an acuteness of discrimination and a mental sensitive- 
 ness which enables him to detect the correctness of diction 
 in a manner which usually costs great effort on the part of 
 others. His vocabulary is that of the people, w^ho follow his 
 thought with ease, while its unconventional piquancy is 
 delightful to the more scholarly. A manager f)f affairs of 
 the higher order, he is able to give to his other qualities 
 of editorship that which makes the superior man on the 
 tripod. Rev. M. V. Smith was scholarly, yet simple and 
 direct, forceful and persuasive. He was a man of broad 
 and versatile culture, a universal favorite among those who 
 knew him best, a gentleman of polished address and a safe 
 and sane leader. This was the combination of editorial 
 equipment with which the new enterprise was begun. 
 
 The beginning of a new paper seems to have been re- 
 garded as the hoist of a rival flag, if not of a hostile one, 
 lay the Texas Baptist and Herald and the clash of thought 
 began afresh. The struggle in journalism began anew and 
 was continued through the remaining years of the century, 
 and even beyond. The Texas Baptist and Herald rose to
 
 EETEOSPECTIVE AND PROSPECTIVE 347 
 
 fierceness, and even to bitterness, and was the occasion of 
 much distraction in the ranks of the denomination. 
 
 In this connection the fohowing quotation is given from 
 a tract prepared by Dr. J. B. Gambrell for general circula- 
 tion entitled, "The Evolution of the Texas Situation" : 
 
 *T had no disposition in the world to embark in a news- 
 paper enterprise in Texas, but as the situation was opened 
 up more and more, I became convinced that something like 
 that would have to be done or else the work of unification 
 so well begun would come to nothing. It was apparent that 
 already Dr. Hayden had alienated large numbers of the 
 most influential men of the state from him, and that he 
 could not longer unify and lead the people. Dr. Hayden, 
 finding by some of the ways known to himself, what was 
 contemplated, came down to Belton and had an interview 
 with me. He presented his claim to the state. He desired 
 to go into all the troubles of the past, presenting a valise 
 full of papers which I declined to read. I finally presented 
 to him the condition of things as it appeared to my mind, 
 as I had been made to see it by the brethren, and told him 
 candidly that I believed that the conditions in Texas de- 
 manded that TJic Western Baptist be bought out and the 
 location changed, so that the fight could cease. He then 
 urged me to have nothing to do with it, admitting that that 
 was, perhaps, the best thing that could be done, but alleging 
 that his personal friendship for me led him to urge me to 
 hands ofT, for said he: Tf you get into the paper, you'll 
 get hurt.' And then he urged that I have nothing to 
 do with it because I would give strength to the paper and 
 would 'make it more difficult to destroy it.' I have never 
 forgotten the keen, strong impression that bold statement 
 made upon my mind." 
 
 The situation was gravely embarrassed, as the discussion 
 went beyond the confines of the state and became a subject 
 v^diich excited no little interest elsewhere. The Texas Bap- 
 tist Standard contented itself with a more calm and con- 
 servative tone, and while it parried the blows of the oppos- 
 ing journal, by its dignity won its way to the heart of the 
 denomination at large. Its evident policy was to vindicate 
 the work which was the subject of so much abuse at the
 
 348 HISTOEY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 hands of the other paper. The State Board now had a 
 mouthpiece through which it could reach the people, and its 
 operations began with a greater feeling of security. Under 
 such conditions the work of the board was begun with re- 
 newed zeal. Changes of a far-reaching character were 
 made, and the policy of the Board was made conformable to 
 the vastness of the work to which it had been brought under 
 Secretary Cranfill. Among the changes which were found 
 to be necessary was that of the appointment of a general 
 missionary, the first to be appointed in the state. His mis- 
 sion was to visit the different parts of the vast field, ascer- 
 tain the needs of each in detail, so as to give more intelligent 
 direction to the general work, visit the missionaries them- 
 selves, and by the touch of mediation bring the workers 
 directly into immediate relations with the Board. The real 
 conditions of the fields which had long been beneficiaries 
 of the Board needed to be known, while churches and local- 
 ities needed to be stimulated, so as to come to rely on them- 
 selves rather than on the Board. Then the rapid growth of 
 towns in the state demanded the presence of a representa- 
 tive of the Board to secure the bonus advantages which 
 were customarily aft'orded new churches seeking sites. 
 
 One of the pleasing incidents of the closing days of J. B. 
 Cranfill's work as Superintendent of Missions was the 
 presentation to him of a beautiful gold-headed cane. This 
 graceful tribute to the retiring secretary was given him 
 while the Texas delegation were en route to the Southern 
 Baptist Convention, which met that year in Atlanta, Ga. 
 The presentation speech was made by Dr. J. Morgan Wells. 
 
 About the middle of the year 1892 two of the leading 
 pastors of the state died. Dr. J. H. Stribling and Rev. C. D. 
 Campbell, one dying on the nth of August and the other 
 on the 13th. Doctor Stribling was a representative of the 
 generation next succeeding that of the pioneer ministers of 
 the state. He was one of the connecting links between the 
 two distinct periods of denominational history. When he 
 died he was within one month of his seventieth birthday, 
 and for full forty years had preached in Texas, honored 
 and beloved by his brethren. He had passed through the 
 tribulations from the beginning, and had been an ardent
 
 KETEOSPECTIVE AND PROSPECTIVE 349 
 
 sharer in the development of the denomination in the state. 
 He was honored many times by the convention as a vice 
 president, was pastor of some of the most important pas- 
 torates in the state, and at the time of his death was the 
 pastor at Rockdale. He was a man of spotless life and a 
 preacher of commanding influence. He died at Eureka 
 Springs, Arkansas. 
 
 Rev. C. D. Campbell was a native of Georgia and the 
 son of Rev. J. H. Campbell, D.D., a distinguished preacher 
 and author. No man who ever came to the state enjoyed 
 more the confidence and esteem of his brethren. Void of 
 self-seeking, and wholely unaffected, he was a genial, com- 
 panionable gentleman whose native dignity and superior 
 culture fitted him for the highest circles of refinement. At 
 the time of his death, Mr. Campbell was the pastor at Cle- 
 burne, and president of the Board of Directors of the Bap- 
 tist General Convention of Texas. His remains were taken 
 to his native state, where he sleeps beside his father till 
 the resurrection morning. To each of these distinguished 
 men of God a memorial page was devoted in the Conven- 
 tion Minutes for 1892. 
 
 The work of Rev. J. M. Carroll as secretary of the 
 Board and superintendent of missions was attended with 
 considerable hindrance and embarrassment. He had to 
 assume the work at the close of the second quarter, and had 
 to acquire a knowledge of the details while he had to prose- 
 cute it. Then the change in the policy of the work of the 
 Board was attended at first with the difficulty of adjust- 
 ment to the new conditions, and just after taking charge 
 of the office the president of the Board died. These ac- 
 cumulated difficulties were not relieved by the opposition 
 of the Texas Baptist and Herald and its continued crit- 
 icisms. 
 
 The Baptist General Convention met in 1892 at Belton. 
 The officers chosen were : R. C. Burleson, president ; W. R. 
 Maxwell, F. M, Law and A. J. Fawcett, vice presidents, 
 and T. S. Potts and A. E. Baten, recording secretaries. 
 The visitors present were J. M. Frost, I. T. Tichenor, E. C. 
 Dargan and Benjamin Griffith, the secretary of the Ameri- 
 can Baptist Publication Society.
 
 350 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 The annual report of the corresponcHng secretary and 
 superintendent of missions covered only two quarters of 
 the year, from April to September. There were in the em- 
 ])loymcnt of the Board one hundred and ten missionaries, 
 thirty-eight of whom were laboring among the foreigners 
 and the negroes of the state. Missionary work was carried 
 on in eighty-four counties, and the missionaries had aided in 
 the organization of sixty-five churches and one hundred and 
 twenty Sunday-schools, had added to the churches 2,787 
 members by baptism and letter, and had collected from the 
 field, $19,355.94. The financial panic was at its height and 
 money was exceedingly scarce. The combination of condi- 
 tions forced the secretary to report an indebtedness of the 
 Board. Secretary Carroll, who had but recently served as 
 the agent of the Foreign Board in Texas, reported that 
 more had been contributed to that cause during this most 
 stringent year than during any preceding year in the history 
 of the denomination in the state, the total amount for that 
 cause being, in 1892, $14,436.57. The spirit of missions w^as 
 manifestly abroad among the Baptist churches of Texas. 
 The printed page largely did the work. Large quantities 
 of tracts and copies of the Foreign Mission Journal were 
 distributed and read, and more sermons were preached on 
 the subject of missions than ever before during a single 
 year. As a result, contributions were multiplying and the 
 numerous rills of minor gifts swelled the general current, 
 while they left a fruitful soil in their wake. The result was 
 so wdiolesome that the secretary announced it as his purpose 
 to see to it that at least one sermon should be preached on 
 missions in each of the 2,395 churches in the state during 
 the approaching year. He recognized the necessity of a 
 wider diffusion of the spirit of giving, as the contributions 
 to all causes had been for a number of years from a given 
 constituency. As the interests had grown and the demands 
 had correspondingly increased, the contributions had, in some 
 instances, become burdensome. As at ])resent conducted, 
 the means derived had been only to supply the demands of 
 temporary emergencies, while the time was coming, if the 
 interests continued to expand, when greater means would 
 be needed, and the Board in sheer defense had to press the
 
 RETKOSPECTIVE AND PROSPECTIVE 351 
 
 matter of beneficence beyond anything which had hitherto 
 been done. Then, too, the churches needed that beneficence 
 be cultivated for their own sakes that they might be saved 
 from dry-rot. With a commendable breadth of vision these 
 things were easily detected by the plain business eye of the 
 practical secretary, and to correct these and remedy the 
 situation, was one of his purposes. 
 
 In recognition of the claims of the Southern Baptist 
 Seminary the sum of $1,032.35 was pledged to Professor 
 Dargan for the students' fund of that institution. The 
 untiring secretary of the Ministers' Relief Board, Rev. 
 H. M. Burroughs, pressed the claims of that cause on the 
 convention. He reported that at last a home had been 
 provided for the infirm and disabled ministers of the de- 
 nomination at Lampasas. It was made a veritable home 
 with spacious grounds about it, large, airy rooms and outer 
 galleries, all of which was surrounded by shades, while the 
 grounds were ornamented with shrubbery. Around the 
 home were all the conveniences of stock lots, patches and 
 gardens, which afforded to the inmates recreation from 
 monotony, as they cared for these interests. Despite the 
 stringent year, Mr. Burroughs had been able to collect for 
 this interest the sum of $3,270.98. 
 
 The reports from the two denominational schools at 
 Waco and Belton were both inspiring and discouraging. 
 Inspiring because of the patronage, the character of the 
 work done alike by the students and the faculty, and the 
 tone of religious sentiment pervading the institutions ; but 
 discouraging because of a lack of facilities to meet the 
 rapid growth of demand made on the institutions. Baylor 
 University was still burdened with debt, notwithstanding 
 Doctor Carroll and George W. Truett had raised during 
 the year $33,000 to meet the emergency. The growth of 
 the denomination and the corresponding and necessary 
 growth of the schools demanded an increase of facilities, a 
 fact which the denomination was slowly coming to learn. 
 
 At this session Doctor Carroll proposed that on condi- 
 tion that $25,000 could be raised by January, 1893, the 
 National Baptist Education Society would give $15,000, 
 which would relieve the institution of all indebtedness and
 
 353 HISTOEY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 enable the Board of Trustees of that institution to turn it 
 over to the denomination with all its equipments, valued at 
 $200,000, absolutely free of all encumbrance and debt. Fol- 
 lowing his announcement pledges for $3,118.50 were taken 
 on the spot. It was an inspiration to learn that seven hundred 
 students had been in attendance on the school during the 
 year past. Baylor Female College was still flourishing. 
 
 REV. W. W. MORRIS, PASTOR, MT. VI<]RNON, TEXAS. 
 
 (Born Butler Co., Ala., Dec. 19, 1868; came to Texas, 1880; ordained 
 Sept., 1905 ; has always labored in Rehoboth Assn., where he has been 
 pastor of churches and associational missionary ; he is at present pastor 
 at Mt. Vernon — the same church that he joined when he was converted ; 
 Ills work has been abundantly blessed.) 
 
 The standard of the school had been raised, the faculty 
 enlarged, and the facilities increased. Its financial claims 
 were held in reserve for the time in deference to the press- 
 ing question of the needs of Baylor University. Rev. T. J. 
 Walne, of Mississippi, had been prospectively engaged as 
 the financial agent of the school, and would soon enter on 
 his duties. 
 
 ATuch was being said at this time about the centennial of
 
 KETT^OSPEr'TTVE AND PKOSPEr'TTVE p,5r> 
 
 foreign missions in commemoration of the work under- 
 taken by William Carey one hundred years before. It was 
 entered on as a campaign of education in behalf of missions 
 in foreign parts. The movement received some marked and 
 entlnisiastic attention at this session of the convention. 
 
 The usual plan of the time was adopted, of procuring 
 pledges for the work of state missions for the following 
 year, and pledges for $4,155.20 were given for this cause. 
 The report of Buckner Orphans' Home was an elaborate and 
 instructive one, and in detail furnished an insight into the 
 management of the Home and the character pf its inmates. 
 "The family," as the founder was pleased to call it, was 
 every year increasing in numbers. Of the two hundred and 
 twenty-five occupants of the Home there were representa- 
 tives from Germany* Italy, Switzerland, Mexico, Greece, 
 and many from the different states of the Union. These 
 came from conditions as religiously diverse as they differed 
 in nationality and sectionally. The children of infidels, of 
 those of no faith, of Presbyterians, Disciples, Catholics, 
 Episcopalians, Congregationalists, Adventists, and of the 
 Salvation Army were housed together with the children of 
 Baptists within the hospitable Home. While they were 
 afforded educational advantages, they were at the same time 
 trained in the useful arts of industry. Many had gone from 
 the fostering Home and were useful men and women. 
 
 An effort had been made during the year to consolidate 
 and harmonize the interests of the Sunday-school work in 
 the state, so as to reduce it to some generally acceptable 
 basis, as the work was being done in part by the Sunday- 
 School Board of the Southern Convention and in part by 
 the State Sunday- School Board ; but the local managers 
 thought it wise to continue as heretofore. 
 
 It was during the year 1892 that J. B. Cranfill became the 
 nominee for the vice presidency of the National Prohibition 
 Party. He made an active canvass of the entire country, 
 and on one occasion, at W^esson, Mississipjii, in August, 
 1892, occurred an incident which illustrated his keen appre- 
 ciation of the ridiculous and the ignorance and blindness of 
 partisanism. Inasmuch as the town had no hall of sufficient 
 dimensions to accommodate a large audience, it was agreed
 
 '551 ITTSTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 tliat Doqtor Cranfill should address the people in front of 
 the town tavern. It was a wonderfully bright moonlight 
 night, and an immense audience was gathered. Mr. B. T. 
 Hobbs, a well known Prohibitionist of Mississippi, intro- 
 duced the speaker, who proceeded in one of his characteristic 
 arraignments of the liquor traffic and of all political parties 
 who are in coalition with the liquor forces. At the conclu- 
 sion of Doctor Cranfill's address, as though by a precon- 
 certed plan, some of the anti-prohibitionists began to call 
 for a lawyer whose name, for the purposes of this incident, 
 will for the moment be called Smith. 
 
 The crowd yelled, "Smith! Smith! Smith!" and the law- 
 yer, with a show of reluctance, appeared on the platform to 
 reply to the speech of Cranfill. Smith's speech ran the 
 crowd mad with excitement, as it was felt that Cranfill had 
 been demolished. Of course it was manifestly improper for 
 a candidate for the vice presidency to engage in debate with 
 a local lawyer, but at the conclusion of Smith's speech Mr. 
 Hobbs arose and said that, while Doctor Cranfill could not 
 afiford to engage in a discussion with any other than with 
 one of his peers (and here the crowd jeered as though it 
 was thought that Smith had paralyzed Cranfill and that he 
 was not able to reply), still, continued Mr. Hobbs, after the 
 demonstration had ceased, he thought that, in view of the 
 speech just made. Doctor Cranfill should be allowed a few 
 minutes to respond. Finally, and apparently with great 
 reluctance, Doctor Cranfill again took the platform and, 
 after highly complimenting Mr. Smith's speech, said : 
 
 "Fellow citizens, you will recall that I said in my address 
 this evening that the voters of the South were simply follow- 
 ing the jingle of an old party name. I do not believe, as a 
 matter of fact, that you endorse your own platform. Al- 
 though many of you are good Democrats, I do not believe 
 that you stand by the money plank in the Democratic plat- 
 form. My contention is that we are confronting new issues, 
 and that the greatest single issue in America is the annihila- 
 tion of the liquor traffic. I will now read to you the money 
 plank, and let us see if you endorse it." 
 
 Doctor Cranfill opened the political text-book of that 
 year and read what purported to be the money plank in the
 
 EETEOSPECTIVE AND PROSPECTIVE 355 
 
 Democratic platform. After finishing it, and slowly laying 
 the book down, he asked: "Now, fellow citizens, every 
 Democrat present who endorses the plank which I have just 
 read will please rise to his feet." There was a tremendous 
 scramble, and hundreds of men stood up, as if to emphasize 
 in the most marked way possible his approval of the plank. 
 Mr. Smith, who had made the spread-eagle speech in defense 
 of the Democratic party, scrambled up on a chair and stood 
 like Casablanca on the burning deck, "as born to rule the 
 storm." After the excitement incident to the vote had sub- 
 sided, Doctor Cranfill resumed : 
 
 "Now, fellow citizens, we have had a great demonstra- 
 tion of the truth of that which I before said — that you be- 
 loved Democrats of the South, instead of voting for prin- 
 ciple, are following the jingle of an old party name. I have 
 just read you what you supposed to be the money plank of 
 the Democratic platform, when, in truth, I read the plank of 
 the Republican platform, and every mother's son of you en- 
 dorsed it. Even my distinguished friend, Mr. Smith, who 
 stood on his chair in endorsement of it, and " 
 
 Doctor Cranfill could proceed no further. The ridiculous- 
 ness of the situation was such that further speech was out 
 of the question. The demonstration which followed is be- 
 yond description. Everybody roared — Populists, Republic- 
 ans and Prohibitionists — and even the Democrats, with an 
 appropriate appreciation of the easy entrapment, joined in 
 the hilarity. 
 
 The meeting closed, but in the meantime, after having 
 shriveled up till he was hardly discernible. Smith quietly 
 slipped away. This ended his career in the community of 
 Wesson. So great was his discomfiture that he soon after 
 closed his law office and shook the dust of Wesson from his 
 feet forever. 
 
 The next morning all the great dailies of America pub- 
 lished the story, which survives as one of the most humorous 
 incidents of American political campaigns.
 
 CHAi'TI'lR XXI. 
 
 MIX(U.ED DARKNKSS AND I.ICirr. 
 
 The Baptists of Texas were now fast niakino- histon-. 
 There was the stir of energy, the formation of future plans, 
 the consummation of results. Undismayed l\v hindrances — 
 and they were many and grave — Baptists were invincible 
 in their onward strides. True, the problems, both ])resent 
 and prospective, were serious ; but there was no halt in the 
 march, no hesitation even to meet them with imblanched 
 front. Conditions springing from the management of a vast 
 cosmopolitan people, who had rapidly accumulated within 
 the borders of the state, from the first had been prob- 
 lematical all along; but the denomination had stiffened and 
 strengthened under these influences, and it faced in the 
 right direction. Difficulties had toughened the fiber of the 
 denomination, and the grapple with stern ])roblems had 
 strengthened its wisdom. Under the guise of New Testament 
 liberty, there were not wanting those who were mas- 
 querading as leaders of reform while they were seeking to 
 serve only selfish ends, and who, in the promotion of which, 
 would stab the denomination to its vitals, as the measures 
 now in vogue would indicate : and yet the great body moved 
 right on. A marvelous stock of endurance and of patience 
 was needed, but these were exercised without fret or chafe, 
 in the indulgence of the hope that (jod would, in His own 
 good time, lift them out of the way. Nothing steadied the 
 denomination more than its faith in these times of ordeal. In 
 the i)ast. (iod had brought order out of disorder and har- 
 mony from chaos, and He would do so again. Xor were 
 men in the watch-towers of the denomination a whit more 
 zealous than were thousands who moved along the dead-level 
 of human action. Distinguished pastors and officials in the 
 highest functions vied with men, and women too, in the 
 
 356
 
 MINGLED DARKNESS AND LIGHT 357 
 
 obscure churches of the country districts in the perpetuation 
 of principles which had made the Baptists a distinctively 
 great people in the past, and with steadfast front they were 
 persisting- in the same course. The tremendous current of 
 denominational sentiment was sweeping with increasing 
 speed through the years. There were battles yet to be 
 fought and victories to be achieved within the ranks of the 
 denomination before the way would be cleared for a mighty 
 movement to bring Texas to Christ. 
 
 A sad blow fell on the denomination early in 1893, when 
 one of its quietest, but sanest and safest leaders fell. For 
 many years Rev. M. \'. Smith, now of Belton, had been of 
 incalculable advantage to the promotion of the weal of the 
 denomination. Constitutionally weak, he had been forced to 
 husband his physical strength throughout life, and by this 
 means rendered a service for which his amiable and gentle 
 nature fitted him in the stormy periods through which he 
 passed. Happily and wisely married, his efforts received a 
 sanction and encouragement from the silent influence of his 
 home, which gave immense momentum to his life-work. 
 His gentleness was not of that character that softened into 
 flabbiness the sterner elements of his manliness ; for, while 
 always modest, even to timidity oftentimes, the hardier ele- 
 ments of his character would assert themselves when neces- 
 sary, and none was more heroic in the contention for prin- 
 ciple in the sternest way, if such exercise were called for b\' 
 the supreme hour. He fell in the maturity and ripeness of 
 useful manhood, being just fifty-six when he died. He was 
 an unique counselor and seemed ill-spared at this particular 
 juncture of denominational history. Lovable in spirit, yet 
 bold and firm ; quiet and unobtrusive till occasion demanded, 
 and then wisely pronounced and emphatic ; scholarly and de- 
 vout, he combined the qualities which made him a general 
 favorite among men, and a special leader in seasons of turbu- 
 lence. His piety mellowed under conditions which would 
 have soured and embittered others. At the time of his death 
 Mr. Smith was associated with J. B. CranfiU in the proprie- 
 torship of the Texas Baptist Standard, a position for which 
 he was singularly fitted at this particular juncture, which
 
 358 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 called for just such wisdom as he brought to the editorial 
 chair. 
 
 The occasion of the death of M. V. Smith resulted in 
 placing the entire proprietorship of the paper in the hands 
 of J. B. Cranfill. The paper was continued at Waco, where 
 
 ItEV. M. F. WHEELER, McKINNEY, TEXAS. 
 
 (Rorn Apr. 11. 1867, near Canton, Cherokee Co., Ga. ; received liis 
 early education in Canton, Ga., later spent tliree years in Decatur Bap- 
 tist College, Decatur, Texas, and several terms in Baylor Bible School ; 
 was converted at the age of l.j and joined Baptist Church at Canton, 
 (Ja. ; went to preaching when 20 ; was ordained at 24 ; married 
 at 21 to Miss Nannie Putnam, of Cherokee Mills, Ga. ; has six children ; 
 served churches as pastor successfully in Wise and Denton counties for 
 10 years, when the Collin County Executive Board asked him to take 
 the evangelistic work of their county ; he is now serving his sixth year 
 in that position ; during his ministry thousands have been converted, hun- 
 dreds added to churches and many churches organized, and new houses 
 of worship buUt.) 
 
 it was fast becoming the chief factor of denominational 
 progress. In the years which followed it became indispens- 
 able to the guidance and stimulance of the Baptists of Texas, 
 and without wdiich they could never have become disen- 
 tangled from the meshes into which they had become en-
 
 MINGLED DAEKNESS AND LIGHT 359 
 
 thralled. In the passage of the denomination through the 
 wilderness wanderings of the period, The Standard was the 
 cloudy pillar by day, and the pillar of fire by night. If the 
 principle of according honor to whom honor is due ever 
 admits of application, it does in the particular instance of 
 the Texas Baptist Standard under the proprietorship of J. B. 
 Cranfill during a time when heroism was needed to be cool, 
 and when endurance, in the extremity of that virtue, was 
 unquailing. For more than a decade, no one underwent 
 more, no one did more for the promotion of the denomina- 
 tional interests of Texas, and it cost no one more than it did 
 J. B. Cranfill. The brightness of historic fact can never be 
 dimmed by the mutations of time nor displaced by the outcry 
 of disparagement. Facts may be obscured, as gold may be 
 tarnished, but beneath all, the fact remains for all eternity, 
 as fixed as the supernal throne. It was a juncture which 
 called for pluck of a peculiar mold, not of the frothy sort, 
 but stable and substantial in its practical embodiment, and 
 when the call came to J. B. Cranfill to stand in the van in 
 vindication of the progressive principles of a people who had 
 made their way over dire difficulties and obstructions the 
 roughest, and the progress of whom was now threatened by 
 a daring barrier, that call was not merely in the vocative. 
 In a juncture like this Cranfill was the man of the hour. 
 
 In 1893 came a periodical return to the country of a 
 financial crash, during which period, money could scarcely be 
 had. A general panic had seized the entire country, and 
 business lay prostrated like vegetation before the untimely 
 frost. It was a time alike of gloom and of alarm. The con- 
 dition fell like a paralytic stroke on religious work every- 
 where. With brave heart and unimpaired zeal, Secretary 
 Carroll breasted the storm. By timely encouragement he 
 held the forces well in hand, and right nobly did they re- 
 spond. It was a time that emphatically tried men's souls. 
 
 There was a combination of serious difficulties which, at 
 this time, stood in the way of the progress of the work. One 
 of these is that already named, when commercial energy 
 was palsied by the financial condition of the country ; an- 
 other was the period of transition of the work of the Board 
 from one plane of operation to that of another, and the
 
 360 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 last was that of the harriers thrown in tiic way hy one of 
 the journals of the denomination. Even under more trantjuil 
 conditions, the situation would have hcen difficult enougii to 
 mani[)ulate the affairs of the State Board ; but when it was 
 menaced by the union of so many adverse forces the situa- 
 tion was one of extreme embarrassment. A spirit less brave 
 than that of J. M. Carroll would have succumbed. To lift a 
 great system of denominational machinery from grooves in 
 which it had moved w'ith comparative ease and success to 
 other and newer ones, where the friction of newness and 
 the jostle of adjustment had to be overcome, was a peril, the 
 threat of which was frowning from every . quarter. There 
 often comes a time in the history of a battle when fortune 
 hangs in the balance, and when a single adverse stroke would 
 turn the tide either way. That crisis had been reached by 
 the State Board of Texas. Everything, humanly speaking, 
 was now dependent on J. Al. Carroll. How to engineer his 
 bark among the rocks which studded the stream required the 
 skill of statesmanship. As time went on, the difficulties, 
 instead of decreasing, really thickened. Baylor University 
 was in the field fighting for continued existence against an 
 inexorable debt. How to respect this most deserving inter- 
 est, and at the same time maintain the State Board, on 
 which all else in the state was suspended, was thai which 
 taxed mightily the ingenuity of the state secretary. Hut, in 
 addition to all these things, new difficulties arose by the 
 resignation of Rev. W. C. Lattimore as the general mis- 
 sionary of the Board, and the removal from the state of the 
 jiresident of the Board, Rev. A. M. Simms. lUit, there was 
 no falter in the prosecution of the work. In the breach 
 stood Secretary Carroll, and he saved the situation. 
 
 In the annual convention which met at Gainesville on 
 October 6. 1893, J. M. Carroll appeared before the body 
 with buoyant spirit to give an account in his official report 
 of the struggles of the year, but sounding at the same time 
 a note of encouragement. He reviewed the difficulties al- 
 read}- detailed, concluding with the triumpliant note; "Hut 
 with all these things against us, our work this year has not 
 been a failure." In the convention there was more of deter- 
 mination buttressed on faith than there was enthusiasm.
 
 MINGLED DARKNESS AND LIGHT 361 
 
 The condition was too serious a one for jubilation, and men 
 were profoundly determined and resolute. Rufus C. Burle- 
 son was again chosen president. A. B. Miller, G. B. Rogers 
 and J. B. Riddle, vice presidents, and A. E. Baten and 
 J. H. Truett, recording secretaries. J. M. Carroll was re- 
 tained as corresponding secretary, a portion of whose report 
 has already been presented. Notwithstanding the terrible 
 odds, the work on the field was remarkably successful. By 
 wise management the new policy of the State Board was 
 working with harmony. During the past year one hundred 
 and five missionaries had been at work, mostly in the west- 
 ern and northwestern quarters of the state, into which the 
 population was steadily flowing, and where there was a vast 
 realm for evangelistic work. The results were amazingly 
 large, as sixty-two churches and one hundred and sixty- 
 nine Sunday-schools had been organized, while thirty-three, 
 new meeting houses had been built at a cost of $19,539.90. 
 There had been brought into the churches by the mission- 
 aries more than three thousand new members. It was a 
 year of vigorous campaigning for missions, and for all the 
 mission interests there had been .collected on the field $42,- 
 653.42. It was the initial year in Texas for large individual 
 gifts to missions, due to the special desire of the secretar}- 
 to cultivate this spirit. During the year A. F. Sellers, of 
 Hico, gave $5,000 to the cause of missions. More churches 
 than ever before were contributing to the cause, and yet the 
 fact was announced by the secretary that fully three-fourths 
 of the Baptist churches of the state were making no contri- 
 butions to the cause of missions. This was supplemented 
 by the assuring fact that many of the churches which had 
 been aided by the Board were now self-sustaining. For 
 all the growth that had been attained by the denomination 
 there was still much alarming destitution. There were at 
 this time in the state 92 district associations, 2,400 
 churches and 2,300 preachers, with a total white mem- 
 bership, so far as it could be ascertained, of 140,000, 
 while there were 90,000 colored E'aptists with },2 as- 
 sociations, 900 preachers and 1.343 churches, and }et 
 the fact remained that fully one-third of the state 
 was devoid of preaching. Of the 246 counties in the
 
 362 HISTOEY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 State, 72 of them were without a Baptist preacher, and 
 yet some of them were populous. Of the remaining 174 
 counties not more than one-third could meet the demand for 
 gospel work. The population was so rapid and fields were 
 opening so fast that it seemed impossible to meet the de- 
 mand. This lent an intensely interesting light to the situa- 
 tion in Texas for the closing months of 1893. 
 
 To the other encumbrances already named, which had 
 hampered the State Board, was that of a debt inherited from 
 the preceding year. This resulted in the year closing with a 
 debt of about $6,000 again. 
 
 More or less difficulty having arisen in connection with 
 the Old Ministers' Relief Board, which difficulty arose, it 
 would seem, not on account of a flagging of zeal on the part 
 of the secretary, but from the inadequacy of means to meet 
 the demand, action was taken at this session of the Con- 
 vention to bring the interest under the care of the State 
 Board. This was done after full consultation with Rev. 
 H. M. Burroughs, who was to co-operate in effecting the 
 necessary change. All recognized that Mr. Burroughs had 
 accomplished a noble work. 
 
 Both schools were in excellent condition, so far as re- 
 lated to the government and patronage. To Baylor Univer- 
 sity there had been attached a Bible Department, which was 
 the germ of the future Theological Seminary at Baylor. 
 By action of the Board of Trustees this department had 
 become an integral part of the University, with B. H. Car- 
 roll in the chair of exegesis and systematic theology ; J. H. 
 Luther, instructor in homiletics, while President BurlcscjU 
 gave instruction in pastoral duties. Extensive and valuable 
 facilities had been added to the school for girls at Belton. to 
 relieve the debt of which the Convention gave in pledges at 
 this session $12,672.05. 
 
 It having been reported that the buildings originally oc- 
 cupied by Baylor University at Independence had been taken 
 possession of by a Catholic priest named F. M. Ilugn and 
 were being used without authority as an orphanage for 
 negroes, condemnatory resolutions were offered bv Rev. J. 
 F. Duncan, in which resolutions was expressed concurrence 
 in the action of the Union Association in bringing suit for
 
 MINGLED DARKNESS AND LIGHT 363 
 
 the recovery of the property. This action was endorsed by 
 a collection of $i8 with which to aid in the prosecution. 
 
 With wider horizon and with increased facilities, the 
 Baptists of Texas turned from the Gainesville convention, 
 but they were embarrassed by two facts — the financial con- 
 dition of the country and the unfavorable attitude to the 
 interest of the work by the Texas Baptist and Herald. The 
 position and utterances of that paper continued to be a 
 serious hindrance, and kept the situation in an unsettled 
 condition. Such agitation as was continued by the Texas 
 Baptist and Herald, that when the cause was built up in 
 one quarter, it would have a tendency to go to pieces in 
 another. 
 
 In January, 1894, the office of the Texas Baptist Stand- 
 ard was destroyed by fire at Waco, but Editor CranfiU was 
 prompt in again getting it afoot. In a time like this it was 
 of immense importance to the work, that the paper con- 
 tinue its weekly visits to the homes of Baptist people. The 
 new year opened with a fresh outburst of agitation, which 
 was continued with severity throughout the year. On the 
 loth of January of that year, Doctor J. B. Link died at 
 Austin, which was then his home. Had he lived till the 7th 
 of the following May, he would have been seventy years 
 old. He was buried in Glenwood cemetery, at Houston. 
 His loss was universally mourned. 
 
 As has been said, the year was ushered in with a fresh 
 expression of trouble. The Texas Baptist and Herald con- 
 tinued its criticism and complaint concerning the dififerent 
 interests of the Convention, and especially of the State 
 Board. Doctor Hayden, the editor, being a member of the 
 State Board, made certain complaints against the manage- 
 ment of the Board, and sought a reduction of salaries of 
 those connected with such management. The Board de- 
 clined to take such action as was insisted on, for reasons 
 which will hereafter appear. The occasion became one of 
 serious and heated agitation, and the denomination was 
 again in a ferment in consequence. The disturbance as- 
 sumed such proportions of seriousness that it found its 
 way into the State Convention in the autumn of 1894, when 
 that body assembled at Marshall. The portent of the ap-
 
 364 mSTOKY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 proaching trouble became a matter of grave concern 
 throughout the state, and no one could predict the result. 
 The general management and direction of affairs was a 
 subject of weekly attack and criticism in the columns of 
 the rf.ra.s- Baptist and Herald, and the denomination was 
 kept continually on the defensive in the prosecution of its 
 work. 
 
 During the year, J. M. Carroll retired from the work of 
 corresponding secretary of the Board, and Rev. M. D. 
 Early was selected to succeed him. Mr. Carroll became 
 the financial agent- of Baylor Female College, the interests 
 of which had been held in abeyance till Baylor University 
 should be relieved of its debt. This having been done, the 
 energies of the denomination were turned toward the col- 
 lege at Belton. 
 
 Meanwhile the discussion in the denominational papers 
 continued with intensity, and words of fire flew like bullets 
 in battle. Demoralization was the inevitable result through- 
 out the state. The most serious charges and insinuations 
 were made against Doctor J. B. Cranfill in the columns of the 
 Texas Baptist and Herald concerning the inaccuracy of his 
 accounts with the State Convention, during his incumbency 
 of the office of corresponding secretary, to which was added 
 the intimation that Cranfill had been instrumental in the de- 
 struction of the office and fixtures of The Staiidard office, 
 early in the year, from sinister motives. Assuming to pro- 
 tect the denomination against the wrongs which were al- 
 leged by the Texas Baptist and Herald, its columns con- 
 tained charges of divers sorts against several of the leading 
 men in the state. These disturbances deeply affected the 
 religious sentiment of the state, not only in the Baptist de- 
 nomination, but in others as well. \\'hile the work w^as 
 seriously crippled by this journalistic turbulence, it moved 
 on. Only as it became necessary to repel attacks in pro- 
 tection of denominational integrity, was any attention given 
 the assaults. Matters were drifting toward a crisis which 
 must result either in wreckage or in the eliminaliou of the 
 source of the disturbance. The agitation which had its 
 germ in the effort made by one newspaper to destroy an- 
 other, sucked within its whirling waters the entire denomi-
 
 MTNfiT.ED DARKNESS AND LIGHT 305 
 
 nation, and threatened to engulf the whole system of work- 
 in one common maelstrom. The mouthpiece of the Conven- 
 tion was the Texas Baptist Standard, and it courageously 
 met the onslaughts, lender such conditions, the denomina- 
 tion became a seething caldron, as the attacks continued un- 
 remittingly and bitterly. 
 
 Such was the situation when the Convention held its 
 session, at Marshall, in 1894. It was organized by the elec- 
 tion of R. C. Ikickner as president. Dr. R. C. Burleson was 
 the opposing candidate, but having aligned himself with Dr. 
 Hayden, he was defeated. The session is memorable 
 in the annals of the denomination, as one of stormy 
 agitation. It was the beginning of a long and fearful con- 
 flict. Doctor S. A. Hayden pressed on the body the views 
 which he had so industriously and vehemently voiced 
 through the columns of his paper, but the Convention de- 
 clined to adopt them. The echoes of this Convention con- 
 tinued to be heard through years. 
 
 During the session of this Convention, Doctor Hayden 
 at one time spoke for six hours. Despite the agitation of 
 the year, it had been one of signal success. The debt of 
 the preceding year was canceled, and the Board came to 
 the Convention free of encumbrance and the sum of almost 
 $42,000 had been raised on the field for missions. One hun- 
 dred and fifteen missionaries and workers had been in the 
 employment of the Board, and among other results was that 
 of the baptism of 1,554 persons. During the year there 
 had been a net gain to the denomination of 12,260 mem- 
 bers. Including all races and colors, the denomination 
 was now estimated to number, in Texas, 300,000 members. 
 
 It was most unfortunate that so serious a barrier lay in 
 the way of the Baptists at this time. The time was most 
 propitious for an advancement, such as the denomination 
 had never before known. Confidence in the markets was 
 steadily returning, the outlook was brighter than it had been 
 for years, the schools were flourishing, the limits of the 
 denomination were widening, and its churches were grow- 
 ing stronger. Possibilities were vast, and never had a peo- 
 ple greater occasion to thank God and take courage. But 
 the bane of distraction was continued without cessation, the
 
 ncC) 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 effect of which was of the widest possible reach. Beyond 
 the limits of the state went its effects, and so serious did the 
 disturbance become that denominational papers, in other 
 parts of the country, seemed to regard Texas as a scene of 
 battle. 
 
 It was with much sadness that the hundreds left Mar- 
 
 REV. S. II. BLAIR, HOUSTON, TEXAS. 
 
 (Was reared in Ala. ; went to Ark. ; was ordained to gospel ministry 
 in 1875 ; served as pastor of tlie ctiurcli at Paris, Arlj., until 1883, when 
 he came to Texas and became pastor at Alartindale ; has also been pastor 
 at Holland, Mt. Vernon and Heidenheimer ; went to West Texas in 18S*'> 
 and was pastor at Merkel : was missionary of Sweetwater Assn. and 
 State Board during administration of Drs. A. J. Holt, J. B. Cranflll and 
 J. M. Carroll ; went to South Texas in 1897, where he has served as 
 missionary pastor at Rosenberg, Guy, Areola and Missouri City ; he is in 
 sympathy with all the good work of the State Board ; is moderator of 
 the Workers' Institute, to which position he was recently elected for 
 life.) 
 
 shall. The dignity of a great denomination w'as wounded 
 by the scenes enacted on the floor of the convention which 
 had just met there. Men were humiliated and distressed, 
 and the indications of an unlimited struggle gave graver 
 concern. 
 
 Among those who had died during the year was Sena-
 
 MINGLED DAEKNESS AND LIGHT 367 
 
 tor S. B. Maxey, a United States senator and an humble 
 Baptist deacon. He had rendered signal service alike in 
 the Mexican War and in the war between the states. He 
 was a general in the Confederate army, and after the close 
 of the war, became a senator from Texas. His sage coun- 
 sel was in frequent demand by the denomination, and his 
 service was as signal in the sphere of his denomination as 
 it had been on the field of battle, or in the councils of the 
 nation. Hon. Charles Stewart, of Houston, had also died 
 during the year. He was a courageous Confederate soldier, 
 whose peculiar boast was that he was always a private, 
 though in political circles he was known as "Colonel Stew- 
 art." He was for many years the mainstay of the Baptist 
 cause in the city of Houston, in the First Baptist Church 
 of which he was, for many years, an influential deacon. 
 Rev. J. B. Hardwicke, D.D., whom we have met several 
 times in the current of this narrative, was also among the 
 dead for the year. 
 
 The year 1895 dawned as an eventful one to the Bap- 
 tists of Texas. On February ist was celebrated the fiftieth 
 anniversary of Baylor Female College. The occasion was 
 one of unusual interest, as every effort had been made to 
 make it worthy of the school. Doctor E. M. Wells had suc- 
 ceeded President Eager as the head of the institution, and 
 J. M. Carroll had succeeded G. B. Rogers as the financial 
 manager. The school was burdened by the enormous debt 
 of $121,251.46. Of this amount such provision had been 
 made for the liquidation of the debt as that the denomina- 
 tion was asked to contribute $41,594.86. The brave town 
 of Belton had assumed to raise, with the aid of the trustees, 
 $25,000 of the amount, and the denomination was inspired 
 to the effort of raising the sum needed to cancel the burden 
 of debt. The necessity for the maintenance of the State 
 work on the field was imperative, as that was fundamental 
 to all else. In view of these things, there never was a 
 more unfortunate time for division and distraction, but they 
 came nevertheless. 
 
 Rev. M. D. Early brought to the work of secretary of 
 the Board an acquaintanceship with its management, as he 
 had served as general missionary of the Board under Rev.
 
 nns nrsTORv of texar baptists 
 
 J. M. Carroll. The pressure of sentiment brought against 
 the J)oar(l at this time was materially relieved by the issue 
 of a little journal by the lioard, known as the Missionary 
 Mcssciii;;cr. The conditions of the assumption of the work of 
 corres])onding secretary at this time were peculiarly embar- 
 rassing. A new featin"e was added to the work at this time, 
 and one which had been (|uite effective. es])ecially in the 
 northwestern part of the liiited States. 'Iliat was the in- 
 troduction of an evangelistic car, by the American Baptist 
 Publication Society. This car, "Good Will." was assigned 
 to the charge of Rev. E. S. Stucker, and the railroads of 
 the State, with characteristic liberality, transported it from 
 point to point over the State. 
 
 The year was one of immense activity. L'nder the State 
 Board ninety-three missionaries were laboring, alike among 
 the native and foreign populations. Never was a body of 
 men more active in preaching, in the organization of new 
 churches and Sunday schools, in visiting from house to 
 house, in the promotion of means for the general good, in 
 collecting funds, and in the distribution of P)il)les and other 
 literature. 
 
 In a previous chapter allusion was made t(~) a heresy 
 known as "Martinism," which had been the occasion of 
 some damage in certain parts of the State. This year that 
 freakish diversion from scriptural principles was revived at 
 Gonzales, by an errant pastor, E. R. Carswell. who had re- 
 moved from Georgia to Texas. Carswell was made of the 
 stuff that would lead him to .seek the position of imaginary 
 martyrdom for the sake of a scriptural diversion on which 
 he laid ready hand. Bold, wordy, peculiarly assertive, with 
 the air of a polemic, and yet destitute of ability to maintain 
 a cause, Carswell, evidently coveting the crown of martyr- 
 dom, entered the arena afresh in advocacy of a silly ism 
 which had already- died in childbirth. The flurry of the 
 times wa.s a c|uickening incentive to this heretical knight, 
 and he entered the lists with a vociferation worthv of a 
 better cause and of an abler advocate. The erratic ten- 
 dencies of Mr. Carswell, and his well-known lack of poise 
 of character, made the temjxirary infliction one easy of eradi- 
 cation. Xothing more accorded with his ]KCuliar choice
 
 MINGLED DARKNESS AND LIGHT 369 
 
 than to be able to appear as a disputant on the floor of the 
 Convention. He courted the verbal fray, and chafed for 
 the clash of cheap verbosity, like Job's pawing war-horse 
 in the valley. It was feared by some of the more un- 
 thoughtful that the introduction of this issue in the Con- 
 vention would breed fresh trouble, but by others who knew 
 the cause and the advocate, it was considered with a degree 
 of pity. 
 
 The annual meeting of the Convention at Belton in Oc- 
 tober, 1895, was looked forward to with some degree of 
 apprehension. It was known that the efforts made at Mar- 
 shall during the preceding year would be undertaken again 
 at Belton. And while there was no apprehension as to the 
 finality of the result, the reintroduction of the trouble would 
 mar the session, and complicate the otherwise calm situa- 
 tion. Precautions were taken in advance of the organiza- 
 tion, and even in advance of any. action on the part of the 
 committee on enrollment, to adopt resolutions to recognize, 
 as messengers or delegates, only those whose belief was in 
 practical conformit}^ with Baptist standards. It was not till 
 after the Convention sermon had been preached by T. B. 
 Pittman that an organization was had. R. C. Buckner be- 
 came president ; L. D. Lamkin, J. M. Robertson, and A. B. 
 Miller, vice-presidents, and A. E. Baten and J. H. Truett 
 secretaries. Among the visitors were R. J. Willingham, I. 
 T. Tichenor, T. P. Bell, C. C. Bitting, F. H. Kerfoot, S. 
 H. Ford, and W. P. Harvey. 
 
 The result of the year's work aggregated for the ninety- 
 three missionaries the following : Seventy-seven new 
 churches and seventy-one Sunday schools organized, and 
 $32,795.71 collected. The report of a committee relative to 
 the eligibility of members was so direct that Carswell and 
 the messengers from the Gonzales church promptly with- 
 drew, and nothing more was heard of him in the Conven- 
 tion. 
 
 On the evening of the second day of the Convention, the 
 proceedings were interrupted by the pleasant incident of 
 the marriage of Rev. Z. C. Taylor, missionary to Brazil, and 
 Miss Laura G. Barton, recently returned missionary from 
 China. The ceremony was jointh performed by Doctor R.
 
 370 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 J. Willinghani, secretary of the Foreign Board, and Doctor 
 R. C. Burleson. 
 
 In the Hght of subsequent events it is pecuhar that, 
 though the report on the ehgibihty of membership in the 
 l)ody was adopted by a rising vote, in which Doctor Hay- 
 den and his friends earnestly joined, they afterward utterly 
 repudiated the principle which it embodied, and adopted 
 and advocated one at total variance thereto. 
 
 An extract from that report reads as follows : "The 
 Convention is composed of persons chosen by churches, 
 associations and missionary societies as their messengers, 
 and that when said persons are convened they, and not the 
 churches, are the Convention." 
 
 Yet, in the years of the future we find the same men 
 who joined in the rising vote in the adoption of such pv'\u- 
 ciples rejecting this sentiment and adopting an entirely 
 different policy. Attention will be called to this fact as we 
 proceed. 
 
 It had been shown to the denomination that closer com- 
 bination of all its interests was working well, which com- 
 bination afforded an opportunity to secure two ends — ef- 
 fectiveness in the direction of the work, and a growth of 
 harmony. If the step to cohere the divers interests had not 
 been effected prior to the injection of the elements which 
 were now a source of irritation and embarrassment, it is 
 impossible to say what might have been the result. Every 
 possible point that could be assailed in denominational or- 
 ganization was subjected to attack, and every means for 
 weakening its efficiency was used. ]\Ien stood appalled at 
 the attempts made to check the progress of the work of a 
 great denomination. But the work, while stunned, made its 
 way successfully on. 
 
 Among other changes made at this session was that of 
 the abolishment of the Home for aged and infirm ministers 
 at Lampasas. This had proved in the minds of the brethren 
 not to be the wisest and best means of caring for these 
 aged servants. 
 
 A change in the pastorate of the First Church of Austin 
 had resulted in the removal of Doctor J. A. French from 
 Alabama, to assume the pastorate of that church. He
 
 MINGLED DAEKNESS AND LIGHT 371 
 
 found an ample field for the exercise of his conciliatory 
 gifts, as well as for those of the sterner type, and the church 
 began a new career under his wise administration. 
 
 Among the losses sustained by the denomination during 
 the year was that of the Rev. George Webb Slaughter, an 
 active pioneer missionary in the western part, of the State. 
 He had accumulated a fortune in stock-raising on the west- 
 ern plains, and meanwhile had preached the gospel without 
 compensation. Together with his son, C. C. Slaughter, he 
 had made the cattle business exceedingly profitable, and yet 
 had done immense missionary work. His record showed 
 that he had baptized 2,509 persons. He died in the triumph 
 of faith. 
 
 The progress of education was promoted during this 
 year by the establishment of two other Baptist schools. 
 These were the East Texas Baptist Institute, at Rusk, and 
 Burleson College, at Greenville. Steps had been taken dur- 
 ing the preceding year toward the establishment of these 
 schools, but charters for them could not be had till 1895. 
 The future development of the educational system of the 
 Baptists of the State showed the wisdom of establishing 
 these schools, as they afterward became auxiliaries of the 
 leading Baptist institutions of the State. Of the Institute 
 at Rusk Rev. C. F. Maxwell became the first president, and 
 Rev. S. J. Anderson that of Burleson College. 
 
 Could the forces have been held intact by staving off the 
 dissensions which were growing because of the course of 
 the Texas Baptist and Herald, the denomination could now 
 have bounded forward on a new and enthusiastic career. 
 Conditions were riper for fresh conquests and the accom- 
 I)lishment of greater results.
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 THE COMBAT DEEPENS. 
 
 A Stormy period had now been reached. So far from 
 growing better, the situation was growing worse. The Bap- 
 tists of Texas were not unused to upheavals and stormy dis- 
 tractions, but nothing ever approximated the turbulence of 
 the present. The situation was so thoroughly at variance 
 with the general conception of Christianity that onlookers 
 from without the denomination were amazed. Much dam- 
 age was being done, but it was not altogether an unmixed 
 evil. Forced to dire junctures, the denomination was in 
 position to take its bearings, and to guard w'ith deep scrupu- 
 lousness each point. Had the crisis found the denomination 
 lax in method, and wanting in the means of defense, which 
 means were derived from a close adherence to biblical prin- 
 ciples, ruin would have been inevitable. The present crisis 
 served to knit the loyal forces together, and to put them 
 on their guard against any possible invasion of their strong- 
 holds. The session of the Convention held at Belton marks 
 an epoch in the history of that body. It was then that the 
 Baptist General Convention of Texas formally and forever 
 interpreted its constitution. A foundation principle was 
 there settled which must abide with the future existence of 
 the body for all time. The occasion was a memorial stone, 
 set up on the highway of denominational progress, on which 
 was inscribed: ''The Convention is composed of persons 
 chosen by churches, associations, and missionary societies, 
 as their messengers, and zvhen such persons are convened, 
 they, and not the churches, are the Convention." This 
 declaration forever sealed all lips against the possibility of 
 supplanting that organization. The Convention was as 
 deeply rooted into that principle as the hills into the globe. 
 
 In the light of the future it seems strangely enough that 
 
 372
 
 THE COMBAT DEEPENS 373 
 
 Doctor S. A. Hayden and his followers should have so 
 stoutly defended this principle at Belton, and stood in voting 
 for the principle as an indication of emphasis, and then, in 
 after years, assaulted it without limit, and sought to estab- 
 lish a rival body on a basis diametrically opposed thereto. 
 This is the basis of the history of this period with its un- 
 equalled disturbance in the Baptist denomination in Texas. 
 If that principle of membership was true then, it is true 
 now, and will be forever true. If untrue, then was the 
 time to resist the principle, and not support it. That stand- 
 ing vote, following a vigorous defense of the principle by 
 those who afterward resisted its validity, and went further 
 and sought to build a rival organization on declarations pre- 
 cisely the opposite, would seem to raise a barrier which the 
 bombardment of centuries could not affect. 
 
 But Doctor Hayden could not brook journalistic opposi- 
 tion. According to Doctor J. B. Gambrell, the language of 
 Doctor Hayden was : "The cause of our troubles is news- 
 paper competition." Doctor Gambrell goes further and 
 says : "This is his own declaration, and upon that declara- 
 tion there is on all sides and everywhere agreement." ("The 
 Evolution of the Texas Situation," page 5.) It would seem 
 that Doctor Hayden was desirous of making his paper the 
 exponent of the denomination. The possibility of such an 
 event had passed, when he hit on the policy of vehemence 
 to compel such a termination. More than any other. Doc- 
 tor Hayden is himself responsible for the existence of The 
 Baptist Standard. It was born of a necessitous condition, 
 recognized by the Baptists of Texas, that they must have 
 a medium of expression congenial to their sentiments and 
 principles. 
 
 Whatever the policy needed to effect the end de- 
 sired by Doctor Hayden, certain it was that the one 
 adopted was that which was most destructive of that 
 end. The boundary of human reason is so limited, 
 and so liable to admixture with much else that may 
 relate to self, though it may be with the utmost un- 
 consciousness that in the settlement of all great and 
 momentous questions mutual concession of expediency has 
 always been found necessary. There is no apology for com-
 
 374 
 
 IITSTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 promise of principle, but compromise of policy between con- 
 testants is universally recognized as a nearer approach to 
 the settlement of debatable questions than any other course. 
 If the purpose of Doctor Ilayden was to reverse the exist- 
 ing order of things by the policy adopted in his paper, then 
 his judgment was sadly at fault ; for while others might 
 
 KEV. G. J. CHRISTIAN, LINDALE, TEXAS. 
 
 (lioru ill Elbert Co., Ga., where he sjjent the greater part of his life; 
 .joined the Baptist church in his fourteenth year, and was ordained to 
 the ministry on May 9, 188G ; received his education at the high schools 
 and Mercer Univ. ; his work as pastor in his native state will long 
 remain as monuments to his labors ; came to Texas and took charge of 
 the Central Baptist Church of Lindale, .Jan., 1903 ; it was his pleasure 
 to see a splendid church building erected there; is in sympathy with 
 all the good work of the State.) 
 
 have conferred wath him, or with any other, on a question 
 of expediency, it was at variance with all reason and ex- 
 ])erience for a course, such as he was pursuing, to turn the 
 current up stream. 
 
 Leaving out of view all possible motive, which is not here 
 challenged, the dictum of no man in his position, and with 
 methods like his, could sway a great people. There were
 
 THE COMBAT DEEPENS 375 
 
 Other opinions to be considered, other and many interests 
 to be consulted; and men were not to be convinced by 
 harshness and ridicule. Then, too, it is a fact, and one 
 forever of record, that Doctor Hayden did completely re- 
 verse his original position when he voluntarily voted one 
 way at Belton, after advocating the measure which he then 
 supported, and afterward advocated a diametrically opposite 
 course. 
 
 Looked at through eyes totally unprejudiced and alto- 
 gether without reason of partisanship or selfishness, after 
 the the lapse of years, when facts stand in absolute bare- 
 ness, one sees with sadness the rejected possibility which 
 came to Doctor Hayden of boundless service and perpetual 
 good to the denomination, and of his becoming second to 
 no one in the annals of Texas Baptists. He was not with- 
 out ability, nor was the opportunity once wanting. In- 
 deed, it was an opportunity which comes but rarely to a 
 man. There was a time when, if the strategic point of des- 
 tiny could have been seized, if the proper and only rea- 
 sonable path could have been fallen mto, no man could 
 have surpassed Doctor Hayden in denominational influence 
 and leadership — no one could have excelled him in useful- 
 ness. Nothing is more apt, in this sad contemplation, than 
 the language of the Quaker poet : 
 
 "For of all sad words of tongue or peti, 
 
 The saddest are these : Tt might have been.' '' 
 
 In addition to all else, the mistaken policy of Doctor 
 Hayden reversed the friendship of thousands of good men 
 and women, whose judgment and esteem, to say the least, 
 was of some worth. 
 
 Under the conditions adopted by Doctor Hayden, the 
 Texas Baptist and Herald fell short of meeting the denomi- 
 national demand, and another paper was brought into 
 being. There was a dogged reluctance on the part of the 
 denomination to be forced into an attitude of apparent hos- 
 tility, but sheer self-defense compelled a course of action 
 against a paper which was sapping the foundations of a 
 system built up through long years of toils and tears, of
 
 376 HISTOEY OF TP:XAS BAPTISTS 
 
 prayers and strenuous effort. Reluctant, at first, to enter 
 the arena of contest, of which there had been quite enough, 
 the denomination gradually reached the conclusion, with 
 a grim determination, to end the strife by some decisive 
 action. Still, there was no desire to be precipitate in oppo- 
 sition, even to a policy which was spreading discord from 
 end to end of the land. But it was evident that the most 
 disastrous consequences must attend present conditions. 
 The prolonged agitation among the churches and associa- 
 tions was not only engendering discontent", but inviting 
 strife and disintegration. The mission spirit among the 
 people was being dried up, and the attempts at efficient 
 work on the part of the agents of the denomination were 
 being everywhere thwarted. 
 
 A course so ruinous to a great cause could not go un- 
 challenged. Not to resist it, not to overcome it, would have 
 been recreant to the high claims to Christian manhood. 
 Profoundly was the deriomination coming to be possessed 
 by this conviction. Following the Belton Convention the 
 columns of the Texas Baptist and Herald were devoted to 
 a renewal of the war on the integrity of the denomination 
 in its organic existence. Matters which had been rigidly 
 reviewed by the unbiased judgment of the Board of Direct- 
 ors, which Board was certainly as desirous of the preserva- 
 tion of the correctness of conduct of those in its employ- 
 ment as the Texas Baptist and Herald could possibly have 
 been — such matters were dragged again into light, and com- 
 mented on 'as though they had never claimed the attention 
 of the Board. Yet as a matter of fact, financial and judicial 
 acumen had been combined with religious loyalty to see that 
 every jot and tittle of every disputed question was correct. 
 
 The report of the corresponding secretary of former 
 years, or so much of it as related to the last six months of 
 his incumbency of that office, was made a special object of 
 notoriety, and the personal integrity of the former secre- 
 tary was seriously challenged before the public. While all 
 this had been gone over with scrupulous care. Doctor Cran- 
 fill asked that the whole matter be reopened and another in- 
 vestigation be had. In addition to all this, issues of a trivial 
 nature were by Dr. Hayden lugged into the unseemly dis-
 
 THE COMBAT DEEPENS 377 
 
 cussion, such as those relating to the purchase of a spittoon 
 for the office of the corresponding secretary, and exagger- 
 ated importance was given to the purchase of towels and 
 soap. Various issues were sprung in the columns of the 
 Texas Baptist and Herald, and were reinforced by the editor 
 whenever he appeared at an association. These strifeful 
 and petty issues, to which was attached so much importance, 
 transformed devotional bodies of men and women into 
 confusion and rancor. Such was the condition which 
 wrought such great denominational damage and which led 
 up to the Convention which was held in Houston in 1896. 
 
 About all organizations and interests of worth there 
 hovers a batch of malcontents whose grievances, whether 
 real or supposed, are ready at all times to seek vent. Any 
 occasion of opposition to such interest or organization is 
 made the means of supposed rectification of all wrong. The 
 present movement against the State Convention and its 
 Board was no exception to this rule. Into this movement 
 many w^ere drawn — indeed, all who found any reason for 
 complaint. Among these were good men, who, yielding to 
 the spasm of the hpur, when agitation was rife, were drawn 
 into the seething current. With the gradual return of 
 calmer times and calmer temper, there came many regrets, 
 and in serene judgment, and in response to better prompt- 
 ings, many returned to the Convention and engaged as be- 
 fore in its good work. 
 
 Under disadvantages sore and severe, the work in all 
 the departments of operation was as vigorously pushed 
 through the months of 1896 as conditions would allow. At 
 every point the agents and missionaries of the State Board 
 were met by embarrassment and opposition. With the 
 strenuosity of effort on the part of these men rose the des- 
 peration of the opposition. Patience was being rapidly 
 pressed beyond the boundary of a virtue. There is a point 
 beyond which human endurance cannot go, and that point 
 was being rapidly reached. In order to avoid as far as pos- 
 sible the joining of issues, and still entertaining the faint 
 hope that a turn might come in the current, the work was 
 directed in accommodation to existing conditions. One of 
 these features found expression in the reduction of the
 
 378 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 number of missionaries to sixty-six. The Baptists of the 
 State were never before confronted by so serious a crisis. 
 
 The time for the meeting of the next Convention ap- 
 proached. It was contemplated with an unusual degree of 
 apprehension. The State Board had resolved to meet the 
 issue squarely. It was determined to strip the mask from 
 the opposition and leave the people to do as they might. 
 October 9, 1896, the time named for the annual session of 
 the Convention, came. The ability of the denomination was 
 present. It was an eventful gathering — a gathering of 
 thoughtful, serious men bent on serious business. The past 
 year had been one of storm, and the opposition was as de- 
 termined as ever to push its troubles into the Convention. 
 During the past year the powers of the ablest had been 
 taxed to stem the inroad of disturbance. To the Board of 
 Directors belonged many of the choicest and wisest spirits 
 in the ranks of the Baptists of the State, who were in Hous- 
 ton to face the grave juncture into which they had been 
 brought. To this Board belonged such men as B. H. Car- 
 roll, F. L. Carrol], W. H. Jenkins, A. B. Miller, D. I. 
 Smyth, J. B. Scarborough, George W. Truett, L. L. Foster, 
 A. J. Fawcett, E. E. King, W. C. Lattimore, J. B. Riddle, 
 W. L. Skinner, J. C. Gentry and others — men true and tried, 
 and worthy of the confidence of any body of Christians be- 
 neath the sun. Under the mature auspices of such men, a 
 report had been prepared which was, in due time, to be sub- 
 mitted to the Convention. 
 
 The body was organized by making R. C. Buckner, 
 president ; L. M. Mays, G. W. Smith, and J- F. Patterson, 
 vice-presidents, and A. E. Baton and J. H. Truett, record- 
 ing secretaries. There were present about 500 messengers 
 from every quarter of the State. From the outset there 
 was a tension of excitement. The low hum of groups and 
 knots of men gathered here and there, betokened the coming 
 storm which was destined to burst over the Convention. 
 Every precaution was taken in advance to hold the pro- 
 ceedings within the bounds of propriety. Men long used 
 to the rough encounters of the world feared the worst. 
 Among the numerous visitors present was Doctor J. B. 
 Gambrell, then of Atlanta, Georgia, who came as associate
 
 THE COMBAT DEEPENS 379 
 
 editor of the Texas Baptist Standard and on the urgent 
 soHcitation of Doctor Cranfill, editor of The Standard. He 
 was destined in after years to be conspicuous in the scenes 
 which he witnessed on this eventful occasion. 
 
 It was apprehended that the forthcoming report of the 
 Board of Directors would evoke much violence of speech, 
 and it was resolved in advance that speeches should be lim- 
 ited to one hour, and that no one should be permitted to 
 speak more than once, till all who desired to be heard had 
 spoken. The report of the Board was read under conditions 
 of the most intense interest and attention. It was able and 
 exhaustive, direct and frank throughout, and a full hour 
 or more was consumed in reading it. Reciting the funda- 
 mental principles underlying the Board, its province and its 
 scope of authority as created by the Convention, its policy 
 as expressed in its history, especially during the last ten 
 years since the mergence of the two bodies, were all 
 ably set forth. The prudence and wisdom w'hich had sought 
 to be exercised in each step taken ; the changes of the policy 
 of the Board as authorized by the Convention ; the necessity 
 of the changes in the employment of additional agents, in 
 the promotion of the work as it rapidly progressed — all 
 these grounds w^ere carefully gone over in a masterly way. 
 
 It was clear to all that the report was designed to answer 
 the numerous charges, attacks and criticisms whcih had 
 found place in the columns of the Texas Baptist and Her- 
 ald, which had been so conducive to much misunderstand- 
 ing, distraction and downright opposition to the general 
 work as done through the Board. The report resolved itself 
 into a defense of the action of the Convention in forecast- 
 ing the course pursued by the Board, then followed a state- 
 ment of the work of the Board during the past year, the 
 comparative smallness of which was attributed, in part, to 
 the disastrous drought of the past seasons, and partly to the 
 disturbance produced by the agitation. The members of 
 the Board had stood horrified at the hostility shown, which 
 was as unnecessary as it w^as unnatural. A storm w^as 
 abroad, the results of which no one could foresee, so phe- 
 nomenal were the conditions and so uncalled-for the occa- 
 sion.
 
 380 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 The character of the criticism offered against the Board 
 with respect to its expenditures was set over against that of 
 the dehberate judgment of men unbiased, and after accord- 
 ing due weight to the criticism, the question was raised : 
 "Who shall determine the amount of salary and expense?" 
 Then the principle of individual and biased judgment was 
 calmly considered in connection with that of a great de- 
 
 REV. OTIS E. CARTER, AUSTIN, TEXAS. 
 
 (Born in Cherokee Co., Tex., near Alto, April 1, 1873; after receiving 
 a common school education, he entered newspaper work, which he pur- 
 sued for several years ; was converted in 1896 at Abilene, Texas ; not 
 long after he entered the ministry, being licensed by the Abilene church ; 
 he served two and a half years at Hempstead, Texas, from where he 
 went to Louisville, Ky., in 1900 ; after three years' study In the S. B. 
 T. S., he accepted the call to Second Street church, Austin, Texas, taking 
 charge of the work in July, 1903 : his four years* pastorate in the 
 Capitol city has been divinely blessed : the Second Street church has 
 grown from a small membership and obscurity to a large and healthy 
 community ; the church now ranks among the most Important in the 
 Southwest section of the State ; it has a membership of more than 300, 
 has undertaken a movement to build one of the most expensive houses 
 of worship In the city, and maintains a mission Sunday school on the 
 prospective site for the new church.)
 
 THE COMBAT DEEPENS 381 
 
 liberative body under the authority of which the Board was 
 acting. It was further insisted that the organization must 
 protect itself and its officers from open contempt of its 
 authority, or else itself become contemptible. 
 
 Brushing aside supposed plausible reasons which might 
 have been urged as to the scantiness of success, the report 
 proceeds boldly and unequivocally to the charge that the 
 agent who had been "undermining the mission work" and 
 "sowing down our once fertile fields with salt;" who had 
 "persistently, ruthlessly and openly in public print attacked 
 this Board, its methods and work," with divers charges of 
 "wanton extravagance and reckless waste of public funds," 
 was S. A. Hayden. The arraignment continues : 
 
 "Through an unwitting instrument, unconscious of what 
 he was led by him to sign, he has published virtual charges 
 of embezzlement against the secretary and by fair implica- 
 tion against the Board itself." 
 
 Many other charges of as serious a character were made, 
 accompanied by the statement that the Board had borne all 
 in silent patience, but the opinion was firmly expressed in 
 the report that the Convention must decide between S. A. 
 Hayden and "the transcendent interests of Christ's king- 
 dom." The demand was made direct that S. A. Hayden "no 
 longer be allowed a seat in this body," and then with solemn 
 earnestness insisted that "we, with full understanding of 
 the responsibilities involved, now solemnly, prayerfully, and 
 earnestly do so recommend." The elaborate report con- 
 cluded with three recommendations to be taken up sepa- 
 rately, thus : 
 
 1. The endorsement or disapproval of our work this 
 year. 
 
 2. The adoption or rejection of our recommendation 
 concerning S. A. Hayden. 
 
 3. Shall the documents concerning the last six months 
 of J. B. Cranfill's work be examined by a committee and an 
 itemized report ordered printed in the Minutes? 
 
 A certain "protest" was filed against certain portions of 
 the report, and in the light of subsequent events, two of 
 the signers became special recipients of severe arraignments 
 at the hands of Doctor Hayden. These were J. M. Robert- 
 
 ^^*^^
 
 382 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 son and L. D. Lamkin. The "protest" was as follows : 
 
 "To the above report, both in detail and as a whole, ex- 
 cept the annual report of the superintendent of missions, we, 
 the undcrsi^c^ncd members of the Board of Directors enter 
 our most earnest protest. IJeHevino- that it is not competent 
 for the Board of Directors under the Constitution of the 
 Convention to consider as a ])Oard many of the things incor- 
 porated in the above report, or to arraign any person or per- 
 sons for trial before this Convention, we ask that this, our 
 protest, be inseparably attached to the report, and be printed 
 in the Minutes of the Convention." This was signed bv 
 J. M. Robertson, L. D. Lamkin. H. B. Pender, G. W. Pick- 
 ett, A. B. Miller and L. W. Duke. 
 
 Other routine business followed the reading of the re- 
 port and during the interval the convention sermon was 
 preached by A. H. Mitchell, but the report and its possible 
 consequences was still the profoundly absorbing thought of 
 the members. The situation w'as not a little complicated by 
 the protest, as it conveyed the idea that the Convention was 
 divided in its sentiment of sustaining the Board. The items 
 already named, on which the Convention was asked to pass, 
 were taken up in due order. The first was passed, and the 
 work of the Board was endorsed. The more serious matter, 
 namely : "That S. A. Hayden no longer be allowed a seat in 
 this body" coming up, charges were presented against S. A. 
 Hayden by J. B. Scarborough and B. H. Carroll. In re- 
 buttal, S. A. Hayden ofifered testimony. The Convention 
 was thus turned into a court in which witnesses were duly 
 examined and their testimony taken down. 
 
 The close of the week found the trial uncompleted. After 
 the intervention of Sunday with the pulpits of the city occu- 
 pied by members of the body, the trial was resumed on 
 Monday. It excited immense interest throughout the city, 
 and many were the remarks made about the warring ele- 
 ments of Baptists. Doctor Hayden suggested the presence 
 of a policeman, which he afterward explained to be due to 
 the fact that in one of the city papers the statement had been 
 made that a policeman had to be called in to keep Doctor 
 Hayden in order. He explained that while no policeman 
 had been present, he was willing to show that he was not
 
 THE COMBAT DEEPENS 383 
 
 reluctant for one to be present, that whatever restraint was 
 necessary to be imposed on him by the presence of such an 
 officer might be imposed. But since his purpose had been 
 misunderstood, he regretted such suggestion on his part, 
 and would witlidraw it. Documentary and personal evi- 
 dence was presented throughout all Monday afternoon, 
 when the rebuttal closed. 
 
 At this juncture O. S. Lattimore offered the following, 
 which was adopted : 
 
 "Whereas, The protracted discussions growing out of the 
 attitude of Doctor S. A. Hayden, editor of the Texas Bap- 
 tist and Herald, toward the Board of Directors and the or- 
 ganized work of the Convention for years past ; 
 
 "And, Whereas, it is believed that the official acts of our 
 Mission Board have been unjustly criticised by Doctor S. 
 A. Hayden through his paper; 
 
 "And Whereas, the continued criticisms have greatly re- 
 tarded and paralyzed our work by creating contention 
 among brethren, by creating opposition to our work, and by 
 weakening the financial support of the Convention ; 
 
 "And, Whereas, It is the sense of this Convention that 
 the agencies which led to this unpleasant condition, should 
 not be allowed to go further without an earnest protest 
 and rebuke ; 
 
 "And, Whereas, It is not clear to some good brethren 
 as to the expediency of unseating Doctor Hayden from this 
 Convention, but is clear that effort should be made to right 
 the wrong ; now, therefore, be it 
 
 "Resolved, (i) That the motion now pending, which 
 is a motion to adopt the recommendation of the Board 
 of Directors, 'that S. A. Hayden no longer be allowed a 
 seat in this body,' be amended by striking out the words, 
 'That S. A. Hayden no longer be allowed a seat in this 
 body,' and by inserting therein the words, 'That the Bap- 
 tists of Texas, in Convention assembled, at Houston, now 
 here, do upon evidence heard by the Convention, express 
 their strong disapproval and condemnation of the course 
 of said Hayden, as editor and publisher of a Baptist paper, 
 in persistently attacking through the columns of said paper, 
 editorially and otherwise, the Board of Directors of this
 
 384 IIISTOEY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 Convention, both as individuals, and as the servants of this 
 Convention, in matters entrusted to them by this Con- 
 vention. 
 
 " 'And, further, That this body in its Convention capac- 
 ity, and as a body entitled to command and receive the 
 respect and consideration of every individual Baptist of 
 Texas, and for the sake of the cause of our Lord and Master, 
 shall, and the same does hereby request and demand of said 
 Hayden that he refrain and desist, in the future, from such 
 attacks upon said Board of Directors as a board, or upon 
 its members as such, and that editorially and otherwise he 
 refrain and desist from the use of the columns of his said 
 paper in making such attacks, as before referred to. 
 
 "'(3) And, further. That in the future we demand, as 
 the authors and creators of the Board of Directors, that 
 any complaints or charges personal to the Board of Direct- 
 ors, or any other board created by this body, be made in 
 this Convention and to this Convention, as the only proper 
 place and authority, where and to whom such charges and 
 complaints should be made.' " 
 
 This conciliatory action was resisted, but was neverthe- 
 less overwhelmingly adopted. Later, during the session, 
 Rev. W. T. Tardy offered a series of resolutions signed 
 by twenty-eight brethren and two sisters, protesting against 
 the action taken against Dr. S. A. Hayden, which resolutions 
 did much toward neutralizing the action taken in disap- 
 proval of the course of Doctor Hayden, and really served to 
 widen the breach already existing. This protest was as 
 follows : 
 
 "We, the undersigned members of the Baptist General 
 Convention of Texas, hereby present this protest against 
 the action of the body, in the matter of the Board against 
 S. A. Llayden : 
 
 "i. We protest against the action of the body because 
 S. A. Hayden was arraigned on a recommendation of a 
 majority of the Board as on the indictment of a grand 
 jury, and after said Board, through its members, appeared 
 as presecutors or witnesses and the testimony was all taken, 
 the resolution of censure was passed, showing that the 
 prosecution had broken down while said resolution was a
 
 THE COMBAT DEEPENS 385 
 
 clear verdict of 'not guilty, as charged in the indictment ; 
 nevertheless, the tendency was to fix the odium of guilt upon 
 Brother Hayden, while he was not permitted to make any 
 comments on his proof, or any defense as to the resolutions 
 of censure. 
 
 "2. We protest further. That the arraignment of an 
 individual, apart from the church from which he was an 
 accredited messenger, is in direct conflict with the Con- 
 stitution of this body, and the usages of Baptists the world 
 over. 
 
 "3. We further protest against the action of the body 
 in demanding of the editor of an independent Baptist paper 
 to pursue a certain line of policy, as being wholly un- 
 Baptistic, and in accord with those ecclesiastical bodies 
 which claim the right to muzzle their organs and to direct 
 them in accordance with their own wishes. 
 
 "4. Lastly, we protest against such action, as ignoring 
 the real issue involved and covering it up by an unconstitu- 
 tional arraignment and trial of one who represents the 
 sentiments of a large part of our denomination." 
 
 This was signed by R. C. Burleson, S. J. Anderson, J. J. 
 Felder, J. W. A. Scale, W. T. Sanders, J. F. Head; W. H. 
 Wynn, G. W. Pickett, William T. Tardy, S. H. Slaughter, 
 F. W. Fox, H. Y. Livelv, J\Irs. J. T- Felder, W. W. Aulick, 
 Mrs. W. W. Aulick, B. B. Youiigblood, J. W. Edmondson, 
 W. E. Dear, J. B. Worley, R. C. Wright, W. T. Compere, 
 Walter E. Tynes, H. B. Pender, S. L. Morris, W. W. 
 Coney, E. J. McFarland, John Overall, Joel Townsend, 
 James F. Duncan, E. B. Hardie, Oswald Garrett, E. A. 
 Puthuflf and L. S. Knight. 
 
 It is clear that the introduction of such a document 
 was the addition of fuel to the flame, while it shows the 
 ferment in which the Convention was. Lines were thus 
 drawn which became more those of decided demarcation in 
 the future. Attention was called by Dr. B. H. Carroll to the 
 fact that the ten years appointed by the Convention for re- 
 taining the system of co-education in Baylor University had 
 expired, and he bore a recommendation to the Convention 
 from the Board of Trustees that the system be made perma- 
 nent. The recommendations suggest that inasmuch as cer-
 
 38G HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 tain parents prefer the separate instruction of the sexes, 
 Baylor College, at Belton, be encouraged and promoted, 
 but in deference to the wishes of those who favor the co- 
 educational idea, the system be maintained at Baylor Uni- 
 versity. The recommendations of the Board of Trustees 
 were complied with. 
 
 There were present at this session of the Convention a 
 number of new pastors, who had come from other states, 
 and were accretions of strength to the ranks of the denomi- 
 nation. Among such were B. R. Womack, J. A. French, 
 W. M. Harris, G. S. Tumlin and W. S. Splawn. 
 
 M. D. Early declined to be considered in connection with 
 the secretaryship of the Board of Directors, but he was 
 elected, at any rate, by acclamation. 
 
 Work among the negroes was discontinued, as an inte- 
 gral part of this Convention, because of dissatisfaction 
 among themselves, concerning the work, and it was deemed 
 wise to leave them alone until their dififerences could be 
 settled. Altogether, the Convention, at Houston, was a 
 most unfortunate occasion to the Baptists of Texas. It 
 left in its wake a most unsavory odor, and the impression 
 of the Baptist Convention as a host of turbulence, abode 
 in that quarter of the state for years together. There is no 
 question that conditions in the denomination were never 
 worse than at this time. The disturbance which marked 
 the proceedings at Houston, the utterances which character- 
 ized some of the speeches, and the divided sentiment left 
 the denomination in a humiliating light before the public. 
 The violence which spent its force at Houston seems to 
 have been somewhat exhaustive. For a short while there 
 was comparative quietude, w^hen the attacks were renewed 
 with vigor. The severe rebuke administered to Doctor 
 Hayden by the convention had its sting extracted largely by 
 the counter resolution offered by W. T. Tardy, and signed 
 by himself and twenty-eight others, and there was sufficient 
 encouragement to renew the disturbance. Notwithstanding 
 the report of Doctor CranfiU underwent another search- 
 ing investigation, and he was again exonerated, and the 
 items of the period about which there was so much ado, 
 published in the minutes, this was the occasion of renewed
 
 THE COMBAT DEEPENS 387 
 
 attack, and the matter was again threshed out before the 
 pubHc. At Houston, the original report was accessible to 
 Doctor Hayden, and the subject to his personal investiga- 
 tion ; the report was presented to the body, and so impressed 
 was Dr. S. J. Anderson, one of the closest friends of Doctor 
 Hayden, with its correctness, that he moved the adoption 
 of the report, yet it was again brought into prominence and 
 made the occasion of much bitterness in the columns of 
 Doctor Hayden's paper. Denominational sentiment was 
 again torn into tatters, the work was seriously hindered, and 
 havoc was wrought in many directions. Instead of com- 
 manding the respect of which so great a body of Christians 
 was worthy, the denomination became a hiss and byword, in 
 some quarters, and an object of derision to many who knew 
 nothing of the facts, and saw only the outer side of the situa- 
 tion. This was keenly felt by many, but an explanation was 
 discounted. Many came to see that it was an error not to 
 have taken final action respecting the severance of Doctor 
 Hayden, at Houston, and his bearing during the next year 
 convinced many who were doubtful of the course at Hous- 
 ton that preservation lay in separating from him as early 
 as practicable. 
 
 The State Board was removed from Waco to Dallas, 
 which place henceforth became the center of denominational 
 activity. During the following year, M. D. Early retired 
 from the secretaryship of the Board, and for a period of 
 months it was without a secretary. A meeting of the Board 
 was called to elect such an officer, and the matter was ap- 
 proached with great caution and profound seriousness. 
 That a serious crisis had been reached, every one saw ; 
 that the utmost care should be exercised was recognized 
 on all hands ; that no one was within view competent to 
 occupy so difficult a position in a time of extreme peril, 
 awoke grave concern. It was a time of devout dependence 
 on God. Every member of the Board felt thus as the 
 body came together. None were willing to offer the position 
 to any one, unless God should guide. It was a season of 
 serious wrestling and prayer. Throughout most of the 
 night, prayer deep and fervent was engaged in for light 
 and sfuidance. It was the most eventful occasion in the
 
 388 
 
 lirSTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 history of the Ijoard. No nomination was made, and, at 
 last, the members voted — voted silently, solemnly. The 
 result was the unanimous election of J. B. Gambrell, of 
 Georgia. He was in Atlanta, Ga., devising other plans, and 
 looking in other directions ; but when the call came, he 
 accepted. Another important change took place about this 
 time, that of the retirement of Dr. R. C. Burleson from the 
 presidency of Baylor University. His advanced age and 
 
 REV. W. S. LACKICY, CALDWELL, TEXAS. 
 
 increasing infirmity, and the growing importance of the 
 school, led to his retirement. He was honored with the 
 position of president emeritus of the institution, and given 
 a salary for life of $2,000 a year. 
 
 These events furnished new occasion for detraction and 
 distraction in the columns of the Texas Baptist and Herald. 
 Unworthy motives were attributed to Dr. B. H. Carroll, 
 as the cause of the retirement of Doctor Burleson, and as 
 occasion would offer, this was combined with other causes 
 as a ground of complaint, and disseminated far and wide 
 over the country. Says Dr. J. B. Gambrell, in a pamphlet
 
 THE COMBAT DEEPENS 389 
 
 already quoted, entitled, "The Evolution of the Texas Situa- 
 tion," in referring to this particular period: "There began 
 also in the fall leading up to the San Antonio Con- 
 vention a distinct effort, inaugurated at the Navarro 
 County Association, to pack the Convention with an in- 
 structed delegation, committed in advance to Doctor Hay- 
 den. There were ceaseless assaults in the associations, 
 on every part of the work, and on every prominent worker 
 in the field. It soon became evident that a great convention 
 would be called out by the efforts of Doctor Hayden to 
 pack it."* 
 
 There was an unexpected difficulty encountered in the 
 early fall of 1897. The invitation of the church at Weath- 
 erford to hold the next session in that town had been ac- 
 cepted, but when it was discovered that the Convention 
 would be an unusually large one, the Weatherford saints 
 notified the Board that they felt unequal to entertain so large 
 a body as would prospectively gather at that time, and the 
 Board properly excused the church from such an under- 
 taking, and Temple was next selected. But the yellow 
 fever had appeared in the southern part of the state, and a 
 suspicious epidemic called dengue fever had broken out 
 at Temple, and the risk was not a safe one to incur. This 
 was denounced in the columns of Doctor Hayden's paper 
 as a scheme on the part of Dr. B. H. Carroll to spirit the 
 Convention away to some remote quarter in order to pre- 
 vent a logical expression of the supporters of Doctor Hay- 
 den by making it impossible for them to attend. But the 
 town council of Temple interposed, and expressed officially 
 the opinion that it would be unsafe for a body so large to 
 assemble there, and so that point as a place of meeting had 
 to be surrendered. This was again attributed by Doctor 
 Hayden to the interference of the officials of the Board. 
 
 Thus went on the ugly and unseemly charges. The 
 readers of the Texas Baptist and Herald were every week 
 regaled with charges of trickery and scheming, as though 
 they were politicians of the worst type.f At that juncture 
 
 *Page 11. 
 tib., page 12.
 
 390 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 San Antonio invited the Convention to meet in that city, 
 the only place from which an invitation came, and it was 
 agreed to accept it. Two reasons only led the Convention 
 to San Antonio — one of which was, it was the only city 
 left open in which to meet in an emergency like this, and 
 the other was because San Antonio invited it. 
 
 No situation could have been more harassing than the 
 one which now confronted the denomination. Charges 
 were repeated week after week by Doctor Hayden, and 
 every possible effort was made to defeat the work of the 
 State Board on the field. Notwithstanding this, there was 
 loyalty in thousands of hearts, and there was a sufficient 
 amount and more of money to meet the obligations of the 
 State Board. Affairs were reaching a crisis such as had 
 to be met, and met promptly and effectively. A partial 
 concession had been made at Houston the year before, a 
 scathing rebuke had been administered to Doctor Hayden, 
 the Convention had spoken in no uncertain terms, and yet 
 his course had been such as to justify no belief that it 
 would grow better. Many who had deplored his course 
 formerly and were disposed to favor him as much as pos- 
 sible, were now pronounced in their determination to check 
 his course if another opportunity should present itself. The 
 fear felt at Houston by some that possible injustice would 
 be done him if a seat w^ere denied him. and who conserva- 
 tively and in the interest of peace sought to avert the pro- 
 posed action against him, were no longer his friends. Even 
 the most pronounced of his opponents hoped that the seri- 
 ous rebuke and timely warning would be sufficient to check 
 his reckless charges, and for that reason, and not because 
 they failed to establish the facts there charged, he was not 
 expelled from the body at that time. Some who were 
 ■favorable to him at Houston felt that a blunder had been 
 committed, and stood ready to carry into effect a similar 
 movement if made again. 
 
 The memory of the Houston Convention abode in the 
 recollections of many as one recalls a horrible nightmare. 
 The approaching convention at San Antonio was looked 
 forward to with much misgiving and foreboding. The 
 gates of Heaven were daily besieged that the wrath of
 
 THE COMBAT DEEPENS 391 
 
 man might be turned to divine glory. The desperate means 
 employed during the year to thwart every worthy move- 
 ment, the aspersions cast on the worthiest of characters, 
 and the attempted alignment of every force that wotdd 
 make against the causes fostered by the State Convention, 
 brought sadness to the hearts of thousands. The Conven- 
 tion had fallen on evil times. No one could pierce the 
 thicket of difficulty and see the light beyond. What could 
 be done under difficulties so phenomenal was not even dimly 
 visible. The future was banked with impenetrable gloom. 
 
 From every part of the state the messengers began to 
 arrive in San Antonio. They came by hundreds, by thou- 
 sands. Every incoming train was loaded, and the city was 
 taxed to care for the Baptist hosts. There was not the 
 usual smile that accompanied the fraternal hand-grasp. 
 Men wise and good felt that a calamity was impending. 
 So far as there was any singleness of purpose, it was that 
 the Convention would hold itself rigidly to the work in 
 hand. There was occasion for grave concern. 
 
 A perplexity arose from the apprehension attendant on 
 the spirit of the forthcoming body. What would be the 
 sentiment of the Convention? How would the forces, now 
 numbering many hundreds in the city, line up? It was 
 estimated that probably three thousand would be in attend- 
 ance on the Convention at San Antonio. Many had been 
 drawn thither through sheer curiosity, and with anxiety to 
 see the result of what was generally anticipated to be a 
 coming storm. The question was here and there raised. 
 What shall we do when we meet? Impromptu conferences 
 were held, but no line of action was agreed on. Opinions 
 were as diverse as faces. The general opinion was to enter 
 on the work ordinarily pursued by the body, and meet the 
 difficulties as they might come. There was much said later 
 about a conspiracy formed against Doctor Hayden, but in 
 truth there was not sufficient unity of opinion to reach any 
 definite conclusion on the part of any given number.' The 
 report of the conspiracy was founded in the fact that there 
 was an informal conference at the Menger Hotel, where, 
 in his kindly anxiety to regulate affairs, Colonel C. C. 
 Slaughter, who was not then accustomed to attend on
 
 392 lllSTOin' ()['• TKXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 sessions of the Convention, invited some messengers to 
 meet in order to talk over the deplorable situation. It was 
 a promiscuous party, seated in a room with the doors and 
 windows opening into the building and fully on the street, 
 and one into which men came and went at will. Yet in the 
 subsequent months this was made the basis of a lawsuit 
 on the charge of being a conspiracy, and on it was founded 
 a suit which was shocking to the moral sense of the entire 
 state. The Convention met later in the year than usual 
 and began on November 5. In the initial stages of the 
 meeting news of the extreme illness of Mrs. B. H. Carroll 
 was received, to which attention was called by Doctor Jar- 
 rell, who was requested to offer prayer for the afflicted. 
 This was followed by a telegram of sympathy from the 
 Convention to Doctor Carroll. Later in the day. Judge 
 Jenkins stated that he had a dispatch from Doctor Carroll, 
 saying: "Wife is dying." Nothing was done during the 
 first day save the presentation of the claims of some gen- 
 eral interests and the delivery of the annual sermon by 
 Rev. W. L. Skinner. The second day came and the devo- 
 tional exercises were conducted by Dr. A. W. McGaha, 
 who had recently come to Texas from Alabama to take 
 charge of the First Church of Fort Worth. Meanwhile 
 a committee on credentials was engaged in perfecting its 
 report. In due time the report was submitted by J. M. 
 Robertson, which report was divided into four parts : 
 
 1. A list of names of messengers against whom there 
 was no protest. 
 
 2. A list of names of persons against which protests 
 were filed on doctrinal groimds. 
 
 3. The name of one person representing an association, 
 against whose right to a seat in the body a protest had been 
 filed by a messenger from another association. 
 
 4. Two different sets of messengers, each claiming to 
 represent the same church. 
 
 This portended trouble, and the air quivered with 
 excitement. There was an unusually large attendance, 
 many of whom had never before seen a Convention, 
 and the body was unwieldy because of its rawness. 
 President lUickner was at his best, and the confidence
 
 THE COMBAT DEEPENS 393 
 
 in his ability was supreme. The first class named in the 
 report was adopted without hesitation, and the remainder 
 of the report was recommitted with instructions to report 
 recommendations of procedure respecting the others. Pend- 
 ing" the report the body was organized by electing R. C. 
 Buckner, president ; J. M. Robertson, W. R. Maxwell and 
 W. 'B. Denson, vice presidents, and A. E. Baten and J. H. 
 Truett, recording secretaries. In addition to local troubles 
 was that of the assumed defection of Dr. W. H. Whitsitt, 
 president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. 
 President Whitsitt had expressed certain views relative to 
 the beginning of the practice of immersion among English 
 Baptists, which sentiments had created a profound and seri- 
 ous division of sentiment among Southern Baptists. This 
 matter was, at this time, engaging the attention of Baptist 
 bodies, local and general, throughout the South, and in the 
 prevailing sentiment the Baptists of Texas shared. This 
 lent additional friction to the hosts assembled at San An- 
 tonio. The majority of the Convention was pronounced 
 against Doctor Whitsitt, and expression was given to their 
 views in a series of resolutions. The matter of challenges 
 of messengers was one of absorbing interest and monopo- 
 lized much of the first period of the body. 
 
 In the opinion of .many the time had come for positive 
 and decisive action. The error of a year ago at Houston 
 was not to be committed over again. To temporize further 
 with a condition which must wreck the Convention unless 
 opportunely met, would be recreancy to the highest claims 
 of duty. At its best the present situation must result in 
 mortification to the Convention, and not to rise to the height 
 of the demand would be a base lack of even ordinary cour- 
 age and a mistaken interpretation of Christian forbearance. 
 For themselves noble men were willing to face any conse- 
 quences ; but for a sacred cause of which they were the 
 temporary guardians, and the care of which imposed a 
 burden of responsibility, they were jiot the men tamely to 
 submit to a condition which demanded the surrender of 
 such a trust. A crisis was upon them and there was noth- 
 ing left but to meet it. They stopped not to measure per- 
 sonal consequences ; to these they were, in a measure, indif-
 
 394 HISTORY OF TP]XAS BAPTISTS 
 
 ferent, but the present cause, a cause dearer than life, in- 
 spired them to the full height of a strenuous demand, and 
 they were ready to face the issue as philosophers, as mar- 
 tyrs, as Christian men. 
 
 In that same city sixty years before, in an (jld citadel, 
 now renowned in historic annals, a body of men had per- 
 ished, and from the soil of their fertile ashes had sprung 
 an empire which was born under the inspiring notes of the 
 battle cry of freedom. This heroic event of the massacre 
 of the Alamo would be a lingering note of stimulation to 
 all the generations of Texans who should come after. Not 
 otherwise were these men, whose hearts were burdened by 
 a sacred cause, impelled by a desire to preserve and to per- 
 ■ petuate it to the future as it had been bequeathed to them 
 ])y the past. The scene in the Baptist General Convention 
 at this time was not so spectacular as was that of the Alamo, 
 but its results were vast in their reach, and eternal in their 
 duration. On a single issue turned the situation, as Doctor 
 Gambrell says in his "Evolution of the Texas Situation," 
 and it was the one named by Doctor Hayden, who himself 
 said : "The cause of our troubles is newspaper competi- 
 tion."' By a combination of conditions forces had been 
 marshaled under no higher pretext than that to hinder and 
 divert a great evangelical agency, the. history of which had 
 been phenomenal, and the future of which was fraught with 
 results, and the wholesomeness of which defied computation. 
 The pettiness of the contention, on the one hand, and the 
 profound sacredness of it on the other, made even the weak 
 strong in the face of a frowning menace. 
 
 The issue was fairly joined when Deacon L. ]\I. Mays, 
 formerly a vice president of the Convention, and now a mes- 
 senger from the Austin Association, arose and openly chal- 
 lenged the right of S. A. Hayden to a seat in the body. Mr. 
 Mays presented a series of charges in which was alleged 
 that Doctor Hayden had repeatedly violated the constitution 
 of the Convention "by a ceaseless and hurtful war upon 
 the plans, policies, work and workers of this Convention, 
 thus misusing his privilege as a member,, and instead of 
 harmony, producing discord, contention, strife and animosi- 
 ties, which has resulted in serious and permanent injury to
 
 THE COMBAT DEEPENS 395 
 
 the work undertaken by the Convention, and which has 
 rendered him utterly unworthy of membership in this Con- 
 vention." Hayden was further charged with open and 
 notorious opposition to the Convention and its mandates. 
 The charges still continued to assert that he had disre- 
 garded the censure and condemnation of his course in the 
 preceding Convention. He had ceaselessly attacked a for- 
 mer secretary of the Convention on the basis of the inac- 
 curacy of the report of the ex-secretary, notwithstanding 
 that the report had been audited by the Board and passed 
 on by the Convention. Still Mr. Mays alleged that Hayden 
 had falsely accused the secretary of missions and the Board 
 of Directors by charging them with a misuse of the funds 
 entrusted to their care. He had bred strife and dissension 
 among the brethren and associations, all of which proved 
 him to be an incorrigible foe to the whole organization and 
 work of the Convention.* This was followed by a stormy 
 scene, in which Doctor Hayden defended his course and 
 asserted his right to criticise as he had occasion. He was 
 responded to by Judge W. H. Jenkins, who carefully re- 
 viewed the whole situation, after which a vote was taken 
 on the question of allowing Hayden a seat in the Conven- 
 tion, which resulted in 104 favoring it and 582 against it. 
 
 A challenge was presented by Rev. D. S. Snodgrass 
 against the seating of Dr. J. B. Cranfill, but the evidence 
 presented was of a purely personal character and did not in 
 any way affect the right of Cranfill to a seat in the body. 
 These obstructions being out of the way, and once in the 
 current of routine business, the Convention proceeded with 
 its usual work. While the difficulties of the past year had 
 been serious and numerous, the work had prospered, and 
 by the fidelity shown, indicated its ability to go onward with 
 increased assurance and in spite of obstruction. More than 
 the ordinary amount of work had been done by sixty-six 
 missionaries during the year just closed, their salaries had 
 been duly paid, and there was a balance in the treasury. The 
 schools at Waco and Belton had enjoyed successful sessions. 
 
 *Proceedings or Minutes of the Baptist General Convention of 
 Texas for the year 1897.
 
 396 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 the Orphans' Home was growing, the missionary spirit was 
 deepening and widening among the churches, and the out- 
 look of the cause generally was promising. 
 
 A new era had come to the educational life of the de- 
 nomination. Colonel C. C. vSlaughter had conceived the 
 idea of the confederation of the Uaptist schools in Texas, 
 
 UEV. D. It. I'EVUTU, HOUSTON, TKXAS. 
 
 and this was the knife that cut the gordian knot of difficulty 
 in the effort to utilize all the educational forces of the state. 
 Certain of the schools were involved in debt and were 
 destined to remain so unless help were afforded and by 
 bringing these schools under the fostering care of the de- 
 nomination as a whole, relieving them of debt and direct- 
 ing them under a common body, they could be made sup- 
 plemental each to the other and contributory to the two 
 great schools for the sexes. To give impulse to this move- 
 ment Colonel Slaughter gave $25,000, which was followed 
 by gifts from others, and led to the establishment of the 
 Baptist Education Commission.
 
 THE COMBAT DEEPENS 397 
 
 An effort was made to inject fresh trouble into the Con- 
 vention at San Antonio by seeking to set aside the action of 
 the Board of Trustees of Baylor University relative to the 
 retirement of Doctor Burleson from the presidency of that 
 school, but the Convention approved the action of the 
 Board in making him president emeritus with a salary of 
 $2,000 annually. The occasion was signalized by the ven- 
 erable educator publicly accepting the result of the decision 
 of the Board, and of the Convention, and by promising to 
 live in peace with them to the end of his life. It was an 
 affecting scene when Doctor Burleson embraced Doctor 
 Buckner, and both wept before the body. It was a rapturous 
 hour to the body when this occurred, and largely atoned for 
 the unseemly disorder which had come to the Convention 
 from another source. 
 
 Among the dead of the year was the venerable G. W. 
 Pickett, who had preached for fifty years, was one of the 
 pioneer missionaries of Texas, and was about seventy years 
 old when he died. He is buried at Richmond, Texas. Dr. 
 J. Morgan Wells, the pastor of the First Church of Fort 
 Worth also, was numbered this year among the dead. He 
 had done a phenomenal work at Fort Worth, building a 
 magnificent house of worship, and establishing the Baptist 
 cause in that city on a lasting basis. His church buried 
 him under the walls of the magnificent structure which he 
 had reared, and placed a memorial window bearing his por- 
 trait in one of the windows above his grave. 
 
 With the Convention held at San Antonio the hour of 
 destiny had struck for the Baptists of Texas. The Conven- 
 tion was another landing-place on the stairway of progress. 
 Among the epochs of the Baptist history of Texas this was 
 the most marked. That toward which the Baptists of Texas 
 had been moving through the eventful years of the past 
 had been reached. The hosts were now serried. The fur- 
 nace of affliction and the repeated blows had welded them 
 into invincible compactness. They were now ready to take 
 up a fresh line of march, and were strong with united front 
 to meet the shocks of the future, whatever they might be. 
 The shock of disorder which they had met failed of its 
 purpose, and had rather turned out to the glory of God.
 
 398 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 Tlic coliorts of God's people had been fused into marvelous 
 unity, while the discontented elements would be shaken off 
 by the agitation, each going- its own way. It were infinitely 
 better that the incoherent elements slough off and leave the 
 great body to move on the even tenor of its way. Hence- 
 forth it would be more difficult to introduce trouble into the 
 Jiaptist (General Convention of Texas. Men had become 
 wiser under the stress of agitation. Consolidated into for- 
 midableness, with wisdom ripened by painful experience, 
 there was born a sturdy and resistless resolve to rescue the 
 denomination from the disrepute into which it had been 
 dragged against its will. 
 
 The horizon of the future was brightened as men and 
 women turned their faces homeward from the memorable 
 Convention which had just been held in the historic city 
 of San Antonio.
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 COURTS AND CHURCHES. 
 
 Enlarged plans were at once projected by the Baptists 
 of the State. The convention at San Antonio had revealed 
 the power of the people called Baptists, and they were deter- 
 mined to seize on the opportunity afforded by Providence 
 for a new start in the history of denominational progress. 
 Never was there such a demand for a wise, careful and 
 conservative leadership. Never had a denomination a more 
 excellent opportunity for accomplishing great things for 
 God. Never were men more impressed by favorable condi- 
 tions. 
 
 When the Board of Directors met at Dallas it was a 
 profoundly thoughtful and devotional meeting. No boasts 
 were heard, no threats indulged in, great as the provocation 
 had been, and still was, but rather it was a meeting of 
 unctuous devotion and of humble thankfulness to God. 
 Men were scarred with the conflicts which they could not 
 avoid, but they thanked God and took courage. They were 
 children in dependence for wisdom and guidance, but men 
 in consecrated stoutness and bravery. With spiritual vision 
 they read the signs of the times. It was not a meeting of 
 perfunctory haste, but one of solemn deliberation. Men 
 were much in prayer. The atmosphere of devotion encom- 
 passed them within and without. With solemn and delib- 
 erate wisdom they addressed themselves to the issues of the 
 hour. A turning-point in the life of the denomination had 
 come and they had the eyes to see it and the hearts to 
 respond. Grave as the issues were, still graver and more 
 complexing ones awaited them. In the strength of the 
 Lord of hosts they arose from the bowed knee of prayer 
 with a desire to know God's will, and with undaunted reso- 
 lutions of performance. 
 
 399
 
 400 HISTORY OF TKXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 It was a mccliniT; of singular unanimity. Divergent 
 views were expressed, but unity w:as reached, and such a 
 unity as gave unanimous satisfaction. It was more hke 
 an old-fashioned prayer meeting than that of a deliberative 
 body, met to do great business. Two great interests claimed 
 their attention — missions and education. Under existing 
 conditions, new plans had to be adjusted to new policies. 
 Trouble still encompassed them, but experience had made 
 them strong and wise. They felt that they had fenced them- 
 selves about with a cordon of protection against harass- 
 ment, and were serene in faith and hopeful in heart. 
 
 Construction was the logical policy of the hour. To 
 get the forces and resources well in hand, and moulded in 
 form, was a tremendous undertaking ; but Providence had 
 sounded the note, and with exultant hearts they moved to- 
 ward the future, seeking to keep step to the voice of God. The 
 assaults of Doctor Hayden were renewed with intense vio- 
 lence, and responded to in the columns of The Baptist 
 Standard with equal vigor. Unusual efforts were made 
 by Doctor Hayden to extend the circulation of the Texas 
 Baptist and Herald, w'hich was equaled by a correspond- 
 ing effort on the part of the Texas Baptist Standard. 
 Representing the convention. Doctor Cranfill felt that the 
 attacks made by the rival paper should be squarely met. 
 
 In this fierce contest, and in the years that followed, far 
 beyond the boundary of the old century. Doctor Cranfill 
 rendered a service to the Baptists of Texas second to 
 none ever before rendered by any man. He stood in 
 the breach with his facile pen, and while he parried the 
 blows leveled at the heart of the denomination, he met 
 the demand of the time by making TJie Standard one of the 
 greatest of denominational organs. To. unusual editorial 
 ability were added facilities for gathering denominational 
 news, and for a wide dissemination of the Baptist organ, 
 without which the denomination could not have advanced. 
 The man and tiie hour met when J. B. Cranfill was brought 
 to the editorial management and direction of the paper. 
 To him the denomination is under perpetual gratitude and 
 obligation for the service rendered during a critical period, 
 when the w^ork done by him was indispensable.
 
 COURTS AND CHURCHES 4ui 
 
 The strength of Tlic Baptist Standard was vastly en- 
 hanced when it was removed to Dallas, in 1898, and when 
 Colonel C. C. Slaughter hecame associated with Doctor 
 Cranfill in the proprietorshij) of the paper. In its new 
 location it underwent a decided change. It was determined 
 to withhold from the columns of The Standard any allusion 
 to the opposing journal, or to the opponents themselves, 
 as they were arrayed against the w'ork of the Convention. 
 This meant increased dignity and popularity to The Stand- 
 ard, which popularity was shown in other states, where its 
 patrons were multiplied. 
 
 The year 1898 was an exceedingly active one. The 
 work was pressed and stressed at every point. The Educa- 
 tion Commission, which had been created in compliance 
 with the necessities of the changed educational policy of 
 the Convention, was laying vast plans for the development 
 of that branch of activity. J. B. Gambrell was made the 
 president of the Commission, and J. M. Carroll financial 
 secretary. The policy was to rid the colleges of debt, 
 and to make them centers of commanding influence in the 
 regions of the state in which they were located. The coun- 
 try was prosperous, many Baptists had become compara- 
 tively wealthy, thousands were well-to-do, the institutions 
 were in need of facilities, and thus a wide sphere was 
 opened to the Education Commission. The chief agency 
 of the Texas Baptists was being gradually strengthened for 
 more comprehensive work, and was gaining its way rapidly 
 to the hearts of the churches. Attacked though it was, 
 and derided and otherwise obstructed, by the Texas Bap- 
 tist and Herald, the Board pursued its way regardless of 
 this, and by means of its vigor gave spirit and encourage- 
 ment to all kindred interests. The policy w^as a pronounced 
 one, and in the face of opposition continued to be pressed. 
 The attacks so often made on the imwise expenditure of 
 money did not deter the Board from the employment of 
 such agencies as w^ere needed to prosecute its W'ork with 
 success, but steadily held itself in the confidence of the 
 denomination while thus engaged. As the Board was made 
 the special object of the attack, the Missionary Worker 
 was published by it, to give information relative to the
 
 402 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 work witliin and without the Board, and to repel the gross 
 misrepresentations made concerning this work.* Nor was 
 this pohcy of repulsion without desired results. 
 
 From the beginning to the close of the conventional 
 year of 1898, the work was one of solidification and unifica- 
 tion. The Sunday ^School and Colix)rtage Convention, 
 which was still acting as an independent body, holding its 
 meetings annually; the Women Workers, which had be- 
 come a strong, organized force, and the Baptist Young Peo- 
 ples' Union, which was steadily and solidly growing, were 
 in thorough accord, and in unity of action with the State 
 Board and its policy. The white heat of opposition was 
 welding the forces into compact efficiency. 
 
 Not least among the favorable signs of the period was 
 that of the activity of the churches in the rural regions. 
 The hearts of pastors and the godly laymen were touched 
 by the conviction and purpose of the men at the front 
 of denominational afifairs, and with commendable alacrit\- 
 they fell into the advancing columns. Pastors of humble 
 charges had come to see that they were an important part 
 of the great work which was yet in its incipiency. 
 
 The Bible School at Baylor University was coming to 
 be a mighty force in solving the problem into which the 
 denomination had been brought. From throughout the 
 state pastors and churches, small and great, to the number 
 of more than a hundred, would come together for a month 
 at the University, and besides the information gained, and 
 the instruction imparted, they derived vast advantage from 
 contact with each other, and each returned to his field a 
 stronger and more determined man. 
 
 While The Baptist Standard was training, developing 
 and leading the way, as a great denominational organ, the 
 Missionary Worker, published by the Board, unflinchingly 
 parried the blows aimed at it, and gave a frank insight 
 into its operations. One hundred and twenty-two mis- 
 sionaries, and missionary pastors, were in the employment 
 of the Board during the year. These valuable allies, scat- 
 
 *Procee(lings of the Baptist General Conventiou of Texas for 
 1898, p. 35.
 
 COURTS AND CHURCHES 403 
 
 tered throughout the state, and brought into constant con- 
 nection with the Board, gave a vivifying effect to its opera- 
 tions. It was a season of general helpfulness, the weak 
 assisted the strong where needed, with the spirit of cheer- 
 fulness and love. Most of the cities of Texas were Bap- 
 tist strongholds, and indeed it was the exception when this 
 was not the case. The points which needed reinforcement 
 received it. Though southern Texas was first to be strongly 
 occupied by the Baptists, it had, through the years, fallen 
 behind the other parts of the state represented by the 
 cardinal points of the compass. The diversified soils and 
 timber districts of eastern Texas were an inducement to one 
 class of population ; the fertile lands of northern and central 
 Texas, an inducement to another class ; the cheap lands and 
 equitableness of climate found in western Texas, enhanced 
 that region in valuation, while southern Texas was regarded 
 as depressed in altitude and unhealthful, while the lands 
 were not regarded as particularly fertile. But now the 
 population had turned southward. Houston was being 
 called the "Chicago of the Southwest," and its numerous 
 railway lines gave it vast advantage. Galveston was re- 
 garded the most cultured of Texas cities, and its superb 
 harbor and other advantages made it, for many reasons, 
 an attractive city. Then the advantage of soil and climate 
 for fruit productiveness, and rice and sugar cane ; its at- 
 tractive coast line, for resorts for all seasons, and its fish 
 and oyster trade — all these served to turn another class of 
 population to the southern end of the state where industries, 
 orchards, farms, villages and towns were becoming numer- 
 ous. Hither much attention was directed by the State 
 Board, and there was a revival in a long suspended interest 
 in behalf of southern Texas. Neither in Houston nor in 
 Galveston were the churches strong or active. The cities 
 were growing, but the Baptist cause was at a standstill. 
 To incite renewed energy in these populous centers, and to 
 encourage city evangelization, was one of the purposes of 
 the Board. This was especially proper now, since there 
 was abroad a mistaken idea of missions, and since there 
 was sought to be taught a perversion of the doctrine of 
 church sovereignty.
 
 40J: IllSTOlx'V OF 'IKAAS IJAI'TIS'I'S 
 
 'llicii, too, forcii^ners from luin)])e and fniin regions 
 fnrllier east, were coming In- tliousands to Texas — Swedes, 
 ( iermans, Jtalians, nohemians, Syrians, Japanese and Chi- 
 nese, while hundreds of thousands of Mexicans were seek- 
 ing homes in Texas — these could not he disregarded by an 
 agency such as the State Uoard is. To seize the tirgent 
 advantages was supremely important. 
 
 Jiut obstructions contimied. Some time suhsecjuent to 
 the San Antonio convention. Doctor S. A. llayden brought 
 suit in the Dallas courts against more than thirty members 
 of the Convention, some of whom were present at San 
 Antonio, and others of whom were not. The action came to 
 be called by Doctor Hayden "The Conspiracy Trial." In 
 his original bill of complaint there was affirmed the right 
 of Doctor Hayden to a seat in the Convention which was 
 denied him, and that he had been ejected. This affirmation 
 was based on the fact that Doctor Hayden was sent to the 
 San Antonio Convention by a body entitled, under the con- 
 stitution, to send messengers. Doctor Hayden appealed to 
 the Civil Court to correct the wrong- which he alleged had 
 been done him by the Convention. It is clear that the suit 
 contemplated, with bold effort, to subject the Baptist Gen- 
 eral Convention of Texas, as to its menibership, to the 
 supervision of civil tribunals. The attempt to make the 
 action of rejection by the Convention the result of a con- 
 spiracy, w'as a signal failure, and the suit was thenceforth 
 based on the question of the right of the Convention to deny 
 Doctor Hayden a seat. 
 
 Without any purpose to follow this painful and humiliat- 
 ing chapter in church history through its varying phases, 
 which extended through several years, it should be stated 
 that the ailjudication of the case by the Supreme Court of 
 Texas, relative to the matter of denying the right of Doctor 
 Hayden to a seat in the Convention, was a correct one, 
 and one that touches the vital existence of religious organi- 
 zations in their relation to the civil courts of the country. 
 The proposition of the learned judges was that the right 
 of the Convention to regulate its own membership was 
 inherent. 
 
 This protracted trial was exceedingly unfortunate in
 
 COURTS AND CHURCHES 405 
 
 its effect upon the public mind. If there ever was a time 
 when such a suit could have been more unfavorable than 
 another, this was the time. Pecuhar conditions were pre- 
 vaiHng- in Texas. The growth of the population was not 
 slow, not even steady — it was phenomenal. Had the popu- 
 lous growth been gradual, as it had been in. most other 
 states eastward, even under such conditions as were at- 
 tendant on this unfortunate lawsuit, the dominant and 
 settled sentiment might have mastered the situation, and 
 held it subordinate. But the conditions were immensely 
 other than these. The new elements of population pouring 
 into Texas represented all shades and phases of thought, 
 socially, politically, morally, religiously. Years would be 
 necessary to settle the dominance of any one sentiment. 
 There was constant collision in the sentiment of the public. 
 All sorts of views were being published and promulgated in 
 everv sort of journal and book. It was a wilderness of 
 thought, a seething caldron of sentiment. If ever religious 
 forces were in need of coolness and wisdom, and the sub- 
 ordination of all things else to the one idea of the domi- 
 nance of Christianity, the time was now. Even with this, 
 the religion of Christians would be assailed and mis- 
 represented bv those who knew it not, because of a lack 
 of spiritual discernment. As in the early days of Chris- 
 tianity, as it made headway among divers peoples, the utmost 
 circumspection was needed — so now in Texas. Nor were 
 the effects of this unfortunate suit confined solely to the 
 denomination among the members of which it was, but it 
 was hurtful to all who were called Christians. Nor was it 
 confined, either, to the Christians of Texas, but its ill effects 
 went far beyond. As far as could be done, it served to 
 bring the cause of Christ into contempt, and to convert it 
 into a hiss and byword in the estimation of thousands. The 
 trial was more than unchristian in its essence ; it was un- 
 natural in its very absence of consistency. Would that it 
 could be possible to forget it, but it necessarily becomes a 
 matter of history. It was most unfortunate that Doctor 
 Hayden seemed delighted to give widespread and detailed 
 prominence to the unfortunate contention. 
 
 In ]\Tay, 1898, when the Southern baptist Convention
 
 406 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 mot at Xorfolk, Virginia, many copies of the Texas Baptist 
 and Herald containing assaults on leading Texas Baptists, 
 were distributed among the members of the Convention, 
 with no opportunity for those assailed in its columns to 
 reply. lUit for the well-established reputations of the men 
 so arraigned, they might have grievously sufifered in the 
 judgment of the representatives from other states. Through 
 The Baptist Standard, the circulation of which had obtained 
 in many states, there might have been presented the oppo- 
 site view of the matter offered in the columns of the Texas 
 Baptist and Herald, but its policy was to ignore all that 
 it contained. 
 
 In 1898, Professor B. F. Giles, of Howard College, 
 Alabama, was elected president of the Decatur Baptist Col- 
 lege. This was what was originally known as the North- 
 west Baptist College. The school had lost prestige in many 
 ways, and especially with those who had first contributed to 
 its creation. Their financial losses had made the school 
 unpopular. At the first meeting of the association to 
 which the school belonged, after the assumption of the 
 presidency by Professor Giles, Dr. A. W. McGaha made a 
 vigorous plea in behalf of the school, and public confidence 
 was expressed in a contribution of ten cents ! The unpopu- 
 larity of the school was such that President Giles had to go 
 to the Northwest for students. From 146 students, the 
 first session of the administration of the new president, the 
 matriculation rose the second year to 164. President Giles 
 remained but two years in the school, when he was recalled 
 to Alabama as president of the Central College, Tuska- 
 loosa ; but during his stay at Decatur, the town erected a 
 dormitory for boys, and on the retirement of President 
 Giles the school was in. good condition. 
 
 During the year 1898, Mrs. Hollie Harper Townsend 
 died. The remarkable career of usefulness of this young 
 Chri.stian woman deserves a record in the annals of Texas 
 ] baptists. She was a woman of singular piety, and of quiet 
 but aggressive devotion. Her peculiar gifts and gentleness 
 of spirit, enabled her to perform a varied work in the ranks 
 of the denomination. For several years before her death 
 she was a recognized leader of the Baptist Woman's Mis-
 
 COUETS AND CHTJECHES 407 
 
 sionary Union, in Texas. The station of being the pioneer 
 Bible woman in Texas is tO her freely accorded. Always 
 active in every good word and work, she was most success- 
 ful in the organization of Children's Bands in the different 
 mission stations of the First Church of Dallas. She was 
 also, for a long period, the editor of the Woman's Depart- 
 ment in The Baptist Standard. 
 
 After her marriage to Rev. E. G. Townsend she traveled 
 with him through Texas, and organized woman's mission 
 societies and Children's Bands. She was popular at the 
 sessions of the Southern Baptist Convention, by reason of 
 her peculiar ability, and her unceasing love of the work 
 for the Master. She died at Dallas on August 25, 1898. 
 
 On October 7, 1898, the Baptist General Convention of 
 Texas, being its fiftieth annual session, met at Waco. The 
 large assemblage of the year before, and the consequent 
 extensive interest in matters which had become notorious, 
 brought together an overwhelming number of people, not of 
 messengers only, but of many others. The experience of 
 the body at San Antonio, and the agitation which had pre- 
 vailed during the year, suggested the precaution of a large 
 and wise Committee on Credentials. On this important 
 committee was placed Rev. A. B. Vaughn, a recent and 
 valuable accession to the ranks of the Baptist ministry of 
 Texas. He had been called to the pastorate of the church 
 at Nacogdoches by reason of his pastoral reputation in 
 his native state, Georgia. The Convention proceeded with 
 the utmost care toward organization, so as to prevent com- 
 plications. Rev. W. M. Harris, pastor of the First Church, 
 Galveston, preached a timely and appropriate sermon from 
 the text : "Think not that I am come to send peace on 
 earth ; I came not to send peace, but a sword." "On earth, 
 peace." 
 
 It was not till the second day of the proceedings that 
 the Committee on Credentials was prepared to report. A 
 number of cliallenges was presented against churches, but 
 the president ruled all out of order that did not relate to 
 individuals, as the body was composed, not of churches, 
 but of personal messengers. A motion prevailed to admit 
 to seats, as a basis of organization, all unchallenged mes-
 
 408 HISTOHV OP THXAS iiAI'TISTS 
 
 sengers, when the bod)- was ori^anized by the election of 
 R. C. Buckner. president; J. M. Robertson, W. R. Max- 
 well, and A. J. Rose, vice presidents, and A. E. Baten and 
 J. 11. Truett. secretaries. 
 
 Immediately followinii- this was a challeno^e made by 
 Rev. ( ). \\ Stark to the ri.nht of Dr. S. A. Hayden to a 
 seat in the body. The challenge eml)raced a series of 
 charges of a serious character, together with accompanying 
 proof of each respective charge.* 
 
 In response to this. Doctor Hayden sj^oke at length dur- 
 ing the afternoon session, in his defense, to which reply 
 was made by J. M. Robertson, following which the Con- 
 vention sustained the challenge, and proceeded forthwith 
 to business. The reports from the ditTerent departments 
 were encouraging, and served to remove the tension into 
 which the Convention had been brought by the challenge 
 of Doctor Hayden, and the speeches which f (allowed. 
 
 The Education Commissiim had done well and had 
 aroused enthusiasm by its result, j. M. Carroll, assisted by 
 J. M. Robertson, had procured j^ledges aggregating $53,200 
 for educational purposes. The chief interest centered in 
 reading the report of the Board of Directors of the work 
 of the year. Reviewing the situation of the year, the report 
 showed that all interests nourished by the Convention were 
 in the ascendant, and while the work was but fairly begun, 
 the success of the past year was a guarantee of future 
 victory. In addition to a statement of the results of the 
 I)oard, in its diversified relations, the report was a denomi- 
 national deliverance on the fundamental principles embodied 
 in its policv. All branches of the work were in a healthy 
 condition, and the I'.oard was gaining most substantial head- 
 way. 
 
 The Convention at Waco, in 1898. marked a long denom- 
 inational stride. The visible results were not so encourag- 
 ing as those of which the Convention itself was a prophecy. 
 There could be no mistake of the coming ground-swell. 
 Everything indicated it. There was the rosy flush of pros- 
 
 *Prococ<lings of tlio Rjiptist (icurrMl ('(invent imi of Texas for 
 1898, pp. 11-24.
 
 COURTS AND CHURCHES 40!) 
 
 perity on every interest and institution, and there was the 
 assurance of their future and progressive maintenance. A 
 strongs ministry in the lead of a strong and loyal member- 
 ship meant all that was necessary for future success on 
 the human side. But when this great body of Christians was 
 humbled, and more devout, because of what they had been 
 able to do ; when they were prayerful rather than boastful 
 over the victory against wrong, the prospect was bright- 
 ened as they faced it. 
 
 The unification of interests at this jmicture of 1 baptist 
 history in Texas was most fortunate. The rainbow was 
 on the receding cloud, which had for several years together 
 cast a pall over the cause in the state. But as winter 
 hardens and toughens the fiber of the tree, so the afflic- 
 tions of these years had made sturdier the characters of 
 the men and wc:)men who were oppressed by an overween- 
 ing desire to bring the lost thousands to Christ. The light 
 was following the night, and already God was interpreting 
 the dark providences to which His people had come in the 
 years of the immediate past. Affiictions yet awaited them, 
 but in the strength of God they set up their banners, and 
 in the might of God they believed that they would prevail. 
 More than ever before, the dene )minatit)n was a substantial 
 and not a nominal luiit. 
 
 The following year was destined to bring its troubles, 
 not a few, arising from the perplexing lawsuit against many 
 of the file leaders of the denomination, but set over against 
 these were compensations which vastly outweighed the 
 affliction. So far from being deterred by carping criticism of 
 motive and method, the managers of the varied interests 
 were emboldened, rather. Affliction evoked prayer, and 
 prayer provoked courage and confidence. There was no 
 ease in the Baptist Zion. No sinecure positions were to be 
 had in 'any Baptist station in Texas. It was a period of 
 activity throughout every day of every month. Every man 
 provoked every other to good works. 
 
 The State Board met a few weeks after the Convention 
 at Waco, and hours were given to rapt devotion. Men had 
 evidently come from their closets of prayer to the meeting. 
 There was no exultation, no exaltation, save of God. The
 
 410 
 
 IIISTOin' OF TKXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 utmost freedom prevailed. Members fn^ii tlie pew were 
 as free of expression as preachers from the pulpit. To have 
 happened incidentally into a business meetinj:;^ of a body of 
 men who had come from regions adjacent and remote, one 
 would have thought that he was in a devoti(jnal meeting. 
 Prayer was frequent, and in praying men spoke with a con- 
 
 ui:. .1. \. 
 
 riUOSTIMIKJE, I,OT'IS\II.I.K. 
 Kditor I'.aptist Argus. 
 
 KV.. 
 
 sciousness of being in the presence of Jehovah. Their 
 prayers were face to face talks with God. It was a repre- 
 sentative 1x)dy — representative of every phase and feature 
 of the denomination. Men who had grown hoary in the 
 war and work of many years ; young men with the dew of 
 youth on their brows, and with a Hash of enthusiasm in
 
 COUETS AND CHUECHES 411 
 
 their eyes; ministers of high station and of national re- 
 nown ; country preachers from the far interior ; men ahke 
 from the cities and from the plain ; lawyers, merchants, 
 bankers, ministers, teachers, authors, editors, statesmen — 
 all these were in the forty men who had come together 
 impressed with the responsibility imposed to project a plan 
 for another year's work for God. 
 
 Among the treasured prayers alluded to by the apoc- 
 alyptic writer, were added those of this eventful gathering 
 of a body of men grouped together in a meeting house at 
 Dallas, Texas. The work was marred by no precipitate 
 haste, by no waste of speech. jMen spoke solemnly and 
 deliberately. The fact was recognized that a tremendous 
 element had come into the state work, one for which pre- 
 vious conditions had prepared the way. Education must 
 henceforth have a large place in the denominational mind. 
 Stepping forth on the platform of eternal promises, these 
 devoted men ventured into the future with commendable 
 confidence in God. Heretofore only three general mission- 
 aries had been employed. The demand was for four the next 
 year. Increased work meant an increased appropriation, and 
 therefore $30,000 was named as the amount to be devoted to 
 that work. None of it was yet visible, but that it would come, 
 there was no doubt. Plans were methodical and elaborate. 
 It was the result of a campaign wrought out in thought and 
 adjusted to existing conditions. First, the frontier work 
 of the state must have prompt and substantial attention. 
 From the upper Panhandle down the western confines of 
 the state to El Paso, thence along the Rio Grande, and along 
 the southern coast, from Laredo on the west to Orange 
 on the east, was the battle line of operation projected. 
 • Second, to rehabilitate neglected points in the interior of 
 the state — ^points where once the cause flourished, and where 
 it had been suffered to decline. Third, to lend relief to 
 weak and struggling churches that demanded preaching of 
 good quality, and which, if thus supplied, would respond 
 accordingly. These churches were to be found alike in vil- 
 lages, in towns, and in the country. Fourth, a general work 
 of staying the decline of influential churches, and of re- 
 uniting discordant churches, of developing larger churches,
 
 412 HISTOEY or TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 and of scckini>' to lift all churches to a hii^her plane of mis- 
 sionary effort, in all these specific efforts, respect was 
 to be had for the foreig'n elements in Texas. Doctor Gam- 
 brell, as the corres])ondinf^ secretary for the State Board, 
 devised this comprehensive plan, which was readily adopted 
 by the Board a> its basis (if procedure. The two years of 
 Doctor Gambrell's supcrintenclency of the work had aroused 
 such confidence in his ability that any measure proposed by 
 him received the most cordial support. 
 
 The resumption of activity on the part of the State 
 P)oard was confronted by the well-known opposition which 
 was as violent as it was active. The motives of the Board 
 were impugned, and the strongest allegations made against 
 its officers and missionaries.''' 
 
 This was promptly and heroically met in the columns of 
 the Missioiuiry H'orkcr, which was edited by Secretary J. 
 1). Gambrell. Every effort was made to bring the great 
 l)!an. already indicated, into ])ul)lic contempt. This was 
 allied with court proceedings, and, as far as possible, they 
 were made mutually to aid and supplement each other. It 
 was veritably a campaign of shame and humiliation. 
 
 Still, the work was prosecuted as ])lanned by the Board. 
 Hand in hand, it proceeded in alliance with the organized 
 system of the Ccjnvention. ]\Iany pastors who had hitherto 
 been content to confine themselves to their respective 
 spheres, now became active in adjacent communities, and 
 worked with spirit, in conjunction with the organized forces 
 of the B)oard. It had become apparent that nothing short 
 of living out of existence, by godly and widespread work, 
 the op])osition, was left to the friends of the Convention, 
 and the organized methods of the Board. The situation 
 was accepted with ])hilosophic and Christian fortitude, and 
 the work was pushed in every (piarter. In the jirosecution 
 of its ])laus one hundred and forty-nine men were engaged 
 in part, or all together for the year in localities embraced 
 in the vast territorv of Texas, while four p;eneral mission- 
 
 *Froeep(liiigs of \ho B;i|)tist (Jciicral (OiivtMitinn for 1S99, j)p. 
 19-20.
 
 COURTS AND CHUECHES 413 
 
 aries, in close touch with the Board, rendered special serv- 
 ice. The campaign was one of vigor from the outset. 
 
 More than ever before, the gospel was preached by Bap- 
 tists throughout the state. If the opposition was persistent 
 in its measures to destroy, the Board was ecjually so in 
 building, strengthening and rehabilitating. The people 
 were aroused as never before. The energies of the denom- 
 ination were elicited, and people were brought, nearer the 
 gospel conception of missionary efifort, as the tide of efifort 
 and evangelization went on. Great meetings were held, 
 thousands of souls were saved, vast sacrifices w'ere made, 
 and the treasury of the Board was replenished. The year 
 1899 was made memorable in the history of Texas Bap- 
 tists. Doctor Gambrell led with splendid generalship the 
 missionaries on the field, supported by as wise counsel as 
 any man ever enjoyed. Doctor Cranfill, by manly utter- 
 ance and wise management of the Texas Baptist Standard, 
 rendered a brilliant and indispensable service in holding the 
 forces together. Rev. J. M. Carroll was in his proper 
 sphere as the financial agent of the Education Commission. 
 Order and harmony were everywhere, save where the dis- 
 cordant voice of the opposition was raised. The line of 
 cleavage was being sharply drawn by activity and con- 
 centration on the one hand, and opposition and resentment 
 on the other. A just and calm public could not long hesi- 
 tate in choosing between the two. 
 
 When the fifty-first annual State Convention was held 
 in Dallas in Xovember, 1899, it was a mighty gathering of 
 the forces. Baptist sentiment was focused as never before. 
 Never before were the Baptists of Texas more possessed of 
 earnestness. Latent forces had been aroused and inert 
 forces had become active. The Convention proceeded with 
 commendable caution. There was reason for believing 
 that the same spirit which had sought to supplant the 
 organized work during the past year was here present, with 
 what purpose was not known. To guard against errors in 
 the beginning was deemed necessary. Such was the policv 
 wisdom recommended, srch the precaution, prudence sug- 
 gested. 
 
 The first precaution was the appointment by the presi-
 
 414 insTOin' of TKXA!^ BAPTISTS 
 
 (lent of a wise committee on credentials. The committee 
 was composed of such men as D. Y. Bagby, G. W. Good, 
 F. M. I^IcConnell, J. 11. Rowell, J. B. Carter, W. S. Splawn, 
 .\. J. Harris, E. S. Haynes and J. B. Riddle. A number 
 of challenges was submitted to the committee, which, in due 
 time, reported that its work was divided into two sections, 
 the first being that of a large list of unchallenged mes- 
 sengers and a smaller list of those challenged. It was 
 agreed to make the list of those who were unchallenged the 
 basis of the organization of the body. Among those chal- 
 lenged were Drs. R. C. Buckner, J. B. Gambrell and B. H. 
 Carroll. Parleying at once began on the floor of the Con- 
 vention by the friends of the opposition. Among the chal- 
 lenges was the following: 
 
 "Dallas, Texas, November lo, 1899. 
 "To the Baptist General Convention of Texas, Greeting : 
 I hereby challenge the rights to seats in this Convention 
 of all messengers who are aiding and abetting in their 
 efforts to destroy the peace of our Zion ; those who stand 
 convicted in the courts of 'falsehood and malicious libel," 
 to-wit : J. B. Gambrell, B. H. Carroll, R. C. Buckner and 
 others. 
 
 "(Signed) Geo. T. Todd, 
 "Messenger from the First Baptist Church at Jefiferson." 
 
 Objections being raised against sustaining the chal- 
 lenges against Doctors Buckner, Carroll and Gambrell, the 
 Convention sustained the objection. When objection was 
 raised to sustaining the challenge against Doctor Hay den, 
 he arose and expressed the wish that the challenge might 
 be sustained. It was the afternoon of the second day before 
 the Convention proceeded to permanent organization. R. C. 
 Buckner was chosen president, J. M. Robertson, W. R. 
 Maxwell and W. B. Denson, vice presidents, and A. E. 
 Baten and J. H. Truett, secretaries. When the result was 
 announced Doctor Buckner, as the general manager of the 
 Buckner Orphans' Home, passed down the aisle at the 
 head of a procession of two hundred orphans who were 
 assigned to seats. Following this Rev. J. M. Gaddy, after
 
 COTJBTS AND CHURCHES 415 
 
 a most fortunate speech, took pledges and cash for the 
 Home to the amount of $4,000. When the committee of 
 challenges reported adversely to seating S. A. Hayden as 
 a messenger of the Convention it was agreed that he be 
 allowed thirty minutes in which to speak in his own behalf, 
 and that W. B. Denson be requested to reply in a speech of 
 fifteen minutes. The speech on the part of Doctor Hayden 
 was extremely violent and defiant. It was in marked con- 
 trast with that of Colonel W. B. Benson's reply, which, 
 while it was cogent and conclusive, was at the same time 
 conservative in its tone. This done, and the Convention 
 was ready t6 vote on the report. On motion of S. H. 
 Slaughter the vote was taken by ballot on the challenge of 
 S. A. Hayden, resulting as follows : Five hundred and 
 fifty-seven votes opposing it and eleven hundred and eighty- 
 one in favor of denying him a seat. Obstructions were 
 summarily removed and the Convention entered on its usual 
 work. 
 
 During the speech of S. A. Hayden on this occasion, 
 which, as stated, was violent in the extreme, and which was 
 directed mainly against Dr. J. B. Cranfill, the latter sat 
 within a few feet of the speaker, under absolute self-control 
 and patient under what was believed by the members of the 
 Convention to be as unjust an assault as any man ever suf- 
 fered. To those who were aware of the temperament of Dr. 
 Cranfill, who had been born and bred in the old time Texas 
 school of high ideals of honor and of self-defense, his Chris- 
 tian bearing on this occasion stamped him as a man in whose 
 veins coursed the blood of the hero. Let the facts of this 
 incident stand out in resplendent colors as long as Texas 
 Baptist history shall be preserved. 
 
 From every quarter and every department reports were 
 inspiring. Signal blessings had crowned the work of the 
 State Board, and more money had been raised in Texas 
 for State, Home and Foreign Alissions than ever before 
 within a single year. The schools of the state were pros- 
 pering, not only by an increased patronage, but in the eleva- 
 tion of the standards of instruction. The Education Com- 
 mission was proving an inspiration to the cause, and con- 
 fidence was becoming permanent. The Baptist Standard,
 
 416 HISTOEY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 inoxiiii; ali)iii4 a lii.uli i)lanc (if journalism, was flcjurishing, 
 and was the cliiof instrument in fnsin,^' and strcngthcninjj^ 
 the confidence of the denomination. IJuckner Orphans' 
 Home was ex])an(hns4' in service and usefuhiess. Tlie a^ed 
 and retired ministers and their wives were cared for. Com- 
 manchnj:^ ahihty adorned the jnilpits of the state. Minis- 
 tefial education was commanchns^- the attention of our peo- 
 ple. The boundaries of denominational power had been 
 given ex])ansion during the year ; churches had been 
 arrested in their decline and had been made strong; the 
 gospel had been presented as never before so broadly from 
 confine to confine of the immense commonwealth ; woman's 
 work had l)ecome a pronounced factor in the denomination ; 
 the Ba])tist Young Peo])le's Union was growing to great 
 strength, and men of tremendous power from the secular 
 stations of life were becoming potent in the denominational 
 councils. Such was the condition of the cause at the close 
 of the conventional year of 1899. 
 
 The outlook was one of inspiration. That which had 
 been attempted as a hindrance to progress was turned to 
 helpfulness. Strife had made of many, spiritual heroes, 
 who else might never have been active. All things were 
 conducive to good. Cohesiveness of the I)a])tist forces had 
 come by a providence, outwardly harsh, but inwardly full 
 of divine goodness and wnsdom. Men felt, as never before, 
 the strong prompting and propulsion to duty. The dawn 
 of a new era had ])assed, and Texas Baptists stood in the 
 broad sunlight of lo\alt\- and devotion, made stronger by 
 the ])ast and more buoyant in prospect of the future.
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 DISASTER AND CONSECRATION. 
 
 We have come to the closing year of the century. For 
 fully seventy-five years or more Baptists have been in 
 Texas. The span of three-quarters of a century had wit- 
 nessed a phenomenal change in a great empire state which 
 was at first the home of the savage and the buffalo, when 
 the initial Baptist sermon was preached in 1824 on the 
 banks of the Red river. Could one at that time have seen 
 from an eminence the vast extent of Texas, he would have 
 swept his eye over an empire of fertile plains, with here 
 and there a small settlement of Mexicans dotting them 
 over, or an occasional Indian camp, the occupants of which 
 relied on the abundant game swarming the forests and 
 prairies for the maintenance of life. In the bosom of the 
 wide domain lay the treasures of incalculable wealth await- 
 ing the hand of industry and art. 
 
 Anon the Anglo-Saxon came, and before him retired 
 into oblivion the thriftless denizens of the plains. Nature 
 was gradually subdued, roads were opened, settlements 
 established, villages were built and grew into towns, then 
 mto cities, the railway began to streak the plains and steadily 
 grew into a sieve-work, and progress led the way for sev- 
 enty-five years. Amidst the stroke of the resounding ax 
 and the smoke of advancement, as the industrial arts multi- 
 plied, was a force, the inspiration of which was sent of 
 heaven. With a sturdiness undaunted and a progress un- 
 stayed by difficulties, the great, intrepid men sought their 
 way to the hearts of the coming multitude and infused the 
 light of heaven into their lives and homes. Wherever the 
 immigrants grouped themselves into communities the Bap- 
 
 417
 
 418 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 tist pioneer preacher went, with his open Bible and his love 
 for souls. With the transformation of the face of the 
 empire Avild, into a habitable commonwealth of peace and 
 prosperity, was a transformation of character, which soft- 
 ened the asperities of a rude' life on the plains, and glad- 
 dened the hearts of the coming thousands with a hope for 
 tile eternal Beyond. Alongside the homes, the stores, and the 
 manufactories which came gradually into being, were 
 churches erected and congregations of worshipers gath- 
 ered. Parallel with the progress of the- years in the domain 
 of industrial art, was the advancement of gospel truth. 
 
 Seventy-five years of Baptist history in Texas yielded 
 as one of the richest results a consecrated people, whose 
 numbers ran into the hundred thousands. Had the people 
 called Baptists the disposition to boast, there was an occasion 
 for it at the close of this eventful period of seventy-five 
 years, but the limit of this time found them still doing this 
 same humble work of saving the multitudes and of endeav- 
 oring to raise humanity to heaven. Tremendous efficiency 
 had come to them, and facilities had been multiplied a mil- 
 lionfold. A denomination of the people, they were laborers 
 together for the people. Every facility was being stressed 
 at this time, just as it was when the first preacher lifted his 
 voice in the primeval wilds of Texas. The success of the 
 years, growing with accumulating force, made boundless 
 the hope of the Baptists as they turned into the closing year 
 of the nineteenth century. 
 
 Never were forces more encouraged and emboldened for 
 good than were those who turned away from the inspiring 
 occasion of the Baptist General Convention at Dallas near 
 the close of 1899. The same policy was prayerfully adopted 
 by the Board. Plans were enlarged proportionately with 
 the demands of the enlarged prospects. During the year 
 one hundred and sixty-four workers were put into the 
 field. It was resolved to expend $40,000 in the prose- 
 cution of the work of the Convention. The work pros- 
 pered and new accretions of strength came with enlarged 
 opportunities. More sedulously than ever the multiplied in- 
 terests of the denomination were cared for. Throughout, the
 
 DISASTER AND CONSECRATION 419 
 
 State was thrilled by the knowledge of the advancing strides 
 of the denomination. The clamor of opposition had not 
 hushed, but it was not heeded, as heretofore. The years 
 had demonstrated the wisdom of the policy of the organized 
 work, and the people had come to prize it. The shame of 
 lawsuits continued to harass, but from the court-room men 
 returned to duty, chastened in spirit, to be sure, but more 
 encouraged to lean on God, and to seek anew to meet the 
 issues of duty. The work moved as though there was no 
 obstruction lying in the way. Impelled by the conscious- 
 ness that no man is tmsafe who tracks the path of duty, 
 men, dogged by persecution, held on their way by trust 
 unimpaired and spirit unswerved. The opposition had 
 sloughed off, and had gone to its own. If its advocates 
 found congeniality in segregation, those whom they resisted 
 found congeniality and consecration. Around the policy 
 and work of the Convention, the great denomination was 
 forming. 
 
 Fresh and potent elements of strength were coming to 
 the reinforcement of the work. The year resounded with 
 activity, and the forces were inspired by the prosperity 
 which attended their efforts. Texas Baptists stood in the 
 gaze of the country, by reason of their astonishing achieve- 
 ments. In response to the demand of the situation in the 
 state, interests varied and great, had come into being, and 
 were vying, the one with the other, in their forward 
 surges. The missionary was abroad as an enlightener and 
 helper; the agents of education were infusing inspiration 
 and energy, and leading to higher heights, and hundreds 
 of pastors were widening their usefulness in local fields. 
 Texas was veritably a hive of denominational activity. 
 
 \Miere it w^as possible, different interests were being 
 crystallized under the general direction of the Convention, 
 through its common Board. This year witnessed the disso- 
 lution of the Sunday School and Colportage Board, and 
 the merging of its work into that of the State Board. 
 Its history, running backwards through many years, had 
 been one of vast usefulness to that important work. Condi- 
 tions now favored a change from one sphere to another.
 
 420 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 The Young Peoples' Union had grown into an organiza- 
 tion of power which was being felt throughout the state. 
 R. H. Coleman had been chosen as a leader of this move- 
 ment, and he was wisely directing its growing energies. 
 Woman's Work had attained to great proportions, and our 
 consecrated women vied with the sterner sex in energy, 
 interest and enthusiasm. Hundreds of our noble w'omen 
 were emulating the examples of the women of New Testa- 
 ment story in efficient labors. They were arteries of 
 strength to their pastors on their local fields, and powerful 
 in their reinforcement in the general work. Phenomenal 
 was the spirit which had come to the host of Texas Bap- 
 tists. 
 
 During these golden days of distinct advancement and 
 enlargement, a new^ era had come to the Baptist work. The 
 most notable growth and expansion was in the First Bap- 
 tist Church of Dallas under the truly wonderful leadership 
 of Pastor George W. Truett. This church, always strong 
 and aggressive in the interest of the Texas Baptist work, 
 speedily became the largest contributor among the Baptist 
 churches of the state, which position it holds as these words 
 are penned. More than $10,000 a year is contributed by 
 the First Baptist Church of Dallas to missions, and as the 
 record for 1906, at which point this history closes, is set 
 down, the membership is more earnestly aggressive than 
 ever before. Though Pastor Truett has had many tempta- 
 tions to leave the work in Texas, he abides as one of the 
 strongest factors in the great development that has come 
 to the enterprises of the Texas Baptist denomination. 
 
 On September 8th, 1900, came the disastrous storm 
 which swept the southern coast of Texas, and wrecked the 
 fair city of Galveston. The disaster was so profound as to 
 send a thrill of horror around the globe. Violent beyond 
 description was the gale, and unspeakable in disaster, its 
 consequences. Thousands were drowned in the maddened 
 waters of the gulf. Millions of property was wrecked. 
 At least twenty-seven Baptist meeting-houses were de- 
 stroyed, among which were the Mrst Churches of Galveston 
 and Houston. B. F. Riley had just assumed the pastoral
 
 DISASTER AND CONSECRATION 421 
 
 care of the First Church at Houston, had occupied the pulpit 
 one Sunday, and the following Saturday night the church 
 was wrecked. The southern coast was practically depopu- 
 lated and swept bare of towns, villages and farm houses. 
 The retiring storm left in its wake a scene of desolation. 
 To relieve the situation, the State Board turned its atten- 
 tion toward southern Texas. Steps were at once taken to 
 rebuild the churches of Galveston and Houston. In the 
 city of Galveston not only was the Second Baptist Church 
 destroyed, but the organization was blotted out. One of the 
 Galveston pastors and his family were swept away into the 
 sea and drowned. It was an occasion for sympathy, and it 
 came. The heart of the world was touched by the sense 
 which makes the race akin. 
 
 In November of that year the Baptist State Conven- 
 tion met at Waco. It was an immense gathering. Men 
 and women, once attracted to the annual meeting by curi- 
 osity, to witness scenes of disturbance, were here now 
 from a vastly different motive. The enthusiasm of the 
 body, once experienced was never forgotten. Consecration 
 had given place to curiosity in the hearts of many hun- 
 dreds who thronged on the gathering at Waco. Having 
 successfully foiled all efforts to inject distraction into the 
 body, the members were not strained by that degree of 
 caution which they had previously exercised. The opposi- 
 tion had sustained a number of defeats in its effort to bring 
 disorder and tumult into the assemblage. This opposition 
 made its last stand at Waco, and as each effort had grown 
 feebler, its last was the feeblest. Thousands of people 
 thronged the great tabernacle in wdiich the Convention met. 
 It was a scene of inspiration and enthusiasm. 
 
 Among the preliminaries were brief speeches made while 
 the Committee on Credentials was preparing its report. Dr. 
 
 A. W. McGaha, who had recently become pastor of the 
 First Church of Waco, made an address of welcome and 
 was responded to by Dr. A. J. Harris, of San Antonio. 
 
 B. F. Riley, who had recently come to the First Church of 
 Houston ; O. L. Hailey, pastor of the First Church of Tex- 
 arkana, and Christopher Silene, Scandinavian missionary 
 to Texas, all being recent importations, were introduced
 
 423 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 and kindly greeted 1)v the l:)ody. Professor A. T. Robert- 
 son, of the Southern J baptist Theological Seminary, ad- 
 dressed the Convention and was given pledges to the amount 
 of $1,900. Missionary Carlisle, of Cuba;^W. B. Bagby, of 
 Brazil, and L. W. Pierce, of China, each made thrilling 
 speeches. At night, after devotional exercises, a pleasant 
 incident occurred, when Rev. C. B. Hukill and Miss Jean 
 Goff were married on the platform by President Buckner, 
 in the presence of the immense audience. With character- 
 istic •liberality a collection was taken by the congregation 
 for the bridal couple, amounting to $62.79, and presented 
 to them. 
 
 Rev. D. I. Smyth followed with the Convention sermon, 
 after which Dr. J. M. Frost presented the claims of the 
 Sunday School Board, and the proceedings of the first day 
 were closed. It was the afternoon of the second day before 
 the committee on credentials reported. The uncontested 
 messengers were seated and formed the basis of an organi- 
 zation, and seven were named who were referred to a 
 committee of five to consider their eligibility to seats. 
 Among the challenges presented were those against J. B. 
 Gambrell, J. B. Cranfill, G. W. Truett and W. L. Williams, 
 of the First Church of Dallas. The Convention declined to 
 consider the last challenges. On motion the challenge 
 against S. A. Hayden w^as sustained, only two votes being 
 cast against it, those of Doctor Hayden and his son. 
 
 On efifecting a permanent organization R. C. Buckner 
 became president by acclamation, and W. B. Denson, J. B. 
 Cranfill and Oscar H. Cooper, vice presidents, and A. E. 
 Baten and J. H. Truett were chosen secretaries — all by 
 acclamation. Dr. O. H. Cooper had recently been elected 
 president of Baylor University. The reading of the annual 
 report of the I'oard of Directors had come to be an event 
 of consuming interest to the convention. Rev. George W. 
 Truett, the recording secretary of the Board, read the 
 elaborate report in the midst of profound silence. The re- 
 view of the year's work, which has already been substan- 
 tially stated, raised the Convention to a pitch of enthus- 
 iasm and gave a degree of confidence never before experi- 
 enced.
 
 DISASTER AND CONSECRATION 433 
 
 The meeting of the Baptist State Convention had come 
 to be one of such interest that people would come hundreds 
 of miles merely to witness its enthusiasm, and to catch its 
 sacred afflatus. It was a fact that not a negative vote was 
 cast during the entire session. Discussion was often ani- 
 mated, expression free, and views varied; but when a vote 
 was reached it was unanimously affirmative. Nor was this 
 an expression of subversion, or of cringing opinion, but 
 it was simply an index of the oneness into which the Bap- 
 tists had come. 
 
 The Convention showed its appreciation of the unique 
 work done by the chapel car "Good Will," now under the 
 management of G. B. Rogers, by subscribing $510 for its 
 repair. It was proving a valuable auxiliary to the work 
 of evangelization, by going from town to town, where 
 meetings were held by Mr. Rogers and his assistant. The 
 car was so constructed as to be easily converted into a well- 
 provided chapel. It was not until the fourth day of the 
 Convention at Waco, in 1900, that the last of the obstruc- 
 tionists were refused seats. Doctor Hayden had been denied 
 a seat as a messenger early in the session, and the eight 
 who had challenged J. B. Cranfill, J. B. Gambrell, G. W. 
 Truett and W. L. Williams, on the basis of "gravely of- 
 fensive" charges, were denied seats, and further Conven- 
 tional annoyance was at an end. 
 
 The vigor with which the suits in the court was being 
 prosecuted against many of the leading members of the 
 bodv elicited the following preamble and resolution : 
 
 "Whereas, Certain lawsuits have been filed against offi- 
 cers and members of this Convention, which have subjected 
 them to great expense; and, 
 
 "Whereas, These suits are based on the action of this 
 body when in convention assembled, and, therefore, in 
 effect, against this Convention itself; and, 
 
 "Whereas, A few of our brethren should not be allowed 
 personally to bear this burden of proceedings for which we 
 are all equally responsible ; be it, therefore, 
 
 "Resolved, That this Convention consider itself attacked 
 by these suits, and that a committee be now appointed to 
 take this matter in charge, and at once begin to receive
 
 424 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 voluntary contributions toward meeting the expenses of the 
 brethren incurred by reason of having been made defend- 
 ants in said suits." 
 
 This was signed bv M. M. Hitchcock, G. S. Tumhn and 
 E. C. Everett. A. \V. McGaha, R. F. Jenkins and John T. 
 Wofford were appointed a committee to receive contribu- 
 tions for this cause. When the motion was made to elect J. 
 B. Gambrell corresponding secretary of the Board, W. S. 
 Splawn moved to fix his salary at $2,000. An effort was 
 made to raise it to $2,500, which amount had been that of 
 his predecessors, but Dr. Gambrell begged that it be not 
 done, and his wish was respected. Judge W. H. Jenkins 
 then told how Doctor Gambrell had been brought to Texas. 
 He narrated how the members of the Board prayed with 
 intensity and tears, for God to send them the man needed 
 to meet the crisis which then existed, and how without 
 nomination of any one, the secret ballot went unanimously 
 for Doctor Gambrell. In response, Doctor Gambrell told 
 how he had not wished to come to Texas. His plans lay 
 in other directions; but in an upper room in Atlanta, 
 Georgia, the assurance came to him, in the darkness of the 
 night, while on his knees, that the presence of God would 
 go with him. These years in Texas, he said, had been the 
 happiest of his life. Not for one moment had there been a 
 shadow on his soul. Only one question should control us 
 all, and that is, What would the Master have us do? The 
 scene w-as a most affecting one and served to cement closer 
 the bonds of Texas Baptists. 
 
 The Education Commission reported through its sec- 
 retary, J. M. Carroll, the excellent work done, and reported 
 that it would be necessary in order to meet all the indebted- 
 ness with which the correlated schools are burdened to raise 
 $239,000. Of this amount $139,436.79 had already been 
 raised and appropriated. 
 
 Among those who had died during the year was Rev. 
 W. R. Maxwell, a man greatly beloved and honored by the 
 denomination. Through a long period of years the con- 
 fidence of the denomination in this good man found expres- 
 sion in the high station of honor to which they repeatedly
 
 DISASTER AND CONSECRATION 425 
 
 called him. He died at Cuero on January i, and was buried 
 at Temple. 
 
 Failing in all things else in inflaming the public mind 
 against the Convention and its chief workers through the 
 columns of the Texas Baptist and Herald, and on the floor 
 of the Convention, a relentless cruside of judicial procedure 
 was continued b}' the opposition. But it was an occasion of 
 common gratification that no further troubles could be 
 injected into the councils of the Baptists. No other ground 
 was now left the opposition than that of the courts. This 
 was a source of continued perplexity, but it was restricted 
 in its application, and its scenes were confined to the court- 
 room. As often as the lower court would pronounce against 
 the defendants, the supreme court would reverse such 
 action. 
 
 The new century opened auspiciously to the Baptists of 
 Texas. They were rapidly growing in numbers, their an- 
 nual contributions to all causes wxre every year increasing, 
 the territory of their influence was expanding, their churches 
 were multiplying, development of efficiency was progress- 
 ing, the cherished objects of the denomination were in ad- 
 mirable shape. 
 
 The romance of Texas Baptist history was behind, and 
 stern action was the rule of the hour. The vicissitudes 
 through which their great and growing institutions had 
 come had made them strong and had endowed them with 
 everlasting perpetuation. The past at least was secure, 
 and was prophetic of that which the future was to be. It 
 was a period of universal felicitation. Through prayer and 
 effort and struggle, through sacrifice and blood, these insti- 
 tutions had been reared and maintained, and only loyalty to 
 God was needed to transmit them with tremendous power 
 for good to the generations to come. That which had been 
 done was an inspiration to effort commensurate with the 
 additional advantages which other years would bring. The 
 Baptists of Texas had come to the point when they would 
 set no limit to future achievement. The future was invit- 
 ing and thousands of hearts were responsive. 
 
 The State Board assembled as usual to forecast the 
 work of the year. As usual, too, it was solemnlv deliber-
 
 426 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 ate. The members felt the responsibihty of the hour. 
 Hitherto had God led them and they were devoutly grateful 
 and profoundly humble. The meeting of the Board was 
 an occasion of buoyant joy, seasoned with a sense of 
 burden. Men spoke with measured speech, as though in 
 the presence of a visible Jehovah. The past did not cheer 
 so much as the future allured, and the allurement made 
 them serious. They were much in prayer. Their faith 
 gave them courage and made them strong. It was no occa- 
 sion for maudlin sentimentalism, but of stern reality. The 
 destiny of thousands was suspended on their deliberation, 
 the issue of causes that reached into eternity was imposed, 
 and .they felt it deeply. The Board meeting was always 
 an open one. Numbers came and filled the seats of the 
 First Baptist Church of Dallas to catch the solemn thrill. 
 Hours of devotion, deep and devout, preceded the entrance 
 on the work of the year. 
 
 During the year of 1901 came the first pronounced 
 expression in organized form against the State Convention 
 since its consolidation with all other bodies in the state. 
 This was the direct outgrowth of the action of the Con- 
 vention in declining seats in the body to certain members 
 who were opposed to the State Convention. Doctor Hay- 
 den and his followers called a preliminary meeting at Lin- 
 dale preparatory to another meeting which was held later 
 in the year at Jack's Creek, where was formally organized 
 the Missionary Baptist Association of Texas, and an inde- 
 pendent work was undertaken. Among the leaders in this 
 new movement were S. A. Hayden, S. J. Anderson, W. H. 
 Parks, J. K. P. Williams, H. B. Pender, L. L. Sams, J. M. 
 Newburn, A. P. Schofield and B. J. Albritton. S. A. 
 Hayden called the friends of the Convention "The 
 Board Party" and his own followers "The Church 
 Party." The essential difference between the two was 
 that the Convention was composed of messengers from 
 the churches, which made it a body independent, while the 
 Association was composed of churches, and not of members, 
 as constituent units. The Missionary Association proposed 
 to establish agencies to accomplish precisely the same things 
 in all spheres which were undertaken by the State Conven-
 
 DISASTEE AND CONSECEATION 427 
 
 tion, only under such different auspices as have been 
 named. The result of this was confusion in some of the 
 churches, in which some members favored one, while others 
 favored the other. The Board "of Missions of the Mission- 
 ary Baptist Association was located at Ennis, with S. H. 
 Slaughter as president and J. M. Newburn as. correspond- 
 ing secretary. 
 
 On March 21, 1901, Baylor University and the denomi- 
 nation in the state at large, suffered a serious loss in the 
 death of Professor John Stevenson Tanner, who occupied 
 the chair of Philosophy and Biblical Languages in the Uni- 
 versity. Endowed with splendid gifts, which had received 
 the burnish of high scholastic culture, and pervaded by the 
 enrichment of divine grace, Professor Tanner gave promise 
 of vast usefulness. Even in his early years he had attained 
 distinction as a scholar, and by his rare learning was already 
 wielding a wide influence. He was universally loved, and 
 was the idol of the student body at Baylor University. His 
 suavity of disposition and simplicity of life, coupled with his 
 rare qualities as an instructor, had won for him a popularity 
 but seldom enjoyed. He died at the age of thirty-two. 
 
 On May 14, 1901, President R. C. Burleson, D.D., 
 LL.D., died after a career of marvelous usefulness. His 
 long, eventful life stretched through all the stirring scenes 
 in Texas, from the days of its earliest struggles till death 
 came to the old hero. Active, energetic, progressive and 
 possessed of administrative power, he had done more, per- 
 haps, for education in Texas than any other. His gifts 
 were versatile and his energy invincible. He had enjoyed 
 the friendship of the leading men of Texas during both the 
 periods of its being a Republic and a state. 
 
 His brethren had honored him by sustaining him as 
 president of their chief institution of learning for forty- 
 seven years. For a number of years he was the presiding 
 officer of the two general bodies of the denomination in the 
 state. For full fifty years he stood in the front rank of 
 Texas Baptists. He was president emeritus of Baylor Uni- 
 versity when he died. He died at the ripe age of seventy- 
 eight and was buried at Waco. 
 
 The year was one of cheering development in eastern
 
 428 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 Texas. \'ast gains were made in that region of the state, 
 in which country churches vied with those in the centers of 
 population in beneficence. 
 
 The campaign of eckication left in its wake an excellent 
 condition for the pressure of the claims of the objects which 
 were to be presented, each in its turn. For the claims of 
 Home and Foreign Missions came next, and the results were 
 gratifying, as they had been in the pressure of the claims 
 of the Commission. Unswerved by factious opposition, the 
 advancing column of varied agencies marched aggressively 
 abreast. 
 
 The State Board, in its first meeting after the Conven- 
 tion, had resolved on spending $50,000 during the year on 
 the field. This was necessary to command the service of 
 the two hundred and three workers employed in this vast 
 venture. The faith of God's people was tried, for there 
 was a general failure in the crops over the entire state, but 
 God honored their adventurous faith, as he always does. 
 Faith measured up to the emergency, there was no faltering, 
 and in due time, it was honored of God. 
 
 New church organizations came into being, the State 
 Board establishing during the year as many as eighty-three. 
 Two hundred and eighty-seven Sunday-schools were also 
 organized. In the new centers springing up as by magic, 
 the employees of the Board secured seventy-three church 
 lots. Indeed, no interest fostered by the Baptists of Texas 
 lagged. One of the favorable signs of the times was the 
 demand for a strong, aggressive ministry. This was the 
 immediate outgrowth of the aggressiveness and the pro- 
 gressiveness of the denomination. The sturdy people who 
 had crowded the western frontier, the boundary of which 
 was being steadily pressed still westward, called for men in 
 the pulpit who were of the highest possible type. A weak 
 preacher found no place among them. This work on the 
 western frontier, undertaken years before in the wisdom of 
 Dr. O. C. Pope, had been vigorously followed up by his 
 successors and now vast results were seen. This demand 
 for a strong ministry reacted on Baylor University, and 
 helped to elevate and expand this growing institution. 
 
 Then, too, it was a year of church building. Excellent
 
 DISASTEE AND CONSECRATION 429 
 
 houses of worship were rapidly taking the places of many 
 which had not been a credit to the great people who wor- 
 shiped within them. Of course, the disaster along the 
 southern coast stimulated the work in that region, as the 
 effort of rehabilitation had already begun, but it was not 
 confined to southern Texas. During the year the church 
 building fund ran up to $59,082.05. The amount received 
 for State Missions aggregated $52,462.25. A neat balance 
 was left in the treasury after all obligations had been met. 
 
 At the Waco Convention three large tents were given 
 respectively by C. C. Slaughter, C. H. Briggs and Sid Wil- 
 liams for evangelistic purposes. These were transported 
 here and there in populous communities with immense bene- 
 fit. While these mighty movements were in progress, and 
 vast results were being gained, the work was not pressed 
 to exhaustion. Reserved power was left for strength in 
 the future, and for a fresher and further bound forward 
 when the next opportunity should come. While the visible 
 results were vast, those unseen were unspeakable. 
 
 Among the active evangelists of the period was Rev. Sid 
 Williams, whose services as an evangelist were not confined 
 to Texas, but were sought far and wide in other states. 
 
 When the Convention met at Ft. Worth on November 
 8, 1 90 1, it came together with its accustomed enthusiasm. 
 It was warmly greeted by the Mayor, Hon. T. J- Powell. 
 on behalf of the city and Dr. Luther A. Little on behalf 
 of the Baptist churches. The response to these addresses 
 of welcome was made by Rev. George W. McDaniel, who, 
 among other young pastors in Texas, had but recently come 
 into state-wide prominence. It was in this speech that he 
 coined the phrase, "Enlistment, enlargement, enlighten- 
 ment," which has become a part of the militant literature 
 of Texas Baptists. His address was one of the most elo- 
 quent of its kind ever heard in the Baptist General Con- 
 vention. 
 
 It was a notable gathering of Baptist tribes. No bar- 
 riers as heretofore lay in the way of the prompt organiza- 
 tion of the body. The officers were elected by acclamation : 
 R. C. Buckner, president, W. J. Brown, W. D. Harris and 
 Fred W. Freeman, vice presidents, and A. E. Baten and
 
 430 IITSTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 F. M. jMcConnell, recording secretaries. Early in the ses- 
 sion J. M. Gaddy announced that Dr. A. W. McGaha, 
 pastor of the First Church of Waco, was seriously ill at 
 lluiitsville, Alahama, and moved that the secretaries tele- 
 graph him and his family a message of sympathy. The 
 following message was accordingly sent: 
 
 " 'The Lord will strengthen him upon the hed of lan- 
 guishing ; thou wilt make all his hed in his sickness.' Ps. 
 41 -.T,. ]{arnest pra}XT, heartfelt sympathy." 
 
 It will be noted that at this session of the Convention, 
 Rev. F. M. McConnell was elected as one of the secretaries 
 instead of J. H. Truett, who for years had graced that re- 
 sponsible position. During the spring of 1901, Mr. Truett 
 fell ill with a trouble that soon developed into tuberculosis, 
 and the 1901 session of the Convention was the last that it 
 was ever his privilege to attend. Fie is a man of unusual 
 strength of character, gentleness of heart, and devotion to 
 the Baptist cause. He is a brother to Rev. (jeorge W. 
 Truett, and a son of Mr. C. L. Truett and wife of White- 
 wright, Texas. At this latter point, J. H. Truett lingers as 
 these words are penned in what he believes to be the shad- 
 ows of his last days on earth. He has fought a good fight 
 and has kept the faith, and in his brief but devoted life he 
 has made a record of which any Christian soldier might 
 well be proud. 
 
 The reading of the annual report of the Board of Direct- 
 ors, which had been prepared by Secretary J. B. Gambrell, 
 was the occasion of intense attention. This report was 
 read by the recording secretary of the Board, George W. 
 Truett. He has read for the Convention the annual report 
 of the Board for many years. The impressive manner in 
 which this and other reports have been read to the body 
 has been no small factor in their great impressiveness. 
 Truett is all heart and love for the cause, and his great and 
 consecrated life has been freely placed upon the altar of 
 Texas Baptists. The review of the work of the year in all 
 its phases, the innumerable blessings which had attended 
 it, the expansion of the field of operation and the outlook — 
 every item was one of inspiration to the dense audience. 
 
 The work of the Education Commission during the year
 
 DISASTER AND CONSECRATION 43 1 
 
 had been such that Dr. B. H. Carroll stated, after an address 
 on the subject, that if $25,000 could be raised at this ses- 
 sion it would liquidate the last cent of indebtedness on all 
 the schools. In response to an appeal from J. M. Carroll, 
 the last cent was subscribed and the Convention arose and 
 sang: "Praise God, from whom all blessings. flow." 
 
 From statistical information gathered from J. M. Car- 
 roll, the statistical secretary of the Convention, the follow- 
 ing facts were developed : 
 
 First. In Texas is more than one-eighth of the white 
 district associations in the South. 
 
 Second. In Texas is one-seventh of the number of 
 white Baptist churches of the South. 
 
 Third. In Texas is one-thirteenth of the total Baptist 
 membership of America. 
 
 Fourth. In Texas is one-fifteenth of the total Baptist 
 membership of the world. 
 
 Fifth. Texas sustains far more State Missionaries than 
 any other state. 
 
 Sixth. Texas contributes far more to State Missions 
 than any other state. 
 
 Seventh. Texas contributes more money to all mis- 
 sions than any other southern state, and possibly more than 
 any other state. 
 
 Eighth. Texas contributes more money to benevolent 
 objects than any other of the southern states. 
 
 Ninth. Texas is doing more than twice as much for 
 orphan children as any other southern state. 
 
 The gifts of the year were signalized by the magnificent 
 donations' of F. L. Carroll and George W. Carroll, father 
 and son, to Baylor University ; F. L, Carroll giving a 
 library building for Baylor University, costing $60,000 ; 
 and George W. Carroll, giving $75,000 for a science hall. 
 Nothing had ever before occurred in the history of the 
 denomination that gave so great a stimulus to the general 
 cause of benevolence, and to the special cause of education. 
 Mr. F. L. Carroll subsequently added $5,000 to his gift, 
 for an organ to be placed in the immense chapel of the 
 building which bears his honored name. Both these mag- 
 nificent edifices adorn the campus of Baylor University.
 
 432 HISTOKY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 The Convention at Ft. Worth closed with a glow of 
 enthusiasm. The Baptists of Texas had made a fortunate 
 discovery — that of their own strength. The results achieved 
 during the past year became a marvelous propulsion toward 
 the future. The joy was universal, as the contribution to 
 the general result had been. Men had wrought mightily, 
 and many had done their utmost. The aggregation of re- 
 sults made the occasion memorable. Immense success in 
 the past inspired confidence for the future. As the thou- 
 sands turned toward their homes, there was a sense of 
 honest pride in being a Texas Baptist. Xor were the re- 
 sults of the year confined in their influence to Texas. The 
 news was flashed over the wires throughout the country, 
 and the press, both secular and denominational, gave it 
 great prominence. Great examples inspired great effort. 
 With the Baptists of Texas the effect was electrical. Pos- 
 sibilities multiplied with growing success. 
 
 During the year 1901 Doctor William Henry Newman 
 became a member of the theological faculty of Baylor Uni- 
 versity. He came crowned with the distinction of being the 
 leading church historian of the continent. His researches 
 had been varied and profound, and his removal to Texas 
 was regarded as one peculiarly fortunate to the denomina- 
 tion. He resigned the chair of Church History in Mc- 
 Master University, Toronto, Canada, to accept a similar 
 position at Baylor University. 
 
 In the spring of 1901 were laid with much ceremony 
 the corner stones of the great Carroll buildings on the 
 campus of Baylor University. Distinguished speakers were 
 present and the occasion was one worthy of the institution 
 and the princely donors.
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 A PERIOD OF PROSPERITY, 
 
 During the last few years everything had been conspir- 
 ing to the prosperity of the Baptist denomination in Texas. 
 In God's providence everything had fallen out for their 
 good. Obstructions had been overborne by the irresistible 
 tide, and nothing could stand in the way of denominational 
 progress. Talleyrand's trite but famous saying, "Nothing 
 succeeds like success," was being illustrated by Texas Bap- 
 tists. One achievement made possible another and greater. 
 The most doubtful and the most indifferent had fallen into 
 the line of march, and were now exultant sharers in the 
 great accomplishments of the time. Others still joined now 
 in the prosecution of enterprises which they once thought 
 to be impossible. There were not wanting those who felt 
 at the close of a given year that it would be impossible to 
 repeat its record the next, but when the next would come 
 with still greater results, they too would join the chorus 
 of the advancing column. 
 
 Four chief causes had conspired to bring about the ex- 
 isting results — these were resistance, unity, organization 
 and faith. The hostile demonstrations with which the Con- 
 vention has been tormented for years called into exercise 
 the deep moral resistance of every unbiased man and 
 woman. It was resistance or ruin which confronted our 
 people, and strong men and women were not disposed to 
 sit idly by and in passive quietude see the work of many 
 hard years go to pieces, to gratify selfish ambition. No 
 mistaken notion of nonresistance possessed them when the 
 call came for decisive action. The alternative was clear — 
 loyalty to principle or surrender in shame. It is- easy to see 
 that the logical sequence of this would be unity. It set 
 people to seeing and thinking one way. Thought, affec- 
 
 433
 
 434 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 tion, devotion and loyalty were focused. This again would 
 have availed nothing, had there not been present at this 
 crisis the wisdom to utilize, direct and urge. God had 
 raised up men for the juncture. Providence makes no 
 mistakes. Emergencies call for men and they are always 
 present. Fortunate for the Baptists of Texas, their leader- 
 ship in its versatility exactly met the demands of the crisis. 
 Then, too, they were men of faith, and their strong, bold 
 faith, by its masterly example became contagious. 
 
 One cannot reflect on the scenes enacted in Texas dur- 
 ing the few recent years without seeing how these four 
 logical links were united — each productive of the other next 
 succeeding — resistance, unity, organization and faith. As 
 the all-perv^asive principle of the individual life is faith, 
 making possible and preserving the integrity of the other 
 graces of the soul, so faith underlay all the other elements 
 named here, and pervaded them through and through. 
 
 Such was the boundlessness of the enthusiasm of the 
 time that when the next Board meeting was held, in order 
 to forecast the work of the succeeding year, there were 
 those present who felt that the denomination could multiply 
 its achievements many times over during the following 
 year. But Doctor Gambrell sounded the note of caution 
 and by quaint humor and illustration suggested that the 
 child must first crawl, then stand alone, then walk and run. 
 To make haste slowly, to preserve the stitches so that not 
 one be let drop, was the timely and philosophic suggestion 
 to those who felt the impulse of precipitate action. In the 
 same connection it was suggested that the Baptists of Texas 
 could raise $100,000 even for state missions during the next 
 year, if they should will, and this was responded to by ani- 
 mated "aniens ;" but the voice of caution brought soberness 
 by the suggestion that we must grow into greatness by de- 
 grees, as we had done. That vaster things awaited the 
 Baptists of Texas was evident from the history of the past ; 
 but the due process of growth and development admits of 
 application to the principle of evolution, whether of the 
 plant, the brute, the child, the seasons, or the high unfold- 
 ing of eternal plans. Possessed of this idea the work for 
 the next year was projected. In the ascending scale of de-
 
 A PEEIOD or PEOSPEEITY 435 
 
 velopment it had been just as easy to raise $50,000 during 
 the last year as it had been to raise half that amount a few 
 years before. 
 
 The situation which confronted the Board of Directors 
 at its first annual meeting after the Fort Worth Convention 
 in 1901 was not without its embarrassments.. It called for 
 the coolest wisdom and the most penetrating sagacity. Up 
 to this time the work had greatly prospered, and order had 
 rapidly come out of disorder ; but the wisdom of the states- 
 man, combined with the devoutness of the saint, was needed 
 to begin the year with such adjustment to conditions that no 
 snags be left in the current for the future. 
 
 It would have seemed to a casual observer that the re- 
 sources of the denomination were pretty thoroughly drained 
 in the closing days of 1901, when the Board held its an- 
 nual meeting in Dallas. The work of the Education Com- 
 mission had been one of close and careful gleaning, and it 
 seemed necessary. In its last strain to meet existing in- 
 debtedness it had received pledges to the amount of $25,000 
 at Fort Worth. Then the Buckner Orphans' Home at the 
 same session of the Convention had been pledged the hand- 
 some sum of $12,600. Besides all this, the preceding year 
 had been a disastrous one to the farming interests, and not 
 only was money scarce, but there was no assurance of 
 course that the following year would be one of harvest 
 prosperity. All these matters were subjects of the most 
 serious consideration at the hands of the Board, and before 
 the prospective outlay was named all possible contingencies 
 were considered. 
 
 At this juncture Rev. Isaac Sellers suggested that the 
 signs and seasons indicated a prosperous incoming year, 
 and he was anxious that advancement be made in absolute 
 trustfulness. A nian of wisdom and of broad and varied 
 observation, and a brother whose judgment was worthy of 
 consideration, the cheering words of Isaac Sellers availed 
 much. The amount of $50,000 had been appropriated the 
 year before and $65,000 was named and adopted for the 
 succeeding year. Deacon John T. Wofford, of Cuero, who 
 had come to the front as one of the most liberal and dis- 
 tinguished of the Baptist laymen, deemed the amount a
 
 43G IlliSTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 safe one and urged the adoption of the sum named. The 
 leader of the host of laymen, Colonel C. C. Slaughter, who 
 was the president of the Board, coincided with the others in 
 the proposed advancement for the redemption of the state. 
 Two days were spent in earnest and serious elTort to ap- 
 propriate the amount, so as to reach and afTect every part 
 of the state wdiere need existed. 
 
 The year was attended by difficulties of an unusual 
 character, but they were summarily met. Rev. George W. 
 Baines, who had long been a conspicuous figure in the 
 councils of the denomination, a man of great force with the 
 churches everywhere, was compelled by conditions of health 
 to retire from the work of general missionary, and re- 
 enter the pastorate on the high plains of the west. Revs. 
 W. M. Gaddy and J. M. P. Morrow, two other efficient 
 general missionaries, were hindered by protracted illness. 
 Rev. J. C. Gentry, a man of deep piety and lovable heart, 
 and a most active general missionary, had died. Rev. J. M. 
 Gaddy, whose adjustable efficiency was in great demand in 
 the sphere of raising money, was retained by the Education 
 Commission for most of his time, though it was contem- 
 plated that his services would be at the command of the 
 State Board. Then, too, the seasons were again unfavor- 
 able and the crops failed. But the denomination was well 
 organized and manned by as able and loyal body of pastors 
 as any state ever had. Facilities were abundant for reach- 
 ing the people both by word of mouth and the printing 
 press. The Baptist Standard was at its best, and Editor 
 Cranfill was rendering a service to the cause second to that 
 of no other man. His paper was deservedly popular, and 
 through his energy and management reached many thou- 
 sands of homes and touched into activity much latent 
 energy. That w^hich found expression at the meeting of the 
 Convention in 1902 was the policy of the denomination 
 through its Board of Directors — enlightenment, enlistment, 
 enlargement. It was a year of tremendous activity all along 
 the line. There was no abatement of energy, no cessation 
 of well directed effort. In no sphere of life was activity 
 more strenuous than in the Pjaptist denomination of Texas. 
 It was a vear of denominational instruction. Literature
 
 A PERIOD OF PROSPERITY 437 
 
 was freely used, and the people were enlightened. Great 
 compactness of organization was secured, and as a result of 
 the combined agencies of literature and effort, the multi- 
 tudes were enlisted as never before. Notwithstanding the 
 disadvantages, which were grave, the boundaries of the work 
 were enlarged and the domain of usefulness in Baptist 
 circles in Texas was vastly broadened. The outcome of the 
 development which had ensued as a result of the phenom- 
 enal activity of the last few years, was the settled principle 
 that the churches needed active pastors. No pastorate in 
 Texas in the Baptist denomination was a sinecure. Nor 
 would the churches engage pastors who were not capable 
 leaders in missionary enterprise. No pastor could long re- 
 main in connection with the Baptist church who was a 
 drone. Churches vied with each other in gifts and other 
 good work. It was a distinguishing phase of denomina- 
 tional life that the churches themselves were active. Men 
 and women alike, and the young of both sexes in their re- 
 spective organizations, were vigorous and healthy in tone 
 of spiritual life. The Baptist denomination of Texas 
 throughout was a busy host. 
 
 So strong and formidable had the forces become as to 
 call for closer and more complete organizations in detail. 
 From every association there were active forces, but it was 
 clear that these could become manifold multiplied with com- 
 mensurate returns if others were reached as had been the 
 comparative few. The associations themselves took up 
 the work of more thorough organization in order to fuller 
 co-operation. There was a mighty moving of the Spirit 
 among the masses. 
 
 Thus the work went bravely and cjuietly on throughout 
 the year. Where visible means of success were not in sight, 
 faith supplied the want. Every department of work was 
 pervaded by the spirit of evangelism. The numerous re- 
 vivals with which the year was signalized were not suf- 
 fered to be spent solely in religious fervor of praise and 
 prayer, but coupled with these were exhibitions of benefi- 
 cence that rounded out Christian character and life. 
 
 In the southern end of the state wonted activity was 
 being resumed. In the drowned district the people were
 
 438 HISTOEY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 zealously engaged in re-establishing themselves. Through 
 aid derived from many sources the meeting-house of the 
 lurst Baptist Church of Galveston was being reared, and 
 throughout the district inundated in 1900, church buildings 
 were being erected. 
 
 In this onward movement the Young People's work was 
 proving to be a powerful factor. More than two hundred 
 Unions were in existence, and the first Encampment was 
 inviting programme and the novelty of a seaside convention, 
 held at La Porte during the summer of this year. With the 
 it was largely attended, and served to give powerful impetus 
 to the work. The retirement of President O. H. Cooper 
 from Baylor University and the acceptance by himself of 
 the presidency of Simmons College resulted in the selection 
 of Professor S. P. Brooks of the Baylor faculty as his suc- 
 cessor. 
 
 Some estimate of the vastness of the work of the Con- 
 vention during the year may be gathered from the fact that 
 as many as two hundred and thirty-six workers were en- 
 gaged throughout the State. 
 
 There was no region of the State left untouched. Allied 
 to the work of the State Board was every other interest. 
 Commensurate wath the growth of State Missions were 
 those of Home and Foreign. In regions where such claims 
 were never before presented they were at this time urged, 
 '^riiousands of Baptists had their visions enlarged during 
 the year. 
 
 The denomination suffered the loss of two most valua- 
 ble ministers during 1902, Rev. F. M. Law, D.D., died early 
 in the year at Belton. For forty-three years he was a mem- 
 ber of the Baptist ministry of the State. He was in many 
 ways a very strong man, but in nothing stronger than in 
 character. No one was more identified with the educational 
 progress of the denomination in Texas. For a full quarter 
 century he was president of the Board of Trustees of Baylor 
 Female College. During all that period he was a conspicu- 
 ous figure in the State Convention. His clear discrimina- 
 tion in business affairs, his poise of judgment and his keen 
 conscientiousness made him a safe and valuable member of 
 the body in its vicissitudes, in many of which he was a
 
 A PEEIOD OF PEOSPEEITY 439 
 
 prominent sharer. His death was a sad blow to the Con- 
 vention. The judgment of no one was oftener sought. 
 The denomination found dehght in honoring so worthy and 
 trustful a servant as F. M. Law. 
 
 Allusion has already been made in passing to the death 
 of Rev. J. C. Gentry. He was the embodiment of consecra- 
 tion and worked often under physical pain. In his frail 
 body was a soul on fire for the salvation of the people. 
 Long a favorite general missionary of the Board, his death 
 occasioned a serious gap when it seemed that he could ill 
 be spared. As he came within sight of the glory which 
 awaited him, the soul of the dying saint burst into song, and 
 just before his eyes closed in death he sang: "I am a Child 
 of the King." 
 
 The Missionary Baptist Association had its first year of 
 activity in the field. The method of procedure took com- 
 plexion from the atmosphere of the Texas Baptist and 
 Herald. The interest fostered by the Convention was 
 sought everywhere to be disparaged. The Association en- 
 gaged forty workers for all or part of their time. The sec- 
 ond annual session of the Missionary Baptist Association 
 was held at Jacksonville, and began its sessions on August 
 5, 1902. There was a representation of three hundred and 
 twelve churches. W. H. Parks was chosen president, J. K. 
 P. Williams and H. B. Pender, vice-presidents ; L. L. Sams, 
 recording secretary, and J. M. Newburn, corresponding- 
 secretary. A collection in cash and pledges was taken by 
 Secretary Newburn, resulting in $3,000 in cash and pledges 
 to liquidate the indebtedness of the Board. The report of 
 the Board of Missions outlined the difficulties encountered 
 in the prosecution of the work, and deplored the abuse of 
 the confidence of the people and churches by those not co- 
 operating with the Missionary Association. The policy of 
 the Board was announced as one of economy, and gave as 
 its purpose "to plant down the state with orthodox 
 churches," and the Board insisted that it could not "aid 
 them in wicked extravagance." The number of baptisms 
 reported was 639. Twenty-two churches were organized 
 and thirty-four Sunday schools. In an appeal for the pro-
 
 440 lllS'l'Oia' OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 motion for the work for next year a collection in cash and 
 pledges was taken, amounting- to $2,064. 
 
 The Baptist General Convention met in annual session 
 on November 7th at Waco. There was no delay in organiz- 
 ing by the election by acclamation of R. C. Buckner, presi- 
 dent; Fred W. Freeman, Geo. W. Carroll, and W, B. Den- 
 son, vice-presidents, and A. E. Baten and F. M. McCon- 
 nell, recording secretaries. 
 
 Rev. J. M. Carroll had recently resigned the pastorate 
 of the First Church at Waco to accept the financial secre- 
 taryship of the Education Commission, charged with the 
 special work of procuring an endowment for Baylor Uni- 
 versity. Provision was made early in the session for the 
 presentation of this supreme claim. 
 
 Around the reading of the report of the Board of Di- 
 rectors, or really of the Superintendent of Missions, J. B. 
 Gambrell, centered the interest of the body. The extensive 
 work already indicated was reviewed in an elaborate and 
 tiirilling report. From all Cjuarters of the State reports of 
 the work had been gathered and the aggregate amount col- 
 lected was $64,238.15. But this represents only a part of 
 the immense work accomplished. Every item of the work 
 was passed in review. Adopting the phrase of the region of 
 the ranch "the round up" of the year's work was especially 
 and thrillingly commented on. Up to within three months 
 of the meeting of the Convention, only about $15,000 of 
 the amount needed to be able to go to the Convention free 
 of debt, had been received. Fifty thousand dollars more 
 had to be collected within three months, and that in the 
 face of a disastrous crop year. It is to the everlasting 
 credit of the denomination that within that brief period the 
 contributions exceeded $50,000. Nor were there any con- 
 siderable gifts. The amounts came in many instances in 
 dribbles, but the many made the much. 
 
 It had really become a joy to Texas Baptists to give. In 
 the afternoon of the first day of the Convention session, 
 there was a demand for increased contribution to the church 
 building fund, and J. M. Gaddy, a master of assemblies on 
 an occasion like this, was asked to present that claim. In 
 his inimitable wav it was done, and within fifteen minutes
 
 A PERIOD OF PROSPERITY 441 
 
 $1,038.80 was taken. After the visitors had been received, 
 pastors who had been settled in the State were in turn in- 
 troduced, and were greeted by the body. These included, 
 A. J. Holt of Nacogdoches, who had recently returned 
 from Tennessee ; Forrest Smith, of Sherman ; Carroll 
 Smith, of Navasota; W. B. McGarrity, of Hillsboro; E. A. 
 Burton, of Rusk; J. H. Boyet, of Sulphur Springs; W. S. 
 Walker, of Lampasas; E. D. Solomon, of Kaufman; C. E. 
 King, of Wharton ; C. W. Chadwick, of Honey Grove, and 
 J. A. Howard, as a representative of The Baptist Standard. 
 
 The pastoral force and efficiency of the State had been 
 greatly strengthened by these fresh accessions. Great was 
 the faith of the large body when at the close of the first 
 day, pledges were given to the amount of $60,530 for Bay- 
 lor University. The promptness and" spontaneity with 
 which the members gave was a matter of wonder to the 
 distinguished visitors present, every one of whom declared 
 that he had never seen people give like Texas Baptists. 
 
 The second morning of the session was saddened by the 
 news of a brutal assault having been made on one of the 
 pastors of the State. A brief letter was read as follows : 
 
 "Lewisville, Texas, Nov. 6, 1902. 
 "Rev. J. B. CranfiU, Waco Texas. 
 
 "My Dear Brother : With a sad heart I write you a few 
 lines. On November 4, between 4 and 5 o'clock in the 
 afternoon, I was attacked by a mob of saloon men in the 
 street, and was beaten almost to death. My face is beaten 
 almost to a jelly, and my nose broken, besides other serious 
 bruises. My sufferings are great, but I count it all joy. 
 PVay for me. May God give you the greatest Convention 
 ever known. Your brother, 
 
 "A. J. Wharton." 
 
 At the same time news came of the serious illness of 
 Rev. Geo. W. McDaniel. Prayer was oft'ered for these two 
 brethren, after which the Convention sermon was preached 
 by Rev. J. D. Ray, from the text : "The redemption that is 
 in Christ Jesus." At the close of the thrilling sermon, the 
 spiritual power which had been gathering from the begin- 
 ning broke forth into exultant and triumphant praise.
 
 442 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 One phase of the work of the denomination which has 
 hitherto received only occasional notice in this narrative, 
 had become in many ways one of the most frnitful sources 
 of good, and that is, Woman's Work. During the year 
 which closed at this time, their contributions amounted to 
 $14,271.68. 
 
 At the first meeting of" the Board of Directors of the 
 Convention, which meeting was attended by the usual de- 
 votional spirit, it was resolved to project the work of the 
 ensuing year on a basis of $75,000, a distinct advance on 
 the amount appropriated the year before. The increase in 
 these appropriations from year to year was a fair index to 
 the expansion of the w^ork. Not that the amount named 
 was sufficient to meet the varied demands of the work, but 
 it was an amount that could be raised w'ith safety to the 
 churches, and could be placed to the greatest good in the 
 broadening sphere of the operations of the Board. 
 
 The usual routine of activity continued unbroken. Spe- 
 cial attention was devoted to the eastern and western sides 
 of the State. The conditions in each were quite dififerent, 
 and care was had to assign to employment, in these opposite 
 regions, men exactly suited thereto. In eastern Texas was 
 a staider population, the ancestors of wdiich had been there 
 from the beginning of Texas as a state, and some even be- 
 fore; but it was in need of evangelization to reach the un- 
 churched masses, and to stimulate many churches which 
 had long been at a standstill. Vast additions had been 
 added to the population during the recent years, and it had 
 become an inviting field to the evangelist. Much of the 
 force of the Board was expended during 1903 in that 
 region. 
 
 In western Texas the population was comparatively 
 new. Over a vast area, and along an extensive region, a 
 new population had settled. Homes were multiplying, new 
 towns springing up, and those which had been previously 
 established were rapidly growing. No field was more allur- 
 ing to the preacher of the masses. It was represented by 
 Kipling's well known verse, ''The far-flung battle-line." 
 which was used by Secretary Gambrell in description of it. 
 
 Then, too, southern Texas was assuming commanding
 
 A PEKIOD OF PKOSPEKITY 443 
 
 proportions. The wrecks of the flood and storm of 1900 
 were rapidly giving place to an animating scene. The 
 •value of land was increasing, orchards of fruit were 
 being planted, sugar plantations were multiplying, truck 
 farming expanding, and the production of rice was ad- 
 vancing annually. Galveston was emerging from wreck 
 and ruin, and the plucky city beside the sea was becoming 
 itself again. Three years had wrought a wondrous change 
 in this once desolated region. No time was to be lost by 
 the State Board in keeping pace with the fresh develop- 
 ment of that section. 
 
 The new conventional year brought with it new diffi- 
 culty. The boll weevil was at its worst, and the cotton 
 crop was otherwise affected, while the cattle market was 
 greatly depressed. On these two elements the State Board 
 was reliant, through the churches, for its revenue. To raise 
 $10,000 more for State Alissions than was ever before at- 
 tempted, and that, too, in the face of the most unconjec- 
 tured conditions, put any other than a pleasant aspect on 
 affairs. But there was universal confidence, and no abate- 
 ment of conventional operation. ]\Ien worked on as serenely as 
 though the large amount was already within sight. In truth, 
 the Baptists had become so accustomed to apparent reverses, 
 that they felt ready to ply the oar with renewed vigor as 
 the storm deepened. It was at such a time as this that The 
 Baptist Standard did its best work. Its pages fairly beamed 
 with radiant hopefulness and words of cheer. Editor Cran- 
 fill did the best work of his life in these repeated junctures 
 into which the denomination was brought. With him at 
 the head of the paper, and Doctor J. B. Gambrell leading 
 the forces on the field, by timely suggestions and word of 
 encouragement, reinforced by two such coadjutors as Geo. 
 W. Truett and C. C. Slaughter, success always seemed in- 
 evitable. 
 
 One of the elements attending the successful work of the 
 year was that of the free use of literature. The people 
 sought information, and it came. It was by this means that 
 the hopelessly antagonistic elements in the churches were 
 eliminated. The theory of associational co-operation was 
 rapidly assuming practical shape in a most satisfactory
 
 444 lll8T0K\r OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 manner. Associations capable of caring for their own 
 local destitution were multiplying. Many of the district as- 
 sociations were doing colportage work, some with wagons, 
 going from house to house, to dispense wholesome litera- 
 ture. 
 
 The demand for energetic work w^as one of the most 
 hopeful signs of the times. Besides the local and general 
 missionaries, men gifted in evangelism were employed, and 
 the richest results ensued. In all, two hundred and fifty- 
 nine men were engaged by the Board in different quarters 
 of the State. As a result of this, a little less than ten thou- 
 sand people w^ere received into the Baptist churches of 
 Texas during the year of 1903. During the same period, 
 one hundred and fourteen churches, and four hundred and 
 nineteen Sunday schools were organized in connection with 
 the Board. Where there was a work so aggressive and 
 wholesome, aid was frequently obtained with ease. In not 
 a few instances the owners of saw mills would give suffi- 
 cient lumber to build or repair churches, and a railroad 
 would greatly reduce the rate of transportation. It was 
 estimated by the Secretary of the State Board that the 
 church lots secured, meeting houses repaired and built, in 
 connection with the work of the Board, amounted to $67,- 
 091.85. 
 
 In the early part of 1903 the two great educational 
 buildings, which were the gifts of F. L. and Geo. W. Car- 
 roll, were appropriately dedicated. The occasion was one 
 of the most notalale ever held in the State. The ceremonies 
 continued through several days, beginning with a sermon 
 of dedication by Doctor B. H. Carroll on Sunday. Distin- 
 guished educators from Texas and other states were pres- 
 ent, and delivered addresses. Among the visitors was presi- 
 dent Wm. R. Harper, of Chicago University. 
 
 The thirteenth annual session of .the Baptist Young 
 People's Union was held again this year at La Porte. R. 
 H. Coleman, who had been president for seven successive 
 years, was again elected. A striking programme was exe- 
 cuted through a period of two w^eeks, and representatives 
 from every part of the State served to impart fresher mo-
 
 A PEEIOD OF PEOSPERITY 445 
 
 mentum, which was gradually reaching all the churches of 
 the State. 
 
 The Texas Baptist IMissionary Association proceeded 
 in its work on no stipulated financial basis, but relied on the 
 revenue that might be derived from the field. The churches 
 belonging to the body were generally poor, according to the 
 report made this year by the Board of Missions, and were 
 not prepared to make a large financial exhibit. It was 
 clearly evident that working on a basis so restricted, both 
 as to finances and to accessible territory, such an exhibit 
 was impossible.' In some instances, the field sought to be 
 occupied by the Missionary Association and the State Con- 
 vention overlapped, so as to bring the missionaries of each 
 into contact, if not conflict, wnth the advantage invariably 
 in favor of the representatives of the Convention. Each 
 year witnessed the increased withdrawal of members from 
 the Missionary Association, who returned to the Conven- 
 tion. This ratio of returning members increased with the 
 years. 
 
 When the Missionary Association met in Dallas, in 1903, 
 the meagerness of the report represented more appeals for 
 aid than the report of work rendered. W. H. Parks was 
 again made president, while H. Y. Lively and A. D. Brooks 
 were elected vice-presidents, L. L. Sams and W. E. Tynes 
 were made recording secretaries, and J. M. Newburn and 
 S. J. Anderson corresponding secretaries. There was pres- 
 ent at this session of the Missionary Association, A. J. Diaz, 
 of Cuba, who for strong and sufficient reasons had been 
 retired from the employment of the Home Mission Board 
 of the Southern Convention, and who was now seeking to 
 retain some hold on the work in Cuba. A malcontent, Diaz 
 sought sympathy at the hands of the Missionary Associa- 
 tion. 
 
 The report of the Board was that fifty missionaries had 
 been employed and that thirty-eight churches and forty- 
 four Sunday schools had been organized. There had been 
 received, during the year, fifteen hundred and ninety-five 
 by baptism and letter, and contributions for all purposes 
 amounted to $17,385.17. Somewhat like $8,000 was 
 pledged for the support of the Board for the following year.
 
 44 G HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 Several thousand dollars was also pledged to the school at 
 Jacksonville. 
 
 The spirit of the body may be seen from an extract of 
 the report on State Missions read by S. J. Anderson : "The 
 great amount of money reported as State Mission funds by 
 the Corresponding vSccretary of the general convention (Dr. 
 Gambrcll) is largely money paid out to line up churches, 
 or to pay pastors to preach to the lioard Party contingent 
 of churches they have divided." 
 
 As many as five hundred churches were represented, not 
 on a financial basis, but purely as representatives of 
 churches. 
 
 Throughout the State, the work of the Convention was 
 prospering. Every department was instinct with life. Two 
 lumdred and fifty-nine representatives of the Board were 
 distributed throughout Texas. 
 
 Great meetings were being held in city and country 
 alike. Along the frontiers, among the ranchmen and cow- 
 boys, and in the eastern region among the mills and lumber- 
 men, great headway was being made, as well as among the 
 farmers of the rural regions and the congregations of the 
 city. More than nine thousand people were brought into 
 the Baptist churches of the State during the year through 
 the preaching of the workers of the Board. Nor does this 
 include the large number who came in through meetings 
 held in the organized churches. 
 
 Alongside this were other interests flourishing. J. M. 
 Carroll, the financial secretary of the Education Commis- 
 sion, raised $50,000 for endowment during the year. Valua- 
 ble additions were made to the museums of the University, 
 and everyone seemed to have a mind to work. Baylor Uni- 
 versity sustained the loss of Doctor R. N. Barrett, by death. 
 He was a skilled educator, and a man of gentle spirit and 
 pure heart. Doctor J. H. Luther had also died during the 
 year. For a long period he was connected with the Baptist 
 institutions of the State, and for many years was the hon- 
 ored and beloved president of Baylor Eemale College, both 
 at Independence and at Belton. Rev. Doctor E. A. Cranfill, 
 father of Doctor J. B. Cranfill and Doctor T. E. Cranfill, of 
 Waco, died at Waco while the Convention was in session
 
 A PEEIOD OF PROSPERITY 447 
 
 at Dallas. Doctor Cranfill was for decades connected with 
 the work on the frontier. 
 
 The Fifty-fifth annual session of the Convention was 
 held at Dallas, in November, 1903. In organizing R. C. 
 Biickner was again made president; D. I. Smyth, C. F. 
 Greenwood, and K. K. Leggett, were chosen vice-presidents, 
 and A. E. Baten and F. M. McConnell secretaries. There 
 was timely reason for President R. C. Buckner to say among 
 other things on assuming" the gavel : 
 
 ''We are not here to legislate for, or to dictate to, the 
 churches. This body stands unflinchingly for the inde- 
 pendence of the churches. This body has no ecclesiastical 
 power. By divine authority, that belongs exclusively to the 
 churches of Jesus Christ, each church for itself, and this 
 Convention is neither a church nor a conglomeration of 
 churches. A Baptist church of a half dozen members, wor- 
 shiping in a log school-house, at the cross-roads, is sov- 
 ereign under Christ, and it can neither surrender its sover- 
 eignity, nor blend it with that of others. It can ordain 
 preachers and administer ordinances, but this Convention 
 cannot. The commission was given to the churches, not 
 to any Association or Convention. * * * But the Con- 
 vention can materially aid in opening up new fields, and 
 in encouraging and supporting the preachers, that the 
 churches themselves have ordained. * "^ * You are 
 here, brethren, as a great educational and missionary so- 
 ciety, composed, not of churches, but of messengers from 
 the churches, and from their smaller missionary societies, 
 such as are in harmony and in co-operation with its plans 
 and purposes." 
 
 The annual report of the Texas Baptist Education Com- 
 mission deplored the failure of many first-class subscriptions 
 to the endowment to materialize, but from all sources, the 
 Commission had received during the year $60,000. The 
 matter of pressing the endowment to $125,000 in order to 
 secure the conditional amount of $35,000 from John D. 
 Rockefeller, was urged. 
 
 The review of the year's work by Doctor Gambrell in 
 the annual report of the Board of Directors was a blast of 
 great enthusiasm. As the substance of that work has al-
 
 448 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 ready been commented on, it will not be repeated here. 
 Great stress was laid on the fact that Texas is an immense 
 mission field on which the ends of the earth had met. The 
 geographical location of the State gave it advantages for the 
 future that were unspeakable. 
 
 Among the announcements made by the report of the 
 president of Baylor University, was the fact that a bronze 
 statue would soon be erected by the friends of the late 
 Doctor Rufus C. Burleson, on the campus of that institu- 
 tion. The matter of the Baptist Sanitarium, to be located 
 at Dallas, was introduced into the Convention, in a series 
 of resolutions by Geo. W. Truett. 
 
 This great institution, wdiich, as this chronicle is penned, 
 is nearing a glorious completion, was first suggested by R. 
 C. Buckner and J. B. Cranfill, in the order named. The 
 Baptist Standard, while Dr. Cranfill was its editor, pub- 
 lished a number of editorials in which the great need for 
 a Baptist Sanitarium was vigorously voiced. Meantime, 
 George W. Truett in his pastoral work in Dallas had 
 reached the conclusion that an institution of this sort was 
 absolutely needed if the Baptists of Texas would remain 
 true to their trust. C. C. vSlaughter seconded the motion in 
 a most vigorous financial way by agreeing to give $25,000 to 
 the institution to be paid wdienever as much as $100,000 had 
 been raised. It was thus' that one of the most momentous 
 movements in the history of Texas Baptists was inaugu- 
 rated. George W. Truett, while one of the busiest pastors in 
 the United States, and while burdened with many taxing 
 cares and duties, has, under God, been the chief factor in 
 the promition of this enterprise. More than the blood of 
 any other man has his blood been put into the Texas Bap- 
 tist Memorial Sanitarium. C. C. Slaughter, as treasurer of 
 the Board, and as financial mentor of the movement, has 
 stood by the institution with unselfish devotion, while the 
 other members of the Board of Trustees and the denomina- 
 tion at large have not been lacking in their interest concern- 
 ing this important work. 
 
 Woman's Work was prosecuted with vigor as the Bap- 
 tist women shared in all denominational work, and held
 
 A PERIOD OF PROSPERITY 449 
 
 their meetings a day or two prior to the annual sessions of 
 the Convention. Their contriljutions for 1903 amounted to 
 $23,955.06. Local organizations were being established 
 throughout the State, and the work done was pervaded by 
 the same enthusiasm with which the denomination was per- 
 vaded throughout.
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 THE I'KOSl'ECT BROAIJENS. 
 
 We are coming to the close of our narrative. Three 
 years more of the record of deeds of Texas Baptists re- 
 main to be presented. The consecrated interests and energy 
 of the Baptist hosts had been awakened throughout the 
 state, and that which had been done had only revealed how 
 much there was still to do. We have seen the marvelously 
 eventful periods through which the denomination has come. 
 The difficulties encountered were such as Christianity had 
 wrestled with through the ages. Serious gaps and breaches 
 had been made in the ranks, as giant soldiers had fallen, 
 but others had risen up to take their places. Disturbances 
 had shocked the columns at different times, but these had 
 been followed by a wholesome sloughing away, thus leav- 
 ing the denomination unburdened, or else those dissatisfied 
 had manfully returned. But in any event, the movement 
 had been a forward one. Occasionally ebbs have come with 
 the flow, but like the evening tide along the strand, the 
 ascent has been gradual and ever upward. All the elements 
 that enter into the romantic and heroic in struggle, have 
 attended the march of the Baptists in Texas to a higher 
 ideal of denominational life. But little of the dainty and 
 flamboyant has ever characterized Texas Baptists. Both 
 the conditions of struggle, in a wide and growing domain, 
 and the indisposition of the practical elements coming into 
 their ranks, forbade these. The conditions of struggle had 
 varied, as the cause has developed from the roughness and 
 rawness of pioneer life ; but it had been a struggle from 
 the close of the first quarter of the nineteenth centurv till 
 now. 
 
 The struggle in the beginning was with the harsher 
 side of primitive conditions in a fresh region of country; 
 
 450
 
 THE PEOSPECT BROADENS 451 
 
 but this gave way to other struggles, varying with the shift- 
 ing phases of a developing civilization. In these later years, 
 the struggle has been one of dissatisfaction with existing 
 conditions, so long as so much remained to be done. Great 
 accomplishments have begotten a hunger and thirst for 
 greater ones. It was in this condition that the year 1904 
 found the Baptists of Texas. Theirs is a stupendous sys- 
 tem which represents all the elements that enter into re- 
 ligious endeavor. The backbone of the system is State 
 Missions, while in its congenial correlation with every other 
 branch of service both give help to each other, and each de- 
 rives aid in return. The agency of man never devised a 
 more harmonious system. The result is not so much cen- 
 tralization as it is generalization. The sap of life which 
 penetrates the trunk reaches to the utmost boundary of 
 root and twig and leaf. It required a long time for this 
 condition to be attained, but when once harmonized and 
 centered, it becomes just as difficult to undo it. 
 
 This gives a self-centered power to hundreds of thou- 
 sands of Baptists in Texas. With the boundless possibilities 
 before them, the immense material resources at command, 
 the devout loyalty which sways them, and the varied ability 
 at their disposal, no one can safely predict whereunto the 
 denomination will attain. The astonishing ratio of increase, 
 alike in numbers and facilities, puts utterly beyond the reach 
 of calculation the possible achievements of the Baptists in 
 this state in the years to come. 
 
 The year began well. The sum of $80,000 was a tre- 
 mendous one, relatively speaking, for a body of Christians 
 to name for expenditure in any one state, for a period of 
 twelve months. But the manner of the procedure in mak- 
 ing the appropriation was just as remarkable. Not a dol- 
 lar of this money had been collected ; there was not the 
 promise of a cent made; yet, with the coolness with which 
 a military campaign would be projected, with the amplest 
 means at command, was this work done. Reduced to cold 
 business calculation, it would have been ridiculed by any 
 body of promoters or capitalists in the world. The deriva- 
 tion of this vast sum was dependent on the free will offer- 
 ings of a people scattered over an expansive face of coun-
 
 452 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 try. I'^or several years the seasons had been unpropitious, 
 and the yield of the earth scant. Only the year before, un- 
 usual and unlooked-for disasters had attended the products 
 on which this same body of Christians was dependent; and 
 yet when the unerring finger of Providence pointed the way 
 of action, by opening up inviting fields, the Board of Di- 
 rectors, acting in compliance with the ])rinciple which had 
 been the buoy and hope of God's people in all ages past, 
 went forward as though the voice of Jehovah had rung in 
 audible accent from the heavens, commanding an advance. 
 Faith in God was the sovereign principle which actuated 
 and propelled this body of men setting out for the future. 
 The faith of Abraham was theirs. Just as the patriarch of 
 Uz of the Chaldees plucked up his tent poles, and started, 
 not knowing whither he was going, but going because God 
 said so, even did these consecrated men proceed under God, 
 not seeing the end from the outset. The faith of the one 
 was that of the other. 
 
 Men are employed, salaries named, fields indicated in 
 which they are to operate, and yet there is not a dollar in 
 the treasury. God was honored by a faith like this, and we 
 shall come to see how God, in return, honored the faith of 
 his people. Two hundred and sixty-seven persons were em- 
 ployed and set to work. In city and in country alike, on the 
 plains of the broadening west among the ranchmen and 
 cowboys ; in the woods of the east, amidst the swishes of 
 the lumber saws ; along the railway lines of the interior, 
 where the populations were gathering ; among the people of 
 strange tongues, who had spread themselves over the fertile 
 plains, apart from native Americans ; along the shores of 
 the south, where polyglot peoples had come with little or 
 no knowledge of the gospel — ;everywhere, men were sent 
 charged with the duty of preaching, praying, visiting, dis- 
 tributing Bibles and other books, and meeting the demands 
 of every peculiar locality. 
 
 The system was an enormous one, the undertaking tre- 
 mendous, the labor onerous, the fatigue incalculable. But 
 with joy and alacrity it was done. Soon conditions grew 
 better over the whole face of the land. More churches, 
 more individuals were contributino' than ever before in
 
 THE PROSPECT BROADENS 453 
 
 Texas. New Testament evangelism was revived, and was 
 honored of God. Pastors were as arduous workers as were 
 the revivaUsts in the most obscure country regions. Never 
 had a state so loyal and harmonious a body of pastors. Cities 
 in which the cause had long languished were aroused to 
 fresh activity, the work of disintegration arrested, differ- 
 ences and difficulties overcome, and the cause saved. Nor 
 was greater work ever wrought by the printing press. The 
 Baptist Standard stood unfalteringly for the constructive 
 work which was progressive. Maligned by its opponents 
 and obstructed in every way possible, it held on its course 
 serenely and dispassionately, and was the one cohesive ele- 
 ment of the denomination throughout. Tlic Baptist, issued 
 by Editor Hanks, from Abilene, was in thorough accord, 
 and was a beacon light on the high plains of the further 
 west. The Young People's Union and the thousands of 
 Sunday schools served their purposes well, and swelled the 
 importance of the forward movement. Such conditions as 
 these prevailed throughout the State in 1904. It distanced 
 the preceding years in its results of deepening and expand- 
 ing the cause of Jesus Christ. 
 
 In another and distinct sphere, and under entirely dif- 
 ferent conditons, was the Baptist Missionary Association 
 operating. That it had in its ranks many good people, was 
 true; but its organ, the Texas Baptist and Herald, was, 
 seasoned with the contention and bitterness of years, and 
 was a sower of strife wherever it went. That those people 
 had a right to segregate themselves, and to avow principles 
 different from all others, cannot be questioned. If such 
 were their views, they should have been allowed to work 
 along lines of their own choice ; but that their organ was a 
 mouthpiece of hostility, was most unfortunate. 
 
 People may so busy themselves about theory as to over- 
 look practice, and enunciate in repeated strain, principle, 
 rather than emphasize work. Faith in a given course is 
 excellent; but without work, it is but an empty shell. To 
 claim the loyalty and co-operation of five hundred and sixty- 
 three churches, and of thirty-four of the hundred associa- 
 tions of the state, as was done at the annual meeting of the 
 Baptist Missionary Association, in its session of this year,
 
 454 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 1904, did not argue so much, when the results were taken 
 into account. To do just what others do not, to vary for 
 the sake of variance, settles nothing, any more than individ- 
 ual helief makes a thing true. The Missionary Association 
 had in its employment about seventy persons, including the 
 two secretaries and all the clerical force. Their efforts 
 were necessarily contracted, as their means were limited. 
 They were unable to make any considerable headway, and 
 to produce any great impression, and gradually valuable 
 men and women, misled in the outset, were returning to 
 the ranks of the Convention. Sober second thought, and 
 growing enlightenment were not in the favor of the con- 
 stituency of the Missionary Association. ]\Iany were grow- 
 ing tired of the artificial excitement which comes of oppo- 
 sition, and when light came to their sober hearts, they 
 quietly quit the ranks of the much-vaunted discovery of 
 error in the Convention, and quietly took their places again 
 in the ranks of the constructive workers. 
 
 November i, 1904, found the Missionary Association in 
 annual session at Dallas. W. H. Parks was again chosen 
 president of the body, and H. B. Pender and J. C. Loggins 
 vice-presidents, while L. L. Sams was made recording secre- 
 tary. One of the earliest questions pressed before the 
 body was that of the establishment of a university to be 
 operated under the Association. The matter had already 
 received considerable attention in the early part of the year, 
 but action was delayed until the general body should meet. 
 Jacksonville College was already fostered by the Missionary 
 Association, and for the needs of this school pledges were 
 given at this session to the amount of $2,055. The chief 
 items in the report of the ^fission Board were twelve hun- 
 dred and sixty-seven baptisms during the year, eleven hun- 
 dred and twenty-nine received by letter, the organization 
 of fifty-four churches, and the establishment of sixty-three 
 Sunday schools. The collections for State Missions aggre- 
 gated $16,039.70, while the expense account for all pur- 
 poses was in excess of the receipts. A collection to meet 
 the deficit amounted to $2,974.20. Pledges to maintain the 
 work for the next year were given to the amount of $12,- 
 955-75-
 
 THE PEOSPECT BEOADENS 455 
 
 It is worthy of note that Hon. George W. Carroll, 
 one of the most distinguished of Baptist laymen in Texas, 
 was this year honored with the nomination of the vice- 
 presidency on the national ticket of the Prohibition Party. 
 The honor was unsought, but none was ever more worthily 
 bestowed. 
 
 Ten days following the meeting of the General Associa- 
 tion, the Baptist General Convention met in Waco. On the 
 first day there was an enrollment of fifteen hundred names 
 of those who were messengers. The body was promptly 
 organized by choosing by acclamation R. C. Buckner, presi- 
 dent ; R. H. Hicks, James Young, and J. M. Carroll, vice- 
 presidents, and A. E. Baten and F. M. McConnell recording 
 secretaries. The report of the Board of Directors, which 
 showed the vast work done during the year, was the occa- 
 sion of great rejoicing and fraternal handshaking. For a 
 considerable time the great body abandoned itself to 
 demonstrations of joy. That the Board was able to declare 
 itself out of debt after an unprecedented expenditure of 
 $80,000 in local work, occasioned a satisfaction which 
 thrilled the immense body. A part of the work of the Board 
 of the Convention during the year, was represented by the 
 reception into the churches, by letter and baptism, of eleven 
 thousand six hundred and eighty-two members ; while one 
 hundred and twenty-eight churches and one hundred and 
 sixty-eight Sunday schools had been organized. Funds for 
 church lots, repairs and building, amounted to $76,377.36. 
 The progress made showed that Texas led the states of the 
 South in State and Home Missions, while it was third in 
 its contributions to Foreign Missions. For all missions com- 
 bined, it was first. These items include the contributions of 
 both the general bodies — the Missionary Association and 
 the Convention. 
 
 When the matter of education came before the body 
 for consideration, the fact was emphasized that Baylor Uni- 
 versity was in great need of endowment. The faculty of 
 the school had suffered the loss of Doctor B. H. Dement, 
 who had become the pastor of the First Church of Waco. 
 Ministerial education was stressed as a matter of permanent 
 and paramount importance. Both the summer school in
 
 456 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 the I'liiversitv. and the Theological Training School, held 
 during the summer, were mighty forces in the life of the 
 denoiuination. 
 
 I)aylor College for girls, at Uelton. had been tilled dur- 
 ing the ])ast season to overflowing, and was calling for more 
 room with which to accommodate the growing demand. 
 It had drawn to its faculty the best available teaching force, 
 and all its departments were well equipped. The auxiliary 
 schools were flourishing^, and giving si.gns of healthy 
 growth. 
 
 At this time, the entire country was interested in the 
 approaching Baptist Pan-Congress wdiich was to assemble 
 the following summer in London. \\y appropriate resolu- 
 tions this movement was sanctioned and applauded by the 
 Convention.- and s\-mpathy was expressed in behalf of the 
 English Baptists, and other non-conformists in their passive 
 resistance to what was known as the Education Act. The 
 Convention adopted by a rising vote a report endorsing the 
 movement to found a Baptist Sanitarium at Dallas, which 
 was to cost $250,000. This was the first practical step 
 taken in this direction, in founding in the Southwest, one of 
 the best equipped hospitals in the world. 
 
 A characteristic statement was made by Doctor J. B. 
 Gambrell. wdiich embodies much history relating to the suit 
 of S. A. Hayden against certain prominent members of the 
 Convention, which suit had been dragging its harassing 
 course through several years. From the statement will be 
 derived both the nature and the results of a terrible ordeal 
 imdergone by these heroic men. Doctor Gambrell said : 
 "There is a matter of deep concern to the brotherhood, and 
 especially to a few brethren in Dallas. We have a lawsuit 
 on hand, touching in its conditions the very life of the Con- 
 vention. That suit has gone through the courts from the 
 lowest to the supreme court -of the State. That high tri- 
 bunal has decided that this Convention has a right to deter- 
 mine its own membership. This decision is far-reaching in 
 its efTect on the peace and prosperity of our people. To 
 win this suit has cost some of us living in Dallas much 
 tribulation and thousands of dollars in money. I believe you 
 would like to know the facts : Bro. Slaughter has paid more
 
 THE PEOSPECT BROADENS 457 
 
 than anyone else. He has paid into the thousands. Bro. 
 Cranfill has paid the next largest amount, running into 
 thousands. Bro. Truett and I have paid ahout even 
 amounts, running into hundreds. We are now on paper 
 running up to something like $3,000, all past due. The 
 short of it is, unless we get help, two little Baptist preachers 
 will be mopped off the slate, financially. We will pay it, if 
 we must; but we have thought maybe some of you might 
 feel that you have a duty to perform. And if you do so 
 feel, I leave you to do what seems good to you." In re- 
 sponse to an appeal in behalf of these persecuted men. Doc- 
 tor Jeff D. Ray procured an offering of $3,551 with which 
 to aid in meeting the expenses of the suit. 
 
 No Convention had given so great propulsion to the 
 Baptist cause up to this time, as the one held in Waco in 
 1904. Within the Convention the harmony was ideal. The 
 disturbance was all without, and arose from a single source 
 which had afflicted the Baptists for years together. 
 
 Denominational evolution had now reached that stage 
 where it was evident that no boundaries could safely be set 
 to its prospect. The horizon of achievement had so widened 
 with the years, that contentment with prevailing conditions 
 had ceased to prevail, and the denomination saw no halting- 
 place in the unending outlook. What had been accom- 
 plished had been done by dint of difficulty, but obstructions 
 which once seemed large, had dwindled in the light of re- 
 peated success. Emboldened by the past, the State Board, 
 for the next conventional year, indicated its proposed prog- 
 ress, by naming $90,000 as the financial budget for the pe- 
 riod extending to the next session of the body. It was 
 realized that so large an amount would be difficult to raise, 
 but the Board had never failed, and why should it falter? 
 An advanced amount meant heroic progress. A rigid econ- 
 omy with respect to every cent spent had been one of the 
 cardinal principles of the Board. Extravagance to the ex- 
 tent of even a dollar, was not to be indulged. Every cent 
 must be made to tell. 
 
 There was a great moral lesson growing out of the nam- 
 ing of an amount so large — while it would enrich the king- 
 dom of God in the outward reaches of the work, it would
 
 458 HISTOEY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 develop, by its reaction, the characters of the givers. More 
 than that, it was addressing itself to the stern business men 
 of the churches, as meaning something. To dawdle with a 
 paltry sum, and move in a contracted sphere year by year, 
 deadens the force of the individual, of the church, the asso- 
 ciation, the convention. God is a God of ])rogress. The 
 providential hand is ever reaching into the darkness of the 
 chaos of the future, and preparing the world for a higher 
 plane of life. Revolutions and commotions have occurred, 
 but they are the birththroes of progress. In the wake of 
 successive wars have sprung the harvests of civilization. 
 Progress is always costly. 
 
 By deriving $90,000 from the denomination would be to 
 leave it in better condition than ever before. Of course, 
 there is a limit to human possibility, as there is to human 
 responsibility ; but not to reach that limit, day by day, means 
 a failure of duty. Under the sanction of principles like 
 these, while humbly leaning on God, the work of the new 
 year began. 
 
 Two hundred and eighty-two missionaries were set to 
 work on the wide field, an increase of fifteen over the year 
 l)receding. These were to preach, teach, exhort, organize 
 churches, prayer-meetings, and Sunday schools, procure lots 
 for new churches, and means for building them, distribute 
 literature, supply pastorless stations, raise funds for all the 
 interests fostered by the Convention, assist pastors, when 
 needed, and any and all work that would contribute to the 
 progress of the great cause. 
 
 At no time had conditions been so inspiring. The work 
 was under wise management, and had the united support of 
 a large force of able pastors, the Women's Societies, and 
 the Young People's organization. The sentiment of one 
 was the sentiment of all. Everyone felt that great things 
 remained yet unachieved, great enterprises were yet in 
 embryo. Where the greatness of such might have stag- 
 gered some by their dimensions, they only stimulated the 
 Baptist hosts of Texas. The Christianity of the time was 
 keeping pace with the spirit which pulsed through the 
 system of the Great West. As in the commercial sphere, the 
 face of the countrv was beins: transformed bv marvelous
 
 THE PEOSPECT BROADENS 459 
 
 achievement, and as the air was vibrant with the rush of 
 action, so in the rehgious reahn. Only there was this dif- 
 ference : There was a blend of the ancient and the modern, 
 so far as it related to the Baptists. The year was distin- 
 guished by many outdoor meetings where, under the trees, 
 large multitudes gathered from extensive areas and came 
 together for simple worship. Pastors of city churches 
 were not infrequently the conductors of such meetings. 
 Pastoral evangelization was growing throughout the State. 
 
 There was a tendency to react on the disturbed condi- 
 tion into which the Baptist denomination had"" been brought 
 by the policy of agitation of the Texas Baptist and Herald. 
 Within the ranks of the Missionary Association many ex- 
 cellent people had grown weary of that which largely char- 
 acterized that paper, and were calling for peace. ]\Iean- 
 while, however, the Missionary Association was prosecut- 
 ing its work on the field. The work was done in localities, 
 and no general state movement was undertaken. The sala- 
 ries of some pastors were supplemented, and detached mis- 
 sionary work was doiie in different quarters of the State. 
 Besides this, colportage was conducted under the auspices 
 of the Missionary x\ssociation. 
 
 That which was most noteworthy in the undertakings of 
 the Missionary Association, was the establishment of a 
 school at Oak Cliff, a suburb of Dallas, which school was 
 named the Texas Baptist University. A Board of Trustees 
 was selected and J. R. Pentuft'. Ph.D., D.D., was chosen 
 president. Their facilities were meager and they labored 
 under great embarrassment. Debt incurred in the purchase 
 of the property proved a great hindrance. 
 
 Both the general bodies met in Dallas in 1905 — the Con- 
 vention meeting first. The organization was effected within 
 a few minutes after the devotional exercises were over, by 
 electing by acclamation, R. C. Buckner president; Pat M. 
 Neft', O. S. Lattimore and R. T. Hanks vice-presidents, 
 and A. E. Baten and F. M. McConnell secretaries. 
 
 One of the first matters of importance coming before the 
 Convention at this time, was that of the establishment of a 
 Theological Seminary in the Southwest. The fact that 
 more trained preachers were needed in Texas ; that many
 
 460 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 who needc<l aid, conkl not go to the Southern Ba])tist Theo- 
 logical Seminary at Louisville, but could attend on theo- 
 logical training- at Uaylor University, had led to the estab- 
 Hshnient of a I'lieological Seminary in connection with that 
 institution. This had been growing for years, and, indeed, 
 had a separate faculty, among whom were some of the lead- 
 ing theologians of the country. It had outgrown the pro- 
 portions of a mere department, and the conditions seemed 
 to call for a distinct seminary. This was favored by Doctor 
 B. H. Carroll,^ who addressed the Convention on the subject, 
 but it was thought by some, that the time had not come 
 for a severance of the theological school from the Univer- 
 sity, and the matter had not been maturely considered by 
 the people at large, and it was referred to a special com- 
 mittee with Doctor J. A. French as chairman. After care- 
 ful consideration the following was adopted : 
 
 "Whereas, Texas and the Southwest are a great and 
 growing field of operation. And, 
 
 "\\'hereas. It is manifest that one of our greatest needs 
 is a training in the ministry. And, 
 
 "Whereas, It is further manifest that only a small per 
 cent of our preachers do go. or are likely to go beyond our 
 borders for theological training : 
 
 "Therefore, Resolved, i. That this Convention notes 
 with much interest, the very important step recently taken 
 by Baylor University in the development of the Bible school 
 of that insjtitution. 
 
 "Resolved 2. That we believe it is a sound denomina- 
 tional policy, in the interest of every part of our work, to 
 give to this movement a strong and steady support, and 
 that it ought to be given in such way as to enable Doctor 
 B. H. Carroll and his co-laborers, an opportunity to do 
 their best without distraction. And it is very ear- 
 nestly urged that the financial support of the Seminary be 
 provided by the brotherhood, without requiring any of 
 Doctor Carroll's time from his class-work. 
 
 "Resolved 3. That it is the sense of the Convention that 
 this department of Baylor University should be developed 
 prudently with regard to its interior growth and the general 
 denominational condition.
 
 THE PROSPECT BROADENS 461 
 
 "Resolved 4. That it is further the sense of this body 
 that it is both unwise and impohtic, at this time, to agitate 
 the question of the separation of this department from Bay- 
 lor University.'' 
 
 Those favoring the establishment of a separate The- 
 ological Seminary for Texas and the Southwest, were 
 willing to yield their convictions, for the time being, re- 
 specting the timeliness of creating such an institution, but 
 were none the less steadfast in the conviction that it must 
 inevitably and eventually be. 
 
 As Rev. J. L. Gross had just been settled as pastor of 
 the First Church of Houston, he was presented to the Con- 
 vention, and accorded a cordial greeting. 
 
 Great interest was shown in the report on the Baptist 
 Memorial Sanitarium as -presented by Doctor George W. 
 Truett. The necessity, the urgency and the benefits of such 
 an institution were presented in an elaborate report. En- 
 couragement was given to the undertaking by a collection 
 in cash and pledges of $90,000. This was a guarantee of 
 its success. 
 
 As usual, much interest centered about the report on 
 State Missions. This reviewed elaborately and enthusias- 
 tically the tremendous work of the year, and it was evident 
 that there was a deficit of about $5,000. The deficiency 
 was promptly raised on the spot, and the Convention broke 
 into singing "How Firm a Foundation." 
 
 The announcement that J. M. Carroll had retired from 
 the financial secretaryship of the Education Commission 
 became a subject of general regret. President Brooks was 
 chosen in his stead. He was to combine the work of raising 
 an endowment fund with that of the presidency of Baylor 
 University. During the past year, conditions had been 
 unfavorable to the work of endowment. During the period 
 of the year assigned to this branch of the work, it rained so 
 incessantly that the work could not be done. Such was the 
 condition of the correlated schools that the work of the 
 endowment of Baylor was suspended for a time in order 
 to give relief to these schools. Meanwhile two other schools 
 had come into the correlated system — Goodnight Industrial 
 Academv and Canadian Academv. Notwithstanding the
 
 462 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 adverse conditions of the year. Secretary Carroll had raised 
 $27,945.75 for the endowment of I'.aylor University. Inde- 
 pendent of this, between $16,000 and $20,000 had been raised 
 for the theological department of that school. Dnring the 
 eight years of the Education Commission there had been 
 raised, in debt-paying equipment and in endowment, about 
 $600,000. At this season of the Convention it was agreed 
 by the representatives of the leading schools of the cor- 
 related system that the Education Commission imdertake 
 to raise $125,000 during the following year, one-half of 
 which should be applied to liaylor University and the bal- 
 ance to the other schools of the system. Among other edu- 
 cational items should be named the fact that the friends of 
 Baylor College, at Belton, had raised $13,000 for the erec- 
 tion of a new building. Another item was presented in the 
 report of Baylor University for the year 1905, namely, that 
 the bronze statue of President R. C. Burleson had been 
 raised on the campus of the university. The unveiling of 
 the monument had been one of the features of the preceding 
 commencement of that institution. 
 
 It was not least among the signs of the times that the 
 Convention, by special motion, telegraphed Christian greet- 
 ings to the Northwest Texas Conference of the Methodist 
 Episcopal Giurch, South, which was in session at Hills- 
 boro. This was an expression of co-fraternity which was 
 prevailing throughout the state. 
 
 Dr. J. B. Cranfill having disposed of The Standard the 
 year before, of which paper Rev. J. H. Gambrell became the 
 editor, he resorted for a period to other pursuits, but finally 
 purchased The Baptist, of Abilene, The Southern Baptist, of 
 San Antonio, and established another paper called The Bap- 
 tist Tribune. He was hailed by many with delight on his 
 return to editorial work, his friends recognizing his signal 
 gifts with the editorial pen. Among the dead of the year 
 were Doctor T. J. Walne and Revs. R. S. Coward and J. F. 
 McLeod. Doctor Walne had been for years the represen- 
 tative of the American Baptist Publication Society in the 
 state. There had followed him to Texas from his native 
 State, Mississippi, a reputation for godliness and efificiency 
 which he maintained to the close of his life. R. S. Coward
 
 THE PROSPECT BROADENS 463 
 
 was noted as a vocalist and temperance worker, and, at one 
 time, came well nigh losing his life as a result of a brutal 
 assault of saloon men. J. F. McLeod had occupied pas- 
 torates in different parts of the State and was always beloved 
 for his works' sake. 
 
 At the close of the Convention President Buckner stated 
 in a brief address that he had presided over the body for 
 twelve consecutive years. He assumed the gavel first in a 
 storm, but that had long ago passed. It was a remarkable 
 fact, as stated by him, that for the last six years there had 
 not been cast in the body a negative vote on any subject. 
 This, he argued, was not a subordination of individual opin- 
 ion or liberty, for all had been free to act each for himself ; 
 but after discussion, free and fraternal, all had seen alike 
 through the medium of unity and harmony and all had voted 
 alike. 
 
 Following close on the heels of the meeting of the Con- 
 vention came that of the Missionary Association, which met 
 in the same place. J. C. Loggins was elected president, 
 H. B. Pender and J. S. Wilson, vice presidents, and L. L. 
 Sams recording secretary. An encouraging report on the 
 Texas Baptist University was presented, in which it was 
 shown that the Patton Seminary property had been pur- 
 chased at Oak Cliff on favorable terms. On this property 
 there was a debt of $30,000, of which amount the citizens 
 of Dallas had given assurance that they would substantially 
 aid in the future. A collection followed for the Texas 
 University amounting in cash and pledges to $9,496.50. 
 
 The report of the Board of Missions showed that col- 
 lections for all purposes amounted to $35,594.02. 
 
 The year had been attended with difficulties, and numer- 
 ous embarrassments had confronted them, arising from 
 protracted rains and other causes. The spirituality of the 
 churches acting in co-operation with the Board was not so 
 favorable. Scores of churches were reported pastorless, 
 and competent men were in great demand. From many 
 quarters there was coming a call for peace. Following the 
 presentation of this report was an overture from the Trinity 
 River Association in behalf of peace among the common 
 brotherhood of Texas Baptists. Among the statements of
 
 464 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 the petition was that of the faet that "in some of our dis- 
 trict associations the spirit of mission work is heing re- 
 tarded and the spirit of missions ahnost lost sight of in 
 many of our churches, on account of so much strife among 
 many of our people." llie spirit of the memorial was 
 excellent, and at its close it proposed a plan for the con- 
 summation of desired union of the Baptists of the state. 
 Nothing could have been more timely and fraternal, and 
 would that it had been heeded. During the session J. M. 
 Newburn resigned as corresponding secretary, and L. L. 
 Sams was chosen in his stead. By appropriate resolution 
 the board was empowered to employ as many state evange- 
 lists as possible during the succeeding year. 
 
 The Missionary Association was seeking, according to 
 its own policy, to cover the field as far as possible, and its 
 branches of service were varied, and corresponded with 
 those of the State Convention. 
 
 The Baptist work in Texas during the following year 
 began under an inspiration. Great hopes were excited by 
 that which had gone before. The times were unusually 
 prosperous and the people buoyant in spirit. Every cause 
 was ready for advancement. With the spirit which had 
 impelled the State Board all along, its work for the new 
 year was laid out on a basis of $100,000. Its plan of opera- 
 tion was enlarged in proportion, and its work proceeded 
 as heretofore. Secretary Gambrell found himself embar- 
 rassed by the retirement from service of his most inde- 
 fatigable lieutenant, J. M. Gaddy. Greatly broken in health, 
 largely the result of overwork, Mr. Gaddy was forced to 
 retire from the service. He was a master of assemblies in 
 raising funds for a worthy cause. Gifted with bright 
 humor and keen repartee, it was a delight to an audience to 
 listen to his appeal. 
 
 Even with so grave a loss froiu the work, it was vig- 
 orously pushed from the Dallas Convention onward. Three 
 hundred and two laborers were assigned to work on the 
 field, and the year resounded with the stroke of activity 
 and advancement. Evangelism became more than ever a 
 dominant note. Regard for permanency was had in the 
 prosecution of all causes. All missionary and educational
 
 THE PROSPECT BROADENS 465 
 
 interests touched by the work of the Convention received a 
 fresh impulse, and along with the enlightenment came the 
 solidification of the churches. Congregations and district 
 associations which ten years before were inert, had risen 
 into prominence as leaders in a great cause. 
 
 In many respects the year 1906 was the most eventful 
 in the history of the Baptist denomination in Texas. Dur- 
 ing the preceding year Dr. J. B. Cranfill had ended the 
 vexatious lawsuits so long pressed by Dr. S. A. Hayden. 
 The history of the settlement of these cases is both unique 
 and interesting. On April 28, 1905, Dr. Cranfill was visited 
 in his office at Dallas by Dr. R. C. Buckner and Ben T. Seay, 
 the latter a respected member of the First Baptist church 
 at Dallas. On his own initiative Mr. Seay had interested 
 himself in securing a proposal from Dr. Hayden's attor- 
 neys looking to a settlement of this litigation. The proposal 
 was carefully gone over by Dr. Buckner and Mr. Seay, 
 and they were of the opinion that it ought to be accepted. 
 They sought Dr. Cranfill and urged him to accept the 
 proposal, and thus forever end the most hurtful pro- 
 cedure known in Texas Baptist history. It was a coinci- 
 dence that this visit to Dr. Cranfill was made on April 28, 
 1905, just seven years from the day that Dr. Hayden filed 
 his first suit. Dr. Cranfill, having siiiTered perhaps more 
 than any other in this litigation, both financially and other- 
 wise, felt that it ought to be terminated, but he was well 
 aware that there were those among the defendants who 
 would be unwilling to any kind of settleiuent. The proposal 
 from Dr. Hayden's attorneys was that Dr. Cranfill was 
 to pay $100 and costs in each case. There were three cases. 
 The first of these, which Dr. Hayden filed for $100,000 
 damages, was on account of the action of the San Antonio 
 Convention in 1897. The second was for a like amount, 
 but was based on the action of the 1898 session of the Con- 
 vention. The third was a damage suit for $25,000 against 
 Dr. Cranfill personally. Only one of these cases — the first 
 one — had ever been tried. In the first trial of the case Dr. 
 Hayden secured judgment for $30,000, which was sweep- 
 ingly reversed by the Civil Court of Appeals, sitting at Dal- 
 las. There followed two mistrials of the case, which con-
 
 466 HISTOEY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 sumed about eight weeks of time each. On the fourth trial 
 of the case Dr. Hayden secured a judgment for $15,000, 
 which was subsequently afifirmed by the Civil Court of 
 Appeals, sitting at Dallas. This was taken up on appeal 
 to the Supreme Court of the State, which sweepingly re- 
 versed it, and this was the status of the litigation when Dr. 
 Hay den's attorneys sent the proposal to Dr. Cranfill. 
 These trials, all told, had cost a large sum of money, the 
 burden, of course, having borne very heavily on just a few 
 defendants. The three who suffered most were J. B. Cran- 
 fill, J. B. Gambrell and George W. Truett. These men, 
 together with the other defendants, had, all told, been held 
 in the Dallas Court house eight months. They had been 
 ruthlessly assailed, and had suffered grievously in many 
 ways. The stenographer's fee alone in one of these trials 
 amounted to $1,400. It was paid by J. B. Cranfill. Part of 
 the other stenographers' fees had been paid at the time the 
 litigation was in progress, and part was still taxed in the 
 costs. The proposal was that without either the plaintiff 
 or defendants waiving any of their allegations or pleadings, 
 all three of the suits were to be settled if Dr. Cranfill would 
 pay $100 and costs in each case. The total, therefore, under 
 this agreement that was payable to Dr. Hayden was $300, 
 and for this amount Dr. Cranfill gave three checks for $100 
 each. He also settled the costs in all the cases, which aggre- 
 gated between five and six thousand dollars. No other de- 
 fendant was consulted. Dr. Cranfill explained his course in 
 the matter by the statement that he felt that the litigation 
 had gone on long enough ; that no possible good could come 
 of it, but continuous harm ; that in view of the fact 
 the defendants did not waive any of their pleadings, no 
 compromise whatever of any principle had been made ; and 
 that while he felt ill able to do so, he was willing to pay 
 the costs and eliminate the hurtful litigation from the Texas 
 Baptist arena. 
 
 It is a noteworthy fact that during all the litigation, the 
 trial judge, Hon. Richard Morgan, favored the prosecu- 
 tion. His rulings were invariably adverse to the defendants. 
 Himself a high church Episcopalian, he seemed to rejoice 
 in the fact that he had Baptists in his court, and his con-
 
 THE PEOSPECT . BEOADENS 467 
 
 duct of the case, as many believed, was in itself a species of 
 persecution of many of the best men that Texas Baptists 
 ever knew. It was impossible under his rulings for the case 
 to be fairly tried in the lower court ; but every time it went 
 up to the higher courts it was reversed and sent back. 
 
 The service that Dr. Cranfill rendered the denomination 
 in the settlement of this litigation was noble and unselfish. 
 He at the time regarded it, and still regards it, as the great- 
 est single service he ever rendered the Texas Baptist peo- 
 ple. While there were none that ever gave him a cent in 
 helping him pay the burdensome costs incident to this set- 
 tlement, he never complained at this, but rejoiced and still 
 rejoices in the fact that he was able thus to serve Christ 
 and the Baptist cause. Looking back at the ending of this 
 litigation, even from this short distance, it seems marvel- 
 ously strange that good men should have evinced the unrest 
 and excitement that followed in some quarters on account of 
 this adjudication of the Hayden lawsuits. It is a gracious 
 fact that those who were disposed to criticise Dr. Cranfill 
 soon saw the error, and that now, without an exception, so 
 far as the writer of this record knows, the Baptists of Texas 
 are of one mind that the settlement of the lawsuits was a 
 consummation devoutly to be wished, and one that removed 
 from Texas Baptist councils the greatest engine of evil which 
 the enemies of the Baptist General Convention of Texas had 
 ever been able to marshal in their service. 
 
 The ]\Iissionary Association, in the prosecution of its 
 work, suft'ered serious difficulty. After the election of L. L. 
 Sams as corresponding secretary, he remained silent for 
 months, and finally declined. Dr. S. J. Anderson assumed 
 charge of the work temporarily, but was eventually pros- 
 trated by sickness. Late in the Associational year Dr. S. H. 
 Slaughter accepted the secretaryship, and at the close of 
 the year he, too, was stricken down with sickness. Disaffec- 
 tion of various kinds invaded their ranks, and a number 
 who had been conspicuous among them withdrew, some of 
 whom returned to the Convention. Among these may be 
 named Dr. Walter E. Tynes, who had for a number of 
 years served in an official capacity in their ranks. Like all 
 others who sought their way back into the Convention, he
 
 468 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 found an open door of Christian welcome. Among the res- 
 ignations of the year was that of Doctor Pentufif, the presi- 
 dent of the Texas ]>aptist University. Still the Missionary 
 Association pushed its way as hest it could. Burdened by 
 a debt of $7,000 inherited from the preceding year, many 
 of its former laborers were still unpaid, but later they were 
 relieved. It was evident that the dominant sentiment in the 
 denomination was against the Missionary Association. The 
 time had passed when the denomination would be seduced 
 by ill-timed detractions and distractions to swerve from a 
 course of unprecedented progress, and heed a false war cry. 
 The Baptists of Texas had entered on a highway of peace, 
 and were deaf to the disturbances that might rage else- 
 where. If it was the choice of a faction to foment animos- 
 ity, the great body of Baptists would have nothing of it. 
 
 The Missionary Association met in Dallas on October 
 31, 1906. Corresponding Secretary Slaughter was on a 
 bed of illness and could not be present. H. B. Pender was 
 chosen president, H. Y. Lively and A. D. Brooks, vice 
 presidents, and P. C. Scott and W. W. Scales, recording 
 secretaries. 
 
 The temper of the body was indicated in the annual re- 
 port of the Board of Missions. After recounting the dififi- 
 culties which had been met during the year the report says : 
 "The enemy assiduously circulated the report to the effect 
 that the B. M. A. (meaning the Baptist Missionary Asso- 
 ciation) was bankrupted and that it could never meet its 
 obligations." Later on the report says : "More than any- 
 thing else we need more consecrated ministers of the word 
 of God who cannot be purchased, deceived or led into 
 heresy for the sake of position or companionship. Hun- 
 dreds of our churches have been compelled to do without 
 preaching, or take it from those who are fpiictly endorsing 
 the heresies of conventional sovereignty."' 
 
 It was difficult to persuade people generally of the con- 
 sistency of such deliverances in the face of the fact that 
 these leaders were for many years members of the Con- 
 vention, endorsing its plans and policy, and were mes- 
 sengers to the Southern Baptist Convention, even to the 
 latest session of that body. The report advised a change
 
 THE PROSPECT BROADENS 469 
 
 of plan of work, and urged the body to devote more time to 
 evangelistic and colportage operations. The total amount 
 of receipts for all purposes for the year was $21,635.93. 
 The report of the Board of Trustees of the Texas Baptist 
 University showed that there was a debt of $35,000 on the 
 institution, $10,000 of which was due within a few days. 
 In response to an appeal for contributions and pledges with 
 which to meet this emergency, $[,308.08 was raised. The 
 pledges made for the State Board were liberal. 
 
 The Baptist General Convention for 1906 met at Waco 
 on November 8. R. C. Buckner was chosen by acclama- 
 tion, president ; L. R. Scarborough, B. F. Riley and W. B. 
 Denson, vice presidents, and A. E. Baten and F. M. McCon- 
 nell, secretaries. After appropriate preliminaries Rev. J. 
 Frank Norris preached the Convention sermon — one of 
 great powder. The annual report of the Board of Directors 
 was comprehensive in detail, reviewing the vast work in its 
 scope and in its minutest detail. It showed that the growth 
 of beneficence within ten years had been five hundred per 
 cent. That which had been undertaken by the Board dur- 
 ing the year had been splendidly successful. More than a 
 hundred thousand dollars had been raised in Texas for 
 State missions alone, and had been expended in that work. 
 The grand total of contributions for all causes amounted to 
 $296,603.03. As usual, the reading of the report sent a 
 thrill through the immense assembly, which sought expres- 
 sion in joy and thanksgiving. The evening following there 
 was a collection taken by L. R. Scarborough for the Buck- 
 ner Orphans' Home, aggregating $46,433.28. The debt of 
 $60,000 with which Baylor University was burdened had 
 been reduced by $10,000 as the result of a timely gift from 
 F. L. Carroll before his death. Dr. B. H. Carroll presented 
 the first report ever presented to the body from Baylor 
 Theological Seminary. It had been created as one of the 
 schools of Baylor University with the distinct understand- 
 ing that it was to incur no debt. Its plan and policy was 
 outlined by Dean Carroll, and the necessity of its main- 
 tenance emphasized. There had been raised for Bavlor 
 Theological Seminary during the year $13,033.44. Other 
 sums had been promised. In pathetic words, Doctor Carroll
 
 470 HISTOKY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 pressed this as the crowning work of his Hfe. On his heart 
 lay the claim of a great seminary, which he regarded as an 
 imperative necessity. 
 
 The work on the Baptist Memorial Sanitarium at Dal- 
 las had progressed rapidly toward completion. It embraced 
 six large wards and 114 rooms. The structure had a front 
 of one hundred and seventy-one feet by one hundred and 
 thirty-four feet deep. This was an additional object brought 
 under the fostering care of the Convention. The whole 
 structure is fireproof, and the buildings and grounds cost 
 $250,000. Colonel C. C. Slaughter has from the beginning 
 been a moving and ruling spirit in making the enterprise 
 a surety. He has been a princely contributor to it, and 
 cherishes it with peculiar pride. 
 
 During the year 1906 the Baptists had sustained seri- 
 ous losses by death. Among those who had fallen was 
 Rev. G. B. Rogers, who had served important pastorates 
 in the state, was once a financial secretary of Baylor Female 
 College, and for a period of years was in charge of the 
 famous chapel car "Good Will," which in its tours of unique 
 evangelism had accomplished untold good. The name of 
 G. B. Rogers had become a household w^orld through the 
 state. Deacon F. L. Carroll, the great Baptist benefactor, 
 had also died. The magnificent edifice which graces the 
 grounds of Baylor University is his chief monument. Not 
 here alone w-as his expenditure of beneficence. In thou- 
 sands of untold ways he had been a benediction to the race. 
 With a character as firm and solid as the great building 
 which bears his name, deliberate, judicious, pious, modest, 
 his loss w^as a great one to his denomination and to the 
 world. 
 
 Among the important events of the year was the de- 
 parture of Dr. L. T. Mays to Cuba to superintend the mis- 
 sionary and educational interests fostered by the Home 
 Mission Board on that island. Young, vigorous, learned 
 and progressive, he took with him confident expectations 
 of success from all who knew him. Another movement of 
 importance was the establishment of a girls' school, known 
 as Texas Baptist Woman's College, by Rev. Geo. B. But- 
 ler at Bryan, in a region where such an institution was
 
 THE PEOSPECT BEOADENS 471 
 
 greatly needed. The enterprise was undertaken with vigor 
 by Mr. Butler, who became the president of it, and a hand- 
 some building was in due time erected. Still another move- 
 ment of wide-reaching importance was that of the estab- 
 lishment of the San Marcos Academy in the town of San 
 Marcos by Dr. J. M. Carroll, who was chosen principal and 
 financial secretary of the school. It is an institution that 
 is prophetic of great things in the southwestern portion of 
 the State of Texas. 
 
 Soon after the adjournment of the Convention at Waco 
 Rev. J. M. Gaddy was accidentally killed by a train south 
 of Austin. He was on his way to San Antonio to receive 
 medical treatment. It is presumed that he left his berth in 
 the sleeper in an unconscious condition and, stepping off 
 while the train was moving, was killed. No more valuable 
 man belonged to the denomination. Deprived of early ad- 
 vantages, the deficiency was largely supplied by unusual 
 native gifts which never failed to command the admiration 
 of any audience. He died in the prime of his years.
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 CLOSING WORDS. 
 
 Now that our task is done, wo are able to stop and 
 glance over the broad field, after coming through stirring 
 and eventful scenes of many years, to review the elements 
 which have contributed to the growth and success of a 
 denomination, which, through eight decades of time, can 
 now number perhaps two hundred and fifty thousand. 
 From the beginning, it is easy to see that loyalty to principle 
 has been dominant among the rapidly growing hosts of 
 Baptists. This was as true of the grim and grizzly mis- 
 sionary in the primitive period of Texas history, as it is true 
 today of the splendid army of men who man the Baptist 
 pulpits of the state. There have been defections, and their 
 wrecks are strewn along the years, as we look through the 
 past, but there has been a loftiness of principle rarely equaled. 
 The Bible was believed and taught by Baptists in the early 
 twenties, just as it is in the Baptist pulpits in Texas in the 
 early years of the twentieth century. No fear can come 
 to the Baptists of Texas so long as adherence to principle 
 is respected and observed. Backed by more than eighty 
 years of history that have been marked by as rigid fixed- 
 ness of principle as distinguished the early days of Chris- 
 tianity, it would be difficult to conceive of a situation that 
 would favor the possibility of the introduction of heresy 
 into the great body of Texas Baptists. Not a whit less 
 loyal is the youngest of Baptist pastors today, to the doc- 
 trines of God's word, than were the pioneer veterans who 
 laid the first stones in the foundation of the great denomi- 
 nation in Texas. 
 
 The world beyond has not infrequently misunderstood 
 the varied conditions through which Texas Baptists have 
 passed. They have been thought to be sometimes feverishly 
 
 472
 
 CLOSING WORDS 473 
 
 contentious, living and thriving in disorder. Never was 
 there a graver misapprehension of a great people. Where 
 there was a question of principle involved, it incurred oppo- 
 sition, stout and resistful to the end ; when the disturbing 
 element disappeared, the denomination has been serenely 
 active. It must be that offenses arise, and when the hour 
 came to strike the blow, it was done with steady and sturdy 
 nerve. This has been the secret of commanding growth and 
 influence and power which has distinguished Texas Baptists 
 through more than three-quarters of a century of their 
 history. In no quarter of the globe has there been a more 
 jealous guardianship of the principle which penetrates the 
 New Testament, than in Texas. With the same fidelity in 
 the future, it is impossible to foresee where'unto they will 
 ultimately attain. Great spirits are theirs, not a few, alike 
 in pulpit and in pew, of men and women, too, and the pos- 
 sibilities of achievements are multiplying with the years. If 
 the same wisdom, the same unflinching courage, the same 
 resistance to the invasion of error shall mark the periods 
 to come, Texas Baptists are destined to achieve a work 
 that wall place them most conspicuously in the eye of the 
 world. 
 
 There are dangers not a few, which are apt to menace 
 their individual and church life. The growth of wealth 
 with its snares is one of these. The insidious injection of 
 the claims of so-called society, which would disparage 
 robust discipleship, and stealthily sap the good order of 
 individual and church life, is another. Arrogance, on the 
 one hand, and pride and vain-glory on the other, are incon- 
 sistent with the simple principles of the people called Bap- 
 tists. The Baptists of Texas have occasion for more appre- 
 hension from within than from without. But so long as 
 the mighty men wdio now control the destiny of the denomi- 
 nation ; so long as an army of pastors, like those who now 
 occupy Baptist pulpits, shall lead the people, just so long 
 will there be the result which have come to the denomina- 
 tion up to the present.
 
 • CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 SOME PROMINENT TEXAS BAPTIST LAYMEN. 
 
 In the sacred records, distinguished eminence is given to 
 some who were not called to the exercise of the high office 
 of the gospel ministry, but whose aid was most timely, if 
 not indispensable, in rooting the new religion in the East. 
 The Aquilas, Lazaruses, Simons and Stephens were just as 
 indispensable as were the Johns, Peters, Jameses and Pauls. 
 In all times, God has raised up men, apart from the sacred 
 ministry, whose interest and devotion were not a whit less 
 than that of those whose office was sacredly official — men 
 whose devotion and sacrifice have been substantial supple- 
 ments to the work of the pulpit. 
 
 From the beginning of Texas Baptist history, the mission- 
 ary and pastor have not been without cordial co-workers in 
 the private ranks of the churches. Every period of the 
 advancing history of the denomination has developed men 
 who have been as profound in their interest in the promo- 
 tion of the cause of the Master, as have been the most 
 ardent of preachers. In the maintenance of cherished enter- 
 prises, in practical counsel, in the projection of plans for 
 the expansion of denominational usefulness, in the prompt 
 rescue with which they have rallied to the organizations 
 fostered, and in the vindication of the reliance with which 
 they could be leaned on as the underpropping agents in 
 the mammoth undertakings of our people, the denomination 
 of no state has been more fortunate in possessing men of 
 great hearts and liberal purses, than have been the Baptists 
 of Texas. They have fertilized the denomination by the 
 copiousness of timely counsel, as well as by timely gifts to 
 different causes, as occasion has demanded. Touching 
 elbows with the ministry, they have been able to do that 
 which the pulpit could not do, and without such assistants, 
 
 474
 
 SOME PEOMINENT LAYMEN 475 
 
 the work could never have been brought to so high a degree 
 of efficiency. On a number of occasions the gifts of some 
 of these men have been so munificent as to send a thrill 
 throughout the ranks of the denomination. 
 
 Meed of praise is due many, but only a few can be named 
 within the compass of a brief chapter like this. Among the 
 stalwart benefactors of the present period of living laymen, 
 among Texas Baptists, may be named : 
 
 COLONEL CHRISTOPHER C. SLAUGHTER, 
 
 who is a native of Texas, and enjoys the distinction of 
 being the first male child born of a marriage contracted 
 under the Republic of Texas. His education was at home, 
 and quite limited. His youthful days were spent on the 
 plains of the West, where his father. Rev. George Webb 
 Slaughter, divided his time between the ranch and the pulpit. 
 The son inherited the robust physical build of the father, as 
 well as his sterling qualities of character. From sire to son 
 was transmitted that transparent frankness and openness of 
 expression which resolves itself into the undisguised honesty 
 which many seek to veil and evade by subtlety of speech 
 and mock modesty. When Colonel Slaughter speaks, no 
 one fails to understand his meaning. This gives him an 
 unique position among men, and while innocent of the 
 diplomacy of thousands similarly circumstanced, he has 
 always commanded the honor due him for his sterling 
 honesty. 
 
 At the early age of twenty, with scant knowledge of 
 books, but possessed of a native wisdom which the schools 
 cannot give, he began life in the cattle business, on the 
 slender capital of $500. The flush of youth was still on his 
 brow when the country was plunged into war. He was 
 among the first to enlist, and was among the . first to be 
 chosen as a military leader. First, as captain of a company 
 in the famous Texas Rangers, he rose to a brevetted col- 
 onelcy in the army of the Confederacy. In the opening days 
 of the Civil War, when the forts and arsenals were falling 
 into the hands of the young Confederacy, Colonel Slaughter 
 led his command against Fort Griffin, on the Brazos, sur-
 
 476 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 rounded it, and compelled its capitulation with a garrison 
 of six liundred I^'ederal troops and valuable stores. He 
 served throughout the war, and after its close, was the pio- 
 neer in the resumption of the cattle business. The Indians 
 becoming troublesome, Colonel Slaughter was called on 
 again to lead the volunteer forces against them, and won 
 distinction as an Indian fighter. 
 
 In his chosen vocation he was distinguished as "the cat- 
 tle king of Texas," having raised and marketed the largest 
 number of cattle among American ranchmen. Besides, he 
 became one of the largest land owners in the Union, having 
 come into possession of 5,000,000 acres. Prudent manage- 
 ment and sagacity in business have made him wealthy, and 
 to him wealth is a blessing. He has been a munificent bene- 
 factor, and into his gifts to the cause of the Master he has 
 taken the same unvarnished honesty and wisdom which have 
 characterized him in the mangement of his business afifairs. 
 
 Colonel Slaughter was the first to conceive of the cor- 
 related system of Baptist schools in Texas, and gave to the 
 enterprise of the correlation $25,000. Himself deprived of 
 early advantages, he finds delight in aiding others of worth 
 and promise. At different times he has been a princely 
 giver, and, indeed, it is not known to the public the extent 
 of his aid to the cause of Christ in Texas. In the later years 
 of our denominational history, no man has done more, if so 
 much as he, in the promotion of the cause. His wisdom, 
 ripened in the varied school of experience, his rare poise of 
 character, his consecrated heart, and his sagacity, made the 
 more penetrating by his manipulation of large business 
 interests, make him one of the most valuable of counselors 
 in the conduct of the vast affairs of the denomination. His 
 judgment on any question is promptly honored. He is the 
 close and confidential friend of his pastor, as well as of all 
 the denominational leaders in the Baptist enterprises of the 
 state. There is no project of value concerning wdiich his 
 wisdom is not consulted, and his advice greatly respected. 
 
 Beneath all the robust virtues of Colonel Slaughter is a 
 heart of sympathetic tenderness, which lends a softened 
 haze to his great character. His is genuine nature tempered 
 by divine grace, without the adulteration of meaningless
 
 SOME PROMINENT LAYMEN 477 
 
 conventionality, to which he is stranger, and destitute of a 
 studious diplomacy, which a soul like his. would spurn. The 
 apparent consciousness of his superior power is but Nature's 
 assertion, unrestrained by conventional skill, above which 
 a character like his rises like the mountain from the plain. 
 
 His many-sided business capabilities have called him into 
 stations of honor, in financial and commercial spheres, 
 among which positions may be named the vice presidency of 
 such institutions as the City Bank of Dallas, the City Na- 
 tional Bank, and the American National Bank, which last- 
 named institution he organized. He also organized the Cat- 
 tle Raisers" Association, now the largest cattle organization 
 in the world. His administrative qualities have led to his 
 election to the vice presidency of the Southern Baptist Con- 
 vention, and of the Baptist General Convention of Texas. 
 For eight consecutive years he has been the president of the 
 Board of Directors of the Baptist General Convention of 
 Texas, in which position he has rendered signal service to 
 the denomination. At one time, and for a period of years, 
 he was one of the proprietors of The Baptist Standard, and 
 insisted on its adoption of a policy of peace, and its conduct 
 on a basis free from personal aggression, no matter what 
 the provocation be. 
 
 Colonel Slaughter is the founder of the great Baptist 
 Sanitarium, of Dallas, into which he has put a large amount 
 of money. It is an institution profoundly cherished by him- 
 self, and aptly equals his conception of what a great sanitary 
 institution should be. Few men in the Baptist ranks of the 
 South have equalled the varied benefactions and multiform 
 services which he has rendered his denomination. 
 
 HON. GEORGE W . CARROLL. 
 
 Among the names destined to live in the Baptist annals of 
 Texas, is that of George W. Carroll. His type of character 
 is that which is chiefly adorned by gentleness and goodness. 
 Possessed of a guilelessness which is unique, and a gentle- 
 ness which approaches femininity, there is coupled with 
 these an aggressiveness to vice and wrongdoing which, on 
 occasion, is as pronounced as is his normal quietude. His
 
 478 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 rule of life is more than abstinence from evil, it is in com- 
 pliance with the scriptural injunction to abstain from the 
 very appearance of evil. His character may be summarized 
 in the laconic description of Barnabas, when the Spirit of 
 God says of him : "He w'as a good man." 
 
 With a modesty bordering on timidity and self-distrust- 
 fulness, George W. Carroll would be a cipher in life, but for 
 his inherent goodness of heart. By the assertion of this 
 quality of his character, which brings in its train a mighty 
 reinforcement of moral courage, the shrinking element of 
 his nature, while voicing his goodness, becomes a potent 
 force in his character, and rounds out a manhood of rare 
 merit and of genuine value. The gentler side of his life 
 imparts caution to that which is robust, and, in turn, the 
 robuster turns to practical service, the gentler. George did 
 not inherit from his worthy father, the stern, but meritorious 
 qualities possessed by the ancestor, but has blended in his 
 nature the gentler traits of the mother, with just enough of 
 the adamantine elements of the father, to unite the better 
 parts of each. 
 
 By virtue of his tranquil goodness, and responsiveness to 
 the demand of need in the service of the community or of 
 the commonwealth, George W. Carroll has come to occupy 
 a deservedly commanding position among the Baptists of 
 Texas, a conspicuous relation to civic virtue, a superior 
 place in the citizenship of the community in which he lives, 
 and, indeed, in the great state of Texas. His life in the 
 home circle is gentle, and his relations to his fellow men 
 smooth, save when the voice for stern assertiveness against 
 evil or vice reaches him, when the lamb is transformed into 
 the lion. 
 
 Providence has favored him with abundance which he 
 uses, without stint, for good. Few men are prompted by 
 a more generous spirit than he, and yet it is only w'hen the 
 meritorious appeal is heard, that he responds. He is as 
 open-handed for the promotion of good as he is close- 
 handed against the slightest encouragement, or even the 
 semblance of wrong. A successful business man, a new 
 installment of prosperity animates his brain and heart 
 toward new projects for good. The Carroll Science Hall,
 
 SOME PEOMINENT LAYMEN 479 
 
 which adorns the campus of Baylor University, is one of his 
 princely gifts. An expenditure of $75,000 on a handsome 
 edifice, devoted to science, projects his goodness into other 
 years, far-reaching, and with an expansiveness for good, 
 which comes not within the compass of human calculation. 
 
 Identified with all the great movements of the Baptist 
 denomination, his quiet but liberal gifts swell the volume 
 annually of the beneficence of the Baptists of Texas. For 
 several years he has been one of the proprietors of The 
 Baptist Standard, to maintain which he has given liberally of 
 his means, and devoted much of his time. In recognition 
 of his merits, the denomination has accorded to him, dis- 
 tinction of position, while in public life, as a pronounced 
 Prohibitionist, he was won the high stations for nominee for 
 governor of Texas, and of vice presidency on the Prohibition 
 national ticket. 
 
 He lives for others, for the good of humanity, and for 
 God, more than for himself. 
 
 COLONEL W. B. DENSON. 
 
 William Baldwin Denson is a native of Macon county, 
 Alabama, but has been a resident of Texas since 1853. The 
 next year after his location in the state, he became a student 
 at Baylor University, and after a course of three years grad- 
 uated, bearing away the first honors of his class. Choosing 
 the bar for a profession he went to Tulane University, 
 whence he graduated in 1859, and began the practice of 
 his profession in Shreveport, Louisiana. He was among the 
 first to enlist in the cause of the Confederacy in 1861, leav- 
 ing as a private in the first company that went from Shreve- 
 port. Ability, merit, and courage led to his rapid promo- 
 tion, and though leaving as a private, he returned at the 
 close of the war, the Lieutenant Colonel of the Sixth Louisi- 
 ana Cavalry, of which he was in command when hostilities 
 closed. Since that time he has devoted himself to his pro- 
 fession, practicing at Cold Springs, Galveston and Gaines- 
 ville, Texas. 
 
 Colonel Denson has been a Baptist since 1854. He be- 
 came a member of the church at Independence, joining at
 
 480 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 the same time that ( leneral Hotiston joined, and was bap- 
 tized by President iUirleson, on the same occasion on which 
 Houston was. In 1876 Colonel Denson become a deacon in 
 the First Ijaptist Church of (ialveston, and has ever been an 
 active member of his church, sharing heartily in all its 
 efiPorts. A devoted Christian gentleman, he has been closely 
 allied with the progressive work of his denomination since 
 the period of his conversion. Favored with facility and 
 felicity of speech, he has been brought into frequent requisi- 
 tion in denominational councils, and has, a number of times, 
 been chosen vice president of the Baptist General Conven- 
 tion. He is a prompt presiding officer, and is a great favor- 
 ite among his brethren. His judicial wisdom and ready 
 utterance led to his unanimous choice to reply to Doctor 
 Hayden, on the occasion of the defiant speech of the latter 
 before the siate convention, at Dallas, in 1898. 
 
 Colonel Denson holds an influential station among his 
 brethren, and his services are in frequent demand. They are 
 as freely accorded as they are eagerly sought. For a num- 
 ber of years he has been a conspicuous member of the Board 
 of Directors of the state convention. Affable in manner, 
 highly cultured, and devoted as a Christian, he is greatly 
 prized among the members of the convention. As a lawyer, 
 a citizen, and a Christian, he wields a commanding influence 
 among his fellow citizens. 
 
 JUDGE \\ . II. JENKINS. 
 
 For many years Judge W. H. Jenkins has been before the 
 Texas public as one of the worthiest citizens of the com- 
 monwealth. Unflinching in his convictions, his rigid views 
 of right have often led to an inappreciation of his granite 
 character. He belongs to that class of men who have to be 
 intimately known to be properly prized. Firm as the hills, 
 and absolutely scrupulous, his positions are sometimes ad- 
 judged extreme, but his supposed errancy has generally 
 been in the right direction. He takes counsel of his own 
 judgment and conscience, rather than those of others, and 
 can generally be relied on in his estimate of men and prin- 
 ciples. After doing what he conceives to be duty, he is as
 
 SOME PKOMINENT LAYMEN 481 
 
 unswerved by the popular current, as he is unaffected by 
 adverse criticism. He takes his own time in reaching- a 
 conckision, and when his mind is once settled in a convic- 
 tion, Gibraltar is no more movable. Generally estimated 
 as stern, he is really a man of great sensitiveness of char- 
 acter and tenderness of heart. His morbidness is that of 
 right doing. He fears wrong vastly more than men, and 
 with incisiveness seeks to keep clearly within the boundary 
 of right. His sense of propriety and honor is as immutable 
 as the code of morality. Intolerable of sham and pretense, 
 and rigid in his exactions of a high standard of conduct, 
 he has sometimes been thought inexorable ; but no one can 
 doubt his sincerity or questions his honor. He exalts pro- 
 priety above popularity, as he does virtue above vice. 
 
 Gifted with a rare degree of intellectuality, Judge Jenkins 
 revels in that standard of thought which would strain most 
 men to grasp and appreciate. Yet in his general bearing 
 and ordinary intercourse, he is one of the plainest and sim- 
 plest of men. Those who know him best, appreciate him 
 most. The touch of his life is vital of good. He is entirely 
 free from ostentation, and while living in an exalted orbit 
 of right thinking and right doing, his bearing is that of 
 humility. In his resistance of wrong he spurns the mid- 
 way ground of compromise, and nothing short of the boun- 
 dary of principle satisfies him. To him principle is the path 
 of the highest expediency. While aware of the criticism 
 which he often evokes, he conscientiously varies not the 
 width of a hair, though all the world besides differs. 
 
 Among his neighbors and brethren he is highly esteemed, 
 because he is a safe man. That which might be lost by over- 
 caution is more than compensated for in the long run by 
 seeking always to be conscientiously correct. Of Judge 
 Jenkins it might be as veritably said, as it was of the patri- 
 arch of Uz : "He is perfect and upright, a man who fears 
 God and eschews evil." His influence, conduct, and life 
 point in the direction of perpendicularity of character. His 
 sane judgment, judicial ability and incisive sense of right 
 have won for him a peculiar position in the realm of de- 
 nominational activity. He has been raised to different and 
 difficult stations of responsibility and of confidence in his
 
 482 HISTOEY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 denomination, serving for many years on the Board of 
 Directors of the convention, and on the Board of Trustees 
 of Baylor University, In the most trying ordeal of agita- 
 tion into which the denomination was reluctantly forced, 
 several years ago, his extreme sense of justice and right, 
 coupled with his sensitiveness to wrong, made him one of 
 the most formidable of the advocates of the convention. 
 The transparency of his character was brought out under 
 the light of this scorching ordeal, and that character bore 
 with tremendous weight against the efforts made to wreck 
 the system built up through long years of judicious and 
 laborious effort and consecrated wisdom. 
 
 Judge Jenkins's rigidity is that of right, and his per- 
 sistency is that of principle. He is just as broad as his con- 
 ception of duty allows, and just as narrow as his estimate 
 of principle permits. Acting always from lofty motive, 
 none who know him ever question his integrity. Would 
 that his type of character were more prevalent among the 
 children of men ! 
 
 JOHN T. WOFFORD. 
 
 In its original condition the diamond is often the rudest 
 of stones in appearance, though the most valuable and 
 costly of substances. Gathered from the bed of its native 
 stream, the unskilled would never suspect the brilliant quali- 
 ties slumbering within. This aptly represents the characters 
 of a certain class of men. They have not the finical touch 
 of the drawing-room, nor the perfunctory punctiliousness 
 of the fashionable circle. Their qualities are too granitic 
 and too masculine, and their characters too broad and many- 
 sided for the finished touch of the niceties of the infinitesi- 
 mal facets, from the narrow confines of which there may 
 flash the light which captivates, and yet, after all, serves 
 no other purpose than to glitter on the jeweled finger, or 
 flash on the bosom of beauty. 
 
 The class of men already alluded to, are rather like the 
 mountain lake with its broad bosom flashing back its ampli- 
 tude of sunlight, while girdled within its frame-work of 
 ragged rock and overhanging wild moss. On its surface 
 float the freighted craft of good for humanity, and within
 
 SOME PEOMINENT LAYMEN 483 
 
 its placid body are the elements of vitality. To such a class 
 belongs the subject of this short sketch. Made noble by 
 nature, and sanctified by grace, John T. Wofford has just 
 the parts that make him a superior man among his fellows. 
 With a fortunate poise of character, an unerring judgment, 
 a keen penetration in business, and a heart of tenderness, 
 he combines, to a remarkable degree, the elements which 
 excite the love of those who know him. Intensely practical 
 in all things, his direct aim in life is to do the greatest good. 
 Selfishness finds no place in the multitudinous qualities of 
 good that obtain in his manly and robust character. Com- 
 prehensive in all things that enter into his great character, 
 and small in nothing, he fills a spacious place in the ranks of 
 his denomination. In his knowledge of men and afifairs, 
 he represents an important side of life in the deliberations 
 and enterprises of the Baptists of Texas, and when the lead- 
 ing laymen of the state are recounted for consultation on 
 any practical measure, John T. Wofford is among the first 
 to be thought of. His unvarnished life is one of the indi- 
 cations of his inherent sincerity. He is as devoid of pre- 
 tense as the rugged mountain is of sheen and polish, and 
 through a practical eye, he sees only the worthy and meri- 
 torious, and his judgment is governed accordingly. 
 
 In all the great movements of his cherished denomination, 
 within the last years of its history, John T. Wofford has 
 conspicuously shared. His prodigiously practical brain 
 gives him a value above estimate. So far from courting or 
 seeking notoriety, he is most modest and retiring, and his 
 services have to be sought in order to be commanded ; but 
 when given, it is done without requite, and solely from a 
 loyal sense of duty. Big of heart, loyal in purpose, conse- 
 crated in life, and stalwart in devotion, his piety savors of 
 the simplicity of childhood, and his career is redolent of 
 that class of golden deeds in which the left hand knows not 
 of what the right hand does. 
 
 COL. W. L. WILLIAMS. 
 
 The subject of this sketch — Col. W, L. Williams — was 
 born in Anderson Co., Tenn., Dec. 25, 1834. His father,
 
 484 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 Joseph llaskins W'illiains, was of sturdy, Welsh stock, born 
 and reared in North Carohna, and his mother, Juha Ann 
 Tower, of Pennsylvania, (jernian stock, born and reared in 
 Knox Co., Tennessee. They were of the rural element, 
 both born and reared and ever afterward lived on a farm, 
 so the subject of this sketch was a farmer boy and labored 
 as other boys until he was 21 years of age. \\'hen he w^as 
 II years old he moved, with his parents, to Lawrence Co., 
 Mo., where his father purchased a plantation and continu- 
 ously resided on it until he arrived at his maturity. 
 
 Col. Williams is what may be termed an educated man. 
 He had the best possible advantages ; in the annual session 
 of the old time district schools, from early childhood until 
 he was grown and then availed himself of four years' col- 
 lege training, closing his course in the University of Mis- 
 souri in i860. P>om that time until the summer of 1867 
 he put in all possible time in the study of law. He was ad- 
 mitted to the bar in 1867 by Judge Thos. Harrison of 
 Waco. Since that time he has laeen a laborious and suc- 
 cessful practicing lawyer at Dallas, Texas. Col. W^illiams 
 gave himself to Christ in Lawrence Co., Mo., in May, 1851, 
 and joined the Sinking 'Creek church and was baptized by 
 the pastor, Elder Burrow Buckner, uncle of our beloved Dr. 
 R. C. Buckner of Dallas, Texas. From that day until this 
 he has held fast to his calling as a Cbristian ; notwithstand- 
 ing the temptations often in college life and the demoraliz- 
 ing conditions of a four years' civil war, he never for an 
 hour forgot his duty as a Christian gentleman, nor once dis- 
 honored the name of Christ. Col. Williams joined the First 
 Cavalry Company for the Southern army raised in his 
 county in Missouri in the spring of 1861 and went imme- 
 diately to the front with Ceneral Stirling Price, and shared 
 the life of a soldier, and with him engaged in the numerous 
 battles fought by that distinguished soldier until the second 
 year of the war, when he was so severely wounded that he 
 was forced to leave the ranks of the active army and do post 
 duty. 
 
 Col. A\'illiams was engaged to be married to Miss Lou- 
 cinda Bccklev in March, 1861, but the war was then in sight,
 
 SOME PROMINENT LAYMEN 485 
 
 and they postponed their marriage and were soon separated 
 by the warring parties in their country, and saw nothing 
 more of each other, except by chance, from soon after the 
 war began until the war was over. But, both true to each 
 other, she at liis request and arrangement came to Texas and 
 they were married near Waco by Dr. Richard B. Burleson 
 Feb. 13, 1866. They have reared a family of five- boys and 
 two girls. 
 
 Col. Williams settled in Dallas, Texas, in Nov., 1867. 
 He found no Baptist Church and after some search, dis- 
 covered three who had belonged to Baptist churches. By 
 the summer of 1868 a few Baptists had moved into the city 
 and Col. Williams and his wife set to work to establish a 
 church and preparatory thereto invited several country 
 preachers to hold a meeting, at the close of which a church 
 of eleven members was constituted — eight women and three 
 men. From that day until this. Col. Williams and his wife 
 have been the leaders of the church known as the First 
 Church. To write the history of this now great church with 
 them and all they did left out, would be very imperfect. 
 Col. Williams was ordained deacon of this great church 
 about 37 years ago, and has nearly from the first enjoyed 
 the distinction of being its senior deacon, and as such pre- 
 sided as chairman of the deacons' and pastors' meeting. He 
 is a wise counselor, a choice presiding officer and a ready 
 worker. He has for many years been chairman of the Mis- 
 sion Committee and has had much to do in establishing mis- 
 sions that have from time to time grown into all the other 
 Baptist churches in the city and other missions not yet or- 
 ganized into churches. 
 
 Col. Williams is now, and has been for ten years, a mem- 
 ber of the Board of Directors of the Baptist General Con- 
 ventian of Texas, and nearly that long Auditor of that great 
 body as well as the Auditor of the Board and as such all the 
 financial affairs of the board have passed under his care- 
 ful and pains-taking labors. He is modest, has never sought 
 place or prominence, but has simply worked where his 
 brethren have placed him, both in his church and in the 
 Convention.
 
 ITON. JOHN C. TOWNES, LL. D., AUSTIN, TEXAS.
 
 SOME PEOMINENT LAYMEN. 487 
 
 JUDGE JOHN CHARLES TOWNES, LL.D. 
 
 Ill the current of this denominational story, more than 
 once, allusion has been made to the ability^ of the 
 Baptist denomination to furnish men for the higher 
 ranks of public service. Every station of preeminence has, 
 at different times, been occupied by Baptist representatives. 
 It is most fortunate that, in the faculty of the State Univer- 
 sity, there are representatives of the denomination, the most 
 eminent of which is Judge John C. Townes. Possessed of 
 a rare combination of elements of character, he was provi- 
 dentially led through just such conditions of life as brought 
 these elements to the fullest fruitage. A Baptist layman, 
 of parts so conspicuous, is worthy of a place in this chapter 
 of sketches. 
 
 Judge Townes is a descendant of a distinguished North 
 Alabama family. In the upper part of Alabama, his grand- 
 father, Rev. John L. Townes, himself a distinguished jurist 
 and Baptist preacher, was eminent among the Baptists of 
 that state, as a worthy colaborer of Rev. Doctor D. P. 
 Bestor. The father of this sketch, Judge E. D. Townes, 
 was chancellor of the northern district of Alabama, and later 
 a member of the Texas legislature. The subject of the pres- 
 ent sketch is a native of Alabama,, having been born at Tus- 
 cumbia, in that state, January 30, 1852. In 1856, his father 
 removed to the eastern part of Travis county, Texas, where 
 he became active in denominational circles, and was, for a 
 period of years, the moderator of the Austin Association. 
 Though a man of wealth, like many another, as a result of 
 the Civil War, Judge Townes left his family without means 
 when he died, in 1864. 
 
 The close of the war left Charles, then a lad of only 
 thirteen, to struggle for himself. At Parsons' Seminary, a 
 country school of high grade, near Manor, Texas, he de- 
 rived his earliest educational training. Later, for more than 
 two years, he was a student at Waco (now Baylor) Uni- 
 versity, but lack of means forced his retirement to the farm 
 left him by his father. Two years, from 1871 to 1873, he 
 devoted his time to the preparation for the bar, to which 
 he was admitted in 1873.
 
 488 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 Practicing first in Travis county, and later in San Saba, 
 he was, in 1882', elected judoe of the thirty-third judicial 
 district of the state. Resigning^ his judi^cship in 1885, he 
 resumed the practice of law at vSan Saba, but soon removed 
 to Georgetown, where, in 1888, Governor Ross appointed 
 him to the judgeship of the twenty-sixth judicial district, 
 composed of Williamson and Travis counties. 
 
 Again resigning from the bench. Judge Townes entered 
 into copartnership with Hon. S. R. Fisher, and entered again 
 into the practice of the law. h^rom this position he was 
 elected to the professorship of law in the State University, 
 which position he now occupies. In recognition of his 
 ability, his Alma Mater, Baylor University, in 1898. con- 
 ferred on him the degree of Doctor of Laws. Judge 
 Townes has made several contributions to legal literature, 
 viz. : "Texas Pleading," "American Elementary Law," and 
 "General Principles of the Law of Torts." 
 
 During the eventful period through which Judge Townes 
 has lived, he has been active in Christian work. The ex- 
 actions of his professional duties have never suffered him 
 to neglect his duty as a Christian. As teacher in the Sunday 
 school, as superintendent, and as deacon in the churches of 
 which he has been a member, in the circles of the State 
 University, as chairman of the chapel service committee, 
 and in various other relations his character as a pure man 
 of God is conspicuous. Li the circles of the University, the 
 students, in admiration of his Christian virtues, call him 
 "God Almightys gentleman." Xo one who has ever occu- 
 pied a position in the University of the state has wielded a 
 more powerful influence for good, than has Judge Townes. 
 Unlike many others whose identity is lost in the absorption 
 of scholastic work, when similarly situated, Judge Townes 
 is greatly concerned with the movements of the on-going 
 world. He is an active citizen, sharing in all that pertains 
 to the public good, a vigorous church member, and is al- 
 ways at his station of trust, while his work in the class is 
 the best. More men of his type in our universities would 
 simplify many complex conditions, and give largest hope for 
 the future.
 
 SOME PEOMINENT LAYMEN 489 
 
 PRESIDENT OSCAR HENRY COOPER. 
 
 Conspicuous among the profound scholars of Texas, is 
 President Oscar H. Cooper. He is a native Texan, and was 
 born to scholarship. To his natural aptitude have been con- 
 formed his habits, all of which are peculiarly scholastic. 
 He has crowded within a brief span of years much scholas- 
 tic and educational work. Quietly studious, his power of 
 acquisition has been enormous, and in all the schools of 
 which he has been a student — Marshall and Yale Universi- 
 ties, in America, and Berlin University, abroad, he has won 
 distinction. 
 
 Graduating from Yale, in 1872, he returned later to take 
 a graduate course, and subsequently went to Berlin where 
 he won the distinction of Doctor of Laws. On his return 
 to Texas he was made state superintendent of education, 
 and afterward became superintendent of public schools in 
 the city of Galveston. In 1900 he became president of 
 Baylor University, and at once the scholarship of that in- 
 stitution was elevated, and the faculty vastly improved. 
 
 Amidst the exactions of his busy educational life, Doctor 
 Cooper has found time to make many valuable contributions 
 to the cause of education. These have generally been in the 
 form of papers read before learned associations, where he 
 has been able to speak to the nation. Among those which 
 won him special distinction was that on "The Contributions 
 of Baptists to the Cause of Education," which was read be- 
 fore the National Educational Association, in 1900, at 
 Charleston, South Carolina. This was the subject of much 
 favorable comment throughout the country. President 
 Cooper is the author of an important work the title of which 
 is, "The History of Our Country." In recognition of his 
 profound scholarship, he has been honored with membership 
 in the American Philological Society, and the National 
 Council of Edinburgh. 
 
 Since 1902, Doctor Cooper has been the president of 
 Simmons College, at Abilene. His assumption of the posi- 
 tion was the beginning of a new era in the history of that 
 institution, the constituency of which embraces both the ex- 
 tensive regions of western and southwestern Texas. So
 
 490 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 soon as President Cooper entered on his duties, at Simmons 
 College, a strong faculty was at once chosen, and the stand- 
 ard of study raised. The school at once became one of the 
 most thorough of the colleges of the country. This seems 
 to have been promptly recognized, for during the second 
 year of his presidency, the enrollment of students, at Sim- 
 mons, was increased almost one hundred per cent. 
 
 Simmons College has just begun its career of usefulness. 
 It has property valued at over two hundred thousand dol- 
 lars, is free from debt, and, under the provisions of the 
 charter, cannot incur indebtedness. On the high plains of 
 western Texas, President Cooper has an educational realm 
 all his own. The region of the location of Simmons Col- 
 lege is rapidly increasing in population, which means much 
 for the history of the school. Occupying the best sphere 
 of usefulness in his career. Doctor Cooper is destined to 
 give tone and complexion to the coming generations of the 
 high and healthful table lands of western Texas. 
 
 PRESIDENT S. PALMER BROOKS. 
 
 Perhaps no one in the educational circles of Texas has 
 had a more eventful career than President S. Palmer 
 Brooks. His successful career in the face of the most stub- 
 born and forbidding odds is an inspiration to any aspiring 
 young man, no matter what his difficulties be. The son of 
 a poor Baptist preacher whose anxiety to educate his chil- 
 dren far exceeded his means, the subject of this sketch was, 
 in early manhood, thrown on his own personal resources. 
 His father. Rev. S. E. Brooks, Avas a gentleman of no mean 
 attainments, having graduated from the Southwestern Bap- 
 tist University, Jackson, Tennes'see, in 1859. 
 
 From the pastorate of the First Church, of Milledgeville, 
 Georgia, the father removed to Texas, with his family, in 
 1868, when conditions were at their worst in the Lone Star 
 state. At that time, the public schools of Texas, under the 
 Reconstruction regime, were of an indifferent sort. Palmer 
 Brooks was enabled to get what he might from such 
 sources, supplemented by such instruction as he was en- 
 abled to obtain from intelligent parents at home. In his
 
 • SOME PEOMINENT LAYMEN 491 
 
 boyhood, he sustained the greatest loss that can come to any 
 one — that of his mother, and being the eldest of the family 
 of children, the care of the household fell on the lad and 
 his sister, as the father was, for the most part, absent on 
 missionary duty. With broken health, the father was forced 
 to retire from his work, the family was scattered, and 
 Palmer was compelled to seek work where he might. The 
 only way open to him was that of obtaining employment, as 
 a section hand, on the Santa Fe Railway, where with pick 
 and shovel he eked out a bare subsistence. When the young 
 man was twenty-two years old, his father's health had suf- 
 ficiently recovered for him to be able to assume charge of 
 a country school, near Cleburne. The son was induced to 
 attend on the school of the father, bringing to the resump- 
 tion of his scholastic work, at the age of twenty-two, a par- 
 tial knowledge of the science of geography, a mastery of 
 the multiplication table, a scant fund of information de- 
 rived from miscellaneous reading, and an abundance of the 
 knowledge of vice incident to association with the rough 
 men of the rail. 
 
 The most important turning-point in the life of young 
 Brooks came at this time. He was led to Christ, and was 
 baptized by Rev. W. J. Brown, His wayward career was 
 at once changed, and possessed of an inexorable will, he 
 steadfastly set his face toward righteousness. 
 
 Brooks was now in the flush of young manhood. Many 
 valuable years, years of the readiest receptivity of knowl- 
 edge, had passed, but the young man was resolutely bent 
 on the completion of his course. Counting the cost, he en- 
 tered the race. Dividing his time between teaching and 
 attendance on Baylor University, he, at last, was graduated 
 from Baylor with the bachelor's degree. He was now 
 thirty, and it need scarcely be said, was the oldest mem- 
 ber of his class. The matured man among youths appeared 
 the more grotesque, clad in a Prince Albert coat, which was 
 "much the v»^orse for wear" ; but in order to atone for its 
 age, and especially to hide the patches, it was treated to a 
 fresh coat of dye, which gave it an unusual glisten. 
 
 The possessions of the man of thirty were the wardrobe 
 which he wore, a diploma, and a debt of one hundred and
 
 492 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 twenty-five dollars, which he had horrowed with which to 
 ^jrosecute his course. But lahor in the open air on the rail- 
 way track had toughened him for hardship, poverty had 
 given him a strong will, and success now emboldened him. 
 Believing in himself and in his success for the future, Mr. 
 Brooks proceeded to encumber himself afresh with debt, 
 by borrowing a sum sufficient to go to Yale Univer- 
 sity. With the S'ame pluck with which he entered on his 
 course at Waco, he went to work at Yale, and at the end 
 of a year was able to bear away the bachelor's degree from 
 that institution. Then began his career as a teacher. First 
 in the McKinney Texas Collegiate Institute he taught, 
 which was followed the next year by a position in the Pre- 
 paratory Department of Baylor University. The year fol- 
 lowing this, he was chosen to take the newly created chair 
 of History and Political Economy in Baylor University. 
 During the year 1896 he traveled in Alexico, for a season, 
 and in 1897, spent a summer at Chicago University. In 
 1901, Professor Brooks resigned his chair at Baylor in order 
 to accept a fellowship in Yale University. His plans were 
 completely changed by his being chosen the president of 
 Baylor University, in 1902, to succeed Doctor O. H. Cooper. 
 
 ROBERT HENRY COLEMAN. 
 
 Robert H. Coleman is still a young man. The dew of 
 youth is yet on his brow, and the elastic step of boyhood is 
 still his. Without any direct instrumentality or personal 
 effort, on his part, to challenge attention, young Coleman 
 has been brought to the front of Baptist laymen in Texas, 
 by reason of his peculiar gift of leadership, devoutness of 
 spirit, keenness of judgment, responsiveness to the beck of 
 duty, purpose and activity, suavity of disposition, and 
 promptness of execution. In the hurried events of his life, 
 he had been led along a path which has served to develop 
 the qualities inherent in his character. Reared in a pious 
 home," educated in a Christian college, that of Georgetown, 
 Kentucky, drawn into business, where responsibility had to 
 be met, trained in the exactness of duty which attaches to 
 a bank, becoming an editor, aspiring to be a politician,
 
 SOME PROMINENT LAYMEN 
 
 493 
 
 the hand of Providence interposed with defeat, and led to 
 final success in other directions. Enlisted early in active 
 church work, Coleman was gradually fitted for the spheres 
 which awaited in after years. Lithe in business and supple 
 in execution, it is not a matter of wonder -that when he 
 reached Dallas, he was summoned by Doctor Gambrell, to 
 aid in the prosecution of his arduous work in state missions. 
 Nor is it surprising that he was called from that station to 
 become assistant pastor of the First Church of Dallas. 
 
 R. II. COLEMAN, DALLAS, TEXAS. 
 
 Coupled with these duties was the more important one of 
 leading and directing the forces of the young people of this 
 state. He met the juncture in the career of that cause, just 
 when a leader was needed, and such a leader as he has 
 proved to be. The young people of the state had felt the 
 touch of spiritual vitality, and currents of fresh activity and 
 of zealous enthusiasm were running like torrents from the 
 hills through the characters of young men and women, and
 
 494 HISTOEY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 they were awakening to the fact that they could do much 
 for the Master. Yea, more, they recognized the fact tliat it 
 was a matter of duty, and there was a spontaneous uprising 
 of the youth, hke that of the Scottish clans of old. This 
 undercurrent of youthful sentiment marked an era in Bap- 
 tist history — in the spiritual history of the world. With 
 this upheaval of young Christian sentiment, in Texas, came 
 a call for a leader, and R. H. Coleman was summoned to 
 the fore. His trained eye saw at once the necessity of 
 thorough organization, and organization under such con- 
 ditions as would hold intact the forces of the young. While 
 executing the routine of work in other responsible spheres, 
 as we have seen, Coleman has projected and brought to 
 full consummation plans for most effective results in the 
 cause of the young people of the Baptist churches of Texas. 
 There has been displayed genuine generalship in the mas- 
 tery of superb planning, and what all this has had to do 
 with the steady development of our churches, in many direc- 
 tions, is not a matter of mathematics, but more of logical 
 reason, for certain it is, that a new day came to the Baptist 
 churches of Texas with the activity of our young men and 
 women. 
 
 The efficient organization of the young forces of the Bap- 
 tist churches of the state, and the signal management of the 
 annual seaside gatherings, the arrangement for attractive 
 speakers, and for the comfort of the multitudes that throng 
 on these occasions, bespeak an unusual grasp of administra- 
 tive ability. Yet all this has been accomplished by Mr. 
 Coleman, while his work in aiding in directing the forces 
 of a great church has not in the least been neglected. To be 
 able to girth so much within easy grasp, and to conduct it 
 with consummate success without friction at any point, indi- 
 cates remarkable power of management. Nor are these 
 annual meetings of the young mere outings or picnic occa- 
 sions. They are packed with electrical force which is borne 
 back to the churches to give fresh propulsion and illumina- 
 tion. The addresses are not those which merely please with 
 the pranks of rhetoric, they are the best blood of the best 
 spiritual thought, which, while they kindle the fires afresh, 
 set the wheels in motion. How many of the revivals
 
 SOME PROMINENT LAYMEN 495 
 
 which have blessed the churches of the state, within the last 
 few years, have had their source and spring in these gather- 
 ings beside the sea, cannot be known, but the spirituality of 
 the state has been deepened certainly since so much promi- 
 nence has been given them. More than to any other is the 
 state indebted to R. H. Coleman for these results. To be 
 sure, he has not been without efficient aids, but no one would 
 withhold from him the palm of reward due him as the chief 
 consummator of the success of the young people's movement 
 in Texas. 
 
 The prominence which he has attained accords to him a 
 worthy niche among the Baptist laymen of Texas. While 
 not a preacher, the intimacy of touch which Coleman enjoys 
 with the pastors of the state, and the equal intimacy with the 
 private membership of the churches, afford an opportunity 
 for unlimited service and immense good. It is certainly 
 an opportunity rarely enjoyed, and one just as rarely im- 
 proved with much consummate tact and power. 
 
 Mr. Coleman is an humble, devout man of God, and 
 should his life be prolonged, his future service will be in- 
 calculable in its reach for good. 
 
 The views of the present writer are supported by those 
 of others, 'among whom are Doctor J. B. Gambrell, who 
 said in the Missionary Worker, concerning R. H. Coleman, 
 on the occasion of his retirement from the state mission 
 work: "This brother, so well known over the state, has 
 been, for months, assistant in the mission rooms. No truer 
 man lives, than he. It has been good to work with him. 
 He retires from service with us, to be assistant to Pastor 
 Truett, where we believe, he will prove himself a most ef- 
 fective helper in the ever-growing work of the First Church. 
 It is generally known that Brother Coleman is only a dea- 
 con; but he is as nearly a New Testament deacon as we 
 have ever known. We do not part with him, but work with 
 him still in new relations. A blessing on him and his." 
 
 Rev. George W. Truett, D.D., in speaking of his fellows- 
 laborer, says: "I have no words with which adequately to 
 express my appreciation of R. H. Coleman. In all my rela- 
 tions with men, I have never met a nobler, truer, better, nor 
 more useful man, than this man. Others may have been
 
 496 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 more conspicuous than he, Init none have been more truly 
 useful and faithful. Prudent, courageous, sympathetic, 
 zealous, optimistic, unselfish, faithful, his life is indeed most 
 nobly endowed, both by nature and by grace. In the years 
 of our intimate association, not once have I ever observed 
 the slightest exhibition of selfishness in his life. Through 
 these years, it has been an increasing joy to me, to have him 
 as an intimate fellow-laborer in the Master's cause. I have 
 not a doubt that his already wonderfully useful life is stead- 
 ily to wax in strength and usefulness with the passing years. 
 God grant that it may be so." 
 
 JOHN p. CROUCH. 
 
 One of the functions of the Holy Spirit is to instruct and 
 develop. Men are called from obscure walks of life, where 
 they would not be known beyond the boundary of their 
 native horizons, but for the Spirit of God. Entering their 
 hearts, He shows unto them the successive and ascending 
 steps of usefulness and joy, and just in proportion as He 
 is yielded to, just to that extent are men led and developed. 
 
 This is suggested by the character and career of the sub- 
 ject of this notice — John P. Crouch. Hailing from the 
 mountain districts of East Tennessee, a region noted for its 
 historic associations and the hardiness of character which it 
 produces. Air. Crouch came to Texas in 1877, and began his 
 career of business. In his early manhood, at the age of 
 twenty, he passed into the kingdom of grace, and from that 
 time forth, has grown alike in material and spiritual pros- 
 perity. He has been brought into such relations in life, as 
 to make him valuable, alike as to his influence as a man of 
 God, a strong force for Christianity in the commercial 
 world, an official of many-sidedness in his denominational 
 relations and a munificent contributor to the varied interests 
 of the Master's kingdom. 
 
 The varied experiences in the life of Mr. Crouch have 
 made him cautious, while the Spirit of God has made him 
 conscientious. He is not a subject of sudden impulse, but 
 reaches his conclusions with a commendable steadiness. 
 Reared in a region long noted for its Republican proclivi-
 
 SOME PKOMINEiXT LAYMEN 497 
 
 ties, in his younger years, he was a disciple of that pohtical 
 school. But a subject of conscience rather than of blind 
 political allegiance, he became allied with the forces which 
 were resisting the inroads of vice through the saloon and 
 brewery, and became an avowed Prohibitionist. Having the 
 qualities of leadership, he was soon brought to the front in 
 the moral contest against the sway of the saloon. The Pro- 
 hibition party of Texas, in recognition of his sterling quali- 
 ties of leadership, placed him on its ticket, in 1906, for the 
 comptrollership. 
 
 Deacon Crouch is recognized in his home city of Mc- 
 Kinney, as an ideal Christian citizen. His denomination re- 
 gards him as one of its worthiest laymen, and has laid un- 
 der tribute his superior gifts. The tendency of his nature 
 is in the direction of aid to others, and this charitable dis- 
 position has led to his appointment as a trustee of the Buck- 
 ner Orphans' Home, which position he has already held for 
 twelve consecutive years. He finds delight in assisting meri- 
 torious young men and women, in their struggles to get 
 afoot, by procuring educational advantages. In a quiet un- 
 ostentatious way, he has been instrumental in aiding strug- 
 gling youth to reach positions of self-help. His policy is 
 not to squander a dime, nor to aid one beyond the limit of 
 self-independence. In the help thus rendered, he does not 
 so much furnish the fish, as he does the hook. 
 
 His broad usefulness led to his appointment on the first 
 Baptist Education Commission, and he w^as among the first 
 to be appointed on the Board of Directors of the Texas 
 Baptist Memorial Sanitarium, to which interest, he was the 
 first to pay $5,000 for a ward. The home of Deacon Crouch 
 is one of preeminent hospitality, in which his excellent wife 
 joins to make the abode one of pleasure. It is emphatically 
 the preacher's home. 
 
 In a former chapter allusion was made to the occasion 
 when Doctor George W. Truett was first recognized as a 
 force in the denomination. It was in the home of Deacon 
 Crouch that Truett first met B. H. Carroll, to whom he was 
 introduced by Deacon Crouch. 
 
 Awake to every interest for good, and with his face set 
 toward God, Deacon Crouch is certain to become, with ex-
 
 498 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 paneling" usefulness, a potent agent, at a time when laymen 
 are rapidly coming to the front, in contributing to the pro- 
 motion of the Messiah's kingdom. His growing prosperity 
 means a commensurate growth of his continued gifts to the 
 cause to wliich his life is devoted. 
 
 JUDGE T. B. BUTLKR. 
 
 Life never becomes great without a profound conviction 
 of personal duty. No human being rises to the heights of 
 grandeur to whom there does not come a deep feeling of 
 obligation to his fellowmen. Complete manhood is a fulness 
 of powers, and a right disposition for the use of the powers. 
 
 These suggestions come in connection with the life and 
 character of Judge T. B. Butler. Quiet and unobtrusive, 
 gentle and yet solid, his character is worthy of study, and 
 deserves permanent embalmment in the history of the de- 
 nomination of which he is an honored member. In their 
 combination, the qualities which enter into his character are 
 exceptional. While a man of pronounced conviction, he is, 
 at the same time, unusually conservative. Deliberate, he 
 never hastens to a conclusion, but amply reviews every 
 question in advance of an expression of judgment. After 
 a thorough canvass of both sides of a given question, he 
 settles into a conviction with the solidity of a mountain on 
 its base. There is nothing more characteristic of him than 
 the guard which he places on his utterances. Bacon says : 
 "Discretion of speech is more than eloquence ; and to speak 
 agreeably to him with whom we deal, is more than to speak 
 in good words, or in good order." This applies with re- 
 markable aptness to the subject of this short sketch. 
 
 The daily life of Judge Butler is one of uniform consist- 
 ency, his conduct carrying with it its own transparent ex- 
 planation. After he has followed a course of conduct, and 
 has reached a conclusion, no explanation is ever necessary. 
 Quietly working out his thought to a logical conclusion, it 
 is done in such a way as never to awaken a doubt of the sin- 
 cerity of Judge Butler. 
 
 While thus quiet and sedate in his general bearing, which 
 qualities lend gentleness to his tone of life, he is not want-
 
 SOME PROMINENT LAYMEN 490 
 
 ing in aggressiveness, and yet his aggressiveness is tempered 
 by such coolness and judicial deliberationj as always to 
 awaken the respect of his opponents even, and when a given 
 issue is ended, his course has been such as to leave no after- 
 regrets. 
 
 Still, he is unconcessive in principle, and so coolly and 
 pleasantly uncompromising, that he wins, without effort, the 
 respect of all. It is not difficult to see that one with such 
 poise of character, and with such an unusual combination 
 of elements, would sway an uncommon influence. The 
 touch of such a man is vital of good. The expression of 
 an opinion from him would be equally acceptable to an oppo- 
 nent and a friend. 
 
 The weight of his potent character is thrown in the di- 
 rection of right. Many unconsciously gauge their conduct 
 by that of Judge Butler. The fact that he entertains a cer- 
 tain view, means much to many ; the knowledge of his pur- 
 suit of a given course, is a satisfactory guarantee, to many, 
 of its correctness. Thousands actuated by the same motive, 
 as that which impels Judge Butler, and pursuing the iden- 
 tical course, and for the same reasons, would never draw 
 others in the same direction. The subtlety of his quiet in- 
 fluence is gently but efficaciously powerful. 
 
 He is singularly undemonstrative in the expression of an 
 opinion, and in his relations to others ; and yet he is the im- 
 personation of loyalty. In nothinig does this find readier 
 expression than in his devotion to his pastor. He may hon- 
 estly differ from his pastor, and yet the possibility of the 
 slightest strain of relationship is impossible. There is the 
 innate respect for his pastor as a leader and a reverence for 
 his station that impel Judge Butler to support him to the 
 subordination of his own wishes. This, taken in connection 
 with the fact that he never misses a deacons' meeting, make 
 him an ideal pastoral co-worker. The other sides of the life 
 of Judge Butler are equally as prominent as those already 
 dwelt on. As a man, in the circles of business, he is supe- 
 rior, and as a judge of law, he is ranked among the best in 
 the state. For a period of about eighteen months, he was 
 the president and business manager of The Baptist Standard. 
 His connection with the paper was eminently satisfactory,
 
 500 HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS 
 
 and his retirement was voluntary, and for reasons purely 
 personal. lie returned to Tyler to resume the practice of 
 law. 
 
 In the sacred precincts of the home there is the same un- 
 varying' tenor of life which prevails elsewhere. His domes- 
 tic relations are ideal — his home, a model. Above all these 
 things, his life is governed by an exalted piety which per- 
 vades his character throughout. Among his fellowmen he 
 is a walking sermon. He is as good a man during the week, 
 as he is on Sundav.
 
 INDEX 
 
 Abolitionism, storm center of, 153. 
 
 Agencies, in forming Texas society, 24, 25. 
 
 Allcorn, Mrs. Lydia, converted, 15 ; baptized, 28. 
 
 American Baptist Publication Society, 343. 
 
 Anderson church, 47. 
 
 Anderson, Eev. S. J., D.D., president of Burson College, 371. 
 
 Antinomianism, 41. 
 
 Austin 's Colony, 48. 
 
 Austin, First Church organized, 68. 
 
 Averill, Eev. A. M., life and labors of, 317. 
 
 Baggerly, Eev. G. G., opposes the Convention, 115.; occasions strife, 
 125. 
 
 Baines, Eev. G. W., Sr., D.D., pastor at Marshall, 72; at Anderson, 
 119; becomes editor, 119; character, 122; improperly assailed, 
 122; ability, 138; President of Baylor University, 158; retires 
 from same, 185. 
 
 Baines, Eev. G. W., Jr., referred to, 216; secretary of the Education 
 Convention, 225. 
 
 "Baptist Banner," 35. 
 
 "Baptist Missionary," begun by Eev. T. H. Compere, 209. 
 
 Baptist Missionary Association organized, 426 ; first venture, 439 ; 
 nature of plans, 445; temper of, 468. 
 
 Baptist Principles, steadfastness in, 73; rapid growth, 98; compared. 
 115; thriving under difficulties, 137; propagation, 142; progress 
 of, impaired by rivalry, 188; retarded by disharmony, 218; re- 
 ceives an impulse, 400; city strongholds, 403; comparative 
 growth of, 431 ; self-centered, 451. 
 
 Baylor, Judge E. E. B., removes from Alabama, 27 ; sketch, 51 ; 
 labors in double capacity, 61, 113; interest in Sunday School 
 work, 181; death, 217. 
 
 Baylor College, removed to Belton, 304. 
 
 Baylor University, founded, 57; named, 54; endowment undertaken, 
 89; president and faculty resign, 90; gives first diploma to male 
 graduate. 119; first to a woman graduate, 132; relations to con- 
 vention discussed, 142 ; unsettled conditions of, 145 ; removal of, 
 agitated, 198; agitation continued, 201; removal resisted, 225; 
 declines, 285; resolutions offered against removal, 287; removal 
 determined on, 294; property of, transferred, 295; consolida- 
 
 501
 
 b02 INDEX 
 
 tion with Waco Uuiversity, 298; corner stones of new buildings 
 laid, 43'J. 
 
 Bays, Hev. Jos., preaches first in Texas, 14; labors and suffering, 15. 
 
 Bethel church, 41. 
 
 Bonhain, First church, 106. 
 
 Borden church, 41. 
 
 Boundary question, 21. 
 
 Boyce, Kev. J. P., D.D., 'LL.IX, mentioned, 226. 
 
 Breaker, Eev. J. Manly, alluded to, 25!t. 
 
 Briscoe, Kev. J. K., 106; anecdote, 112. 
 
 Brownsville, a mission field, 110. 
 
 Buchanan, President, sends Col. E. E. Lee to repel invasion, 147. 
 
 Buckner, E. C, D.D., LL.D., vice president Bautist State Convention, 
 183; recommends expansion, 210; sketch, 212; general mission- 
 ary, 229 ; opposes Dr. Link, 2.51 ; General Association involved, 
 252; his work a blessing, 336; wise sayings, 447. 
 
 Burleson, Gen. Ed., Indian fighter, 33; sketch and death, 93. 
 
 Burleson, Eev. E. C, D.D., LL.D., pastor at Houston, 72; sketch, 
 78; president of Baylor University, 91; serious trouble, 139; 
 disquieted, 143 ; foresight, 163 ; president of Waco University, 
 164; doubts, 203; supposed favor of educational unity, 204; 
 opposes unity, 207; active against unity, 209; declines to rep- 
 resent Education Union, 215; favors plan of educational unity, 
 227; endorses Dr. B. H. Carroll as agent, 228; recommended for 
 presidency of combined schools, 289 ; president of Baylor Uni- 
 versity, at Waco, 303 ; death, 427. 
 
 Burr, Aaron, alluded to, 26. 
 
 Burroughs, Eev. H. M., removes to Texas, 132; made superintendent, 
 298 ; responsibilities of, 306 ; retires from superintendency, 362. 
 
 Byars, Eev. N. T., constitutional convention held in shop of, 26; a 
 missionary, 79; pastor at Waco, 90. 
 
 B. Y. P. L^. solid growth, 402; increasing strength, 416; influence 
 of, 420; encampment at La Porte, 438. 
 
 Campbell, Eev. C. D., sketch and death, 349. 
 
 Carroll, Eev. B. H., D.D., LL.D., first appearance of, 149; goes to 
 AVaco, 198; builds a new church, 275; opens the way to con- 
 solidation, 279; his course bears fruit, 285; canvasses state for 
 prohibition, 307; labors for Baylor University, 342. 
 
 Carroll, Eev. J. M., D.D., a young preacher, 216; corresponding secre- 
 tary Sunday School Convention, 250; pastor at Corpus Christi, 
 259; statistical secretary, 325; valuable service, 342; correspond- 
 ing secretary of State Board, 349 ; courage under difficulties, 
 360; retires from secretaryship, 364; financial agent of Baylor 
 College, 367; resigns as pastor of First Church, Waco, 440. 
 
 Carswell, Eev. E. E., a disputant, 368. 
 
 Chandler, Eev. P. B., sketch of, 59. 
 
 Chapel Hill Church, 40. 
 
 Chaplin, Eev. C. C, D.D., pastor at Austin, 242; president of State 
 Convention, 259; last attendance on convention, 282.
 
 INDEX 503 
 
 Childress, Mrs., entertains Morrell, 19. 
 
 Chilton, Kev. Thos., pastor at Houston, 91. 
 
 "Christian Companion, The," unsuccessfully started, 198. 
 
 Clarke, Prof. H., rupture with President Burleson, 139; makes 
 notable report, 171; resigns, 211. 
 
 Clemmons, Eev. A. E., D.D., alluded to, 106. 
 
 Coke, Senator Eichard, anathematizes preachers, 302; fails as an 
 anti-prohibition leader, 307. 
 
 Colonies, first in Texas, 22. 
 
 Concord Church, 48. 
 
 Confederacy sundered, 168 ; falls, 168. 
 
 Cortina, invasion and repulse, 147. 
 
 Crane, W. C, D.D., LL.D., president of Baylor University, 165 ; 
 sketch, 165 ; called to Houston, 166 ; interest in Sunday School 
 work, 181; acquiesces in educational unity, 206; opposes con- 
 solidation, 207; pathetic pluck of, 255; death, 282. 
 
 Cranfill, Eev. J. B., LL.D., editor of "Gatesville Advance," 276; 
 messenger to State Convention, 295 ; meets Senator Mills in 
 debate, 299 ; prohibition leader, 301 ; organizes Prohibition 
 party, 304; renders valuable service, 310; corresponding secre- 
 tary of State Board, 321 ; works with vigor, 322 ; retires, 345 ; 
 founds ' ' The Standard, ' ' 345 ; fitness, 346 ; candidate for vice- 
 presidency, 353 ; anecdotes, 354 ; sole proprietor of ' ' The Stand- 
 ard, " 358; valuable service, 400; wise management, 413; settles 
 law suits, 465. 
 
 Creath, Eev. J. W. D., sketch, 59; assailed, 125; devotion to San 
 Antonio, 146; vice-president of Baptist Convention to Texas, 
 215; labors exclusively for San Antonio, 216; dreams realized, 
 238; again financial secretary, 248; arduous labors, 259; death. 
 267. 
 
 Cox, Eev. T. W., pastor at Independence, 26 ; defection, 36 ; down- 
 fall, 37. 
 
 Curry, Eev. J. H., 250. 
 
 Dallas, First Church, beginning of, 191 ; town of, terror to evan- 
 gelists, 192. 
 
 Dancer, Eev. E., 27. 
 
 Davis, President Jefferson, alluded to, 233 ; writes notable letter on 
 prohibition, 309. 
 
 Davis, Mrs. F. B., institutes Woman's Work, 273; active in the 
 work, 337. 
 
 Dickenson, Mrs., "heroine of the Alamo," 49. 
 
 Disadvantages of early settlers, 29. 
 
 Discord, early in Baptist ranks, 44; results, 49. 
 
 D 'Israeli quoted, 88. 
 
 Drought, fearful, 137; returns, 150. 
 
 Early church discomforts. 111. 
 
 Eastern Texas Baptist Convention, 126; projects a school, 147; pre- 
 carious condition of, 185; name changed, 186.
 
 504 ■ INDEX 
 
 "Ecclesiastical Committee of Vigilance," 18. 
 
 Education Coniniission created, 401; activity of, 408; excellent work, 
 
 421; ilourishinf^, 446. 
 Educational unity discussed, 209 ; opposed by Presidents Burleson 
 
 and Crane, 210; agitation of, 211; convention in interest of, 225. 
 Eldredgc, Ecv. Peter, 48. 
 Elledge, Eev. A. W., address and alnlity, 102; anecdotes, 103. 
 
 Fatal freeze, 86. 
 
 ' ' Flowers and Fruits, ' ' alluded to, 278. 
 
 French, Eev. J. A., D.D., pastor at Austin, 370. 
 
 Gaddy, Eev. J. M., efficient service of, 436; retire^ 464; death, 471. 
 
 Galveston storm, 421. 
 
 Gambrell, Eev. J. B., D.D., LL.D., invited to Texas, 345 ; quoted, 
 347 ; attends State Convention at Houston, 378 ; becomes corre- 
 sponding secretary, 388 ; president of Education Commission, 
 401; generalship, 413; caution of, 434. 
 
 Garrett, Eev. Hosea, removes to Texas, 40; interest in Sunday school 
 VFork, 181; death and sketch, 316. 
 
 Garrett, Eev. 0. H. P., removes to Texas, 40; death, 306; sketch, 307. 
 
 General Baptist Association, origin of, 186; activity and rivalry, 
 197; sanctions educational unity, 205; new vigor, 210; lags, 
 213; prosperous, 262. 
 
 German evangelization, 135 ; revived, 243. 
 
 Giles, President B. F., 406. 
 
 Gillette, H. L., at Baylor University, 57. 
 
 Goliad, Declaration of, 26. 
 
 Gonzales Church, 40. 
 
 Goode, J. L., publishes the Lord's Prayer from Indian tongue, 248, 
 
 Grant, Gen. U. S., a slave owner, 154. 
 
 Graves, Eev. H. L., D.D., president of Baylor University, 57; agent 
 of Sunday School work, 237. 
 
 Graves, Eev. J. E., D.D., alluded to, 143; preaches missionary ser- 
 mon, 145. 
 
 Green, Eev. E. G., alluded to, 27. 
 
 Hanks, Eev. B. T., D.D., pastor in Dallas, 253; buys interest in 
 "Western Baptist," 313; edits "The Baptist," 453. 
 
 Hanks, Eev. Thos., removes to Texas, 15. 
 
 Harmony Church, 44. 
 
 Harrison, Gen. J. E., sketch, 233. 
 
 Hawthorne, Gen. A. T., mentioned, 273. 
 
 Hayden, Eev. S. A., D.D., alluded to, 254; resolutions on consolida- 
 tion offered by, 288; a peacemaker, 290; contest with Dr. Link, 
 303; looses valuable opportunity, 317; attacks State Board, 36;*; 
 occasions the existence of "Baptist Standard," 373; proposal 
 to reject him from the convention, 381; protest made, 384; 
 accusations made by, 389 ; arraigned by Deacon Mays, 394 ; 
 brings suit, 404.
 
 INDEX 505 
 
 Haynes, A. G., character and sketch, 151. 
 
 Herrin, Eev. L., removes to Texas, 40; resists anti-missionism, 41; 
 faithful labors of, 69. 
 
 Hill, Eev. Noah, sketch, 59; missionary to the slaves, 96. 
 
 Hillyer, Prof. J. F., pastor at Galveston, 72. 
 
 History of Texas by Wooten, alluded to, 18. 
 
 Holt, EeV. A. J., D.D., missionary to wild tribes, 248; of General 
 Association, 250; efficiency, 305; cause prospers under, 315; 
 joint editor with Dr. Hayden, 320; retires from secretaryship, 
 321. 
 
 Home Mission Society, 37; aids in Texas work, 265; promotes tiie 
 work, 277. 
 
 Houston, Gov. Sam, called from obscurity, 24; crushes Santa Anna, 
 26; president of Eepublic, 39; retires, 53; messenger to tho 
 Judson Association, 117; closes career as United States Senator 
 and becomes Governor, 147; drives back the Indians, 148; com- 
 pulsory retirement, 157 ; death, 164. 
 
 Howard Payne College, 328. 
 
 Huckins, Eev. Jas., a missionary, 26; labors of, 31; leaves Galveston 
 pastorate, 81; financial agent, 81; fidelity, 82; incessant labors, 
 96 ; returns to Galveston as pastor, 109 ; gift of people of Gal- 
 veston, 149; goes to Charleston, S. C, 150. 
 
 Immigration, foreign, to Texas, 404. 
 Independence, beginning of decline, 140. 
 Independence Church organized, 28. 
 Indians give trouble, 32. 
 
 Jackson, President, possible connection with Houston 's removal to 
 
 Texas, 24. 
 Jefferson and Napoleon, 21. 
 Johnston, Eev. Jonas, liberality of, 185; connected with "Texas 
 
 Baptist Herald," 251. 
 
 Kimball, Eev. J. A., sketch, 94. 
 Kimbrough, Dr., relates an incident, 302. 
 
 Lagrange Church, 28. 
 
 Law, Eev. F. M., D.D., removes to Texas, 151 ; interest in Sunday 
 School work, 181; favors educational unity, 209; becomes finan- 
 cial secretary, 230; results, 235; devotion of Baylor College, 
 321; death, 436. 
 
 Lee, Col. E. E., drives back to Cortina, 147. 
 
 Lester, C. Edwards, quoted on Houston, 165. 
 
 Liberty of speech, advantages of, 220. 
 
 Lincoln, President, election gives apprehension, 148. 
 
 Link, Eev. J. B., D.D., LL.D., removes to Texas, 177; projects a 
 paper, ISO; valuable service, 195; advocates educational unity, 
 209; directs tourists of Southern Baptist Convention, 222; fur- 
 nishes a plan for educational unity, 227; removes to Dallas, 
 252; his first impression of J. B. Cranfill, 276.
 
 506 INDEX 
 
 Lipscomb, Judge A. S., nominates Dr. Burleson for Baylor Univer- 
 sity presidency, 91. 
 
 Louisiana Purchase, 13. 
 
 Lutlier, Eev. J. H., D.D., iirosidciit of Baylor College, 249; retained 
 on its removal, 3(l4; death, 44(5. 
 
 Marsii, Kev. R., removes to Texas, 17; death, 18. 
 
 Martin, Eev. "SI. T., founds a remarkable heresy, 311. 
 
 Marshall, First Churcli organized, 72. 
 
 Mason, Rev. W. A., missionary agent, 206. 
 
 Maxey, Senator S. B., alluded to, 243; a prohibition leader, 307; 
 death, 36(5. 
 
 Millard, Mrs. Massie, organizes first prayer meeting in Texas, 20. 
 
 "Missionary Worker," 402, 412. 
 
 Mills, Senator R. Q., debates with J. B. Cranfill, 299; opposes Dr. 
 B. H. Carroll in state canvass, 307. 
 
 Morrell, Rev. Z. N., preaches first sermon in Houston, 17; reaches 
 Texas, 18; marked distinction, 18; declines appointment as mis- 
 sionary, 26; baptizes first convert, 27; resists Cox, 36; discour- 
 agement and intrepidity, 44; activity, 46; skill as leader, 61; 
 retires from active labor, 107; invites Southern Baptist Conven- 
 tion to Texas, 215; death, 277. 
 
 Morrill, Rev. B. D., 132; power and influence, 186; sketch and death, 
 186. 
 
 Motlev, John Lothrop, quoted, 241. 
 
 Mt. GUead Church, 34. 
 
 Mt. Olivet Church, 440. 
 
 Mt. Zion Church, 41. 
 
 Xegro, influences on Civil War, 153; interest of, fostered by Texas 
 
 Baptists, 180. 
 Newman, Wm. Henry, D.D., LL.D., at Baylor L^niversity, 432. 
 New Orleans, battle of, alluded to, 13. 
 "No Man's Land," character of occupants of, 22. 
 
 O'Brvan, Eev. S. G., pastor at Waco, 90; death, 184. 
 Old North Church, 26. 
 
 Orphans' Home, Buckner, conceived, 244; prosperity of, 343; growtii, 
 353. 
 
 Paper projected by Texas Baptists, 109. 
 
 Paris, First Church constituted, US. 
 
 Parker, Daniel and James, 47. 
 
 Pastors' Conference organized, 247. 
 
 Pecan Point", 14. 
 
 Penn, ^laj. AV. E., invites the Southern Baptist Convention to Texas, 
 
 215; begins evangelistic career, 230; holds revival at Waco, 235; 
 
 conducts a remarkable meeting at Ft. Worth, 276. 
 Pickett, Eev. W. M., ordained, 48; pastor at Paris, 118. 
 Pilgrim, T. J., organizes first Sunday School in Texas, 19; become!? 
 
 Sunday School secretary, 95.
 
 INDEX 507 
 
 Plum Grove Church, 27. 
 
 Pope, Eev. O. C, D.D., removes from Tennessee, 257; co-editor uf 
 ' ' Texas Baptist Herald, ' ' 251 ; corresponding secretary, 263 ; 
 supports a missionary in Mexico, 265; work thrives under him, 
 268; wisdom and enterprise, 271; a leader, 274; builds church 
 at Monterey, Mexico, 293. 
 
 Population, character of first, in Texas, 23. 
 
 Powell, Eev. W. D., D.D., secretary of Sunday School Convention, 
 242 ; excellent work of, 247 ; activity, 249 ; missionary to 
 Mexico, 273; secures offer of school property, 277. 
 
 Prestridge, Eev. J. N., D.D., mentioned, 318. 
 
 Prohibition, notable campaign, 307 ; liquor forces employ foul means, 
 309 ; remarkable facts about opponents to, 309. 
 
 Promising conditions, 66. 
 
 Providence, wisdom of displayed, 189; indications of, 262; mys- 
 tery of, 333; unerring, 434. 
 
 Eailroad.s, beginning of in Texas, 104. 
 
 Eeconstruction and destruction, 169; rallying from effects of, 194; 
 
 end of, 239. 
 Bed Eiver region, destitution in, 121. 
 Eeed, Eev. Isaac, opposes missions, 41. 
 
 Eeed, Eev. Samuel, reaches Texas, 17; labors about ^facogdoches, 27. 
 Eegulators and Moderates, 45. 
 "Eeligious Messenger," begun, 218; awakens interest, 223; nam< 
 
 changed, 234. 
 Eepublic, perils of, 32. 
 
 Eoman Catholics, form of oath administered by, 22 ; reproached, 223. 
 Eoyall, Wm., D.D., becomes president of Baylor College, 229; suc- 
 ceeded by Dr. Luther, 249. 
 
 Sabbath School and Colportage Union, 181. 
 
 Salem Church, 44'. 
 
 San Antonio, 110; mayor of assaults a Methodist minister, 308; Dr. 
 
 Carroll speaks under the national flag in, 308; State Conven 
 
 tion at, .391. 
 Sanitarium, Baptist Memorial, first broached, 448. 
 Scarborough, Eev. L. E., valuable service of, 328. 
 Schurz, Carl, quoted, 24. 
 
 Shipman, Moses, entertains Thos. Hanks, 15. 
 Simmons College founded by Eev. J. B. Simmons, D.D., 327. 
 Slaughter, Col. C. C, conceives the idea of educational federation, 
 
 396 ; liberal gift of, 396 ; associate proprietor of ' ' Baptist 
 
 Standard, ' ' 401 ; donation of tents, 429 ; power and influence, 
 
 443 ; gift to Baptist Sanitarium, 448. 
 Slaughter, Eev. Geo. Webb, early career of, 48 ; missionary labors 
 
 and equij^ment, 49; record and death, 371. 
 Slaves, freedom of agitated, 122; friends of, in the South, 154; peril 
 
 to the South, 160; benetfis derived by, 161; fidelity of, 161. 
 Smalley, Eev. Freeman, preaches first sermon in Texas, 14.
 
 608 INDEX 
 
 Smith, Kev. Abner, reaches Texas, 17. 
 
 Smith, Gen. Morgan L., liberality of, 82; timely aid of, 203. 
 
 Smith, Eev. M. V., as a boy preacher; interest in Sunday School 
 work, 181; writes "Flowers and Fruits" for Z. N. Morrell, 287; 
 devotion to Baylor College, 321; becomes editor, 346; death, 357. 
 
 South Texas, seat of empire, 140. 
 
 Southern Baptist Convention invited to Texas, 215; meets at Jeffer- 
 son, 222; at Waco, 275; at Fort Worth, 329. 
 
 ' ' Southwestern Baptist Chronicle, ' ' 67. 
 
 Spalding, Eev. A. T., D.D., pastor at Galveston, 264. 
 
 Speight, Gen. J. W., 134 ; favors educational unity, 205 ; sketch, 231. 
 
 Spraggins, Eev. Thos., 28. 
 
 "Standard, Texas Baptist," founded, 345; oflSce of destroyed by 
 fire, 363; policy changed, 401; its elevated plane, 415; its con- 
 structive work, 453. 
 
 Stewart, Hon. Charles, alluded to, 367. , 
 
 State Convention, origin of, 79 ; interests fostered by, 195 ; epoch 
 in history of, 199; summary of its history, 207; -progress of, 
 243; holds eventful session, 276; meeting at Waxahachie, how 
 viewed, 282; steps toward consolidation, 297; meets first after 
 consolidation, 300. 
 
 Stribling, Eev. J. H., D.D., first appearance of, 67; named as editor, 
 109; increase of power, 129; interest in Sunday School work, 
 181; brings Major Penn before public, 231; death and sketch, 
 348. 
 
 Sunday School cause flourishing, 195; activity in work of, 201. 
 
 Sunday School Board commended, 343. 
 
 Taliaferro, Eev. E. H., pastor at Austin, 68. 
 
 Talleyrand quoted, 433. 
 
 "Texas Baptist and Herald," created, 303; source of discord, 329; 
 hostility of, 346; wages war on the denomination, 376; bitter- 
 ness of, 453; reaction from, 459. 
 
 Texas secedes from the Union, 156. 
 
 "Texas Baptist Herald," begins, 123; awakens enthusiasm, 138; 
 power and influence, 145; suspends, 198; is removed to Austin, 
 276. 
 
 "Texas Baptist," created, 234. 
 
 Tichenor, Eev. I. T., D.D., alluded to, 270. 
 
 Thrall 's allusion to Baptists, 26. 
 
 Travis Church, 28. 
 
 Trinity Eiver Association founds a school, 133. 
 
 Truett, Eev. G. W., D.D., is recommended to Dr. Carroll, 325; char- 
 acter, 327 ; financial secretary of Baylor University, 338 ; leader- , 
 ship of, 420 ; power and influence, 443. 
 
 Trustees, original board of Baylor University, 54. 
 
 Tryon, Eev. W. M., becomes a missionary. 26; assistant pastor at 
 Independence, 28; labors, 31; sketch, 34; originates educational 
 movement, 35 ; modesty, 54 ; first president of Board of Trus- 
 tees Baylor University, 57; sagacity, 65; death, 63.
 
 INDEX 509 
 
 Tucker, Eev. George, 137. 
 
 Tyler, First Church, seeks to establish a school, 99. 
 
 Union Church, 27. 
 
 Vickers, Mrs. Eliza, liberality of, 145. 
 
 Vining, Eev. T. L., leadership of, 102. 
 
 Waco Association, 151. 
 
 Waco Classical School, 151. 
 
 Waco First Church organized, 90; first meeting-house,- 113; great re- 
 vival at, 235. 
 
 Waco University, prospers, 185; liberal proposal of, 203. 
 
 AValne, Eev. T. J., D.D., financial secretary, 352. 
 
 War, Civil, indications of approach of, 148 ; effect of, on Baptist 
 State Convention, 159; evangelization of slaves during the, 159; 
 hardships, 164. 
 
 "Western Pioneer," 35. 
 
 Washington Constitutional Convention, 26. 
 
 Wells, Eev. J. M., at Fort Worth, 329; death, 397. 
 
 Westrup, Eev. J. O., murdered, 265. 
 
 Williams, Col. W. L., timely work of, 192, 193. 
 
 Witt, Eev. Jesse, enters on work in Texas, 69; death, 146. 
 
 Woman's Work, begun, 273; activity of, 337; contributions of, 449. 
 
 Wright, Eev. Asa, 41. 
 
 Yellow Fever, 183, 216.
 
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