The University of Oklahoma

THE UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA. GRADUATE COLLEGE THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN OKLAHOMA, 1835-1941 A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE FACULTY in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY BY SAMUEL LEE BOTKIN Norman, Oklahoma 1957 THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN OKLAHOMA, 1835-1941 APPROVED BY -r> ACKNOWLEDGMENTS When my wife, Patricia, and I recall the several years of work which have gone into my attempt to attain the degree of Doctor of Philo sophy, those persons who helped me overcome occasional, severe obstacles stand out in our memory. The Rev, Alvin Scollay Hock, retired Episcopal minister and former historiographer of the Diocese of Oklahoma, was probably the most helpful of all, Mr, Hock (l should include Mrs, Hock, too) not only gave me constant encouragement; he turned over to me the fruit of some twenty years of collecting of historical material for the Diocese of Oklahoma, Without Mr, Hock*s valuable collection, the producing of a history of the Missionary District of Oklahoma might have been impos sible. Two other persons, now long deceased, also deserve my gratitude for their foresight and labors in accumulating historical material for Oklahoma, They are the Rev. Franklin C, Smith, who served in Oklahoma from 1895 to 1901 and who compiled historical material of the earliest Episcopal activity in Indian Territory; and Miss Sarah Olden, former Stillwater resident who painstakingly reproduced hundreds of pages of material which had been published in national magazines on the Mission ary District of Oklahoma, 111 Performing the thankless task of requiring me to "do the job right" when I might have been tempted to be satisfied with less than my best effort was Dr, Edwin C. McReynolds, professor of history and chair man of my reading committee. Dr. McReynolds has been an ideal source of information on the history of Oklahoma. He was assisted by Prof. Charles C. Bush, whose particular interest in the Episcopal Church qualified him to make a unique contribution of advice and assistance. Dr. Donnell Owings, my advisor throughout the earlier part of my study, awakened me to what it meant to be a scholar in the field of history and served as an excellent example of one. Dr. Henry S. Robin son, assistant dean of the graduate college, offered splendid suggestions as to improvement of style and word usage. Two other history professors, Dr. A. B. Sears and Dr. Eugene Hollon, will be remembered for their genuine friendship and interest. The other members of my reading committee. Dr. J. C. Feaver and Dr. G. C. Fite, gave unselfishly of their time on various occasions. Helpful in preparatory study were Dr. Percy Buchanan, Dr. A. K. Christian, and Dr. S. R. Tompkins. Two bishops of the Diocese of Oklahoma have lent their support. They are the Rt. Rev. Thomas Casady, retired, whose career formed an ex citing part of my work; and the Rt. Rev. Chilton Powell, Bishop of Okla homa, an inspiring leader. Valuable suggestions and materials have been received from the Rev, Frank N. Cohoon, historiographer of the Diocese of Oklahoma; and from Mrs. John Gladden, secretary to Bishop Casady when he was active and now secretary to Bishop Powell. IV TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS......................................... iii Chapter I. INTRODUCTION..................................... 1 II. BEFORE 1889..................................... 8 III. TYLER AND PATTERSON, 1889-92....................... 31 IV. BISHOP BROOKE'S FIRST YEARS, 1893-98 ................ 49 V. KEEPING PACE WITH OKLAHOMA, 1898-1908.............. 73 VI. DIVISION AND THE DISTRICT OF OKLAHOMA TO 1918......... 110 VII. THE DISTRICT OF EASTERN OKLAHOMA, 1911-19............ 141 VIII. BISHOP THEODORE PAYNE THURSTON, 1919-26............. l60 IX. THE CASADY EPISCOPATE AND DIOCESAN STATUS............ 207 BIBLIOGRAPHY........................................... 253 Appendixes I. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF CLERGYMEN WHO HAVE SERVED IN OKLAHOMA....................................... 263 II. HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF PARISHES AND MISSIONS INOKLAHOMA 294 III. MAP DRAWN BY BISHOP BROOKE, 1895............... 332 IV. MAP DRAWN BY BISHOP BROOKE, 1903.................... 334 THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN OKLAHOMA, 1835-1941 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION The Protestant Episcopal Church, like the Congregational, the United Brethren, the Northern Baptist, the Lutheran, and others, was foreign to most of the people who came to the new territory of Oklahoma from 1889 to 1907. Its services were looked upon as "peculiar." What few Episcopalians there were in the territory were so scattered they were unable to become self-supporting local church groups. These two facts made it inevitable that the story of the Church in Oklahoma would be a story of '^missionary** effort. The actual operation of the Mission ary District of Oklahoma was not different from that of Alaska, or Hawaii, or Puerto Rico. No different from foreign mission stations, either, had been other Western states— Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, California, Nevada, Colorado, Idaho, and the Dakotas. Each had received a missionary bishop who spent years trying to find enough men and money to plant the Church permanently. A picture of the difficulty of raising enough money in the East to finance the Church in the West can be seen when it is noted that from 1836 to 2 well into the twentieth century Eastern money was being continually di vided among at least half a dozen struggling Western missionary dis tricts.^ Because its membership had been disrupted during the Revolution ary War and it had had to learn how to exist as a self-supporting rather than a tax-supported religious body, the American Episcopal Church was well behind the other major denominations in looking westward for mis- 2 sionary effort. The Methodists and Baptists, perfectly equipped for frontier life, not only moved ahead with the frontier but also took many thousands of Christians whose allegiance had once been to the Church of England. The Presbyterians and Congregationalists, particularly the former, benefited from their "plan of union" of 1801.^ By the time the Episcopal Church arrived in any Western state, other denominations were already functioning in permanent fashion. The Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society of the Episcopal Church was organized in 1820 and a few missionaries were sent to the West. It was not until after the reorganization of the Society in 1835i however, that real progress began. At that time the **Board of Missions" was created as a controlling body of the Society, which had included too many members to have a united voice. Strategy became better planned, and more important, the decision was made to assign missionary bishops to % . W. Manross, History of the American Episcopal Church (New York and Milwaukee, 1935), 347. 2lbid. %illiston Walker, A History of the Christian Church (New York, 1947), 579. 3 missionary districts. Besides placing the responsibility upon a man of proved ability, this overcame the previous obstacle, suffered throughout colonial times in America, of the lack of a bishop to "lay on hands" in Confirmation, a rite necessary for communicant membership in the Church,^ The report of the Board of Missions of 1866 gave a thirty-year summary of Episcopal domestic missionary activity. Illinois, which had six Episcopal ministers in 1836, had 100 in 1866. Other states had grown in number of ministers as follows:^ 1866 Michigan 3 64 Indiana 7 30 Wisconsin 2 78 Minnesota 1 27 Iowa 2 (1839) 37 Missouri 4 30 California (1853) 8 30 Progress in Colorado, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Idaho, and the Dakotas came in the succeeding generation. In 1890, the %iiscopal Church claimed 48,5&9 communicants in the region lying west of the Mississippi Hiver and east of the Pacific Coast region. To the south of Oklahoma were two missionary districts and one diocese in Texas. Arkansas was a missionary area with few communicants, as was Louisiana. Oklahoma, in habited until 1889 primarily by Indians, ranked well below other dis tricts on the list of priority for expenditures.^ Other drawbacks to missionary activity in the Protestant ^Manross, History, 256-260, 343-5* 5lbid., 326. ^Ibid., 343* Also Julia C. Emery, A Century of Endeavor (New York, 1921), 45* 4 Episcopal Church included the Civil War, which caused a 10-year suspen sion of new work; and the refusal to use "frontier methods" involving ministers who were not seminary-trained. The "Oxford Movement," a re vival to ritualism and ceremony and the sense of catholicity of the Church, became influential in the United States after the middle of the nineteenth century. The latter was to eventuate in missionary activity, but at first split Episcopalians into opposing factions and prevented united action.? On the other hand, two factors came to the fore late in the nine teenth century to give new missionary impetus. One, partially the re sult of the Oxford Movement, was a sense of mission, a conviction that frontier areas of the United States should become acquainted with the "true Church" and be led out of their "sectarianism." The other was the development of the Woman^s Auxiliary to the Board of Missions after 1868, its date of organization. Women of the Church since then have been the leaders in missionary study and promotion.® In more recent times, the organization, in 1919, of the National Council, executive body in charge of missions and other nation-wide programs, has added much to Episcopalian Q efficiency. ?Manross, History. 256. A complete history of the Oxford Move ment, which originated in England under the leadership of Henry Newman, is G. E. DeMille, The Catholic Movement in the American Episcopal Church (Philadelphia, 194l). ®Emery, A Century, tells fully the story of women»s work in the promotion of missionary activity. "Woman* s Auxiliary" is correct (not "Women* s"). %anross. History. 351» 5 A statistical study of the sources of population and of church membership in the state of Oklahoma reveals something of the problem which faced the first missionaries and the first bishop in the state.

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