East Texas Historical Journal Volume 14 Issue 1 Article 1 3-1976 ETHJ Vol-14 No-1 Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/ethj Part of the United States History Commons Tell us how this article helped you. Recommended Citation (1976) "ETHJ Vol-14 No-1," East Texas Historical Journal: Vol. 14 : Iss. 1 , Article 1. Available at: https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/ethj/vol14/iss1/1 This Full Issue is brought to you for free and open access by the History at SFA ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in East Texas Historical Journal by an authorized editor of SFA ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. VOLUME XIV 1976 NUMBER 1 EAST TEXAS HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION OFFICERS Charles K. Phillips. President Nacogdoches Claude H. Hall. First Vice-President .....•..•.•....................College Station Fred Tarpley. Second Vice-President ........••....•.......•...........Commerce Mrs. Tommie Jan Lowery, Secretary Lufkin Directors Eliza Bishop Crockett ... .•......1976 Mrs. Jere Jackson Nacogdoches ,, 1976 Lee Lawrence Tyler ...................•...•......1976 Frank H. Smyrl ........•...•..........Tyler ..............•....•...•......1977 Traylor Russell ..............•..........Mt. Pleasant ........•........•.....1977 Lois Parker , ...•......Beaumont .........•....•...•...... 19'77 Ralph Steen ................•....•......Nacogdoches 1978 Mrs. E. H. Lasseter Henderson 1978 EDITORIAL BOARD Allan Ashcraft ......•..................................•....•............Bryan Robert Glover. ..... •• .. .• . ....•.......................•....••...........Tyler Ralph Goodwin , ................•.....•.........•.........Commerce Frank Jackson , Commerce Archie P. McDonald, Editor-in-Chief ., .......•......................Nacogdoches Mrs. Charles Martin, , , Midland James L. Nichols ..........................................•.......Nacogdoches .. Ralph A. Wooster , Beaumont MEMBERSIIIP PATRON S contribute to the work ofthe Association $100 or more. payable ifdesired over a period of five years. SUSTAINING MEMBERS contribute to the work of the Association $50 or more. pay- i able if desired over a period of five years. REGULAR MEMBERS pay S8 dues annually. STUDENT MEMBERS payS4 dues annually. A student enrolled in high school or college is eligible for membership. P.O. Box 6223. NACOGDOCHES. TEXAS 75961. SFA Station $3.00 per copy to nonmembers. $2.00 per copy to members. Vol XlV. No. I- East Texas Historical Association EAST TEXAS HISTORICAL JOURNAL Volume XIV SPRING 1976 No.1 CONTENTS PROTESTANT CHURCHES AND SLAVERY IN MATAGORDA COUNTY by Reba W. Palm .__ __ .__ . .. __ Page 3 BLACK TEXANS DURING RECONSTRUCTION: FIRST FREEDOM by James Smallwood .... .. .._... Page 9 BLACKS AND THE SOUTHERAN FARMERS' ALLIANCE MOVEMENT by Gerald Gaither __ .......................... Page 24 VIOLENCE IN AN "ARSENAL OF DEMOCRACY": THE BEAUMONT RACE RIOT, 1943 by James A. Burran __ ... .. Page 39 EAST TEXAS COLLOQUY by Bobby H. Johnson ..... Page 53 BOOK REVIEWS ..... Page 56 SPECIAL ISSUE ON BLACK HISTORY NACOGDOCHES, TEXAS P.O. BOX 6223 SFA STATION 75961 Archie P. McDonald, Edilor 2 EAST TEXAS HISTORICAL SOCIETY BOOK REVIEWS Moorhead, The Presidio: Bastion of the Spanish Borderlands, by Thomas H. Kreneck. Waters, Mexico Mystique: The Coming Sixth World of Consciousness, by David M. Vigness. Schmitt, Mexico and the United States, 1821-1973: Conflict and Coexistence, by Thomas Schoonover. Genovese, Roll, Jordan, Roll: The World the Slaves Made, by Ralph A. Wooster. Schwab, Travels in the Old South, by James L, Nichols. Bate, General Sidney Sherman: Texas Soldier, Statesman, and Builder. by John Osburn. Sutton, The Sutton-Taylor Feud, by Ronald Ellison. Toepperwein, Showdown: Western Gunfighters in Moments of Truth, by Ronald Ellison. Dobie, The Flavor of Texas, by Francis Edward Abernethy. Holden. Alton Huston: Reminiscences of a South Plains Youth, by Duncan G. Muckelroy. Wiley, Confederate Women, by Herman Hattaway. Osterweis, The Myth of the Lost Cause, 1865·1900, by William L. Richter. Robinson, Texas Public Building of the Nineteenth Century, by Fred Tarpley. Partlow, Liberty, Liberty County, and the Atascosito District. by Paul R. Scott. Justman, German Colonists and Their Descendants in Houston, Including Usener and Allied Families, by William L. Taylor. Hoffman, Unwanted Mexican Americans in the Great Depression: Repatriation Pressures, 1929-1939, by D. S. Chandler. Shockley, Chicano Revolt in a Texas Town, by James Smallwood. Wolff, Challenge of Change, by Joe E. Ericson. Bartley and Graham, Southern Politics and the Second Reconstruction, by Robert V. Haynes. Baker, The Southern Baptist Convention and its People, 1607-1972, by Jerry M. Self. Giraud, A History of French Louisiana, Vol. I, The Reign of Louis XIV, 1698­ 1715, by Ert J. Gum. NOTES Dodd, Historical Atlas of Alabama. Rose, Storyville, New Orleans. Gibson, Index to Louisiana Place Names Mentioned in The War of the Rebellion. Falconer, Discovery of the Mississippi. Journals of the Convention, Texas 1845. Silber. Songs of Independence. King and Champney, Texas: 1874. Marzulla, Pictorial Treasury of U.S. Stamps. Dillon, The Abolitionists: The Growth of a Dissenting Minority_ Fitzhugh. Three Centuries Passed. Maguire. A President's Country: A Guide to the LBI Country of Texas. Friends of the LEI Library, LEi: Images 0/ a Vihrant Life. Alexander, Holding The Line: The Eisenhower Era, 1952-1961. Heath. Decade of Disillusionment, The Kennedy.Johnson Years. Haley, The Alamo Mission Bell. Texas State Historical ASfiociation, SeventY-five Years of Texas History. EAST TEXAS HISTORICAL SOCIETY 3 PROTESTANT CHURCHES AND SLAVERY IN MATAGORDA COUNTY by Reba W. Palm Religious independence carne to Texans in 1836 along with their political independence from Mexico. Although Roman Catholicism was the official reli­ gion during the colonial period, Protestants had been preaching and witnessing from the beginning of the Anglo-American-occupation. From Matagorda Coun­ ty's inception as a colony in Stephen F. Austin's colonization plan, religion was an important part of the lives of Matagorda residents, both white and black. With the new freedom came Protestant missionaries from the United States. The Methodists and Presbyterians were first in the field. 1 Two Presbyterian ministers visited Matagorda before 1838, but no organization of a church congregation resulted.' Religious meetings were first held in private homes, then as attendance increased, church congregations were established. The slaves attended the chureh services and became members along with their owners. Sunday Schools, often nonRsectarian, met in many places even before a church was organized. Camp meetings were also popular and different denominations cooperated in sponsoring them during these early days of the Republic. 3 The missionary work of the Methodists in Texas was assigned to the Mis­ sissippi Conference at its session on December 3, 1838 in Grenada. One of the itinerant preachers appointed to that Missionary District was Jesse Hord. On January 3rd he arrived in Matagorda with a letter of introduction from his Pre­ siding Elder, Littleton Fowler, to Colonel A. C. Horton, later the first Lieuten­ ant Governor of Texas, in whose house he was graciously received. On Sunday, January 6, 1839 the minister attended morning services at the Episcopal Church. Hard preached in that church at 3 o'clock that afternoon and again at an early candlelight service. He "opened the door of the Church" and four persons came forward. This was the beginning of the first Methodist congregation in Mata­ gorda.' In 1839 at the Mississippi Conference meeting at Natchez, Robert Hill was assigned as minister to the Methodists at Matagorda. Texas ministers at the conference reported that there were 750 white and 43 "colored" members of the Methodist Church in their district. fi By 1860 the Methodists had one church in Matagorda with accommodations for 150 and property valued at $1200. That same year Texas Methodists could count 410 churches, accommodations for nearly 104,000 members, and properties valued at $319,934.6 The Baptists were equally active. In 1829 Connecticut-born Thomas J. Pilgrim arrived in Matagorda with a group of New York Baptists in route to San Felipe de Austin where they planned to provide religious education for the villagers.7 Several members of Pilgrim's party remained in Matagorda to estab­ lish a Sunday School. The American Baptist Home Missionary Society of New York provided most of the missionary aid to thc Texas Baptists.8 One prominent Texas Baptist layman was A. C. Horton, who came to the Matagorda area from Alabama in 1835, and bought several leagues of land on Old Caney Creek.9 He helped organize the Tcxas State Baptist Convention at Anderson on September 8, 1848, and served on the committee which drafted Reba W. Palm was a candidate for a Master of Arts at Delmar College. Corpus Christi when this article was written. It was drawn from her thesis. , \ 4 EAST TEXAS HISTORICAL SOCIETY that body's constitution. Horton, a deacon in his local church, had a "tender and deep interest for the comfort and religious welfare" of his 300 slaves, many of whom were also Baptists. The slave-owner built a "church house" for his slaves and employed a minister to preach to them. Noah Hill, Horton's pastor, remembered that Horton and his wife often read the Bible and prayed with their servants. R. C. Burleson, president of Baylor University in 1851, wrote that while visiting the Horton Plantation,