Realities of Texas Schools

Minutes of the East Texas Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South; Held in Tyler, Texas, November 10th-16th, 1858
1859
(Galveston: The Christian Advocate) 

This report of the Committee on Education to the Bishop and members of the East Texas Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South accounts for the circumstances of five Methodist-founded schools in Texas. The phrase “flourishing condition” is repeated throughout the report, although the committee notes that they “have no report” from Soule University. Despite silence from Soule, the committee ensures that “there is no room for reasonable doubt as to the final success of this enterprise.” However, these words bely the tenuous condition Soule found itself in for much of its existence. The University’s early years were marked by difficulties providing adequate facilities and faculty pay, and the Civil War would catalyze an abrupt and irreversible decline in the condition of Soule.

[John H. Johnson’s Certificate of Graduation from Soule University]
1862 

This certificate of graduation for John H. Johnson was signed January 11, 1862: after Soule University closed for the Civil War and before all eligible young men were drafted into the Confederate army by the Conscription Act in April 1862. The certificate reads, “A diploma will be given as soon as it can be procured.” The use of a handwritten certificate in place of a printed diploma reflects the poor state that Soule was in; Soule University did not reopen until 1867 and was decimated by yellow fever in the same year.

[Letter from G.W. McClanahan to Brother [Josiah] Whipple]
1855 

George Walker McClanahan was the first principal of the Paine Female Institute, a college for women established in 1852 by Methodists to replace the defunct Hillyer Female College. McClanahan writes here to Whipple that he cannot leave the Paine Institute for a position at the Bastrop School because without him, “they would have no school for the next 5 months.” Further, “in this state of things it is feared the Presbyterians would come in and erect a female school to act in conjunction with their male school to the permanent injury of ours.” Denominational conflict was often an underlying factor in the sprint to establish schools in Texas. Wesleyan College, one of Southwestern’s four root colleges, was similar to the Paine Institute in that it was founded primarily as a competitor for the Presbyterians’ nearby San Augustine University.

The Doctrines and Discipline of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 1864
1864
(New York: Carlton & Porter) 

Published every four years following the meeting of the Conference, the Book of Discipline constitutes the laws and doctrines of the Methodist Church. The 1864 Book of Discipline of the MEC was the first with a section dedicated to education, representing an official codification of education as a value and practice – even in the midst of the Civil War. The MEC lays out guidelines that oblige Conference to unite in support of a college or university, but “the Conferences are earnestly advised not to multiply schools, especially of this higher grade, beyond the wants of the people or their ability to sustain them.” By the end of the nineteenth century, Methodists had founded twenty-one colleges in Texas, twice as many as any other denomination; this overabundance of schools often competed for the same pool of students and donors, resulting in under-enrollment and financial instability.