NOTWITHSTANDING both the tradition and the facts of hardshooting,
hard-riding cowboys, of bad men, of border lawlessness, of inhabitants
who had left some other place under a cloud, of frontier towns
"west of God," hard layouts and conscienceless "courthouse
crowds"--notwithstanding all this, the Southwest has been and is
religious-minded. This is not to say that it is spiritual-natured.
It belongs to H. L. Mencken's "Bible Belt." "Pass-the-Biscuits"
Pappy O'Daniel got to be governor of Texas and then U.S. senator by
advertising his piety. A politician as "ignorant as a Mexican hog" on
foreign affairs and the complexities of political economy can run in
favor of what he and the voters call religion and leave an informed man
of intellect and sincerity in the shade. The biggest campmeeting in the
Southwest, the Bloys Campmeeting near Fort Davis, Texas, is in the midst
of an enormous range country away from all factories and farmers.
Since about 1933 the United States Indian Service has not only allowed
but rather encouraged the Indians to revert to their own religious
ceremonies. They have always been religious. The Spanish colonists
of the Southwest, as elsewhere, were zealously Catholic, and their
descendants have generally remained Catholic. The first English-speaking
settlers of the region--the colonists led by Stephen F. Austin to
Texas--were overwhelmingly Protestant, though in order to establish
Mexican citizenship and get titles to homestead land they had,
technically, to declare themselves Catholics. One of the causes of the
Texas Revolution as set forth by the Texans in their Declaration of
Independence was the Mexican government's denial of "the right
of worshipping the Almighty according to the dictates of our own
conscience." A history of southwestern society that left out the
Bible would be as badly gapped as one leaving out the horse or the
six-shooter.
See chapter entitled "On the Lord's Side" in Dobie's _The Flavor of
Texas_. Most of the books listed under "How the Early Settlers Lived"
contain information on religion and preachers. Church histories are
about as numerous as state histories. Virtually all county histories
take into account church development. The books listed below are strong
on personal experiences.
ASBURY, FRANCIS. Three or more lives have been written of this
representative pioneer bishop.
BOLTON, HERBERT E. _The Padre on Horseback_, 1932. Life of the Jesuit
missionary Kino. OP.
BROWNLOW, W. G. _Portrait and Biography of Parson Brownlow, the
Tennessee Patriot_, 1862. Brownlow was a very representative figure.
Under the title of _William G Brownlow, Fighting Parson of the Southern
Highland_, E. M Coulter has brought out a thorough life of him,
published by University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, 1937.
BURLESON, RUFUS C. _Life and Writings_, 1901. OP. The autobiographical
part of this amorphously arranged volume is a social document of the
first rank.
CARTWRIGHT, PETER. _Autobiography_, 1857. Out of Kentucky, into Indiana
and then into Illinois, where he ran against Lincoln for Congress,
Cartwright rode with saddlebags and Bible. Sandburg characterizes him
as "an enemy of whisky, gambling, jewelry, fine clothes, and higher
learning." He seems to me more unlovely in his intolerance and
sectarianism than most circuit riders of the Southwest, but as
a militant, rough-and-ready "soldier of the Lord" he represented
southwestern frontiers as well as his own.
CRANFILL, J. B. _Chronicle, A Story of Life in Texas_, 1916. Cranfill
was a lot of things besides a Baptist preacher--trail driver, fiddler,
publisher, always an observer. OP.
DEVILBISS, JOHN WESLEY. _Reminiscences and Events_ (compiled by H. A.
Graves), 1886. The very essence of pioneering,
DOMENECH, ABBE. _Missionary Adventures in Texas and Mexico_ (translated
from the French), London, 1858. OP. The Abbe always had eyes open for
wonders. He saw them. Delicious narrative.
EVANS, WILL G. _Border Skylines_, published in Dallas, 1940, for Bloys
Campmeeting Association, Fort Davis, Texas. Chronicles of the men
and women--cow people--and cow country responsible for the best known
campmeeting, held annually, Texas has ever had. OP.
GRAVIS, PETER W. _25 Years on the Outside Row of the Northwest Texas
Annual Conference_, Comanche, Texas, 1892. Another one of those small
personal records, privately printed but full of juice. OP.
LIDE, ANNA A. _Robert Alexander and the Early Methodist Church in
Texas_, La Grange, Texas, 1935. OP.
MORRELL, Z. N. _Fruits and Flowers in the Wilderness_, 1872. Though
reprinted three times, last in 1886, long OP. In many ways the best
circuit rider's chronicle of the Southwest that has been published.
Morrell fought Indians and Mexicans in Texas and was rich in other
experiences.
MORRIS, T. A. _Miscellany_, 1884. The "Notes of Travel"--particularly
to Texas in 1841--are what makes this book interesting.
PARISOT, P. F. _Reminiscences of a Texas Missionary_, 1899. Mostly the
Texas-Mexican border.
POTTER, ANDREW JACKSON, commonly called the Fighting Parson. _Life_ of
him by H. A. Graves, 1890, not nearly so good as Potter was himself.
THOMASON, JOHN W. _Lone Star Preacher_, Scribner's, New York, 1941.
Fiction, true to humanity. The moving story of a Texas chaplain who
carried a Bible in one hand and a captain's sword in the other through
the Civil War.