Rhoda Caroline Ussery was born Dec 21, 1814 in Montgomery Co. NC to Squire Welcome Ussery and Keziaand died July 30, 1878 in Williamson Co., TX. On Nov 18, 1832 in Barnwell Dist., SC, she married Marmaduke Gardner . Marmaduke was born Aug. 8, 1812 to James Gardner and Mary McCreary. He died May 4, 1879 in Williamson Co., TX. Both he and Rhoda are buried in the Lawhon-Gardner Cemetery in Williamson Co.
According to her great-granddaughter, Naomi Lide, Rhoda had 27 dresses, all made from scratch by the loom or spinning wheel. Both she and Marmaduke were fancy dressers. In 1854, after having lived in Mississippi, Rhoda traveled with her husband and children to a tiny community in Texas called Siloam, located north of Sam Smith Springs, later called Lawhon Springs. Once settled, Marmaduke organized a church known as Siloam with six whites and one Negro slave as members. Gardner organized other churches in the area and ordained three ministers, John C. and Joseph Lawhon and J.S. Dunbar. The Negro slave was referred to in Gardner's records as his "prized slave." Gardner had a large family, and enough equipment to start all over again when he arrived at the Siloam site December 1, 1854. (Rhoda was in poor health and wanted to move where game was plentiful.) During the Civil War, Gardner made boots for the Confederate Troops; he was a blacksmith, hunter, farmer and one of the early Universalist preachers in Texas. He began to preach May 12, 1848 and was ordained Sept. 2, 1849, and received the fellowship of the General Convention Jan. 10, 1872. He was pastor of the Universalist Church in Williamson Co., TX twenty-five years. He travelled very extensively in Texas and did a great amount of missionary work. The first church building was erected in an elm grove on the bank of a creek near an old schoolhouse about two hundred yards from there the school stood in 1938. When that church burned, a new one was built "at the springs," then was moved to the town of Siloam and reorganized in 1910. (Source: Notes on the Places of Williamson County)
By 1837 the fathers of both Marmaduke and Rhoda had passed away. A will by his grandfather, signed on the 12th of September 1837 indicates that the grandfather was still alive.
Upon Rhoda's death, Marmaduke wrote the following obituary for The Herald:
Death of Mrs. Gardner.
Bro. Burruss: It now becomes my painful duty to inform you that my dear and faithful wife that has stood by me for nearly 46 years, has left us and gone to the better world. She was born in N.C., Montgomery County on December 21, 1814- Her maiden name was Rhoda Ussery. When quite an infant, her parents moved to S.C., Barnwell District. We were married in 1832. In 1836 we moved to Mississippi and in 1854 we came to Texas. She died July 30th 1878, aged 63 years 7 months 1 week and 2 days. She raised fifteen children to be grown, five sons and ten daughters; and now has living 73 grand children and nine great grand children. She possessed all the qualities that are noble in women. She was truly a Granger in all her domestic relations, --was ever delighted in the highest degree, to associate with brother and sister masons, and above all, as a christian, she surely possessed the right to claim the promise, 'blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.' For 40 years she had been subject to violent attacks of a severe cramping of the feet and hands, often the whole body would be more or less cramped, and soon all the alarming symptoms of Asiatic cholera would be realized. Often have I seen her barely escape death. But the violence of this last attack, set at defiance all our old and successful remedies; she lived only 46 hours from the time she was taken. Death had no terrors for her, for when in good health we often talked on that subject. She was in her proper mind during her whole illness, but for the last 12 hrs was almost speechless. Seeing Mrs. Ducy (a member of the christian church), a lady she much admired, standing by her bed side, a short time before she breathed her last, she tried to talked to Mrs. Ducy, but could only make her understand that she was going to die. All at once, to make her understand, she raised her hands, looked upwards, clapped her hands, and exclaimed in an audible voice, 'PREPARED!' Mrs. D. gave her to understand that she fully understood her meaning. In a short time after this, without a struggle, without even a long breath, she 'fell asleep in Jesus,' as quietly as ever an infant slumbered on its mother's lap.
She often thanked God that he had spared her to see all her children married, settled and doing well. Her loss to me is irreparable; so far as this world is concerned. Our association as husband and wife, has been a haven of uninterrupted happiness. Only a few years at most, and our association will be renewed, I hope, in that house of many mansions, eternal in the heavens, where Jesus dwells; where we shall see him ashe is and be like him,--Amen.
The Grangers buried her with all the honors that their Order could confer. More than 140 grown persons testified their respect for her by their presence at the burial. M. Gardner McDade, Texas.
Marmaduke married again to Amanda J. Jones a few months before he died.
The family collection of Marmaduke Gardner and David E. Lawhon's personal papers have been donated to the William Richter Center for American History at the Sid Richardson Hall, University of Texas at Austin by family members where they can be read by the general public.
Children of Rhoda Ussery and Marmaduke Gardner:
Children:
Frances Esther Gardner, known as "Aunt Easter", was born Mar 18, 1839 in Clark County, Mississippi to Marmaduke and Rhoda Caroline Ussery Gardner. She died Dec 7, 1883 in Williamson Co., TX. In 1851 she married Seaborn Jones Barber who was born July 14, 1829 in Alabama. He died on Sept. 18, 1899 in Williamson Co., TX. Both are buried in the Lawhon-Gardner Cemetery in Williamson Co., TX. They had the following children:
.
. Amanda Ellen Barber was born 15 Feb 1865 to Seaborn and Frances Gardner Barber She died 31 Jan 1936 in Hare, Williamson, TX . She married Thomas Perry Simmons who was born 27 May 1859 and died 27 Mar 1927 in Thrall, Williamson, TX. They had the following children:
A. Bert Simmons b: 24 Jun 1882 Dudley Jones Simmons b: 18 Dec 1883 d: 03 Jan 1945 mar. Frankie Cecelia Dooley b: 05 Feb 1889 Ollie Simmons b: 15 Nov 1885 d: 06 Oct 1963 in Taylor, Williamson, TX Thomas Arthur Simmons b: 03 Jun 1888 d: 15 Jul 1959 in Taylor, TX Lafayette Simmons b: 25 Jan 1894 d: 27 Mar 1948 Cora Lee Simmons b: 10 Aug 1896 d: 10 Jul 1956 in Palacios, Matagorda, TX Ira B. Simmons b: 05 Mar 1901 d: 04 Feb 1956 in Hare, Williamson, TX
I received the following email from Pam Cain, a descendant of Dudley Jones Simmons. If you have any information on this family, please contact Pam at cmycats@austin.rr.com
Dudley Jones Simmons – would be a great grandson of Marmaduke Gardner and Rhoda Ussery Gardner. He married Frankie Cecilia Dooley, and she is a descendant in my Hamilton line.I would like to connect with others who are researching this line. Winnie Ellen Hamilton, mother of Frankie Cecelia Dooley, was the sister of my great grandmother, Fannie Hamilton Abbott. My Hamilton line flies…low under the radar, and of course, I would like to find some Hamilton photos.Several of my lines lived in close proximity to the Gardner family; Abbott, Hamilton, Slaughter, Cain, as well of the connecting families of Simmons, Corzine, Olive, Scales, Smith….name a family … Anyway, if you run across this line, please keep me in mind.
James Gardner was born Feb 28, 1789 in Barnwell Dist, SC to Marmaduke Gardner and Katherine . James died in 1834 in Barnwell Dist SC. He served as a Captain in the American Revolution. His wife Mary McCreary, the daughter of Mary Fortune and Robert McCreary, Sr (b. ca. 1745. d. 1821 Barnwell Dist., SC. Served as a Lt. Col. in American Revolution) was born April 2, 1791 in either Barnwell Dist.or Greenwood Co., SC. She died around 1846 in either Clarke, Laurens or Lauderdale County, Miss. James and Mary had the following known children:
Marmaduke Gardner was born Feb 6, 1760 possibly in Ireland and died July 25, 1838 in Clarke Co, Miss. He married KATHERINE about 1789. His Will, which was written August 1, 1834, was probated on Sept 2, 1839 (Clarke Co. Court Min. Book 1839 pg 33-34). Tabitha (his daughter), the sons of James Gardner, Sr., late of Barnwell Dist., SC deceased, and Katherine, the wife of Marmaduke, were the only legatees he mentioned in his will. He appointed “My friend and relative Gifford H. Holliman Executor”.
Marmaduke is listed in the Federal Census of 1790 Orangeburg/Barnwell Dist., SC listed as Head of Household with 2 males under 16 as well as 2 females; 1800 Winton Co., SC; 1820 Barnwell Co., SC and in the 1830 Clarke CoPerry Co., Mississippi as well.
On Dec 15 1803, he registered a deed in Bush Creek , SC. In 1805 he sold land in Barnwell Dist which was witnessed by John Sanders. In 1806 Katherine Gardner signed her dower rights.
Marmaduke and Catherine had the following known children:
SWUUSI - A Burr Under the Buckle of the Bible Belt -
{Marmaduke mentioned in article}
Young Universalist minister Erasmus
Manford, fresh from the East, decided in 1846 to "see
more of the world," he said, and trekked down the
Mississippi, no very demanding feat despite the ready
danger of meeting eternity up close and personal, to
New Orleans to embark on a ship for Matagorda, Texas.
Manford was a Massachusetts boy, born and bred, and a
somewhat conservative stickler for proper liturgy,
communion and that sort of thing. You will remember
when I quoted Jonathan Kidwell on two kinds of
Universalist ministers. One who imagined he could
work 24 hours a day and live on fluff - that was
George Rogers whom we have already met. The other
variety was the minister who believed in generous
salaries and was prepared to saddle the laity, the
better to ride, boot and spur them on. That was,
according to Kidwell, Erasmus Manford. Now one should
not take Kidwell's opinion as gospel, for he had been
in the field since this legion "of beardless boys"
that descended on the Midwest, including Manford were
in diapers, and Kidwell's seat of the pants, meat axe
style of preaching was not too close to the genteel
refined sensibilities of young Manford. Manford had
been trained at the hands of the best Eastern
colleague-teachers, including Sylvanus Cobb, one of
the greats, and had tried the gracious fields of
Virginia only to discover it was no place for a
Universalist abolitionist.
Manford headed West, to Cincinnati and its
environs, before setting out on his daring venture to
Texas, which put him aboard a sailing ship for
Matagorda. On Sunday Manford preached to the ship's
company on the text; "And he arose and rebuked the
wind and the sea, and there was a great calm." God
must have a wry sense of humor for these fledgling
clerics, for a short time later they were in the teeth
of a furious gale, with mountainous seas, and sails
tightly furled. So much for Manford's special
connections with the almighty. The waves and storm
passed, but returned again later with renewed force,
before they finally were able to put a smaller boat
ashore near Matagorda.
A few weeks were enough to convince
Manford that he had had enough of adventure in Texas
and was ready to return to civilization, but there was
no easy way back, only forward to Houston. He
prepared for the 400 mile trip (He may have
miscalculated a bit, but surely it seemed 400 miles.)
on foot to Houston and thence by water back to New
Orleans. Santa Anna's army had passed through the
area a season since and eaten its way across the land,
so staples like coffee, tea, sugar and flour were not
to be had. All Manford had was dried beef, a canteen,
a blanket and a staff as he set out. Often traveling
many miles without seeing a soul, unless you count the
alligators, "snakes, tarantulas and horned toads," he
pushed on with only occasional Indians for company.
Four weeks of sleeping on the ground wondering what
beasts - "bears, wolves, poisonous reptiles" - might
lurk in the darkness was excitement enough for this
tenderfoot. Nearing Houston he found settlers, to
whom he sold his watch to pay for food. He finally
arrived - sunburned and footsore - and managed to meet
and dine with Texas President Sam Houston who was, he
said, "a good talker, but at artful swearer." "The
town of Houston," Manford noted, "was a moral desert -
a hell on earth. Vice of every and any grade reigned
triumphantly. The Attorney-General of Texas...roamed
the streets most of one night, drunk, and hatless,
coatless, bootless, daring any one to fight with him."
It was amusing to City's citizens, but not to this
refined Universalist cleric who returned as quickly as
the technology of the day would allow to New Orleans,
and thence to Cincinnati, without ever - apparently
ever preaching in Texas. Doubtless he felt it was no
place for a proper preacher. It would be two years,
he said, before his health fully recovered from that
venture. He never, as far as I can tell, returned to
Texas again. But others passed through. Eddy's great
turn of the century history of Universalism suggests
that there were a few daring preachers of the
universal gospel, but they were on their own, sent by
no official body, responsible to none, nor was there
anyone they felt compelled to report to. It is hard
to create a denomination this way as the Universalists
again and again discovered - but better days were
coming.
By the fall of 1850 Erasmus, his wife and
baby Mae were off to St Louis to try Universalist
newspaper publishing there. Rev. George Sumner
Weaver, a seasoned veteran from Ohio had taken up the
abandoned Universalist mission in St Louis, and was at
least surviving. THE GOLDER ERA, Manford's new
publication, should he hoped sell well in Southern
Illinois and Missouri, though Universalist churches
there were sparse indeed. The church in Troy,
Missouri, still stood, but empty. Rev. L.C. Marvin
had tried his evangelical talents in the Southwest
part of the state, but had journeyed on. Following a
swift tour of Southern Illinois and Western, Kentucky,
Manford set out for Hannibal, where an orthodox
preacher, lacking much in knowledge, intelligence and
even basic literacy, lit into him, believing
apparently, Manford concluded, that "thunder killed,
not lightning." Not enlightened by this exchange
Manford moved on. In Palmyra, his next stop, he faced
the perennial question of a Northern preacher in a
border state; "Are you an abolitionist?" Evading the
question as long as possible, he finally replied; "I
believe Negro slavery to be wrong in morals and
politics, and a curse to the white man and the black
man." Manford went on to note that he didn't intend
doing anything precipitous about it at the moment.
Doubtless, for most of his audience, this was not a
doctrine they wished to hear, but they treated him
courteously. Abolitionism was a conviction shared by
most Universalists in some form - and there were many.
The Universalist General Convention in Akron had
declared, in 1843 and often thereafter reaffirmed,
slavery "contrary to that gospel which is destined to
break every yoke, and lead captivity captive...and as
everyway pernicious alike to the enslaver and the
enslaved."
Manford went on to Memphis, dipped into
Louisiana, and back to Booneville - 800 miles in 3
months, not bad for a gentleman preacher who still
yearned for his comforts. The next missionary journey
took him to Sioux City and Kansas City, Jefferson
City, Georgetown, Booneville again, then east to
Warsaw, back to Jefferson City where he had an
evening's congregation, a very small one, entirely
composed of public officials. Later on this grinding
journey he was surprised to discover - he said -that
Western Methodists believed in the Devil as a kind of
God of Hell, kind of an opposite to the God of Heaven.
Manford never believed in a literal devil, declaring
that "every evil thought, purpose, passion, every
error, every wicked" deed is a devil that each of us
must face and deal with.
In 1851 Manford made a trip through
southern Missouri - Iron Mountain, Pilot Knob,
Millersville (settled by theologically Universalist
Dunkers). On return he set out again to northern
Missouri and Iowa, a 1200 mile journey, beginning in
Kirksville. In Greentop he met a Black evangelist and
they struck up a conversation on salvation. Manford
asked him, if he had the power, "Would you not save
all?" He replied, of course. Then, by your theology,
Manford noted, "You're better than God," who won't.
The Black preacher remembered that a preacher of such
a doctrine was to be in Gentryville that evening and
he intended to be there. But he declared, he must be
a very bad man. Orthodoxy had taught him well that it
was a terrible sin to believe God would save all
people. The minister he intended to hear - and did
hear - was, of course, Erasmus Manford.
Manford rode on to Weston, and thence to
Lexington where he was enraged by the public hanging
of two Black men for killing their viciously brutal
master. His wife, no slouch at preaching or anything
else as far as I can tell, was not silent in his
absence, composing and publishing his paper and
speaking in Louisiana, Missouri, Hannibal, McComb and
other places. Erasmus was not one of the arrogant
male "Lords of Creation" of that day, or indeed this,
who would limit women's rights. He brightly declared:
Let woman speak as well as man in the
lecture room, in the pulpit,
on all the subjects of human interest.
She is as much interested
as man in all intellectual and moral
themes. And heaven having
gifted her with a soul, instinct with
wisdom, purity and goodness,
is well qualified to instruct and moralize
her race [the human race].
Let the world then, be open to her
intellectual and moral activities,
that she may make the best use of her time
and talent. Let her
'sue and be sued' buy and sell, vote if
she pleases, and be presi-
dent too, of these United States, if she
can get votes enough.
Mrs. H.B. Manford was co-editor of THE GOLDEN ERA,
bookkeeper, assistant in ministry, capable of
virtually any task set before her. Though it would be
a few years yet before the first ordained woman in the
Universalist ministry, the subject had already been
opened. A resolution offered at the Universalist
General Convention of 1858 said:
Resolved, That we hail with gratitude and
satisfaction, the
fact that within the past year letters of
fellowship have been
received by a lady; and that we recognize
the right of women
possessing high moral and religious
attainments, and prompted
to aid in the work of preaching..., to
receive letters of fellow-
ship and engaging in the work of the
ministry; and that it be
recommended, that our public schools and
colleges be opened
for females on equal terms with males."
The resolution, interestingly, was presented by a lay
delegate from Pennsylvania, and fought down by a
tabling motion by clergy fromMassachusetts. But the
burden of the resolution in all its parts among the
Universalists, including those of the Southwest, was
fulfilled in only a few years - everywhere.
Erasmus headed to southern Missouri again,
preaching in 25 places, trying to find another
minister to take up the sustaining labor. All were
abolitionists and none wanted to try Missouri, he
said. Manford lamented that churches could have been
established in Booneville, Georgetown, Calhoun,
Osceola, Leesville, Warsaw, Pisgah, Rocheport - all of
which places could turn out impressive audiences.
Manford went on to northern Missouri, preaching in 22
places, still without another minister to assist and
sustain. Manford at least hoped from some help in
that place from the old, wealthy Unitarian church in
St. Louis, but he lamented;
"...instead of aiding us by its sympathy
and cooperation, it
stood off cold as an iceberg. I hear of
the love of Unitarians
for us but have never seen much evidence
of their love. They
doubtless would like to have Unitarians
and Universalists unite,
but it must be like the marriage of man
and women, according
to Blackstone, the twain must be one, and
that one, Unitarian.
We are fine fellows if we allow ourselves
to be swallowed
head and heels without kicking.
No help was forthcoming from that quarter, but what
was coming, of course, was the Civil War, and Manford
found himself struggling for the union cause in a
hostile city and state. He preached and traveled
little in the war years, mostly to do funerals for old
friends in all parts of the state. In 1861 he visited
the one, lone Universalist meeting house, in Troy,
"Doors, windows, pulpit, seats...smashed to pieces.
It looks more like a pig pen than a house of God," he
sadly noted. In 1864 he left for Chicago never to
return. With the increase in his years he became
increasingly a sour and anachronistic voice, appealing
to the prejudices of the past, and those who could not
let it go. It was only with tremendous efforts at
persuasion he dropped his opposition to the World
Parliament of Religions in Chicago in 1893, and his
deep suspicions of the immoral tendencies of the
World's Fair there that summer. More than one Texas
Universalist minister visited happily a somewhat later
World's Fair without moral trepidation, but I'm
getting ahead of my story. Manford left Missouri,
but, whatever he may have thought, Universalism in
Missouri wasn't dead.
Following the war, in 1868 a Universalist
State Convention was formed including folk from many
of the places Manford had preached. Kirksville, and
Murray church in Macon City followed the next year.
With the accession of Rev. R.P. Rayner, a devoted
minister, in the 1880s Covington, Glenwood, Goldsboro,
Fairfield School House, Tina, St. Pauls' at Green
Ridge and a church in Xenia followed quickly.
Quillen Shinn, evangelist extraordinaire,
enters the scene in 1892 with the initiation of a new
church in Kansas City, then St. Louis in 94, and Elmer
and Linderville - 13 churches by the turn of the
century, none very large and only 7 with buildings.
Shinn did not return to Missouri, and though they had
outstanding ministers in the years that followed like
Ulysses S. Milburn, the Missouri churches and
preaching stations slowly died away until in the midst
of the depression. In 1938 there were left only 5
dormant churches.
Universalist history in Arkansas is later
in time but similar in story. The Rev. Col. T.J.
Potter founded the very first church in 1890 in Siloam
Springs, though there had been a preacher in the state
as early as 1861. Several itinerants struggled in the
state in the 90s, but even Siloam disappeared. Little
Rock was founded with 20 members in 1898. It was
shortly a missionary project funded by the Young
People's Christian Union (later the Universalist Youth
Fellowship) which took on several special projects,
mostly in the south at the invitation of Quillen
Shinn. Shinn became general missionary the following
year, organizing an Arkansas State Conference. 1903
to 1905 saw three new congregations; Driggs, Fouke and
Little Rock - refounded with WPCU aid - all with
buildings. Mt. Ida joined the trio - with a church
building - in 1908. Little Rock had as many as 60
members early in this century, and a stunning woman
minister, Ms Athalia L.J. Irwin, a native Arkansan,
who served in several Southern states, and was a
welcome occasional Universalist revivalist in Texas.
Arkansas, in the depth of the depression in 1938 had
only two dormant churches remaining - in Fouke, which
had appealed to Texas as an orphan to be let into
their state convention, and Mount Ida. The latter
survived into later years, for I remember it, and I'm
not that old, and it isn't kind of you to think so.
The Little Rock Church dissolved in 1930, to be
revived in 1950, to become the Unitarian Universalist
Church we know today.
There were only two Universalist ministers
in this Indian Territory which became Oklahoma, that I
can trace, Henry C. Ledyard, but he realized the error
of his ways and the near hopelessness of his task, and
joined the more numerous and successful clergy team in
Texas. He's a fascinating character, a pacifist,
Christian socialist, union organizer who pops up in
state after state, especially in the West, and
deserves a bio. The second was a young cleric, C.H.
Rogers, whom James Billings of Texas persuaded to
leave "the Comanches and Cherokees" and work with him.
He was to be one of the last Universalist ministers
in Texas. It would be fun to stop here but we have to
rush on to Father Marmaduke, Uncle Sam and Aunt Scrap
- you remember them, don't you?
Marmaduke Gardner was a Southerner, born
in South Carolina in 1812 of good Irish stock. He was
converted at 22 by a beloved Baptist preacher, and
tried to follow in his footsteps, but couldn't wrap
his mind around endless punishment for sinners. It is
said - so the story goes - that an Irish Universalist
Biblical scholar peddler, who happened by, finally
put him on the right path to a more inclusive gospel.
Self educated as he was he then preached Universalism
to his dying day. But he continued to believe in
Baptism in the old fashioned Baptist way, by total
immersion; and, too he was a Restorationist - no Death
and Glory Universalist he!. Marmaduke tried preaching
in Mississippi, even organized a church and converted
another preacher, but the West called him, and in 1854
he moved to Siloam, (later Smith Springs, today Lawhon
Springs) east of Elgin in South central Texas. There
he was a farmer and blacksmith, until Sunday, when he
rode off to preach far and wide, including at home in
the schoolhouse in Siloam, and the meeting house they
shortly built. He must have cut an interesting
figure, a large man, astride his horse, usually with
his gun at his side - not to shake up sinners or
orthodox preachers - but to bag something for dinner
on his return home. A grandson remembered Marmaduke
as a stickler for "strict Christian living...the rule
of the whole church membership." His wife described
him as "the most headstrong man she had ever seen,"
not a bad characteristic for the founder of Texas
Universalism in 1855. It was said that he had a
brother, Dr. Washington Gardner, a Greek scholar, who
helped Marmaduke with his sermons, but most he drew
from experiences of everyday life. They tell of a
debate with a Campbellite - Dr. Lawrence owning the
only watch was the timekeeper. Marmaduke talked until
he ran out of arguments, a considerable time by
anyone's standards, then asked Lawrence how much time
he had. Lawrence retorted , "The watch has stopped."
Gardner replied, "I knew I was making a powerful
argument, but did not know it would stop time!" He
organized several churches, converted his son-in-law
and his brother, Joe and John Lawhon, and the Rev.
J.S. Dunbar, "Uncle Sam' to friends, with his wife
Aunt Scrap. Dunbar heard Marmaduke at Marsh Branch
Springs, in a tiny log structure with rough hewn split
logs and pegs for legs - as benches. The setting and
the gospel were simple and straightforward, and when
Marmaduke needed another preacher, he converted one.
He converted William Tillman who later erected Tillman
Chapel over near Jacksonville - later to be a center
of Universalism in East Texas.
Marmaduke Gardner was more than large; he
was a mountain of a man, both tall and heavy. His
grandchildren often accompanied him in later life for
fear of the trouble he could get into should he fall,
and indeed trouble for anything he fell on. It was
also, it is said, their job to wrench off his shoes at
the end of a long day. Doubtless it would have been
nearly impossible for him to even reach them. He left
a large family - they had 19 children - and he left
many lay and clerical evangelists of Universalism.
His was in every way a large heritage of faith and
service at his death in 1879. At his death there were
6 Universalist preachers in Texas, and other churches
in Rancho, Sand Fly, Rusk, Gonzales, Millerton,
Rockdale (Milam Co.) and Nacogdoches. In the year of
his death Rev. D.C. Tomlinson - a well respected
Universalist minister from Ohio - arrived in the state
preaching in larger towns and setting his goal on
Dallas for a new church, but Dallas wasn't ready for
Universalism.
A year later Rev. James Billings settled
in Palestine, Texas, preaching in several neighboring
towns, setting up a regular preaching circuit - and
therein began an aggressive new day for Universalism.
New preachers, mostly retirees from other places
arrived almost every year for several years
thereafter, and preached at least occasionally;
G.M.Cade, at San Marcos, Thomas Abbott at a new church
at Audron Ranch, A. Van Cleve, A.A. Rhodes and others,
covering with Billings occasional services at San
Marcos, Dennison, Weatherford, Boughkiss, Gonzales,
Grapeland and Waco. One of the more interesting
Universalist revivalists was J.B. Cone, from Georgia,
who went on to serve a term on the State Legislature,
and whose obituary made a point of declaring he was
"no organizer!"
Texas Universalists had talked of a State
Convention as early as 1861, but the Civil War
intervened, and it was to be many years before that
dream was fulfilled. Amos Throop, a wealthy
Universalist lumber dealer and entrepreneur who long
since had headed West to the sunny shores of
California for what some thought was retirement, but
was actually a whole new life, labored to create
Universalist churches up and down the coast, inviting
Quilln Shinn and others of his favorite ministers,
including Augusta Chapin and Ada Bowles - two of the
best - to help evangelize his friends and neighbors.
He recognized the power and passion of James Billings
too, and invited him to join the Universalist clergy
crew on the West Coast. Luckily for Texas
Universalists, James Billings, chose to be the newly
appointed Texas Universalist State Missionary in 1884.
Born in Sharon, New York in 1811, Billings
was already 73 years old when he settled in Texas. He
had been ordained by the Lake Erie Association of
Universalists in Pennsylvania, and served several
congregations in Michigan including Albion, Jackson,
Schoolcraft and Ann Arbor. This area of Michigan is
famous, of course, to Universalists, for its
association with the birthplace and home of Rev.
Augusta Chapin, one of Universalism's most outstanding
revivalists. He would clearly have known her, and
just as clearly approved of her, her ministry.
After his time in Michigan he began a long
odyssey through Indiana, New Jersey, briefly to Texas
(Beaver Valley - Hico? in 1879) and on the death of
his wife back North to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,
then back again to Texas in 1884, to San Marcos and
finally Hico, where he lived out the remainder of his
life. In the year of his arrival in Texas as
missionary there were six established churches;
Williamson County [Marmaduke's Siloam Springs],
Rockdale [founded 1875], Blankett [founded 1882],
Audron Ranch, and Grapeland, Farmersville and
Clarkesville founded in that same year of his arrival,
1884. His organizational skills show forcefully in
the statistics of the following year, for he had
matched the surprising number of available
Universalist clergy with at least occasional preaching
sites, having every one covered! (A.J. Corley -
Farmers Villa, J.B. Cone - Rancho, G.M. Cade, MD -
Ingram, A. Van Cleave - Siloam Springs, J.C. Lawhon -
Elgin, W. Gardner - Beaukiss, J.S Dunbar - Paige, A.B.
Minnerly - Denton Creek, J.D. Dunbar - Fairfield, A.A.
Rhodes - Gonzales and R.K. Street - Waco and A.G.
Strain, dragged from retirement to be Texas most
popular Universalist defender - debater) The
following year Billings had found still more
preachers. Meridian was founded in 1885, Billings
home church, All Souls Universalist, soon with a
building, in Hico in 1886, Gardner Valley in 1887.
Also in 1887 with the help of the Universalist Women's
Centenary Aid Association - later to be the
Association of Universalist Women - Rev. J.K. Street
was set to the challenge of an infant Universalist
congregation in Dallas.
Perhaps this is the time to note that
Universalist women had in preparation for the great
1870 Universalist Centennial created their Aid
Association to promote Universalism wherever and
whenever they could, and they helped in so many places
for decades. The Universalist youth, on their own,
though doubtless with the hearty shoving of the
irrepressible Quillen Hamilton Shinn did likewise on a
smaller scale. One of James Billings' goals was to
have a chapter of each, women and youth, in every
church, and he did amazingly well in that goal. He
also wanted each church to take responsibility for
evangelizing on the home front, and some did quite
well in this. He had a vision of a Convention Church
in Texas. You've heard of the Church of the Larger
Fellowship - well that was what a Convention Church
was, organized on a state by state basis. He set out
to have every congregation and known Universalist in
the state identify every single other, solitary
Universalist in the Lone Star State without a nearby
congregation, and set up a Post Office Mission to
reach out to them. In 1889 he organized a State
Universalist Association, not quite a State
Convention, but close. You will not be surprised that
Rev. James Billings was its President. And, oh yes,
the Fish Creek church was founded in 1890. Now for
those Unitarians who are certain the Universalists
never did anything right, look at the power, structure
and scope of Billings' labors. If you're not amazed,
you aren't looking!
Billings had by all reports wonderful
industry, organization and zeal in the cause. He
traveled the length and breadth of the Lone Star State
indefatigably, always with his pen and correspondence,
but also in staggering personally undertaken travel in
season and out. He was mighty in the scriptures, and
a sterling debater. He was, according to one obit;
"gentle, patient, brave in defense of Universalism"
and absolutely untiring. Already at his death only a
few years later he was remembered as the "old apostle
and pioneer of Universalism in Texas." And those were
not idle wordS.
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Marmaduke Gardner and Catherine
Chapter 3....by Rev. David A. Johnson of Brookline, MA