November 10, 1999

THE FIRST OFFICERS of the Mexican Baptist Convention, elected in 1910, included Gil Villarreal, Daniel Sierra, Maria Gambrell, J.A. Musa, C.D. Daniel and Marcos Castillo. (Photo courtesy of Texas Baptist Historical Collection)

1910-1919: Era of war,
women's vote, human welfare
___By Estelle Owens
___The year 1910 began a critical period for 20th century Americans.
___In the decade that followed, the nation observed the turmoil of social revolutions in Mexico and Russia. The destruction of World War I and an influenza epidemic that killed 20 million people worldwide demonstrated hitherto unimagined catastrophes. American technology provided automobiles, motion pictures, powered flight and household conveniences. The accidental sinking of the Titanic in 1912 reminded that technology had limits. The deliberate sinking of the passenger liner Lusitania in 1917 taught that 20th century warfare no longer had unbreakable rules.
___The decade that began with Republican William Howard Taft as president closed with Presbyterian preacher's son Woodrow Wilson, a Democrat, in the White House. Both presided over the sweeping social and political movement known as Progressivism that included such reforms as Prohibition and women's suffrage. Segregation was the law of the land, and Americans exhibited the darker side of our nature with the rise of the second Ku Klux Klan in 1915.
___The decade was no less momentous in Texas.
___Cotton, beef and oil dominated the economy, since the state remained tied to one-crop cash agriculture. Texas' major industry was meat-packing; and new oil fields developed around Electra, Desdemona, Ranger and Goose Creek.
___Texas proved to be one of the most progressive of all states, in the forefront on such issues as restricting child labor, curbing business "trusts" and ratifying the Prohibition and women's suffrage amendments.
___For the 500,000 Texas Baptists in 1910, the decade witnessed enormous growth. The controversies of the 1890s had been laid to rest, the charges and countercharges associated with J. Frank Norris did not begin in earnest until later in the decade, and prosperity resulted in more systematic giving by the people to all Baptist causes. Missions work at the local and state level, benevolence ministries, education and social concern all experienced dramatic growth.
___Education was a major area of emphasis, especially since Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary remained a Texas Baptist--as opposed to Southern Baptist--institution until 1925. Under the leadership of B.H. Carroll and Lee Scarborough, the seminary moved to Fort Worth in 1910. The decade saw the addition of religious education, music ministry and missionary training departments. Southwestern became the first Southern Baptist seminary to admit women on an equal basis with men, with the first woman receiving her degree in 1914.
___In addition to the seminary, the Baptist General Convention of Texas saw enormous expansion in all areas of its educational program in this period.
___Texas Baptists became involved in healing ministries with the additions of Baylor's medical and dental schools. Wayland Baptist College began classes in 1910 in Plainview; and the College of Marshall, later East Texas Baptist University, received its charter in 1912 and opened in 1917. Several educational institutions opened and closed in this decade, as Texas Baptists' dreams sometimes outran the financial ability to support them, and World War I resulted in numerous young men becoming soldiers rather than students.
___With the BGCT reorganization of 1914, oversight of the educational institutions passed to the Executive Board. World War I and the financial strains that resulted from it convinced the board the ultimate financial answer for Texas Baptist schools was endowment. The drive to secure endowment for Baptist causes stimulated the $75 Million Campaign of 1919-1924 under the leadership of Scarborough and George W. Truett.
___The convention's educational endeavors extended to the widespread development of Sunday Schools, graded missions education organizations like GAs and YWAs, and

AN EARLY PHOTOGRAPH of Wayland Baptist College.

Vacation Bible School, which began in Texas in 1916. Texas Baptists pioneered the recreation/educational summer assemblies, with three major campuses operating at Palacios, Christoval and Lampasas.
___Baptist benevolence ministries flourished in this decade. Buckner Orphans' Home in Dallas formally associated with the BGCT in 1914. Texas Baptists built hospitals and extended care to retired ministers and their spouses. Benevolent concern resulted in the location of the newly established SBC Relief and Annuity Board in Dallas in 1918.
___Social concern and activitism marked Baptists in this decade as well. Their interests included service to their country during World War I as soldiers or chaplains, as well as ministering to thousands of servicemen who trained in Texas. They encouraged Prohibition, women's rights, abolition of child labor and the United States joining the League of Nations to promote world peace. They fought lynching, gambling, prostitution and divorce. Their attempts to maintain high standards of morality in their members led congregations to practice redemptive church discipline for such misconduct as adultery, gambling, drinking, dancing and playing pool and cards. They maintained and expanded missions efforts to ethnic minority Texans, many of whom lived in poverty, and exhibited concern for African-American and Hispanic Texans in particular.
___Leadership of Texas Baptists in this decade lay in very capable hands. In addition to editing the Baptist Standard, J.B. Gambrell served as president of the SBC during World War I, taught at the seminary and worked as corresponding secretary of the BGCT after the reorganization of 1914. Truett continued as pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas, and J.M. Dawson maintained an influential pastorate at First Baptist Church in Waco. Carroll led Southwestern Seminary until his death in 1914, to be succeeded by Scarborough. Mary Hill Davis and Mary Gambrell played influential roles in women's work and missions. J. Frank Norris had a nationwide reputation as the leader of Fundamentalism. His fairly constant, colorful quarrels with one or the other Texas Baptist figures and institutions proved to be very divisive, especially as they heated up in the 1920s.
___By 1920, Texas Baptists had seen enormous growth in almost all aspects of their work. They had faced the challenges of world war, reform and new ideas and technologies. They had evangelized, ministered to, uplifted and succeeded more often than they failed in their endeavors for God's kingdom. They entered the third decade of the century confident J.B. Gambrell was right when he declared in the Standard on July 31, 1919: "The morning light is breaking. We are at the day-dawn of the greatest day Baptists--Texas Baptists and all--ever saw."
___Estelle Ownes is professor of history at Wayland Baptist University in Plainview
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