The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 75, July 1971 - April, 1972 Page: 273
566 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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J. Frank Norris: Violent Fundamentalist
Warren and Mary Davis Norris. Eleven years later, with the promise
of cheap land and new beginnings on the frontier, the family moved
to Hubbard, Texas, where Norris' sharecropper father gave more
heed to alcohol than to agriculture. Poverty, punishment, and pain
characterized his youth and appear to have molded his personality
significantly. The parents and three children lived in a dilapidated,
unpainted shack where they eked out a minimal existence. On one
occasion Norris' father disciplined his son so severely that the boy's
nose was broken and his body severely lacerated.8 Yet when horse
thieves threatened his father's life, young Frank went to his aid-
and was shot three times. Gangrene set in, followed by inflammatory
rheumatism which left Norris voiceless and paralyzed. Three years
of recuperation ensued, two of them in a wheel chair. During this
trying time, Norris' mother nourished his nascent faith (he had been
converted at the age of thirteen at a brush arbor revival service) and
instilled within him the conviction that he was "someone of great
worth who would be a leader of men."'
After a brief experience as a teacher, Norris felt called to the min-
istry. Accordingly, assisted by a loan from the family doctor, Norris
enrolled as a student at Baylor University in Waco. To the con-
sternation of his classmates and some members of the faculty, Norris
announced that his goal in life was "to preach in the greatest church
and pulpit in the world." With a conservative theology given him by
Dr. B. H. Carroll of the University and a talent for speaking and
persuasion that appeared to be inborn, Norris set himself toward the
attainment of his objective. At the age of twenty-two, he accepted
the pastorate of the country church in Mount Calm. Serving this
parish until he graduated from Baylor, Norris spent his weekends
making innumerable visits to homes of prospective members and
preaching his dramatic sermons to as many as 800 people, twice the
number who lived in the township.'
Norris' aggressive spirit also revealed itself in the midst of a tragi-
comedy of errors at the University. The president at the time was O. H.
8Entzminger, The J. Frank Norris I Have Known, 34. Norris was without question the
source of such information. He also told the story of his mother's literally horsewhipping
the local bartender because of his refusal to cease selling whiskey to her husband. While
not denying the problem of alcohol in the Norris home, this writer speculates that these
stories may have been embellished for homiletical purposes.
'Ibid.; Tatum, Conquest or Failure, 27-29, 31; Bouldin, "Dawson-Norris Controversy,"
16. The quote is from Bouldin.
'Tatum, Conquest or Failure, 42, 47, 50-51, 56-57-273
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 75, July 1971 - April, 1972, periodical, 1972; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101201/m1/285/: accessed April 30, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.