The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 79, July 1975 - April, 1976 Page: 147
528 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Religious Newspapers in Antebellum Texas
with their efforts accounting for about one copy in ten of all newspapers
distributed in Texas by 186o. The Cumberland Presbyterians were to be
the first to enter this field in Texas.5
The Cumberland Presbyterians existed as the result of a division follow-
ing the Great Revival early in the nineteenth century. The Cumberland
folk set themselves apart from conventional Presbyterians by using revivals
more freely, by lowering the educational qualifications for ministers (partly
to assure a core of aggressive ministers to challenge the frontier), and by
accepting a version of the Westminster Confession tending toward Armini-
anism or free will. These characteristics and the extraordinary missionary
energy of the Cumberland Presbyterians emigrating from Tennessee were
precisely the qualities which enhanced their growth in developing areas
such as Texas, where they were to outnumber Old School Presbyterians
about three to one in i86o.6
The Cumberlands arrived in East Texas in 1829 in the person of Sumner
Bacon, who, because he lacked formal qualifications for the ministry, was
ordained as a special case in 1835 by the Louisiana Presbytery. As early as
1836 Bacon was encouraging Andrew Jackson McGown, a young licentiate
and soldier of the Texas Revolution, to help him to establish a presbytery,
a newspaper, and a school. When the Texas Presbytery of the Cumberland
church was organized at San Augustine in 1837, its members resolved to
establish a religious periodical in order to influence "the moral and reli-
gious interest of the community" and "the moral character of the Re-
public." If a periodical of the type they had in mind proved to be
impractical, they then agreed upon "the speedy establishment of a news-
paper in Texas, the primary object of which shall be the promotion of
morals and Religion." On a tour of the Tennessee Presbytery McGown
5McKinney (ed.), The Presbyterian Valley, 300-304; Weekly Recorder (Chillicothe,
Ohio), July 5, 1814; The Texas Baptist (Anderson), November 8, 1856; March 25, 1857;
September I6, 1858; Texas Wesleyan Banner (Houston), April 12, 185I (quotation);
Texas Presbyterian (Victoria), November 3, 1846; (Houston), September II, 1847;
(Huntsville), July 3, 1852 (Sometimes titled Texas Presbyterian and The Texas Presby-
terian, this paper will be cited as Texas Presbyterian throughout.). The federal census
indicates three daily, three triweekly, sixty-five weekly, and three monthly papers in
Texas in I86o, with a total circulation of over 90,000. Rupert Norvel Richardson et al.,
Texas, the Lone Star State (3rd ed.; Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1970), 175-176.
Of these, three were religious with a claimed total circulation of at least 8,900, distributed
thus: Texas Christian Advocate (Galveston), November 29, 1860, 4,500; The Texas
Baptist (Anderson), January 5, 1860, 2,400; Evangelische Apologete, 2,000, Texas
Christian Advocate (Galveston), November 5, 1857.
6Sydney E. Ahlstrom, A Religious History of the American People (New Haven, 1974),
445; Brackenridge, Voice in the Wilderness, I-I1, 47; William Jesse Stone, Jr., "A
Historical Survey of Leading Texas Denominational Newspapers: 1846-1861" (Ph.D.
dissertation, University, of Texas, Austin, 1974), 24.147
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 79, July 1975 - April, 1976, periodical, 1975/1976; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101203/m1/179/: accessed April 27, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.