Texas Camp-Meeting by James White

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Dec 12, 1878

Texas Camp-Meeting.

By James White

The Plano, Texas, camp-meeting was held according to appointment, three miles from the little village of Plano, Nov. 12-19. The weather was fine, and the roads were dry and smooth for several weeks before, and at the opening of the meeting, so that there was a very general turn-out of the brethren and sisters in the State. And seventy-five brethren were on the ground one week before the time appointed.

Elder R. M. Kilgore had been holding a tent-meeting at the village for the period of two months, and as the result of his labors and of the camp-meeting there are about forty keeping the Sabbath. From a Baptist church of thirty members, sixteen of their best, including their deacon, have come with us. They have a house of worship which cost $1,000, of which Deacon Huguley and his son-in-law, Morris, who is also with us, gave all but $105.

Twenty-four discourses were preached during the camp-meeting. Elder Haskell was on the ground two days in advance and gave eleven discourses. Mrs. W. and the writer gave six discourses each, and Elder Kilgore one. In consequence of the distance, the rains, and deep mud, the outside attendance was small. Sunday afternoon Mrs. W. gave a discourse on Christian Temperance before a large congregation. Her discourse in the afternoon of the first day of our arrival took deep hold of the brethren, and seventy-five came forward for prayers.

There is one disagreeable feature among the people here that we do not see North. The women generally, as well as the men, are inveterate users of tobacco. It seemed strange, almost an imposition, to hear Elder Kilgore examine the sisters who presented themselves as candidates for baptism, on the matter of their using tobacco. But in obeying the truth for this time, they are purifying themselves from this filthy practice. Old men, young men, and women are rejoicing in the victories they have already gained.

There were about two hundred brethren and sisters on the ground. And for intelligence, thorough conversion, and consecration to the cause of God they have not been excelled by those in any State where the cause was not more than two years old. Texas is doubtless the best field of all the Southern States. Since the great rebellion which resulted in the freedom of the slaves, Northern people have been pouring into the State. The population of the city of Denison is very largely made up of Northern people. Public opinion changes slowly in Texas, still it moves and improves. The growth of this large State is rapid, and it promises to be as good a field of labor as exists anywhere.

We have suggested that as early as 1880 our pioneer paper in the interests of the Tract and Missionary Society be published in some one of the Southern States. We now think Texas is the State, and Denison is the city where the press should be located. Denison and vicinity is sandy and dry, while most important places are notorious for deep black mud in the rainy season. Denison has four railroads already, and two others are anticipated, making it a great railroad center, six hundred miles from St. Louis, and about four hundred miles from New Orleans, and less distance to the largest and most distant cities of the State. At Denison there is good water, and plenty of wood at two dollars a cord.

One more conference is added to the sisterhood of Seventh-day Adventist conferences. As a missionary field, Texas has cost the General Conference nothing. Elder Kilgore has used his own means. Brother J. F. Bahler and others have acted a noble part, so that the young conference is less than one thousand dollars in debt. Bad management by some who had come to the State from Michigan and who had more selfishness and self-confidence than sanctified common sense and religion, had plunged the tract society into debt; but at the camp-meeting $1,250 was pledged to the society. Thirteen were baptized. Tent work for the coming season was considered, and it was thought best to purchase two tents, one sixty, the other fifty feet in diameter, which will cost $400. And the General Conference is pledged, through two of the committee present, to pay $400 of the debt of the Texas conference at the Office of the Review and Herald. This proposition was a matter of great encouragement to the brethren. God bless the Texas conference.

J. W.