The Tyler District record, 1854–1901

This page sets out the core of the surviving record: the years in which the Tyler District's charges and pastors were entered into the conference lists, and what those entries show. The facts below are drawn from the district's own historical summary, which was itself compiled from conference journals; the wording here is new, the substance is theirs.

An independent archive. This site is a privately maintained heritage archive about Methodist history in the Tyler and East Texas area. It is not a district office, it is not affiliated with or endorsed by any denominational body, and it does not receive or answer correspondence on behalf of one. The Northwest District of the Texas Annual Conference maintains its own current pages at txcumc.org.

1854: the name appears

The first time the name Tyler appears in a list of charges is 1854, as part of the Palestine District of the Texas Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. At that stage there is no Tyler District — the town is one charge among many in a district administered from elsewhere. Thirty years pass in that arrangement.

1884: the district is created

The first appearance of a Tyler District is in 1884, as part of the East Texas Conference. The presiding elder was D. S. Finley, serving under Bishop Holland N. McTyeire. The charges and their pastors for that year were entered as follows.

At the conference meeting of November 1884 the district reported 3,692 members and 24 local pastors. That made it the second largest district in an annual conference of 16,640 members — a substantial share of the whole for a district only in its first year of existence, and a fair indication of how heavily settled the Tyler country already was relative to the rest of East Texas.

1887: the first change of elder

Finley remained presiding elder until 1887, when U. B. Phillips was appointed in his place. The charge list shifted with him: White House Circuit was added, and Garden Valley Circuit disappeared from the district. H. M. DuBose was at Tyler Station. Others recorded in district leadership in this period were Albert Little, W. H. Crawford, C. H. Smith, J. O. Allen, D. P. Cullen, Robert S. Finley, W. M. Wainwright, D. W. Towns, T. T. Booth and E. D. Osburn.

1888: Crockett

Bishop William W. Duncan held the 1888 session of the conference at Crockett. John Adams was appointed presiding elder and D. F. C. Timmons was placed at Tyler Station. New York Circuit and Lawndale Mission were added to the district; Malakoff and Starrville circuits were deleted from it.

1891: the journal entry

The 1891 Conference Journal lists T. P. Smith as presiding elder, with Timmons still at Tyler. Tyler City Mission was added. Malakoff was attached to the Athens Charge, and Troup and Overton entered the district. The pattern of these years is worth noticing: charges are not simply gained and lost, they are recombined, with a weak circuit folded into a stronger neighbour rather than abandoned.

1895: Marvin

1895 was, as the district's own historian put it, a signal year. The Tyler Charge was renamed Marvin Methodist Church, in honour of Enoch Mather Marvin, who had been elected to the episcopacy. H. M. DuBose was its pastor. The same year's list brings in Tyler: Cedar Street, Walton Mission, Wills Point, Wills Point Circuit, Emory Mission, Grand Saline and Lindale.

The source records membership as having grown by 3,404 over the decade. It also prints a total figure for the district that is difficult to reconcile with the 3,692 reported in 1884 and is very probably a transcription error in the compilation; it is not reproduced here, because a number that cannot be checked is worse than no number at all. The growth figure itself is consistent with the pattern of new charges appearing, and is given as the record gives it.

1899

In 1899 J. T. Smith became presiding elder, with B. H. Greathouse at Tyler: Marvin. St. Paul Church appears in the list, along with the Golden Mission and the Meredith Circuit.

1901: the last East Texas Conference

The final session of the East Texas Conference was held at Marvin Methodist Church from 4 to 9 December 1901, with Bishop A. W. Wilson presiding. Marvin's pastor, V. A. Godbey, welcomed the delegates. Edgewood was listed as part of the Canton Charge. At the close of that session the conference merged with the Texas Conference to form the new Texas Annual Conference, and the Tyler District passed into it.

That is the hinge of the whole record. Everything before December 1901 belongs to the East Texas Conference; everything after belongs to its successor. The district itself was not disturbed by the merger, which is why the line of presiding elders runs straight through the date without a break.

On the source

The underlying compilation was made in 2006 by the conference historian of the day, working from conference journals and from the county history in the Handbook of Texas. This page restates its factual content in new words; the original wording is not reproduced, and the compiler is not credited as the author of this text, because he did not write it. Anyone needing the primary material itself — the journals, the quarterly conference minutes, the church registers — should approach the denominational archives and the collections listed on the resources page.