The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 53, July 1949 - April, 1950 Page: 240

Southwestern Historical Quarterly

traveled with Sumner Bacon in behalf of the American Bible
Society, was familiar with the country, and he served on several
occasions to pilot the novices across Louisiana to Gaines' Ferry.
Chase spent two months in 1838 assisting Reverend W. C. Blair
in a change of location from southeastern Texas to the La Grange
territory. Blair's original commission was for two months with-
out compensation. In the same year Reverend H. A. Phillips of
the Second Presbytery of New York received his credentials from
the Board of Domestic Missions but "received no compensation."
In response to a request of sixty petitioners Reverend P. H.
Fullenwider was commissioned to return to Texas and work un-
der Reverend Hugh Wilson, who on November 15, 1837, was
sent for one year as a "Missionary and General Agent of the
Missionary Cause."4
Of the four missionaries commissioned in 1837, none exerted
a more far-reaching influence in Texas than did Hugh Wilson.
He was five feet ten inches high, neither spare nor bulky, having
a face with classical features and crowned with an abundance of
iron-gray hair. Notwithstanding a weak voice and a hesitancy of
speech, this pioneer organizer, by reason of his rugged independ-
ence, the Spartan simplicity of his daily life, and his abiding
faith, was early accepted as the unquestioned leader of his breth-
ren. In time he became a venerable patriarch, whose clan today
includes more than two hundred descendants in Texas, eight of
whom have followed him into the ministry. He is accepted by
many as the "Father of Old School Presbyterians in Texas."
Born on March 16, 1794, near Statesville, North Carolina,
Hugh was the fourth of eight children and the oldest son. His
father, a Princeton graduate, was a minister as well as a substan-
tial planter. His mother, Margaret Hall, was a descendant of
Scotch-Irish immigrants of the eighteenth century who came
seeking freedom of religion. In his twelfth year Hugh's respon-
sibilities became greater on the death of his father. His maturity
was accelerated as evidenced by two vital teen-age choices from
which he never deviated. First, concerning his love affair with a
distant relative, Ethalinda Hall, he wrote, "When a boy of twelve
I loved her with my whole soul." Patiently through a sixteen-
4lbid., 9-1o.

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