The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 58, July 1954 - April, 1955 Page: 408
650 p. : ill., maps (some col.), ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
dyspeptic nature had necessitated frequent removals and had left
behind him a number of disrupted churches and schools. But the
worst was yet to come. His bootless quarrel with his old brother in
Christ, Rufus C. Burleson, a man of equally cantankerous ways,
was to rend Texas Baptists asunder, threaten the very life of
Baylor and Waco universities, and leave scars on the denomina-
tional body for years to come.
Crane found Houston a busy place, feverish with war-time
activities. Four railroads branched out from the embryonic
metropolis, and steamers plied Buffalo Bayou. Refugees from the
devastated areas of Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana-many of
them old friends of Crane's-were arriving almost daily. Prices
were skyrocketing; flour was fifty-five dollars a hundred pounds
and calico four and five dollars a yard. The church members
were "nice, clever, genteel people, generally living in fine style,"
but, like many of their brethren in other parts of the Confed-
eracy, they were factious and spiritually sluggish. Crane made so
favorable an impression on them, especially on the ladies, that
they quickly subscribed a salary of $3ooo and importuned him
to stay. He liked Houston and personally preferred to stay, but
destiny beckoned him to a larger field of service.s
Shortly after Crane's arrival in Houston, George W. Graves
and B. S. Fitzgerald, trustees of Baylor University at Independ-
ence, called on him and implored him to accept the presidency of
that once flourishing but then tottering institution. General
James W. Barnes, another trustee, had earlier called on Crane in
Louisiana and made a similar, if somewhat premature, plea. But
on his trip to Texas Crane had heard so many prejudicial state-
ments against Baylor that he had already decided to have nothing
to do with it. He had been told that the university was rent by
a terrible schism, was without a student body, was unable to
collect interest on its meager endowment, was completely under
Northern influence, and "many other sad things," most of which
were based on more than a modicum of truth. But out of courtesy
to Graves and Fitzgerald Crane visited Independence-with, how-
ever, a mental reservation to accept the Houston pastorate.'
sCrane to his wife, July 28 and August 11, 1863, and Mrs. Aurelia H. Mohl to
Crane, August 22, 1863 (MSS., Crane Papers, Texas Collection, Baylor University).
9Crane's address before the Texas State Baptist Convention at Galveston in 1869,
copy in the Royston C. Crane Scrapbook, in ibid.408
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 58, July 1954 - April, 1955, periodical, 1955; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101158/m1/477/: accessed April 27, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.