The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 79, July 1975 - April, 1976 Page: 297
528 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
Extracted Text
The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
William Stuart Red, Historian
In possession of vast primary materials and, after I9I9, of the leisure
that accompanies retirement, Red turned to writing. His first book, The
Texas Colonists and Religion, 182z-z836 (I924), filled an historiographical
gap concerning the role of religion in the era of the revolution. The wide
and careful research elicits admiration, but the author's thesis that the
colonists were motivated in their resistance to Mexican authority by a deep
piety and a devotion to Protestant institutions has been challenged. Red was
too much the parson to realize that vague religious expressions were the
vocabulary of Anglo-Saxonism and Manifest Destiny; colonial Texans could
hate the Mexicans and the pope without earnestly embracing Protestantism.2
A History of the Presbyterian Church in Texas (1936) was Red's labor
of love, the product of exhaustive concern for accurate detail, an admirable
(although occasionally adoring) gift of biographical portraiture, and an
appreciation for the struggle that accompanies the birth of an institution
in a frontier environment. For nearly half a century before his death, Red
had studied diaries and letters, corresponded with early Presbyterians and
their heirs, and gathered the minutes of the synod, presbyteries, and
sessions.'
Io6, r 13, 115; Robert F. Miller, A Family of Millers and Stewarts (St. Louis, 1909), 38;
William Stuart Red, A History of the Presbyterian Church in Texas ([Austin], 1936),
xi-xiii, 385-392, 405-408, 416-417, 426; Robert Finney Miller, "Early Presbyterianism
in Texas as Seen by Rev. James Weston Miller, D.D.," Southwestern Historical Quarterly,
XIX (October, 1915), 159-183; Walter Prescott Webb and H. Bailey Carroll (eds.),
The Handbook of Texas (2 vols.; Austin, 1952), II, 196; William A. McLeod, Story of
the First Southern Presbyterian Church, Austin, Texas ([Austin, 1939]), 88; William
M. Baker, The Life and Labours of the Rev. Daniel Baker, D.D., Pastor and Evangelist
(Philadelphia, 1858); William S. Red (ed.), "Extracts from the Diary of W. Y. Allen,
1838-1839," Southwestern Historical Quarterly, XVII (July, 1913), 43-60; William S.
Red (ed.), "Allen's Reminiscences of Texas, 1838-1842," ibid., XVII (January, 1914,
283-305; ibid., XVIII (January, 1915), 287-304; Richard B. Hughes, "Old School
Presbyterians: Eastern Invaders of Texas, 1830-I865," Southwestern Historical Quar-
terly, LXXIV (January, 1971), 330. The Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary
holds an incomplete run of the Texas Presbyterian (1847-1895) on microfilm. For the
history of the paper, see Red, History of the Presbyterian Church, roo, 127. Daniel
Baker's admirers saw in him another George Whitefield, the English evangelist whose
eloquent and fervent preaching converted many eighteenth-century Americans during the
Great Awakening. William G. McLoughlin, Jr., Modern Revivalism: Charles Grandison
Finney to Billy Graham (New York, 1959), 162; Sydney E. Ahlstrom, A Religious
History of the American People (New Haven, 1972), 283-287.
'Eugene C. Barker's Foreword, William Stuart Red, The Texas Colonists and Religion,
1821-1836 (Austin, 1924); William Ransom Hogan, The Texas Republic: A Social and
Economic History (Norman, 1946), 191-194.
'Red was primarily concerned to trace the development of the Presbyterian Church in
the United States, popularly called the Southern Presbyterian Church, but that Church
shares a common history with the Northern Church before the Civil War. Red touches
on the New School Presbyterians, who were few in Texas, and on Cumberland Presby-
terians, who were numerous. Since New School representatives were negligible, Old
School Presbyterians were the ante-bellum precursors of the Southern Presbyterian297
Upcoming Pages
Here’s what’s next.
Search Inside
This issue can be searched. Note: Results may vary based on the legibility of text within the document.
Tools / Downloads
Get a copy of this page or view the extracted text.
Citing and Sharing
Basic information for referencing this web page. We also provide extended guidance on usage rights, references, copying or embedding.
Reference the current page of this Periodical.
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/m1/342/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.