The first effort to send missionaries to Texas by the Mission Board of the Methodist Church was in 1837 in conjunction with the Mississippi Conference. The church prospered during the years of the Republic but the question of slavery became an issue. In 1844, the slaveholding element of the Methodist Church in the South seceded from the organization and established the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.

 

In 1846, the year after Texas was annexed into the United States; there was a flow of German immigrants into the state. That same year saw a German Methodist Mission begun in Galveston by Rev. Henrich Jung (later changed to Henry Young) and steps were taken to build a church there. The work continued to prosper and a German Church paper, “Der Evangelische Apologete,” was founded. By 1856, there was a German-presiding Elder’s District with eight pastoral charges, 11 itinerant and three local preachers and 378 members with the membership almost doubling (711) in the subsequent five years.

 

The above work was accomplished within the Methodist Church, South; however, all their German literature came from the Methodist Book Concern located in Cincinnati, Ohio. (The majority of the German members did not realize there actually were two Methodist Churches.) Before the Civil War the Northern Church was prepared to send men to Texas to minister to the immigrants. However, even though the Germans in the South were anti-slavery in sentiment, these northern Methodist ministers were soon found to be unacceptable to the majority of the Texas citizenry.

 

After the War Between the States, the church in the North resumed its work in the southern states. In 1867, Bishop Simpson of the Methodist Episcopal Church visited Texas and organized a conference that included members and preachers from white American, German and colored populations. This conference, the Texas Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, met in Houston and many Texas ministers along with whole congregations withdrew from the Church, South, and joined this new conference.

 

The Black membership of this new Texas Conference grew rapidly and it became increasingly difficult for them and the Germans to meet together. At the 1873 Annual Conference in Galveston, separate conferences for the racial groups were established and, with the approval of the General Conference, the Southern German Conference was formed. The first session of the Southern German Conference was held at Industry, Texas, in January, 1874, where it was determined a training college for preachers was to be later established in Brenham.