SHARING THE PAST
RICHARD TOMLINSON
KENDALL COUNTY HISTORICAL COMMISSION
Researchers have discovered a cache of 11 journals containing unique and valuable information on early Boerne. These reports were written by Methodist circuit riders from 1883 to 1922.
No such records were known to have survived, so this is important; District Methodist records in San Antonio were destroyed in the flood of 1921.
These local Boerne journals had been discarded but were recovered from the Fort Sam Houston salvage yard in 1945-46. They have since rested in the church archives where their uniqueness was unrecognized.
We discovered them earlier this year during work associated with the 150th anniversary celebration of the Boerne First United Methodist Church These fragile journals have been digitized to preserve them. Copies are being provided to the Patrick Heath Public Library, the Genealogical Society of Kendall County and the Methodist Church archives.
The oldest journal is dated 1883. It shows — for the first time — the composition of the Boerne circuit. Circuits were constantly reconfigured, but the 1883 circuit ran through Locke Hill, Balcones, Boerne, San Saba and Salado.
The distance around this circuit is over 500 miles. A rider on horseback could travel around the circuit in about 30 days. Therefore, each congregation could expect to see their pastor and to hold church services only about once a month.
The towns on a circuit were frequently changed to achieve financial viability since many of the congregations were too small to be viable on their own.
The 1883 record shows that there were three Sunday schools on the Boerne circuit. These schools were located at Balcones, Boerne and San Saba. Because Sunday Schools could be taught by lay people, there was no need to wait for the arrival of the circuit rider, and classes could meet every Sunday.
The schools in the Boerne circuit were under the supervision of Patterson Douthit Saner, one of six original founding members of the Boerne Methodist Church formed by circuit rider, James Monroe Witt in 1875.
Emily Perrin, the greatgreat- great-grandmother of Mayor Patrick Heath, was also one of the founding members.
Saner was born in North Carolina and moved to Texas in 1849. He was active in the community. He was elected constable, and later county judge.
In 1894, Saner was appointed postmaster in Boerne and served for 4½ years. Judge Saner died March 21, 1908. He and his wife are buried in Boerne Cemetery.
The first page of the 1883 report is the minutes for the First Quarter Conference of Boerne Mission Charge (a circuit was called a charge) meeting in January 1883. The Principal Elder (the area Supervisor or P.E.), Jas. M Stevenson, chaired the meeting; Saner was elected secretary.
The role call included Flem S. Jackson as pastor in charge (PC) and Saner as steward (ST), Sunday school superintendent (SSS) and trustee.
The surprise in this role call is that the Rev. A.J. Potter, the famous “Fighting Parson,” appears as “agent” for San Saba Academy School. Boerne was a violent place and Potter preached with his Colt Revolver on top of the lectern and his Winchester rifle leaning against it, to warn off potential hecklers.
Potter lived in Boerne and had been PC of the Boerne church from October 1875 until October 1876, but in 1883 he was serving another circuit. He was present at the Boerne Conference meeting only in his role as agent for the college.
This was a Masonic College that was donated to the Methodist Church in 1879. Potter was assigned to be the church’s agent for the school. San Saba Academy was sometimes called “Potter’s School.”
The conference reports often include interesting comments on local events. For example, in the 1855 report the then-PC Arthur Rector wrote, “... the Balcones Sunday School was suspended for a time by the burning down of the school.”
The infamous Pitts-Yeager gang, having robbed the stagecoach from San Antonio, had inexplicitly stolen the organ from the Balcones schoolhouse and burned down the building. Therefore, the Sunday School, which met in the schoolhouse, now was without a place to meet.
Some pages for the most interesting years, such as the 1918 flu epidemic and the 1920’s KKK influence in Boerne, are missing.
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