By Bill Cherry, Dallas Broker-Realtor
My 43rd Year Selling Texas
Galveston, Texas, one of the oldest citiies in Texas, had barely been settled by businessmen and their families when they decided that slaves should have the benefit of churches of their own.
That was quite a revolutionary idea back then.
But rather than build churches for them, "masters" instead helped their slaves earn the money to buy the property and then to build the church buildings themselves.
And let me tell you, Galvestonians, both black and white, have always been proud of that unusual bit of history.
The oldest of those churches is the Reedy Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church. It was founded in 1848, and it was the first African American Methodist church in Texas.
It raised the last payment to pay its builder in 1858, by holding a church fair and cake sale. The fair raised $75.00.
At the end of the Civil War the ownership of this church was immediately transferred to its membership. The same thing happened at the Island's African American Episcopal and Baptist churches.
The Reedy Chapel AME Church burned to the ground in the Great Galveston fire of 1885, but the members rebuilt it in time for the Christmas services of 1886.
And then the 1900 storm gutted it. Again the members promptly rebuilt and reopened it for worship.
More than thirty pastors have served the Reedy Chapel AME Church. And for 155 years it has remained one of the most influential congregations on Galveston island, whether the congregants are primarily white or black.
I'm Galvestonian Bill Cherry, now a Dallas Realtor, and the contributions of Galveston's African American churches to life on the Island are among my favorite historical memories.
Copyright 2005 - William S. Cherry
All Rights Reserved
<<=====Bill Cherry's Galveston Memories Is Available at Bookstores, Barnes and Noble, and Amazon.com
Read more of Bill Cherry's pieces through his monthly column in "Texas Escapes Magazine." www.texasescapes.com
What a beautiful church, Bill. Thank you for writing about this intriguing bit of Galveston history. Such resourcefulness demonstrated by these parishioners.
I enjoy reading your blogs so much and one day I will have to visit Galveston....I'll feel like I've been there a many times
before !
Jo
Jo, thanks for liking my story. With your dual interest in water and history (we share that), you really would love exploring Galveston. It's full of the stuff! I wrote nearly 600 stories about its history and its people, and the only reason I stopped was because we moved to Dallas. However, I still write about one a month.
Joan, this piece was excerpted from one of my Houston TV news features. I didn't take the photo. I'm not even sure how come I have it...probably the church gave it to me to use for the TV thing.
Bill, WoW, 600 stories ! That's amazing. You know Galveston inside out . Are you posting these all under the Galveston localism site as well ? I'm sure people wanting to know more about Galveston would love to read all of your blogs there.
Jo
Bill...just another note to say how much I appreciate and look forward to your tales! Thank you!
And Jo had a great idea about posting them to Localism!
Jo and Joan, I'm kind of a celebrity in the Houston-Galveston area since I have written for newspapers for years, done a lot of radio and a serial of TV history pieces.
As you can imagine, I'm truly a fish out of water here in Dallas. No one here has ever heard of me, nor do they care if they ever do. It's not a big deal one way or the other, but it certainly puts a damper on real estate prospecting.
Patty was my last college girlfriend. I was a graduate student and teaching there. I was 26. She was only 19. We went our separate ways. Thirty years later, we found each other again and married. That was absolutely wonderful!
She had always lived in Dallas. She's a psychotherapist. (The perfect companion for someone like me.)
When we married she moved to Galveston to be with me, but after my mom died ten years later, remaining in Galveston would have been very selfish on my part, so I suggested we sell out and move here to Dallas so that she could be with her friends and family.
We've been here about two and a half years. I like it fine, but it has not been easy for me to make new friends. (Probably my fault.) I've concluded that people over 50 should stay put if they can. I did this at 64!
I hear ya...What I'm finding the hardest is losing the friends I do have! I am close to a few in my office and have started doing volunteer work. That has exposed me to lots of new people!
And I'm not that much younger than you!
Patty and I, but especially me, have always been very active in our church. That hasn't transferred here to Dallas for some reason. And that's where the majority of my friends came from, even as a child and through adulthood. So it's continues to be quite a challenge.
We have decided to both study in the deaconate program. For Patty it so she can actually be ordained. For me, it's just for the education. We began last Saturday. Perhaps we'll integrate better as we go through this four year adventure.
But good for you for doing volunteer work. I'm inclined to think that is one of the major purposes for us being Here.
Thanks for your note, Miss Diane. I had to become a grown up before I ever became interested in history. I get a great deal of pleasure learning how people resolved their problems and adversities.
Carl and Miss Gena
Thanks for liking this story about the Reedy Chapel. I first told this story on a regular TV feature I used to do for a Houston television channel's news.
It is one of many that show that Galvestonians did not treat the black residents as slaves, but as human beings that happened to be black. That was, of course, quite extraordinary during those times.
Bill
Bill - Thank you for sharing this wonderful post and the history from beginning to the present.
Have a great April 1st.
GOD BLESS TEXAS AND THE USA
Carl,
Thanks for reading my story about the Galveston slaves and their church(es). I'm glad you liked it and saw the wonderful piece of our history that, at least in this case, was so unlike what we were taught to believe.
Bill
Miss Liz,
Thanks for the tied third place. That's a nice honor. I've tried to post it to the Texas Real Estate Group as you asked. Hopefully I did it correctly.
Bill
Miss Karen Anne --
I'm glad you liked the story of how the Galveston black churches came into being. Back in 1858 I was in junior high. My allowance was a nickel a week. I don't know how this story about me buying the black forest cake came into being. Obviously I couldn't have bought it.
It sold for 9 cents to a fellow who had a big boat. I think his name was Jean Lafitte.
Bill
Deb, thanks for your nice note. I really appreciate it.
Bill