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GEORGE
LOUIS CROCKET: RELIGIOUS LEADER AND EARLY HISTORIAN OF EAST TEXASby
Archie P. McDonald | |
Members
of Christ Church Episcopal in San
Augustine, Christ Church in Nacogdoches,
and St. Cyprian’s Church in Lufkin,
all Episcopal congregations, remember George Louis Crocket as the leader or founder
of their group. But even Baptists and Methodists know about Crocket. He wrote
the first real history of East Texas and founded the East Texas Historical Association.
Crocket
was born in San Augustine
on June 3, 1861, and educated liberally and for the ministry at the University
of the South and the Theological Seminary in Sewanee, Tennessee. Crocket was graduated
in 1886 and returned to his home town to commence a ministry that continued formally
until his retirement in 1929, but really did not end until his death on January
3, 1936. That ministry included refounding the Episcopal congregation in Nacogdoches
and founding one in Lufkin.
The
Rev. Crocket contributed more to his congregations than homilies and pastoral
care. An artist with wood, he also sculpted ornate altars and other furnishings
for his churches that are still in use. He also involved them in community improvement
activities.
Anyone who knew Crocket understood his deep love for the history
of East Texas, so they were not surprised when he accepted a position at Stephen
F. Austin State Teachers College in Nacogdoches in 1929. Crocket was hired by
President A.W. Birdwell, also a historian, who supported Crocket’s interest in
the history of the college’s service region.
Crocket invited those with
similar interest to attend an organizational meeting on the campus of the East
Texas Historical Association. Papers were presented by Crocket and other distinguished
historians such as Eugene C. Barker, history department chairman at the University
of Texas. For a few years members met on the campuses of Stephen F. Austin, Sam
Houston, and East Texas teachers colleges, and published a "bulletin," or journal,
which included the papers they presented at meetings and other writings. The first
East Texas Historical Association became a victim of the Depression. When a successor
group was organized in 1962, only a few old bulletins and three $100 government
bonds bore testimony of its predecessor’s existence. Crocket also published Two
Centuries in East Texas, a history of this region that focuses on San Augustine,
in 1932. Crocket ended the book with the Civil War era. Evidently he judged that
nothing of importance had happened in East Texas during his lifetime, so he left
out one of the really important happenings of that era:
Crocket.
For the "rest of the story," the reader needs to see San Augustine: A Texas
Treasure, by John and Betty Oglesbee, number five in the Ann and Lee Lawrence
East Texas History Series. The publisher is the second East Texas Historical
Association, still hosted by Stephen F. Austin State University and
following the leadership of the Rev. George Louis Crocket. |
© Archie P. McDonald
All
Things Historical
>
April 20-26, 2003 column
A syndicated column in over 40 East Texas newspapers
(This column is provided as a public service by the East Texas Historical
Association. Archie P. McDonald is director of the Association and author of more
than 20 books on Texas.) | | |
