Early Quakers in Texas (Jul 28, 2024)
by Scott Sosebee
Texas is a leader in the number of people who observe organized religion. In sheer numbers, more Texans are members of a church than any state in the Union, and a Pew Research Center study named it the eleventh “most religious” state as measured by the percentage of the population (64%) that agreed with the statement “religion is very important to me.” Most likely, a column that dealt with religion in Texas would delve into Baptists, Methodists, The Church of Christ, or Catholicism as those Christian denominations dominate among Texans, but this one will not. One group that is often overlooked is the members of the Religious Society of Friends, commonly referred to as Quakers. That is unfortunate because while their numbers in the state are few, their history is intriguing.
The Society of Friends’ primary theological doctrine is that God resides in every person, and therefore every person can be a member of the clergy. Traditionally, Quakers observed “silent meetings” in which there was no prepared message, and congregants rose and delivered a “vocal ministry” as their spirit moved. Today more than 70% of Quakers are part of evangelical Friends churches in which a prepared message is delivered by a pastor, a tradition that began to develop in the nineteenth century and was a result of the influence of the Second Great Awakening in the United States.
The Religious Society of Friends began in England in the 17th century as a breakaway group from the Church of England. They were violently persecuted in England for their beliefs, which led many to migrate to the New World and settle in the Massachusetts Colony. However, their treatment there was little better, and many were expelled for their beliefs. The Quakers needed a “safe haven” and received one when Quaker William Penn received permission to establish a colony in first West New Jersey and eventually Pennsylvania. The Friends were notable for their vehement opposition to slavery, and they were prominent in the Abolitionist Movement of the mid-19th century in the U.S. Their opposition to slavery kept them from migrating to the southern states, including Texas, in the years before the Civil War, although a few individual Quakers did come to Texas, the most well-known being Mifflin Kenedy, who was Richard King’s original partner in establishing the King Ranch.
The first real attempt to establish a Quaker colony in Texas occurred on the South Plains, near present-day Lubbock. A group of Quakers from Indiana and Iowa, led by Paris Cox, bought over 4,000 acres of land near Blanco Canyon in 1878. Cox, who had visited the area with buffalo hunters in 1876 and again in 1877, believed that agricultural cultivation could thrive in the area. The first families moved to the colony in 1879, and Cox named the new town Marietta after his wife, although the town would eventually become Estacado, after the Spanish moniker for the Caprock escarpment, Llano Estacado. The Quakers were ill-prepared for life on the harsh plains, and the first winter brought great hardship. The brutal season caused every settler but the Cox family to move back to the Midwest, and Cox’s new friend, local rancher Henry C. “Hank” Smith, cautioned him to give up the idea of farming and take up stock raising or move back east. Cox, however, was determined, so Smith pitched in and brought a plow and a team of mules from his ranch and broke the ground for his new neighbors.
Cox did bring in a crop, and he eventually convinced other Quakers to join him. Estacado became successful, and by 1885 non-Quakers equaled the number of Friends in the town. When residents of the region organized Crosby County in 1886, Estacado became the county seat, and in 1890 it boasted a new $10,000 courthouse, a handsome sum to spend in a city whose population was only about 200. Paris Cox, unfortunately, did not live to see the landmark as he died of throat cancer in late 1888. Estacado contained stores, a hotel, and two dining establishments, but true to its Quaker roots no saloon. Quakers also brought education to the South Plains. Taught by church members, the Quaker school was free to any who wished to attend—Hank Smith’s two youngest children joined the children of some of the local ranchers and farmers to travel and attend the Quaker School that gained a reputation for excellence.
Farming on the South Plains is a fickle proposition, and the 1890s brought a series of setbacks for the farmers. Many of the Quakers began to drift back to the East, including the remaining members of the Cox family. Estacado, too, suffered, as some of the non-Quakers left and began the town of Emma in 1890. Eventually, in 1891, Emma won an election to move the county seat from Estacado, and that sealed the fate of the Quaker outpost. Most of the businesses moved to Emma, and most of the remaining Quakers left and moved toward the coast, settling first in Alvin, but eventually founding a new town, Friendswood. The new town became successful and today is a booming, affluent bedroom community of Houston. I hope the residents of the suburban city know about their Quaker beginnings.
The East Texas Historical Association provides this column as a public service. Scott Sosebee is a Professor of History at Stephen F. Austin State University and the Executive Director of the Association. He can be contacted at sosebeem@sfasu.edu or via www.easttexashistorical.org.