Dr. George W. Truett's accidental shooting of Police Chief Arnold

George W. Truett was the husband of the former Josephine Jenkins of Waco, the daughter of Warwick Hoxie Jenkins.  George and Josephine were introduced by Dr. and Mrs. B. H. Carroll. 

117 years ago today, the paragraph below appeared in the Bryan, Texas Eagle:

The Gun of Rev. George W. Goes Off Accidentally While Hunting.

“Dallas, Feb. 5.-J. C. Arnold, chief of police of this city, was accidentally shot yesterday near Cleburne, Tex., while hunting, by Rev. George W. Truett, pastor of the First Baptist church here. The gun of the minister was accidentally discharged, sending a load of birdshot into Captain Arnold’s leg. The wound is not considered dangerous.”

George Washington Truett (1867-1944) was the long time pastor of First Baptist Church. He was born on a farm in North Carolina. He and some of his brothers moved to Whitewright, Texas in 1889 where he joined the local Baptist church and shortly thereafter accepted a call to the ministry. He’d been educated at Hayesville Academy in North Carolina and had served as a teacher before coming to Texas and in 1891 accepted a job to serve as financial secretary of Baylor University in Waco, Texas. The school was heavily in debt and Truett is credited with raising $92,000 to pay off Baylor’s entire indebtedness. In 1893, he then enrolled as a student, graduating in 1897 with a bachelor’s (AB) degree.
He’d served as a student pastor at East Waco Baptist Church and in September 1897, he accepted the pastorate of First Baptist Church, where he would remain until his death from bone cancer in July 1944.

James C. Arnold was born and raised near Wellington, Georgia in 1851 to W. B. and Martha Arnold. He left home to accept work on a farm in Mississippi in 1866. In 1869, he moved to Upshur County, Texas to work for the a son of one of the farm’s owners who operated Camp’s Ferry on the Sabine River. Arnold worked at the Ferry until a year after it was sold in 1871. He then joined a meat contracting company that supplied beef to businesses building the first rail lines from Longview west. From there he moved to Fort Worth to be engaged in the same business, but the railroad suspended operations. He would remain in Fort Worth in the grocery business until moving to Dallas in 1874 where he would briefly work in the meat and hide business until he was hired onto the police force of Dallas.

Arnold served as a patrolman until 1879 when he was appointed deputy city marshall. He continued to rise through the ranks until he was elected as Chief in 1881. As chief he was well regarded and was reelected many times. At the time of the accidental shooting, he had been a part of the Dallas police force for 24 years.

On February 4, 1898, Truett, Arnold (a member of First Baptist church) and Rev. G. W. Banner set out in a buggy to hunt birds at the invitation of former Sheriff Boyd of Johnson County near Cleburne. In the afternoon, Truett’s shotgun accidentally discharged, hitting Chief Arnold in the leg. Truett and Banner quickly tied off a tourniquet to stop the flow of blood. They were successful in getting him to local Dr. Harris who treated the wound. Satisfied that Chief Arnold could make the trip back to Dallas on the scheduled Santa Fe train, they brought Arnold to his home at 451 Commerce Street. At first, Arnold’s condition appeared to be stable, given the wounds, but they called in a local doctor for a consultation. Arnold was given fluids to compensate for the loss of blood, but late on the afternoon of Feb. 5, he began to decline and he died at his home at about 8 PM that evening.

The official cause of death was listed as a heart attack, but Truett blamed himself for the accident and was deeply depressed at the loss of his close friend. Truett had decided to leave the ministry, but was persuaded by friends and church members to continue, which he ultimately did. Truett would later reveal that he had also received a vision of Jesus standing beside him saying “Be not afraid, George. You are my man from now on.” Truett would go on to serve as pastor of First Baptist for a total of 47 years before succumbing to cancer. When he was no longer able to preach because of his final illness, he offered to resign, but he was so beloved by the congregation that they refused to accept his resignation.

To learn more about Truett, please see George W. Truett: A Biography by Powhatan W. James and Thy Will Be Done: A Biography of George W. Truett by Keith E. Durso.

Also please see the web page below for more information about Chief Arnold: http://freepages.history.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~jwheat/obits/obits98. 

Joseph W. Speight, John C. West and the Waco Campus of Baylor University

Col. J. W. Speight was instrumental in the university's acquisition of the "old" Baylor campus (5th Street to Speight, to Seventh Street, to Dutton Street) in Waco.  Recently, we have found some information about the transactions, discussed below.

Col. Speight was born May 31, 1825 in Green County, North Carolina.  His early days were spent in Mississippi where he married Josephine Pruitt before moving to Waco, Texas in 1854.  He was a planter, civic leader and served as Chairman of the board of trustees of Waco University.  He settled south of the Brazos River.

John Camden West was born April 12, 1834 in Camden, South Carolina.  He also moved to Texas in 1854 and married Mary Eliza Stark.  West practiced law and served as headmaster of the Waco and Trinity River Classical School which became Waco University.  He settled on property that adjoined Speight's across Waco Creek.

The maps below are from a document written by T. Bradford Willis, DDS, MSD entitled "Some Notable Persons in First Street Cemetery of Waco, Texas."  See the arrow for the north-south orientation of the map.

Below is a zoomed in look of the Speight property which includes the five long tracts in the center of the map.

If Fifth and Seventh Streets are extended from downtown, the Speight properties 2, 3 and 4 roughly correspond to what was conveyed by Speight to the City of Waco and then to Baylor in 1886.  The creek that forms the border of the Speight property is Waco Creek.  Judge John C. West owned property across Waco Creek to about where Dutton Street is today.  Before the transaction, much of West's property was used as a park called Minglewood Park.  In general, West's property was bordered by Dutton Street and ran to a line near the back of Martin Hall, down to Waco Creek and to a line roughly near the back of Kokernot Hall.  The land transaction was discussed in Waco University trustee minutes of April, 1886.

West had a residence across from the corner of Seventh Street and Dutton.  The first residence burned at one point and was apparently replaced by a concrete block structure that served as West's residence.  Afterward, it served as the residence for Dr. A. J. Armstrong for many years.

At present, it is unknown exactly where the Speight residence actually sat on Speight's property.  A newspaper account from 1953 stated that "General Speight lived where historic Old Main and Burleson Halls are now located on the Baylor University campus."  The writer could have been speaking generally, but as of now, this is the only written comment we are aware of that addresses the actual location of the farm house. (As an aside, Col. Speight reportedly was in the process of being promoted to General, but became ill and returned home to Waco before the necessary paperwork was completed.)

Speight had previously sold a homesite to another family.  The location is said to be roughly where the Student Union Building currently sits.  Apparently other city contributions were made to acquire it to make up the 23 acres that comprised the initial Waco campus of Baylor University.  We believe that West and Speight first conveyed their land to the City of Waco which in turn combined them with the above mentioned homesite and donated it to Baylor University.  Waco University and Baylor University at Independence, Texas, we believe, each conveyed their assets to a new Baylor University entity about that time.  Also, construction of the buildings now known as Old Main and Georgia Burleson Hall was started, and both buildings were completed in the latter part of 1897.

Special thanks to Amanda Norman of the Baylor Texas Collection and to Charles Guittard.

Richard Byrd Burleson (1822-1879)

Richard was the son of Jonathan and Elizabeth Byrd Burleson and was the younger brother of Rufus C. Burleson.  He was born in Decatur, Alabama and died in McLennan County, Texas on December, 1879. 

He was reported to have qualified for an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point, but his father withdrew his claim on the appointment in favor of James Longstreet, the son of a poor widow, who later became one of the foremost generals in the Civil War.  Burleson graduated from Nashville University in Tennessee in 1842.  That same year, he was ordained to preach as a Baptist minister.  He served as pastor of the Athens Alabama Baptist Church for the following two years, after which he served as pastor of Tuscumben Baptist Church another four years.  Richard married Sarah W. Leigh in 1847.  From 1849 to 1855, he served as principal of the Baptist Female Institute of the Muscle Shoals Association after which he moved to Austin, Texas and served as pastor of a church there.  His wife, Sarah Leigh died in 1854 and he married Mary Frances Halbert in 1857.

His degree was in the field of science, and at the request of his brother Rufus, he became professor of Natural Science at Baylor University at Independence, Texas in 1857.  He later moved to Waco, Texas upon accepting the position of Vice President of Waco University, again joining his brother Rufus Burleson there. 

In 1874, he was selected by Governor Richard Coke to serve as a member of the first Geological Survey of the State of Texas.  The assignment of the group was to assess the mineral wealth of the state.  During his tenure, he identified oil fields near Tyler and salt deposits near Grand Saline.  Following this assignment, he returned to the faculty of Waco University, serving as a professor in the science department until his death on December 21, 1879. 

Byrd was regarded as a fine scholar in theology, botany and astronomy and was an accomplished and well regarded educator.  He was described as being frank, candid, gentle, sympathetic and tender, all qualities that served him well as a pastor and professor.  Burleson was deeply religious.  At a bedside service held shortly before his death, Richard requested that the 23^rd Psalm be read and that those gathered sing “How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith in his excellent word.”  

Rufus Burleson's Statue at Baylor

Rufus Burleson died in 1901.  The following year, a committee including a 30 year old Pat Neff commissioned a statue of Burleson to be placed in the quadrangle on the Baylor University campus surrounded by the four recently constructed buildings: Old Main, Georgia Burleson Hall, the Carroll Science Building and the Carroll Library and Chapel.  The sculptor chosen was Pompeo Coppini, an Italian-born artist living in San Antonio.  Later works by Coppini include the statue of George Washington on the University of Texas campus, the statue of Sul Ross on the campus of Texas A&M University, the Alamo memorial in San Antonio and the statue of Judge Baylor also on the Baylor campus.

Coppini’s autobiography, From Dawn to Sunset, relates the August 8, 1903 session when the committee and Georgia Burleson were invited to inspect the clay model for the statue.  In attendance were members of the committee, including Pat Neff, Georgia Burleson and a granddaughter of the Burlesons.  Coppini states that all he had to work from was a poor photograph and a small portrait engraving of the subject.  However, with other information that had been provided to him, he felt that he had been able to build an image of Burleson in his mind.
 
The artist also relates that he needed a subject to pose for the work and he had found an old man on the street to serve in this capacity.  In contrast to the well known teetotaler Burleson, the man was “a dissipated whiskey drinker, reduced by the habit to the level of a bum,” but that the man served his purpose.  Coppini continued: “You may think that it was sacrilegious to use such a man to help me make a good likeness of Burleson; on the contrary, it turned out to be a real inspiration to the better conception and idealization to the man who fought and taught against such a state of degeneration.  The old man [the model] seemed to be happy when he was holding the Holy Bible.”

The committee viewed the statue in silence, examining it from every angle while Mrs. Burleson and her granddaughter remained seated at a distance.  The little girl exclaimed, “Grandma, that is Grandpa!” after which Georgia let out a cry and left the room.  Coppini’s wife escorted Georgia to their bedroom and the others followed.  Coppini was concerned that Georgia was disappointed, but was assured by Pat Neff that there was no trouble at all.  Coppini relates that Neff told him that the statue was so lifelike that Georgia could not look at it any longer without breaking down.  Coppini viewed the success of this statue as a solid early step in his Texas career. (1)

 According to Martha Cooper Garrett, the granddaughter who was not named in Coppini’s account was her mother, Emma King Burleson Cooper.



(1) Looking Back at Baylor, Kent Keeth, p. 25

Georgia Burleson (1833-1924)

Georgia Jenkins was a strong willed person, like her husband Rufus.  Their relationship began in 1849 when they met at a Sons of Temperance rally in Washington-on-the-Brazos, Texas when Georgia was 16 years old.  Rufus Burleson, then 10 years older and pastor of the congregation that was to become First Baptist Church of Houston, was slated to receive a silk banner from the Sons of Temperance.  The banner was presented to him by Georgia.  She evidently made a distinct impression in Rufus and later that year, he made the following entry in his diary, “My mind on one subject is fixed—my manner of life I have resolved to change—if my health and God’s providence permit—I need the sympathy of a pious and lovely woman at all times.”

The daughter of the late Pleasant Cicero and Harriett Ann Daniel Jenkins, Georgia received her secondary education at Judson Female Institute at Marion, Alabama.  Upon her return to Texas, she and Rufus married on January 3, 1853 at Independence, the ceremony performed by their long time friend Henry L. Graves, the first president of Baylor University.  The wedding took place on the Baylor campus.

 Rufus was the natural successor to Baylor President Graves and in 1951, he was selected to serve as president of the university, a post that he was to hold for ten years.  Burleson acknowledged his reliance on Georgia’s advice and counsel in his administrative decisions throughout his career.  They were well matched and Georgia is credited for influencing the expansion of coeducation at Baylor.  Ultimately a disagreement over this same issue would lead to Rufus’ departure in 1861 from the Independence, Texas university and his move to Waco to serve as president of the newer but growing Waco University.  Baylor at Independence always separated male and female students with Baylor Female College having its own board of trustees, something that disturbed Rufus.  Undoubtedly Rufus had a strong following among the professors and upon his resignation and departure from Baylor at Independence, virtually all of the instructors of the male branch of the college went with him to become professors of the Baptist supported Waco University.

 Rufus and Georgia devoted their efforts to developing Waco University.  Georgia served as matron of the second  major structure on the campus, a women's dormitory named in her honor, Georgia Burleson Hall.  Though there were strict rules of propriety for the female students, Georgia and Rufus strongly believed in coeducation which was practiced in the classrooms and in Sunday worship services.  The two universities were merged in 1887 and took the name of the Independence institution.  The men's branch of Baylor moved to Waco.  The women's branch of Baylor at Independence became Mary Hardin-Baylor and was moved to Belton, Texas.

 Rufus and Georgia were married over 48 years until his death at the age of 77 on May 14, 1901.  Following his death, Georgia continued to live in Waco until her death at the age of 90 on June 11, 1924.