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From: "J. M. Freed" <>
Subject: Re: [BRE] Gospel Messenger, Vol. 21, No. 36, Sept. 11, 1883
Date: Sat, 13 Jan 2007 07:30:17 -0500
References: <003701c736ed$04409980$0160fea9@main>


Wayne,

I'm not certain what information you need from the publication,
"Brethren on the Southern Plains", edited by Ethel S. Harris, 1976,
but there is an entry entitled, "Williams Creek Church, Cooke County",
stating that the congregation was "about 18 miles west of Gainesville,
near present Saint Jo in Cooke County with Elder Jacob Berkey of
Grayson County elder-in-charge", p. 10.

Also on p. 10 in a discussion of the "Earliest Churches in the Texas
Red River-Hill Country 1879-1895" Ethel Harris mentions that Elder
Henry Gephert was one of the ministers, with two churches organized in
1879, the first church being "in Grayson County, in the vicinity of
Whitesboro and named the Elbow Creek Church....They held their first
communion service July 29 in Elder Jacob Berkey's house. Elder Henry
Gephert of Cooke County was the elder-in-charge."

Also in the article on the "Earliest Churches" (page 10) is this
statement with a number of names, but no indication with which of the
congregations these individuals were "visiting": "The pleas for
Brethren ministers made by Mr. and Mrs. John W. Chambers through
'Primitive Christian', an early denominational paper (even though they
were not members of that denomination) resulted in visits by Brother
A. Hutchison and Brother Joseph R. Long. Later visitors were Brother
and Sister James R. Glick, Brethren Enoch Eby, D.B. Vaniman, S.Z.
Sharp, Gideon Bollinger, S.S. Mohler, J.T. Mohler, John Wise, and
Albert Daggett. Among the ministers moving into the area were Brother
Henry Troxel, Brother J. H. Sowder, Elder Jacob Berkey, and Elder
Henry Gephert."

Let me know if you need additional information from this publication.

The "Brethren on the Southern Plains Update, 1972-1979" also by Ethel
Sherfy Harris does not include any further information on the Grayson
or Cooke County churches in Texas.

Jim Freed, native of Oklahoma


----- Original Message -----
From: "Wayne Webb" <>
To: "Brethren Mailing List" <>
Sent: Saturday, January 13, 2007 3:29 AM
Subject: [BRE] Gospel Messenger, Vol. 21, No. 36, Sept. 11, 1883


> Evening List,
> Can someone offer the name of the congregation eluded to in the
> following passage? Thanks in advance.
>
> The new meeting-house in Marshall Co., Ill. will soon be ready for
> services. The plasterers are at work on it now.
>
> The next one I will have to describe somewhat as it is
> convoluted.
>
> Eld. Henry Gephart, in describing the need for a fellow minister
> for the William's Creek congregation in Cooke county, Texas,
> mentions that one of the ministers who may be making the trip to his
> congregation was "Jacob P. Moomaw of Garrison, Butler Co., Kansas."
> My attempt has been to denote what congregation this may have been a
> reference to. I struck out in reading the Kansas section of the
> Brethren Encyclopedia and I do not have a book on the Southern
> Plains.
> So I looked at the entry for Jacob P. Moomaw in the ministerial
> lists of the BE. It states, and I paraphrase somewhat, that he was
> from Roanoke, Virginia; had a presence in Nebraska and Texas and
> finally ended up out in the William's Creek congregation of Oregon.
> I looked in the Texas Brethren history and the references in it
> gives his name as "J. P. Moomaw." The references did not state
> where exactly he had come from previously. No assistance from the
> William's congregation in Oregon either.
> I did an Internet search for Garrison in Kansas and the only
> information was for a town, also called Garrison's Crossing, that
> now lays under the Turtle Creek Dam in a whole different county and
> quite a distance away. Say about five counties north of Butler
> county!
> Does any one have a copy of the Southern Plains district history
> that could do a lookup or perhaps know off hand what the name of the
> congregation in Butler county, Kansas may have been?
> Thanks in advance.
>
> Wayne Webb

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