Celebrate the 'Good News' -
100 Years of Unitarian Universalism in the Houston/Galveston Area

By Jackie Russell, Member, First Unitarian Universalist Church

Dr. Quillen Hamilton Shinn (1845 - 1906)

In 1989 First Unitarian Universalist Church of Houston celebrated its 75th anniversary, tracing its roots to the February 14, 1914, date when it was founded as a Unitarian church. Having read their history, some First Churchers knew that their roots went deeper, to the time when it was founded as a Universalist congregation (April 30, 1899, according to UUA and Harvard archive research done by Rev. Robert Schaibly). So here in Houston more than 72 years before the “merger,” a group of people considered themselves Universalists and later became Unitarian.

According to Schaibly, the early Universalists were much like Methodists. Their “heresy” was the belief that salvation is universal, and they believed that life everlasting was reconciliation with God in heaven. Therefore, they often used Reconciliation or Unity in their name, as did some Unitarian societies. People were often convinced and took changed beliefs back to their denominational church (19th century). Universalists were primarily rural; hence, there were congregations in Cleburne, Commanche, Hico and Meridian, Temple, Roby, Bowie, Grapeland, Waco, Hillsboro and Paris, but not in Dallas or Houston (19th and 20th centuries). Universalists were generally progressive, in favor of prohibition, opposed to capital punishment, debated corporal punishment and were highly supportive of women. Few 19th-century churches had as many women ministers as the Universalist Church in America. There were a few Black congregations, but they didn’t share District meetings. Originally, they were pro-Union abolitionists. However, there is in the records a newspaper article showing financial aid from the Ku Klux Klan to the Elgin Universalist Church. Universalists established Sunday Schools because they recognized that children learn differently from adults.

Rev. Quillen Hamilton Shinn, founder of the Houston Universalists, said “Universalism is from the word Universe, and it includes all that is good and true in the universe. It means whole, and not a part. It includes all the truth of all the churches.” He also said, “To be saved is not going somewhere; it is becoming something. Salvation is Christ-like character. It is likeness to Christ. To be Christian is to be Christlike. So there is not a Christian living on earth. There are beginners, and that is all.”

Dr. Shinn would come to town, hire a hall, put a notice in the newspaper, leaflet the town, preach and urge everyone to bring someone else the next day. He tried to leave some aspect of church organization in place - a Sunday School, youth group, Ladies Aid Society, etc.

Shinn visited Houston in April of 1895, preached five times and developed a contact list of seven names—J. C. Hooper, his wife Mary, and daughter Elsie, among them. Dr. Shinn bought orchard property in Almeda and returned to Houston in April of '97, and again in April of '99. On Sunday April 23, 1899, he held services in the Odd Fellows Hall at 3 and 8 p.m. Although the audiences were small he noted quite a bit of interest and so changed his plans and decided to stay over. Rev. Shinn held a course of sermons Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and after Saturday night's lecture people wanted to unite as a church. After Sunday's meetings the church was organized with 7 members and several more “about ready.” This is our BEGINNING—April 30, 1899. They had a list of 19 interested people and chose the following officers: J. C. Hooper, clerk; Mary Hooper, treasurer; Elsie Gay Hooper, Miss Margaret Roshaw, moderator (president). The other three board members were R. B. Henderson, Rev. J K. Street (a Universalist minister living in Houston), and Joseph Flath.

A year later Shinn was back and preached at the school house in Almeda but because the Hoopers were out of town there was no service in Houston. Then there are no references for four years but in January of 1904, Rev. Shinn is back visiting the Hoopers and preaching. People are interested and anxious to have a church (a settled minister and a permanent building). In 1905 Rev. Shinn comes to officiate at the wedding of the Hooper's daughter, Elsie, to Howard R. Burke, editor of the Houston Chronicle. In 1907, Shinn writes that although he thinks there are many who can’t find satisfaction in Trinitarian churches, it is hard to get the word out. He also notes that with summer approaching when many of the leading people will go North, “I did not organize the ladies.” But “we now have excellent material for the Mission Circle, 10 bright and cultured ladies.”

The Rev. Shinn died in 1907, and there was a national movement to raise money to build the Shinn Memorial Church in a major city and of course the Hoopers hoped Houston would be chosen. When that didn’t happen, the Universalists sent a field secretary to the Houston congregation. As a result of this visit the Rev. Charles Henry Rogers came to Houston and served for three years. The church then became dormant for 3 years except for the Ladies Aid Society and informal gatherings of members in their homes.

By 1914 a majority of the congregation identified themselves as Unitarian and appealed to the American Unitarian Association, which sent a field secretary to spend a month and formally organize the church. First Unitarian Church of Houston was “born” on February 15, 1914, with J. C. Hooper as Treasurer and much of the same leadership as before. The Universalist Archives housed at Harvard University hold the last words on Houston's Unity Universalist Church. From 1914, a is line drawn through the name with the note, “gone over to the Unitarians.” The Unitarians sent visiting ministers for a few months and then in 1915 sent a settled minister. The property (Unity House) at 3015 Bagby near Rosalie was purchased and served as a parsonage and Sunday services were held in the front room. March 4, 1914, the “Ladies Aid” became the Women's Alliance. They met weekly, sewed, held bazaars, and other events. They “taxed” themselves 10 cents a meeting and 25 cents a year dues. In March they voted to raise $150 toward the building fund. And in October 1915, the Alliance responded to the financially distressed Board and covered the church's $62 deficit. The Women's Alliance also paid $1 a Sunday for music at the church services and in 1916 secured "Mr. And Mrs. Wiggins to lead congregational singing for $2 per Sunday," the Board promising an increase "when Finances will permit." In 1915, the membership more than doubled and in 1916 there were special services and an "evangelical meeting" sponsored by the AUA with speakers from headquarters. In 1917, there was growing demand for a building and the Board voted to raise $6,000 in two years to build on a lot to be purchased by the AUA. But the lot was not found and they refurbished "Unity House". The Alliance voted to lend $100 to repair the building. When Dr. Clayton left in the spring of 1918 activity lessened considerably.

History from this time is mostly deduced from financial records. There were several short term ministers in the 'teens' and 'twenties'. Meetings were held in the Odd Fellows Hall, the Queen, and Isis Theaters (both in downtown Houston). The City's population was about 100,000. Montrose and Hyde Park were the fashionable areas. The budget was raised by pledges of $5 and $10 a month. The Church's Statement of Purpose was "In the love of truth and the spirit of Jesus, we unite for the worship of God and the service of Man." Women's Alliance records which end temporarily in 1923, indicate that the organization had the first Wayside Pulpit built and also purchased a piano for the "Parish House", i.e., Unity House. Then in 1929, the Rev. Dr. Thomas Henry Saunders was sent to Houston to reorganize and stimulate the Unitarian movement. During this time meetings were held at the Scottish Rite Temple, the Little Theater, and the Warwick Hotel. In 1931, the lot at Fannin and Southmore, "the intersection of Houston's two most beautiful thoroughfares", was purchased. The AUA provided half the purchase price. In 1934, the white frame building was built. There is reference to "dissention" and "dissatisfaction" and Dr. Saunders resigned in April, l935. In October 1935, the elderly and much loved Arthur Winn and his wife came to Houston and stayed for 2 1/2 years during which time he secured a regular Sunday School teacher and the church school grew and was divided into 2 classes!! A Layman's League was instituted; several committees were added-Religious Education, Social, Membership and Conference. Winn wrote a new Constitution before resigning in April of '38. In fall of '38, John Clarence Petrie, former Catholic, then Episcopalian, now Unitarian began his more than 10 years of service. He began the newsletter, the Houston Unitarian, later known lovingly as The Blast. And in 1940 Petrie organized the first "every-member canvass" in which 13 pairs of solicitors made 55 calls and raised $2500 from 120 members. He added a choir and organist, increased the Board of Trustees to 9 members, and the Unifiers (a high school group) and the Fortnighters (a couples group) were organized. Under Petrie's leadership new interest was generated in a permanent building on Fannin St. An architect was hired and a building fund was begun which in December of 1948 contained $27,000 toward the estimated $50,000 needed. But, Petrie's creeping Trinitarianism and attacks on the AUA led to his resignation in 1949.

The Fifties and sixties could be and have been called the Westwood years because in January of 1950, Horace Westwood became minister of First Church which he served for the next 22 years. During this time the existing sanctuary was built (1951) and rebuilt following the fire in the organ corner of the sanctuary (1967). A second story was added in 1963 to accommodate the growing church school enrollment. (This is after Emerson and the fellowships split off!). In Westwood's first year 110 members were added (possibly still a record). In 1954 the Church voted to desegregate. Some members left, but the Church grew and organizations flourished: The Channing Bookshop; the Servetus Club for singles; the Channing Players, a community theater group which stayed with us over 25 years. The growth of the mid fifties led to hiring the Rev. Emil Gudmundson as associate minister (1957-1959) and the birth of Emerson (1960). Five classrooms and a library were added to First Church and two acres were purchased on Bering Rd. for the "second church". Before "groundbreaking" in 1959, three members who lived in Spring Branch asked Dr. Westwood if they might put up a temporary building to house a creative workshop for their children. When he responded that all efforts must be directed toward establishing the second church, they withdrew and began the Unitarian Fellowship of Houston. And at about the same time another group began the fellowship on Red Bluff Road in Pasadena (now Bay Area Unitarian Universalist Church).

Emerson Unitarian Church opened its doors in October of '60 and was served by Horace Westwood for a full year until Rev. Eugene Askew took over at Emerson. Rev. Frank Schulman followed Askew and stayed for more than 20 years making Emerson an independent and fast-growing, stable church. Many of its 217 founding members came from First Church as did the nucleus members of the Fellowships. The loss of these members and their financial contributions was keenly felt by First Church which engaged in redefining its beliefs and goals (after the 1961 merger of the Unitarians and the Universalists). By 1963 , the covenant was changed to read:

In freedom we search for the meaning of life,
Some find reality in man and the universe;
Others find it in God.
We express our faith in service to our fellow man,
And in sincere commitment to the highest we know.

(In 1977, this was changed to be less sexist.) Meanwhile the Church School was burgeoning. By Nov. of '62 it reached 450 (hence the addition of the classrooms and library mentioned earlier and the cooperative playschool which had been housed at the church had to find larger quarters. There was growing involvement in community and national affairs. Westwood and other members of the UUA attended services in March of 1965 for the Rev. James Reeb, a Unitarian minister killed by a white sheriff, in Selma, Alabama, because he was a black sympathizer. The Women's Alliance directed its energies to Hester House, providing community service in the Black neighborhood, and the Winn Club (high school youth) helped in a neighborhood clean-up sponsored by Hester House. The Social Action committee of Servetus Club led us in sponsoring two Vista workers in the Third Ward by donating $1000 to the Houston Council of Human Relations. And the Involvement Committee with the help of a UUSC grant of $15,000 had a major role in the establishment of the Martin Luther King Center as an independent community project. In 1969 a Peace Committee was formed which held all-night vigils for peace in Viet Nam and raised funds to send two bus loads of Houstonians to Washington to join the Peace March in November of that year. They also tended the peace candle which burned continuously in the sanctuary until the end of the conflict.

The Westwoods went on a four month sabbatical in early 1969 and at the annual meeting in 1970 the congregation celebrated the 20th anniversary of Horace Westwood's ministry. But we are a contentious lot and there had been dissention on both the local and denominational levels. Westwood was distressed by the local pressures and announced his retirement in December of 1971, leaving Houston in May of '72 for a smaller parish in the Northeast. Thanksgiving of '72 Webster Kitchell was called and began his ministry in January of 1973. Again the process of restabilization began. In 1974, First Church had its 1st woman, Jackie Cronquist, at the helm since its beginnings. At First Church women's groups and gay groups became prominent; the number of children in Church School dwindled; music, as always, remained at a high level with Tom Benjamin, Music Director and Composer; a prison visitation program was organized; Couples Club, now called co-vivants, was re-established; once again the church office was reorganized physically and organizationally; and members from First Church, the Houston Unitarian Fellowship, and Emerson Unitarian Church organized the Houston Area Memorial Society (still exists). Webster Kitchell also helped the UUs in Bryan and in Spring. And before long Northwoods (about 40 strong) was established extending the UU's range to the Woodlands/1960 area. Dr. Kitchell left in 1981 for Santa Fe.

Clarke Dewey Wells was the interim, to be followed in 1982 by the Rev. Robert Lloyd Schaibly-Bob. The Program Council having been re-vitalized through the work of Gay Gustafson was now an important mechanism of the Church and held retreats (sometimes with the Board) to keep the lay leadership functioning cooperatively. The statement of purpose now read:

To establish a church that seeks the truth wherever it is found;
To create an institution of religious fellowship open to all people;
To encourage freedom of expression of feelings as well as ideas;
To respect the needs of each individual and promote the common good of our community,
our nation, and our earth;
To provide people of all ages a place well suited for their religious experience and enlightenment.

First Church participated in the "sanctuary" movement housing a few Salvadoreans. Then in 1989 a new Long Range Planning Committee (made up of past presidents) was formed. Retreats with the Board of Trustees were held to be followed by information gathering task forces, focus groups, a UUA financial consultant and, by December of 1992, the decision was made to conduct a Capital Fund Drive which began in the fall of 1993 and continued through the spring of 1994. Rebuilding took place from June of 1994 to November of 1995.

While this was happening at First Church the spin-offs were growing too. Northwoods called a minister (Don Vaughn-Foerster) and built a Church shortly after its organization. Frank Shulman had retired from Emerson and Jan Knost was called. Rev. Leonora Montgomery had led Bay Area as they expanded, held a Capital Fund Drive and built a church. The Unitarian Fellowship of Houston having had periods with and without a minister, sold their building to School of the Woods and purchased property a few blocks away and built a church. 1994 saw the organization of the Fort Bend County (H.D. Thoreau) and the Copperfield area (NW Community) churches. And now our newest off shoot is All Souls Church in the Woodlands.