Conference archives receives writings of 19th-century pastor
09-03-2010By Amy Forbus
Editor
Accounts of travel by boat, horseback and wagon. A tale of death-bed conversion during a pneumonia epidemic. The generous $5 honorarium the pastor received for performing a wedding. These stories and many more are part of a recent gift to the archives of the Arkansas Conference of the United Methodist Church. The personal journals of the Rev. Matthew Monroe Smith, a Methodist pastor in the White River and North Arkansas Conferences, now reside in the Conference archives room at Hendrix College’s Bailey Library.
The 15 journals cover a span of 43 years, from November 1886 to Smith’s death in March of 1929.
Smith actually played a part in determining where his journals now reside. As a member of the Hendrix College board of trustees, he cast the tie-breaking vote that chose Conway over Searcy as the location for the Methodist-related institution.
Descendants from Mississippi, Texas and Oklahoma on July 12 traveled to Conway to present their great-grandfather’s journals and a family record book to Conference archivists Mauzel Beal and Marcia Crossman. Several Hendrix staff also attended the event, including the Rev. Wayne Clark, college chaplain.
“The gift of these journals will enrich our Methodist heritage,” he told the Smith family. “You can be well-assured that the materials will be taken care of in perpetuity.”“These journals will be an asset for future generations and scholars of Methodist history,” said Amanda Moore, Hendrix librarian.
Smith’s journals provide insight into the life of a Methodist preacher at the turn of the 20th century. In addition to entries about unusual events and special occasions, the journals also include information on more basic elements of a pastor’s life, such as details of worship services.
James Edwin Smith Jr. first read the journals in 1993. “[It] gave me a new perspective and appreciation of where I came from,” he said. The family believes that James Edwin Smith Sr., who died in 2005, received the journals from his father, W.O. Smith, around 1945. In turn, W.O. Smith had received them from his own father, the author of the journals.
Smith Jr. said the family wanted to give the journals to the archives because of “the excellent facility [at a place] where the family knew the materials will be preserved for many, many years to come.”
The journals are available for in-person viewing at the Arkansas Conference Archives. Archivists Mauzel Beal and Marcia Crossman staff the archive room each Thursday, and on other days of the week by appointment.
Receiving a gift as extensive as the one from the Smith family is very rare for the Arkansas Conference. “It is a prize, and the family is just so excited to have those [journals] here,” Beal said.
Other personal papers stored at the archives include a history of the Tatom family dating from 1626 to 1995, and a number of church bulletins and personal notes from the Rev. Fern Cook, one of the first clergywomen appointed to serve churches in Arkansas.
If you have items of historical significance relating to Methodist clergy or churches in Arkansas, contact Beal or Crossman at ArkMethodist@hendrix.edu or 501-450-1370.
Martha Taylor contributed to this report.
