DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the marker on John Wesley Kenney tells it, and I'm gonna give it to you straight from the official record. Now, if you were to picture the kind of man who helped plant Methodism in Texas soil — and I mean that almost literally — you might conjure up someone polished, someone with a pressed collar and a leather-bound Bible held just so. John Wesley Kenney was not that man.
Born in Pennsylvania in 1799, he started preaching at nineteen years old, and by the time he rode into Texas in 1833, he had already developed what you might charitably call a distinctive personal style. The marker puts it plainly: unkempt in appearance. That's the official record talkin', not me.
But here's the thing about Kenney — and this is where the story gets interesting — the man could preach. Whatever he lacked in grooming, he more than made up for with an eloquent style that apparently moved people something fierce. Eccentricity, the marker says, redeemed by eloquence.
That's a trade most of us would take. He settled in Austin County, and he got to work. Now understand what he was riding into.
Texas at that moment was part of Mexico, and it was Catholic by law. Methodist societies weren't exactly the order of the day. But Kenney helped found them anyway, and in 1834, he served a circuit so vast it covered all of the present state of Texas west of the Trinity River.
All of it. One man, one circuit, everything west of the Trinity. You just sit with that geography for a moment.
Then comes 1836, and Kenney didn't sit that one out either — he took part in the Texas War for Independence. He lived until 1865, and the marker notes that his lifetime saw Methodism grow into one of the major denominations in the state. He came when it was against the law, essentially, and he rode that enormous circuit alone, and he preached in that wild, unkempt way of his — and it took root.
Not bad for a Pennsylvania boy who started preaching at nineteen.
What the marker says
(1799-1865) One of great pioneer Methodist ministers of Texas. Pennsylvania-born, he began preaching at age 19. In 1833 he came to Texas and soon settled in this county. Unkempt in appearance, Kenney redeemed his eccentricity with an eloquent style of preaching. In Texas -- then part of Mexico and Catholic by law -- he helped found Methodist societies and, in 1834, served a vast circuit covering all of present state west of Trinity River. In 1836 he took part in Texas War for Independence. His lifetime saw Methodism become one of the major denominations in state. (1972)