Texas Tall tales and Truthes

Once upon a time in Texas, by Mable Cash 4-18-08

It was Sunday morning, the wind was chilly and the water in the horse trough was not warm. Stacks of baled hay blocked some of the wind from the preacher and the candidate for baptism. About 35 people stood in a semicircle around the baptismal site, lending their quiet encouragement. A young cowboy/rancher stepped into the chilly, water-filled trough without flinching. The preacher, earnestly declaring before God and all these witnesses that this rugged man in the water had confessed himself a hopeless sinner and had received Christ as Savior. “Now he’s getting baptized, dying to his old ways and arising into the newness of life, a child of the King! I baptize you, Brother, in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.” He was totally submerged and then lifted up. And all the witnesses said, “Amen!”

Then they had a celebration with music from a fiddle and some guitars. There was singing and clapping and reading of the Word. The preacher read from John chapter 8. The majority of the crowd were cattlemen and ranchers, who removed their hats, bowed and prayed for this new brother. Weathered cowpokes and prosperous ranchers dressed in their best jeans and boots were praising God for the salvation of this soul. The new “Brother” was joyously embraced and they broke bread together!

This could have been a story related and written from April 4, 1850 but it isn’t. This event happened on April 4, 2008 in Jewett, Texas at the “All Around Cowboy Church,” I was there. If you want to know more about it, call: 903-390-1410/936-348-1987.

The State was surprised and shocked when Sam Houston was immersed in the “Baptizing Hole,” in Rocky Creek, near Independence, Texas. Ever since their marriage, his wife, Margaret had been waging a gentle campaign for his soul. Although Houston’s behavior had undergone a great deal of improvement, piety was still lacking, somewhat. When a friend teased him, after the baptizing, about all his sins being washed away, Houston, recalling all his past transgressions of drinking and swearing during all the days he spent with the Cherokees, he replied.. “I hope so, but if they were all washed away, Lord help the fish below.” (This information was gleaned from “An Album of History” by James Haley, copyright 1985)

Samuel Brenner of Lubbock, Texas said, “I’ve worked around cattle all my life and I’m guessing I learned all there is to know about it. I think I can sum it all up in one thing, ‘You can’t drink coffee on a running horse!’”

Another Lubbock resident said to a traveler, “You know, last year Lubbock had an annual rainfall of 12 inches!”

The traveler replied, “Yeah, I was out there that day.”