Block, Upload, Automoderated users, edit, move, protect, rollback
57,799
edits
Changes
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
{{Infobox person
|name=George Washington Truett
|image=
|birth_date=May 6, 1867
|birth_place=Hayesville, Clay County<br>
[[North Carolina]]
|death_date=July 7, 1944 (aged 77)
|death_place=[[Dallas]], [[Texas]]
|religion=[[Southern Baptist]] [[clergy]]man<br>
Pastor, First Baptist Church of Dallas, 1897 to 1944<br>
President of Southern Baptist Convention, 1927 to 1929<br>
President of Baptist world Alliance, 1934-1939
|spouse=Josephine Jenkins "Jo" Truett (married 1894-1944, his death)<br>
Three daughters
|party=
}}
'''George Washington Truett''' (May 6, 1867 – July 7, 1944) was a [[Southern Baptist]] [[clergy]]man who was the [[pastor]] from 1897 until his death of the large First Baptist Church of [[Dallas]], [[Texas]]. He headed the [[Southern Baptist Convention]] from 1927 to 1929 and the Baptist World Alliance from 1934 to 1939.
==Background==
The seventh child of Charles Levi Truett (1830-1925) and the former Mary Rebecca Kimsey (1830-1911), Truett was born on a farm in Hayesville in Clay County in the western mountainous section of [[North Carolina]]. His grandfather and great-uncle were pastors, and one of his older brothers was named for the famous evangelist [[Charles Spurgeon]].<ref name=findagrave/> Truett graduated in 1885 from Hayesville Academy and taught school just over the state line in Towns County, [[Georgia]].<ref name=papers/> in 1886, at the age of nineteen, he underwent a conversion experience at a Christian revival meeting. He founded a subscription school at Hiawassee, also in Towns County,<ref name=handbook/> and planned to use some of his earnings to attend law school. However, he left his teaching position after two years in 1889 to relocate with his parents to Whitewright in Grayson County in north Texas. There he attended Grayson Junior College in Denison and was ordained to the ministry in 1890 at the Whitewright Baptist Church. Thereafter, he delivered his first sermon at the First Baptist Church in Sherman, Texas.<ref name=papers>{{cite web|url=https://baylorarchives.cuadra.com/cgi-bin/starfetch.exe?6Lq10ylvD@QQyDDq@2PL8cTY7urW2LPjwIqgTn.B6l6rJPhRXOZt3YPvmHrUyyXjoUZDXljLVdHzD2fLTqCk.rjCeX3F2Ut1FiS5Uj0BFP4/0001ar.xmltitle=George Washington Truett Papers|publisher=Baylorarchives.cuadra.com|accessdate=March 20, 2018}]</ref>
In 1891, Truett at twenty-four became the financial secretary for Baptist-affiliated [[Baylor University]] in [[Waco, Texas|Waco]], Texas, at which he raised $92,000, enough money to retire the university's debts at that time. He enrolled in 1893 as a freshman at Baylor, graduated in 1897, and was a student-pastor of the East Waco Baptist Church.<ref name=handbook/> He was a Baylor trustee from 1934 to 1939 and a fundraiser for Baylor Hospital in Dallas.<ref name=findagrave/>
==Career==
During his forty-seven years at First Baptist Dallas, membership ballooned from 715 to nearly 8,000, with total contribution exceeding $6 million. Three times growth required that the church be rebuilt.<ref name=papers/> The church for a time was the largest in the world.<ref name=handbook/>
During [[World War I]], [[U.S. President]] [[Woodrow Wilson]] dispatched Truett and nineteen other pastors to preach for six months to the Allied forces fighting the Central Powers.<ref name=papers/> Before Wilson's assignment, Truett had preached during the war at the noon hour at the Palace Theater in downtown Dallas for the convenience of workers, many of whom attended his sermons regardless of denomination.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.ncpedia.org/biography/truett-george-washington|title=Truett, George Washington|publisher=Ncpedia.org|date=1996|author=Henry S. Strope|accessdate=March 20, 2018}}</ref> For thirty-seven years, Truett preached for a month each summer to cowboys working the [[cattle]] drives in the Davis Mountains of West Texas.<ref name=handbook>{{cite web|url=https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/ftr16|title=Truett, George Washington|publisher=''The Handbook of Texas'' online|accessdate=March 20, 2018}}</ref>
On May 16, 1920, Truett delivered a sermon which received nation attention, "Baptists and Religious Liberty". He spoke on the [[U.S. Capitol]] steps in [[Washington, D.C.]], where presidents have been inaugurated and foreign dignitaries feted. He explained how the nation was established on the principles of religious freedom and separation of church and state. Some analysts referred to the address as advancing "Baptist democracy."<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uCbL2_ZDU60C&pg=PA129&lpg=PA129&dq=george+truett+southern+baptist+preacher+significant#v=onepage&q=george%20truett%20southern%20baptist%20preacher%20significant&f=false|title=A Baptist Democracy: Separating God and Caesar in the Land of the Free''|author=Lee Canipe|date=2011|publisher=Mercer University Press|location=Macon, [[Georgia]]|page=127-128|accessdate=March 20, 2018}}</ref> Presumably had Truett lived into the 1960s, he would have been shocked that the [[United States Supreme Court]] adopted [[liberal]] ideology to strike down [[prayer]] and Bible reading in public schools on the basis of "separation of church and state," for which Truett had argued in 1920.
Truett published ten volumes of sermons, two volumes of addresses, and two volumes of [[Christmas]] messages. Sixty-one of his sermons have been published in three volumes: ''We Would See Jesus'' (1915), ''A Quest for Souls'' (1917), and ''God's Call to America'' (1923). The three volumes have been consolidated into a single work, ''Follow Thou Me'' (1932). Truett considered the ministry the best way to "help human life to realize its true destiny". He believed that no earthly task was greater than that of the minister.<ref name=handbook/>
==Legacy==
In 1894, Truett wed the former Josephine "Jo" Jenkins (1872-1956), whom he met as a Baylor student. The couple had three daughters,<ref name=papers/> one of whom was Jessie Truett James (1897-1961), who was the wife of Powhatan Wright James (1880-1956), a Baptist clergyman who among multiple assignments was at the time of his father-in-law's death in Dallas the president of Bethel College in Hendersonville, [[Kentucky]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://old.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=67497281|title=Powhatan Wright James|publisher=Oldfindagrave.com|accessdate=March 20, 2018}}</ref> Mrs. Truett lived another twelve years. The Truetts and the James are interred at the large Sparkman-Hillcrest Memorial Park Cemetery in Dallas.<ref name=findagrave>{{cite web|url=https://old.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=Truett&GSfn=George&GSbyrel=all&GSdy=1944&GSdyrel=in&GSst=46&GScntry=4&GSob=n&GRid=19945&df=all&
|title=Rev. George Washington Truett|publisher=old.findagrave.com|accessdate=March 20, 2018}}</ref>
In 1939, Powhatan James published the authorized [[biography]] of his father-in-law through Macmillian. Buildings named for Truett include the Truett Memorial First Baptist Church in Hayesville, North Carolina; the George W. Truett Theological Seminary at Baylor University, Truett-McConnell University in Cleveland Georgia, and the George W. Truett Elementary School in the Dallas Independent School District. [[Truett Cathy|Samuel Truett Cathy]], the late founder of the restaurant chain, [[Chick-fil-A]], is named for Truett.
In 1957, the actor Victor Jory portrayed Truett in the episode "Lone Star Preacher" of the syndicated [[television]] series, ''[[Crossroads (TV series)|Crossroads]]''. Barbara Eiler was cast as Jo Truett, who e died eleven months before the episode aired.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0550791/|title="Lone Star Preacher", March 15, 1957|publisher=Internet Movie Data Base|accessdate=June 14, 2013}}</ref>
==References==
{{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Truett, George]]
[[Category:Texas]]
[[Category:North Carolina]]
[[Category:Georgia]]
[[Category:Baptists]]
[[Category:Clergy]]
[[Category:American Authors]]
[[Category:Educators]]
[[Category:Conservatives]]
Created page with " {{Infobox person |name=George Washington Truett |image= |birth_date=May 6, 1867 |birth_place=Hayesville, Clay County<br> North Carolina |death_date=July 7, 1944 (aged 77..."
{{Infobox person
|name=George Washington Truett
|image=
|birth_date=May 6, 1867
|birth_place=Hayesville, Clay County<br>
[[North Carolina]]
|death_date=July 7, 1944 (aged 77)
|death_place=[[Dallas]], [[Texas]]
|religion=[[Southern Baptist]] [[clergy]]man<br>
Pastor, First Baptist Church of Dallas, 1897 to 1944<br>
President of Southern Baptist Convention, 1927 to 1929<br>
President of Baptist world Alliance, 1934-1939
|spouse=Josephine Jenkins "Jo" Truett (married 1894-1944, his death)<br>
Three daughters
|party=
}}
'''George Washington Truett''' (May 6, 1867 – July 7, 1944) was a [[Southern Baptist]] [[clergy]]man who was the [[pastor]] from 1897 until his death of the large First Baptist Church of [[Dallas]], [[Texas]]. He headed the [[Southern Baptist Convention]] from 1927 to 1929 and the Baptist World Alliance from 1934 to 1939.
==Background==
The seventh child of Charles Levi Truett (1830-1925) and the former Mary Rebecca Kimsey (1830-1911), Truett was born on a farm in Hayesville in Clay County in the western mountainous section of [[North Carolina]]. His grandfather and great-uncle were pastors, and one of his older brothers was named for the famous evangelist [[Charles Spurgeon]].<ref name=findagrave/> Truett graduated in 1885 from Hayesville Academy and taught school just over the state line in Towns County, [[Georgia]].<ref name=papers/> in 1886, at the age of nineteen, he underwent a conversion experience at a Christian revival meeting. He founded a subscription school at Hiawassee, also in Towns County,<ref name=handbook/> and planned to use some of his earnings to attend law school. However, he left his teaching position after two years in 1889 to relocate with his parents to Whitewright in Grayson County in north Texas. There he attended Grayson Junior College in Denison and was ordained to the ministry in 1890 at the Whitewright Baptist Church. Thereafter, he delivered his first sermon at the First Baptist Church in Sherman, Texas.<ref name=papers>{{cite web|url=https://baylorarchives.cuadra.com/cgi-bin/starfetch.exe?6Lq10ylvD@QQyDDq@2PL8cTY7urW2LPjwIqgTn.B6l6rJPhRXOZt3YPvmHrUyyXjoUZDXljLVdHzD2fLTqCk.rjCeX3F2Ut1FiS5Uj0BFP4/0001ar.xmltitle=George Washington Truett Papers|publisher=Baylorarchives.cuadra.com|accessdate=March 20, 2018}]</ref>
In 1891, Truett at twenty-four became the financial secretary for Baptist-affiliated [[Baylor University]] in [[Waco, Texas|Waco]], Texas, at which he raised $92,000, enough money to retire the university's debts at that time. He enrolled in 1893 as a freshman at Baylor, graduated in 1897, and was a student-pastor of the East Waco Baptist Church.<ref name=handbook/> He was a Baylor trustee from 1934 to 1939 and a fundraiser for Baylor Hospital in Dallas.<ref name=findagrave/>
==Career==
During his forty-seven years at First Baptist Dallas, membership ballooned from 715 to nearly 8,000, with total contribution exceeding $6 million. Three times growth required that the church be rebuilt.<ref name=papers/> The church for a time was the largest in the world.<ref name=handbook/>
During [[World War I]], [[U.S. President]] [[Woodrow Wilson]] dispatched Truett and nineteen other pastors to preach for six months to the Allied forces fighting the Central Powers.<ref name=papers/> Before Wilson's assignment, Truett had preached during the war at the noon hour at the Palace Theater in downtown Dallas for the convenience of workers, many of whom attended his sermons regardless of denomination.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.ncpedia.org/biography/truett-george-washington|title=Truett, George Washington|publisher=Ncpedia.org|date=1996|author=Henry S. Strope|accessdate=March 20, 2018}}</ref> For thirty-seven years, Truett preached for a month each summer to cowboys working the [[cattle]] drives in the Davis Mountains of West Texas.<ref name=handbook>{{cite web|url=https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/ftr16|title=Truett, George Washington|publisher=''The Handbook of Texas'' online|accessdate=March 20, 2018}}</ref>
On May 16, 1920, Truett delivered a sermon which received nation attention, "Baptists and Religious Liberty". He spoke on the [[U.S. Capitol]] steps in [[Washington, D.C.]], where presidents have been inaugurated and foreign dignitaries feted. He explained how the nation was established on the principles of religious freedom and separation of church and state. Some analysts referred to the address as advancing "Baptist democracy."<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uCbL2_ZDU60C&pg=PA129&lpg=PA129&dq=george+truett+southern+baptist+preacher+significant#v=onepage&q=george%20truett%20southern%20baptist%20preacher%20significant&f=false|title=A Baptist Democracy: Separating God and Caesar in the Land of the Free''|author=Lee Canipe|date=2011|publisher=Mercer University Press|location=Macon, [[Georgia]]|page=127-128|accessdate=March 20, 2018}}</ref> Presumably had Truett lived into the 1960s, he would have been shocked that the [[United States Supreme Court]] adopted [[liberal]] ideology to strike down [[prayer]] and Bible reading in public schools on the basis of "separation of church and state," for which Truett had argued in 1920.
Truett published ten volumes of sermons, two volumes of addresses, and two volumes of [[Christmas]] messages. Sixty-one of his sermons have been published in three volumes: ''We Would See Jesus'' (1915), ''A Quest for Souls'' (1917), and ''God's Call to America'' (1923). The three volumes have been consolidated into a single work, ''Follow Thou Me'' (1932). Truett considered the ministry the best way to "help human life to realize its true destiny". He believed that no earthly task was greater than that of the minister.<ref name=handbook/>
==Legacy==
In 1894, Truett wed the former Josephine "Jo" Jenkins (1872-1956), whom he met as a Baylor student. The couple had three daughters,<ref name=papers/> one of whom was Jessie Truett James (1897-1961), who was the wife of Powhatan Wright James (1880-1956), a Baptist clergyman who among multiple assignments was at the time of his father-in-law's death in Dallas the president of Bethel College in Hendersonville, [[Kentucky]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://old.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=67497281|title=Powhatan Wright James|publisher=Oldfindagrave.com|accessdate=March 20, 2018}}</ref> Mrs. Truett lived another twelve years. The Truetts and the James are interred at the large Sparkman-Hillcrest Memorial Park Cemetery in Dallas.<ref name=findagrave>{{cite web|url=https://old.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=Truett&GSfn=George&GSbyrel=all&GSdy=1944&GSdyrel=in&GSst=46&GScntry=4&GSob=n&GRid=19945&df=all&
|title=Rev. George Washington Truett|publisher=old.findagrave.com|accessdate=March 20, 2018}}</ref>
In 1939, Powhatan James published the authorized [[biography]] of his father-in-law through Macmillian. Buildings named for Truett include the Truett Memorial First Baptist Church in Hayesville, North Carolina; the George W. Truett Theological Seminary at Baylor University, Truett-McConnell University in Cleveland Georgia, and the George W. Truett Elementary School in the Dallas Independent School District. [[Truett Cathy|Samuel Truett Cathy]], the late founder of the restaurant chain, [[Chick-fil-A]], is named for Truett.
In 1957, the actor Victor Jory portrayed Truett in the episode "Lone Star Preacher" of the syndicated [[television]] series, ''[[Crossroads (TV series)|Crossroads]]''. Barbara Eiler was cast as Jo Truett, who e died eleven months before the episode aired.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0550791/|title="Lone Star Preacher", March 15, 1957|publisher=Internet Movie Data Base|accessdate=June 14, 2013}}</ref>
==References==
{{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Truett, George]]
[[Category:Texas]]
[[Category:North Carolina]]
[[Category:Georgia]]
[[Category:Baptists]]
[[Category:Clergy]]
[[Category:American Authors]]
[[Category:Educators]]
[[Category:Conservatives]]