Category Archives: Collection Spotlight

#tbt from ACU Special Collections: A minister writes his family, 1891

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Dallas minister Morrison Meade Davis wrote to his wife and daughter in Sedalia, Missouri on 28 August 1891.  In it he writes of the weather, of making pastoral visits, of his loneliness and of the family’s plans for further travel.  He mentions attending a prayer meeting at the Pearl and Bryan Church of Christ, which he describes as “for the head, not for the heart.”

The letter is one of several (along with many cabinet-card photographs belonging to Davis of Christian Church ministers) acquired by Joe Johnson in the 1990s.  The Davis photo and letter collection is one sub-set of Joe’s remarkable assemblage of Stone-Campbell books, periodicals, ephemera now housed in ACU’s Center for Restoration Studies. Right-click the images to open in a new tab or window; click here for an annotated transcription of this letter.

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Horace Coffman

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HCoffmanHorace Coffman was born on February 27, 1915, near Potosi, Texas. He attended Abilene High and then went on to earn his bachelor’s degree in religion and music from George Pepperdine College in Los Angeles. Coffman graduated in 1944. While he was there he met and became friends with M.

Norvel Young. While there he met and married Dott Forsythe in 1943. He worked for five different congregations throughout Southern California for seven years. In 1946 M. Norvel Young, who was now the Preaching Minister for the Broadway Church of Christ in Lubbock, Texas, wrote Coffman asking if he would be interested in the Associate Minister position there at the Broadway Church. Coffman accepted and he and Dott moved to Lubbock in October of 1946.

During his work at Broadway Coffman served under many different ministers. M. Norvel Young, Bill Banowsky, and Joe Barnett are only a few of the preachers and evangelists he assisted with the work in Lubbock. Horace was involved in all phases of the work at Broadway including counseling, personal work, visitation, benevolent case studies, Bible school teaching, funerals, weddings, and all music activities. The wedding chorus he organized in 1947 sang for over 60 weddings a year and about 70 funerals a year. He led many singing schools throughout Texas and other states at various churches and taught at every Lubbock Christian College music camp since its inception in 1957. He also appeared as a speaker at various lectureships and gospel meetings.

Coffman’s legacy at Broadway is one of a healer. The innumerable lives he touched and counseled through times of grief and pain as well as joy and life are a testimony to his work both in the church and in the city of Lubbock. He and Dott had three daughters and one son. They served the Broadway church until 1999, a total of 53 years of continuous service at one Church of Christ. This is the longest known relationship of a single minister with the same church in the Church of Christ fellowship.

Late in life Horace was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. He suffered with it for several years before finally passing away on December 8th. 2006. Joe Barnett performed the funeral Coffman is buried in Resthaven Cemetery in Lubbock, TX.

Horace Coffman Collection Finding Aid