0.13 3.3 the administration of fannie b. davis, 1880-95  (Page 5/6)

Once the convention-wide WMU was firmly established, its leadership provided valuable information on methods and procedures for each state organization. Culling successful ideas from various states and sharpening them with administrative acumen was the primary work of Annie Armstrong, corresponding secretary of WMU-SBC from 1888-1906. The presidents, Martha McIntosh (1888-92) and Fannie E. S. Heck (1892-94, 1895-99, 1906-15), were skilled in persuasion and public relations, as well as administration. By the 1890s both officers generally gave or sent messages to state women's gatherings. While their messages began on an inspirational note, they also included examples of reports, plans for collecting those reports, suggestions for study topics, and financial statements from mission and educational boards. Texas women adopted many of the suggestions, such as "prayer cards" (a monthly reminder to pray for a specific evangelistic effort), "mite boxes," special collections during the Christmas season, and an annual "week of prayer."

In 1887 the Texas BWMW named an executive board, consisting of the four general officers and five district vice-presidents, to give Fannie B. Davis administrative help. The effectiveness of designating responsibility and electing an energetic corresponding secretary, Minnie Slaughter, Miss Slaughter was the daughter of C. C. Slaughter, the wealthy cattleman who was benefactor to many Texas Baptist causes. nearly tripled annual contributions in one year (from $3,298.99 to $9,700.38), but that leap was not as significant as the one that was recorded between 1889 and 1890 ($4,728.38 to $17,394.11). The crucial difference in that advance was the appointment of Mina Everett as a salaried field worker for missions, jointly supported by the SBC Foreign and Home Mission Boards and Texas's State Mission Board.

In contrast to Fannie Davis, Mina Everett was unmarried and had been reared as a "skeptic." She experienced a radical conversion as an adult while visiting an aunt in Dublin, Texas. In 1885 she travelled with a group to Monterey, Mexico, for the dedication of a church building and was so inspired by the occasion that she sacrificed several personal items in order to send a missionary to Mexico. When General A. T. Hawthorne, the foreign mission agent for Texas, heard of her sacrificial offering, he wrote to her suggesting that she be that missionary. She consented, but the appointment was changed and she went to Brazil instead. Carroll, pp. 859-62. J. M. Carroll was one of those who travelled to Mexico with Miss Everett; he also preached the farewell sermon when she departed for Brazil.

Unfortunately Miss Everett contacted both yellow fever and beriberi while in Brazil and had to return to Texas, but she found it difficult to relinquish her religious vocation. At the request of Hawthorne she made a "missionary tour" limited to "house-to-house visits and addresses to women's meetings," and she worked among the Mexicans in San Antonio. There she confessed to Fannie Davis her desire to be employed full-time as a mission organizer. Their correspondence with the SBC boards and friendship with Texas Baptist officers resulted in her appointment at $75 a month (she insisted they reduce it to $50 lest she evoke criticism that salary was her motive). Mrs. W. J. J. Smith, p. 42.