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Actually, women in Texas had never ceased to be physically active. Rural women helped with crops and livestock, both of which demanded outdoor exertion beyond their household tasks. Well into the twentieth century, even those who lived in towns often kept a garden, a cow, and some chickens on their "city lot." Annie Jenkins Sallee's family lived in town (Waco) and were middle-class, but after taking her absent mother's place at home, she wrote,
"I kept house and I verily believe I never did so much work in all my life. Housecleaning, cooking, feeding the "Billy," feeding the rabbits, gathering eggs and general errand boy (rather girl)."Annie Jenkins Sallee, Diary, entry dated July 21, 1897. Jenkins-Sallee Papers, Texas Collection, Baylor University, Waco, Texas. During childhood farm girls did most of the same chores boys did--chopping and picking cotton and milking cows--and girls routinely participated in active outdoor sports like swimming, horseback riding, climbing trees, and riding a "wheel" when it came in vogue.
Personal interviews with Mrs. Hollis Manly in Abilene, Texas, February 26, 1975; Mrs. A. R. Holten in Abilene, Texas, February 27, 1975; Hallie Jenkins Singleton in Waco, Texas, February 4, 1976. All these women grew up around the turn of the century in Granbury, Huckaby, and Waco, Texas, respectively. Also see BS , September 30, 1897, and Annie Jenkins Sallee, Diary, entry dated July 10, 1897.
"Playing football was the limit because boys put hands on me and knocked me down,"explained Hallie Jenkins Singleton of Waco, but she did so many other things boys did she wanted her mother to let her wear pants
"the worst way."Interview with Hallie J. Singleton, February 4, 1976, Waco, Texas.
Contrary to myth and fashion, Texas Baptist women never ceased to be competent and intelligent as well as physically active. Annie Sallee praised her sister Josephine Truett for being
so calm and capable. . .everyone felt comfortable just to have her there.Sallee, Diary, February 27, 1928, at her mother's last illness. In the 1890s Elli Moore was singled out in a complimentary sketch because
she was a great manager, especially in times of emergency. . .persistent in carrying out her plans and wishes and. . .very independent. . .generally preferring to wait on herself.
BS , July 11, 1895, p. 7.
My mother wanted us to be independent,claimed Georgia Smith, born in 1890 to Rochelle Robinson, the daughter of Fannie Breedlove Davis, first president of Texas Baptist women's mission organization. Personal interview with Georgia Robinson Smith in Austin, Texas, May 19, 1980. >
Quite the opposite of upholding contrived sweetness or silence, Baptists described insight and direct speech as virtues. "Aunt Sallie" Malone, considered nearly a saint by Baptist Standard editor James B. Cranfill, was nonetheless
"frank and outspoken, sometimes even blunt. . .If she discovered that a man is a fraud and a hypocrite, he is sure to soon find out that she knows him for what he is worth."
BS , August 28, 1902, p. 6.
"Miss Bell" Grover was another Baptist woman with"a faculty of keen discrimination,"who shot
"[verbal] arrows that hit the mark, bringing down the game."
BS , May 28, 1903, p. 7.
Aiming at the same commonsensical model for his daughter, Annie Sallee's father advised:"Curb your 'sentimentality'--hold a severe check on it."W. H. Jenkins to Annie Jenkins, March 20, 1899. Jenkins-Sallee Papers, Texas Collection, Baylor University, Waco, Texas.
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