Plan of Jasper Circuit, East Texas Annual Conference

Plan of Jasper Circuit, East Texas Annual Conference, 1852.

Rev. James Walker Shipman came to Texas from Arkansas in 1850. After serving two years in the East Texas Conference, Shipman located (left the itinerant ministry). Before leaving his appointment Shipman constructed this document outlining how his successor, Rev. John C. Woolam, could cover the Jasper Circuit’s seventeen preaching points in three weeks. The circuit plan also provides the names of local preachers, exhorters, stewards, and class leaders, along with personal advice such as, “If I were Circuit Preacher in this circuit this year, I would locate my family in Burkville or vicinity.” 

Rev. Shipman later ministered in the Texas Conference from 1855 to 1865. His final appointment was as pastor of the Galveston “colored” mission.