Charles Robert Powell was a son and the oldest child of George Dietz Powell and Tennessee “Tennie” French of Henry County, Tennessee – born in August of 1877 in Kentucky. It seems the Powell family came to Texas by 1893, settling in Red River County. Tidie Powell, a daughter of George and Tennie, died in 1893 and is buried in the Bluff Cemetery at Bagwell in Red River County, Texas. In 1900 George and Tennie’s family, as well as the newly minted Charles Powell family, were all living in Justice Precinct 2 in that county.
Charles “Charlie” Powell married Joe Etta (Josephine) Vann on January 5, 1898 in Red River County, Texas. They had at least five children, but probably six.
- Oma Powell
(1898-1904)
- Jack Earl Powell
(1901-1988)
- Clarence Powell (1905-aft. Jan1920)
- Child Powell
(aft. May 1900-bef. May 1910)
- Mabel Powell
(1907-1923)
- Ruth Juanita
Powell (1910-1970)
In his valedictory in the Sword and Trowel, Charlie Powell says that he was “born into the Kingdom and called into the ministry in Texas sixteen years ago last August.”[i] His Christian and preaching life thus begins about 1896 in Texas. He further notes that at the end of the fourth year of ministry (circa 1900), he entered Baylor University. This was possibly in the fall of 1900.[ii] Later, being ostracized as a “church party” Baptist at Baylor, he left before completing his studies and took up the Landmark banner.[iii] Powell went to the First Baptist Church of Jefferson, Texas as pastor in 1904 upon the recommendation of S. A. Hayden, who had been a former pastor there.[iv] Powell left the church in Jefferson in 1905, going into evangelistic work. The Jimplecute discloses in January of that year, “Rev. C. R. Powell and family moved to Jacksonville this week.”[v] While in Jefferson, the Powells lost their little daughter Oma to typhoid fever August 11, 1904. She lies at rest in an unmarked grave in “Old Section L” at the Oakwood Cemetery at Jefferson, Marion County, Texas.[vi]
Powell’s foray into newspaper work began during his time at Jefferson. While at Jefferson, he bought half interest in the Baptist Echo, then owned by E. A. Puthuff and J. M. Newburn.[vii] He participated in organizing the General Association of Baptists in the United States of America in 1905. In this capacity, he later became editor of the Arkansas Baptist. The Arkansas Baptist had merged with the Baptist Flag after the death of J. N. Hall, then reestablished itself in April 1906, with W. R. Cross, president, and C. R. Powell, editor and business manager (recently come to Arkansas from Texas).[viii] “Powell was a good editor” but “In three years Powell became dissatisfied and the company [Baptist Publishing Company, rlv] accepted his resignation.”[ix] According to Powell, he was dissatisfied with the “bossiness” of W. R. Cross. About this time, Powell served as treasurer of the General Association and became editor of the Baptist Mission Bulletin.[x]
In Arkansas, C. R. Powell actively participated in the Anti-Saloon league. He was elected Field Secretary of the Arkansas Anti-Saloon League in 1909.[xi] That year he debated Socialist Colonel Dick Maple (a nom de plume of Robert Seth McCallen).[xii] He seems to have been a popular and respected minister and editor in the Landmark movement, as least up until 1912. When Powell started the Sword and Trowel, J. B. Sellman wrote, “The paper is the best I have seen in some time, and C. R. Powell is by far the best paper-man I know. It seems as though God had made him specially for newspaper work. He is wise in thought, bold in expression, and honest in purpose.”[xiii]
In late 1912, C. R. Powell became editor of the Sword and Trowel in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Western Publishing Company (of which Powell served as secretary and manager) owned and published the Sword and Trowel. It was conceived as a denominational and promotional organ of the Baptist Missionary Association of Oklahoma.[xiv] The BMA of Oklahoma churches associated with the Baptist Missionary Association of Texas and the General Association of Baptists in the United States of America (Landmark). The Sword and Trowel paper was a neat production of 16 pages (except what was possibly the last issue, having eight pages), but died an early death – spanning from its first issue in September until Powell resigned in December. In the December 19 issue, Powell uses nearly 4-1/2 pages of eight pages explaining that he has changed his alignments and has “fought my last battle for we have been calling Landmarkism.”
“My readers must
allow me to be tedious and lengthy in my last article in a Landmark Baptist
paper.”[xv]
He scores Landmark leaders Ben M. Bogard and J. A. Scarboro as assassins of character, liars who must rule or ruin, and says that the only thing the General Association leaders permit “is a fight on Conventions.”[xvi] While generally excoriating the behavior of leaders of the General Association, there was a specific and current problem. At the Association’s meeting at Bay Springs, Mississippi in December 912, Powell defended missionary I. N. Yohannan against what he perceived as abuse at the hands of Corresponding Secretary J. A. Scarboro.[xvii] Pitted against Bogard and Scarboro, Powell failed to accomplish his goal. He thereafter despaired of the “Landmark” work. Landmark leaders possessed strong convictions, and were passionate about them. In establishing these new associations, it was inevitable that these leaders would, like rams vying for dominance, butt heads. Powell does not indicate what he would do in the future, though he suggests he might look for a home among the Convention Baptists.[xviii] G. W. Crawford of Oklahoma describes the Sword and Trowel paper and its editor this way:
A paper was launched.
C. R. Powel was the editor of this paper and its name was “The Sword and Trowel.”
This paper was owned by a bunch of stockholders. I give a few names here of the stockholders of this paper: R. V. Thompson, Bob Thompson, C. R. Powell, Uriah Farthing and myself. There were others, but I do not have their names at hand. This was the breeziest paper I ever saw. It lived for awhile and then died. I will not mention the cause of its death, and its nature.
Poor Charley and the paper went down but we went right on with our work.[xix]
After his return to Arkansas from Oklahoma, Charlie Powell served on the board of trustees of the Anti-Saloon League in 1915.[xx] His name appears in the Little Rock, Arkansas city directories. He lived at 3206 Wright Ave through 1915. The 1916 city directory records “Powell, Rev Chas R moved to Halstead Ark.”[xxi] His life and stay in Halstead was brief. Dr. L. L. Marshall of Little Rock certified that he attended Powell from July 25 to August 4, 1916. On August 4, at 8:40 a.m. Friday morning, Charles Robert Powell lost a battle with “pernicious malaria” and succumbed in the sleep of death.[xxii] His remains were laid to rest in the Halstead Cemetery, Sunday, August 6, 1916. At the time of his death, Powell was a Mason, a member of the Magnolia Lodge F. & A. M.[xxiii]
It is not known where Charlie Powell was living when the 1880 census was taken, though probably still in Tennessee. He appears in the 1900 census at Justice Precinct 2 in Red River County, Texas, and the 1910 census at Brodie Township, Pulaski County, Arkansas. Each of these censuses lists him as a farmer, indicating that he labored as a bi-vocational minister. His death certificate gives his occupation as “Farming & Stock Dealer.” Probate records indicate at the time of his death Powell owned 5 hogs, 1 horse, 3 cows, 1 Jersey milk cow, and 10 goats.[xxiv]
Probably raised on a farm, Charlie Powell likely spent a lifetime with some relationship to farming. As a minister of the gospel, he gave approximately twenty years – 1896 to 1916. He spent most of it in the “Landmark movement.” These Baptist churches hoped to reform the denominational structure of the Southern Baptist Convention and its related state conventions. Those hopes dashed, they created their own organizations. The Baptist Missionary Association of Texas (1900). The State Association of Missionary Baptist Churches in Arkansas (1902). The General Association of Baptists in the United States of America (1905). The Baptist Missionary Association of Oklahoma (1912). Powell worked in all four of these Landmark bodies that were organized in his lifetime. He participated in organizing the General Association of Baptists at Texarkana in 1905. He remembers himself as the first person to point out the inconsistency of “supporting the Southern Baptist Convention while we fought the [Baptist] General Convention of Texas…I suggested a general association patterned after the B. M. A. of Texas.”[xxv] Powell became a prominent leader in the Landmark movement in the first decade of the 20th century. He labored in evangelism, editorial work, and denominational activities. He served as a financial agent for the Buckner College in Huntington, Arkansas.
At this time, it is not clear whether Powell pastored any other churches after leaving the church at Jefferson in 1904. After his fateful and vocal departure through the Sword and Trowel, he may have become something of “a man without a country.” Whatever transpired, his life was not spared long. The final years of his ministry are still somewhat shrouded in mystery. In the second decade of the 20th century, Charles Robert Powell ceased to be an influence among the Baptists – because of his conflict with Elders Bogard and Scarboro, and certainly because of his death. Almost any Landmark Baptist will know the name Ben M. Bogard. Few will recall C. R. Powell. Nevertheless, as with every servant “to his own master he standeth or falleth.”
And now at the least we know where C. R. Powell came from and where he went!
[ii] In June of 1900, the family lived in Justice Precinct 2, Red River County, Texas. 1900 U.S. Federal Census, Red River County, June 1, 1900, Dwelling 14, Family 14, Sheet 1.
[iii] In a letter to The Standard, November 7, 1903 (Vol. 51, No. 10, p. 13), Walter E. Tynes of Houston, Texas explains that the (white) regular missionary Baptists of Texas “are divided, not about their articles of faith or local church government, but about the proper administration of their associational or general denominational affairs, such as missions, education, care of old ministers, orphans, etc.” Tynes classified those divisions under three headings, the board party, the church party, and the Gospel Mission churches. His explanation of the difference between the board party and the church party is that the first held to board supremacy in denominational matters, while the church party held “the doctrine of church sovereignty over the convention.” (By the time of this writing by Tynes, the churches had already divided and operated in different denominational organizations.)
[iv] S. A. Hayden pastored First Baptist Jefferson approximately, 1878-1883.
[v] Jefferson Jimplecute (Jefferson, Texas) Saturday, January 6, 1905, p. 5.
[vi] Jefferson Jimplecute, August 13, 1904, p. 5. 140 Years Interment Data, Marion County, Texas, Annette Lemmon, et. al., 1987.
[vii] He apparently bought Newburn’s interest, since Puthuff remained as an owner and editor.
[viii] The Life and Works of Benjamin Marcus Bogard, Foreman and Payne, Little Rock, AR: Seminary Press, 1966, p. 202; Western Christian Advocate, Wednesday, April 18, 1906, p. 3.
[ix] Life and Works of Bogard, p. 202.
[x] Baptist and Reflector, Thursday, June 24, 1909, p. 9.
[xi] The Arkansas Democrat, Saturday, April 17, 1909, p. 3. This article describes him as former editor of the Baptist Advance, which is incorrect. It was the Arkansas Baptist, as we note above.
[xii] Baptist and Reflector, March 4, 1909, p. 12; The Daily Arkansas Democrat, June 10, 1909, p. 9.
[xiii] “From J. B. Sellman,” Sword and Trowel, Thursday, September 26, 1912, p. 10.
[xiv] See, for example, Sword and Trowel, Thursday, September 26, 1912, p. 9.
[xv] “Powell Quits and Explains,” Sword and Trowel, December 19, 1912, p. 1.
[xvi] “All Landmarkers are not mean as the leaders whose names I have mentioned.” Sword and Trowel, December 19, 1912, p. 4.
[xvii] Sword and Trowel, December 19, 1912, pp. 3-4. Powell had previously written, “If Bro. Scarboro is guilty of trying to boss Yohannon there are those in the Baptist General Association who will take care of the matter and avenge the missionary…” Sword and Trowel, October 31, 1912, p. 1.
[xviii] Incidentally, his signature at the end of the article gives his location as “Little Rock, Ark.” not Oklahoma City as in the masthead. One of the stockholders wrote, “Bro. Powell has taken no advantage of us in any way, and the above statement goes in with my permission and regrets.” “A Statement,” Uriah Farthing, Sword and Trowel, p. 5.
[xix] My Fifty Years of Gospel Ministry: an Autobiography, G. W. Crawford. Riverbank, CA: Missionary Baptist Press, 1949, pp. 18-19.
[xx] The Arkansas Gazette, Wednesday, January 20, 1915, p. 10.
[xxi] Little Rock and Argenta City Directory, Vol. XIV, 1916, Polk’s Southern Directory Co., Pubs. (available on Ancestry.com)
[xxii] https://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/pernicious+malaria
[xxiii] “The Rev. Charles R. Powell,” Arkansas Democrat, Saturday, August 5, 1916, p. 3.
[xxiv] Arkansas probate records at Ancestry.com. [Jersey milk cow is my interpretation of what appears to be “Jearsey Mail, rlv.]
[xxv] “Powell Quits and Explains,” Sword and Trowel, December 19, 1912, p. 1.
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