Historically Significant BMAT Item Discovered at TBHC

By EMILY SIMPSON
Baptist Progress Editor

​Treasure has a habit of being lost to time. Stories tell us that buried gold, silver and jewels require a pirate map to be found. Lost art requires a curator to assess its worth. To quote master storyteller J.R.R. Tolkien, “some things that should not have been forgotten were lost.” As was the case for a small wooden artifact, found in a box, in a closet, at Texas Baptist Hope for Children.
 
On an average day just like any other, TBHC President Jason Curry was digging through a closet when he unearthed an aged, musty, walnut colored gavel. “I found it in a box, and it had a piece of paper that said original gravel,” Curry described. In detail, the note read “The original gavel used by the Baptist Missionary Association of Texas. 1900 – 1957. Retired from active service November 12, 1957.” 
 
The discovery prompted curiosity and research from the Baptist Progress. What was this gavel’s story? Fortunately for us, we were not the only ones concerned with preserving this piece of history. More than a hundred years ago, the officers of the 1922 BMA of Texas thought the very same. 

The Liberty Elm gavel, crafted from a tree in Nacogdoches

Rev. J.M. Newburn—President of the BMA and editor of the Baptist Progress 1926

​Minutes from the 1922 state meeting contained another part of the treasure: a letter from the gavel giver himself. A Mr. J.W. Cariker from Cushing presented the gavel to the moderator of the BMAT meeting that year Nov. 14, 1922. This note alone proved that the dates listed on the paper found at TBHC were incorrect, however those details do not disrupt the story. What Cariker described in his letter was nothing short of inspirational. Religious freedom, patriotism, brotherhood were all elegantly described topics of interest. Yet on top of them all was Cariker’s claim of the historical events that occurred under the tree the gavel was crafted from. According to Cariker, the gavel’s origins were found in an old elm tree planted on “the limits of Nacogdoches”, affectionately known as the “Liberty Elm.” Tradition tells us that under this tree grand Texas heroes stood like Sam Houston and General Thomas J. Rusk who in 1836 “delivered addresses to the people urging them to throw off the yoke of Mexican tyranny” during the thick of the Texas Revolution. In 1860 tradition also claims Robert E. Lee (who was with the US Army at the time) addressed crowds who gathered, and the first gospel sermon ever preached “upon the sacred and loved soil of Texas was delivered by a Presbyterian minister beneath this old elm”. And with figures such as those, our own BMAT ministers of the 1800-1900s would have preached under the same tree. 
 
Cariker went on to explain that the tree fell due to disease in 1908. In 1922, Cariker described how honored he was “in presenting this gavel to you [Brother Moderator] and your successors to use as the presiding officer of this body from time to time.” That “Brother Moderator”, the minutes tell us, was none other than John Madison “J.M.” Newburn. Reelected as president/moderator literally moments before J.W. Cariker presented the gavel, Newburn had the forethought to request Cariker’s letter be preserved in the minutes.
 
Unless you are a BMAT historian or live in Jacksonville, J.M. Newburn may be an unfamiliar name. However, Newburn was anything but unknown in 1922. He could very well be considered one of the men who built the BMAT. Newburn served as BMAT President for seven years, he pastored First, Jacksonville for 26 years and he functioned as corresponding secretary-treasurer for four years. He served on the Missions board from the beginning and was its Chairman several times. He helped establish Jacksonville College (then Jacksonville Baptist College) and was the editor of the Baptist Progress. J.M. Newburn seemed to have his hand in every type of ministry within the BMAT. When Newburn passed away in 1926, only a few short years after Mr. Cariker handed him the gavel, his death was greatly felt in the association. “I know of no person that had a more kindly disposition than J.M. Newburn. No one can be more greatly missed in our State Association, the death of no minister more deeply felt throughout East Texas, and no citizen mourned in his own town than that of J.M. Newburn” W.T. Bratton, Baptist Progress Dec. 2, 1926, issue. “As a pulpitter he had no superior and few equals. He was as sound in doctrine and as brave in the defense of the truth as Paul” D.C. Dove (Progress Editor before Newburn) Baptist Progress Dec. 2, 1926, issue. 

Newburn-Rawlinson House at Jacksonville College. J.M. Newburn still contributes to the BMA as his home is the library for students attending today.

J.W. Cariker’s letter to the BMAT Moderator in 1922

​Much more could be said about J.M. Newburn. He was well documented as a faithful servant to the work of God and the BMA as well as a friend to all who knew him. In fact, apart from his notability he was not unknown to J.W. Cariker in another way. Not much is known about Cariker, except minutes from the Mt. Zion Association (the local association Cushing churches participated in before its present-day Landmark Association) show that his family was very active in their local association. Year after year various Cariker family members are documented as a messenger. Especially interesting, a Mrs. Robbie A Carriker married William Curtis “W.C.” Newburn, pastor of the church at Cushing and brother to J.M. Newburn himself. When J.M. passed, it was his brother W.C. who was appointed to preach the annual sermon at the state meeting that year, a message that must have been bittersweet. So, when Cariker presented the cherished Liberty Elm gavel to Brother Moderator J.M. Newburn, he was handing the gavel to a truly beloved friend.

President Michael Pool holds the Liberty Elm gavel at the 125th celebration of the BMA of Texas State meeting in Nov. 2025

Newburn-Rawlison House historical marker

How blessed we are to have that gavel still with us today. The history it contains telling the story of Texas history, BMA work, people and relations that are not unlike ours today. For every clerk or secretary writing down the minutes year after year, take encouragement from this article. The details you write may be the key to discovering more hidden BMA treasure another 100 years from now.
 
To conclude with the words of J.W. Cariker: “May the same spirit which so often manifested itself under the shades of the branches of the Liberty Elm, rule and reign in the hearts and lives of the brotherhood. And, as we are called to order with it, may it be in the spirit of our risen Lord and as a reminder of our heroic patriots who are now resting from their labors.”
If you're interested in reading the J.W. Cariker letter, feel free to email us at [email protected]

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