The plaque honoring W. W. "Spurgeon" Harris, the first pastor of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, is located on the northeast corner of the Spurgeon Harris building acorss the street from the 1890 First baptist sanctuary and the 2013 Worship Center.
The plaque reads as follows:
"SPURGEON HARRIS BUILDING
In Honor of
W. W. “Spurgeon” Harris
First Pastor
of
First Baptist Church
Dallas 1868-1869
Mighty Gospel Preacher
Missionary - Evangelist"
More on Spurgeon Harris from the First Baptist history website: (
visit link)
"W. W. "SPURGEON" HARRIS
William W. Harris was born in Russell County, Kentucky in 1836 to Thoedore Moses Harris, Jr. and Margaret Ann (Mary) Jasper. According to census records, he had moved to Missouri with his family by 1850. By the time he was 17, the elder Harris had died and an uncle moved the family to Texas. Early writers state that he joined Bear Creek Baptist Church in Tarrant County and was licensed to preach at the age of 17.
When Harris was 21, a local Baptist association raised the money to send him to Baylor University, then located down in Independence, Washington County, Texas. By all accounts, the young Harris never graduated, but began to preach in South Texas. Dr. Criswell states that Harris began to be known as "Spurgeon" after the British minister and evangelist, Charles H. Spurgeon, after preaching a commencement sermon entitled: “The Knowledge of Jesus: The Most Excellent of All Sciences.”
The famed minister and educator B. H. Carroll, the son of a self-educated Baptist minister, relates that he was led to salvation in Christ at an 1865 camp meeting led by Harris, a former fellow Baylor classmate. Carroll was then a young Civil War veteran, who during the war had been abandoned by and divorced from his unfaithful wife, was home recovering from his war injuries. He considered himself to be a nonbeliever in God and Christ and, by his own admission, an infidel. Carroll's father had died believing that Carroll was lost, but his mother had begged him to attend a Methodist camp meeting near their farm in Caldwell, Texas.
Carroll wrote "I had not an atom of interest in it. I liked the singing, but the preaching did not touch me. But one day, I shall never forget. It was Sunday at 11 o’clock. The great, wooden shed was crowded. I stood on the outskirts, leaning on my crutches, wearily and somewhat scornfully enduring. The preacher [Harris] made a failure even for him. There was nothing in his sermon. But when he came down, as I supposed to exhort as usual, he startled me not only by not exhorting, but by asking some questions that seemed meant for me. He said: “You that stand aloof from Christianity and scorn as simple folks, what have you got? Answer honestly before God, have you found anything worth having where you are?” My heart answered in a moment: “Nothing under the whole heaven; absolutely nothing.” As if he had heard my unspoken answer, he continued: “Is there anything else out there worth trying, that has any promise in it?” Again my heart answered: “Nothing; absolutely nothing. I have been to the jumping-off place on all these roads. They all lead to a bottomless abyss.” Well, then, he continued, “admitting there’s nothing there, if there be a God, mustn’t there be a something somewhere? If so, do you know it is not here? Are you willing to test it? Have you the fairness and courage to try it? I don’t ask you to read any book, nor study any evidences, nor make any difficult and tedious pilgrimages; that way is too long and time is too short. Are you willing to try it now; to make a practical, experimental test, you to be the judge of the result?” These cool, calm, and pertinent questions hit me with tremendous force, but I didn’t understand the test.
Harris continued: “I base my test on these two scriptures: ‘If any man willeth to do his will, he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God;’ ‘Then shall we know if we follow on to know the Lord.’” For the first time I understood the import of these scriptures. I had never before heard of such a translation for the first and had never examined the original text. In our version it says: “If any man will do the will of God.” But the preacher quoted it : “Whosoever willeth to do the will of God,” showing that the knowledge as to whether the doctrine was of God depended not upon external action and not upon exact conformity with God’s will, but upon the internal disposition — “whosoever willeth or wishes to do God’s will.” The old translation seemed to make knowledge impossible; the new, practicable. In the second scripture was also new light: “Then shall we know if we follow on to know the Lord,” which means that true knowledge follows persistence in the prosecution of it — that is, it comes not to temporary and spasmodic investigation." He went forward, expecting to be overwhelmed by a change, but still felt nothing. However, Carroll remained in the shed following the official conclusion of the service.
Carroll concluded: "Suddenly there flashed upon my mind, like a light from heaven, this scripture: “Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” I did not see Jesus with my eye, but I seemed to see him standing before me, looking reproachfully and tenderly and pleadingly, seeming to rebuke me for having gone to all other sources for rest but the right one, and now inviting me to come to him. In a moment I went, once and forever, casting myself unreservedly and for all time at Christ’s feet, and in a moment the rest came, indescribable and unspeakable, and it has remained from that day until now."
Dr. Criswell related that three years later, in July of 1868, the young preacher Harris came to Dallas to hold a two week revival meeting. At the conclusion of the service in which one person was saved, ten people came together by letter to form the First Baptist Church of Dallas. Harris remained for two years as pastor and then left, without formally resigning, to resume his career as a traveling preacher.
Dr. Criswell continued that Harris was down in the Del Rio area, staying at the home of friends and had contracted tuberculosis. Harris died at the age of 44 on August 21, 1880. It is though that he had once been engaged to marry, but that he had never married, so he had no descendants. He is believed to be buried in an unmarked grave at Camp San Felipe across the river from Del Rio. Dr. Criswell concluded his remarks saying that he had personally asked someone by the name of L. H. Tapscott to go to South Texas so that the church could build a monument in Harris' honor, but Tapscott was unable to locate a grave. So ended the career of the first pastor of First Baptist Church.
Sources:
Dr Criswell sermon transcript from the evening of 9/3/86:
(
visit link)
Ancestry.com (subscription required):
(
visit link)
(
visit link)
B. H. Carroll's salvation experience:
(
visit link)