Elijah Leroy Shettles (1852-1940), Methodist minister, magazine editor, publisher, and bibliographer was born in 1852 in the Flatwoods country of Mississippi near Pontotoc, the son of Abner and Caroline (Browning) Shettles. His maternal grandfather, the family patriarch, was a Baptist minister and had a lifelong influence on Shettles. During his eighty-eight years Shettles worked as a teacher, a farm-implement salesman, a law student, a pressman for a newspaper, a freight agent, a public weigher, a coal supplier, a gambler, a saloonkeeper, an insurance solicitor, a preacher, a church administrator, an editor, a book collector and dealer, and a representative of several university and public libraries. He was also a chaplain of the Texas Senate, a publisher of books, and a humanitarian.
From 1881 to 1891 he traveled the Southwest as a hard-drinking, cheating, itinerate gambler, who frequently stopped long enough in a town to operate a gambling hall and saloon: most of these years he spent in Texas. Shettles responded to a revival preacher on April 27, 1891 and soon after felt a calling to the Methodist ministry. Shettles's ministerial career, all of it in Texas, spanned over thirty years. Always a devoted bibliophile, he revealed much of his secular reading in his early sermons. He became an accomplished preacher and in 1908 became assistant editor of the
In the 1930s Shettles wrote his autobiography, which was published in several forms. Part of it appeared as articles in the
Source:
The collection contains one small box (4 folders). The bulk of the collection is correspondence pertaining to the founding of Southern Methodist University. The letters in the collection were assembled by E.L. Shettles in an effort to prove that Nathan Powell was responsible for the founding of SMU.
Correspondents include:
Rev. John R. Allen
Dorothy Amann
John Atkinson
Rev. J. Sam Barcus
L. S. Barton
Rev. B. R. Bolton
H. A. Boaz
W. D. Bradfield
Wallace M. Crutchfield
George W. Davis
W. C. Everett
Rev. Glenn Flinn
G.G. Gray
Rev. John W. Goodwin
Paul Hardin, Jr.
Bishop Hurst
C.M. Harless
J. Kilgore
Rev. J. T. McClure
Dr. J. O. McReynolds
F. L. McNeny
Mrs. Margaret McKennon
J. L. Massey
J. M. Moore
Edwin D. Mouzon
Robert Gibbs Mood
W. C. Martin
Rev. A. D. Porter
Nathan Powell
Frank Reedy
T. F. Sessions
E. W. Solomon
S. M. Sewell
S. W. Thomas
D. W. Wesley
W. Erskine Williams
Dr. G. W. Wiebusch
V. M. West
Rev. A. A. Wagnon
The first series, Correspondence (1913-1936, undated), contains Shettles's personal correspondence. The majority of the letters were produced while Shettles was writing his autobiography in the 1930s. They concern the events leading up to the decision to move Southwestern University to either Dallas or Fort Worth. There are also a few letters between Shettles and the SMU bursar, Frank Reedy, regarding money owed. The series is arranged in chronological order.
The second series, Research (1896-1935, undated), is composed of the materials Shettles gathered while researching the founding of SMU. Although Shettles collected the materials in the 1930s, much of the series originated between 1909 and 1911. Shettles received the bulk of this material from Nathan Powell. The majority of it is correspondence from those most closely associated with the project to move Southwestern University from Georgetown to the Dallas/Fort Worth area. Also included is correspondence between Powell and Hann & Kendall, Inc., a real estate firm, related to the purchase of land in Dallas. There are also three newspaper articles, as well as extracts from the minutes from the Board of Trustees at Southwestern University, 1910. The series is organized in chronological order.
The collection is organized into 2 series:
For additional material pertaining to Elijah L. Shettles, see:
Reminiscences of an old man, 1935-1936 (SMU 2006.0028)
For additional material related to the founding of SMU, see:
Southern Methodist University origins and history collection (SMU 2006.0378)
Collection is open for research use.
Permission to publish materials must be obtained from the Director of the DeGolyer Library.
It is the responsibility of the user to obtain copyright authorization.
This collection is indexed under the following terms in the Southern Methodist University Libraries' online catalog. Researchers desiring related materials may search the catalog using these terms.
Elijah L. Shettles papers on the founding of Southern Methodist University, Southern Methodist University Archives, DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University.
Acquired.
Initially processed June 1991. Records were re-arranged and paper clips removed in September 2009.
Allison Osborn, 2009.
Lara Corazalla, 2009.
This series contains correspondence between E. L. Shettles and members of the Methodist community. It includes Shettles's requests for information regarding the events leading up to the formation of Southern Methodist University and his correspondents' replies.
This series contains correspondence written mostly between 1909 and 1911 concerning the debate to move Southwestern University to Dallas or Ft. Worth. There is also one letter from 1896 and a few letters from 1912-1935. Minutes from the Southwestern Board of Trustees and 3 newspaper articles related to the formation of SMU are also included.