RECTOR, ARTHUR EVERETT (1855-1955). Arthur Everett Rector, Methodist circuit rider, son of Nelson Simpkins and Harriet Caroline (Kirk) Rector, was born at Kendalia, Texas, on April 25, 1855. When he was a young child his family moved to a farm near the site of present-day Manor to escape the danger of Indian attacks, and in 1866 they moved to Austin. In 1875-76 Rector attended Texas Military Institute, Austin,^qv where he finished first in his class. After graduating he taught at Belton Collegiate Institute and soon was elevated to principal. In 1877 he spent a year studying at the University of Heidelberg, Germany. Rector had a religious conversion in 1871, during a large camp meeting just north of Austin. A breakdown in his health in 1877 left him an invalid for the next six years. During this illness he felt a call to the ministry. He entered the West Texas Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, as a minister in 1883. His career included various duties and transfers to many different places. He was pastor of a congregation in Boerne and then of First Methodist Church, San Angelo, 1886-90; in San Antonio from 1890 to 1896 he worked toward establishing a church at the new West End addition. From 1896 to 1912 he served with the German Mission Conference, first in Houston and then as district superintendent at Fredericksburg. From 1909 to 1912 he supervised the Methodist Immigrant Bureau in Galveston. In 1912 he returned to the West Texas Conference as Sunday school field secretary and then pastor at Pharr and Hallettsville. He was transferred to the Kerrville District and spent a year at Hyde Park Methodist Church, Austin, then two years at Harlandale in San Antonio. A final year of teaching at Texas Wesleyan Institute brought his active ministry to a close in 1929. On his 100th birthday he received tributes from Judge M. A. Childers, president of the Judicial Council of the Methodist Church, from representatives of the Baptist Church, the Boy Scouts, Travis Park Church, and others. Rector married Emma Donaldson of Shavano (now Shavano Park), Texas, on November 14, 1888, in San Antonio. They had four children. Rector died on July 23, 1955, at his home in San Antonio and was buried in the Masonic Cemetery.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Olin W. Nail, Southwest Texas Conference of the Methodist Church (Austin: Methodist Planning Committee, 1956). Macum Phelan, History of Early Methodism in Texas, 1817-1866 (Nashville: Cokesbury, 1924). Macum Phelan, A History of the Expansion of Methodism in Texas, 1867-1902 (Dallas: Mathis, Van Nort, 1937). Levi Brimner Salmans, History of the Descendants of John Jacob Rector (Guanajuato, Mexico, 1936; photostat, Texas State Library Genealogy Collection, Austin). San Antonio Express, April 25, 1955. Sunday San Antonio Express and San Antonio News, July 24, 1955. Yearbook and Minutes of the Southwest Texas Annual Conference, Methodist Church, 1956.

Nonie Green