How Rev. Thomas Hanks Genealogy Inspired a Novella

Reverend Thomas Hanks, a circuit-riding preacher obtained “the first conversion” on the west side of the Texas  Brazos River.

He first snuck into Texas when it was still a Mexican state.

He baptized, solemnized weddings, and preached to the English-speakers  possibly as early as 1820.

Rev. Thomas Hanks baptized a woman at Moses Shipman’s house one day and walked into history.

The Mexican government only recognized Catholicism; they tolerated no other faiths.

Most of the Americans, however, who moved to Texas (at the encouragement of Mexico) were not Catholic. They kept their faith to themselves, but they welcomed a man preaching from the Protestant Bible.

Particularly if they wanted to get married.

Despite the potential danger of being arrested if caught, Thomas Hanks married a number of couples–keeping track of who, when and where.

One day Thomas Hanks returned to remarry the illegal couples

When the United States assumed control of Mexico, the Baptist faith was legal.

Thomas Hanks, however, followed a different law. Now that Protestant marriage could occur, he needed to ensure the legality of those he married years before.

One woman, ten hard years into a challenging marriage heard him out when he offered to legally marry them.

She frowned and looked into the distance, finally agreeing:

“Well, okay, Daddy Hanks. I’ll do it just because it’s you that’s doing the asking. But if I’d known then what I know now, I’d never have married him.”

Do you see how that gave me insight into my ancestor–from whom the story came? An adventurer, not afraid to share the Gospel in an illegal situation, and probably with a sense of humor.

Inspiration

This story encouraged the fictional plot of “The Dogtrot Christmas.”

I imagine old Tom had to stay somewhere, so I gave him a relationship with a Tejano family. It provided a perfectly legitimate alibi.

It also provided the spiritual meat of the story.

Because “The Dogtrot Christmas” is a romance, I needed to find hooks to link the genealogy with my fictional story.

When Texas became a Republic, Thomas Hanks loaded up his family and some neighbors and brought them on a wagon train trip to the new promised land.

His youngest daughter, Cynthia “Syntha” Hanks Faires unfortunately died in childbirth along the way.

I invented a character: Molly Faires, a sister for Jamie.

In my story, she raises her baby nephew, deals with the Native Americans, and helps put together the dogtrot homestead.

She also enjoys Rev. Thomas Hanks’ preaching at a camp revival meeting and along the way falls in love with a native Tejano–fourth generation Spaniard on a land grant.

He just happened to be tutored by the Rev. Hanks during those spying-out-the-land-for-the-Gospel visits.

Because my fictional character Molly was an orphan, I was able to give her a connection to her brother’s in-laws that provides the heart of the story.

How did these people live out their spiritual lives on the frontier?

I took what I knew about circuit-riding and Hanks’ pioneer spirit and tailored it to the circumstances and beliefs of the people during that time.

It had to be true to the early 19th century, but the Word of God is eternal and profitable no matter when in history a believer lives.

Figuring out how people of faith related to their God was straight forward–and even easier when I found hymns sung at camp meetings!