Bio: George Samuel Sexton, D. D.; Middleburg, TN., then Caddo Parish, Louisiana Submitted by Mike Miller Date: 1999-2000 ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** George Samuel Sexton, D. D., president of Centenary College at Shreveport, has for some years been regarded as one of the ablest constructive leaders in religion and education in the South. As college president he has been doing for Centenary what has been conspicuously exemplified in former years in some of the large individual churches of the South, and for the cause of Methodism in general. Doctor Sexton was born at Middleburg, Tennessee, June 10, 1867, son of James R. and Mary J. (Justice) Sexton. As a youth he chose a career closely associated with the church, and his courage and initiative were tested in his efforts and struggles for an education. He finished his early studies in College in Arkansas, and was ordained a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in at the age of twenty-one. In 1910 the Kentucky Wesleyan University conferred upon him the degree Doctor of Divinity. Doctor Sexton has held many pastorates. Those of his earlier ministry were at Texarkana, Arkansas, from 1888 to 1892; St. Joe, Texas, in 1893; Henrietta, Texas, in 1894; Gainesville, 1895-96; Plano, 1897-99; and Terrell, 1900-01. In 1902-03 he was presiding elder of the Gainesville district. Doctor Sexton was called as a pastor to the church in Galveston for 1904-O8, and during 1906-09, was pastor of St. Paul's Church at Houston, Texas. He organized this as a mission church without membership, and in a few years made it one of the finest and largest congregations in the south. On June 1, 1909, Doctor Sexton was made assistant corresponding secretary for the Board of Church Extension, and at the general conference of the same year he was appointed executive secretary of the commission that was formed to carry out a notable project, the financing and building of the beautiful Representative and Memorial Church of Southern Methodism in Washington. To this great enterprise Doctor Sexton devoted most of his time and labors for ten years, with the remarkable success revealed in the completed church, finished in 1919 at a cost of half a million dollars. Doctor Sexton raised all the money, and personally acted as purchasing agent for all the marble, stone, woodwork and other material, securing it from manufacturers in the South at greatly reduced cost. This church is at the corner of Ninth and Massachusetts Avenue in Washington, and is one of the conspicuously beautiful structures in the capitol city, and remains a wonderful monument to the South and southern Methodism. Doctor Sexton for six years was pastor of the First Methodist Episcopal Church at Shreveport, and left that pastorage to give all his time to Centenary College, where he is carrying out a notable building program and the plan for the general enlargement of the scope and facilities of this splendid old institution of the South. Doctor Sexton was the leader of the delegation from the Texas Annual Conference to the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, at Ashville, North Carolina, in May, 1910. He is at present a member of the General Conference from Louisiana. He served as captain and chaplain in the Sixth Texas Infantry and later was chaplain of the First Texas United States Volunteers during the Spanish-American war. He is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason and was grand prelate of the Grand Commandery of the Knights Templar of Texas. Doctor Sexton married, August 30, 1893, Miss Sallie Gray Moseley of Jefferson, Texas. A History of Louisiana, (vol. 2), p. 204, by Henry E. Chambers. Published by The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, 1925.