By Ruth Ann Ruiz
The Post Newspaper Features Editor
Surprise and delight were expressed by everyone who gathered around the stained-glass window at Reedy Chapel on Saturday. Reverend Lernette Patterson was pleased to receive the window from Hal Newsom, who had found it on the side of a road.
Galveston’s Reedy Chapel, built in 1886, is an African Methodist Episcopal church also known as an A.M.E. church. Featured in the center of the stained-glass window is the Reverend Richard Allen, the founder of the A.M.E. denomination and first Bishop of the A.M.E. church.
Allen was born a slave in Philadelphia in 1780. At age 21 he purchased his freedom from his enslaver. Allen committed his life to religious leadership. He founded Mother Bethel A.M.E. Church in 1794, the first independent Black denomination in the United States.
Students from Texas A&M Galveston who signed up for the college’s annual volunteer event were on hand to help carry the window into the church and expressed their amazement at the glass and its beauty.
People gathered around the window and examined the rare qualities of the craftsmanship. One parishioner who has an understanding of stained glass noted that the Reverend’s face was painted onto the glass and that the Reverend’s name and title were carved into the glass around his likeness.
Another parishioner noticed there were no nails or nail holes in the window frame. Patterson explained it had been handmade with old-fashioned carpentry skills so that it fit perfectly together and had fit perfectly into the opening of a wall where it once must have been.
Hal Newsom, who has spent his lifetime catching and managing living critters such as alligators, snakes, and various breeds of wildcats and other wild animals, spied the stained-glass window along a road on the West end of Galveston.
“It was right on the side of the road along with some other items, and I knew that it had to be something important,” said Hal.
He lifted the heavy piece out of the pile of other discarded items and found temporary storage for the window in a friend’s garage. There it sat without any attention nor with any chance for it to be damaged.
Not only did he lift the window into his truck, but he also gathered the broken pieces of glass that lay nearby and stored those as well, delivering them with the window.
After storing it for a few years, Hal reached out to find a real home for the historic piece of art. Thanks to Newsom’s keen sense of what is rare and what should be treasured, the window has come home.
Where the window was originally installed or how it found its way to the West end of Galveston is a mystery. But the parishioners, pastor, and Aggie students were glad to see it find its home at Reedy Chapel in Galveston.
The window will undergo a thorough inspection with detailed repairs made by the church’s window expert, and then it will be decided where it will be displayed within the church.
