Finis Ewing Maddox (1870–1939)

The Reverend Finis Ewing Maddox was vice president of Maddox Seminary in Little Rock (Pulaski County), having helped his brother, the Reverend Alvin S. Maddox, to establish the institution. He also served as the first pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Texarkana (Miller County) and founded the First Congregational Church of Texarkana. While he was at the First Presbyterian Church, he was charged with heresy.

Finis Maddox was born on December 9, 1870, to Thomas Fredrick Maddox and Amanda Lee Nance Maddox in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. He was the seventh of ten children and grew up with a strong religious background. His grandfather was an elder of the Presbyterian Church. Maddox decided to study for the ministry in college and follow the path of his brother Alvin, who was two years older.

In 1890, Maddox spoke at two churches of Spring Hill, Tennessee, and was well accepted. He received his ministerial education and training at Southwestern Presbyterian University of Clarksville, Tennessee. In May 1894, he accepted a call to serve as pastor of the Presbyterian church. In 1896, he resigned from the Cleveland church and joined brother Alvin Maddox, who was then president of the Union Female College in Oxford, Mississippi. In 1898, yellow fever was raging in Mississippi, and the town of Oxford was quarantined late in the summer. The Maddox brothers moved to Little Rock and established Maddox Female Seminary with Alvin as president and Finis as vice president.

In 1905, Finis Maddox left the Maddox Seminary and answered a call to be the first pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Texarkana. The seminary closed the following year. In February 1908, he resigned from his position at First Presbyterian Church, to take effect May 1, to join brothers Alvin and Clarence Maddox in establishing a female college in the Cresent Hotel at Eureka Springs (Carroll County) to begin in the fall.

During the three years he was at First Presbyterian, he was very popular, and the church membership grew. Around the time he tendered his registration, he started preaching a series of ten sermons upon the subject of “Things Fundamental in Religion of the Passing of Medievalism in Religion.” In his sermons, he is said to have taken an advanced ground and announced his disbelief in some of the teachings of the Presbyterian standards. He said he believed in evolution and that he felt the Old Testament was too harsh and the text not inspired in all parts. The Daily Texarkanian newspaper printed copies of that week’s sermon each week. A very small group of members of the congregation protested to the Ouachita Presbytery regarding the content of those sermons. In June 1908, Finis Maddox was notified that he was to be indicted by the Ouachita Presbytery on the charge of teaching heretical doctrine.

The trial was held on July 14, 1908, in Hope (Hempstead County). Dr. J. C. Williams of De Queen (Sevier County) represented the Ouachita Presbytery and was the prosecutor. Maddox represented himself. Twenty leaders from Presbyterian churches connected to the Ouachita Presbytery were the jury. In the indictment, Maddox was accused of heretical and erroneous teachings of doctrines contrary to the Holy Scriptures as interpreted in and by the Standards of the Presbyterian Church in the United States.

The specific charges presented by Williams were that Maddox taught the following: the Holy Scriptures are only partially inspired and contain errors, the Scriptures give an inaccurate view of the character of God, salvation is not instantaneous but obtained by growth and self-sacrifice, and Christ in reality is a redeemer only by his place as a revealer. After those charges were presented, Maddox took the stand and spent almost three hours explaining his beliefs. He said he had been studying for a long time and had been reading the teachings of Jean Calvin. When he completed his defense, Williams took the stand, and he and the jury spent about forty-five minutes questioning Maddox. A crowd had gathered for the trial, and they clapped and cheered when Maddox spoke, hissing and groaning when Williams or the jury confronted Maddox.

Eighteen of the twenty jurors voted against Maddox on all charges. The penalty was that Maddox would lose all ministerial rights as far as the Presbyterian Church was concerned until he would denounce his beliefs. He had the right to appeal before the Presbytery Synod, but it did not meet until October. Newspapers all over the United States carried the news of the trial. The Daily Texarkanian published a book containing the ten disputed sermons and sold it for fifty cents a copy. Maddox delivered his last two additional sermons at First Presbyterian Church in the morning and evening of July 26, again preaching that the church had to awaken and develop itself on the lines of correct thought and right living or it would fail in its mission. Some 200 members said they were going to resign from First Presbyterian and wanted to form another church if Maddox would stay. The trustees of the Jewish synagogue offered the free use of their building.

Maddox stayed in Texarkana and began to establish a new church. He met with a council from the Congregational Church in Texarkana, Texas, in October 1908; they approved his general beliefs, and he was installed and ordained pastor of the First Congregational Church of Texarkana, Arkansas, with a membership of 220. Less than a year after first organizing, the congregation had built a church building. At its peak, there were about 600 members.

After thirty years of service as minister of First Congregational Church, Maddox resigned, and the members disbanded the church. Maddox died on April 17, 1939, from complications from an emergency operation for appendicitis. He is buried in Hillcrest Cemetery in Texarkana, Texas.

For additional information:
“Does Size Give Advantage.” Paris News (Paris, Texas), August 21, 1938, p. 6.

“Rev. Dr. Maddox Urges Modernism.” Arkansas Gazette, July 28, 1908, p. 2.

“Rev. F. E. Maddox Adjudged Guilty.” Mena Weekly Star, July 23, 1908, p. 3.

“Rev. F. E. Maddox Resigns.” Arkansas Gazette, February 14, 1908, p. 2.

“Rev. Finis Ewing Maddox.” Find a Grave. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/124902606/finis-ewing-maddox (accessed March 8, 2024).

Carolyn Yancey Kent
Jacksonville, Arkansas