Hickman Pioneer

I spend part of Tuesday in the Tennessee State Library and Archives. My focus was a newspaper published in Centerville called the Hickman Pioneer. It had some great stuff in it. For example. Parson Vandeveer has been an elusive figure inthe events leading up to the Massacre. He only appears in accounts written by Mormons. Even the Census does not list a minister by the last name of Vandeveer. But in the Pioneer I found a note on Lewis County date June 13 1884.

Elder J. H. Vandeveer preached on Indian Creek last Sunday.

No other text accompanies the note. Indian Creek is only five miles from Cane Creek.

Then in the Spetember 26th issue, I found a note indicating that the Mormons had been given until October 1st to leave the County or renounce their membership in the Church. By the October 17th issue only two Mormon families, the Winters and the Garretts, had yet left Lewis County. but that the rest appeared to be ready to do so shortly. By March 6th, 1885 a newsreport from Cane Creek included none of the names of known members of the Church.