My Secret Fear

I was speaking with my father a couple weeks ago about my secret fear. I guess it isn't much of a secret anymore. I'm afraid that someday, some archivist will decide my desire for some manuscript is not valid and deny me access. I was telling my father that when I was at BYU special collections I had to justify my need for the papers I wanted to see. I explained I was working on a paper I am hoping to submit to a MHA Conference. That seemed to do the trick. The person who interviewed me actually read that line out loud when she was reviewing my application. So I know that line was important enough for her to read it. I haven't denied access yet, but during that conversation I learned it has happened to my father.

My father went to the University of Utah in the early 1950's. At the time he was an engineering student and he heard about a Brigham Young quote about building the SLC temple out of adobe bricks. Based on reports from members of the Mormon Battalion about adobe buildings in southern California, Brigham Young had been led to believe that adobe gets harder with age, until it is as hard as rock.

My father had traced the source to a letter Brigham Young had written and he wanted to see the letter for an engineering paper. The letter was in the U of U special collections, so he asked to see it. "No" he was told. His need was not legitimate. My father's take on it was that it didn't portray BY in the best light, so a lowly undergrad wasn't going to get it.

I can't speak to my father's explanation, but apparently my secret fear is not all that outlandish. Maybe I get it from my dad.

Hand Drawn Maps

One of the finds in the John H Gibbs papers is a collection of hand drawn maps. I requested copies of two. I can't really reproduce them here. I haven't secured permission to do so.

One of them is easy to read. It marks a trail from "Milam", on "B.Dam" [Beaver Dam Creek] along the "Brushy Fork" of Beaver Dam Creek, by "David Henson's" house and field, across an unnamed creek, then between a "Bacon Shed" and a building belonging to "Old Man Henson", up a "steep hill" for "3/4 mile" to a building identified only as "B.S.S." and then down "slippery" creek to Cane Creek. These are places I know. I've driven part of this route. But there are other notes on the map I may never figure out. At the top of the steep hill is a note to "take left". At that spot his trail crosses a straight line noted only by the initials "S. P."

The other map is from another direction. It tells how to get to Tom Garrett's house using a path that runs by the John Carroll's house. The handwriting is practically illegible. But I can make out certain notes like "keep all right hand [illegible] after you leave old field", "Ridge Road" and a building labeled as a school. This one will take more time to figure out.

West Tennessee Baptism Book

I arrived home to find a package containing photo copies from my visit to the BYU Special Collections library. The copies were everything I had hoped for.

One of the items is a thin bound ledger book listing vital information about 44 different people baptised in the West Tennessee Conference when Elder Gibbs was there. Out of them, 41 were baptised by Elder Gibbs. The names and the labels in the ledger book are all written in the same beautiful handwriting, which I can assume is Elder Gibbs'

Names I have come to know well are included: John Riley Hudson, Malinda Conder, Rachel Ann Conder, William Winters, Eliza Ann Talley, William Sealy, Mary Ann Sealy, Josie Turner, Andrew Jackson Talley, William Martin Conder, Levisa Jane Rebecca Conder, and John Thomas Carroll among others. Of great importance are dates I could not find elsewhere, the correct spelling of some names, and parents' names. And it is great fun to see what is not there. Eliza Ann Talley (who was married to Bash Talley) would not provide her birth date.

At the end of the book are the names of 9 people who were baptized by the son of Elder Gibbs, John H. Gibbs Jr., when he was on his mission in 1906-7 in South Carolina. The handwriting is clearly different. I can only guess that he took the book with him on his mission. Notes about his mission in the LDS Southern Star describe him bringing along his father's missionary journal.

Solomon Hinson

Solomon Jordan Hinson was a brother of "Grey George" Hinson who was the father of David Hinson. For two days prior to the Massacre, Solomon rode around to homes in Lewis County “inciting the people to hatred of the Mormons and gathering men for the contemplated raid upon Cane Creek.” He took with him an anti Mormon article, even reading it to those that could not read. For this reason he has been called the main instigator of the Massacre

Shortly following the Massacre, Solomon contracted tuberculosis. For the next couple years he slowly wasted away and in 1886 was near death. But he doesn’t actually die until March 5th, 1913.

The only source linking Solomon Hinson to the Massacre is an 1886 Deseret News
newspaper article based on an interview with a missionary, George J. Woodbury, that had just (in September 1886) returned from Tennessee. Although Elder Woodbury was certainly not a firsthand witness to the Massacre, and spent much of his time in the southern Tennessee, he did know many of the people involved and would have been exposed to all the rumors, gossip, as well as some reliable information concerning the Massacre. From a distance of over 120 years later, we may never be able to discern between accurate and inaccurate information. At the very least we can say that in 1886 Solomon Hinson’s involvement in Massacre was rumored.

Church History Library (the new one)

So I finally went to the Church History Library. You know, the brand new building north of temple square with all the publicity and the fancy carpets? Nice place? Friendly staff? Yeah, that place.

My wife dropped me of one morning during our visit to Salt Lake City and I immediately started for the card catalogue. Rumor has it that it isn't universally loved. I figured why not get the hard stuff over right away. I started off with some easy searches. Honestly, it isn't hard to use, it just returns too much. For example, I wanted the journals of Edward Stevenson Jr. because he served in Lewis County Tennessee in 1878. I found lots of stuff and couldn't figure out which one was the reference I needed. I wrote down three that I thought might be what I wanted and headed for the reference desk.

After a brief wait I spoke with someone about my search. He took one look at the form I filled out for the first reference and got a real puzzled look on his face. "Where did you find this?" he asked. "In your card catalogue. Is it not here?" I responded. "Well, it is here. But it is in the employee only section. It isn't something you can look at." So I tell him what I want and we start looking from scratch. We eventually find it. But not with the help of the card catalogue.

I had other documents to look at and we found those too. I went back to the reading room and found my first microfilm was already waiting for me. I took it back to the computer microfilm reader and figured out how to load it. I had never used on before. And I probably won't use again until I have to. Every time I advanced a screen it took a couple of seconds to render the image. I was accustomed to skimming through a microfilm to find the exact spot I wanted. I would normally stop on a page only long enough to determine if I had gone far enough. waiting for the page to render easily doubled the amount of time it took for me to skim through a film. After 10 minutes I gave up and moved to another, older machine and started over.

Ten minutes later I had found what I wanted and started reading. I ended up going through several microfilms and one paper document. With the exception of the Edward Stevenson Jr. journal, I was not allowed to copy any of it. The journals of George Henry Carver and Martin Garn are only available to members of the family (any family members out there willing to help me out with these?). I totally understand that. The "Donations to the Tennessee Martyrs Fund" was completely restricted. But I might submit a request in the future anyway. And the manuscript by Georgiana Roberts Livingston Mowry we won't talk about.

Overall the visit was productive and fun and wonderful. The staff was great to work with and the people a pleasure to meet.

How do I make sense of copyrights?

I went to look up an unpublished manuscript on a recent trip to the Church History Library (CHL). It was the new one, but I'll get to that on another post. The real purpose of my post is copyrights. I wanted a copy of an unpublished manuscript titled "The Tennessee Massacre" by Georgia Roberts Livingston Mowry, the daughter of B. H. Roberts. When she finished her mission in 1951 (the manuscript is undated but based on context it was about then) she visited Lewis and Hickman County in Tennessee. One of the Elders serving in her mission was Ulner Morrow. He agreed to show her around Cane Creek and other places her father would have been to. They spoke with several people and she typed up a version of the Massacre based on her father's autobiography, often word for word. But there was enough new stuff I thought it would be nice to have a copy.

But no! The archivist said it was still under copyright. Copyright? But it isn't a published document. Well, that doesn't really matter. The writer still owns it and she would have to give permission for it to be copied. OK, but the writer is dead. She died in 1970. Well, that doesn't matter. Copyrights survive even after the writer is dead.

So I can't get permission to copy a manuscript from the writer because she is dead and I can't buy a copy because it was never published. Just what is the copyright law trying to protect. The dead writers right to earn a living off of materials she never published? Somehow the CHL got a copy. Someone out there who understands this please help me understand.

NPS and the Historic Mormon Trail

On a recent trip through Nebraska, my family and I stopped at the Great Platte River Road Archway. It had, as tourist traps go, a surprising amount of historical interest. While there we picked up materials on the various NPS (National Park Service) maintained historic trails that converged on that spot in Nebraska.

There are four of them; The Oregon Trail, The California Trail, The Mormon Trail, and the Pony Express. While reading the material I noticed the symbols the NPS used. The Pony Express used a rider on a horse (no surprise there), the Oregon Trail used a covered wagon (OK, that works for me), the California Trail used a ox yoke (I guess that works), and the Mormon Trail used a bison skull (really?).

Now I get the whole leave-a-message-on-the-skull thing. But is that the best they could come up with to represent the Mormon Trail? Real quick I thought what could work better...

Perhaps an image of Brigham Young, with his hand out saying this is the place. Or even a beehive or a seagull. But these are probably more symbolic of settling Utah than the trip to get there.

A Book of Mormon, Golden Plates. or the Angel Moroni are probably too religious for a government organization. Still they would be more symbolic for why they were going.

A handcart may be too specific. Only a fraction of the pioneers came by handcart. Perhaps an Ensign? It would only be remotely religious, but perhaps as obscure as the note on bison skulls. And a Roadometer is perhaps even more obscure.

So what do you think would be a better symbol of the Mormon Trail?

L. Tom Perry Special Collections at BYU

On a recent trip to Utah I stopped at the Harold B Lee Library. In the special collections library, named for L. Tom Perry, is a collection of papers that at one time belonged to Elder John H. Gibbs.

The collection consists of two boxes with several folders in each. The originals are kept in the vault and normally copies are used when some one like me wants to read through the material. And that is just what I did. I walked up to the desk and asked if I could take a look for a paper I was writing. We had some trouble finding the collection. After some unproductive searches I recalled that I had the manuscript number in my notes: MSS741. Even that didn't help. Until the person helping me thought to add a V in front of the number for "vault" and there it was. Note, it is filed under "John Henry Gibbs."

I filled out some forms, and had an interview with an archivist. The folders may be looked at one at a time. So I looked through a book called a finding aid to help me decide which folders I would get first. I was taken to the manuscript reading room where I waited for the first folder to be brought out. After being given specific instruction on keeping the contents of the folder in order I at down and began to read.

Just a little hint of what I found. A record of baptisms in the North West Tennessee Conference. A hand drawn map of the Cane Creek area and the location of members homes. A handwritten note from a mobber telling him to leave the area. Letters written to his wife. A hymnbook in his possession when he died.

But as wonderful and useful as this will be for my paper, there were a few glitches. One of the folders that should have contained copies of the originals was empty. So the archivist had to go in the back and pull the original. According to the finding aid the document I wanted was in folder 13 in box 2. But when the original folder was opened before me the contents didn't match. The finding aid matched what was in the copy folders, but not the originals folders. We ended up pulling the entire manuscript box and looking folder by folder. Not a single folder in the original folders matched the finding aid.

Amidst all this the power went out.... twice! There was talk of evacuating the library when it went out the second time, but it eventually came back on.

I did request that some copies would be made. I was given several red plastic sleeves to place around the copies I wanted. The staff would then make the copies which I could have sent to me, or I could come back the next day. Sometimes, if someone is in a rush they will try to get them ready the same day, but with the power going out, they were just too far behind. I arranged to have the copies mailed to my home.

When they arrive, I will excitedly pour over them, and I'll post an update here.

Colorado State Census 1885

Sometimes I have felt sorry for myself because the exact census year I need has been lost. The 1890 Census burned in a fire in 1921. The small amount that survived was destroyed by bureaucratic inertia sometime between 1933 an 1935. The fiasco led to the creation of the National Archives.

So when I wanted to find where the survivors of the Cane Creek Massacre were living, I thought I'd have to wait until 1900 to find out. But not anymore. Several states conducted State Censuses, and Colorado was one of them.

In June 1885, a special state census was authorized. With the help of federal authorities, state officials collected a variety of information. Why? I can't find a specific answer, only general explanations that states often did this when they thought the population had changed so much that they could not rely upon the federal census. Colorado had become a state in 1876 and was still growing fast, perhaps so fast they needed more current census data.

Using the 1885 Census I have found that Elisha Talley and his family and William Sealy and his family both moved to Manassa, Colorado by 1885. I know they were back in Tennessee in 1900 and are buried there. With this I can add them to the list of Cane Creek families who found the climate in Colorado too harsh compared to Tennessee. Having recently driven across that area of the country, I can compare the two and I understand their decision. (no offense intended)

The first anti-Mormon Mob in Tennessee

In what is probably the first recorded incident of a mob assembling against the Mormons in Tennessee, Elder David W. Patten and Wilford Woodruff were holding a meeting at the home of Michael Fry, near Eagle Creek, Tennessee, when a mob gathered outside the home. It was May 1836. Wilford Woodruff wrote in his journal.

Sunday, 22nd, Brother Patten preached three times at the house of father Fry in Benton County, Tennessee, many hardened their hearts and a Mr. Rose rejected his testimony and asked him to raise the dead. Brother Patten rebuked him for his wickedness, when he and others came with their arms and threatened to mob us. At the close of the meeting, brother Patten walked out into the door yard and told the mob to shoot him if they wished. He had nothing but a walking stick in his hand: the mob fled and left him. (Wilford Woodruff’s journal)

Michael David Fry was born 27 August 1799 in Rowan, North Carolina, United States to Joseph Frey and Sarah Hartman. Some time prior to 1828, he and his family moved to Tennessee, where he married Rachel Matlock.

In 1834 he met missionaries from the Mormon Church; David W Patten and Wilford Woodruff. I don't have a baptism date yet. He stayed in Tennessee, choosing not to gather with the saints. But he remained faithful to Mormon Church. He entertained many missionaries as they passed through Tennessee; feeding them and providing shelter. To some, he proudly showed his 1830 edition of the Book of Mormon.

Later in life he was called Uncle Fry to all who knew him regardless of their relationship. He remained steadfast and true. He died on 19 January 1886 in Benton County, Tennessee and is buried in the Fry Cemetery; Eagle Creek, Benton County.

The William & Mary Sealy Family

The Sealys were a young family. And although I have not located baptismal dates for them, they are named in the Salt Lake Tribune (under the name Sely) as one of the members preparing to leave Cane Creek in October 1884. The Sealy family then shows up in Manassa, Colorado in June of 1885 (under the name Seely) living next to Mary's parents. Despite this, the Sealy family do not appear to have stayed in Colorado, since after they died they are buried in Tennessee.

William Scott Sealy was born in 1855 in Tennessee. He married Mary on January 5th 1875.
Mary Ann Talley was born on Dec 13, 1860, the daughter of Elisha and Barbara Talley. She was 24 and married at the time of the massacre. She is in the 1880 census living with her husband, William Sealey, at Cane Creek and were still living there at the time of the massacre.

“Old Lady Sealy” was still living in Lewis County when Elder Bean visited in 1895. Although he did not meet her, residents with whom he spoke claim she was a Mormon “but she won’t admit to it.”

Susan A Sealy was born in 1876. Since this would mean Mary would have to have been pregnant at age 15, it is possible Susan is her step daughter.

Manassa, Colorado

Another city to which LDS converts from Tennessee (and the rest of the South) were directed to gather was Manassa, Colorado. The site was near two ranches that Mormons had purchased in 1879. The exact site was chosen based on the expect route of the railroad. The line eventually was laid three miles to the west. Regardless, the colony thrived mostly due to continued immigration and sound leadership.

Saints came to escape persecution in the south, but found the climate cold and harsh. Saints like the Talley and Depriest families of Lewis County found their way here, along with many others.
The Manassa Stake was formed in 1883.

So successful was Manassa that additional colonies were set up nearby including Sanford and Morgan (named after John Morgan, the Southern States Mission President at the time).

Today Manassa has three wards and a population of over 1,000 within the city limits. About half of the town is Mormon, most of the rest is Hispanic Catholic.

Real but not quite true stories

This week I was given two unexpected presents. They were stories, family lore, if you will. Both were about where Elder John H. Gibbs and Elder William S. Berry were just before the Massacre. One was from a reader, whose family stories placed Gibbs and Berry at the home of the Church family three days before they were killed. The second was a newspaper article that placed them in Jack Inman's home the night before they died.

But they are not quite true.

I'm not saying they are false. They are real, which is more interesting than true. These stories start because something really did happen. But I know they are not quite true because Elder Gibbs and Elder Berry were never companions. In fact, I have yet to find a verifiable story of the two even having been alone together. So why the stories?

These names have been placed together because they gave their life doing what they believed in. They died in the same place on at the same time. We speak their names together like two words that belong together.

Elder Gibbs probably arrived at Cane Creek late on the 6th of August. He was coming from the west and would have passed through Linden where brother Inman lived. But he was travelling with Elder Jones. Elder Berry arrived at Cane the night of the 5th and had come from Shady Grove just to the east. He was traveling with Elder Thompson.

So Elder Gibbs was at the Inman house and Elder Berry was at the Church house. And the names of their companions were blurred just a little. So powerful is their narrative, the names of Gibbs and Berry is superimposed on top of these stories.

But they are wonderful gifts nonetheless. They are primal and organic. They are messy and I want to preserve them as they are. Church history is messy. Life is messy. And so in that way they are more real than anything I can write. They are not quite true, but they are still real.

Kelsey, Texas: A Mormon Colony

John Edgar had joined the Mormon Church in 1890 in Andalusia, Alabama, but soon moved to join the Saints in Mesa, Arizona. It was a long way from his old home. In 1897, after having been back to Alabama, John was passing through Texas on his return trip to Mesa. As luck would have it, he was running so low on supplies and money, that he decided to stop and rent a farm for a year to make enough money to return. He did so well that year that he decided to move his family there. He even convinced his brother Jim Edgar to moved from Alabama to Texas. They purchased land very near the present site of Kelsey. Soon other friends and relatives joined them.

Then in 1900, a couple of Mormon Elders hear about a Mormon Settlement nearby. They contacted the Edgar families and organized a conference among the Saints who had gathered there. Somehow a suggestion was conceived that this community would be a great place for the Saints being persecuted in the southern states to gather. The Southwestern States Mission President, James G. Duffin, obviously agreed and submitted the idea to Church Authorities.

First a Sunday School was created. Then, in 1901, a Branch was organized and a small chapel built. [As of 1976, the building was still standing.] In 1902, Apostle A O Woodruff was sent to assist in the establishment of a townsite. A post office with the name Kelsey was registered in Washington D. C. The name came from the creek on which the settlement was built. The creek was named after Dr. W. H. Kelsey, one of the earliest settlers Upshur county.

Mormon families from Tennessee came too. Jones/Motes, Amonett/Means, Bryant/Church, and many others I haven't identified yet.

There after, missionaries in various parts of the South urged the Saints to gather in Kelsey. By 1904 there were about 400 Members living there. At its peak in 1923, the population was at 750. But the railroad stopped running to Kelsey leaving the farmers no easy way to sell their crops. Other problems such as crop failure, depression and the war effort also took their toll. Even so in 1953, the Kelsey Ward was organized as part of the Dallas Stake. Emmons Church Bryant was the first Bishop.

In 1958, continuing population decline led to a combination of the Kelsey Ward and two nearby branches, Enoch and Gilmer, into a new ward as part of the Shreveport Stake.

[Most of the information was provided by an upublished history of Mormonism in East Texas in my posession. Thank You, Val]

Conference at Cane Creek - 1881

[What follows is based primarily on the Autobiography of Hyrum Belnap, President of the Tennessee Conference of the Southern State Mission. The conference lasted from Saturday Aug 6th to Sunday Aug 7th, 1881, and was held in a grove somewhere along Cane Creek. I added some detail to the names, in at least the first instance it is used.]

August 4. Elder Joseph Thatcher and I [Hyrum Belnap] left Mr. Wince Turner and continued to Cane Creek. Took dinner with Isaac Thomas Garrett. They were greatly pleased with our visit as they had received reports of my being waylaid and killed. It was reported that I had been found by the wayside with fourteen bullet holes in me. We continued down the Creek to Elisha Talley’s, our headquarters. I received three letters from home and one from Robert S. Spence informing me that he and Elder Joshua Taylor did not agree and they wished to be separated. [I have not located any journals belonging to the two that might indicate the nature of their disagreement.]

August 5. Weather cloudy with prospects of rain. This had been the longest dry spell for many seasons. They did no irritating here, hence the ground dried up very rapidly after a rain. When the corn began to wilt down the people thot (sic) starvation was coming. There was one small patch of corn I persuaded them to irrigate, which grew nicely. We walked around the plantation, spied some watermelons and had our fill. Then went down to John M. Lancaster’s and observed the place which they had prepared for meeting in a nice little grove. We then returned to Elisha Talley’s where we met Elders John N. Price and Lorenzo Hunsaker who had come down from I. T. Garrett’s. They went on down to J. M. Lancaster’s. Elder Thatcher did some writing and I did some reading, having found a discourse of Brigham Young’s on the resurrection. This lead me back to our creation and the wisdom of the all wise Creator in placing us on earth. Especially am I thankful that I was permitted to be born under the covenant and reared among the Latter Day Saints, where I could be taught the truth. Went up the Creek to I. T. Garrett’s with Elder Bateman.

August 6. We held meeting at the grove. There was a large crowd. There were present on the stand Elders Hyrum Belnap of the Tennessee Conference, Joshua Taylor, R. C. Camp, Robert S. Spence, James W. Eardley, Lorenzo Hunsaker, Joseph W. Thatcher, William Oxley Beesly, Thomas Hazen Merrill, John N. Price and Daniel R. Bateman, traveling elders, John M. Lancaster and James H. Depriest, local elders [John and James' wives were both sisters of Elisha Talley]. The speakers were John N. Price, Daniel R. Bateman and James W. Eardley. Meeting was then adjourned until 4:00 P.M. We scattered among friends for dinner. At 4 p.m. we assembled again. The speakers were Joseph W. Thatcher, William O. Beesly, Joshua Taylor, R. C. Camp. Conference then adjourned until 10:30 A.M. Sunday morning. That night Elder William O. Beesly and I stayed with Pleasant Depriest.

Sunday, August 7. We opened our conference at 10:30 A.M. A large crowd had gathered. Elder Robert S. Spence occupied most of the time. President Hyrum Belnap then bore a faithful testimony that this was the work of the Lord. Conference adjourned and reconvened again at 4:00 P.M. Elder Lorenzo Hunsaker spoke to the subject, “The Church of God is always guided by Revelation.” Hyrum Belnap spoke on the subject, “Joseph Smith was a prophet of God.” Conference adjourned. Sine die.

We went and administered to Rachel Lancaster [John Lancaster's sister. She had tuberculosis]. Pres. Belnap called in a council of Elders Hunsaker, Camp and Bateman over the quarrel between Joshua Taylor and Robert S. Spence at Shady Grove. At the conclusion of our deliberations we decided to send J. W. Eardley and T. H. Merrill to Shady Grove, D. R. Bateman and R. C. Spence to Perry County, W. O. Beesly and Joshua Taylor on here on Cane Creek. Hunsaker and Belnap remained with James Depriest over night.

August 8. Held priesthood meeting at Elisha Talley’s. Elders Spence and Taylor repented and said they would do better. The elders all returned to their fields of labor except those assigned yesterday. Hyrum Belnap went up to I. T. Garrett’s, wrote a letter to Elder Joseph Ford and James T. Hammond and made appointment to be up in East Tennessee the second Sunday in September. Spent the night with William Sealy.

[Hyrum Belnap wrote his Autobiography years later, probably by comparing journal entries and adding notes as he recalls them. Though he repeats himself a couple of times and some of his dates (like certain baptismal dates) don't match the official record, his detail is refreshingly detailed. When understood that this is not a period document, just written to look like one, the errors are minor.]