Old Altamont Mormon Church

Below is an article written by Gordon B Hinkley about this beautiful chapel in Altamont, Tennessee.

 "Salt of the Earth…." January 3, 1948

Persistence Wins For Southern Leader

By Gordon B. Hinckley

All men dream. Some men work to make their dreams come true. The labors of Lewis F. Fults over the past 25 years have brought the fulfillment of a dream that has proved a blessing to the Church and to the community in whichhe lives.

Altamont, Tennessee is a town of only 300 people. Almost half of theseare members of the Church. Twenty-six years ago when Elder Fults and his wife moved to the community, they were the sole members. The only knowledge the people of the area had of the Mormons came from the occasional passing visits of two missionaries moving through the county, each carrying a heavy suitcase and an umbrella. Brother Fults dreamed of the day when there would be a congregation and a chapel in which to meet. And then he set to work to makehis dream a reality.

He became postmaster, and operated a general store and filling station. He forced his opinions on no one, but those who traded with him, received more than letters and groceries and gasoline. They learned something of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

He ran for the office of county registrar, and was elected and is now serving his fourth term, each of four years. For the past ten years he has also been mayor of Altamont for which he receives no pay beyond the gratitude of his fellow citizens.

As many people of the community and the county observed him at work and listened to his philosophy they began to realize that he had something which they wanted. With the aid of missionaries serving in the area, he brought some of them into the Church. The congregation of which he dreamed slowly became ma fact.

But that was only half his dream. They needed a chapel. He consistently hammered at the idea and in 1938 President William T. Tew of the East Central States Mission, secured from the Church an appropriation of $1,000 with the nderstanding that the Altamont Saints would furnish whatever else was necessary to complete the project.

Members and non-members turned out enthusiastically to begin work on a spring day in 1939. But excavation for the foundation had to be cut through solid rock which underlaid a thin layer of topsoil. Enthusiasm died, and only three men continued at the tedious job of drilling, blasting, cutting, and then moving the debris in wheelbarrows.

The task seemed too great. Everyone was discouraged, but Elder Fults determined in his mind and prayed in his heart that somehow the work would be completed. Meanwhile weeds grew in the shallow excavation, and people suggested that the hole be filled and that the idea forgotten. Then this man of quiet determination went to work alone, literally chipping away at the stone that stood between him and his dream. His spirit became infectious. Others again pitched in. Then came the war. Costs soared, the young men went into the Army, and many of the older ones went to work in other places. The thousand dollars dwindled, but the project had gone so far that the Church added another two thousand to complete it.

Elder Fults schemed and shopped to keep costs down. He went to 25 different mills to save $300 on the doors and windows. As county registrar in the building adjacent to the chapel site he had a little free time now and again, and always kept his tools handy to put in a few strokes as opportunity arose.The outside walls were constructed of native stone much of which was gathered out of the mountains, and hauled on sleds drawn by mules. Hardwood flooring was impossible to buy during the war, and so he purchased oak tie siding, stacked it and allowed it to dry for several weeks, and then had it cut and planed by a local mill.

Elder Fults pays glowing tribute to those who faithfully worked on the project. But the fact remains that he laid most of the rock veneer, laid the brick trim around the windows and doors, did much of the inside finish work, and more important than all else, pleaded and coaxed, crusaded, and schemed to see the building begun and completed.

On November 2 of this year Elder Henry D. Moyle of the Council of the Twelve dedicated the chapel. People gathered from near and far, many of them not members of the Church, bringing baskets of food for a day of rejoicing. A dream had come true.

Today Lewis F. Fults sits in his office in the moldering old red brick courthouse of Grundy County. Many people call in to do business with mayorregistrar. But the thing that forcibly catches their attention is the little church building over the way, neatly framed in the office window. They invariably ask questions. And Lewis Fults, the builder and the branch president, knows the answers. A few tracts are on the table. The visitors leave with a desire to read and learn more.

The pick-and-shovel, trowel-and chisel, saw-and hammer days are over for Lewis Fults. He is 61, and a little tired. But he is happy. The dream of his younger years has come true. Altamont, county seat of Grundy County, has a congregation of Latter-day Saints. Altamont has a Latter-day Saint chapel. Prejudice is gone and the people of Grundy County know the truth about the Mormons, largely because of his pioneering efforts. He is happy in the satisfaction of a task unselfishly and well done.

The chapel was in use from 1946 to 1981. It was also used to house the County Court offices in 1990 and the county legislative body in 1991. I'm still trying to find out what it is being used for today.

Mormon Publications of the 20th Century

I have usually avoided the 20th Century of Mormon History. There was something a little too current about the names and places. To avoid possibly reporting on someone still alive, and copyright violations, I have stayed in the 19th century. But many of the people I am researching have a habit of living past 1900. So I will need to probe more current resources from time to time.

BYU hosts a useful site with electronic copies of a handfull of 20th Century publications called, curiously enough Mormon Publications of the 20th Century. Like other similar sites, the interface can be slow and cumbersome. Searches often return nearly every item in the archive making it difficult to focus your time. Unlike other sites, entires file cannot be downloaded. for offline reading. The only option is to save individual articles as a .pdf file. Unlike some .pdf files online the text of these can be hilighted and copied, which is a lot easier than transcribing.

Where are the guns now?

In a phone conversation the other day, the subject came up about a gun that had been inherited from the interviewees grandfather. According to family lore, the gun was picked up by an ancestor who was assisting with removing the bodies of the two elders from Cane Creek. The story goes on to say that this was THE gun used in the Massacre. OK, there was more than just one gun. There were many guns. I will be looking into the details about this specific gun in the future, but it made me think about the guns about which we know and wonder which gun could this be.

John Riley Hudson had a muzzle loading shotgun. He loaded it the day before the Massacre after being warned by his mother about a dream she had. The loaded gun was kept in the loft in anticipation of trouble. When James Conder called to his sons to get their guns, Riley ran to the house and went to loft to get his. He came down the stairs to find two dead missionaries, and a dead brother. Two men tried to disarm him but he shook them off and ran to the door where he fired on, and killed, David Hinson. Riley singled out Hinson and it is likely he felt Hinson was primarily responsible for what had happened. The gun was kept by his two half sisters until the 1940's when it was donated to the LDS Church History Library and Archives, where it can be seen today. Ardis Parshall has a great post on this very subject.

The second gun belonged to William Martin Conder. Martin had also loaded the gun on advice from his mother, but he placed it on deer antlers hanging over the back door. It has been alternately described as a shot gun and a Kentucky hunting rifle. It was certainly a long gun of some kind. When he ran for his gun David Hinson went for it too. The record is not clear about who got there first, but the two ended up fighting over the gun. Eventually Hinson gained the upper hand and used the gun to shoot Elder John H Gibbs. From there the gun disappears. The sisters did not talk about it, and it does not appear in any other records.

Until the other day, when a man claimed to have THE gun used in the massacre. The gun he has is a shotgun. We discussed the details about the guns manufacture but neither of us are gun experts. What is most interesting is the provenance. This gun has been in this man's family for several generations and we can track its ownership back to someone who would have been in a position to pick up the gun. For a historian this is very exciting. Most relics don't have it that good.

There were, of course, other guns used in the Massacre. Each of the vigilantes probably brought a gun or two. Some were pistols like David Hinson's and Jack Well's. Other were shot guns, like Babe Hinson's and the guns used inside the house against Elder William S. Berry and Malinda Conder. But these guns, with the possible exeption of David Hinson's, were most likely taken with the vigilantes when they left. Only Martin's gun would have had no one to remove it, yet it certainly disappeared shortly after the Massacre.

Phone Interviews and Southern Accents

In the course of researching Tennessee Mormon history and Cane Creek specifically, I have done about half a dozen phone interviews. I'm still getting comfortable with the process. Do I take notes, do I ask if I can record the call, do I have a list of questions I send ahead of time, do I offer my take on the events or just listen. There is so much technique needed and I am woefully unprepared for this.

I just got off the phone with a descendent of one of the men who helped take the bodies of the two missionaries from Cane Creek to the train station. The story was passed down to him through his grandmother (more on the details later). We spoke for about half an hour and I found my repressed southern accent coming out. I spent part of elementary school in Knoxville before my father's work took our family to Boston (and later California). I never really had much of a southern accent. But Boston was still quite a change. I adjusted quickly, unlike my eldest sister who hung on to her accent for a while.

But in the interview I found myself slipping. I have to be careful, especialy since most people I meet can tell I didn't spend most of my formative years in the South. My normal speaking parttern is more like what is called "broadcast English" or what you hear on TV. So I have to watch how I speak. Once I dropped into a southern accent with a woman at work from North Carolina. She was a little offended at first, thinking I was making fun of her. I never want that to happen again.

So I will take this and other lessons as I prepare for other interviews in the future. Those out there that might have done this before, what advice do you have?

Online Mormon Research Sources

I realized the other day, that one of the results of my adventure in Mormon history research, is that I have collected a number of Online Research Tools. Some times I have fetured them here. But I haven't collected them into one spot. Well, I'm not going to start now. That would take more time than I really want to dedicate at the moment. Plus it would be out of date pretty quick and would take even more time to keep current. So I've settled on a compromise. I'll label each online source I feature on my blog and when some one wants to take a look at what I have found they can click here or below. When I feature new ones, I'll add the label to the post and they will automatically be added to the list. And if something needs to be removed from the list, well, let me know. I can't promise to find it first. I am only one person. And along the same lines, if you see a site you think I might find pretty cool (in a history geek sort of way), let me know.

Online Sources

Cookeville Meetinghouse

The Cookeville Branch was organized in the later part of the 1960's as part of what would become the Nashville Stake (in 1970). They met in the basement of a grocery store at first and then moved into the Veteran's Building in downtown Cookeville. In 1973, they got their own building, (981 S Walnut, in Cookville) which was added upon in 1976, the same year the branch became a ward. The building was further upgraded to a phase 3 in 1986. In 1992, the ward became part of the new McMinnville Stake and a new branch (Burgess Falls) was split off. Today there are two wards (Burgess Falls became a ward in 1994) in Cookeville, Tennessee. They share this meetinghouse.

We need to own the Truth

During a recent professional training class, we talked about the importance of owning the truth. In my field "owning the truth" means being proactive in dealing with problems. Yes, our software has issues. No software is perfect. But we must identify them first, before the client does. When we identify them we point them out to the client honestly and openly. Then we work on the solution. We keep the client updated on our progress. But the point is that we own the truth. We define it the way we want it defined. We don't want the defects in our product being whispered around because then our reputation is subject to rumor and misinformation. If we don't boldly tell the truth then the only story that gets told might be the lie.

So where am I going with this? What has it to do with Church history?

Last year a book was released about a shameful episode in Mormon History.I won't name it here, since I don't really want to discuss the specifics of that case. What I was impressed with was the effort to own the truth. Employees of the Church Historical Department made the effort to define the conversation, and to define it using verifiable facts. To control how people talk about you, you must do both.

Simply defining the conversation is not enough. We call that propaganda or spin. That would be easily debunked and actually harms our reputation in many cases.

Just stating the facts is not enough either. Facts are in and of themselves pretty boring (to most people). We can open the Church History Library to all the scholars in the world (and to troops of gum chewing, flip flop shod, Beehives if we want). But if we are not answering the question "so what?", then others will write our history and tell us what it means

I started writing about the Cane Creek Massacre because the primary source on the Web was not "ours." The most commonly accessed version of the Massacre was written by a man who really believed that the missionaries were guilty of vile misconduct, even though the evidence did not support that conclusion. So I did the research and wrote about what I found. At the time I didn't have a name for what I was doing. Now I know.

Daniel Cathcart

One of the earliest missionaries to Tennessee was Daniel Cathcart. Daniel was born in 1803 in New Jersey. I don't see when he was baptized.

In 1832 he served his first mission to Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio with Joshua Fairchild. In Missouri along with George Hinckle and James Johnson, they baptize the Allred family and the Ivie family, along with others, and organize the Salt River Branch. He later works with Calvin Beebe.

He was part of Zion's Camp, which is a whole other subject.

His second mission was from 1835 to 1838 in Tennessee and Kentucky where he serves with Elder Elias F. Well. He periodically served along with Wilford Woodruff. and later with Benjamin Boydston.

But one entry in church history records intrigued me. On May 28, 1836, at a conference in Tennessee, Elder Daniel Cathcart was brought before an Elders Council for "unchristian conduct & fals Teachings & being led by evil spirits." and for a mistaken interpretation of "the Law of the Church." David W. Patten sat as chair for the council. Elder Cathcarth confessed and agrees to repair wrongs in the branches. That was just enough information to tell me there was so much more to that story. So I loked around and I found Abraham O Smoot's version which was a little more enlightening.

At 6 o'clock in the evening a Council of Elders was convened, and the following charge was preferred against Elder Daniel Cathacart viz. an "un-christian-like conduct" which was signed by Elias H. Wells, Elder, D. W. Patten, Chairman & W. Parrish, Clerk. Teacher B. Clapp testified that Brother Cathacart told one of the sister that he had a secret which he wished to communicate to her, which was this that our Elders were charged of walking out with colored women, and that our Church heed long communion with the Indians, also endulging in teaching. Elder Boydston testified that he concurred in the former statement; also that Brother Cathacart carried a trace of pistols and often exhibited them and boasted of what he had done and would do, and at times manifested a Spirit of bigotry & c. He was also accused of being dogmatical in his teachings especial concerning the Word of Wisdom. Elder Woodruff testified that Elder Cathacart carried apothecary medicines and that his teaching was harsh and over-bearing; also that John the Baptist was not a heir of the Celestial Kingdom. Elder Cathacart then arose and answered to the several charges preferred against him: he received a charp reproof from Elders Patten and Parrish, and at last confessed his faults and asked forgiveness of the Council and agreed also to confess his faults in public in his Branch. A vote on the matter was called and Elder Cathacart was received into fellowship and had permission to retain his License.

Elder Cathcart continued his mission in Tennessee. On June 17, 1838 he baptized John D Lee.

After his mission he went to Missouri where his name appears signed on a covenant to help the poor leave Missouri. He is also on a list of those held in prison without bail in Missouri following the expulsion of the saints from that state, and on a petition to Congress for redress for the persecution in Missouri. He also marries Olive Howard in Missouri.

The last LDS reference I found is on Apr 10, 1843 where he and William A Brown are called to preach in Pensacola, Florida. But there appear to be no evidence of whether they fulfilled their mission. Instead he and his wife moved back to White County, Tennessee. In 1847 his wife died and he remarries the next year to Mary Howard

In 1848 he married his second wife in Tennessee. Sometime after their third child is born in 1855 and before the 1860 Federal Census they move to Falling Spring, Douglas County, Missouri.

Benjamin Erastus Rich

[Much of the below biography was taken from the LDS Biographical Encyclopedia]


Benjamin Erastus Rich was born Nov 7, 1855 in Salt Lake City Utah the son of Charles C Rich and Sarah D Pea. He was one of his father's fifty two children. He married Diana Farr Dec 27, 1877 and entered business for himself in Ogden. In 1881-83 he filled a mission to Great Britain and returned in charge of nearly 700 emigrating Saints. He also began activity in the effort being made at the time for statehood for Utah During the next few years he mingled religion politics and business in his career becoming prominent in each. In 1893 he removed to Rexburg, Idaho with his family. Here he purchased the Rexburg Press the name of which he changed to the Silver Hammer. He wrote a book, Mr. Durant of Salt Lake City, which gained great popularity, and later wrote numerous pamphlets and booklets which were distributed quite widely throughout the Church and the world. Later he removed the Silver Hammer office to St Anthony, Idaho. Both in Idaho and Utah he was active in local and national politics.

In June 1898 he was called to take charge of the Southern States Mission which position he filled until July 1908.

During his tenure in the Southern States Mission, President Rich attended the October 1900 general conference At the same time he chaired a political event at which Theodore Roosevelt spoke. The two developed a personal relationship. The two spent hours talking through night as they road the train back to Salt Lake City. Rich made such an impression on Roosevelt, that Roosevelt recognized Rich on the street two years later when a speaking tour took him to Chattanooga, Tennessee. Roosevelt stopped the walking parade to personally greet President Rich. This public recognition greatly helped the standing of the Church in Tennessee.

He was [then] called to the presidency of the Eastern States Mission, a position which he filled until the time of his demise. For nearly twenty years he was continuously engaged in missionary work hardly sparing time from his labors to make more than business visits to Utah or elsewhere. He was considered one of the most workers in the Church and one of the most fearless expounders of the gospel of Christ In his career as a missionary he met and debated with many anti Mormons of prominence and always left a strong impression upon his hearers. He also underwent various forms of persecution peculiar to the South and always bore it with manliness and patience During the first fifteen years of his missionary life he enjoyed excellent health. During the last two years or his life he suffered considerably with sickness and finally passed to the great beyond Sept 13, 1913 in New York.

A collection of his papers in at the University of Utah. A sample of what it is like when a publisher, like President Rich, makes missionary tracts can be seen here.

President Joseph F. Smith and Other General Authorities of the Church Visit Southern States Mission

Following the dedication of a chapel in Independence, Missouri, on Sunday November 22, 1914, President Joseph F. Smith and his party take a visit of the Souther States Mission.

711 Fairview Avenue, Chattanooga, Tennessee

From Left to Right.—Bishop C. W. Nibley, Elder Joseph F. Smith, Jr.,

Sister Rebecca N. Nibley, President Joseph F. Smith, Sister Julina Smith, President Charles W. 

Penrose, Sister Romania B. Penrose, Elder Chas. A. Callis, Sister Grace E. Callis,

Elder Geo. Albert Smith. Sister Emily Smith is standing behind her father and mother.

 

[The following description was written by President Charles A Calllis of the Southern States Mission. and Published int he Liahona on December 29, 1914.]

The visit of President Joseph F. Smith, President Chas. W. Penrose, Elders George Albert Smith and Joseph F. Smith, Jr., of the Council of the Twelve, and the Presiding Bishop, C. W. Nibley, to the Southern States Mission, is the greatest missionary event in the history of the Mission. President Smith is the first president of the Church who has visited this mission. He and his party were well received. They spoke to large audiences: they made hundreds of friends and they preached the Gospel in the power and demonstration of the Spirit.

Memphis.

The president and his party arrived in this city Tuesday, November 24th. During the day they visited places of interest. A priesthood meeting was held in the afternoon with the elders of the Middle Tennessee and Mississippi Conferences, at which good counsel was givien by President Smith and the other brethren. A public meeting was held in one of the largest halls in the city that evening. Several hundred people attended. President Smith, Bishop Nibley and President Penrose delivered excellent doctrinal discourses. A well trained choir, under the able leadership of Brother H. LeRoy Stewart, one of the local elders, accompanied by an orchestra of four violins, two cornets and a piano, rendered excellent singing. A vase of beautiful flowers was on the table in front of the speaker and the platform was decorated with palms. The Commercial Appeal, one of the leading papers of the South, made the following comment on President Smith: "Joseph F. Smith, head of the Mormon Church, visited Memphis yesterday. He spoke to a meeting of missionaries in the tabernacle in the Woman's Building in the afternoon, and at night addressed an audience of several hundred who filled the big hall. President Smith is positive in speech. He is a speaker of great force. Nothing he said last night could be construed as out of the ordinary at all. But as he voiced the plea it was not quite usual. He did not seem to be trying for an effect, but he did secure one. Several of the women who were present held their handkerchiefs to their eyes; several men almost seemed worried. There were plenty of unbelievers in the crowd, but all listened to him with great attention—even smiles were lacking."

Chattanooga.

Wednesday morning, after an all night ride, the visitors reached Chattanooga. They were taken to the Mission headquarters where ' they were welcome and honored guests. During the day historic places were visited. That evening a public meeting was held in the Lyric theater. A great audience assembled. Leading business and professional men were present. The speakers were President Smith, Bishop Nibley and President Penrose. Their discourses were able and convincing. President Smith was applauded at the close of his splendid address. The opening and closing prayers were offered by Elders Joseph F. Smith, Jr., and George Albert Smith, respectively. A quartet of elders sang very nicely a number of hymns. The Chattanooga Times, in its report of the meeting said:"President Smith made an interesting and attractive figure as he stood on the stage of the Lyric last night. More than six feet in height, massive, vigorous and apparently in the prime of life, he dominated the meeting. He commanded attention to every utterance. He grew eloquent through pure earnestness and enthusiasm in his subject.


Dressed in simple black, with a long gray beard that falls to the middle of his breast, he has the appearance of a prosperous, contented farmer, until he turns those great luminous eyes toward his hearer, and when looking into them it is not hard to believe that this man, standing at the head of a great religious denomination, is endeavoring to end his life-work by carrying his teachings to every part of the globe through a campaign of persuasion and education. After the meeting, President Callis introduced all in the audience who desired to meet President Smith, and for sometime he held an informal reception on the stage. He had a handshake and a kind word for everyone."


The Chattanooga News made the following comment: "We believe it is necessary for men to have faith in the Father of Christ and the Father of the children of men," declared Joseph F. Smith, President of the Mormon Church, in the course of an eloquent address delivered before a large audience at the Lyric theater Wednesday night. President Smith is a pleasing speaker and held the attention of his hearers throughout his remarks. He is a picturesque figure, tall, commanding with snow white hair and flowing beard. Despite the fact that the burdens of seventy-six years, sixty of which have been spent in advocating the principles of peace, union, love, good will and good works, as he stated in his address, he holds himself erect and the lines in his face suggest strength of character and gentleness.


In closing President Smith said: "I believe in Mormonism with all my heart. I know its principles are correct and true." "One of the interesting men who is traveling with President Smith is Charles W. Penrose, second counsellor to the president of the church. Mr. Penrose is eighty-two years of age. Within two months he will pass the eighty-third mile-stone in life, and he declares he is as active and hearty today as forty years ago. For twenty years Mr. Penrose was editor of the Deseret News, the largest paper in Salt Lake. He is one of the most faithful and enthusiastic of the members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints, and has done much for the church."


President Smith and his party were entertained by prominent citizens while they were in Chattanooga. They had a pleasant visit with the mayor. They ate their Thanksgiving dinner at the Mission home, and they held a Priesthood meeting and Thanksgiving service with the elders of the East Tennessee, East Kentucky, Virginia and Ohio and Kentucky Conferences, and visiting members.

President Smith's party also made stops in Atlanta, Georgia and Jacksonville, Florida. The building in the photo is no longer standing.

Bryan Ward Peck

Elder Bryan Ward Peck arrived in Tennessee in October 1899, and was assigned to serve in the Middle Tennessee Conference. But it wasn't long (February 1900) before this 22 year old became ill. First measles, and then acute bronchitis weakened him before probably pneumonia set in and causing his death on February 27, 1900. Although his illness was quick and lasted less than two weeks, he did not complain. It was thought he would recover until the 24th when he took a turn for the worst. His last days were spent at the home of Brother Andy Vaugn and his family in Putnum County Tennessee. Also with him were his mission companion Elder Don C. Brimhall, Elder J. H. Belnap, and President of the Middle Tennessee Conference J. Urban Allred. A doctor had been called for and was treating him for several days but to no avail. His body was embalmed and sent home to Idaho. Elder Peck was unmarried and survived by only his parents and nine siblings.

Warrant for Arrest

Back in May 2009 I wrote Arrest Bring Conversion about a letter Elder William F Garner received from his one time jailor. While digging through my notes I came across the text of the arrest warrant.

State of Tenn

Carter Co


            Information having been made to me in writing, on oath, that C. F. Christensen, ---- Farmer, ---- Garner, ----- Gibbs, did on or about the --- day April 1885, and at divers others days in the county and state aforesaid, did willfully, maliciously, knowingly, and feloniously teach preach and promulgate the doctrine of polygamy, and that they did induce others by words and persuasion to adopt or embrace polygamy and to emigrate to another state or Territory, for the purpose of embracing polygamy. You are therefore commanded in the name of the state to forthwith arrest the said C. F. Christensen, Gibbs, Garner, and Farmer and bring them before me or some other justice of said county to be dealt with as the law directs. Given under my hand this twelfth day of May 1885

JAMES PERKY

JP for Carter County

Of course two of the Elders (Elder Gibbs & Farmer are nowhere to be found) were arrested and their story continues in jail, where they decide to preach to their fellow prisoners and to their jailor. Eventually an attempt at a trial is made, but the Elders wisely insist on proper representation. So the trial is postponed. The court places the bond at $500 which was eventually paid by President Morgan when he arrived from Chattanooga.

About the first of August Christensen and Garner returned home. Soon after this President Morgan visited Elizabethton and had an examination made of the court records; as a result it was found that the clerk of the court made a mistake in recording the bond the Elders had been released on. And instead of it being $500 it was only $5. This error, of course, only made Elder Christensen liable to the sum of $5 and practically freed him from the clutches of the unjust law

 Behold! The economy of God. The miracle of the moving decimal place.

Who are the people in these photographs?

Now that I have collected a fair amount if information of who may have been at the Cane Creek Massacre, I have taken the opportunity to go back and review some of the first things I was given and see if there was anything I missed.

Patricia R. Major Miller sent me some a bunch of stuff and among them were some photographs that an historian from Lewis County, Tennessee was trying to identify. The only clue was that they were supposed to be girls who were from Cane Creek at about the time of the Massacre. That narrows it down to just eight or nine girls. The other were either male or would have been too old after they joined the Church to have been the women in these photos.

These photos are clearly taken in Salt Lake City, Utah. Of all the people who belonged to the Cane Creek branch, only a small number went to Utah. Only four, in fact, though they went to Cache County. John Westbrook (I have a picture of him and he didn't look like either of these two), Lavina Shaw (she was much older than this when she went to Utah) and Lavina's two nieces Josie and Ada Turner. Could these be the Turner Girls? If I had such a theory, how would I go about proving it?

Of course, any of the others could have visited Salt Lake City from where they were living; Colorado or Tennessee. Many people did make such a trip to go to the temple, or for any number of other reasons.

New Lebanon Chapel

Sunday we finally get the word that the Lebanon Chapel is finished and the open house Sunday afternoon. OK maybe this isn't history yet, but it will be. Regardless, when I heard the announcement I thought yeah! and darn it! Yeah! cause its is exciting. Church growth and all that. The Church was only leasing the previous building.(See below) Darn it! because the open house happens to conflict with my schedule. My wife has invited an handful of people over for a break-the-fast dinner and, well, I can't really slip out just to go look at the new building. It is on the other side of town and I would be gone at least three hours right when our guests were expected. My wife is tolerant of my hobby, but not that tolerant.

Lebanon is in Wilson County. Wilson county is another site of early Tennessee LDS history. The Baird's Mill Branch was active in the 19th century, though the history surrounding it has been less forthcoming than other areas. I have a couple of articles, some names and little else. I was hoping to go, meet some people, and ask around for historical leads. Sigh! I guess I have to find another way.

So I didn't get a picture of the new chapel yet, but here is the old one.