Sunday, May 23, 2010

Hampshire Branch


I love this photo. I know it is hard to read, but the inscription above the doorway reads "The Church Of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" I have not firmly identified the location of this church yet, or if it even still exists.

Frank Wirig, a missionary who severed in Hohenwald, Tennessee, took this photo in 1948. He identified two people in the photo: Branch President Eldridge Lee Travis in the front-center and Elder Deon Hubbard in the very back. I believe this chapel was in Hampshire, Tennessee, a small town 18 miles east of Hohenwald. A branch was meeting there in 1949 according to newspaper reports at the time. And interviews I've had with local members now living in Nashville indicate there was a chapel built there near a creek. Hampshire is in Maury county. Hohenwald is in Lewis County, just four miles south of Cane Creek.

Below is Elder Wirg's description of the photo.
If you have any information about this chapel or the people in the photo. I would be very interested to hear from you.
Brother Travis was Branch President of the Branch. There was a cement block chapel. The creek that went past the chapel had flooded and left about four inches of mud and sand on the floor of the church which had to be shoveled out and cleaned. And in the picture in front of the church, Elder Deon Hubbard (with the wavy hair) is standing on the top of the stairs in the back. President Travis is standing in front.

1 comment:

Bruce said...

Check here to see where names and faces were put together.
http://amateurmormonhistorian.blogspot.com/2010/08/putting-names-to-faces.html