Kentucky-Tennessee Mission Song

Surfing around the web I happened upon this song. No real indication of the tune it was sung to, but I wondered if any of you had heard this before and if your mission had a song.

KENTUCKY-TENNESSEE MISSION SONG
(President George D. Durrant)

'Twas in Kentucky and Tennessee
My Heavenly Father called me to serve;
I met great people, the choicest ever
And formed new friendships so dear to me.
Kentucky and Tennessee was where I labored
To carry forward the Word of God.
Doors ever opened by kindly people,
Brothers and sisters so dear to me.
Those blessed memories of old Kentucky
And Tennessee thou art dear to me.
Green hills and valleys are ever calling
My mission home so dear to me.

(Source: Kentucky Louisville Mission Website)

The LDS Mission Network

In one of my more recent projects I have run across the question of when did this mission begin and when was it replaced. The answer, most of the time could be found at The LDS Mission Network.

This site contains a fair amount of detail about when missions were organized and from which missions they were created. If the mission has a website, it includes the link. I was looking for the Southern States Mission. From the home page I followed a link to the Mission Index (on the left side bar), and scrolled down to Southen States Mission. Notice the link is gray? Even though it is gray, it still works. Links in blue are current missions. The globes next to the link are websites. Gray links are historic missions.

Following the Southern States Mission link I learn that the mission was organized on Nov 1st 1876, and that it was replaced on Jun 1st 1971 by the Georgia-South Carolina Mission. This is where I start having to dig deeper for the information I want. For example, Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia and North Carolina were moved into the East Central States Misison in 1928. Texas and Louisiana were moved into their own mission in 1931. Florida and Alabama were carved out in 1960. By 1971 the Southern States Mission was not as large as it once was.

Regardless of the limitations of the format, the site is a wealth of information. It was fun just to explore for a bit even without a specific research question.

Tennessee Hollow ......in Iowa

As the saints left Nauvoo, Illinois in 1846, the migration was staggered by many forces. Winter conditions, varying degrees of preparation and poverty, sickness and even church assignments guaranteed that the exodus would stretch out for months. By the time Brigham Young made it to the Great Basin, most of the faithful were spread around the Iowa/Nebraska border. Some would find themselves unable to go any further, and the poorer saints would run out of resources far shorter from Kanesville than they hoped. It was for these saints that Brigham Young initially set up the Perpetual Emigration Fund. It worked so well, in fact, it would be expanded for saints from further afield.

Thousands of saints did make it close to the main body of the Church. They set up communities all over western Iowa and eastern Nebraska. One of the communities these saints set up was named Tennessee Hollow. This settlement was about 20 miles north of Kanesville, Iowa. There the residents built a log Tabernacle in which to hold services. The story goes that the early residents were all from Tennessee, and so gave it the distinctive name.

One brochure passed out to visitors notes that the "Federal census of 1 June 1850 listed 254 of 7,828 Pottawattamie residents as born in Tennessee." That may be true, but Pottawattamie was a large area. It would be pretty hard to know exactly where in Pottawattamie the people on the list were from. In 1891 a Harrison County history was published with the following note about Tennessee Hollow.

Up to 1848 not a single white man had invaded what is now known as St. John's Township [Iowa], but it was during that year that John REYNOLDS and family, William SMITH,Sr, Charles SMITH,Jr, Adam STEVENS, George LAWRENCE and the MONGRUM families all made settlement in "Tennessee Hollow," on the south line of the township, most of them coming in 1848 and 1849. They all came from Tennessee, and hence the name "Tennessee Hollow." - 1891 Harrison County History

So were these people indeed from Tennessee? Checking the Census I find most of the names in the article above. John Runnels and his wife were from North and South Carolina respectively, though their children were born in Tennessee. So they had probably settled in Tennessee. William Smith's birthplace was listed a "Unknown" and his wife's as Kentucky. His children were listed as a mixture of Kentucky and Alabama. So probably not in from Tennessee in this case. Charles Smith was born in Alabama, but his two sons were born in Tennessee. His wife was not on the census. Adam Steaphens and his family were a mixture of Tennessee and Alabama. The Mangrum families were all born in Alabama. I didn't find George Lawrence. But all the others were right next to each other in the Census. The census takers walked around taking names as they came to houses. So people living next to each other were often next to each other in the census.

Looks like some were from Tennessee, but certainly not all of them. Of course my list is not a comprehensive list of who lived in Tennessee Hollow. Any suggestions on a better source of such a list?

Charles Henry Crow Part 4 (Harness Shop)

My great great granfather owned a harness shop in Salt Lake City. Actually he owned more than one. The first shop at (somewhere on East Temple) he had with a partner, Daniel Seegmiller, with whom he had worked in New York and had introduced to the Gospel. When Charles had saved enough to moved west, Daniel went with him. It was at the first shop that which he killed a burglar. He also had his own shop later in life on 58 E 1st South.

Not long ago I visited an uncle in Salt Lake and he showed me a photo of the second harness shop. I tracked down an electronic version which I have posted here. It looks like a Independence Day celebration. It is dated 1898. I can see ghost images of flags as well as other more stable (no pun intended) images of flags and decorations. Charles is the one in the center. I don't know for sure who the other two are. They might be two of his sons who were in business with him. Charles Spencer Crow (my great grandfather) looks a little like the one on the left. Thomas Crow (I have no other photos of Thomas to compare this with) could be the one on the right
The business was passed to his sons, though whether this exact building was, I don't know. The business didn't last another generation. The one-two punch of the invention of the automobile and Great Depression took their toll. Today all that remains are a few leatherworking tools and a photograph. My uncle donated the original photograph to the Utah Historical Society.

You can read the other posts on Charles Henry Crow here.....

Part 1
Part 2 (Burglar Shot)
Part 3 (Constable)

Missionaries Who Served in Tennessee 1834-1838

LDS missionary work in Tennessee came in waves. The first was during the Ohio/Missouri Period. There is a vague reference to two elders (Major N. Ashley and Burr Riggs) being called to go into the south country in the Doctrine and Covenants (75:17) on January 25th 1832. I couldn't find where the two went or if they went at all. It would be two more years before LDS missionaries made a confirmed visit to Tennessee.

1834
David W. Patten
Warren Parrish

1835
Warren Parrish
Wilford Woodruff
Calvin H. Nicholson
Elias F. Wells
Daniel Cathcart
Abraham O. Smoot
Benjamin Clapp

1836
David Patten
Warren Parrish
Wilford Woodruff
Elias F. Wells
Daniel Cathcart
Abraham O. Smoot
Benjamin Boydston
Samuel West
Thomas B Marsh
Elijah. H. Groves

1837
Abraham O. Smoot
Henry G. Sherwood

1838
Jesse Turpin
Don Carlos Smith
George A. Smith
Julian Moses

Of course, there were probably others I haven't identified yet. Often their call was to an area much larger than just Tennessee, so the church records don't indicate "Tennessee" in a easily searchable format. Many of the Elders listed here served off and on until 1837-8 when troubles in Missouri shifted their focus.

Did that really happpen? or Should I repeat a faith promoting lie?

I was talking with my wife last week about King Herod. Apparently she had recently read that Herod died in 4 B.C. and this indicates that there is something wrong with our calendar. Well, that wasn't much of a surprise to me. If the calendar was right, that would be a surprise. But it got me thinking, what if the whole King Herod killing the newborns because of the wise men story is not true? Would it shake my testimony of the divinity of Jesus? What about the universal flood? In fact, the real question is ... does the historicity of the scriptures make a difference?

As believers of "Mormonism" we accept that here are errors of translation in the Bible. But do we believe there are some thing that are just plain wrong? The people who put it together were not prophets, after all. They could not have known what to include and what not to include. I'm sure they made their best judgment. But their best judgment got us the Nicene Creed, after all. Can we really trust them?

The Book of Mormon is another issue altogether. Being put together under clearly divine direction, most Mormons accept the historicity of the Book of Mormon account, even without clear evidentiary proof. Yes, there are a handful of issues presented by the Book of Mormon not completely explained by scientists, yet. Over the years, however, that list is getting smaller. Scores of articles at what was once called FARMS describe and discuss these issues. I enjoy reading these articles from time to time. I particularly enjoy reading about the recently resolved ones. But I digress.

In the end I will base my answer to historicity question on the testimony I have. The spiritual experiences which form the basis of my testimony are not reliant upon whether every event in the scriptures happened as described. But perhaps for some people it would be an issue. So it gives me pause when I think about the history we are creating. Will the stories we tell about early Mormon history be better if they are accurate? Or do I not let the truth get in the way of a good story? I recently read this idea at JI; the Spirit can't testify of the truthfulness of an important event in church history if the story we tell is in fact not true. I can live with someone deciding they can't accept Mormonism because of polygamy or Mountain Meadows or the priesthood ban. But I don't want someone to decide that their testimony was false because something I said turned out not to be true after all.

Congressman Emerson Etheridge of Tennessee

Emerson Etheridge was born in North Carolina in 1819. He moved to Tennessee in 1831 with his parents an became a lawyer in Dresden, Tennessee. He began his political career in 1845 when he was elected a member of the Tennessee House of Representatives.
He was in and out of the U S House of Representatives. He was a member of the Whig Party, the American Party and the Opposition Party. He was famously pro-slavery. But his connection to Mormonism was his April 2nd, 1860 speech against Polygamy. I have not been able to find online but since it fills 16 manuscript pages, I probably wouldn't include it here anyway.

At question was whether congress should have the authority to legislate against polygamy in the territories. In 1856, the Republican Party added to its platform a plank to end the "twin-relics of barbarism, polygamy and slavery." Prior to this, marriage laws belonged to the States. But anti-polygamy legislation gained wide support from both the north and south in an era when the two agreed on very little.

Emerson is a good example of the conflicted nature of southern politics. While he hated polygamy, he acknowledged that the very same arguments that supported the eradication of polygamy by federal authority could be used against slavery. In the end he voted for the anti polygamy legislation anyway.

He ended his career in Congress with the start of the Civil War. After the war he was active in Tennessee local politics including a run for governor. He died in Dresden, Tennessee in 1902.

Cabins and why I can't take a vacation from my hobbies

Last Week I took some much needed time off from work and hobbies to spend some dedicated time with my wife. We abondoned our children to the care of a college student in our Ward (ha ha ha unsuspecting fool!!) and drove to the Smokey Mountains. While there we happened upon a section of the National Park called Cades Cove. Now I had no idea this was there, but my wife saw something about it in the all the pamphlets she gathered and thought it would be a great way to spend an afternoon.

Cades Cove was settled from the 1820's to the 1930's with a vast majority of the buildings being from the late 19th century. In fact this is the largest collection of 19th century log cabins on the eastern US. All of it exists only because the land was "purchased" in the 1930's and was protected from development since then.

So I walk up to the first cabin and it dawns on me. Somewhere in this collection of 19th century Tennessee cabins is an example of what the the Conder home would have looked like. (So much for leaving my hobbies at home) I have always wondered about things described about the Conder home that didn't fit my preconceived notions about cabins.

1. The Conder home was big enough to hold a Sunday meeting for probably 50 people. I was in perhaps half a dozen log cabins during our trip and saw many others just from the outside. Some were surprizingly large.Yes, 50 people would be crowded, but doable. Even comfortable in a few.
2. Riley was in the loft getting his gun but was not seen by the vigilantes until he came down the stairs. Nearly every cabin I saw had a ceiling all but completely closing off the loft. None of them had a ladder to get to the loft. In every case it was a steep and narrow stair case completely covered and with a door. In most families the sons slept in the loft while the parents and girls and little children slept downstairs.
3. Martin came in through the back door. All the cabins had at least two doors and most had three. In a log cabin, doors are cheap to make.
4. Visey was in the kitchen when the shooting started. Only one cabin I went into had a single room. It was built in 1829. All of the others had 2 to 5 rooms, plus a loft. The kitchen was usually one of the first rooms added to a cabin, since cooking meant heat and in Tennessee, the summers are hot enough indoors without adding to it with cooking.
5. Malinda was shot through the front windows. Framed windows were in every cabin I saw. They appeared to be relatively modern in design, though not with that tilt-in-for-cleaning feature.
6. Jim Conder was at the gate greeting guests. Split rail fencing in a zig zag pattern was cheap, easy to build and easy to modify when you wanted to make your herb garden a little bigger. If you wanted to keep unwanted livestock away from your house and garden, you kept your gate closed, giving Jim a good reason to be at the gate when the guests arrived. What I didn't see was a gate designed to work for the split rail fencing.

Here is a photo of the smallest of the cabins at Cade Cove. Except for the lack of a kitchen it had the features the Conder home did, even a stairway to the loft. The inside was easily 20' by 25'. The Conder family was affluent by Cane Creek standards. Jim had over 300 acres under cultivation and at least one "shed" out back. The average family in 19th century Tennessee would, in addition to the main home, need a smoke house, a corn crib, a barn, and an outhouse.

Thomas A. Kercheval: dedicated anti-polygamist

Thomas was born in Maury County Tennessee on January 16th 1837 to Thomas Kercheval and Mary M Kennedy. He went to Virginia for Law school at Emory and Henry College. He passed the bar in Tennessee 1860 and practiced law in Fayetteville, Lincoln County. After a couple of years he began a political career as the U. S. Provst Marshal from 1862-1864, which required him to move to Nashville. That position alone demonstrates he must have been loyal to the Union. He was a member of the Unionist Party and the Republican Party.

Somehow he was appointed by the reconstruction government to the Tennessee General Assembly from Lincoln County in 1865 until 1867. His appointment cause quite a stir since he no longer lived in Lincoln County. Afterwards he practiced law in Nashville until his election back to the General Assembly from 1869-1871, this time representing the Davidson County (Nashville).

He served in the City Council fron 1871 to 1872, and then as Mayor of Nashville from 1872-1873. In 1874 he married Alice G Brien, the daughter of a Nashville judge. He then returned to as Mayor of Nashville in 1875 until 1883.

In 1885 he was elected to the General Assembly again where he served until 1887. It was during this third stint in the General Assembly that he authored a bill which prohibited the teaching of polygamy in the State of Tennessee. As far as I can tell, it was enforced only once.

He went back to city government, serving as Mayor from 1886 to 1887 (yes, I saw the overlap.) and then as a member of the Board of Public Works from 1888 to 1893. Afte his public service was over he continued practicing law in Nashvile until "infirmaties of age" required him to retire. Thomas died on March 22, 1915 and is buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery in Nashville.

Mr. Eaton's Trial

A few days ago Last Lemming asked if I knew the results of the trial of Rev. Eaton, a minister who not only beat up an LDS Elder, and knew who burned down the local LDS meetinghouse, but was on trial for the rape of his benefactor's wife. The information was not anywhere I could find on-line. So I went to the State Archives to find out. Tennessee Supreme Court documents are kept in the Manuscript section, so I figured they would know where I could find other court records too. The archivist suggested the court minutes for the county in question so I pulled the correct microfilm and started reading. 

D. J. Eaton was arrested for the rape of Alice Rouse in March 1900. But the court minutes are a little weird. The grand jury returned an indictment with two contradictory statements. The first statement said that Alice was under the age of 12. The very next charge says Alice was over the age of 12 but under the age of 16. Other statements clarified that the two were not married and that Alice was not a prostitute, which is another topic altogether.

So, now that I know her name, I look her up in the census to find out how old she was. Turns out she was 30 years old which contradicts the two age ranges given in the court minutes. So is this a legal maneuver to state all the possible crimes when the court does not know the age of the victim?

But it gets stranger. 

Eaton does not make bail and is held under court custody until his trial 97 days later at a cost of $40.80 which I estimate at about $2,810 in todays currency. Maybe he is considered a flight risk since he was not from the area. The minutes do not explain. And, no, that is not the strange part.

When his trial does start on June 8th, 1900, in what I believe to be a rare event (correct me if I am wrong) every last one of the jurors and alternates assigned to the case failed to show up for the trial. And the court minutes names them. All 26 of them are fined $5.00 for not showing up. This, of course, pushes the trial to the next day when 12 completely different people - also named in the court minutes - promptly (1 day) acquit Mr. Eaton of all charges. The judge directs the clerk to cover the cost of Mr. Eaton's jail time and he is set free.

Now I have been called on jury duty before. And sometimes not enough people show up for the jury pool to be large enough for a valid trial. But I have never heard of every one not showing up. I can only imagine what might cause such an event. Jury tampering is the first to come to mind. Plus if it is so obvious that he is innocent, that the trial and jury deliberation takes 1 day, then why was he indicted in the first place. No, something smells here.

[As a side note, in every Census (1910, 1920, and 1930) Alice listed her age as 29 years younger than her husband, except for the 1900 Census which she clearly states she in only 19 years younger than her husband. If I accept the age as declared in the three later census records, at the time of the trial, James was 59 years old and Alice was 30, nearly half the age of her husband. James and Alice were married in 1892 and were still married and living together in the 1930 census. They had only two children: one in around 1895 and a second in around 1901. Either they were reconciled over the events that led to the trial enough to have another child of their own, or the child was Rev. Eaton's. My bet is on reconciliation, since they were still married 30 years later. But to be honest, that isn't really proof. But it is totally irrelevant to LDS History.]

An Hour in the Archives

Most of you reading this are probably thinking this is about the Church Archives. Well, it isn't. I live some 2,000 miles from the Church Archives, so if I go, I'll want to spend more than a hour there. No, this is about the Tennessee State Library and Archives in Nashville. I go to the Archives to find stuff I can't get on-line. I don't usually get more than an hour at a time, and sometimes I get less. But you can accomplish a lot in just an hour. Every state capital probably has a similar institution. Even our public library has some of the same services at the reference desk. So if live or work near an Archive like this and you are wondering if you can do somethin in only an hour, the answer is Yes!

11:55 AM  Sign in at the front desk. At the TN Archives, you have to register as a user to get by the guard at the front door. Registering means you can get a parking pass (free!!) and a card to give to the guard each time you visit. The log book shows only the number on your card so the log book maintains privacy while still keeping track of who is using the Archives.

11:58 AM  Asked the librarian at the reference desk for a book showing the State Senators. Turns out there is a collection of biographies for each of the State Senators. I'm interested in Thomas A. Kercheval and any one else with that last name. Turns out there is only one. The biography offers a more accurate set of dates for his service as Senator, making him in the right place and the right time to author a law which prohibited the teaching of polygamy in Tennessee. I make a copy of the biography (30 cents for 2 pages) and place the book on the cart for re-shelving. Total time: 12 minutes.

12:10 PM  Made my way to the Manuscripts division to find out how to look up court cases. After describing what I was looking for and confessing I didn't know how to find it, the archivists cheerfully helped me out. One showed me the right finding aid for court minutes in Anderson County, Tennessee in 1900 and how to locate the microfilm when I had the number. The microfilm library here is self serve, though they don't want you to refile the films when you are done. I locate a microfilm reader with a copy machine attached, load the film, and scroll to the index. I find three entries for D. J. Eaton and write down the page numbers, five in total. I scroll to the pages I want and make some copies. I have to copy a couple extra pages to get the entire event, but 7 pages (and $1.75) later I rewind the microfilm, place it on the re-shelf table and move on. I wasted 3 minutes getting correct change for the microfilm copier, but I'll do better next time. I didn't waste time trying to decipher the archaic handwriting. I can do that at home or in the hotel next time I am at a client site. If you are lucky, your archives may have software for copying images from microfilm to a pdf file for free. You only have to provide the storage medium. Tennessee's archives, however, does not. Total time: 15 minutes.

12:25 PM  Having completed my predetermined tasks, I go to the reading room and walk back to the section on Lewis County. I already knew where it was but if I didn't I could have just asked. I pull three books which I have seen before, but didn't previously have the time to go through. One is a WPA manuscript from 1938 on the history of Lewis County probably written originally in 1909. In it I find a reference to the Condor family arriving in the area in 1808, when it was still part of Hickman County. I note the reference data and the page number. Another book is a list of members of the Church of Christ covering the same area as Cane Creek. I saw a few names I knew, including at least one who was an LDS member in 1884 but joined the Church of Christ in 1896. I should have made a copy, but it slipped my mind. The last book was court minutes from just before the Civil War. I skimmed from 1854 to 1858 looking for "whatever." I found only a handful of events of interest to me. Most involving relatives of known vigilantes and other key figures like Tom Garrett and John Carroll all in positions of importance and influence. Noticing my time was about up, I placed the volumes on the re-shelving cart and collected my things. Total browsing time: 35 minutes.

1:02 PM Signed out at the front desk, richer in knowledge and $2.05 poorer.

Your results may vary, but even not knowing where to go for some of the stuff I wanted, I accomplished two specific tasks in 28 minutes and had time left over for browsing. The trick? No trick really.

1. Know what you want to find out before you arrive. I had names and dates written on a piece of paper based on the on-line research I had already done. The more you already know, the easier it will be to find when you get there. Notice I didn't spend any time at the card catalogue. I can do that at home. 
2. Don't be afraid to ask for directions. The librarians and archivist want you to succeed. They aren't always right, but they know the archives better than I do. Of course, they are not volunteers, they are paid to be there. Their livelihood depends on knowing this stuff when a legislator come over from next door.

[disclaimer: I don't always find what I am looking for when I go to the archives. But I always enjoy myself.]

British Mormon History

I recently came across a site on British LDS History called MormonHistory.org. It really reminds me of the quality of the "Millenial Star" that the Saints in Britain put together on their own. Unlike some other early LDS publication, the British saints kept it together until it was replaced by the Liahona. The site is well organized and covers a broad array of topics and interests. But it does so with the understanding that Mormon History is not just what happened in America in general and Utah specifically. And British Mormon History is not just what the missionaries did in Great Britain.

To be honest I'm a little jealous they came up with it first. I have been mulling over something like this for a couple of months for the Southern States. Perhaps a reborn "Latter Day Saint Southern Star." Perhaps this British site is a good example of how it can be done.

You can't make this stuff up

The following was printed in the Clinton Gazette, of Clinton Tennessee on March 10th 1900.

Whereas, Our friend, Brother Eaton, came in contact with a Mormon Elder and gave him a genteel thrashing; Resolved, that we, as a Sunday School, tender him our thanks for his righteous deed:
Second, that if he got his clothes soiled in the combat, we will gladly pay for having them washed:
Third that a copy of these resolutions be sent to Brother Eaton, and one to the county paper for publication.

This rather surprising endorsement of Mr. Eaton’s violent behavior is only the beginning. According to same newspaper, Mr. Eaton was a minister of the Zion Baptist Church at Wolf Valley, Tennessee. At the time of the publication of the resolution Mr. Eaton was languishing in a prison cell awaiting trial for the rape of a Mrs. Rouse. The Rouse family had been his host for the previous four months since his arrival in Wolf Valley from North Carolina.

Mr. Eaton’s defense was that the relationship had been consensual making him guilty of adultery instead of rape. He insisted that her accusation was merely to defend her honor. But even more interesting was that Mr. Eaton threatened to reveal the identity of the arsonist responsible for burning down the local Mormon Church in March or April of 1899, unless she recanted her accusation. You can’t make this stuff up.

Much of this comes from the The Wolf Among Lambs in the Latter Day Saint Southern Star Volume 2 Page 140. I have not been able to find a reference to the burning down of the church in the “History of the Southern States Mission” except perhaps a vague reference in March 1899 to “one or two disturbances” in that part of Tennessee. Nor have I been able to identify the Elder that Mr. Eaton was supposed to have given a “genteel thrashing.”