Louisa J. Beechum: Her Testimony

This letter was published in the Southern Star on December 23, 1899.

Magnolia, Tenn
Editor Southern Star

If you will give me space in your paper for a few lines I desire to say a few words in regard to what I have learned about the Mormons and their doctrine. It was in the month of December 1886 when two Mormon Elders called at our house to inform us that they would preach at the school house following Sunday. I went to hear them and to my surprise I heard the Gospel of Christ taught for the first time in my life. It cut me to the heart like a two edged sword. I was determined to follow the teachings of the Scriptures and investigate their doctrines. I soon became a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints and I am thankful to my Father in heaven that I have been permitted to live and partake of the Gospel of my blessed Savior. I have a testimony for myself that the Gospel which is taught by the Latter day Saints is the same as taught by the Savior and His Apostles and that Joseph Smith was a true Prophet of God and if we will live up to and obey the teachings of that Gospel it will lead us into the Kingdom of God while those who do not obey will come under condemnation. I now pray that the blessings of God may forever rest down upon the Church from the greatest unto the least and last ordained I remain your sister in the Gospel.

Mrs Louisa [J] Beechum

Louisa J. Beechum, who went by the nickname Eliza, was born on November 25th, 1861 to Nimrod Triplett and Amanda Busby. At the age of 18, she married Henry Harrison Beechum in neighboring Humphreys County. The two settled along Whiteoak Creek forty miles to the north. The nearest community was Magnolia in Houston County, Tennessee near the mouth of where Whiteoak Creek runs into the Tennessee River.  There in 1886, they first met the LDS missionaries. A couple of the people in the area joined the Church in 1887 and in 1888. But it would be 10 years, August 9th in 1896, before she along with a handful of her relatives accepted baptism at the hand of Elder Henry A. Grover. Eliza remained true to the faith until her death on February 2nd, 1914, in Houston County, Tennessee.