Middle & East Tennessee Conferences - 1917

In 1917 the Middle Tennessee Conference covered most of Tennessee west of the Cumberland Plateau, including Nashville and Memphis. The East Tennessee Conference included Knoxville, Johnson City and technically Chattanooga.

There was no longer a West Tennessee Conference. Persistent violence had led to it being dissolved quietly several years earlier. The missionaries and the areas they covered were split up between the other surrounding conferences. There was also a Southwest Tennessee Conference but it too was dissolved/absorbed into the Middle Tennessee Conference. After the dissolution, missionaries from neighboring states would sometimes visit, Mississippi being the principle contributor due to the proximity of Memphis. With the formation of the Middle States mission in 1902 and the inclusion of Tennessee in that new mission, the pieces of west Tennessee were rolled into the already functioning Middle Tennessee Conference.

The East Tennessee conference included several counties in western North Carolina. Again it was the formation the Middle States mission that necessitated changing the conference boundaries, chaaging the East Tennessee Conference so that it just included east Tennessee. Accompanying those changes was the redefinition of the separation between Middle Tennessee and East Tennessee. Half a dozen counties, all on the Cumberland Plateau, we moved to the eastern conference. The final result is what you see above.

The two portions technically covered the entire state, but with one outlier: Chattanooga. In 1917 that city served as the mission headquarters. The office staff resided there nearly full time. The staff would proselyte as their other duties would permit. Sometimes they would accompany the president (Charles Callis in 1917) as he toured the mission. They would take the opportunity the preach, tract or street contact with the missionaries in the areas they visited. Other times they would stay in Chattanooga and proselyte there. How much did they proselyte? Well, in 1917, of the 5 baptisms in Hamilton county, only one was in Chattanooga. That was Josephine Callis, the 8 year old daughter of Charles and Grace Callis.

In all of 1917 I have identified 48 missionaries there were assigned to Tennessee, not counting the Mission President. From this I can tell pretty quickly that the Middle Tenn Conf had between 9 & 14 missionaries throughout the year. East Tenn had between 8 & 11, slightly smaller but still comparable. The mission office had far fewer, operation with as few as 3, being wholy different in purpose and function.

For a better view click on the image

Note that this chart only shows the time when the missionary was assigned to Tennessee. While many would spend their entire mission in one Conference, a few moved between conferences and in some cases only appear on this chart for a few weeks. One missionary, Nellie Rindlisbacher, moved from Middle Tennessee to East Tennessee during 1917, and so shows up on this chart twice.

So did I miss anyone? If so, raise your hand...

For the purposes of search-ability I'll include the missionaries' names in text below.

Missionary	Conference
Henry Child	Midd Tenn
Mabel Jane Pettit	Midd Tenn
Nellie Rindlisbacher	Midd Tenn
Harvey Dalton	Midd Tenn
Thomas Wilson	Midd Tenn
Murl Hunter Gibson	Midd Tenn
George W Barrus	Midd Tenn
Nels Ursel Anderson	Midd Tenn
Francis VaNoy Smith	Midd Tenn
Joseph Earl Burrup	Midd Tenn
Silas Whitney Ward	Midd Tenn
Melvin John Rudd	Midd Tenn
Joseph F Ray	Midd Tenn
James Albert Muir	Midd Tenn
George Earl Baldwin	Midd Tenn
Samuel L Smith	Midd Tenn
Perry Walker Smith	Midd Tenn
Erin Lafayette Tolman	Midd Tenn
Estella Grace Tolman	Midd Tenn
Judson L Tolman	East Tenn
Hyrum Earnest Leavitt	East Tenn
Walter Gordon Willis	East Tenn
Newell Jensen Horsley	East Tenn
Lewis George Winter	East Tenn
Charles L Flake Jr	East Tenn
Loran J Blain	East Tenn
Ernest Frederick Zaugg	East Tenn
Joseph Franklin Jensen	East Tenn
Ernest Langston	East Tenn
Susie May Porritt	East Tenn
Nellie Rindlisbacher	East Tenn
Thomas Charles Sutton	East Tenn
Charles Rich Clark	East Tenn
Edmund Lionel LeCheminant	East Tenn
Miles Shirley Winder	East Tenn
Ellen Lavina Maxwell	East Tenn
Alonzo Harmon Price	Chattanooga
Otto Marti	Chattanooga
Brigham Roche Wheeler	Chattanooga
Anna Elizabeth Forslund	Chattanooga
Joseph Soelberg	Chattanooga
Ray Temple Cutler	Chattanooga
Odessa E Allred	Chattanooga
William Enser	Chattanooga
Alice Yancey	Chattanooga
Sadie Irene Crouch	Chattanooga
Charles Franklin Steele	Chattanooga
William Dalby Anderson	Chattanooga