tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26453796311355479972024-03-19T03:48:23.038-05:00Amateur Mormon HistorianA blog exploring Mormon history from my vantage point in rural Tennessee.Brucehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01543519825711760773noreply@blogger.comBlogger705125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2645379631135547997.post-52170452212982640672018-09-25T09:00:00.000-05:002018-10-08T10:27:09.366-05:00Featherston Family, Erstwhile EmigrantsOne of the frustrating things about tracking emigrating members is the increasing tendency towards mobility. In today's world we will drive or fly across the country for a wedding, or a funeral, or even a vacation. Some of us will do it without much thought, while for others it might be a considerable financial outlay. A hundred years ago the cost was much greater, when compared to average incomeBrucehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01543519825711760773noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2645379631135547997.post-62567534777927368872018-05-14T09:00:00.000-05:002018-05-14T09:00:08.653-05:00John & Rebecca Denton: Repeated Returnees
John & Rebecca Denton Family:
Back - L to R: Ezekiel, Robert, Sam, Alma
From - L to R: John, Rebecca, Dora
John & Rebecca joined the LDS Church on February 22nd, 1882. The were part of the Cedar Creek Branch and had been taught by Elders Robert Spence and Daniel R Bateman. Two years later in March 1884, the family emigrated to Colorado. John's parents had emigrated to Colorado in Brucehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01543519825711760773noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2645379631135547997.post-28257947560725473062018-04-30T09:00:00.000-05:002018-04-30T09:09:29.126-05:00Katherine Alexander and Her Return from GatheringThere were a number of people who joined the LDS Church that decided to go west. Following the doctrine of gathering they moved their families to where the other Latter Day Saints were living. A few, for a variety of reasons decided that after having gathered that they wanted to return home. In the case of my research that meant coming back to Tennessee. In this project I have identified a Brucehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01543519825711760773noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2645379631135547997.post-78978848283044905372018-04-29T09:00:00.000-05:002018-09-24T11:55:30.175-05:00The Returnees: A Project to Identify Why Some Converts Wanted to Return HomeSometimes when a convert moves west to join the saints, something changes their mind and they return home. In some cases we might get to know the thought process behind their decisions. In most cases, however, We are left with few clues to understand their decisions.
I have seen other families return for financial reasons. Finding work and starting over turned out to be too much. For a lucky fewBrucehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01543519825711760773noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2645379631135547997.post-60772558698670817052018-04-11T09:00:00.000-05:002018-04-11T09:00:09.249-05:00Middle Tennessee Baptismal Record - Lessons LearnedNestled in the family search catalog is something called the Record of Members. It is a location specific, hand written record of people who joined the LDS Church. To find it you have to know where you want to look. In my case it is Tennessee.
There are a few of them for Tennessee, which are the only ones I have looked up. There is an East Tennessee one and a Southwest Tennessee one. But the bigBrucehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01543519825711760773noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2645379631135547997.post-24439368416875485962018-01-18T09:00:00.000-06:002018-01-18T09:00:38.746-06:00Baptisms in 1918 by County
It may not look like a lot, but baptisms in Tennessee were picking up. Yes, there was still a war going on. But that was looking like it was coming to a close, which it did in November. True, there was also the Spanish Flu going around. In fact, in October 1918, just before the war ended, Nashville would see one of the largest outbreaks of the flu in the nation.
But there were some positive Brucehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01543519825711760773noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2645379631135547997.post-86891319043398842782018-01-13T09:00:00.000-06:002018-01-13T09:00:26.497-06:00Alfred Douglas Young - Part 5 Leaving Tennessee[This is a continuation of the Autobiography of Alfred Douglas Young, quoted and summarized from his recollections in 1888.]
My brother William and myself returned to our homes in west Tennessee [Gibson county]. We continued to preach to some in that region and baptized quite a number of persons. Sometime in April my brother and myself arranged our affairs to gather to Nauvoo. In the midst of Brucehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01543519825711760773noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2645379631135547997.post-15030882446966751622018-01-07T09:00:00.000-06:002018-01-07T09:00:30.216-06:00Alfred Douglas Young - Part 4 Seeds of Misunderstanding[This is a continuation of the Autobiography of Alfred Douglas Young, quoted and summarized from his recollections in 1888.]
Alfred and Billy Young arrived at area of their relatives home, in present day Putnam County, and met a young man who while visiting a friend near Nauvoo had already "...been baptized, ordained an elder, and sent back to his friends to preach the gospel..." His name was Brucehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01543519825711760773noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2645379631135547997.post-45250664059226162512018-01-03T09:00:00.000-06:002018-01-03T09:00:26.237-06:00Alfred Douglas Young - Part 3 Raised from the Dead[This is a continuation of the Autobiography of Alfred Douglas Young, summarized from his recollections in 1888.]
When Alfred Young, Billy Young, and Daniel Hunt arrived in Smith County they first stopped they in the home a "Mr" Hunt, a cousin of Daniel Hunt's. Mr Hunt, who I have not been able to identify, was not friendly with them at first but tolerated their religion because of hisBrucehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01543519825711760773noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2645379631135547997.post-44513175618547642952017-12-26T10:00:00.000-06:002017-12-26T10:00:19.243-06:00Alfred Douglas Young - Part 2 Evil Spirits[This is a continuation of the Autobiography of Alfred Douglas Young. Written from his recollections in 1888. with some annotations added by me in square brackets]
Two days after we arrived among our friends near Springfield in [Robertson] County about 25 miles north of the city of [N]ashville. We were hospitably received by a Mrs. [Sarah] Dorris who was my aunt. She had heard something about Brucehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01543519825711760773noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2645379631135547997.post-65713962287588894892017-12-18T11:00:00.000-06:002017-12-22T22:43:09.363-06:00Alfred Douglas Young - Part 1 Conversion
[This is an excerpt from the Autobiography of Alfred Douglas Young. Written from his recollections in 1888, with some annotations added by me in square brackets]
Alfred was one of the earliest converts in Tennessee. Born on 13 Apr 1808 in Springfield, Tennessee to Jacob Young and Mary Boren. According to Alfred, his parents were separated when he was young due to a misunderstanding about how Brucehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01543519825711760773noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2645379631135547997.post-22248078647779457292017-11-14T09:00:00.000-06:002018-10-02T14:37:07.656-05:00George W Brandon writes a Letter.
On July 6, 1842, George wrote the following letter in Nauvoo. George was an early convert to the Church in Tennessee (in 1835?) and he eventually became a local leader in the branch and was called as a missionary there before he emigrated in 1842 to Nauvoo.
[To put this letter in context, let's talk a little bit about memory. George Brandon wrote that he was baptized on 25 March 1835 by WilfordBrucehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01543519825711760773noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2645379631135547997.post-52563520534734038892017-09-01T09:00:00.000-05:002017-09-01T14:35:33.246-05:00Names You Can't Read: The Badam FamilyI can't say I found the Badam family. As far as the Church is concerned, that happened years ago in a corner of Putnam County Tennessee. But I will say I found a piece of their history.
One of my current projects is identifying each convert from the state of Tennessee. It isn't a greatly needed project, or even something valuable to anyone but perhaps me. But it is something that has led me to aBrucehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01543519825711760773noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2645379631135547997.post-56446596373245534822017-07-17T09:00:00.000-05:002017-07-18T07:15:11.742-05:00The Lost Records of Mary E DukesWhile transcribing an old baptismal record I happened across a cryptic entry saying
"Entered by Order of Pres Callis. No past Record of this"
The record was otherwise sparse. The name was almost unreadable but I was able to make out
Dukes, Mary E[illegible]
The baptism date only generally indicated as "about 1894" with the missionary's name who baptized her identified only as "ElderBrucehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01543519825711760773noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2645379631135547997.post-10363559480606093142017-07-10T09:00:00.000-05:002017-07-10T15:30:55.433-05:00Slate Springs Tennessee ChapelI won't go into a full history of the Slate Springs branch here, but I came across some photos of one of their meeting houses and thought I would post an addendum dealing just with this building.
In 1946 two sister missionaries, Rowena Russell and Meta Johnson, began collecting pledges from members for the building a chapel. Friends and local businesses chipped in as well. At the time the ChurchBrucehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01543519825711760773noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2645379631135547997.post-55979944804850045522017-07-03T09:00:00.000-05:002017-07-03T09:00:37.620-05:00Speedwell ChapelSpeedwell Tennessee entered Mormon history in 1908 with the baptism of Josiah & Harriet Haynes. Several of their children joined too, including a daughter, Pearly Shipley. She opened her home to missionaries when they came through, though at first it was only about once a year. The missionaries split their time between the Shipley family and the Haynes family. But it was widely understood Brucehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01543519825711760773noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2645379631135547997.post-12727490433159547392017-06-26T09:00:00.000-05:002017-06-26T09:00:10.666-05:00Short Creek ChapelShort Creek is a unassuming place along the east side of the Tennessee river in south west Perry County, Tennessee.
This undated photo looks like it was taken in the late 1930's or early 1940's. That matches the other evidence I have for a branch at Short Creek. The chapel was built in 1928 and dedicated by Charles Callis. Attendance was small, often only consisting of only the Brucehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01543519825711760773noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2645379631135547997.post-51849051792059270472017-06-19T09:00:00.000-05:002017-06-19T09:00:13.571-05:00News from Tennessee Conferences 19 Jun 1917Brucehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01543519825711760773noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2645379631135547997.post-78636008961445946662017-06-12T17:00:00.000-05:002017-06-12T17:00:13.663-05:00News from Tennessee Conferences 12 Jun 1917Brucehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01543519825711760773noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2645379631135547997.post-66426507809198611562017-06-12T09:00:00.001-05:002017-06-12T11:18:04.907-05:00Nashville Chapel circa 1959In 1959 the Nashville branch of the LDS Church met in this building. For those who know Nashville it is on the west end of town, halfway between Montgomery Bell Academy and Highway 440. It is a very nice part of town.
I've not been able to determine when the LDS Church bought the home or when they vacated it. Online records just don't go back far enough. It is a private residence now. Brucehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01543519825711760773noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2645379631135547997.post-59553860188553664282017-06-05T12:00:00.000-05:002018-10-02T14:37:42.550-05:00 A Place for the Un-Gathered: The Home of Abraham and Mary Church of Hickman County Tennessee[Below is an abridged version of my presentation at the 2017 Mormon History Association conference in St. Louis, Missouri last week. - BAllen]
In 1982 Historian Jill Garrett took several photographs of “the old Mormon place” along the banks of the Duck River in Tennessee. It was part of an historic community called Shady Grove. The photographs which Mrs. Garrett took would be the last Brucehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01543519825711760773noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2645379631135547997.post-15902932663684587372017-05-29T09:00:00.000-05:002017-06-04T21:54:51.923-05:00News from Tennessee Conferences 29 May 1917Brucehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01543519825711760773noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2645379631135547997.post-42918857237467528842017-05-22T09:00:00.000-05:002017-06-04T21:54:39.964-05:00News from Tennessee Conferences 22 May 1917Brucehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01543519825711760773noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2645379631135547997.post-67003194144864115482017-05-15T09:00:00.000-05:002017-06-04T21:54:29.553-05:00News from Tennessee Conferences 15 May 1917Brucehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01543519825711760773noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2645379631135547997.post-77822363776043719092017-05-01T09:00:00.000-05:002017-06-04T21:38:25.181-05:00News from Tennessee Conferences 1 May 1917Brucehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01543519825711760773noreply@blogger.com0