George 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 Wilford Woodruff and that his wife was baptized by Elder Woodruff in September 1835. Assuming his "autobiography" was indeed an autobiography - of which I am not convinced - there is at least one issue. Brandon's claim is certainly wrong since on the 25th of March 1835, Wilford Woodruff was mucking through mud in Arkansas, no where near Henry County. He would not arrive in Henry county until the 9th of April. Does that invalidate the whole account? Not really. Well, maybe. If he didn't really write it, then yes. But assuming that he did I would start by believing it was his memory which was at issue. Either he got the date wrong or the person wrong. It happens. As malleable as memory is, either is possible. With that example of an already proven faulty memory I present something else he wrote, from memory. -  BAllen]

This 1845 map is the closest I could find to 1842, the date of
Geo W Brandon's letter, that correctly showed Benton County
which until 1836 was part of Humphreys County. It also shows
the location of the Cumberland Irons Works which he names.

Dear Brother:
In as much as I have lately arrived at the place from Tennessee, I feel it a duty that I owe to God and myself and also my brethren to give you a short account of the state and condition of the Church and brethren in the counties of Henry, Stewart and Mongomery, Tennessee, as far as I have knowledge of their standing.

I will give a short account of the Charity Branch which branch was raised up by myself in 1839, and was organized with seven members, some of whom lived in Henry County and some in Benton County. Our most usual place of holding meetings was in a few hundred yards of the county line between the aforesaid counties and near to where they cornered.

My labors since I was ordained an Elder have been extended from Joseph Chunness on Blood River, Henry County, through the northeast corner of Benton County, thence across the Tennessee River in a southeasterly direction to Wills Creek, thence north across the Cumberland River at the Cumberland Iron Works. Thence a little east at north nine miles to Nathaniel Abners, in Montgomery County . . . My labors were extended, as before stated from Blood River, Henry County, to Montgomery County, Tennessee. Although Benton and Stewart Counties, making a circuit of 80 miles in length.     

Throughout this circuit I have preached all I could. My circumstances being very limited I suppose I have preached about 500 sermons in the last three years and baptized some 26 persons. My circumstances have been such that compelled me to labor all the while for the support of my family and not only this, I was near $200 in debt, which I had no way of paying only by my labors, which I have paid, excepting a few dollars that was given to me this last spring by my sister, Abigail Brandon. I suppose she gave me as much as $15 in money. A good many of the poor sisters and brothers have helped me to a little provision as they could spare. I have suffered some loss by the mobs of Benton and Henry Counties, Tennessee. But out of all these troubles the Lord has delivered me, for which I thank and adore His name. . .

And here is where the letter, at least the copy I have, ends. George was eye witness to the early days of the Church in Tennessee. Had he lived longer, he might have written about those early days and we'd know more of what he remembered. But he died in 1849 in Iowa, earning money to make it to the Salt Lake Valley. His widow, Keziah Brandon made it a couple years later. Now if only Keziah wrote something....

Elders assulted at Pine Bluff

Quoted in the Latter-day Saint Southern Star on September 9, 1899
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ELDERS ASSULTED
President J. Urban Allred wrote the following particulars relative to the raiding of the meeting at Pine Bluff, sixteen miles from Dover, Stewart county, Tenn.: "While holding the last of a series of meetings at Pine Bluff on Sunday night, we were disturbed several times by a mob throwing stones an eggs at the school house in which we were preaching. When [the] meeting closed the crowd dispersed. We expected to be assaulted, so Elders Stewart, Poole, Thurber and myself went with the largest crowd and Elders Hyrum Olsen and H. C. Pettey went in another direction. Our party escaped violence, but the other Elders were attacked with rocks from men in ambush. The rocks falling in the purpose for which they were thrown, one of the fiends fired a shot which hit little Mary Harden. The child was just 12 years of age, and her frantic screams on having the ball pierce her leg caused the would-be muderers to flee. As soon as the shot was fired all lights were extinguished, so had any more shooting taken place there would be nothing to determine the exact location of the Elders. Robert, the childs brother, was very much excited until he found that the wound was not fatal. The doctor thinks it necessary to remove the ball.
"Our meeting at the above named place was a most successful and pleasant one. We baptized one honest soul and left the majority of the people our friends, who say the dastardly, and disgraceful affair will be vindicated. A searching party with bloodhounds has been organized to search out the guilty party or parties. It is to be hoped that justice will be meted to those who attempted the lives of the Elders."

The Chattanooga Times had the following account:

MORMON MEETING RAIDED.
Dover, Tenn., Aug. 29,--(Special.)--While two Mormon Elders were holding services at Vinson's school house, fifteen miles below Dover, Sunday night, a raid was made upon the audience by unknown parties. Several rocks were thrown into the crowd. Pistols were fired, and one little girl was shot through the leg. The neighborhood is very much wrought up over the affair, and an effort to detect the guilty parties by aid of bloodhounds is being made.

The same paper of September 1 says:

SUICIDE THOUGH REMORSE.

Dover, Tenn., Aug. 31,--(Special.)--Baston Winson, a farmer of this county, committed suicide Monday night by shooting himself with a pistol and then cutting his own throat. Bloodhounds which were put on the track of the parties that broke up the Mormon meeting and shot a little girl Sunday night tracked up to Vinson's premises, Monday. No arrest was made, however, but Vinson was supposed to be one of the guilty parties. It seems from writing he left on a pillow case that he thought he had killed the little girl and then committed suicide to rid himself of remorse of conscience. The writing was to that effect, and stated that he shot at one of the Mormon Elders and did not intend to hurt anyone else.

Such instances as these impress one very forcibly with the peculiar manner in which the law of retribution works. Those who violate the laws of God must answer for the same, and the fact that men commit sins and are not overtaken in this life does not prove that they escape the hand of justice.
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[Editors note: Today Pine Bluff is a shadow of its former self. Some of the land was flooded when the Kentucky Dam was finished in 1944. The land that wasn't flooded - including the Vinson School where they met - was formed into the Land Beween the Lake National Recreation Area in 1964. The remaining residents were relocated over the next four years.]