The Unexpected Pin - Elder Cullimore Part 8

A continuation of Elder Cullimore's mission Recollections...

After I had been in the mission field about eighteen months, President Kimball asked me how long I had been out.  He said, "You will be going home about October Conference".  In my wife's letter she asked me if I had heard anything about when I might be released.  After the conversation with President Kimball I told her what he had said.  Soon after this we received word that it was not a two-year mission, but a two or three-year mission, or as the Lord desired us to remain.  I had to tell my wife what I had learned.  The next letter from her was the most blue and disappointing one she had ever sent me.  Naturally it hurt me to know how blue she was.  I was very sad and blue myself over it. Her birthday was coming on the 30th of September, and how I wished I had something to send her for it.  I had no money and no way of getting her anything for her birthday.  I thought it might cheer her up if I could send her some little remembrance, and that it would also do something for my own morale.

I prayed earnestly that this desire could be accomplished. As I fasted, I would especially mention this in my prayers.

In our tracting White County, we had to visit a section on the Cumberland Mountains.  It was a flat section on top, very scarcely settled; and the people living there were very poor. The land was so very poor, they could scarcely make a living. The few houses were scattered about two miles apart, and there was very little travel in the area.  We were walking on one of these roads where it looked as though there hadn't been any traffic on it for months.  My companion walked in one track, and I walked in the other.   As we were going along I discovered a beautiful brooch or breast pin lying in the road.  My companion was as surprised as I was.  He said, "Where could it have come from, a new pin on a card just as it would have come from the manufacturer." And it looked as if there hadn't been anyone along there in months.  If there had been, no one in the area could have afforded a pin like it.

I told my companion how I had fasted and prayed for a present to send my wife on her birthday.  He said, "This is the answer to your prayers".  I kept the pin several days and asked the people in the area if they had lost it.   In each case they said, "No, we could not afford a pin like that".  So I secured a little box, and mailed it home to my wife for her birthday.  She was surprised upon receiving it, and wondered how I got the money to buy such a beautiful present.  She wore it until I came home; and when I told her how I got it, that it was given to me for her in answer to prayer, she stopped wearing it for fear she would lose it.  She still holds it as a dear possession.

Newspaper Articles on Sparta, Tennessee

Sparta, Tennessee today has its own branch of the church and recently had a renovated building dedicated as a chapel. But once Sparta was the headquarters of the Middle Tennessee Conference of the Southern States Mission. Elder J. Urban Allred, presided over that conference. He recorded in his journal two newspaper articles written at the time.

SPARTA FAVORITE

February 9, 1900                                                                                                       Editor R. P. Baker                       

                                                                                                                              

Lots of Mormon Elders are now tramping over the country distributing their literature in an endeavor to make proselites to their faith. Two were calling on Sparta people this week. But Sparta people always were patient and forbearing. The Quebeck correspondent of the American says they have been in that section preaching the persecution of Brigham Roberts, the man kicked out of Congress. These “Saints,” as they delight to style themselves, don't advocate polygamy in every house they enter, but they believe in it, as one of them acknowledged to a citizen of Sparta some time ago. We shall shortly publish a full exposure of their nefarius doctrine and practices in Utah, as made by one of the best men in Tennessee, who spent some time in Utah and investigated for himself. The gentleman referred to stands high both in church and State affairs, and what he says can be relied on. We also see it stated in the papers that they have moved their headquarters from Nashville to this place.

SPARTA EXPOSITOR

February 9, 1900                                                                                

J. G. Snodgrass, editor.

We understand that the headquarters of the Mormon church for the Middle Tennessee District have been moved to Sparta from Nashville, with Elder J. W. Allred, of Utah, in charge. There are about forty elders in this district. They are all in good health, and seem to be busily engaged in distributing tracts and collecting provisions. They are evidently paying expenses and getting some encouragement in some sections. Ordinarily, it is not much of a compliment for Mormons to attack a community. It either indicates that ignorance or a tempting supply of provisions exist in a section -- in this case the latter, we presume.

What passes for Mormon history in White County Tennessee

It isn't very often that I find mention of Mormons in the various county records in Tennessee. And sometimes what I find can be less than correct. From a 1935 edition of a History of White County I found the following:

Mormons

The first Mormon who came to White County for any length of time was named Miller. He preached here and in adjoining counties all summer, but when autumn came, his dead body was found under a flat rock in Putnam County. This was in 1887. Two years later, the Southern Convention of Mormons with headquarters at Chattanooga was held at the Sparta Courthouse. At that time forty-five members were taken into the Mormon Church. Prof. James Nowlin, a prominent teacher, and Van Haston, County Surveyor, joined them, the former going to Utah.

There is so much here, where do I start.

To misquote Mark Twain, I think the report of Elder Miller's death was exaggerated. I have so far found four Elder Millers in Tennessee. Jacob Franklin Miller who served in an area from Wilson to Putnam County area from 1883 to 1885. He was sought for by a mob, which through a series of commedic actions they kept missing each other. Thankfully he made it home safely or he would never have met and married my great grandmother.

The second and third were Joseph Miller who was in White County in 1901, and Melvin P. Miller from Murry, Utah who was in Humphries County in 1902. I don't really have anything else on these two.

The fourth was Heber Chase Miller who served in Tennessee from 1905 to 1907 He also made it home to get married in 1908. Certainly this Elder Miller was too late to be the one who was in White County. Plus he served in the far Eastern part of Tennessee, in Jonesboro, No where near White County.

As for the rest of the history of Mormonism, Sparta, the White County seat, did serve as a headquarters for the missionaries in the east Tennessee Confernce for a few years. So I have no doubt there was a conference in Sparta at some point.

And the names of two converts: James Nowlin and Van Haston, I find particulary interesting.

James Edmond Nowlin joined the Church on Dec 11th 1897. His wife had joined in 1895 and three children in later years. Mission records indicate he emigrated to Salt Lake City, though no year was given.

Van Haston perplexed me. The closest I found was a David Levander Haston who joined in 1897 too (his wife also joined in 1895).

But I think that we can safely assume the writer knew little of Mormonism, and took even less time verifying the stories he heard. For example, earlier in the book he wrote the following poorly constructed sentence.

Our early history was one of religious polemics, as is been in the rise of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church and the Mormon Church in 1810,...

I just don't what to say about that date.

Today there is not a chapel in White County, but there is a branch in Sparta which includes all of White and Van Buren Counties and the southern half of Putnam County. I can't find an address for where they meet, just the Branch President's phone number so perhaps they meet in someone's house.