Update on Identifying Missionaries using a Weird Trick

OK, so it isn't much of a weird trick, but after patiently waiting for this photo to make it to my inbox, I have to say it was worth it. It confirms some identifications, and not so much on others and in at least one case shows us how wrong we can be.

From the previous post here is the photo we were trying to put names to faces.

And here is the new photo. For context, seven of the missionaries in the top photo are from American Fork. So before they left, some took the photo below. It gives us a pretty good indication of who some of the people would be, and the two photos were taken less than a month apart, and probably in the same suits.

Front Row: Rolfson, Harrington, Houston, & Taylor

Back Row: Hindley, Jacklin, & Buckwater

Based on this new photo Houston is #8, Rolfson is #9, and Jacklin is #10.
Harrington maybe #7, Buckwater maybe #12 & Taylor maybe #13
Hindley is not #6, but he might be #1
That would kick Halliday out of the upper left corner. Halliday's name is on that side of the photo so we could just switch Halliday and Hindley, since we have yet to find any photos of Halliday.

1. John Roland Halliday William Henry Hindley
2. Angus Kepp Nicholson
3. John Mathew Johnson Allen
4. Isaiah Cox Jr
5. Ed - (great find, Joah)
6. William Henry Hindley  John Roland Halliday
7. Leonard Spencer Harrington (maybe)
8. Frederick Moroni Houston (yes)
9. Francis Bent Rolfson (yes)
10. John Jacklin (yes)
11. Thomas Rawlings Smith
12. Albert William Buckwater (maybe)
13. George Thomas Taylor  (maybe)

So what do you all (y'all) think? Am I heading down the right path?

What Weird Trick Will Identify These People? #5 Will Surprise You!

[This blog post will be cross posted at Keepapitchinin and Juvenile Instructor.  - BAllen]

A while back we did a post where we tried to match the names of missionaries on the back of a photo to the faces of the missionaries on the front. Well, today we are going to try that again. Only this time it will be a little harder. We can thank Quincy D. Newell, Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Hamilton College for her interest in this photo.

For a higher resolution and uncropped version of this photo please follow this link to the Church History Library: https://dcms.lds.org/delivery/DeliveryManagerServlet?dps_pid=IE7714343

The photo above has a vague label "Elders at Lookout Mountain, Tennessee," a date range from 1894 to 1905, and no readily visible identifying marks. When viewed in person there is some undecipherable writing in the margins written in black ink on a black background which might be names or perhaps only notes from when it was submitted to the Church Historian's office. None of those marks are visible in the scanned image.

It is a great looking photo. Aside from the scenery, the figures are relatively clear, positioned aesthetically, with a mixture of power poses and casual indifference. It has been used in scholarly and church publications before. LDS Church History tweeted the photo last Sunday. Sometimes it came with a description that disagrees with our tentative identification, though as far as I know, none of the descriptions have named any of the individuals in the photo.

The red letters you see on this version I have added for the sake of this exercise. Amy Tanner Thiriot's (you can see some of her work here: http://theancestorfiles.blogspot.com/) quick eyes identified one of the people in the photo as possibly being Ephraim Nye (marked as 3 above). For those who may not have heard of Elder Nye, don't worry. He was perhaps the shortest tenured mission president at the time.

In the 1902, when Ben E. Rich was President of the Southern States Mission, a decision was made to split the mission in two; north and south. The Northern portion was called the Middle States Mission and Elder Rich was called to be the president. A small portion of the Eastern States Mission (West Virginia) was moved into the Middle States as well. The southern portion would keep the name Southern States Mission. A new president was selected: Ephraim Nye. Within a year, however, while attending to mission business in South Carolina, Elder Nye passed away. The two missions were quickly reunited under President Rich and the Middle States Mission ceased to exist.

But this is not a story of the Middle States Mission, or even President Nye. Our story is about the photo. It is President Nye's possible presence in the photo that is a boon for us. It was common for arriving missionaries to do the tourist thing and visit the top of Lookout Mountain. The mission office was in Chattanooga, and Lookout Mountain was an afternoon excursion for them. The Church History Library has scores of such photos, some labeled, many not. This one falls squarely in the "not labeled" group.

And here is the important part. Chattanooga, Tennessee and the northern portion of Lookout Mountain, was not in President Nye's mission. Tennessee was now part of the Middle States Mission. With the split of the mission, Elder Nye moved the office to Atlanta, Georgia. Thereafter, new missionaries met the mission president in Atlanta, not Chattanooga. A trip to Lookout Mountain would have taken perhaps two days for the round trip, with train and hotel expenses on top of that. A side trip out of the mission with the mission president and new missionaries would be unwarranted. Such a trip likely never happened.

So what about the photo? That looks like President Nye. And those are missionaries, right?  Well, it turns out that there was one time of which we know when President Nye was in Chattanooga with a group of missionaries. On the 28th & 29th of June 1902, President Nye was at the old mission office. President Rich invited President Nye and President McQuarrie of the Eastern States Mission and brought in the Conference presidents from the three missions involved for a chance to meet their new leaders. At the meeting were...

A. Ben E. Rich (Middle States Mission President)
B. Ephraim H. Nye (Southern States Mission President)
C. John G. McQuarrie (Eastern States Mission President)
D. Walter Wright (North West Virginia Conference)
E. John A. Morrison (South West Virginia Conference)
F. Edward John Smith (Chattanooga Mission Office Staff)
G. Joseph H. Peterson (Chattanooga Mission Office Staff)
H. Charles H. Hyde (Chattanooga Mission Office Staff)
I. Nathan Harris (Chattanooga Mission Office Staff)
J. Milton Moody (Mississippi Conference)
K. Lorenzo Crosby (Virginia Conference)
L. Anders Mortensen (Virginia Conference)
M. William H. Wilcox (North Ohio Conference)
N. Jacob Crosby (Florida Conference)
O. Ozro Crockett (Middle Tennessee Conference)
P. Limhi F. Zundel (Georgia Conference)
Q. Joseph Johnson (Kentucky Conference)
R. Henry B. Elder (South Ohio Conference)
S. Eugene C. Miller (North Carolina Conference)
T. Clarence E. Ranck (Alabama Conference)
U. Theodore P. Henderson (South Carolina Conference)
V. Frank L. Brown (Alabama Conference)
W. Howard H. Hale (East Tennessee Conference)

Of course there aren't that many people in the photo. If the photo is related to the conference, our assumption is that not everyone from the meeting opted to go on the trip to Lookout Mountain. President Rich and his office staff had probably been there dozens of times. Most of the other missionaries who were part of the Southern States mission had probably been there once or twice themselves. It is easy to imagine a few of them deciding to not join the others. And sometimes missionaries had to forego doing the tourist thing because their train was scheduled to depart before the group would return. Many new missionary group photos on Lookout Mountain do not include everyone who started that day for exactly that reason. With so many people returning to so many places, it was unlikely the train schedules would cooperate.

With that in mind, our task has two parts. First: Demonstrate that this photo could indeed have been taken during the June 1902 meeting. If we could identify two or three of the people in the photo as being people on this list, particularly if those identified were not already in the Chattanooga area, that would do it. Second: If this is the list, connect the names with the faces.

Those of you with a keen eye will have already noticed that there is a black man in the photo. His inclusion was certainly deliberate. But I have no clue about his name, or his relationship with the others, thus the mystery. It isn't likely he was one of the missionaries above. I think we all know why (and wish it were otherwise). Identifying the others in the photo might lead to a journal entry or letter describing the event, which in turn may help in identifying him.

So without further ado, on your mark, set, go!

1. John Roland Halliday ? - CHL
2. Angus Kepp Nicholson ?  - CHL
3. John Mathew Johnson Allen - Tyson
4. Isaiah Cox Jr ? - Whizzbang
5. Pond ? - Ryan
6. William Henry Hindley ? - CHL
7. Leonard Spencer Harrington ? Bruce
8. Frederick Moroni Houston ? - Ryan
9. Francis Bent Rolfson - Ryan
10. John Jacklin - Ryan
11. Thomas Rawlings Smith ?  - Ryan/CHL
12. Albert William Buckwater ? - by default
13. George Thomas Taylor ? - Bruce

For extra credit (bragging rights?) Someone with the ability to inspect this photo in person, perhaps someone who lives in the Salt Lake City area, might be willing to look at the writing in the margins to see if they are decipherable. If even one of the names could be teased from the writing that would help in the identification of the photo.

An Old Mission Home in Chattanooga

In 1894, when J. Golden Kimball was president of the Southern States Mission, this home was used as the mission headquarters. Kimball described the home this way....

"The headquarters are at Chattanooga, at a private residence on East Terrace, one of the fashionable streets of this beautiful city."

Kimball doesn't give any hint as to the identities of the people in the photo.

East Terrace does not exist in Chattanooga today. The neighborhood around it had fallen into hard times and suffered from what we would today call urban blight. Plus the roads were not automobile friendly. It was bulldozed out of existence in the early 1960's as part of the West Side Urban Renewal project. (See the Chattanoogan 2006  article on East Terrace here.) Today the site is host to exclusively modern buildings.

A Conference in Memphis 1915

ELDERS OF THE SOUTHERN STATES MISSION.

Top Row from Left to Right:—Charles J. Housley. John H. Stevenson, Francis S.

Lundell. Henry Child. Harvey Dalton, Wm. S. Hamblin. Bottom Row:—Samuel S.

Whitehead, Conway Wilkes, John L. Cleave, Conference President, Ira Gardner, Mission

President- Charles A. Callis, Thomas Wilson, Clarence H. Yates.

The conference at Memphis, Sept. 25th and 26th, was a splendid success. Pres. Callis was with us, stopping over a couple of days before leaving for the West to attend the general conference. He delivered powerful discourses on the principles of the Gospel. The traveling elders spoke well and with convincing power. The priesthood meetings were spirited and all enjoyed the counsel and advice received. Elder Henry Child, of the Virginia Conference, was present at our conference. He has been assigned to labor with us and we welcome him as our companion.

[Although the caption on the photo doesn't say so, this is the Middle Tennessee Conference, held in Memphis Sept 25 & 26, 1915 and published on October 26, 1915.  - BAllen]

Chattanooga Branch (Re)Organized 1932

Above is a photo of the Chattanooga Sunday School published on November 7th, 1933.

At a conference in Late 1932 in Chattanooga, President Miles L. Jones re-organized (according to a note in the mission news) a branch of the Church. Elder Leander Britton, a local Elder and convert since 1900 [see note below], was appointed the President. The note is odd, considering Elder Britton was Branch President before the re-organization, and there was no apparent change.

Although I have not been able to identify most of the people in the photo, Mission President Miles L. Jones appears to be the man on the right in the back (white hat & glasses) and the woman in front of him resembles his wife, Isabelle Chase. Given that he appear to be holding her arm, I think it is a pretty safe bet. In addition to local members President "Lee" Britton, and Elder J. T. Cheek, recent converts in the district include Charles Hollifield, Mary Shelton, Hattie Nash, Olive Nash, James Nash & Benjamin Nash. Some of them (or none) may be in the photo. If the photo was taken on the Jones' February 16, 1933 visit, then Sister Lucile Curtis is likely in the picture as well, since she was touring the mission with the mission president and his wife.

Note: Leander Britton was baptized on Aug 27th, 1900 by J. W. Berry, the son of William S. Berry.

A Family Treasure: a Photo of an early Tennessee LDS Family

One of the treasures from the Church Family Reunion was a photograph. I had been told about the photo before and knew it existed, but I had not been in the right place at the right time to get a copy. I knew one copy was framed on the wall of someone's home. But she lived a ways off and I never got around to inviting myself over to take a photo out of a frame and make a copy. It always seemed like an odd thing to do, anyway.

Two members of the Church family, brothers about my age, approached me on a Thursday night fireside during a LDS/BSA Encampment. Both suggested I should come to a family Reunion being held that Sunday. I figured I probably should go. Two days before I was invited to the reunion, Elizabeth, a friend and blog reader, emailed me asking if I had been successful at getting a copy of the photo I described above. It was perfect timing. The next day the two brothers' mother called me with the same invitation (she had no idea her sons had seen me the night before) I suggested that perhaps the reunion would be a perfect place to bring the photos. She readily agreed.

The reunion was great. There were lots of people, and as promised, a box of framed photos. We dug through the box, removing the pictures from their frames, one by one. We checked the back for labeling and were rewarded most of the time. Some descriptions were detailed; full name, how they were related to the person doing the labeling, even the location in one case. But the photo I wanted the most was not labeled. Tradition said it was the sons of Abraham Church. But he had several sons, and this photo appeared to only show two of them. There were some younger people in the photo too, obviously not sons, but perhaps a grandson and granddaughters. We passed the photo around asking if others knew who the people in the photo was, but without success.

I made a copy, along with copies of the other photos, and when I got home I sent it off to Elizabeth, the friend who had asked for a copy. Twenty four hours later I got an email with a surprise. She had passed the photo along to some other descendants of the Church family and had received back a better copy of the same image. As a bonus it was labeled too.

The original owner, who wrote the label, was Mary Bond McClanahan (nee Shelby), a great granddaughter of Abraham Church. Mary has since passed away. Elizabeth also added her suggestion for a clearer identification of the people in the photo. All four in the back are grandchildren children of Abraham Church.

Phobe Church [Hicks] (1861-1929)
[Robert] Hayden Church (1849-1868)?
Paralee Church [Gerber] (1864-1924)
Mary Ellen "Mollie" Nichols [Anderson] (1859-1941) (grandmother of Mary Bond McClanahan)
[Isaac] Emmons Church (1820-1898)
George Brown Church (1822-1915)

But was the labeling correct? I thought I would start with the assumption that it was and see if the pieces all fit. I started collecting dates (I added them above) to see if the supposed subjects were all alive at the same time. We might also - cautiously - assume that Mary would know her own grandmother. Mary was born in 1915 (and died in 1998) and would have been old enough to have known her grandmother well.

Phoebe and Paralee were sisters, and daughters of Emmons Church. But Hayden has me baffled. It was a commonly used name in the Church family. In fact Emmons had a son named Robert Hayden Church. But he died in 1868, at the age of 19. That man does not look 19 to me. And if the others are who the label says they are, then the two in front would have to have been no more than 46 & 48 years old, and the women in the back would be ages 7, 4 and 9. I'm not buying it.

There were other Haydens in the family. George had a son named Haden Church, but he passed away in 1884 at the age of 21. And Haden Wells Church had a son named Haden Wells Church (1848-1922), but he lived in Utah.

Other options? Well, Phoebe and Paralee had another brother William L. L. Church (1858-1929) who would have been the right age and who lived in the area at least until 1898 (when Emmons passed away).
In 1892 Phoebe married Joel Hicks. The man in the back might have been her new husband. They are standing a bit close, but this doesn't seem like a wedding photo to me.

And why are there people from a wide variety of the family. George and Emmons weren't the last two sons of Abraham. Paralee and Phoebe had other siblings who were alive and well. Mollies mother passed away in 1882, but if you are gathering around some relative, why just these six?  A funeral? Maybe one of the people in the photo no longer lived nearby and came for a visit, and these were the only relatives around. To know that I would have to research biographic information on all of them.

Comparing the image to other images hasn't given me any great revelations. I really have no other photos of the people named on the photo, and my photos of others in the Church family don't compare.

Ultimately this puzzle will have to wait on more research. And it will have to be sooner rather than later. The vast majority of the people at the reunion looked like they had great grandchildren.

Whose home is this?

One of the photos I recently found in the Church History Library is labeled as the "Home of James Conder". It isn't the only photograph so labeled in the Church History Archives. Yes, there are two photographs that make that claim. But they are both wrong. I wasn't sure until I received a digital image of the one I had not seen yet. But now I am sure. The first one I had seen I knew was not of the Conder home because the photo was taken in 1967, and the Conder home was destroyed by fire in 1894 or 1895. The 1967 photo was actually of the home of Isaiah Thomas Garrett. Three of the four missionaries connected to the shooting stayed at the home of Tom Garrett the night before. So the home was connected with the shooting, but is was not the place of the shooting. Originally I thought this second photo would prove to be another image of the same house: Tom Garrett's. There was only one way to know. I had to see it. But living far and away in Tennessee, that meant paying to have the image digitized. Since there were three photos in the file, and because I wanted to be sure, I had to pay for all three to be scanned. So for $15, I was about to be surprised.

It took a couple of weeks, before the CHL did their magic. Honestly they were faster than they said they would be. I have no complaints. But when I opened the link with the images, I did not find the home I was expecting. No way was this the Garrett home, but I wasn't sure whose house it was. Could these really be photos of the Conder home?

I was skeptical. I had been told so many obviously false "facts" about the massacre that I have to doubt whatever I am told. Other than the label on the archive file, what was it that indicated this was actually the site of the massacre? Oddly enough, the original label on the back of the second photo was typed "Home of Martin Conder" and then crossed off and "James Conder" was written in hand above it. The first one did not have the typed label, just the hand written note. James had a father, a brother and a son named Martin. By 1884, all of them had passed away. Of course I can't know for sure, but I suspect the typed name came from a misunderstanding that the home was Martin Conder's because he died at the massacre.

The third photo is an image of James Conder and his wife Malinda Conder. Perhaps something about the other photos might help me with one I was really interested in. All three images have the photography studio name "Hatch & Hatch" stamped on the back. The image of the Conders has obviously been edited. The original was a photo published in 1890.  The original had the two girls in the background, but for this version they had been cropped out. Since it is unlikely the girls were added in 1890, I must conclude that the 1890 version was the source and not the other way around.

Based on the article in which the Conder photo was originally published, it was mailed to B. F. Cummings by the Conders. It was likely he had written the Conders and asked for their photo. But that raises another possibility. Did the Conders also send these photos of their home? If they had, wouldn't Cummings have published them in 1890? I know I would have.

It seemed like a dead end. Then I vaguely recalled that this photo looked like a hand drawn image used in another article on the massacre. Could this photo have been the source for that drawing? I opened my digital file collect to see if they were similar. They weren't. My memory is apparently getting bad. But in the process I came across another photo that was even more like it: the home of Robert Robbins Church. This photo came from a descendant of the Shelby family who bought home after R. R. Church's death. The people in this photo are the Shelbys.

Details from the second photo in the CHL file and a comparison on several points has led me to believe these are the same house. I focused on comparing the shape of the foundation stones, and the position of the windows since building materials and plans were often ordered and could be very similar.

It is sad. I so very much wanted the photo to be what it claimed. I want to know what the home looked like. But now the question is, Is it worth the time and effort to prove that the photo is mislabeled at the CHL? I think I could convince anyone who will listen to me that these are the same house, but proving they are the home of R. R. Church, and not the home of James Conder, is another task altogether.

East Tennessee Elders 1916

 

From 1915 to 1916, there were several changes in the missionaries serving in East Tennessee. Only one Elder was still there, but the number of missionaries was still the same; just seven. 

C. L. Flake, M. G. Shumway, James Baron, H. E. Leavitt, Chas. C. Robertson, O. A. Peterson, L. G. Winter.

East Tennessee Elders 1915

Years ago, missions did not have "zones", the had "conferences". Tennessee was its own conference at first, but by the 1880's split into two Conferences: East Tennessee and West Tennessee. West Tennessee went through several iterations, being split, renamed and merged several times over the years. But East Tennessee remained unchanged.Even today, there is a Knoxville Tennessee Mission with roughly the same boundaries as the old East Tennessee Conference. That mission today probably has over 150 missionaries, though that is just a guess. In 1915, however, there were only seven missionaries.

Jas. J. Fuellenbach, Wm. S. Hamblin, James Baron, J. P. E. Rasmussen, W. H. Todd, A. W. King, E. E. Frasier.

Southern Colorado's Mormon Trail Digitation Program

Many of the saints who emigrated from Tennessee during the late 19th century, ended up in Colorado. Recently I found a site which is collecting photos documenting this. The collection is sponsored by the Alamosa Public Library System at their Southern Peaks Public Library [SPPL] building.

Old Mormon Trails, Colorado

SPPL received a grant from the Colorado Digitization Program (CDP) for a scan center in the library! We have scanned historical photos of early Mormon settlers that you can view from this web site. See what we have digitized!

You can find the collection at the bottom of this page, or go there directly. The first page is an index, showing a thumbnail of 12 photos at a time. The captions are visible only after clicking on the link to each photo.

Trail Builders Class of 1930

Trail Builders Class at Nashville, Tenn.

Sisters Velma Mortensen and Lydia Gibbons, Teachers

Circa 1930. Sometimes I run across photos like this with no names or explanations. The sisters are obviously not in the photo. You can learn more about the Trail Builder program here from Ardis.

Establishing Provenance

 A couple of weeks ago, I received an email asking me about a photo. A woman in Colorado was going through her father's things after he passed away. Among them was a photo album, the origin of which she was unsure. She believed it belonged to her grandfather but it may have been older than that. It included several photographs of Merriner Wood Merrill (of the Quorum of the Twelve) and probably his wives but for the most part they were not labeled and she was having a hard time identifying who were in the images. One of the photos, however, had an inscription. It was little hard to read but she was pretty sure it said.....

"Tribute To the memory of Elders W.S. Berry and J.H Gibbs Who were slain at Condors' Farm, Tenn Aug 10,1884"

She had no idea what this meant so she went to the internet and found my blog. I had indeed seen the photo before.

Several emails later she asked if I would like to have the photo card. She was donating the photos in the album to the DUP, but thought I might appreciate the photo of Gibbs and Berry more. I certainly thought so.

But I wondered at the origins of the photo card. It probably was not placed in the album by her grandfather. He had not been born yet in 1884 And I was not aware of any relations between the Merrills and either the Gibbs or Berry families. I thought it would mean a bit more if I could figure out why this photo meant enough to the family to preserve, but not enough to pass of a story about why. So I did a little digging.

Her grandfather, Daphney Merrill Sharp, who she thought the album belong to, had relatives who served in the Southern States mission. His father Joseph Palmer Sharp served in Louisiana in 1897, but he was only 10 years old in 1884, so he couldn't have known Gibbs or Berry. J. P. Sharp's father also served in the Southern States, in 1877. He actually labored in Tennessee. His name was John C. Sharp. He never made it to Cane Creek, but his companion Joseph Argyle was the first missionary to Cane Creek, in 1879.

But with the Merrills being in the album, the more logical direction was that side of the family. That is when I found an uncle, Thomas Hazen Merrill, who also served in the Southern States. He even shows up in Elder Gibbs journal. In fact, he was Gibb's very first companion. Thomas was one of Merriner W. Merrill's sons. It made me wonder who actually put the album together. Would you put the death notice of your uncle's missionary companion in your family album? Would you put an image of some one famous in that album because your uncle knew him?

I'll probably never know exactly why this image was meaningful enough to include in a family album. Perhaps the death of these two elders had a profound effect on whoever put those pictures together. Maybe it was just among someone's personal items and the album maker had just put everything they found in the album. Regardless I enjoyed my little adventure and I'll certainly enjoy having the photo card.

Unlabeled Photos and Other Pet Peeves

OK so maybe just one pet peeve per post.

Not long ago I came across a photo of two men. It was a partially labled photo, so I was having trouble naming the people in it. All the caption said was "dedicated by Elder Charles A. Callis", but it didn't say who was who.

I figured out the one on the left right looks a little like Charles A. Callis. Kind of.  Below is a different photo of him. So what do you think? Are they the same person?

The one on the right left stumped me. The article names 11 other people at the service, so I thought it must be one of them. But most of the people were not well known like Elder Callis. So I had nothing to compare it with. That was until I got the photo below.

This is Miles Levanter Jones, the Eastern States Mission President in 1934, the date the photo was taken. I think the resemblance is remarkable. He was one of the people at the dedication. So he is a good fit.

I know, it is strange to get excited about something so obscure. Only a history geek could get this excited over something like this. But there is a lesson here.

LABEL YOUR PHOTOS!!!!

After over two years of trying to figure out who this guy was, I had given up. Don't do this to your descendents.

Identifying faces in Old Photos

I was checking my notes on some of the photographs I have collected and I noticed that I have a photo for which I have not identified a key figure.

As time goes on, it become harder and harder to track down just who is in any given photo. So one of the things I have been trying to do is get names to add to the faces of the dozens of  photos I have collected before it is too late.

This photo was taken June 8th, 1934 at the dedication of the monument for J. Riley Hudson and W. Martin Conder. On the right is Apostle Charles A. Callis. But on the left is an unidentified man. At first I thought it might be Eldrigde Lee Travis, the Hampshire Branch president. But I showed this photo to one of President Travis' grandsons and was told it was not him. Brother Travis said he had too much hair. He then took my photo to another ward member who collects photos like this. She and her sister took a good look and came to the conclusion that they had no idea who it was.

I have a list of people at the dedication. Eliminating who I know it wasn't (President Travis or Elder Callis) I am down to the following possibilities; Miles L. Jones, James M. Kirkham, W. W. Cliff, A. E. Stone, Andrew Jackson Talley, James Poole Talley, W. W. Pollock, and George Tom Talley. The first four are church officials, the last four are residents of the area.

So now for the home work. I am going to get a better print of the photo and she is going to did up some photos of the other people at the dedication.

Memphis Tennessee Sunday School 1923

Most of the earliest events of Church history if Tennessee were in middle Tennessee. But there were members in other parts of Tennessee. This photo reminds us just how many there were. A quick reading of the names doesn't spark any memories for me, but maybe they will for one of you.

Back row, reading from left to right: Mission Elder George M. Nelson, Sister Edwyna Stewart, Sister S. M. Grimes, Sister N. B. Patterson, Sister N. E. Jakes, Sister F. A. Guest, local Elder H. L. Stewart, Superintendent of Sunday School.

Second row: Sister M. B. Barrow, Local Elder C. M. Capel, Local Elder W. S. Featherston, 1st Asst. Superintendent and Secretary; Sisters D. A. Gibson, M .A. Barrow, Ora Barrow, and M. M. Featherston, Sunday School Organist; Sister A. Gulbransen, Primary Teacher; Sister H. O. Fulcher, Sister T. A. Conn, president of Relief Society.

Third row: Sister R. L. Featherston, A. B. Maynard, T. O. Mitchem, Sister M. B. Strickland, Sister B. L. Britt, Sister D. I. Maynard, H. B. Guest, O. V. Mitchem, Sister E. M Featherston.

Fourth row, kneeling. Local Elder W. T. Mitchem, Mission Elder H. V. Mendenhall, Local Elder C. P. Maynard, Second Assistant Superintendent and Theological Teacher, Mission Elder R. V. Christensen, and Mission Elder A. Christensen.

Published in the JI April 1923

Who are the people in these photographs?

Now that I have collected a fair amount if information of who may have been at the Cane Creek Massacre, I have taken the opportunity to go back and review some of the first things I was given and see if there was anything I missed.

Patricia R. Major Miller sent me some a bunch of stuff and among them were some photographs that an historian from Lewis County, Tennessee was trying to identify. The only clue was that they were supposed to be girls who were from Cane Creek at about the time of the Massacre. That narrows it down to just eight or nine girls. The other were either male or would have been too old after they joined the Church to have been the women in these photos.

These photos are clearly taken in Salt Lake City, Utah. Of all the people who belonged to the Cane Creek branch, only a small number went to Utah. Only four, in fact, though they went to Cache County. John Westbrook (I have a picture of him and he didn't look like either of these two), Lavina Shaw (she was much older than this when she went to Utah) and Lavina's two nieces Josie and Ada Turner. Could these be the Turner Girls? If I had such a theory, how would I go about proving it?

Of course, any of the others could have visited Salt Lake City from where they were living; Colorado or Tennessee. Many people did make such a trip to go to the temple, or for any number of other reasons.