Elder Kimball's Stories About His Health

Among the trials of serving a mission is the health issues sometimes accompanying living in a climate and eating the food to which you are not accustomed. Elder Jonathon Golden Kimball was particularly ill during his first mission to the Southern States. When B. H. Roberts returned to Chattanooga as acting Mission President, he found Elder Kimball in such dire ill health, that he relieved him from his secretarial duties and sent him to Shady Grove to recuperate. It was while he was there that the Cane Creek Massacre occurred. Because of his proximity, Elder Kimball was able to aid in getting Elder Thompson and Elder Jones to safety. But this was not his first run in with illness.

[I can't speak for the accuracy of these stories. They were reported by Brother Kimball, as a sort of late first hand recollection. And for the most part they are completely unverifyable. Regardless, never let the truth get in the way of a good story. Right?]

Earlier in his mission, back in Chattanooga, Elder Kimball contracted malaria. It was while he was ill that he ran into a physician on the street, who noted his condition and said "Young man, I don't know who you are, but if you don't do something for yourself, you will die." Elder Kimball responded "Well, I won't die, as I am a Mormon --- you can't kill them"

When President Morgan came to relieve Elder Roberts, he noted that Elder Kimball was very ill. President Morgan said to to him "Brother Kimball, you better go home. The mission is very hard-run for money. It will cost us twenty-four dollars to send you home alive, but it will cost us three hundred dollars to send you home dead"

Real but not quite true stories

This week I was given two unexpected presents. They were stories, family lore, if you will. Both were about where Elder John H. Gibbs and Elder William S. Berry were just before the Massacre. One was from a reader, whose family stories placed Gibbs and Berry at the home of the Church family three days before they were killed. The second was a newspaper article that placed them in Jack Inman's home the night before they died.

But they are not quite true.

I'm not saying they are false. They are real, which is more interesting than true. These stories start because something really did happen. But I know they are not quite true because Elder Gibbs and Elder Berry were never companions. In fact, I have yet to find a verifiable story of the two even having been alone together. So why the stories?

These names have been placed together because they gave their life doing what they believed in. They died in the same place on at the same time. We speak their names together like two words that belong together.

Elder Gibbs probably arrived at Cane Creek late on the 6th of August. He was coming from the west and would have passed through Linden where brother Inman lived. But he was travelling with Elder Jones. Elder Berry arrived at Cane the night of the 5th and had come from Shady Grove just to the east. He was traveling with Elder Thompson.

So Elder Gibbs was at the Inman house and Elder Berry was at the Church house. And the names of their companions were blurred just a little. So powerful is their narrative, the names of Gibbs and Berry is superimposed on top of these stories.

But they are wonderful gifts nonetheless. They are primal and organic. They are messy and I want to preserve them as they are. Church history is messy. Life is messy. And so in that way they are more real than anything I can write. They are not quite true, but they are still real.

The Shiloh Men

Mormon historians know well the name Albert Sidney Johnston. Born in Kentucky, he considered Texas his home. Johnston graduated from the U. S. Military Academy on 1826 and served in the U. S. Army until 1834 when he took up farming in Texas. Recognized for his military ability he was given considerable responsibility in the Texas Army; rising to senior brigadier general before being injured in a duel. He was appointed Secretary of War in the brief lived Republic of Texas. After fighting in the Mexican American War, he was given another position in the U. S. Army. In that role he headed the Army in the Utah War in 1857 (which would be a whole post by itself). His duty was to suppress the "rebellion" against the U. S. government.

When the Civil War broke out, he resigned his position in the U. S. Army and reported to Jefferson Davis in Virginia. Davis, an old friend from the U. S. Military Academy, made him the second highest ranking Confederate officer as commander of the Western Department. Johnston, who once suppressed "rebellion", was now in rebellion himself. But it was not to last. Johnston died on April 6, 1862 at the Battle of Shiloh in Tennessee, a date which was coincidently the 32nd anniversary of the founding of the Mormon Church.

The Battle of Shiloh was a very bloody battle. More Americans died in that one battle (23,746) than died in the Revolutionary war, the War of 1812 and the Mexican American war combined. At the time, it was the bloodiest battle in the conflict. By the end of the war, eight other battles would surpass it.

In Tennessee, however, Shiloh became a metaphor for the horrors of war and eternal damnation. The Battle of Shiloh happened only about 75 miles from Cane Creek. It may be that some of Cane Creek’s vigilantes were there. In that context, the vigilantes who burned down the Mormon chapel at Cane Creek chose the name “Shiloh Men” to describe themselves. They would eventually be called the “Red Cross Vigilantes” for the distinctive “red cross” used on their later notices and the badges they would sometimes made their targets wear.

Was there a connection between General Johnston’s history with Mormons in the Utah War and the vigilantes’ actions toward Mormons? Saying so is complete speculation. There is no evidence of any connection beyond the vivid imagination of conspiracy theorists. But to fuel the fire I will add this. General Johnston was shot in the back of his knee during a charge he was leading. The shot severed an artery and led to his death. Obviously the shot came from behind him and perhaps from one of his men.

Gibbs and Berry Return: The legend lives on

If you have been reading this blog long you will know I have been trying to track down the source for the urban legend that the Cane Creek area was reopened to missionary work by a descendant of Elder Gibbs and a descendant of Elder Berry. Click here to see my other posts on this subject.

Recently I have been corresponding with the daughter of Elder Eugene Jens Gibbs. This Elder Gibbs served in the Southern States Mission from 1942 to 1944. I first found Elder Gibbs in a Deseret News Article dated 9/18/1943. The article has some errors, but the general idea is that there were several companionships made up of an Elder Gibbs and an Elder Berry: 1884, 1885, 1899, and 1943. I have also found evidence of Elders in 1906.

The 1884 one we know about. But actually Elders Gibbs and Berry were not companions. Not that it matters, but Gibbs and Jones were companions and Berry and Thompson were companions. Detail, details...

Shortly thereafter the brother of Elder Berry and the brother of Elder Gibbs are said to have served in the Southern States Mission. I have no dates or verification. This does not appear to be true. None of the surviving brothers of Gibbs or Berry served missions after 1884. But I do see William Henry Gibbs, who may be the first cousin of John H Gibbs who arrived in the Southern States Mission in October 1884. He stayed until 1887.

The early 1899 companionship, according to the article was supposed to be the son of Gibbs and the son of Berry. However, Elder Gibbs only son, John H Gibbs Jr., served his mission from 1905 to 1907. Elder Berry had two sons serve in the Southern States Mission. John William Berry and Jesse A. Berry both served from 1899 to 1900. John served in Southern Tennessee, and Jesse served in North Alabama. Neither of them served with the son of John H Gibbs. John William Berry did have a companion named William Henry Gibbs Jr. Since first writing about him I found he maybe a first cousin once removed to John H Gibbs. They worked together in Hamilton County just north of Chattanooga, Tennessee. They never went near Lewis County.

As I said before, Elder Gibbs only son served in the Southern States, but he served in Virginia (May 05 - Feb 06) and South Carolina (Mar 06 to Mar 07) with a short stay in the mission office in between. At the same time Elder George Berry served in the same mission. But this Elder Berry is from South Carolina, not southern Utah, and is no relation to the Elder Berry killed in 1884. I don't see that they ever served together.

And the 1943 companionship? Well, according to Eugene Gibbs daughter, her father told her that he along with a companion named Elder Berry (Alfred Oron Berry) were indeed called upon to open the Cane Creek area to missionary work and that the Mission President made a special trip to take them there. I do find Elder Berry in the Southern States Mission at the same time. So far I can document that he was serving in Florida. And Elder Gibbs was in the Southern States Mission too. He was serving in Mississippi and North Alabama. It isn't a perfect fit for the urban legend. This Elder Gibbs is a second cousin twice removed of John H Gibbs. And this Elder Berry is the great grand nephew of William S Berry. Both relatives, but not descendants. But did they re-open the area as Elder Gibbs daughter says? Maybe.

I have two problems I can't reconcile. In 1943, Cane Creek, Tennessee was not in the Southern States Mission; It was part of the East Central States Mission, and had been since 1928. I know that extra mission activity was not unheard of, I can think of a couple examples off the top of my head, but I would expect them to be better documented. Which brings me to my second problem. Why would such an event not have been chronicled in the Liahona: The Elders Journal? It would be like a BYU newspaper not writing that BYU had beaten U of U at football.

So these Elders had two mission presidents William P Whitaker, and Heber Meeks. Both have papers donated to manuscript libraries, Idaho State and BYU respectively. If one of them made the effort to take two of his missionaries out of the mission to open an area of historical significance, I would expect it to be in his journal. I am too far away to do this myself. Any takers? It may be a wild goose chase. It may have been a mission president from the East Central States Mission. It may have happened at the end of their mission as they were on their way home. It may not have happened until 1947 (see below), after the Liahona ceased publication.

[On a side note. Bruce E. Belnap, a missionary working in Lewis County in 1949, claimed that the area was closed to missionary work until 1947, and that in 1949 he witnessed the first baptism from Cane Creek since 1884. Bruce E Belnap was the grandson of Hyrum Belnap one of the early missionaries to Cane Creek. I'll have more on that in my next post.]

Elders Gibbs And Berry Travel Again

I found a reference to a Deseret News article about the urban legend around the children/descendants of Elders Gibbs and Berry serving together in the Cane Creek area. The date was 18 September 1943. But none of the online resources include dates that old. So I posted a query at the Salt Lake City Public Library. I fully expected some direction on how I could request specific articles.
Instead, I return home to find a letter from the SLC Public Library with no name to whom I can give the credit and the thanks. Inside was a single page photocopy of the September 18, 1943 article.

Elders Gibbs And Berry Travel Again
Descendants of Famous Missionary Pair in South
by Ada M. Swain
(Phoenix Stake Correspondent)
Elders Gibbs and Berry are again traveling in the South.
They are a pair of young missionaries, each descended from the Elders Gibbs and Berry who gave their lives as martyrs at the Tennessee Massacre of 1884.
A recent picture received by Mr. and Mrs. Oron Berry of Phoenix Ariz. shows their son, Alfred Oron Berry with Elder Eugene Jens Gibbs of Hyrum, Utah. Elder O. D. Flake of Phoenix, recently returned from a short term mission in the South where he met the two Elders.
This is the third combination of Gibbs and Berry who have been companions in the same section of the United States. Elder Flake reports that when he was on his first mission 43 years ago he met a pair, Elder Gibbs and Berry who were travelling together in Tennessee. They were the sons of the two men who were murdered by the mob in that state.

Included is a photo of the most recent Elder's Gibbs and Berry. The article goes on the quote the Essential Church History account of the massacre. It closes the article with this.

These two young men, today touring the same ground as missionaries for the church are a grandson of John H. Gibbs and a grand nephew of William S Berry.

I have to say this falls short of the proof I was looking for. For starters, Elder Flake's story is interesting, but he gives no first names and a memory 43 years old can easily be a little wrong. My initial find of a Gibbs/Berry companionship (described here and here) may be all there is to Elder Flake's recollections. In addition, this Elder Berry is indeed related the William S. Berry, but is not his descendant. So this was close, but still falls short of proving the legend.

On another note though, On my recent trip I found an index of "all" of the missionaries the church has called. I was hoping to get a comprehensive list of the missionaries that served at Cane Creek. Unfortunately it doesn't work that way. In order to use the index, you need to know the missionary's name. But having read this article I think I could probably look up all the Gibbs and Berrys and would probably have a reasonable size list to work through.

Elders Gibbs & Berry Together continued...

I have recently run across an account of the Cane Creek Murders that asserts that a descendant of Elder Gibbs was currently (1974) serving in the headwaters of Cane Creek. The author even names him as Elder Roberts (no first name). But she gave no reference for her assertion. In truth I don't trust her claim, mostly because it sounds like she is perpetuating the "urban legend." Nor does she claim to have met with or spoken with this Elder Jones. I wonder if there is a local paper in Hohenwald with archives from 1974.

Most mission sites don't go back that far, in 1974 this area was either in the Kentucky-Tennessee Mission, which doesn't exist anymore or in the Kentucky Louisville Mission (the change was midyear 1974). The current website for the Kentucky Louisville Mission does have space for missionaries who served in 1974 under President Durrant. But the list is incomplete (self reported only) and Elder Roberts is not listed.

Then in a history book of Lewis County Tennessee, I found a biography of Elder William Berry submitted by Kyle W. Wilson, who claimed to be a descendant of Elder Berry and to be currently (in 1994) serving a mission in Lewis County, TN. The editor of the book obviously felt his claim was credible enough to print. Though in truth I doubt the editor did anything more than proofread the submissions for spelling errors. Even so, this one I can probably accept at face value.

Three weeks ago I spoke with a member who served his mission in Nashville in 1994. He claims his mission President Josiah W. Douglas, was the one who "opened" the Cane Creek area back up and even sent two descendants of Gibbs and Berry to be the first missionaries back. As of yet I have been unable to make contact with President Douglas. The only contact info I have is an email address which is no longer valid.

Elders Gibbs & Berry Together?

In a missionary diary of Elder Davis H Elton, I found some entries that intrigued me. Dated Thursday Nov 23, 1899

"Expect to accomplish our trip tomorrow. Going to Retro, Hamilton Co. Tenn. first where we expect to meet Elders Gibbs and Berry."

On this trip, Elder Elton, accompanied by his mission president Christo Hyldahl, meet them and then split up, President Hyldahl going with Elder Gibbs and Elder Elton going with Elder Berry. He later refers to them by their initials W. H. Gibbs and J. W. Berry. Both Elders Gibbs and Berry appear several more time in Elder Elton's diary include notes indicating they exchanged letters.
The Elder John H. Gibbs who was killed in Lewis county Tennessee had only one son. He was named John Henry Gibbs after his father. Furthermore, Elder Elton knew both Elder Berry and Elder Gibbs and yet only mentioned Elder Berry being related to the events of Lewis county. Had Elder Gibbs also been connected, other than having a chance same last name, Elder Elton would have noted it in the interview. I also entertained the idea that perhaps Elder W. H. Gibbs was a nephew of J. H. Gibbs, but I was unable to locate any of the J. H. Gibbs relatives with the initials W. H.
I can only conclude that the legend the local missionary told me was based on the companionship of this Elders Gibbs and Berry. And while Elder Berry was the son of W. S. Berry, Elder Gibbs was not related to Elder J.H. Gibbs. So while it is a good story, it isn't true.

Elder Berry Returns

Upon relating the account of Cane Creek to a local missionary, I was told that he had already heard it and that there was a mission legend that the Lewis county area was closed by the church [true] and that the ordinance of "dusting of the feet" was performed [I haven't found any evidence of that yet] and that the area was later reopened by the descendants of Elder Berry and Elder Gibbs who were later called to serve in the same mission and served as companions. I found the story compelling, but had a hard time accepting it as anything more than folklore.
But yesterday I found this story in the Latter-day Saint Southern Star. Dated June 7, 1900, I found and interview with Elder David H. Elton who wanted to cite one of his

"...Elders here in the Chattanooga conference. His name is J. W. Berry, and at present he is laboring in Bledsoe county, Tennessee."

The reporter, recognizing the name asked if he was related to the Elder Berry killed in Lewis county. Answered Elder Elton "Yes! the young man now laboring in Bledsoe county is the son of Elder W. S. Berry, who was brutally martyred by a savage, cruel mob several years ago." The article goes on to explain that his brother was also serving in the southern states, specifically in the North Alabama Conference. And that he two of them have been serving since January 21, 1899.
This was obviously John William Berry who would have been 23 when this article was written. I can't say which of Elder W. S. Berry's other sons was also serving with him. But is was probably James S.(25) or Jesse A.(23). William was too young (16).
I have not been able to track down who his companions were or a list of the areas in which he served.