You can't make this stuff up

The following was printed in the Clinton Gazette, of Clinton Tennessee on March 10th 1900.

Whereas, Our friend, Brother Eaton, came in contact with a Mormon Elder and gave him a genteel thrashing; Resolved, that we, as a Sunday School, tender him our thanks for his righteous deed:
Second, that if he got his clothes soiled in the combat, we will gladly pay for having them washed:
Third that a copy of these resolutions be sent to Brother Eaton, and one to the county paper for publication.

This rather surprising endorsement of Mr. Eaton’s violent behavior is only the beginning. According to same newspaper, Mr. Eaton was a minister of the Zion Baptist Church at Wolf Valley, Tennessee. At the time of the publication of the resolution Mr. Eaton was languishing in a prison cell awaiting trial for the rape of a Mrs. Rouse. The Rouse family had been his host for the previous four months since his arrival in Wolf Valley from North Carolina.

Mr. Eaton’s defense was that the relationship had been consensual making him guilty of adultery instead of rape. He insisted that her accusation was merely to defend her honor. But even more interesting was that Mr. Eaton threatened to reveal the identity of the arsonist responsible for burning down the local Mormon Church in March or April of 1899, unless she recanted her accusation. You can’t make this stuff up.

Much of this comes from the The Wolf Among Lambs in the Latter Day Saint Southern Star Volume 2 Page 140. I have not been able to find a reference to the burning down of the church in the “History of the Southern States Mission” except perhaps a vague reference in March 1899 to “one or two disturbances” in that part of Tennessee. Nor have I been able to identify the Elder that Mr. Eaton was supposed to have given a “genteel thrashing.”

Christmas in Wolf Valley

[The following was printed in the Latter Day Saint Southern Star in January of 1899.Wolf Valley Branch was located about halfway between present day Clinton and Oak Ridge Tennessee and about 25 mile west of Knoxville, Tennessee.]

Among the Elders

------

Elder R. T. Mitchell of the East Tennessee conference who is superintendent of the Sunday schools, has written a nice account of his pleasant time at Christmas with the Woolf (sic)Valley branch of the schools, but the communication was lost, and has just been found. He and Elder A. H. Thorn, evidently had a very pleasant time in a “neatly kept church built by the Saints and dedicated just a year ago.” He says a good spirit prevails there, assuring one of the frequent visits of angels. The singing and general procedure is such as to make one feel as if he were home ,were it not for the vast area intervening between Tennessee and Utah. Of the work there he says: The classes having completed their lessons a programme (sic) was rendered by the primary and intermediate departments, the little ones from 4 to 10 years came forward in response to their calls and gladdened our ears by reciting in a manner that would have been a credit to children of twice their age.


After presenting the children with a package of candy, thus throwing a ray of brightness across many a little boy and girl's heart ,he closes by saying:

The Sunday school here is a credit to the Latter Day Saints and is accomplishing, in a great measure, the purpose for which God ordained so needful an organization .Would that every branch had such a one, surely then the rising generation of Israel would be a light to all the world and able to bear on the glorious Latter work.

May heaven's peaceful blessing he with all the sabbath schools of the southern mission in trying to follow the light that shines from Anderson county, Tennessee.

Christmas, 1898

[Today, Wolf Valley is part of the Clinch River Ward of the Knoxville, Tennessee Cumberland Stake.]