The Healing of Sally Moore

Based on the journal of Elder Joseph Argyle. He and Elder John W Sharp were preaching among the saints of the Hickman & Maury counties in Tennessee. I have made some serious corrections for spelling, punctuation and grammar.

Friday May 25 1877
While at the home of John Mullens, preparing for a meeting at Pleasant Ridge, Elders Argyle and Sharp heard a shout across the Duck River. It was Thomas Coleman; a friend of the church but not yet a member. Thomas was asking that the missionaries would come to the aid of Sally Moore. Sally, Thomas said, was not expected to live til morning and he wanted the Elders to come right away and giver a healing blessing. In the exchange of shouts across the river, the elders deferred saying they had a meeting they were obligated to hold and could not make it that night, but that they would come to see her the next morning.  Thomas was distraught fully believing Sally would not last that long. Elder Argyle felt prompted to promise she would be fine until then.

The Elders still had some time before their meeting so they "found a lonely place in a bunch of new cedar" and prayed on the behalf of sister Moore, asking that the Lord would "stay the [disease] that was then praying upon her [system.]" First Elder Argyle prayed and then Elder Sharp. When they rose from their knees, Elder Argyle said "look at your watch and see what time you have got and I will look at mine and ... we will see what transpires at this time" for he knew she would be restored. The two went and held their meeting and then stayed the night with Brother [Thomas] Holiday Church.

Saturday May 26th 1877
The next morning they walked to Robert Church's home and had breakfast. Then they borrowed two of Robert's horses, which had been set aside for that purpose, and started off toward Sally Moore's home. It was about 7 miles away. Along the way they overtook Brother William Bryant who said he too was heading for Sally Moore's home because he heard she was nearly dead. Along the way they ran into a young man riding the other way. Brother Bryant asked him if he knew how Sally was doing and he said she was better.

When the three arrived at the Moore home, Sally's husband greeted them at the door. As they walked through the door Sally, still in her bed, smiled and told them she was feeling much better. Elder Argyle asked her when she began to feel better. She said it was the previous night and told him the time. Elder Argyle wrote that "it was the same time that we prayed for her." Sally's husband turned to Brother Bryant and said that he too noticed the change in Sally at that time and that he felt strange in a way he could not describe and he knew at the time it had something to do with the men Tom Coleman said he was going to get.

Elder Argyle and Sharp spent the night at the Moore home, giving instructions and in the morning they administered a blessing to sister Moore and continued on their way the Hoover home.

Two Healings in Tennessee 1943

TENNESSEE WEST DISTRICT
Bumard N. Taylor, President
"And again it shall come lo pass that he that hath faith in me to be healed, and is not appointed unto death, shall be h e a l e d "-D. & C. 42:48.
The Truth above expressed was manifested when Elder Floyd Black and Elder Cloyd Barton were called to administer to a lady in Nashville, who had been unable to move for several weeks, as the result of inflamatory(sic) rheumatism. She was in such pain that big tears would stream down her cheeks. Her breath was short and irregular, but faith was expressed in her eyes. After the administration she seemed to relax and, taking a deep breath exclaimed: "That is the first deep breath I have taken for days that I could feel has done me any good." The following night she slept well, and the swelling rapidly disappeared. The next day found her on her feet able lo get about.
I also experienced this same Spirit of healing when called upon to administer to a lady in Humboldt, Tennessee. She was suffering from a hemorrhage of the brain which had left her paralyzed. I annointed and sealed the anointing in the same prayer. Why I did this, I don't know, but after I had finished she looked up at me, and took my hand. Though she had never seen me before she knew who I was and joy and peace seemed to radiate from her countenance. Two days later I received a letter from Ihe family telling of Iheir mother's improved condition and thanking me for coming. Truly "God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform."

Ellen DePriest's Miracle

Margaret "Ellen" Talley DePriest [1] would certainly qualify as one of the lesser known early Saints. Yet her life can be just as interesting as the more often told stories. Ellen was the recipient of a miracle which saved her life. But her life was so much more than just one event. She was born in the uncertainty of the Civil War on 3 April 1864 in Lewis County, Tennessee to Elisha Freeland Talley & Barbara Ellen Hudson.

Ellen's family had moved to this remote part of Tennessee two generations earlier.  They came in the 1820's, soon after the Treaty of Washington was signed in 1806. The treaty allowed white settlement south of Tennessee's Duck River to the state line. For this vast tract of land, the Creeks received $14,000 while the Cherokees received $10,000, a gristmill, a cotton gin, and a $100 yearly payment to Chief Black Fox.

Small towns sprung up on the larger rivers. But there were large parcels of land to be had on the highland creeks. They attracted the adventurous like the DePriests, the Talleys, and the Lancasters, from North Carolina and Georgia where the opportunities to build your own farm were limited to those who could afford to buy the land.

There were no churches in this highland frontier. But occasionally an itinerant preacher would wander through. Campbellites, Baptists, Presbyterians, and Methodists were the most common,  but the Mormons made an appearance too.

Ellen's parents, Eli & Barby Talley, were the first in Lewis County to join the Mormons in September of 1879.  Mormons were not well liked. They were known to be polygamists and were accused of far worse. Then her uncle John Lancaster joined, and her aunt Malinda's husband, Jim Conder joined too. With her family joining a strange and unpopular faith, it must have seemed like a strange autumn, to be sure. But then a miracle happened. Uncle John's invalid sister, Rachel Lancaster was healed by the power of prayer. It was no trickery. Rachel was at death's door and everyone knew it. She had been sick for years and now had worsened. She could not breath and was not expected to last the night. But there she was the next morning, singing Mormon hymns!! And it was the prayers of the Mormons that did it. They had administered to her with oil like was done in the Bible. Rachel was baptized a week later along with Elizabeth, Uncle John's wife.

It didn't take long for Ellen to decide follow their example. She and her new husband, Tom DePriest, were baptized in Cane Creek on the 28th of January along with three others: Ellen's sister Leona, and her husband's brother and his wife, James and Margaret DePriest.[2] 

Ellen and Tom [3] were expecting their first child. It was an exciting time. A new marriage, a new church, and the baby was due in early May. Sadly there was an accident. The details are sketchy. There appears to have been a fire which went out of control. Accidental fires were a frequent hazard.  Ellen's own grandmother Feriba would die from a fire accident in 1896. While she was making soap outdoors in a kettle over an open fire a gust of wind blew the flames onto Grandma Feriba's dress. The single description of the accident in Ellen's case is more vague. We don't know how the fire started or even where it was. Ellen and her husband were able to suppress the fire, but the "exposure in fighting [the] fire" caused her to miscarry.

Six days passed and she had not delivered the dead child. Ellen was growing ill and was bedridden. Her belly swelled abnormally. She was "chewing her tongue & swooning." The midwives and the local doctor determined there was no more they could do for her. One midwife left saying she would not attend a dead woman. They sent for a physician who had the tools to remove the child in pieces, thinking this was the only way to save her life. Two of the missionaries laboring in the area administered to her, and pronounced that she would have health and strength.

Late in the afternoon on the seventh day, after being prostrated for two days, Ellen finally delivered the dead child, feet first. About an hour later the doctor they sent for arrived and declared her as healthy as any woman he had seen give birth. By the end of the day he declared her fully recovered.

It must have been a monumental event in her life. When other family members turned away from the Church in later years, Ellen remained strong. In March of 1883, Ellen and her husband joined an emigrant company heading for Colorado. Travelling with them was Tom's brother and his wife, James and Margaret DePriest. Both families settled in Manassa, on the same block.

In November 1884, after the Cane Creek Massacre, Ellen's parents and other relatives including Tom's other brother Pleasant, followed them to Manassa. Although her parents didn't stay for more than a couple a years, Ellen remained and raised her 11 children in her new home. All of them grew to adulthood, married and had children of their own. She shared a long life with her husband who died in 1932. Ellen passed away, few years later, still living in Colorado, still true to the faith, on 9 May 1937.

[1] There is a photo of Ellen floating around the internet, but I have not been able to verify its authenticity with a family member, nor have I been able to get a clear enough version to make it worth putting in online. Much of the information about her was confused with her aunt/sister-in-law with the same name.

[2] Ellen shared more than just a first and last name with her sister-in-law, Margaret DePriest. They also shared maiden names: Talley. Her sister-in-law, Margaret Eisabel Talley DePriest, was also her father's younger sister.

[3] Ellen and Tom lived "up the hollow" from her parents Eli & Barby Talley. Missionaries usually visited both families on the same day, so it was probably very close by.

P. P. Pratt and A. Church in Tennessee

Parley Parker Pratt was a missionary in Tennessee. No, not that P. P. Pratt. His son! His grandson was only 17 at the time so I don't think it was him. He wrote home to the Deseret News periodically and they dutifully printed his letters. It one of them he describes some healings in Tennessee.

Shady Grove,

Hickman County, Tenn.,
Dec 5th, 1878

Editors Deseret News:

[There are several paragraphs where he describes his health, and paradoxically says the people won't listen, but that he has more requests to speak he can fill. He unfavorably compares his success to that of the early "Elders of the Church" and says the current harvest is a gleaning by comparison. He describes the weather, poverty, and sickness and then moves right into healings]

In many localities there has been much sickness, principally chills and fevers, The Saints, when afflicted, and even strangers, send from three to ten miles to have our Elders come and administer to them. Several cases of healing have occured in this conference, which I think are worthy to be placed on record, as a testimony to the world that the Lord is with his servants and people at the present time as well as in former ages. The first case that I will mention is that of the infant son of Mr. A. Church, of this place, who was so reduced in flesh that he had been given up to die by two physicians. As a last resort the parents sent for Elder Stevenson and myself (about 20th of July) to come and administer to him. We complied with their request, when the child gradually recovered its health, to the great joy of the parents, who acknowledged the hand of God in its restoration.

[He then lists a couple of other healings, describes his plans for the new arriving Elders and signs off.]

Your brother in the Gospel
P. P. Pratt.

When I saw this my first thought was that this "A. Church" was Abraham Church. The place is certainly right. But the dates are wrong. This healing is placed in July 1878. Abraham died in 1851. So I started looking at his children, still too early, then grandchildren, when I found Abraham George Church. This one was about the right age, and he had a son who would have been just under a year old at the time. One other piece that helps fit this. A. G. Church and his wife Florence Bingham were not members, though several of his uncles and cousins were. This might explain why he sent for the Elders only as a last resort.

A. G. Church and his wife Florence didn't end up joining the LDS Church. Nor did Henry, the son who was healed. I guess miracles aren't everything.

Of course the identity of A. Church is still a theory. I need something to confirm it. Anyone out there have any ideas?

Abraham Church (1790-1851)
             |
George Brown Church (1822-1915)
             |
Abraham George Church (1852-1922)
             |
Henry Brown Church (8 Aug 1877-1950)

Will the real Johnston F. Lane please stand up

One of the problems in researching people is that often you only have a small amount of information to go on. Take Johnston F. Lane, for example. My first clue to his identity is the healing of his wife and their subsequent baptism in 1834. From there, however, it is difficult to be sure whether every person with that name is the same person. It is entirely possible that I have two or more people with the same name, who joined the same church, and yet for whom no documented activities overlap.

Johnston F. Lane was born in Virginia in 1801 or 1809. His wife Matilda Kelly was born in Tennessee in 1815. In 1834 near Paris, Tennessee, Mrs. Lane, who had not been able to walk for 8 years, heard about Elder Patten and sent her husband to bring him back. Elder Patten wrote

I took her by the hand, and commanded her to arise in the name of Jesus Christ, and be made whole; and she arose, and was made whole every whit.

They were immediately baptized and during the confirmation Elder Patten promised she would have a son, which had been previously impossible due to her health. The Lanes did have a son shortly thereafter and named him David Patten Lane. Brother Lane was called to serve as the Clerk of the Tennessee Conference and at the same time was ordained an Elder. In some places this is date September, 2, 1836 and in other it is dates December 2, 1836. Patten never names Mrs Lane. And so the only connection between some of these events in the name Johnston F. Lane. In some cases it is spelled Johnson F Lane. And sometime the iddle initial in E and sometime P. If only research were only more clear cut.

In 1836, the Lanes moved from Paris Tennessee to just across the state line into Kentucky. In 1838, Brother Lane signed a petition sent to congress asking for redress for the depredations in Missouri. Not everyone who signed the petition actually lived in Missouri. Soon they moved to Nauvoo, Illinois. They buried a one year old child in Quincy, Adams County, Illinois on August 17th, 1839. Between 1841 and 1844 he shows up in Nauvoo Tax records. In 1845-47, he shows up in Ward 3 at Winter Quarters.
Johnston then joined a community of saints led by Charles B Thompson, also known as Father Ephraim, who started the settlement of Preservation, Iowa in the fall of 1852. Under Elder Thompson’s leadership, they held all property in common. Johnston F. Lane was selected as the first sheriff of Monona County in the election on April 3rd, 1854. He was also the first to die in the settlement in April of 1855. The community eventually dissolved when Elder Thompson left for Philadelphia to avoid a confrontation with them members of his church over the disposition of the common property.

Sister Lane died in Chase County, Nebraska on March 30th, 1886.

Problems? After his birth, probably in 1835, David Patten Lane is never mentioned again. A biography of the Lanes names four children: Clara Melissa, Joshua M., Francis E. and Joseph, but also notes that she had two other unnamed children that did not survive her. That same biography never mentions Tennessee as one of their homes, claiming they moved from Virginia straight to Illinois, but doesn’t explain how Matilda, who was from Tennessee, met Johnston. I'm not sure which events belong to the Mr. & Mrs. Johnston F Lane who were baptized by David Patten. It is possible all of them describe the life of the same couple. But I may never know for sure.

Margaret Tittle

In Wilford Woodruff's journal, we learn of a Tennessee convert named Margaret Tittle. The year was 1836, and Wilford Woodruff was joined just a month earlier by David W. Patten. Elder Patten had recently returned from Kirtland Ohio where he received his endowments, in the Kirtland, Ohio Temple.

May 17th, Brother Patten and myself laid hands on Margaret Tittle, who lay at the point of death, and she was instantly healed through the power of God. Brother Patten had preached faith, repentance and baptism to her, and she covenanted to be baptized; but after she was healed refused to attend to that ordinance. Brother Patten told her she was acting a dangerous part, and the Lord would again afflict her if she did not repent.

We pursued our journey, and on our return found her very low with the same fever; she begged us to lay hands upon her and heal her, and she would obey the Gospel. We again laid hands upon her, and she was healed, and went down to the water and I baptized her.

I have looked far and wide for other references to Margaret Tittle; Newspapers, Census records, LDS Church histories, journals of other misionaries in Tennessee, etc. So far no luck. I'm not ready to give up yet. But given her earlier reluctance to even get baptized after having received a miracle, I wonder if shortly after these famous missionaries left, she fell away from the church. Perhaps she contracted her fever a third time and died before the next U. S. Census. Perhaps her husband died and she remarried. We may never know. Some people have simply slipped through the cracks.

If you know of something that might help me find her, I'm all ears.

Joseph Argyle

Joseph Argyle was born in England in 1818. His was a tin plate worker making gas meters. On his first day on the job he was boarded at an inn belonging to William Finch. Accidently he went to sleep in the wrong room and was awakened by a scream. The owners daughter, Jane Finch, was trying out a superstition that if she walked backwards and blindfolded to her bed, the first person she saw after removing her blindfold would be her future husband. As luck would have it, it was Jane's bed he had accidently gone to sleep in. Using her hand to find her bed she found instead a tuft of thick curly hair. In this case at least the superstition held true. They were married two months later.

Joseph and his wife joined the LDS Church in 1851 and 1852 respectively. By 1856 the decided to emigrate to Utah. Limited space does not allow me to record all their journey her, but the arrived in Utah in September 1856 in the Edmund Ellsworth handcart company. Later Joseph...
Quoted from the Argyle Family History.

"... fulfilled three missions, one in England, ... and two to the Southern States, laboring in Tennessee, from November 19, 1876, to October 1877, and from November 19, 1878, to December 23, 1879. He received his calls to go on his missions while at the general conference at Salt Lake City, Utah. While in this service, he and his companion saw the work of the Lord progress, baptizing 43 saints, 12 in England and 31 in Tennessee. He saw the power of God in healing the sick. Again from his diary we quote an instance which occurred in Tennessee:
“Sister Sally Moore was so very sick that they did not expect her to live until morning. A young man named Thomas Coleman was sent after the Elders. He was on one side of the river and we Elders on the other. When we received the message we were unable to go as we had an appointment to hold a meeting that evening. We said we would go the next morning. Thomas Coleman assured us that she would be dead by that time. But we told him to tell her that everything would be all right with her. After leaving him we went to a lonely place in a bunch of red cedars and then knelt down and prayed to the Lord in her behalf and asked him to stay the disease that was then preying upon her system. I prayed first and then Brother Sharp. When we arose from our knees, I told Brother Sharp to look at his watch and see the time and I would look at mine and we will see what transpires for I knew that she would be restored, yet neither of us had seen her. The next morning we went over to see Sister Sally Moore. We found on inquiry that she was much better and the change had taken place when we had prayed for her. When we left her the next day she was apparently well.”

There is a journal in the church Archive. However it does not contain many details about his second mission to Tennessee. There is a note that on

"About June 1 [1879] I received an appointment from president John Morgan to preside over the Tennessee conference. After a meeting at mr Bastin’s house he told us he did not want us preaching there anymore. There was a man there who spoke up and said we could use his house."

This is followed by an entry about his wife and children going to England in 1894.See "Argyle, Joseph, Reminiscences and journal, 1870 May-1894 Oct., 63."


Joseph was one of the first missionaries to visit Cane Creek, Tennessee, during his second mission to Tennessee, along with Elder Martin Garn and Edward Stevenson.

Near the end of his mission he was Letter from Parley P Pratt Jr to the Deseret News

"voted in as successor to Brother Parley P Pratt Jr as president of the Tennessee Conference"

Although I am pretty sure he knew many of the people involved in the Massacre, I have been unable to find anything he wrote concerning it. And I'm sure he wasn't thinking that the people of Cane Creek would have their lives altered in this tragic way. Though I wish we could know how he felt about these events.

Joseph spent the last few years of his life as the Patriarch of the Davis Stake until his death on Sep 26 1905.

[I recently found a obituary of Joseph Argyle claiming he was the first missionary to return to Cane Creek after the Massacre. Davis County Clipper 1905-10-06 Patriarch Called]

James Roskelley

I had given up. Elder Ross Kelley was nowhere to be found. Then just the other day I was referring back to an article in the Millennial Star. At the bottom of the article was the beginning of the next one. It read "Almost Another Martyrdom: Elder James Roskelley, of Smithfield, Shot and Wounded." Like a ton of bricks it hit me that I knew that name! I had recently posted about Elder Ross Kelly. But I was unable to locate him in all the other usual sources. Now I know why.

Armed with this new information I find him elsewhere. In the Deseret News, 27 Aug 1884, (quoted from the Logan Leader) is an article about the shooting of Elder James Roskelley. There is some understandable confusion with the Cane Creek Massacre. Other than that it matches the Millennial Star Article which it says is quoted the Utah Journal. (See below)

James Roskelley was born on 10 January 1865, in Smithfield Utah; the son of Samuel Roskelley and Rebecca Hendricks. Samuel was a Bishop, Recorder for the Logan Temple and later Patriarch for Smithfield. In an answer to a prayer Samuel once saw Nephite warriors guarding the temple against Federal agents intent of using temple records to prosecute polygamists. But that is another story.

James left on his mission in May 1884 and served in the East Tennessee Conference. Their headquarters was Lee Valley, Tennessee; a small rural community east and north of Knoxville.

On one occasion Elder Roskelley participated in the healing of the son of a prominent man. Colonel Green was well known, as was the condition of his son, who was very sick with typhoid fever. He had been delirious for a days. Knowing that the Elders preached healing of the sick, the family asked the Elders to administer to their son.

"They did so, the delirium was rebuked, and in five minutes the patient was asleep, the first rest he had had for three days and nights"

As you can guess this caused quite stir in the community. Many people would come to the Green home to talk with the Elders.

On the 8th of August 1884, while conversing with someone who had come to inquire about the church,

"they saw a negro walk along the road past the house. A moment after the negro had disappeared from their sight, they heard the sharp report of a pistol, and at the same instant Elder Roskelley felt a sharp pain in his left arm."

A doctor was called and Elder Roskelley was treated. The bullet had actually grazed him across the chest before it entered his left arm. Mr Green roused his neighbors to look for the shooter. He was soon found a brought before a magistrate.

"He plead in court that he was shooting at a tree, and that the wounding of Elder Roskelley was purely accidental. The magistrate placed no confidence in this story, which was too evidently a miserable subterfuge and bound the negro over to await the action of the grand jury at its next session"

Elder Roskelley expressed the desire to finish out his mission, and I expect he did. His wound was not life threatening, though it easily could have been. His story would have made bigger news of it had not been for what happened two days later at Cane Creek.

I have found nothing about the fate of the man accused of the shooting. Did he make it to a trial? Was he lynched? or released by someone who put him up to it? I have no idea.

After Elder Roskelley returned home he married Frances Annie Emery on 18 Sep 1890 in Salt Lake City, Utah. He served in the YMMIA Stake Presidency until November 1893. In 1905 was named as a deputy county assessor with a pay of $2.50 per day. Later that same year he appears to be involved in the Cache Commercial Club, an organization like a modern Chamber of Commerce (Interestingly enough, also on the club is John H. Gibbs, son of the Elder Gibbs shot at Cane Creek. The younger Gibbs would begin his mission to the Southern States in April 1905). In September 1910 Roskelley was considered for the position of Sheriff of Cache County. Then he disappears from public record so I'm guessing he didn't win.

He and his wife would have 14 children before he died on 8 May 1919 in Smithfield, Utah at the age of 54.