Comments on: Sarah Day Hall: Southern Mother in Israel

By: Ardis Parshall

Ardis Parshall — Sat, 21 Oct 2006 09:25:04 +0000

I love that picture, too, Kevin. What do you suppose it says about B.H. Roberts’s personality that he had his portrait made in that get-up? I know it was a dark time, and maybe it was partially to document the extent to which the servants of God would go to serve, but I can’t help thinking that BHR appreciated the adventure to some extent. We’re so used to thinking of BHR as an old man in his other familiar portraits that I was startled to realize that he was still in his 20s when he “tramped” in to bring out the bodies of Elders Gibbs and Barry. (One of the stories in this series is about the mother of the two young members killed trying to protect those elders, by the way, with a great photo of the surviving family.)

By: Kevin Barney

Kevin Barney — Sat, 21 Oct 2006 03:02:57 +0000

Ah, a very nice, if belated, addition in #7, in Paul Harveyish “rest of the story” fashion! That is quite a line from which you descend.

The only thing I know about the Southern States Mission from the period is that B.H. Roberts was a mission president there. I love the picture of him dressed up as a tramp so he could secret out the bodies of those missionaries that were murdered.

By: Ardis Parshall

Ardis Parshall — Sat, 21 Oct 2006 00:21:18 +0000

TMD (3) — I meant “thanks for that” (typos come in no matter how hard I proofread)

David (6) — There is so much heroism in the history of southern Mormonism, and most of it has never been told. All I can hope is that families like the Bighams have recorded something for their own families, that will eventually make its way into archival files. That autograph book would be a treasure. I’ve got another story about a Tennessee family that I’ll post eventually.

I donated dozens of missionary photographs to the Archives kept by my family — they were of no special use to me and I hoped the descendants of some of those missionaries might the photos and know that their ancestors had made friends on their missions.

The body of this article doesn’t say it, but I’m grateful to claim Lewis and Sarah Hall as my great-grandparents, with their daughter Lella being my grandmother. I’ve heard these stories from my grandmother so many times, and have been able to verify much of it from church records and the writings of aunts. The part about Lella’s standing up to the minister isn’t independently verified, but grandma used to tell about that evening in very solemn testimonies, so I believe it was so.

By: David Richey

David Richey — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 21:24:32 +0000

Ardis:
TMD (in #3) referenced Northcuts Cove which became the ward at Altamont, TN but there is another area in Tennessee that has an equal amount of history-Turkey Creek. In the early 1890\’s in that area, the missionaries found a family, the Bighams, that befriended them in much the same way as was in your story. The mother in the family was baptized along with children old enough to be baptized. The father was baptized later. The father protected the missionaries from being beaten by his neighbors. One of the more fascinating parts of this story is the mother kept a book of the signatures of all the missionaries that visited her home. When I saw the book in 1987, it was in the possession of the Bigham\’s granddaughter, who was elderly at the time. One of the early names in the book was Brigham H (B.H.) Roberts.
I too, would buy a copy of your book.

By: Ardis Parshall

Ardis Parshall — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 13:19:13 +0000

TMD – That’s for that. I’ve never heard of Northcuts Cove, but I’ve put it on my list to investigate. I’ve got a personal interest in southern saints and believe their history needs more exposure.

Mami, if you bought copies for everybody in your family, you’d single-handedly guarantee a best seller! Could you contact me directly at AEParshall at aol dot com?

By: mami

mami — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 05:12:09 +0000

Ardis,
I would buy a copy–and a copy for my 7 sisters, one for my mother, one for my mother-in-law, and then there are all my sister in laws.
We just had our book group, and I suggested we read some accounts of women like the ones you have written. I was hoping I could get a few emailed to me. Is that a possibility?

By: TMD

TMD — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 04:04:33 +0000

I appreciate the topic of this one, particularly. During college, I attended a ward in rural Tennessee that was largely descended from the work of the missionaries of this period. As it was explained to me, a set of missionaries came through the small town of Altamont in the 1890′s and baptized about 4 families. Today, their decendents form the core of a remarkable ward. They built and used one of the earliest chapels in the south, at North Cuts Cove, and to this day every other year the chapel (the ownership of which returned to the family who donated the property for that use, if I recall/understood correctly) is used for a sunrise service on Easter Sunday. (I admit I never made it to Northcuts Cove for the sunrise service…it would have required leaving the dorm by about 4 AM, and as I said, I was a college student. As the name suggests, north cuts cove was far back amid the hills and coves)

I think there’s a picture of the chapel in the church history museum, or at least there used to be.

Amidst challenging economic circumstances, neighbors who were often unfriendly to their religious beliefs, and relative isolation from the rest of the church, those families and their descendents built a deeply faithful, loving, welcoming, actively serving community. I treasure my experiences there.

By: Ardis Parshall

Ardis Parshall — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 02:51:14 +0000

Thank you, mami. I do have plans to publish these sketches, and I think I might write a post about that — I have a particular goal in mind that would benefit from some helpful and interesting remarks from commenters. Of course, you will have read them all by then so probably wouldn’t buy a copy, huh? ;-)

By: mami

mami — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 21:53:00 +0000

Ardis,
Your really ought to publish an anthology of these. Seriously. Please consider it.