John Q. Adams, president of the Samoan Mission, wrote the following description of a typical day of tracting in the Samoan Mission of 1921. He sent it to Liahona: The Elders’ Journal, prefacing it with a few comments suggesting that missionaries in the States couldn’t really appreciate how lucky, even easy, their mission life was, with their regular mails and the apparent ease with which they distributed tracts and copies of the Book of Mormon. Then he went on to describe facets of Samoan mission life that must have caused elders in the States to marvel:

May we take you on an imaginative typical proselyting hike over Samoan trails and under obtaining Samoan environment? In comparison and contrast and interchange of facts and ideas we profit as a whole. (more…)

Although hard financial times have brought back the marketplace’s self-interested assertion that saving is unpatriotic, may we never revert to other elements of this ad accepted for the March 1932 Improvement Era:

(more…)

Douglas C. Busath, age 21, from Salt Lake City, enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1942. Following training at Santa Ana, California and in Hawaii, Douglas was assigned first to a bombardment squadron and later to a headquarters squadron, both in the Pacific. He attended LDS church services while in Hawaii, but once out on duty, he was limited to whatever generic services he could occasionally find.

After more than a year in the Pacific, by then stationed in New Guinea, Douglas wrote to his parents about an experience at a location he could not name due to wartime censorship rules:

(more…)

The family of James Riley Bevell (1854-1940) and Alice Virginia Appleton (1859-1939) was another of those Latter-day Saint families who joined the Church in the 19th century Southern States who did not migrate west, but who stayed at home to form the nucleus of today’s wards and stakes. The Bevells were baptized in Panola County, Mississippi, in 1882. Traces of their ongoing commitment to their religion can be found in the names of sons Parley Pratt (1891-1973) and perhaps Golden Ross (1899-1969).

Son James Blaine Bevell (1892-1968) was baptized in 1901. He lived in Panola County most of his life, working as a hired laborer and later as a farmer. He married Annie Belle Wilson (1893-1977) in 1911; she joined the Church by 1917, and the couple raised their children as Latter-day Saints.

(more…)

A few brief lines about Utah history to set the stage, then on to the Church story: The first demonstration of television in Utah took place in 1939, in The Paris, a downtown Salt Lake City department store. Radio enthusiast Sid Fox had purchased a demonstration unit from NBC consisting of a single camera, a central unit (think of it as the CPU of your desktop computer), six receivers (primitive television sets), and a small closed-circuit transmitter. The receivers were set up in different parts of the store where shoppers could watch a pale black and white image of a man addressing them from some makeshift studio in another part of the store. The unit was moved to the State Fair Grounds where visitors could experience the same kind of primitive “reality show,” including occasional talks by church president Heber J. Grant. But until 1948, television was an experimental gimmick, broadcasting nothing but test patterns and music.

(more…)

The Western History Association has been meeting in Salt Lake City for the past few days, which brings lots of interesting people to town. One of those is Jan Shipps, who is visiting LDS Archives today (and probably quite a bit over the next three weeks while she’s in town).

Jan tells me that she was recently awarded a Mellon Foundation fellowship, running for the next two years, to complete work on her book describing developments in Mormonism since World War II. One year’s fellowship covers travel and research to Salt Lake City, Logan, Provo, and Independence; the second year’s fellowship covers the writing.

Pull up a chair, friend, and let me offer you something to drink. Exactly what that is, though, depends on when you come to call. These advertisements — every one of ‘em — were printed in Church publications.

(more…)

I’m not judging whether the following incident is good or bad, or trying to guess what it really says about us as a people. I’m just sayin’ that it’s one of the quirky bits of our history that helps to make us who we are.

Mantua is a small Latter-day Saint town in Little Valley, Box Elder Co., Utah, east of Brigham City. Little Valley was a favorite early herd ground for the settlers of Brigham City, but the place wasn’t permanently settled until 1863 when a few Danish families settled there. Its inhabitants have been largely of Danish descent ever since.

(more…)

What would Saturday be without the traditional Keepa resurrection of some jokes from old Mormon magazines? The Improvement Era of 1934 this time —

Origin of “Nom de Plume”

Visitor: “And what’s your name, my man?”

Prisoner: “9742.”

Visitor: “Is that your real name?”

Prisoner: “Naw, dat’s just my pen name.”

(more…)

Below are photographs of some well-known Church leaders (mostly, but not all, General Authorities; some present, some past) – the catch is that they are generally younger in these pictures than we are used to seeing them. Can you recognize them?

[UPDATE: All pictures have been identified -- see comment 59 for a full list. Latecomers, test yourselves. Let us know how you do!]

(more…)

David O. McKay was president of the Church, with counselors J. Reuben Clark and Henry D. Moyle. The twelve apostles were (not in order of seniority): Joseph Fielding Smith, Harold B. Lee, Spencer W. Kimball, Ezra Taft Benson, Marion G. Romney, Howard W. Hunter, Mark E. Petersen, Hugh B. Brown, Delbert L. Stapley, LeGrand Richards, Richard L. Evans, and George Q. Morris. Joseph L. Wirthlin was the Presiding Bishop.

Joseph T. Bentley was superintendent of the Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Association, Bertha Stone Reeder was president of the Young Women’s Mutual Improvement Association. George R. Hill was superintendent of the Sunday School. LaVern W. Parmley was the Primary president, and Belle Spafford was president of the Relief Society. (more…)

By now you’ve probably heard — maybe received a couple of breathless emails — about the Church’s plans to make patriarchal blessings available via the internet. There will probably not be a flurry of emails retracting that announcement, although such would be appropriate.

The announcement has been pulled from the lds.org website. It was premature, possibly a misunderstanding on someone’s part, or perhaps even the understandable human desire to be the first to tell something important. Blessings are not yet available online, nor has any date been announced when they will be available online.

(more…)

When Carl Clifton Booth (1882-1970) of Taylor, Texas, was a boy – that would have been in the early 1890s – times were hard, and his family’s Protestant congregation fell behind in salary payments to their pastor. The congregation began a campaign to raise the amount due, and little C.C. wanted to do his part. He scoured back alleys and found eight empty whiskey bottles in perfect condition, called on saloon keeper Patrick Moriarty, and sold the bottles to him for a penny each. He tied his pennies carefully in a knot in his handkerchief, and proudly carried them with him to church on the day designated for the special collection.

C.C. forever remembered the pastor’s sermon that day. “The church was far behind on its contract, he said. You pay your rent or get thrown out, you pay your grocery bill or don’t eat, and you pay your pastor – or else. He added that he worshiped no nickel and dime Lord, and he didn’t want nickels and dimes,” C.C. remembered. “He didn’t even mention pennies.” The little boy stood up, fled from the chapel, and threw his knotted handkerchief away. He vowed that someday he would find a church where no collections were made. (more…)

Charles William Carter was Salt Lake’s most experienced photographer in 1870, so it was business as usual when a young mother chose his Main Street studio to make a portrait of her little daughter. Carter posed the child, stepped behind his big camera, and exposed the glass plate from which the photograph would be printed. He told his customer the portrait would be ready the next day, and she left his studio with no idea that overnight her daughter’s picture would become the center of Salt Lake’s attention.

When Carter processed the photograph, he found the likeness of a little girl, as expected. But behind her, a little to her left, appeared the faint image of a man whom visitors to his studio recognized as a recently deceased military man, Captain W.R. Storey. (more…)

There is a tendency, strongly manifested at the present time among some of the brethren, to study the geography of the Book of Mormon. We have heard of numerous lectures, illustrated by suggestive maps, being delivered on this subject during the present winter, generally under the auspices of the Improvement Societies and Sunday Schools. We are greatly pleased to notice the increasing interest taken by the Saints in this holy book. It contains the fullness of the gospel of Christ, and those who prayerfully study its sacred pages can be made wise unto salvation. It also unravels many mysteries connected with the history of the ancient world, more particularly of this western continent, mysteries which no other book explains.

But valuable as is the Book of Mormon both in doctrine and history, yet it is possible to put this sacred volume to uses for which it was never intended, uses which are detrimental rather than advantageous to the cause of truth, and consequently to the work of the Lord. (more…)

From the Juvenile Instructor — the original, not the blog, although those boys at JI can be pretty funny –

At His Trade.

Judge – What is your trade?

Prisoner (who was caught in a gambling-house raid) – I’m a locksmith.

Judge – What were you doing in there when the police entered?

Prisoner – I was making a bolt for the door.

(more…)

There’s nothing particularly unexpected about any of these ads, except that these, and many others like them, appeared in Church publications. These are dated 1916, 1916, 1920, 1934, and 1934.

(more…)

In these days of relative prosperity – and despite whatever the stock market does today, we still live in relative prosperity – where our chapels and ward budgets are provided with little effort on the local level, it can be inspiring to remember the creativity and devotion of earlier generations who raised funds for charitable work through almost constant efforts. Florence R. Vincent of the South London Branch reported to the Millennial Star some of the activities her Relief Society engaged in during the late 1920s.

Their small branch needed the funds, too. Besides the occasional needs of young mothers and the sick, the branch was caring for eight members who were too elderly to attend meetings any longer, and they had two members who were hospitalized for long periods. (more…)

For some of us, February 1985 was little more than a week ago last Tuesday – we remember where we were living, who our favorite teachers were that year, or what job we were working. For one of Keepa’s readers, though (who may identify him/herself or not, at the reader’s discretion), February 1985 is as exotic as any point from earlier in the 20th century: it was the month s/he was born.

What were we like as a Church that month?

(more…)

The Norman, Oklahoma Stake is sponsoring an evening with two prominent Mormon Studies scholars this Friday, to which the public is invited:
.

The Utah War and Its Mountain Meadows Massacre:
Lessons Learned, Surprises Encountered

(more…)

Greetings from Latter-day Saint Sunday Schools throughout the world, 1903 —

.
.
.
.
Karachi, India
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

(more…)

Henry Delp Styer (1862-1944), scion of one of the first Czech families to settle in colonial Pennsylvania, was a member of the West Point class of 1884. His first military posts were in the west, including Utah, where he was assigned to Indian duty part of the time, and to service as the professor of military tactics at Utah Agricultural College in Logan for part of the time. He served in the Philippines during the Spanish American War, and again several years later. He commanded Fort Niagara for a time, and served on the Mexican border during the tense years of the Mexican Revolution. Other duty posts included Trenton, New Jersey, and Camp Lewis, near Tacoma, Washington.

Perhaps his most exotic assignment came in 1918, during the Russian Revolution. (more…)

In the summer of 1943, units of the British and American armies invaded Italy, beginning with the southern island of Sicily, and began the long, slow battle to push the German army up the Italian peninsula and out of the country. Air support was a key factor in the campaign, and the American Air Force established two large airfields – Trunconi and Decimomannu – on the Italian island of Sardinia from which their B-26 “Marauder” bombers could operate.

A few dozen LDS servicemen were stationed at those airfields. It wasn’t easy for them to gather for Sunday services, given the conditions of their military service, but whenever possible, a few did meet. One of them, Marvel Farrel Andersen (1908-1991) of Utah, wrote about those meetings in his letters home: (more…)

What was tickling the funny bones of our grandparents in 1913? Some funnies from the Juvenile Instructor of that year:

Not in the Army After All

A Methodist exhorter shouted: “Come up and join the army of the Lord.”

“I did join,” replied one of the congregation.

“Where’d you join?” asked the exhorter.

“In the Baptist Church.”

“Why, child,” said the exhorter, “you ain’t in the army; you’re in the navy.”

(more…)

The United States Constitution requires that a count – a census – be made of everyone living within U.S. borders every ten years. The constitutional purpose of this census is to determine the number of representatives in the House of Representatives each state is entitled to elect. The first such constitutionally required census was taken in 1790; the next will be made in 2010.

From very early days, Americans have found additional uses for the census: state and local governments could determine how many men of military age were available, and could measure their economic progress by counting grist mills and tallying the acres being farmed; in more recent censuses, sociologists have counted toilets and telephones, and private industries have sought information on our eating habits and preferences in everything from soap to sports equipment. (more…)

For years, the LDS Church History Library and LDS Archives have been housed in the east wing of the Church Office Building in Salt Lake City. A new building — specially built to support the weight of materials, equipped according to all the latest ideas of preservation, and with space to allow the collections to expand — has been under construction just across the street from the Church Office Building.

The new Library/Archives building is slated to be turned over by the contractor to the owner next spring. In order to move and organize the huge masses of stored material from the old to the new site, the Library and Archives will be closed for an anticipated 90 days, a period now estimated to begin in mid-May (the date is flexible, depending on construction delays or advances). This means that no research can be conducted on site, nor patriarchal blessings searched, nor questions answered by staff, during those 90 days. (more…)

There appears to be, among some of our people, an inadequate conception of the sanctity attending certain of the ordinances of the Holy Priesthood. True, the ministrations of those in authority amongst us are not attended with the pomp and worldly ceremony that characterize the procedure in other so-called churches, but the fact that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is in possession of the Priesthood is sufficient to make any and every ordinance administered by due authority within the Church an event of supreme importance.

In performing any such ordinance, the one who officiates speaks and acts, not of himself and of his personal authority, but by virtue of his ordination and appointment as a representative of the powers of heaven. We do not set apart bishops and other officers in the Church, with the show and ceremony of a gala day, as do certain sectarians, nor do we make the ordinance of baptism a spectacular display; but the simplicity of the order established in the Church of Christ ought rather to add to than take from the sacred character of the several ordinances. (more…)

The victorious European and American powers drafted the Treaty of Versailles to settle affairs at the end of World War I. This Treaty also created the League of Nations, a prototype United Nations.

U.S. President Woodrow Wilson was a staunch supporter of the League of Nations; the U.S. Senate, which by constitutional fiat must ratify treaties before they become the law of the land, was not, and ultimately voted against the Treaty. (The United States’ formal acknowledgment of the end of hostilities was the Porter-Knox Resolution, an act of the U.S. Congress passed in 1921 and signed by Warren G. Harding, Wilson’s successor.)

(more…)

This post is a sort of prequel to previous posts about B.H. Roberts’s experiences as an LDS chaplain during World War I, here and here. It’s long; you can safely skip lightly through the multiple eulogies – I include them all here for the sake of history and to emphasize what must have seemed to be an endless experience to the men involved.

It was 90 years ago that the men of the 145 Field Artillery began to settle into their training routine at Camp De Souge, France (near Bordeaux). So far, the men seemed to be enjoying their experience in a new land, far from the battlefront. Sgt. William H. Latimer, a Latter-day Saint, wrote to his parents: (more…)

Bryant S. Hinckley – father of President Gordon B. Hinckley, businessman, high school and college administrator, popular public speaker, and president of Salt Lake City’s Liberty Stake (1925-1930+, the largest stake in the church, with a membership approaching 16,000) – used to write and speak on the uses of humor. I can glean some general principles from his writings –

”This delightful quality of the imagination has many uses and is given to few abuses.”

“Humor is built very largely upon incongruities and contrasts. An investigation of a large number of funny stories and their families shows that they are based upon comparatively few subjects, such as mothers-in-law, hen-pecked husbands, fatness, thinness, baldness, stuttering, sea sickness, foreigners, prohibition and politics.” (more…)

This one could have been classed among the “Ads You’re Not Going to See Again Any Time Soon” posts – at least I hope we won’t see anything like it again. It felt almost blasphemous to type this parody of the 19th century’s patent medicine ads, complete with testimonials and warnings against imitations.

This “advertisement,” appearing in the 1 October 1849 issue of the Millennial Star, was written by William Cameron Dunbar (1823-1905), a Scot who served as a missionary in Britain before his 1852 emigration. He was aboard the Saluda when it exploded, killing his wife and two children, and 25 other Saints. In Utah he became a popular actor, singer, newspaper editor, printer, and a chaplain in the Nauvoo Legion. He was especially known for his comic songs and comedic skits – talents obviously related to this early advertisement. (more…)