AN ABRIDGED MEMORY HISTORY OF
THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS
IN SOUTHWEST MISSOURI
(The following is mostly, from the memories of Walter R. Tomlinson and me,
Donald E. Warren. Some items included by me are second hand -- information I have
been told through the years.)
The early Church in Southwest Missouri
Early branches
Three of the earliest (likely the three earliest) church branches in southwest Missouri were in Springfield, Webb City, and Joplin. All were in existence in the 1920s; how much earlier is not known.
Springfield Branch
Some of the early and most stalwart members of the Springfield branch were the Nichols families. There were Clem, Jim, Dan, and Dave Nichols and their families. The Nichols families were so prominent in the Springfield Branch that it was regularly referred to as the Nichols Branch. Most of the Nichols later moved to Utah. James (Jim) Drummond's wife, Gladys, was a daughter of Dave Nichols.
The Springfield Branch had a Church-owned meetinghouse early on.
Webb City Branch
The Morgan family, including Sister Gertie Morgan Ohler of the Carthage Ward and Sister Gertrude Morgan of the Joplin First Ward, were among the early and stalwart members of the Webb City Branch.
The first church-owned meetinghouse in our immediate area was built at 3rd and Liberty in Webb City. Brother Dave Nichols of Springfield supervised the construction. The church furnished the materials. Local members of the church did the construction work.
For several years in the 1940s and '50s, Brother Walter R. Tomlinson of Joplin, at the request of mission and district leaders, served as branch president of the Webb City Branch -- much of the time without counselors. Non-member husbands of two of the sisters (Gertie Ohler and Lucy
Cahill) were two of his best and most dependable male helpers. Charles Ohler served faithfully and well as Sunday School superintendent for quite some time.
Leslie Cahill, though like Charlie Ohler not a member of the church, totally supported his wife and daughters, attended church meetings much of the time, and was always ready and willing worker and supporter.
Walter L. Walker, Jr. of Joplin was called and served as branch president in Webb City in the early 1960s until the Webb City Branch was combined with the Joplin Branch in 1962.
Joplin Branch
Brother Tomlinson, now 91 years of age (at the time this abridgement was written in 1970s), recalls that the Joplin Branch was in existence in the "teens." He was baptized in the mid-1920s but had been attending for several years prior to that waiting for his wife to join the church with him.
Other early, and earlier, members of the Joplin Branch included The Altops (Move-ins. Brother Altop was one of the earliest branch presidents), Brother Joseph O. "Popeye" Johnson and his wife, Edna Mae, (parents of Glen O. Johnson), Everett Fain, T. J. Thomas (a barber), Sister Bush, Sister Camp, Grandma Woodworth (mother-in-law of Sister Lois Woodworth/Macke), Grandma Cox (grandmother of Sister Mildfed Alderman)), Clyde Helton, and the Teters family.
Brother "Popeye" Johnson left his family and with another (non-local) missionary served as full-time missionaries without purse or script for six months in Arkansas in 1933. He served another six-months mission in the Kansas City area.
Joplin Branch Area
For a few years after the Webb City Branch was combined into the Joplin Branch in 1962, the Joplin Branch included all of southwest Missouri that is now in the Joplin Missouri Stake except part of the
Nevada, Missouri Ward. (Most of the present Nevada Ward Area was then in the Kansas City Stake.)
Joplin Branch Meetinghouses
The Joplin Branch did not own a meetinghouse until in the 1940s when it acquired and renovated a roofed-over basement at 8th and Byers in Joplin. Earlier they had met in Erikson's Dance Hall upstairs near 6th and Main Streets (where the members always had to clean up the cigarette stubs, ash trays,
spittoons etc. on Sunday morning before they could hold services), and in an old store building near 23rd and Main Streets, among other places. While the Joplin Branch was meeting at the old store building, Lester Rail, brother-in-law of Sister Mildred Alderman, was branch president.
The present (original) Joplin Meetinghouse has been (was) built on land that was donated to the Joplin Branch by Kelsey Norman, a non-member.
Mr. Norman was a quite wealthy Joplin resident who owned considerable property. He had previously donated to the Joplin School District the site where the present Joplin High School is located.
Harold (Happy) Cantrell approached Mr. Norman regarding our need for a site to build a new meetinghouse. Conversations between Mr. Norman and other Church members including Albion N. Alderman, Dr. Keith Wintle, and William E. Hughlett ensued. Mr. Norman agreed to give the four-
square-block area (about 14 acres) bounded by Twentieth and Twenty-second Streets on the north and south, and Wisconsin and Indiana Streets on the east and west to the Joplin Branch. Church policy at that time was that any donations of property was to be made to the church in Salt Lake City; not to
the local units -- that local units could not hold title to real property. Considerable negotiations ensued. Mr. Norman refused to donate the land to the church saying he would give it to his "neighbors" but not to the church in Salt Lake City.
Finally in exasperation he set a deadline of the close of business on a certain date for the church to accept his terms or forfeit his offer. The church finally agreed to his terms. On the final day of the offer, a church representative flew into Kansas City. Bill Hughlett drove to Kansas City, picked up the church representative and brought him to Joplin, arriving around four o'clock -- about an hour before the deadline Mr. Norman had set. They were met at Mr. Norman's office by Dr. Wintle and perhaps others, and the donation was consummated.
Later, three of the four square blocks were sold to developers. The proceeds of the sale became the largest cash portion of our local unit's twenty percent contribution to the construction costs of the first part of the Joplin Meetinghouse.
The first part of the Joplin Branch Meetinghouse was constructed in 1960-61 and was comprised of the chapel and all offices and classrooms directly south of the chapel. It was built by a combination of contracts, day labor, and donated labor. George Durocher of Wichita, Kansas, a cousin of Glen O.
Johnson, was the construction superintendent.
(The enclosed additional information was provided by Bro. Paul Johnson of the Carthage Ward:
Glen Johnson Sr. was the Construction Foreman.
Steven Hughlett, Phillip Durocher, and Paul Johnson were laborers.
Donated Labor:
Forrest Masters - Plumber
Robert Moffet
Ralph Green
Don Warren
Bill Hughlett Sr.
Bill Hughlett Jr
Glen Johnson Jr.
David Hughlett
Mike Hughlett
Bud Meyers
Joe Hughlett
Wesley (Skinny) Green
Carl Crouch
Walter Lee Walker
Norman Spring
Billy Chase
Dennis Peck
Lee Peck
W.T. Peck
Plus the following worked 40 hours for pay and 40 hours donated labor:
Steve Hughlett, Phillip Durocher, Paul Johnson and Glen Johnson Sr.)
The building has been added onto twice. The cultural hall, Relief Society room, and all directly east thereof were built in the early 1970s mostly by contract. The stake offices and all else north of the chapel and cultural hall were added in the late 1970s – again mostly under contract.
Central States Mission
The Central States Mission was a big mission and was headquartered in Independence, Missouri.
In the 1950s and early '60s, the Central States Mission included Missouri, Iowa, Nebrasks, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas, and perhaps more.
President Spencer W. Kimball served his mission in the Central States Mission -- most of the time in Oklahoma, but I believe he served some time in Texas.
Central States Mission Presidents
Samuel O. Bennion served for about thirty years. He was mission president when Brother Tomlinson was baptized),
(There may be a gap here)
Alvin R. Dyer
Samuel R. Carpenter
Carlos G. Smith
Wayne C. Player
James B. Keysor
and James West
Central States Mission Board
There was a mission board much as there is a stake board now. Mission board members were drawn from all areas of the mission and were expected to attend district conferences wherever they were held in the mission. The mission president's wife always served as the mission Relief Society president.
Early in the 1960s, Gladys Drummond of Springfield and Gertie Ohler of Joplin were counselors to the mission Relief Society president. Mildred Alderman of Joplin was the secretary. James G. Drummond of Springfield and Donald E. Warren of Joplin were on the mission board for the Aaronic
Priesthood. This group, as did other mission board members, traveled to district conferences in Des Moines, Iowa; Omaha, Nebraska; Wichita, Kansas; Sedalia, Missouri; Columbia, Missouri; etc.
The writer (Don E. Warren) remembers that also in the 1960s a group from Bartlesville, Oklahoma, including Veigh J. Neilson was on the mission board. Elder Neilson later served as president of the Tulsa Oklahoma Stake, mission president, regional representative, and most recently president of the Dallas, Texas Temple.
Youth Conferences
Until the mid- to late '60s, when most of the larger population centers -- Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Wichita, Omaha, Des Moines, etc., had been made stakes, youth conferences were held on a mission basis. For several years in the late '40s and early '50s, most of them were held in Independence, Missouri. Later, they were held in Oklahoma City; Wichita; Tulsa; Ames, Iowa; Sedalia;
Springfield; and several times in Jefferson City, Missouri.
Southwest Missouri District
Inspirational Story:
Brother Tomlinson relates and Brother Glen Johnson confirms that at one time in the early days Sister Edna Mae Johnson had TB. She was so weak that she was unable to care for her family. Their youngest daughter, Ruby, was one year old. She was brought to the Tomlinson's home for Sister Tomlinson to care for. At a district conference held in Springfield in 1927, President Heber G. Grant presided. After one of the sessions, President Grant walked down the aisle to where Sister Johnson was sitting, placed a hand on her and said to her, "Woman, don't you worry; you will live to raise all your children." And she did. She died at age 93.
Branches 1958-62
Springfield, Joplin, Webb City, Fayetteville, Commerce, Pittsburg, Cross Timbers, and West Plains (?).
Dependent Sunday School -- later dependent branch – Neosho attached to Joplin.
District Presidencies during late '50s and '60s
James G. Drummond with King E. Beagley and Kenneth Rone as counselors.
Kenneth Bone
Two Mission Disctricts Created
In 1963, the Southwest Missouri District was divided to form two districts: Southwest Missouri District headquartered in Joplin, and South Central Missouri District headquartered in Springfield.
The new Southwest Missouri District consisted of branches in Joplin; Pittsburg, Kansas; Commerce, Oklahoma; and Fayetteville, Arkansas, along with the dependent branch at Neosho, Missouri, attached to the Joplin Branch.
The new South Central District was comprised of the remaining units of the old Southwest Missouri District.
Presidencies of the New Southwest Missouri District
Donald E. Warren with William E. Hughlett and Walter R. Tomlinson, counselors and Robert W. Moffet, clerk.
Richard Wallace with William E. Hughlett and Walter R. Tomlinson, counselors.
Changes in Southwest Missouri District
-- Organized an independent branch in Neosho.
While Neosho was a dependent Sunday School and later a dependent branch attached to Joplin, the regular and dependable attendees at Neosho were William Marion Gunnels and his wife Nancy "C" Dona Gunnels and Elizabeth Temperance Barcroft.
A member of the Joplin Branch presidency went to Neosho each Sunday to help with the services and Sacrament.
While he was a member of the Joplin Branch presidency, Brother said that when he, his wife and six children visited Neosho that Neosho's attendance on those Sundays always doubled or more than doubled.
-- Organized an independent branch in Siloam Springs, Arkansas.
-- Organized a dependent branch in Gentry, Arkansas.
-- Organized a dependent Sunday School in Monett attached to the Neosho Branch.
At that time there were four known church members in Monett: an elderly lady, a mother and her adolescent daughter and son. Meetings were held in the mother's home.
There were two or three known church members in the Cassville area.
Southwest Missouri District
In 1972, to prepare the area for stakehood, the two districts of Southwest Missouri and South Central Missouri were rejoined to form the Southwest Missouri District.
The district presidency members were Carroll S. Claybrook and Richard Wallace of Joplin and Wilbur Murray of Springfield.
The Ozark Stake was created in 1973 by Elder Spencer W. Kimball, president of the quorum of the twelve, assisted by Elder L. Tom Perry.
Carroll S. Claybrook was called and sustained as stake president with Richard Wallace and Wilbur Murray as counselors.
