Transcript

Transcript for Andrew Jenson, "East Central States Mission," Encyclopedic History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Salt Lake City: Deseret News Publishing Co., 1941), 204-05

EAST CENTRAL STATES MISSION contains within its boundaries the states of Kentucky, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia, and part of Maryland. It contains eight conferences, or districts, namely, Kentucky, East Kentucky, North Carolina, East Tennessee, Middle Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia South, and West Virginia North, with headquarters at Louisville, Kentucky.

The East Central States Mission was organized in November, 1928, from part of the Southern States and the Eastern States missions. From the Southern States Mission were taken the states of Tennessee, Kentucky, North Carolina and Virginia, and from the Eastern States Mission, West Virginia and part of Maryland. Miles L. Jones was chosen to preside over the newly organized mission, which, however, did not start to function until Jan. 1, 1929. At that time the mission had a membership of 12,289, including 2,060 children. There were also transferred from the Southern States Mission 73 missionaries, including two lady missionaries, and from the Eastern States Mission 16 missionaries, including four lady missionaries. Louisville, Ky., was chosen as the headquarters of the mission, where a building was secured at 927 South Fourth Street, which also serves as a home for the missionaries and a meeting house for the Louisville Branch.

Branches of the Church are maintained in the following places, where the saints also owned their own chapels: Charleston, Verdunville, Fairmont and Zigler in West Virginia; Mount Heron in Virginia; Goldsboro, Mount Ary, Hampstead and Wilmington in North Carolina; Richardsville, Sulphur Well, Jonas Fork, Peter's Landing, Ashland, Owingsville, and Martin in Kentucky, and Turkey Creek, Memphis, Craig and North Cut Cove in Tennessee. Meetings were held regularly in hired halls at Bradfordsville and Madisonville in Kentucky; at Nashville and Chattanooga in Tennessee; Durham, Goldsboro, Deep Run (Albertson Branch), and Burlington (Union Ridge Branch) in North Carolina; Danville, Norfolk, Petersburg, Richmond and Roanoke in Virginia, and at New Martinsville, Huntington and White Sulphur Springs in West Virginia. Besides these branches, there are Sunday school organizations in about twenty-five places in the mission besides those in the branches above mentioned.

Lectures on the Book of Mormon, illustrated with film pictures, have proven successful in the mission, and short radio programs, featuring brief lectures and the singing of L. D. S. hymns at Charleston (West Virginia), Memphis (Tennessee), and Durham (North Carolina) have been productive of much good. In some parts the missionaries have traveled without purse and script and have received generous hospitality.

The numerical strength of the East Central States Mission Dec. 31, 1930, was 12,988 souls, including 1 Seventy, 274 Elders, 248 Priests, 44 Teachers, 120 Deacons, 10,230 lay members and 2,071 children. Miles L. Jones still presided over the mission on Dec. 31, 1930.