The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Louisiana - History

History

On January 4, 1841, The Prophet Joseph Smith received a letter from Elam Ludington and Eli G. Terrill of New Orleans who requested an elder to assist the members of the Church who were living there. "Send us Peter, or an Apostle to preach unto Jesus," they wrote, and enclosed $10 to help defray expenses. The group may have been among those from the sailing ship Isaac Newton, which arrived from London on December 21, 1840.

Harrison Sagers arrived at New Orleans on March 28, 1841. He preached to large crowds but was troubled by mobs, and was once protected from a mob by a group of courageous women who circled him in his defense. He baptized several people. Additional missionaries were sent from Nauvoo to assist Sagers.

New Orleans became the principal port of arrival for Latter-day Saints from Europe by November 1841. Over the next few years, 17,463 individuals immigrated by way of this port city. From 1844 to 1855, the New Orleans and Lafayette branch functioned in New Orleans, when New York became the port of arrival for the church immigrants due to outbreaks of major epidemics.

No other known missionary efforts was done in Louisiana until February 16, 1896 when missionaries were assigned to the Louisiana Conference, which was part of the Southern States Mission. Joseph A. Cornwall arrived in Louisiana on September 10 of that year. By the end of 1897, he and his companions had baptized their first converts. On March 12, 1899, the Red Rock Branch was organized. John R. Jones, a sawmill owner, befriended the missionaries and protected them from opposition. Alexander Colman Wagley was baptized on September 4, 1898, and became the first president of the Red Rock Branch. David A Broadbent, president of the Louisiana District from 1898 to 1899, reported 110 people had been baptized by June 16, 1899.

In October 1899 a mob threatened a missionary under the medical care of Jane Holt Clark, a midwife. She confronted the mob with a shotgun and said, "I brought a good many of you into the world and I can take you out again just as easily." The mob dispersed.

A wagon train of members from Pride traveled to and settled at Corleyville in Sabine Parish. They organized a branch on November 12, 1916. A meetinghouse was erected around 1920. The Many Branch was organized by June 1935 with its meetinghouse built by December 6, 1941.

Howard and Marion Bennion arrived in New Orleans in the 1920s and organized a branch in their apartment in 1924. The branch struggled in the early 1930s, but due to an increased effort from the local members, the New Orleans branch began to grow. 100 people celebrated the New Orleans Branch centennial in 1944. Due to the influx of Latter-day Saint servicemen who came during World War II, the branch had grown to 300 members in 1948. A meetinghouse was begun in January 1951, and then dedicated on November 16, 1952. That same year, meetinghouses were dedicated in Hammond, Willliamson, and Lake Charles. The New Orleans Stake, Louisiana's first, was organized on June 19, 1955 by Harold B. Lee and Mark E. Petersen of the Quorum of the Twelve.

On May 15, 1977, President Spencer W. Kimball visited Baton Rouge and spoke to a congregation of 12,000 from the area. On March 2, 2003, Gordon B. Hinckley spoke to 5,000 members in the University of New Orleans Lakefront Arena as part of a two-day tour of members in the Southern states.

Following Hurricane Katrina in 2005, several thousand Latter-day Saint volunteers, from a 7 state area (including Louisiana), poured into the devastated area. Many of them taking time out of their jobs or came down on the weekends to help anyone needing assistance regardless of faith.