A Conference at Meridian, Dickinson County, Kansas, 20-21 May 1882
Our Conference in Kansas came off on the 20th and 21st instant, at the Wheatland School District, Dickinson County. There were present of Elders form Utah, Jos. F. Doxford, J.N. Thueson, James Mellor and M.S. Sheppard; of local Elders, Joseph Bland and Edward McDonald.
At 11 a.m., after the usual opening exercises, the following Elders occupied the forenoon: Jas. F. Doxford and M.L. Sheppard, dwelling mostly on the establishment of the kingdom of God in the present age, also explaining the first principles of the Gospel.
A branch of the Church was organized, to be known as the Meridian Branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in the State of Kansas. Elder Edward McDonald was chosen to preside and take charge of the same, and was set apart for that purpose.
Wm. H.H. Kinsell was ordained to the office of an Elder.
After singing, Conference adjourned until the next day at ten o’clock a.m.
Benediction by Elder McDonald.
In the afternoon three persons were baptized into the Church.
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Forenoon services. After the opening exercises, Elders J.N. Thueson, James Mellor and Shepperd occupied the forenoon, speaking mostly on the restoration of the Gospel, and the first principles of the same, bearing powerful testimonies to the latter-day work. The remarks of the brethren were endorsed by Elder Doxford in every respect.
After singing, Conference adjourned to 3 p.m.
Benediction by Elder McDonald
Afternoon – Elder Doxford occupied a short time. The sacrament was then administered.
Elders Bland and doxford addressed the congregation on the departure of modern Christianity from the pure doctrines of Christ, bearing a faithful testimony to the true Gospel being restored again through the instrumentality of Joseph Smith the prophet. Brother Doxford instructed the Saints to observe the monthly fast day and exhorted them to faithfulness.
Conference was then adjourned sine die
J.N. Thueson
Clerk of Conference
After being dismissed, two more persons were admitted by baptism.
J.N.T.
I enjoy reading these minutes of conferences, etc. This selection is pretty spare, but still some interesting items:
–I was intrigued that they had baptisms in conjunction with the conference–and on both Saturday and Sunday. Makes me wonder if they weren’t spur-of-the-moment baptisms.
–This line about the final speaker, Elder Doxford: “The remarks of the brethren were endorsed by Elder Doxford in every respect.” I’m guessing he must have been the most senior authority, or otherwise was the one charged with presiding over the conference.
–All three sessions appear to have been general sessions (versus priesthood or auxiliary sessions, for example). Why three general sessions? Couldn’t they have fit all the talks into two sessions at most?
This would have been a mostly-missionary conference (very few members in the Midwest in 1882), one of those times when elders wandering around the countryside in pairs would have met together to report their work and get new assignments for the next few months. That new Meridian Branch was probably tiny, and most of the non-elders in attendance would have been non-members (Mormon conferences, like the revival meetings of other denominations, were community social events). Perhaps that accounts for the multiple general meetings — you’d preach whenever you could get a group together, I think. (At least this is the pattern I recognize from the mid-1890s onward — I assume it wasn’t that different a decade earlier.)
Cool, thanks. For some reason, I really like the thought of this: “Mormon conferences, like the revival meetings of other denominations, were community social events.”
There are some great accounts in the newspapers of the 1890s that make that so clear — accounts written by editors, not just letters of missionaries, where the editors tell how everyone is invited, and what the townspeople are doing or should do to welcome the elders, and how some non-Mormon minister has offered his church to the visitors, and post-conference reports about how great it all was. We sometimes focus so narrowly on the troubles created for our missionaries that we’ve forgotten how kind and neighborly some people in some times and places really were!