Tag Archives: chapel building

biographical, Mormon history

Emma Lee Pouncey Bertrand: “Mother Bertrand”

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I love this photo of Emma Lee Pouncey Bertrand. There is something about the set of her jaw, or the carriage of her head, that reminds me of the strength of my Alabama grandmother and her sisters, and the other independent southern women I have known. Her character seems to be written on her face.

Emma was born in Alabama in 1873, the youngest child of Baptist Pastor William Jones Pouncey (then age 70) and his much younger fourth wife, Phoebe Juffus Lockard. Her father died when Emma was 5 years old. Emma was 14 when she was introduced to a Texas sheepman at the home of friends. He was ill with malaria and had just come in from the ranch, dirty and unshaven. The sheepman was more taken with Emma than she was with him – until the next evening, that is, when the sheepman came to call on her, clean-shaven, dressed in good clothes, and with a buggy to take her for a ride. She married him – Peter Gabriel Bertrand, 35 to Emma’s 15 years – a year later.

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biographical, Mormon history

Carl Clifton Booth: The Good Shepherd of West Dallas

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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. Continue reading Carl Clifton Booth: The Good Shepherd of West Dallas →

Mormon history

The Chapel Built by Cigarettes

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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: Continue reading The Chapel Built by Cigarettes →

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John Edward Rocha: Non-Mormon Champion of the Saints

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John Edward Rocha was born in Portugal (probably in the Azores) in 1876 and emigrated to Hawaii in 1880 with his parents Manuel and Elzida Rocha. He married Mary Carvalho, Hawaiian-born daughter of Portuguese immigrants, in about 1905, and in rapid succession four children (sons Marseillaise/Marcy and Harold, and daughters Cecilia and Olga) were born.

Rocha was a tailor, and operated his own designing and tailoring business in Honolulu, where he employed several other tailors. On returning to his business one day in 1913, he found one of his employees mending an old coat. Rocha was angered by the sight – his business served some of the finest families in Honolulu, and he ordered the employee to drop what he was doing. They were not in the business of patching and mending old clothes, he said. Continue reading John Edward Rocha: Non-Mormon Champion of the Saints →

Mormon history

We got ’em coming and going

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Dave Banack’s post about Matthew Streib, the cyclist on an American Pilgrimage, reminded me that I had once heard that bicycles, not automobiles, were the impetus behind the development of decent inter-city roads in the United States. Sure enough, the ample authority of the all-wise Wikipedia confirms that the Good Roads Movement was spurred by 19th century cyclists just like Matthew Streib who needed decent roads on which to travel.
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