Early Growth of the California Mission

The California Mission included all the territory of California, Nevada, Arizona and part of Oregon. As part of the history of Northern Nevada and California, the mission history gives the very basis of growth outside the Utah Territory.

The Calimis Newsletter began its publication as a means to communicate mission news and information to elders and sisters serving in the California Mission. Its first edition in 1921 disseminated assignments, included a president’s message, listed transfers, gave statistics and delivered reports from various parts of the mission. In 1928, a history of the mission was printed; broken into segments that covered newsletters from 1926-1928. The basis of these articles was the History of the California Mission by Andrew Jenson, church historian. The following is referenced to Jenson’s material.

Early History of the California Mission

While Brigham was detained at Council Bluffs, Iowa, the west bound saints who sailed from New York on the ship Brooklyn, landed in Yerba Buena, (San Francisco) July 31, 1846. Samuel Brannan, the presiding elder, maintained leadership of about 200 people who expected to join the body of saints when they settled somewhere in the Rocky Mountains.

Samuel Brannan

Another group of membership arrived in southern California as the “Mormon Battalion.” Five hundred and 50 men were mustered into the U.S. military while still on the plains near Council Bluffs, Iowa. Their enlistment served to appease the federal government any anxiety over their loyalty to the country. A grueling march to Santa Fe led them to new leadership and a new assignment. They would now be blazing a trail to California. They arrived in San Diego, January of 1847.

After the Mormon Battalion were mustered out of service, they marched north, many remained, mingling with the Brooklyn Ship saints. They worked at various trades and occupations. A few were employed by John Sutter at Coloma when gold was discovered.

“Through the influence of the whites (nearly all Mormons) the name of Yerba Buena was changed to that of San Francisco. A city on a large scale was surveyed and Samuel Brannan became the owner of a great portion of the lots bordering on what is now Market Street. Naturally, he became very wealthy and gradually grew cold toward his religion.”[1]  

Charles C. Rich

Parley P. Pratt

With the onset of the gold rush, several saints stayed in California to work; several more migrated from Utah to California hoping for riches. For the most part, Brigham Young swayed the majority of membership to stay close to the fellowship of the church. Brigham did, however, send Apostle Charles C. Rich and a company of brethren to visit the saints in California to collect tithing funds and provide leadership.

In 1851, the San Francisco branch was reorganized with Parley P. Pratt, Charles C. Rich and Amasa M. Lyman in attendance. Parley being chosen as branch president was short lived, he being called on a mission to serve in Chile. When Parley left, George K. Winner (Spelled Wimmer in Andrew Jenson’s history) was sustained as president.

Elder William McBride was very instrumental in building up a group of saints in Santa Clara.

Amasa Lyman

William McBride

As more saints settled in California, Apostles Amasa M. Lyman and Charles C. Rich negotiated for the purchase of the San Bernardino Ranch as a place the saints could gather in California. In two years, a general conference was held. Attendance was taken by quorums: 30 High Priests, 1 Teacher, and 3 Deacons, as well as a healthy attendance of lay membership, totaling 878 members. Here, Apostles Amasa M. Lyman and Charles C. Rich were sustained as president of the church in California.

By 1856, a newspaper, “Western Standard,” published by George Q. Cannon on behalf of the church was circulated. That year George Q. Cannon was sustained as the president of the church in Upper California                                                and the territories north.

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[1] History of the California Mission by Andrew Jenson, Church Historian.

On the Eve of a New Beginning

Four dedicated branch presidents held the Sparks Branch together. Within the 1910-1941 time frame several other branches were organized and flourished. Records for each branch unit of the district were closed [in most cases, disregarded, never to be seen again] in preparation for an event heralding the status of ward units within a stake. One particular entry of note was written by Sinclair Gillies, a faithful clerk in the Sparks Branch, who noted the occasion with the following:

"OFFICERS OF THE SPARKS BRANCH ON THE EVE OF BECOMING PART OF THE RENO STAKE AND SPARKS WARD"

2/9/1941

"I now close the books on the Sparks Branch because on February 9, 1941 (next week) we will be organized into a stake.  The following are officers of the Sparks Branch as it stands today."

Branch President, W. Kenneth Holbrook

1^st counselor, J. Weldon Moore

2^nd counselor, Irving Schelin

Branch clerk, Sinclair D. Gillies

SUNDAY SCHOOL

Superintendent, Noble B. Evans

1st assistant, Melvin A. Brown Sr.

2^nd assistant, Tracy F. Hauder

Secretary, Blaine Bradburn

RELIEF SOCIETY

President, Beatrice Call

1^st counselor, Hortense Shupe

2^nd counselor, Merlyn Lampman

Secretary, Helen Piggott

Y.M.M.I.A.

President, Harold Call

1^st counselor, Glenn Judd

2^nd counselor, Morris Young

Secretary, Bruce Belnap

Y.L.M.M.I.A.

President, Louise Lindsay

1^st counselor, Mildred Brewster

2^nd counselor, Ada Sneddon

Secretary, Ruth Beardall

PRIMARY

President, Edith Blackburn

1^st counselor, Effie Rock

2^nd counselor, Mary Moore

Secretary, Lila Christensen

PRIESTHOOD SUPERVISORS                   Lester Brown

Oliver Hansen                                                 James Cooke

Stanley Lindsay                                              Jesse Sneddon

Good bye, [In big script]

Sinclair D. Gillies

Clerk

With a flourish of his pen, Clair, as he was most commonly known, literally wrote the above entry on the last page of the record and closed the book.

Successive Branch President, #4, Kenneth Holbrook

Kenneth Holbrook, September 12, 1937- March 9, 1941

Kenneth was born in 1900, his wife, Ruth was born in 1898, both born in Ogden, Utah. Ruth served a mission and became a school teacher. Ken worked for the railroad as a shop keeper, ordering supplies for the railroad. They were transferred to Sparks in 1933 after having their first baby in Ogden in 1932.

In 1933, JoAnn, their daughter, was born. Two more children came while living in Sparks.  In between one of those births, Ruth suffered from a terrible miscarriage. Due to complications they almost lost her. 

When they first moved to the area in 1933, Ruth was somewhat shy and quiet, keeping to herself. It didn’t take long before she found great friendships with the sisters in the branch. Those friendships proved to be very supportive and helpful during the time Ruth was coping with difficult health issues.

President Holbrook wrote a bit about this period of time while living in Sparks.

Home

“We decided we ought to build a house. We had very little money but Ruth’s brother, Al Dickson needed a job so we hired him to build our home. We bought a lot for $150 on the corner of Pyramid and Prater. It was located on the outskirts of town at the time and currently has a bank on it. We had $50 we could pay down on it and that was all. It was in a nice area in Sparks and we paid for it a little bit a month.” 

“Then I borrowed a truck and went up in the hills and gathered big rocks we could put in to make a foundation.  We built the frames and put in these big rocks and poured concrete in to cover them.  Getting the rocks saved the amount of concrete we had to buy.  It made just as good a foundation or better because we couldn’t afford very much. When the house was finished it was one of the sturdiest little houses in Sparks, and a really nice one, I think.  A lot of our life was spent getting it built and living in it half built.  It really wasn’t completely finished when we moved to Ogden ten years later.”

“When the children were still young, the Spanish/Basque sheepherders would bring their sheep into town on Pyramid Road. The children were afraid of them so they scurried into the house to watch from the front room window. The herd would come down the street then make the turn in front of our house and proceed down Prater Way.”

“Not only did the Basque have sheep herds but on other occasions they herded turkeys. The turkeys were quite annoying to Ruth because they came into the yard and picked the blossoms off her daisies.”

Branch President Calling

“One day I was all black from soot, President McDonald [California Mission President] from Los Angeles came over and told me I was to be the new branch president. [1937]  I chose Harold Call and Milford Piggett for counselors, Brother Metzler for clerk and William Schipper for the building chairman.”

“One of the first things I had to do as branch president was register with the county clerk so I could perform marriages. They told me I’d have to have business cards printed so they could give them to people who came up.  I was quite perturbed that these young people would come over the holiday or weekend to avoid the California three day marriage law.  I told President McDonald I didn’t particularly like the idea of performing weddings sort of on a runaway basis.  He said, “Well don’t you ever turn any of them down because they came to you and if you don’t perform the wedding, they’ll go somewhere else.  Do the best you can in a 2 ½ minute service before you marry them.”

“In 1939, Tracy Hauder was the head of the Priests quorum so I had him baptize our daughter, June, in the Moana Hot Springs. He later became the bishop.”

Prater Way Chapel

 “I found a location that we liked for a church building on Prater Way and made a $50 option deposit on it for sixty days.  We wrote Salt Lake and told them what we had and sent a copy of it to President McDonald in Los Angeles.  Two days before the option was up we still hadn’t heard anything and I phoned him.  He said, “Well, you got enough money to go ahead, don’t you?”  I said, “Yes, it will take all we’ve got though and we haven’t got approval.” He said, “You go ahead and exercise the option and I’ll guarantee that the thing’s taken care of and approved.” 

“Finally in 1939 we had authority to go ahead and they sent Lloyd Heeder out to act as a contractor.  When I signed the contract with him to pay him $5 [other written records say it was $10] a day I was just frightened and wondered how on earth we were going to keep up that part of the deal.”

“We poured concrete for the floors of the church in November and had to make fires in drums to avoid it freezing.  We noticed that it was snowing where we were but nowhere else.  Then we realized that it was the moisture rising and freezing and falling again in our own snow storm.”

The Lions Group

“The Lions group asked if our Relief Society could serve a luncheon at our new building to show members what we were doing.  I told them there was no heat, and they couldn’t have coffee or smoke.  That night we built fires in steel drums.”

“Then the Lions group asked us again if we would have a show where they could sell tickets.  I suggested we have a two day carnival and they put up a candidate for queen, and every sale of baked goods, chili, ice cream and garage sale items would count one point for the queen.  We put up Monie Richins and they put up the daughter of Carroll, the car foreman.  He had a lot of Italian workmen and sold them a lot of votes, some of which they came and cashed in on.  At the end I had Sweriski, the head of the Lions, announce the winner.  He said, ‘Only in America could a Jew announce a Catholic as queen of a Mormon carnival.’ ”

Alexander Schreiner [Famous organist]

“There was some criticism of the $400 organ we bought.  I wrote to Alexander Schreiner that Ruth [Holbrook] would like to see him if he could stop on his way to or from California, and that if he could stop overnight, would he put on a concert for our town.  It was a great success.”

Reno Stake

“A few months after the dedication of the building which had taken 13 months to build and pay off, the Reno Stake was formed with Nate Hurst President, Harold Call Patriarch and Pete Ferguson and Jim Cook on the High Council.  Elmo Humpherys was made bishop of the Sparks Ward.  I was made President of the High Priests quorum.  I was ordained by John A. Widstoe.” [1941]

Corn Project

“There was a quorum corn project in which the land next to the church was used.  Only two men showed up besides myself.  When it was time to harvest, two of the sisters came and were upset to find out the corn was to be sold as a priesthood fund raiser.  Ruth was upset because their husbands hadn’t worked on the project.”

“While working at the shops and the store under trying conditions, Mr. Holley being so nervous and upset about a lot of things, I would take off about once every three months to San Francisco.  We’d watch the exposition building [and Golden Gate bridge] going up there.  It gave my counselors a chance to take over”.

“There was a Reverend who invited me to a meeting of the Ministerial Association to discuss plans for Thanksgiving.  When a gospel minister saw me, he asked, ‘Are you a born again Christian?’ I made the mistake of laughing and said, “What’s that?”  He got up and walked out”.

      The family moved from Sparks in 1943.

              Kenneth Holbrook was the last branch president of the Sparks Branch. As a new era began in 1941, the branch became a ward and the calling of branch president was replaced with that of bishop.