The Second (and Present) Building on 19th Street
In the late fifties and throughout the sixties, the number of members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints grew slowly in the Huntsville area, but by 1963, the worldwide Church membership reached two million.[49][50] In January of 1971, Branch President, Thomas F. Toole was released “after 13 years of faithful service” and Superintendent Wilburn L. Toole was released “after about 21 years of faithful service.” Elder Duane Foote was sustained as the new Superintendent of the Huntsville Sunday School. Throughout the 1970’s another building fund was started for a new chapel. By 1972, about fifty members were attending church services in the chapel on Old Houston Rd.[51] This is a small number, but significant number, considering that by 1971, the Church’s members reached three million people all over the world.[52]
In Utah, the presidency of the Church changed after Joseph F. Smith died. On July 9, 1972, the Church announced that Harold B. Lee was sustained as the prophet with the counselors being N. Eldon Tanner and Marion G. Romney. While the new presidency might have changed, it did not affect the Huntsville Branch. What did change and affect the branch was when President Hattaway moved to Denver, Colorado on July 29, 1972. That August, Carl Dean Crowson was sustained as Branch President with James S. Olson as first counselor, Daniel Friend Bachelder as second counselor, and Jerry Don Toole as the branch clerk. On May 28, 1973, new boundaries were set up, which in turn allowed new members to be added to the branch. The number of members in the Huntsville Branch jumped from one hundred and fourteen to one hundred and thirty-three. Five years later, in 1978, the numbers of Latter-day Saints in the Huntsville area rose to approximately three hundred.[53] That same year, Church membership worldwide rose to four million.[54] While the growth of the branch rose substantially, the Huntsville Branch became the new Huntsville Ward in 1979.[55] Around the same time, the church split the Madisonville members from Huntsville and established a Madisonville Branch of the Church in 1979, and by 1983, Madisonville Branch became the Madisonville Ward.[56][57]
In the 1980’s, there was new hope for a new chapel in a larger building. In 1980, the church purchased a lot on the corner of 19th Street and Avenue S. This lot was purchased from Robert Smither. The following year, in “1981, bids were received for 14,000 square foot chapel and the low bid was $1,200,000.”[58] As the Wards and Branches grow in the number of church members, the boundary lines of each branch are altered to average out the number of members in each congregation. So in 1982, another branch was split from the original Huntsville Branch. It split the members from Crockett, and the church called this branch the Crockett Branch.[59] Along with the growth of Huntsville, the church had finally grown to five million members.[60] This Crockett split had no effect on the plans for a new, larger chapel. In 1983, construction was finished, and on Sunday, May 14, 1983, Mother’s Day, services were held in the “lovely new meetinghouse.”[61] For the first meeting in the new building, Bishop Donald L. McCulloch presided.[62] By this time, the congregation contained three hundred and thirty members.[63] After three years of meeting in the new building on 19th Street, they had another dedicatory service on April 13, 1986. James S. Olson, Stake President, dedicated “the building to the Lord.”[64] The dedicatory prayer blessed the church of the Lord, the people who come for protection in the building, and that the foundation would be strong and firm, just like the testimonies of the faithful members presiding in the house of the Lord.[65]
Another part of the Church, that helped grow testimonies, was the Institute on college campuses. In the fall of 1926, the first Institute of Religion Class was held at the University of Idaho.[66] The students that went to Sam Houston State University had always been a big strength to the Huntsville Ward. President James S. Olson held classes for many years, but in 1985, Sam Houston State University’s Institute of Religion Class was established and officially organized as the Huntsville Texas LDS Institute of Religion. After years of meeting in Lowman Student Center on Campus, the Latter-day Saints finally bought a building on 16th Street from John Rainwater. As the students increased, the student center was not large enough and a building was definitely needed. The first classes in the new building officially met in January 1995. Along with the Huntsville Ward, the Huntsville Institute’s Latter-day Saints members grew.
Source Footnotes
[49] James S. Olson and Lucky Beck Grissom, A History of Walker County, Texas, “Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints”
[50] “History of the Church,” Official Website of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
[51] Ballew, A. E. and Lorita Ballew, “Huntsville Ward History”
[52] “History of the Church,” Official Website of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
[53] Ballew, A. E. and Lorita Ballew, “Huntsville Ward History”
[54] “History of the Church,” Official Website of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
[55] James S. Olson, interview
[56] Ballew, A. E. and Lorita Ballew, “Huntsville Ward History”
[57] Lorita Ballew phone interview
[58] James S. Olson and Lucky Beck Grissom, A History of Walker County, Texas, “Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints”
[59] Lorita Ballew, phone interview
[60] “History of the Church,” Official Website of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
[61] James S. Olson and Lucky Beck Grissom, A History of Walker County, Texas, “Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints”
[62] Ballew, A. E. and Lorita Ballew, “Huntsville Ward History”
[63] James S. Olson and Lucky Beck Grissom, A History of Walker County, Texas, “Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints”
[64] Ballew, A. E. and Lorita Ballew, “Huntsville Ward History”
[65] “Dedicatory Prayer, Huntsville Ward, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints” (prayer, Dedicatory Service, Huntsville, Texas, April 13, 1986)
[66] “History of the Church,” Official Website of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
