Current Progress of the Huntsville Ward
To this day, the Huntsville Ward members still meet in the building on 19th Street, and membership stayed steady. In 1994, Bishop Jerry Toole had about 375 members, and hoped that by 2000, the congregation would grow. Bishop Toole was quoted saying “we used to have members from Conroe and Madisonville before they had their own churches, but now that they do, our membership was lowered; ours is a very rapid growing church.”[67] By 1996, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had statistics that showed that more than half of the members of the Church lived outside of the United States. Bishop Toole’s hopes for the church were definitely reachable since in 1997 the church had an astounding ten million members, and in only three years, the membership number grew to eleven million in 2000.[68]
For Christian activities, the ward got together with the “unified Christian community of Walker County,” in December 2003, and started plans for the “Journey through Bethlehem.” A few weeks prior to the event, there were threats of cancelling the Journey through Bethlehem if the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints participated. This was a letdown, but the ward withdrew from their participation so the activity would continue. In the fall of 2006, there was some sort of fallout between the “unified Christians” and some of the churches dropped out of the activities. In result, the Church of Jesus Christ Latter-day Saints was able to participate in the 2006 Journey through Bethlehem. Also in 2006, Sister Lucy Beck Grissom, the youngest daughter to John Waldermar and Emma H. Beck “passed beyond the veil.” She was one of the children whose family moved to Walker County in 1916, and started a Sunday school inside their home.[69] Almost two decades ago, she also helped establish a small history of the church with James S. Olson to have an article in the Walker County History book.[70]
As many members come and go, their lives will always be told and remembered. One special thing about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is that they take care of the dead and the living. Although members might pass on, they are still members of Christ’s Church. And in 2006, those faithful members reached the twelve million mark.[71] In the future, there is hope that the next three years will bring change to the Huntsville Ward once again. As the congregation grows in Huntsville, along with the number of all members in the church, the possibilities of new “ward boundaries” are only around the corner. Once this happens, one large ward becomes two medium size wards and the history of the Huntsville Ward will only grow that much more. Since Huntsville has had their own meetinghouse, they have affected not only Huntsville, but Houston, Melbourne, Conroe, Madisonville, Oakhurst, Livingston, Crockett and so many more cities. As the Church progresses throughout the generations and the boundaries are reset, this means that the community that once had a few members will largely affect the whole church. No one expected Esther Beck’s Sunday school out of her home would leave a chain reaction all the way through south east Texas, but it did.
Source Footnotes
[67] Melony Closs, “Continuous Revelation: Mormon Church enjoying rapid growth in area,” The Huntsville Item, July 23, 1994, Religion section.
[68] “History of the Church,” Official Website of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
[69] Ynette Boyce, “Huntsville 1st Ward History 2006,” compilation of information, Huntsville Meetinghouse Historian information.
[70] James S. Olson and Lucky Beck Grissom, A History of Walker County, Texas, “Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints”
[71] “History of the Church,” Official Website of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
