There were five Russell family members baptized in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Blount County from 1909 to 1921.
Timeline of Baptisms
24 Sep 1909: Charles Russell
1st-Generation
28 May 1911: Martha Lane
1st-Generation
9 May 1919: Margaret Russell
2nd-Generation
27 Oct 1919: Leroy Russell
2nd-Generation
24 Jan 1926: Doris Russell
2nd-Generation
Charles Harrison Russell (1874-1919)
24 September 1909: Charles Russell Harrison was baptized and confirmed by William Martin Hunter
Elder William Martin Hunter (1880-1945)
William Martin Hunter served in the Southern States Mission from 1907 to 1909. He received his mission call in an announcement in General Conference while bartending at a saloon in Alta, Utah. In his mission acceptance letter to Joseph F. Smith, he wrote: “I will state that if you see fit to send me out in the world to spread the to spread the gosple (sic) and I can do anyone any good, I am willing to do the best I can, if I can spread the truth and enlighten any living soul, I would gladly do it. Although I realize that in and of myself I am powerless, but trusting in God my Heavenly Father to help me, I am ready to go…” He wrote of his experience turning to the Lord to end a 14-year tobacco addiction in order to serve his mission. He married in the Salt Lake Temple one week before departing for the Southern States Mission. When he returned home, he and his wife raised three children. He retired after working 25 years at ZCMI. He was ward chairman for the genealogical committee, which he held for many years up until he passed away. Elder Hunter baptized Minnie Sisera Winters and Charles Russell Harrison, whom he also confirmed a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Maryville, in 1909.
Martha Elizabeth Lane (1880-1951)
28 May 1911: Martha Elizabeth Lane was baptized by John Isaac Morley and confirmed by Heber Ewer Palmer
Elder John Isaac Morley (1874-1940)
John Isaac Morley served in the Southern States Mission from 1910 to 1912. In his mission acceptance letter to Joseph F. Smith, he wrote: “I will accept the call.” Elder Morley kept a journal of his time in Blount County – transcribed journal and a digital scan of both years available on Family Search. He married in the Manti Temple in 1901. They already had four children at the time of his call to serve in the East Tennessee Conference. In a 1910-postcard to his family, he wrote: “Live your religion, for it is the power of God unto salvation to all those who live and obey.” He returned home and they raised seven children in Sanpete, Utah. Elder Morley baptized Martha Elizabeth Russell, in Maryville, and confirmed Eliza Lee Hicks and Rachel Tennessee Hicks members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Tuckaleechee Cove, in 1911.
Elder Heber Ewer Palmer (1890-1962)
Heber Ewer Palmer served in the Southern States Mission from 1910 to 1912. Upon his return home on Christmas Day, he wrote the following to Joseph F. Smith: “My labors were indeed a pleasure to me, and I can say were very profitable especially or individually to myself. And I will also add that I am perfectly willing to serve another mission.” Elder Palmer served as a companion to Elder John Morley while in Blount County. Elder Morley documented their labors together in his transcribed mission journal. He was one of 27 children in his family. He married in the Salt Lake Temple, in 1918, and was drafted to serve in World War I. He returned home from Europe and had three children. He attended law school in Chicago, began a career in law, and lost everything after three years during the Great Depression, which was followed by many difficult years. He returned to Utah with his wife and children. They learned to rely on the Lord during a time in their life without anything. Regarding mission service, his wife later wrote: “Our greatest desire was to send our boys on a mission, and not one went, so we decided to send someone else. We sent Leslie Hunter, then a son of a neighbor, and assist a friend’s daughter.” Having experienced the blessings of a mission themselves, they assisted other missionaries throughout their lives. In 1911, Elder Palmer baptized Dora Tipton in Townsend, Eliza Lee Hicks and Rachel Tennessee Hicks in Tuckaleechee Cove, and confirmed the first named and Martha Elizabeth Lane in Maryville, and, in 1912, Toliver Andrew Parham in Millers Cove as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Charles Harrison Russell was born in 1874 in Maryville, Tennessee. When Charles was 24 years old he received orders, on September 6, 1899, to join the 47th Regiment of Volunteers to serve in the Philippine-American War. He completed his service June 30, 1901. His commanding officer described his leadership – as a Lieutenant in numerous battles and skirmishes – as “honest and faithful” in a war in which over 1,500 Americans were killed in combat and far more perished from disease. Charles received a monthly pension for his time in the war which supplemented the family’s income over difficult years to follow.
Martha Elizabeth Lane was born in Maryville in 1880. On May 31, 1901, Martha and Charles were married in Blount County, Tennessee, one month after Charles returned home from the Phillipines. They had six children together, two of which did not survive infancy. They met the missionaries while they were living on their farm on Butler Road along Crooked Creek. Though Charles and Martha were not baptized until 1909 and 1911, respectively, the Martha’s immediate family members and extended family members, the Lanes and Hearons, are documented in missionary journals, as early as 1893, as good friends of the missionaries often hosting and feeding the very first missionaries.
Martha and Charles raised their children mostly on their farm in Crooked Creek and in their home on the corner of Everett High Street and Sevierville Road in Maryville. Their daughter, Doris, said about their time with the missionaries: “The elders had come through our community tracting and holding meetings, if they were fortunate enough to find anyone who would listen.” Charles was baptized first in 1909. Martha followed two years later in 1911. Doris commented about this delay. “I guess that it took poor ‘ole mother that long to get the courage enough to defy Aunt Martha. She hated the Latter-day Saints more than anybody. I’ve often wondered if she accepted the gospel.”
Martha and Charles were devoted parents and would spend time with their children and neighbors sitting in chairs on the porch in the evenings. Their daughter, Doris, remembers visiting the neighbors after going to town on Saturdays to sell butter and milk. They would buy a block of ice and bring it to the neighbor’s home, where they would bake cornbread and make ice cream with the ice. They would enjoy their evenings together in conversation and Charles would carry his kids back home.
Charles’ health began deteriorating years before he passed away. He went to Arizona by himself for a few months for better air and then moved the family to Bakersfield, California, where they could be together; however, that did not last long. After one short year in California, the Russells moved back to Maryville. He began working at a mill his nephew operated. It was located on the hillside above the library within the greenbelt. His health worsened from the flour dust created in the mill and he never fully recovered. Ultimately, Charles had to sell the farm and move back into their home in town, on November 25, 1919. Their daughter, Doris, told this story of his last days:
“On December 25, 1919 (Christmas evening), Daddy left us. The day before my daddy died he saw his little sister, 12-year-old Julia, and Joseph F. Smith. He kept asking those in the room with him if they could see those in the room, if they could see them too. ‘They are right up there,’ he said, and pointed up about half way between the ceiling and the floor over near the corner of the room.”
“My dear daddy never had the privilege of going to church or being in contact, maybe [but] once a year, with any members other than the elders. He sure had a strong testimony that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was indeed the true restored church of Jesus Christ. If he had not had a strong belief in the truthfulness of the restored gospel, he would never have seen Joseph F. Smith [the day before he died]. He had all the Standard Works and studied a lot, mother said. He told mother to never turn the elders away – to always feed them and give them lodging.”
Following the death of Charles in 1919, Martha Russell took care of the missionaries over the next decades. She provided housing and meals for them. This is evident in the missionary journal of Elder LeRoy Palmer. Sister Russell is documented repeatedly as offering her home for the missionaries and caring for them:
[Tuesday] – 2 April [1935] I arose at 5:30 this morning. There was no one else around at that time in the morning. I made myself ready for breakfast, also ready to travel. The lady at the mission home put me up a nice lunch. As soon as breakfast was over it became time to go so I, with the company of Elders [Kenneth Heber] Edwards, Bankley and [Winston Merriam] Crawford, set out. They saw me off to Knoxville, Tennessee where I am now and will probably be here for a while. I am staying with Sister [Martha Elizabeth] Russell who is a member of the Church.
[Wednesday] – 3 April [1935] I am out of bed and had a fine breakfast, the first breakfast in Tennessee. Where, oh where will I have breakfast next? I spent the forenoon tracting. We had a meal with one of the members. In the evening we had a meal with another of the members. At night we held a cottage meeting. I gave my first speech. I talked on faith. I can assure you I did not give a masterpiece but the Lord seemed to be present from the beginning to end. Our first time to sing was also staged. I did worse that than I did when I preached. There were one or two members, also several investigators. We had a fine meeting and there were many questions asked after the meeting. One woman seemed very interested. We had a long walk home after the meeting.
[Sunday] – 28 April [1935] We did very little today. We spent most of the day in study. The Russells, the family we are staying with, went away and left us here alone. We slept a while and then read a while.
[Monday] – 29 April [1935] As we began our trek to town to being our day’s work we encountered heavy rain. It rained on us all the way to town and back. We had barely stepped into the house when the rain stopped. After dinner we again attempted a venture into the land of mud, but we were again met with sprays of moisture, thus interpreted would be rain. So the day was spent with little accomplished in the way of our work. We did however, get in some very valuable time with our servant, the Bible. Thus closed the day of our Lord, the 29th.
[Thursday] – 23 May [1935] It seemed like leaving home this morning when we bid the Russell people good-bye. They have sure treated me fine. Roy [Morley] Russell went to haul us to town but when he arrived there he decided to take us to Knoxville, some twenty miles away. It was very kind of him. There we met with all the elders of this, the East Tennessee District. They are [James Ammon] Simmons, [Lawrence Seifert] Tuttle, [Ellis McMillan] Burton, [Gerald Leland] Larsen, [Clifford Olene] Weaver, Sorenson, [Ralph William] Horrocks, Lucille Thomas and Sister [Virginia Lillie] Davidson. It was a pleasure to meet with them in a meeting and have them bear their testimonies of the gospel. In the evening we met with Bro[ther] and Sis[ter] Kirkham and their daughter, and Bro[ther Francis R.] Lyman and his wife. They gave some good instructions to carry out, which are: speak out plain, have a good impressive beginning and a good climax with nothing between to detract from the subject. They told us to be gentlemen. Bro[ther] Lyman said [that], if we would be faithful, we would surpass our expectations at the present time both in missionary work and temporal. My ambition now is to become the best missionary in the East Central States. May the Lord help me to do so. Further instructions, we were to get off from the beaten paths.
[Friday] – 14 June [1935] We began our homeward trek of about 220 miles. The Lord was with us all day. First fellow to pick me up was a fellow delivering a new bus through to Georgia. He stopped without me trying to stop him. He hauled us for about 54 miles. We were then picked up just out of Harriman, Tenn[essee] and hauled on into Knoxville. The fellow said he did not very often pick a fellow up but would take a chance. He was going about 60 miles an hour when we hailed him. We arrived in Knoxville about 3:30. We caught a ride from Knoxville to Maryville and there we stayed for the night with the Russell people. They seemed almost as glad as I was to have us there. We cleaned up, pressed our clothes and were ready for another day.
When Charles died Christmas Day 1919, Martha was widowed with four children, her youngest was only four years old. She raised them all in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Three of their children were baptized as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Their oldest son, James, was never baptized. According to Doris, Martha Russell remained a faithful member of the church and always took care of the missionaries when they were in town. She was sealed to Charles in the Salt Lake Temple in 1940, 11 years after his death. The three baptized children became the second generation Russells of Maryville, Tennessee.
Charles Russell is buried in the Russell Family Cemetery and Martha in the Grandview Cemetery, both in Maryville, Tennessee.
Sund[ay] – 28 May [1911] left W[illia]m Riddler come up to Bro[ther] Cha[rle]s [Harrison] Russell. In afternoon I baptized Sister Mattie L[ane Martha] Russell. E[lder Heber] Palmer confirmed her. I blessed little Margaret Lane Russell.
Margaret Lane Russell (1907-1984)
27 October 1919: Margaret Lane Russell was baptized and confirmed by Owen Marion Davis
Elder Owen Marion Davis (1897-1975)
Owen Marion Davis served in the Southern States Mission from 1917 to 1920. In his mission acceptance letter to Joseph F. Smith, he wrote: “I will accept the mission call to the Southern States.” At his homecoming talk in the Pioneer Ward in Utah, he “told of his call to go on a mission and the good it had done him, if no one else… He spoke of the effects of repentance on our lives.” In 1920, he married his choir sweetheart in the Salt Lake Temple and they raised five children together. He became school principal and a teacher of science and math. In 1964, 44 years after his mission, he wrote: “The thirty-seven months [on my mission were] the best of my life.” Elder Davis baptized and confirmed Margaret Lane Russell a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Maryville, in 1919.
Margaret Lane Russell was first introduced to the missionaries not long after she was born when her father Charles Russell was baptized. They visited regularly and was eventually given a baby blessing by Elder John Isaac Morley, in 1911, the same day her mother was baptized – Charles Russell likely waited for the baby blessing once Martha was ready to accept the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The same day her mother was baptized, the elders visited her home to give the blessing. Margaret had at least one son with her second husband. She died in 1984, at the age of 77.
Leroy Morley Russell (1911-1969)
27 October 1919: Leroy Morley Russell was baptized by Oswald Jensen and confirmed by Roy West
Elder Oswald Jensen (1899-1925)
Oswald Jensen served in the Southern States Mission from 1919 to 1921. He married in the Salt Lake Temple shortly before leaving for Tennessee. They did not have any children together. He died only a few years after returning home from his mission, tragically, in an auto accident when the driver of a vehicle attempted to pass another car with its lights turned off. Elder Jensen baptized Leroy Morley Russell in Maryville and confirmed Lewis Carson Whitehead a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Happy Valley, in 1919.
Elder Roy West (1898-1993)
Roy West served in the Southern States Mission from 1918 to 1920. He served again in the Northern States Mission in 1941. He married in the Salt Lake Temple in 1929. They raised seven children together. He was a pioneer for the Church Education System (CES), beginning as a seminary teacher in 1928. He earned a B.A. and M.A. from Utah State University and conducted his Ph.D. work at Duke and the University of Wisconsin. He shaped the seminary and institute programs in the early days, writing many of the manuals and outlines. He also taught at and was the director of LDS Business College for many years. He said, “My special interests have always been in helping the youth of Zion to adjust themselves to the world they live in.” Regarding his work for CES, Harold B. Lee said Roy was a “tremendous influence.” He wrote “Family Eternal,” “Introduction to the Book of Mormon,” “Messages of the Early Apostles,” and “Choose Your Pathway to Eternal Happiness,” which he finished when he became blind at 93. Elder West baptized Lewis Carson Whitehead in Happy Valley and confirmed Leroy Morley Russell, in Maryville, a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Leroy Morley Russell was baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at the age of 8, only two months before his father died on Christmas Day, 1919. Like Leroy’s siblings and his father before him, he lost his father at a young age and was required to take on many responsibilities, one of which was comforting his widowed mother. One month before his father passed away, the Russell family had moved back into their home on Seveirville Road, where he would spend the rest of his adolescence.
After high school, Leroy worked as a milk delivery driver, joined the Air Force and became a deputy sheriff. He met the love of his life Eva Burl Smartt and married. Eva Smartt is the daughter of Floss Tipton, who was baptized in 1908, and Lyman Beecher Smart — who refused to be baptized throughout his life but encouraged all of his children to do so. Eva Smartt is also the granddaughter of Mary Belle Nunley, baptized in 1905, and John Tipton, baptized in 1909.
John Tipton donated the lumber and land for the building of the Northcutts Cove chapel to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It is the oldest Church of Jesus Christ in the southeastern United States. The chapel was dedicated October 24, 1909 by Charles A. Callis, President of the Southern States Mission and later a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. On April 18, 1979, the Northcutts Cove Chapel was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is also featured at the church’s museum in Salt Lake City, Utah. Today, it stands as a monument of the great faith and dedication of the early Saints in East Tennessee to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Ironically, the missionary who baptized Leroy Russell’s father, Charles Russell, is photographed in 1909 in this photo with Eva Smartt’s father – Leroy’s father-in-law – Lyman Smartt, and her grandfather, John Tipton. Eva and Leroy were not yet born. At the time of this photo, John Tipton and Lyman Smartt were both on the County Building Commission for the Northcutts Cove Chapel and Elder William Hunter, who baptized Charles Russell, attended the dedication of the chapel with the East Tennessee Conference and their mission president, Charles A. Callis. This photo was taken two years before Leroy was born. Elder William Hunter had changed the course of history for the Russell family the month before by baptizing Charles Russell and was standing with the men who would become part of the Russell family through the marriage of Leroy Russell and Eva Smartt decades later.
Eva Smartt worked on the Manhattan Project during the great migration of Saints to Oak Ridge in 1944-45 who were part of that secret plan to bring an end to WWII. She was also a teacher in Maryville. She was very active as a visiting teacher always taking her daughter LeVa (pronounced Le-Vay) on ministering assignments to the Sisters in the ward. LeVa continues in the faith today and has three children and more grandchildren. Sister LeVa resides in Missouri and comes to visit Maryville every now and then.
Leroy Russell’s Melchizedek Priesthood ordination was found in the Southern States Mission LDS Church Collection and appears to be one of the first ordination in Maryville, Tennessee at the time of the establishment of the Knoxville Branch. He served as Bishop before he died at the age of 58. Leroy and Eva married in the Salt Lake Temple in 1948. Eva never remarried and died, in 2011, leaving behind a legacy of faith. Leroy is buried in the Grandview Cemetery in Maryville and Eva is buried in the Northcutts Cove Cemetery in Grundy, Tennessee.
Doris Blanche Russell (1915-1998)
24 January 1926: Doris Blanche Russell (Hitch) was baptized by Ruel Lee Wanlass and confirmed by Floyd Oliver Garfield
Elder Ruel Lee Wanlass (1906-1978)
Ruel Lee Wanlass served in the Southern States Mission from 1925 to 1927. He married in the Salt Lake Temple in 1929. They had at least one child together. Elder Wanlass baptized Doris Blanche Russell in the cold of winter in Crooked Creek, in 1927.
Elder Floyd Oliver Garfield (1902-1976)
Floyd Oliver Garfield served in the Southern States Mission from 1924 to 1926. He married in the Logan Temple in 1928. They raised four children together. He worked as a shipping clerk at Edwards Air Force Base and later at Hill Air Force Base. He and his wife served senior missions in Australia, from 1951 to 1954, and in England, from 1961 to 1963. Elder Garfield baptized Bessie Marie Harris in Walland, Minnie Proctor and John Francis Cooper, in Cades Cove, and the last two named – as well as Doris Blanche Russell – he confirmed as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Doris Blanche Russell was confirmed at her home on Crooked Creek.
Doris Blanche Russell is the youngest daughter of Martha and Charles Russell. She was born October 9, 1915 in the family home at the corner of Sevierville Road and Everett High Street in Maryville, Tennessee. She was born four years before her father passed away on Christmas Day 1919 and raised by her widowed mother, Martha Elizabeth Russell.
Before the first local branch was formed in Knoxville, members of the Church in Maryville did not have a place to worship and could only take the sacrament on occasion when the elders were at their homes on Sundays. Sister Freda Borden spoke with Doris before she passed away in 1998. Doris said that the only time they would have any formal meetings was when the Elders would come by and they would have what were called “cottage meetings,” or meetings in members’ homes.
Doris Russell said, “I had three cats when I was little and I would name them after the elders. We didn’t have a church to go to, so when I was growing up I went to the Baptist Church sometimes with my girl friends, but I always stayed true to the Church and never joined another church. I was baptized in Cripple Creek in the dead of winter. They had to break the ice on the water to make room so I could be baptized, but I remember the water being cold. Joe Garland gave me twenty five cents for being baptized. I thought that was the most money I had ever seen. Cripple Creek was in Blount County on old Block House Road. We never once turned the elders away. We stayed true to our faith. We mailed our tithing to the Mission President in Louisville, Kentucky.”
Doris Russell remembers the elders first visiting in 1918 when she was three years old, that her mother would do laundry for them, and, in general, take care of them. She married Dwight Hitch Christmas Eve 1936 and had two children, Dwight Lynn and Martha Alice. Martha was baptized in 1950 and Dwight Lynn was baptized by Robert C. Eggers May 23, 1953. Doris took out her endowments at the Atlanta Temple in 1987 and passed away in 1998. She was sealed to her Dwight in 2002 and her parents, Martha and Charles, in 2009. Doris and Dwight are buried at the Mount Lebanon Cemetery in Maryville, Tennessee.
| 1st Generation Members: |
| Charles Harrison Russell |
| Martha Elizabeth Lane (Russell) |
| 2nd Generation Members: |
| Margaret Lane Russell |
| Leroy Morley Russell |
| Doris Blanche Russell |
Smoky Mountain Ward 