The Restoration in Blount County, Tennessee · 1892–1939
Three months after burying his wife, he walked into the Smoky Mountains.
In 1892, a 29-year-old widower from Bear Lake, Idaho, left his newborn son to preach in East Tennessee. What followed was forty-seven years of faith, hardship and the first Latter-day Saints of Blount County.
1892
First baptism, in an icy creek two days before Christmas
100
Members baptized in Blount County by 1939
83
Missionaries who served the first Saints
14
Missionary journals and letters, transcribed
Start here
Three stories open the whole history
Start with how the gospel first reached these hollows and coves, read why a new ward went back to find the families who came before it, then walk the roads with the elders who carried everything they owned in a single grip. Everything else on the site builds on these three posts.
Chapter one
The Restoration in Blount County
Elder Robert Young stepped off the train in Maryville on August 30, 1892: “I was so tired, I thought I could not stand it.” A year later, the first converts waded into Abrams Creek.
Chapter two
We Are a Record-Keeping People
When the Smoky Mountain Ward was created in 2023, members searched thousands of records to find the 102 Saints who came first.
Chapter three
Without Purse or Scrip
Elder James Baron recalls missionaries who relied entirely on the kindness of strangers, crossing friendly and hostile corners of Blount County with only their grips.
The book
Smoky Mountain Saints
Every story on this site, collected in one volume: the missionaries’ journals, the first families, the early branches and Sunday Schools, and the faith that carried them through a pandemic, two world wars and the Great Depression.
Written by Mike S. Merrell, with colorized photographs and transcribed journals.
538
pages
1892–1939
years covered
102
first Saints
Follow the timeline
Four eras of Smoky Mountain Elders
Meet the missionaries decade by decade: the men who left wives, children and farms to walk the roads of Blount County.
1891–1900
The first elders arrive, travel without purse or scrip and baptize the county’s first Saints.
21 members by 1900
1901–1910
A new century brings more elders, dreams of healing in the mist and the first Sabbath School.
45 members by 1910
1911–1920
A pandemic spreads and the Great War begins, yet the Church grows by 35 members.
+35 members this decade
1921–1939
War veterans serve as missionaries, the Depression hits hard and a boy in Cades Cove prays for rain.
100 members by 1939
“Their stories are not stories about other families, they are about your families and mine.”
We Are a Record-Keeping People
In their own words
Read the elders’ journals
Fourteen missionaries left journals and letters from their time in Blount County. Each has been transcribed so you can read their days in their own words.
Explore by interest
Where would you like to go next?
15 families
The First Members
The Harmons, Garlands, Woodys, Russells and more, with links to their FamilySearch records.
83 missionaries
The First Elders
Who they were, where they came from and the first baptisms they performed in Blount County.
Help us find more
Do you have a piece of this story?
More journals, letters and photographs are still out there. If your family has letters, photographs or records from Blount County Saints or their missionaries, we’d love to hear from you.
