2013-12-11-Facebook-Ardis Parshall-Catherine Garber Laine

Ardis E. Parshall

My life is made joyful by random connections like this: I just opened a "new" folder of correspondence, and the first letter (1889) is a perfectly ordinary, routine request by the manager of a musical group to use the Tabernacle when his group swings through Salt Lake the next spring. But I recognize the manager's name: J.H. Laine. His wife is Catherine Garber Laine who, in ten years, widowed, will open a boarding house with her sister, and let the Mormon missionaries hold meetings there. She will be baptized in 1900, and become the first Relief Society president in Brooklyn, New York. December 11, 2013 at 5:09pm

• Ardis E. Parshall

About Patrick Gilmore, founder of the Gilmore Band -- you know his work even if you don't know his name.

Patrick Gilmore - Wikipedia

• Mark E. Butler

That's terrific, Ardis! The only record I have for RS Presidencies that early in Brooklyn reads:

"Former Presidents, 1st Counselors and 2nd Counselors in the order named were: . . . 1900--E. Milligan, S. McKenna, Catherine Laine."

December 11, 2013 at 5:18pm

• Ardis E. Parshall

Mark-- I'm going by what Janetta Young Easton wrote -- but I don't think she was in New York in 1900. It may be that she wasn't aware of those earlier presidents, if they didn't serve long, or it may be that Catherine was the first after there was a formal organization of the branch. Whatever the case, I'll try to pin it down.

December 11, 2013 at 5:50pm

• Mark E. Butler

I don't know what records the people in Brooklyn had access to in 1940, when they published their "history." So, good luck finding the original records. And the fog around that one detail doesn't detract at all from the terrific connection between the band, the signature, the tabernacle concert, the church in Brooklyn and Catherine Laine! Again, great find, and happy hunting!

December 11, 2013 at 5:54pm · Like · 1

• Mark E. Butler

Speaking of Janetta Young Easton, there's a "Jeanette Easton" hidden in the ellipsis in that previous quotation, as 1st counselor in the RS in 1908. Same person, variant spelling?

December 11, 2013 at 5:56pm

• Ardis E. Parshall

Same person, without doubt. She was Brigham Young's daughter, and went by "Janet" in most of the documents I have. She was named for Janetta Richards, but I could easily be misspelling her name. But she and her husband Robert were the only Eastons in the branch at that time. He was a professional tenor; she was a quasi-journalist and every Utahn's mother hen.

December 11, 2013 at 6:01pm

• Ardis E. Parshall

And by "Utahn" I do mean Mormon -- her letters to the Deseret News were called *Salt Lakers* in Gotham.

December 11, 2013 at 6:02pm

• Mark E. Butler

Family Tree has her name as Jeanette. I wonder if they're right.

December 11, 2013 at 6:05pm