2015-02-17-Keepapitchinin-Edna-Crowthers-Interview

From: Edna Crowther’s Interview: A Sister Missionary in Brooklyn, 1915

By Ardis E. Parshall, 17 February 2015

Edna Crowther’s Interview: A Sister Missionary in Brooklyn, 1915

A recent Nightline episode focusing on six sister missionaries has received popular attention in the past two weeks. A hundred years ago – almost exactly a hundred years ago, in late February 1915 – the media spotlight was on two sister missionaries serving in Brooklyn, New York.

The pair were Edna Crowther, 22, of Malad, Idaho, and Gertrude Phelps, 19, of Salt Lake City, Utah. “Every day and all day long in their efforts to make converts to the Mormon Church,” wrote 37-year-old Wilma Pollock of the New York World, “they make a house-to-house canvass through the Ridgewood section of Brooklyn. They call one, two or three times upon each woman. If not admitted, they do not attempt to go to that particular house again.”

Wanting to interview the sisters, the reporter called on them at their boarding place (that’s 1262 Jefferson avenue, for local readers – tip your hat if you happen to pass that address). As with the recent video, there was interest in the sisters’ surroundings and personal appearance. Edna Crowther (Sister Phelps was out – the “never leave your companion rule” was not then in effect) was “a tall, striking, rosy-cheeked girl, with pretty features, offset by soft brown ringlets escaping from a fetching boudoir cap.” Her room proved that Edna was “a real, live, human girl, with all the interests and vanities of any other damsel of her age. There were pictures, books, flowers, an open hymn book, a sewing machine and two or three frocks on which she was sewing” – evidently her proselyting didn’t quite take up “every day and all day long”:

“This is the only day we have to be at home, so we make ourselves comfortable … I shall willingly forego my sewing to have a chat with anyone who is interested in our religion. I will tell you what I can about our religion and then let you form your own judgment, for we never force our doctrines, nor do we ask the people to whom we talk to join our Church. We explain our beliefs and let people decide for themselves whether they wish to become members of the Church.”

An hour’s conversation followed, and ranged over the history of Joseph Smith, and the content of the Book of Mormon; the fact that missionaries and bishops received no pay; about the education system available to Mormons, resulting in illiteracy being “almost unknown among the Mormons.” They discussed Mormon music and appreciation for the arts, how well the Latter-day Saints were doing financially, and “the beauty of their cities and temples.

That all sounded good to the reporter, but she wanted to know how Mormonism affected the individual lives of Church members. “How would I personally be happier if I became converted to your Church?”

Edna told her that it would require a sincere effort to live by Mormon standards, but if she did, “you are bound to be happy, for to you will come faith in God and a belief in yourself and your power to succeed in what you undertake.” She recited the fourth Article of Faith, and paraphrased parts of others. She spoke also of personal behavior. “We believe in the industry, frugality and temperance of the people, and in their refraining from the use of tea, coffee, tobacco and intoxicating drinks.”

But, the reporter broke in, “If your people live in accordance with your beliefs their lives are no doubt beautiful, but are not the men somewhat effeminate and less interesting than men who are not Mormons?”

“No,” Edna said. “No men are more interesting, more manly, nor finer in character and disposition and mind than the Mormons. You will learn that other men cannot be compared with Mormons, and that you will never care for others if you have known the Mormons.”

“But how can you tolerate the idea of polygamy? I could never overcome my aversion to it,” challenged the reporter.

“You would believe in it just a we all do if you understood more about it. At any rate, polygamy has not been practiced since 1890, because polygamous or plural marriages are forbidden by the Constitution of the State of Utah. We believe in obeying, honoring and sustaining the laws. When I contemplated becoming a missionary I hesitated about it, because I did not believe in polygamy. But after a talk with my mother I became convinced that polygamy is a splendid institution. My own father only married once and my grandfather also0, but my great-grandparents contracted plural marriages. Polygamous marriages almost invariably turn out happily. In fact, Mormon marriages are almost always successful. Although the Church grants divorce, rarely is it practiced. … Any women I have ever known who have married I polygamy say if they had their choice over again they would prefer a plural marriage.”

If the reporter quoted Edna Crowther precisely, Edna then made a slip in verb tense, bringing polygamy into the 1915 present. “No man can take on an additional wife,” she said, “without the consent of his first wives, so that the wives are agreeable to the arrangements. I have two aunts who married the same man. One of them has seven children, the other twelve, and still a third wife has twelve more children, and they are all ideally happy. My aunts are quite inseparable friends, although there is quite a disparity in their ages.”

The reporter wanted to know if Mormons ever married outside their faith. “Our Church does not forbid intermarriage, but few Mormons wish to marry out of the Church.”

The two women then discussed Church service. “Everybody is able to help to do good,” Edna said, “no matter how small a position he holds. If a member is possessed of a special gift, such as the gift of tongues, prophecy, revelation, visions, healing, interpretation of tongues, etc., his power is recognized and his life can be made useful and helpful by making use of these gifts.”

“Tell me if you have had many converts?” asked the reporter. Edna supposedly said that there had been 66 baptisms in Brooklyn in the past month. That, I’m certain, is a misstatement, or a misprint – perhaps the number was 6? Or maybe Edna really did make that claim, because she followed it up with the statement that “Many of these had been visited before by other missionaries, but their conversion became complete in the last few months.”

The reporter left Edna Crowther, apparently much impressed with her visit. “I went away thinking and wondering and hoping she would call on me as she said she would, or that I might see her sometime at the services she invited me to attend at the Mormon meeting held in Harlem.” I’m sure she would have been welcome, all the more so because her reported interview is entirely friendly and positive, without a single sour note. If it hadn’t already started, within a very few months an anti-Mormon campaign against the rumored building of a Latter-day Saint chapel had grown so fierce that at least two non-Mormons, visiting Hawaiian business John Edward Rocha and military officer Henry D. Styer felt obliged to defend the Saints in letters to the New York press. If ill will toward the Saints had begun to appear in the press as early as February 1915, then the New York World interview of Edna Crowther must have been especially welcome and appreciated.

Comments

1. Here’s a photo of the reporter Wilma Pollock. If I can find a picture of Edna Crowther — or anyone else can — I’ll post it, too.

Comment by Ardis E. Parshall — February 17, 2015 @ 6:39 am

2. I’ll have to arrange to meet the sister missionaries currently serving in Brooklyn and take a picture of them in front of 1262 Jefferson Avenue. If only we could find some 1915 vintage frocks for them to wear for the photograph!

In 1915 the Brooklyn Branch was meeting in a space rented from the Junior Order of American Mechanics, located at 879-881 Gates Avenue. It would have been about a half-hour walk from the sisters’ apartment to the church, or they could have walked a half block to the Wilson Avenue streetcar, and then changed to the Gates Avenue car for an easy trip to the church.

I suppose that she invited the reporter to meet with the Harlem Branch because that’s where the reporter lived. It certainly wasn’t because that was where the Brooklyn saints met for worship.

Comment by Mark B. — February 17, 2015 @ 7:46 am

3. Nice. I’ll have to print this off and send it to some sister missionaries I know.

Comment by Amy T — February 17, 2015 @ 8:27 am

4. My grandfather served in that mission approximately the same time under Mission President Walter P. Monson. At the time it was the New England States Mission.

I found his version of the “White Bible” recently which has a picture of Joseph and Hyrum on the cover.

One interesting note, it cautions Elders from being “too cheap” in purchasing clothing and to avoid “cheap John” establishments. “Cheapness is next to nastiness” in advises.

Comment by P DLM — February 17, 2015 @ 9:12 am

5. Really interesting, Ardis. Maybe 66 baptisms the past year? (And the question about effeminate men made me smile.) Thanks.

Comment by Gary Bergera — February 17, 2015 @ 10:11 am

6. I’m rejoicing at another New York area item. Thanks you!! I’ll have to track down the original article for my collection.

Mark B. is much better than I at putting this in context for Brooklyn. From the little I know of the area, this seems to be in Bushwick, just to the east of Bedford-Styvesant. At the time I believe it was a pretty middle-class neighborhood, but post World War II it declined and Bedford-Styvesant had a very bad reputation for many years.

The first Brooklyn building, first constructed for Church use east of the Mississippi following the Mormon immigration to Utah, was finished in 1919. I don’t know if the 66 baptisms figure is correct or not, but as I understand it the Church was growing quickly in NYC at that time. The New York Stake, which included the Brooklyn Ward, was created in 1934.

Comment by Kent Larsen — February 17, 2015 @ 10:55 am