09/24/2023
In the first session of the Bentonville Arkansas Temple dedication, Elder David A. Bednar recalled visits to the Rogers Arkansas Branch of the Church in the early 1980s. He described 30 Saints meeting in a school cafeteria and marveled at the growth in the years since. In the second session of the temple dedication, attendees heard from Katelynn Goldhardt of the Springfield Missouri Stake. She described her ancestors' introduction to the Church in Rogers/Eureka Springs, their baptisms in 1914, and their move north to Missouri.
These stories are both historical wonders from our collective history. If you are interested in all of our earlier roots, you could search this page for "Throwback Thursday" and read back on 130 years of faith which started in NE Oklahoma, spread through the Ozarks at the turn of the century, blossomed in Joplin, then Fort Smith, then Springfield around 1920. Then the Saints held on while the area mostly slept during the national and world tumult of 1928-1950 before the Lord sent strength to gather and develop the area into the Zion that we are experiencing today.
Since Elder Bednar mentioned the Rogers Branch specifically, I thought that I would republish the known history of the Rogers unit. The Rogers Branch (organized from the Springdale Ward in 1980) is actually a relative late-comer to the story of the Bentonville Temple District history, but still so important. Included is a handwritten roster from the records of Evelyn Phillips of the members of the original branch. Please let us know, if that list is incomplete. Also included in this article is the story of Sister Goldhardt's Springfield Nickles.
Here we go--
Rogers, Arkansas was founded in 1881 as a stop on the St. Louis–San Francisco Railway (Frisco) and developed as a shipping point for apples that were harvested from Benton County orchards. Along the railroad tracks were produce houses, apple evaporators where apples were sliced and dried, and an enormous apple cider vinegar plant. At the turn of the century, Rogers was also a trade center for the surrounding rural area. By the 1920s the apple industry was in decline, and soon poultry replaced apples as the main agricultural product. In 1962, Sam Walton opened his very first Walmart store on Walnut Ave in Rogers, and today many residents work for Walmart Inc. or for one of the many Walmart vendors with offices in NW Arkansas. (1)
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints first came to Rogers in the early 1900s when the large Nickle family began to be introduced to the Church by traveling missionaries of the Central States Mission. Descendents of one of the brothers, Francis Clement Nickle, tell a wonderful story about their great grandparents. In about 1905, Clem and Nellie Nickle were living in Rogers, Arkansas’ Prairie Creek area. They were visited one evening by two traveling missionaries, Elders Thomas J. Adair and Joseph P. Welch. (3) Clem arranged a nearby country schoolhouse where the missionaries could hold a meeting and then he walked all over the community advertising it. Nellie did not attend the meeting but remained home with the children. When Clem returned that night she asked for a report, to which he responded, “I’ve never heard so much truth in all my life.” Then, “Nellie, I’m going to see my mother. I know that she will be happy to know the truth is really on the earth.” Clem walked twenty miles through the woods, from Rogers to Eureka Springs, Arkansas to share that news. (4)
After being a friend and protector of the traveling missionaries and after investigating the Church for several years, Nellie asked Clem why they had not yet joined the Church when they both had gained testimonies of its truthfulness. Clem responded, “Well, dear, if we join this church, we will stand absolutely alone.” To which Nellie responded, “Well, we can stand alone, can’t we? For what we know to be true?” (5) In 1914, Clem and Nellie Nickle moved their family 250 miles south to Barney, Arkansas where there was a branch of the Church and they were baptized, along with several of their children. (6) After a few months, the family left the branch and moved north to Springfield, Missouri for economic opportunities. These early Rogers Arkansas Saints' descendants live in our temple district's Springfield Missouri Stakes today.
Beyond this Nickle family, who left Rogers, the official records of members of the Church do not indicate that there were Saints in Rogers for several decades. (7) Remember that after a really wonderful surge of missionary activity between 1900 and 1928, the pattern in the entire area was a quiet time until the 1950s. This was because of the unrest from the Great Depression, flood, drought, Dust Bowl, World War II, etc. In the 1950s, the area seemed to "wake up" from a sleep because of a handful of move-ins from the Mountain West, who were vital reinforcements, along with some wonderful converts of the newly bolstered mission.
Cora Florer was born in 1942 in Arizona and when she was five years old her parents, Clifford and Velna Florer, moved the family to Arkansas. Cora remembers driving across the country in a loaded flatbed truck with rails, "just watching the country go by." After living a couple of months in a tar-paper shack in Gassville, Arkansas, then a few years in Mountain Home, the faithful Clifford Florer bought ten acres of land in Rogers in 1950. His land was off of Hwy 12 and very close to the Lake Atalanta. While building a nice home, the family lived in small cowshed that Brother Florer had improved with a concrete floor and eventually a second story. The Florer children remember playing in the spillway from the Lake Atalanta dam and also in the beauty of the Arkansas forests. (8 )
The Florers found a handful of Saints meeting on Sundays in what is now the historic district of Rogers. The Church rented a hall (possibly VFW) which was located at 222 South 1st St midway between Poplar and Elm. The meeting space was on the second floor above U.G. Hoover's musical instrument store that also sold ladies' hats. Today, this is where the Central Health Corp building is next to The Rail Pizza. (9) The hall was accessed from a little staircase on the side of the building. Cora Florer remembers attending with her family and just five or so other members of the Church. She also remembers playing on the grand staircase of the famous, luxurious Hotel Arkansas (originally known as the Lane Hotel and Harris Hotel) which was around the corner on the same block. (Now Rogers' Haas Hall Academy)
On weekdays, Brother and Sister Florer loaded the family on the flatbed truck, armed with names and addresses of early baptized members of the Church. They traveled great distances through the country to find these lost members, most of whom had disappeared. They also answered the call from the Church to search for lost cemeteries in the fields and woods and made a record of the names and dates on the headstones to add to the Church's genealogical efforts. (10)
March 22nd, 1953, the Florers gathered with a group of Saints from Gentry, Gravette, and Bentonville and were organized into a Bentonville Branch. The branch met in a house straight west of the Bentonville Square. The branch included the Johnsons from Gentry, the Florers from Rogers, and others. There will be so much more on that branch next week when we talk about the history of Bentonville. (11)
Two years later, on July 25, 1955, that little Bentonville Branch's name was changed to the Fayetteville Arkansas Branch, the location was moved south, and Albert Davis, a University of Arkansas professor, was called to be the branch president. The unit was part of the SW Missouri District and met in Joplin for regional meetings. (12)
Paul Waldrep, a Rogers resident, was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ in 1959 in the Joplin, Missouri meetinghouse. He was introduced to the Church by the Florer family and attended the Fayetteville unit, meeting with 30-40 people in Albert Davis' home. Beyond the Florers, Brother Waldrep was not aware of any other members of the Church from Rogers. (13) While numbers were still small, individuals and families were attending from all over the area: Siloam Springs, Gentry, Rogers, Springdale, Huntsville, Eureka Springs, Prairie Grove, and Lincoln. There were just a very few members of the Church north of the Boston Mountains before 1970, and even fewer living north of Springdale where Rogers is located. For many years, all of NW Arkansas was included in either the Fayetteville Branch or else the Gentry Branch.
In 1967, Ted and Dorothy Smith moved their family from Denver, Colorado to Arkansas and in 1973 they bought a home on Dixieland Road in Rogers. The Smiths were another important pioneering family. Their son, Mick Smith, remembers tiling the floors of the Zion Rd building, 10-15 years running a concession stand at Razorback Stadium for building-fund money, and being one of the first full-time missionaries called from the Fayettville Branch in 1976. (14)
Also in 1976, Bruce Adolf and Ellen Lee Jensen moved to Rogers. They came from Connecticut where Bruce had been serving on submarines in the U.S. Military. One of the couple’s friends attended a meeting held by the Navy Chaplain, as did a member of the Church of Jesus Christ who came with a Joseph Smith tract in his pocket. The man gave the pamphlet to the Jensen-friend, who passed it on to the Jensens. Ellen was especially interested in the literature but quickly thereafter, Bruce and Ellen left military service and moved to Rogers to be nearer to Ellen’s family. Ellen looked and looked for a unit of the Church, but could not find one because, of course, the closest unit was in Fayetteville. Ellen remembered feeling urgency and thinking, “I want a prophet and a temple marriage!” When Bruce came home one day to Ellen crying about the situation, the couple sought out missionaries again. The Elders came that very evening and they found a couple well prepared and ready for the gospel message. Sister Jensen was baptized in September of 1976, and Brother Jensen a few months later. (15)
James Louis “Jim” and Karen Ruth Dille Staten lived in Utah and Brother Staten was a schoolteacher. The family spent summers traveling and exploring interesting places. In the summer of 1978, they came to visit Jim’s family in Gore, Oklahoma. Jim was a descendant of John Emory Stevenson, one of the area’s earliest Saints and the first branch president of the Gore Oklahoma Branch in 1911. Brother and Sister Staten decided to stay in the region and see what the future brought. Their daughter, Wendy Staten Koster, was six years old and son, Levi Staten, was a toddler when their parents rented a house in Rogers. A few years later, the family bought 10 acres of land in the Bentonville countryside, which is the area around the present-day I-49 and Walton Boulevard. (Braum's on South Walton) Wendy remembers that the new Staten-homestead was on an apple orchard surrounded by farms, and that there was a large turkey operation east of them where the current Lowe’s Home Improvement store sits. (16)
When the Fort Smith Stake was created in April of 1978, the Fayetteville Branch was divided into two units, and a Springdale Ward was organized. (17) The new Springdale Ward included any members of the Church who lived in the Rogers area. The Statens, Jensens, Smiths and Florers worshipped in the Springdale Ward with other families who lived in Rogers and the surrounding area. (18 )
On January 13, 1980, just 22 months after the Springdale Ward was created, the Saints in Rogers were organized into a new unit of their own: the Rogers Branch. (19) Joining them in the new Rogers Branch were the members of the Church living in Bentonville who had been attending the Gentry/Siloam Springs Branch until that time. Gentry/Siloam Springs Saints included the Abram, Waldrep, Shannon, Lynch, Phillips, and Vernetti families and Doris Jacobs. (20) Brother Ward Shannon served as the Rogers Branch’s first branch president. (21)
The new Rogers Branch met in the Rogers High School cafeteria where the Saints sat at the lunch tables during sacrament meetings. Brother Waldrep, having gone to school at RHS and knowing the administration, made arrangements for this place to meet for Sunday worship. (22) As the numbers grew, the branch used the auditorium. Within a very short time, the Saints of the Rogers Branch looked for land to build a meetinghouse. It is remembered that it was a difficult task because no one in the city was willing to sell land to a gathering of Latter-day Saints. (23) Eventually, acreage was purchased at a good price on the northern edge of Rogers, nearly in Little Flock, and on North Dixieland Road. (24) A groundbreaking was held in December of 1981 for a new Rogers building. The members of the branch worked hard to earn the 30% of the cost of the building that was their responsibility. The Relief Society sold crafts and baked goods on the Bentonville Square, and the Elders' Quorum cut and sold firewood. (25) The first phase building was dedicated in December of 1982. (26) The Saints were proud and grateful. (27)
In early 1983 and in preparation for the Rogers Branch Relief Society birthday dinner, Sister Lynda Ford bravely sent an invitation to General Relief Society President Barbara B. Smith. The ladies of this little branch were so surprised and thrilled when she accepted the invite and came to Arkansas. The branch sisters put out beautiful decorations, had a lovely meal, and Sister Smith spoke. (28 ) Sister Smith also made a stop in Joplin and Springfield, Missouri and met with the Springfield Stake Sisters at a special fireside. (29)
Over the next years, the Rogers Branch was blessed with the addition of wonderful families and in May of 1983, the unit was reorganized into the Rogers Ward with Keith L. Phillips serving as bishop. (30) Many prepared and influential priesthood brothers and sister leaders moved in over the next decade, which provided leadership and training that the Church needed in order to support the extraordinary growth of NW Arkansas going on even today. Today the 1980 Rogers Branch has grown to be the Rogers Arkansas Stake and the Bentonville Arkansas Stake.
Pictures:
(1) The 1953-1955 Bentonville Branch that included the Florers of Rogers. Velan Florer is the 9th person from the left on the back row. Clifford Florer is the last person on the right, back row. Cora Florer is the 4th little girl on the first row. (photo provided by Martha Johnson Walker)
(2) In 1950, a handful of Saints meeting on Sundays in what is now the historic district of Rogers. The Church rented a hall (possibly VFW) which was located on South 1st St midway between Poplar and Elm.
(3) A handwritten member roster of the 1980 Rogers Branch by Karen Staten and included in Rogers Ward history by Evelyn Phillips.
(4) The Rogers Arkansas Ward 1990, in front of their Dixieland Rd Building. (photo provided by Carrie Lowden Staten)
(1) https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/rogers-benton-county-837/
(2) The History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Springfield Area by Asenath Nickle Adams states that the event happened in Eureka Springs in 1908, but Sister Asenath Adams now says that that was a mistake. The Nickle couple was living in the Rogers' Prairie Creek area in 1905-6 and it was there that they first heard the gospel message from Elders. This is confirmed by https://history.churchofjesuschrist.org/chd/organization/mission/central-states-1898?lang=eng that shows these two missionaries serving between 1904 and 1906.
(3) The History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Springfield Area by Asenath Nickle Adams
(4) Stories taken from “The Life Story of My Grandfather, Francis Clement Nickle” by Darlene Nickle Morrill
(5) Stories taken from “The Life Story of My Grandfather, Francis Clement Nickle” by Darlene Nickle Morrill
(6) The History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Springfield Area by Asenath Nickle Adams
(7) The Members of the Arkansas Conference 1902-1942, Microfilm #1884
(8 ) Recollections of Cora Florer and Lewis Florer
(9) Based on the recollections of Cora Florer and records at the Rogers Historical Museum in Rogers, this location was pinpointed. "A Walking Tour of Downtown Rogers" published in 1993 by the Rogers Historical Society have good information and an aerial view of South 1st Street in 1963.
(10) Recollections of Cora Florer and Lewis Florer
(11) Verbal Recollections of Martha Johnson Walker
(12) Church Directory of Organizations and Leaders
(13) Verbal Recollections of Paul Waldrep
(14) Verbal Recollections of Mick Smith
(15) Verbal Recollections of Ellen Jensen
(16) Verbal Recollections of Karen Staten and Wendy Koster
(17) Church Directory of Organizations and Leaders
(18 ) Written Recollections of Evelyn Phillips
(19) Church Directory of Organizations and Leaders
(20) Verbal Recollections of Rochelle Abram Keogh, Ellen and Bruce Jensen, Evelyn Phillips, Wendy Koster Staten
(21) Church Directory of Organizations and Leaders
(22) Verbal Recollections of Paul Waldrep
(23) Recollections of Mick Smith
(24) Verbal Recollections of Ron Gordon
(25) Journal Recollections Karen Staten
(26) Written Recollections of Evelyn Phillips
(27) Journal Recollections Karen Staten
(28 ) Verbal Recollections of Mary Abram
(29 ) Verbal Recollections of Deanna Daugherty and Written Recollections of Asenath Adams
(30) Church Directory of Organizations and Leaders
