As of year-end 2007, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints reported 25,296 members, 5 stakes,[1] 56 Congregations (32 wards[2] and 24 branches,[2]), and 1 mission in Arkansas.[3]
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Elders Wilford Woodruff and Henry Brown arrived as missionaries in Bentonville on January 28, 1835. They held their first meeting four days later and preached to an attentive congregation. Later they were confronted by an apostate member, Alexander Akeman.[4] Akeman was a man who earlier endured severe persecution in Missouri, but later turned bitterly against the Church. However, this man died suddenly and Elder Woodruff preached his funeral sermon. This event, along with Woodruff's teachings led to the baptism of a Mr. and Mrs. Jonathan Hubbel, the first converts in Arkansas, on 22 February 1835.
In 1838, Elder Abraham O. Smoot was called to a five-month mission to Arkansas where he preached frequently with varied results.
The year 1857 marked a tragic era in Church history in Arkansas. Elder Parley P. Pratt was murdered in on May 13, 1857 near Alma, Arkansas.He had just been acquitted by a court in Van Buren of charges pressed by Hector H. McLean, the former husband of Pratt's wife Eleanor. At the trial she testified that her former husband frequently physically abused her. Disappointed with the verdict, the McLean followed and assassinated the apostle.[5] (On April 2, 2008, Crawford County Circuit Judge Gary Cottrell gave the Pratt family permission to move Parley Pratt's remains to Utah.)[6]
Later that same year (1857), a party of Arkansas immigrants heading for California were killed by a group of Latter-day Saints and Indians in southern Utah at Mountain Meadows. This is also known as the Mountain Meadows massacre.[7]
Negative feelings, and later the U.S. Civil War, kept the Church from the area for the next two decades.
After the War, the church again sent missionaries to Arkansas in 1876. In 1877, Elders Henry G. Boyle and J.D.H. McAllister visited a member in Des Arc. By 1877, 27 families totaling 125 converts emigrated west. Through the 1880s, converts continued to join the main body of the saints in Utah.[8]
Permanent presence of the church was established on May 30, 1890 when the fist Latter-day Saint meetinghouse was built in White County. Benjamin Franklin Baker, an early influential convert, helped establish the Barney Branch (about 5 miles north of Enola) in 1914 with over 100 members. By 1930, three branches had been organized in Arkansas (Barney, El Dorado, and Little Rock) with a total membership of 944.
The first Arkansas stake was created on June 1, 1969 in Little Rock. This was known at the time as the Arkansas stake and later renamed to the Little Rock Arkansas Stake.[9]
The first institute building, adjacent to the University of Arkansas, was dedicated in the fall of 1999.[10]
On July 20–22, 2006, over 1,000 Latter-day Saint teens from all 5 of the Arkansas Stakes gathered for a 3-day multi-stake youth conference. Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve and former associate dean of Graduate Studies in the College of Business Administration at the University of Arkansas spoke to the youth and encouraged them to live high moral standards.[11]
Following Hurricane Katrina in 2005, several thousand Latter-day Saint volunteers, from a 7 state area (including Arkansas), went to Louisiana and Mississippi. Many of them taking time out of their jobs or came down on the weekends to help anyone needing assistance regardless of faith.[12][13]
Arkansas "Mormons" volunteered relief in their own area on several occasions including the April 2, 2006 Tornado Outbreak,[14] and the 2008 Super Tuesday tornado outbreak.[15] In September 2008, Arkansas Latter-day Saints went to the Baton Rouge area to aid clean up efforts following Hurricane Gustav.[16]
| Year | Membership |
|---|---|
| 1930 | 944 |
| 1974 | 5,355 |
| 1980 | 9,878 |
| 1990 | 13,753 |
| 1999 | 20,077 |
| 2008 | 25,878 |
Arkansas is currently part of 11 stakes. 5 of those stakes have their stake center within the state. Since The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have no paid clergy, stake presidents, bishops, etc. have their own occupation.
| Stake | Organized | Wards/ Branches in Arkansas | Stake President | Occupation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fort Smith Arkansas | April 30, 1978 | 5 | Glenn Richard Titsworth[17] | realtor for American Equity Realty |
| Little Rock Arkansas | June 1, 1969 | 11 | Michael V. Beheshti | interventional radiologist at UAMS |
| North Little Rock Arkansas | June 19, 1983 | 15 | Bruce Kevin Berkheimer[18] | podiatrist |
| Rogers Arkansas Stake | August 11, 1991 | 7 | David Owen Stout[19] | senior buyer for Wal-Mart |
| Springdale Arkansas Stake | June 4, 2006 | 10 | Thomas Hal Bradford[20] | physician |
| Stake | Organized | Number of Wards/ Branches in Arkansas | Stake President | Occupation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gilmer Texas | January 16, 1983 | 1 | Tedd Barton Austin[21] | service manager at H.M. Dodd Motor Co |
| Memphis Tennessee | April 18, 1965 | 1 | Steven Moyle Dorius[22] | tax attorney at International Paper |
| Memphis Tennessee North | Sept. 14, 1980 | 5 | C.E. Zobell[23] | general counsel for Peabody Hotel Group |
| Monroe Louisiana | August 18, 1985 | 1 | Aristotels Pena M.[24] | physician |
| Shreveport Louisiana | January 26, 1958 | 1 | Henry John Platt[25] | physician, partner/owner of Urgent Care Center |
| Springfield Missouri South | May 21, 1995 | 3 | Brian Kay Chandler[26] | clinical psychologist |
Arkansas formed part of several church missions. Originally a conference of the Southern States Mission, it later became part of the Indian Territory Mission. Southwestern States Mission, Central States Mission, Texas-Louisiana Mission, Gulf States Mission, and ultimately the Arkansas Little Rock Mission formed in 1975 with Richard M. Richards as president.
The northwest part of the state is in the Oklahoma Tulsa Mission. The far South and Southwest part of the state is in the Mississippi Jackson Mission, and the Texas Dallas Mission Respectively.
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