Nashville, Tennessee History The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has had a presence in the state of Tennessee since at least 1834, when Elder David W. Patten and Elder Warren Parrish arrived. Wilford Woodruff, who later became the fourth President of the Church, arrived in 1835. He reported his activity for the year as follows: "I traveled 3,248 miles, held 170 meetings, baptized 43 persons, raised up three branches of the Church, procured 22 subscribers for the 'Messenger and Advocate,' also 73 on a petition to the governor of Missouri, wrote 18 letters, ordained two Teachers and one Deacon, held three debates." By 1839 there were a dozen small congregations of the Church in Tennessee. Missionary work continued through the 1840s. After the death of Church founder Joseph Smith in 1844, the removal of the Church to Utah, and the onset of the Civil War, missionary work in Tennessee diminished. Missionaries returned to Tennessee in the 1870s, with a number of small branches being established in various locations. The headquarters for all missionary efforts in the southern states were established in Tennessee, first at Nashville in 1881 and then at Chattanooga in 1882. Chattanooga remained the headquarters of the Southern States Mission until 1919. Many who joined the Church in Tennessee in the late nineteenth century emigrated to Latter-day Saint settlements in the West, especially to a number of settlements in Colorado. By 1905 Church membership in Tennessee rose to 789. The oldest existing meetinghouse in the Southeast was dedicated at Northcutts Cove in 1909. In 1930 there were 2,832 Church members in the state. Congregations had been established in Chattanooga, Memphis, and Nashville, with smaller Sunday Schools being held in Brighton, Pope, Short Creek, Silver Point, and Turkey Creek. In 1965 a stake (a "stake" is a group of congregations similar to a diocese) was organized in Memphis. In the 1970s additional stakes were created in Nashville (1970), Knoxville (1972), Chattanooga (1978), and Franklin (1979). The Tennessee Nashville Mission was created in 1975. Church membership in 1980 was 15,839 and had reached just over 23,000 by 1990. Today there are approximately 31,000 members of the Church in Tennessee in nine stakes with 73 congregations. The Church announced plans to build a temple in Nashville in November of 1994. Plans to build a temple in Memphis were announced in October of 1998.