| Testimony of James Franklin Curtis Recorded on April 24, 1950 Frequently, I have been requested by many saints and friends, including a number of my relatives, to make a statement as to how the Curtis family became members of the Church. My father and mother were Emsley Curtis and Martha Curtis. To them were born twelve children, nine boys and three girls. I am the fourth child. One girl and three boys died in infancy. The rest lived to maturity. Of the six boys, five have been ministers of the Church, Joseph was ordained an elder; Jacob David, Thomas Walter, and Edward Alva were ordained seventies; I was first ordained an elder, then a seventy, then an apostle, and finally an evangelist or patriarch. I was born in Livingston County, Missouri, January 26, 1875, on a branch of the Grand River known as Mud Creek. The following story was related by my parents to we children at different times as we grew to manhood and womanhood. In the year 1872, A. C. Inman, a relative of my father, came to Missouri from California, where he had been converted to this Latter Day work by the preaching of W. W. Blair of Illinois, who was then on a mission for the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Mr. Inman at the time he met Brother Blair, was a minister of the church started by Alexander Campbell, known as the Christian Church. Reverend Inman soon became converted to the gospel of Christ as preached by Elder Blair and was baptized into the church represented by Brother Blair. After his baptism, Mr. Inman was so rejoiced to find out that the gospel of Jesus Christ had again been established here on earth, after the great apostasy of 1260 years, that he wanted his relatives to know what he so recently had found out. So he made up his mind to visit his relatives in Missouri. He came to the home of my grandparents Eli and Margaret Curtis. One day he came to see my father and mother. Father was not at home, but mother was. Brother Inman was so full of faith and hope in the gospel of Christ that he began to tell my mother the gospel story. Mother was very much interested in what he had told her, and they spent several hours talking about the gospel of Christ. Finally Brother Inman returned to grandfather’s home, but before leaving my mother, he said to her, “Tell your husband that I will come back and see him when he is at home.” When father came home, mother told him about his great Uncle being there, and of his explanation of the Christ story. Father replied that he had heard of the Mormons and did not want to have anything to do with them. The home of my father and mother, in which also I was born, was only about nine miles from Haun’s Mill where some seventeen or eighteen Saints in 1838 had been killed and thrown into an old well for burial. In a few days Brother Inman returned and found my father at home. They spent the day talking on church matters. Brother Inman explained how the true church of Christ was organized with apostles, prophets, high priests, and seventies, as well as with elders, priests, teachers, and deacons; that the principles of the gospel were faith, repentance, baptism by immersion for the remission of sins, followed by the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Spirit. All this was most interesting to my father who up to this time in his life, being then 25 years old, knew very little about the Bible and churches. My father at this time was attending a Methodist revival in the neighborhood and had gone forward to the altar trying to get religion. Elder Inman made an explanation of the differences between the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and the Utah Mormon Church with headquarters in Salt Lake City. My father became very much interested and enjoyed very much what his relative had to say. Brother Inman told my father that a minister of the Saints church was to preach in a school house only about five miles from my father’s home the next Sunday. He requested my father not to unite with the Methodist church until he had heard a minister of the Latter Day Saints church. Father promised him that he would attend the service provided for in the school house the next Sunday. This was the first sermon by a minister of the Reorganized Church that father heard. The minister was a farmer but spent his Sundays preaching in school houses from place to place. The minister said, “I believe that if a man is called to preach, and that man lives his religion, the Lord will stand by him and bless him.” As the minister looked more like a respectable farmer than he did like a minister in his general appearance, father was of the opinion that the preaching would be of a poor quality. The minister took for his text, the sixteenth chapter of Mark. He read the chapter which includes Christ’s statement to his disciples to go into all the world and preach the gospel; “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth not, shall be damned; and these signs shall follow them that believe. In my name shall they cast out devils. They shall speak with new tongues. They shall take up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them. They shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover.” Father became deeply interested as the minister explained the gospel and made plain to him what the Bible contained. Father said that it was the most wonderful sermon he had ever heard, that now he knew more of the gospel than he had ever known before. At the close of the sermon the minister announced that a conference of the church was to be held at Wakenda, Missouri the next Sunday, and invited as many as could to attend the service, stating that there were a number of saints living there, and that visitors would be cared for while in attendance. My father with five others including two of his sisters and a brother-in-law went to the conference. On Saturday evening after their arrival, they attended a prayer service which was very spiritual indeed. Someone spoke in the gift of tongues while another spoke in the gift of prophecy. A large measure of the Holy Spirit was present during the service. It affected my father very much. He said he saw and felt that these people had something much greater spiritually than what he had known before. A brother-in-law of my father, gave my father a hunch with his elbow when the man was speaking in the gift of tongues, and he said, “He won’t fool me.” He said, “That is something he learned at college.” My father and the rest were very deeply impressed with this prayer service. Following the prayer meeting came the preaching service which they all seemed to enjoy. After the service one of the ministers asked father to go home with him and spend the night. Father accepted the invitation and when they reached the home of this brother, they spent the night until 4:00 a.m. discussing the gospel story. On the way to the conference father had decided that if he was convinced that the Saints were right, he would not join them for at least two years, but that he would unite with the Methodists. He would still keep in touch with the Saints, and if everything proved out all right he would then join the Saints’ church. But after spending the night with this minister father was so deeply impressed that he thought he had better go home and not stay for the day’s services as he didn’t feel like he wanted to join at that time. So he harnessed the team of horses and was making preparation to return home, when someone said, “Who has harnessed the horses?” Father said, “I have.” And he said, “Why?” Then father said, “Mother is at home alone with the children and I think we had better return home,” but the others said, “No, we came down here to stay until Monday morning and we want to stay.” So the majority was against him and they stayed, and attended the services during the day. On Sunday evening before the preaching service another prayer service was held which was very helpful and encouraging. The preaching service followed. By this time my father was so deeply impressed that when the minister stated, “If any desire to unite with the church they may make it manifest by rising to their feet,” my father was the first to arise, followed by four others. The minister said, “There is no water handy here where we can do the baptizing, but I understand that Brother Curtis lives on a branch of Grand River and has a large house. If agreeable to him we will hold services at his home next Sunday and attend to the baptizing.” This was agreeable to my father. On returning home father told my mother what he intended to do and that others were to be baptized also. Mother said to him, “I think you are in too big a hurry. I think you should take more time to consider this matter.” But father said to mother, “I believe the gospel and I am going to be baptized. You need not be baptized unless you want to, but I have made up my mind to become a member of the church. They have told me that if I was faithful I would receive evidence and testimony of the divinity of the work. If I receive this testimony I will never be ashamed of the church, but if I do not, I can go out of the church, if necessary.” On the Wednesday following, a union prayer service was held in the neighborhood presided over by a Methodist minister. One after another of the young people who had decided to be baptized, arose and said they intended to unite with the Saints’ church and requested the prayers of praying people in their behalf. After a number had spoken the minister arose and said, “I am glad to see young people starting out to serve the Lord, but I am sorry to see them take the wrong road.” He said these Mormon people are the worst people in the world, and for quite a while he gave _expression to how bad they were. My father defended himself as best he could and finally he and mother started homeward. Mother said, “If that is the kind of people these people are, I do not want to have anything to do with them” But father said, “Mother, God’s people has always been persecuted. I do not believe what the minister said, is true.” As they traveled homeward three and a half miles in a large wagon with a spring seat on it, they talked for a while and finally they became quiet and each one was in the spirit of prayer. Mother wanted to do the right thing, but didn’t know just what to do. In the spirit of prayer, they drove up in front of their own home. The moonlight was shining brightly, but above the brightness of the moonlight my mother said as they drove up in front of the house where they lived, a bright circle of light appeared on the top of the house, in the center of which stood the Savior in full size. He raised his right hand and spoke to my mother and said to her, “This is my church and my people. Inasmuch as you will obey it you and your house shall be blessed.” Mother burst into tears, and when father offered to help her out of the wagon she was weeping so, that it took some minutes for her to recover her feelings. She then told father what she had seen, but father had not seen it. This was for mother. Father was already convinced. But as she told him what she had seen, the Spirit of God rested upon him and bore witness to the truthfulness of it. Without unhitching the team from the wagon, they tied the team to the hitch rack and went into the house and got down on their knees, and for a long time they prayed and thanked the Lord for what He had done for them. On the Sunday following, six people including my father and mother were baptized by A. C. Inman, father’s relative. The ice was eighteen inches thick on the river but they cut an opening for the occasion. I will now make a statement concerning myself: When eight years old, my father moved to Independence, Missouri. In that same year my sister Mary and I with some eight others were baptized into the church by Elder J. C. Foss. I do not remember when I didn’t know something about the church as it was so often discussed in father’s home. After living in Missouri until I was twenty-one, I went to Colorado and lived in a community about ten miles from Falcon. Brother J. W. Gillen of the Quorum of Twelve visited us in July 1899. My wife and some others were baptized, and Brother Gillen desired to organize us into a branch. He told me what he had in mind, and I asked him who he was going to put in charge of it. He said, “You.” And I said, “To what office?” And he said, “An elder.” And I said, “Oh, no, that is too much for me.” But he said, “You think it over and pray about it,” and I told him I would. I said, “Are you sure of it?” And he said, “I have not the least doubt about it.” As he was an apostle of the church I decided to be ordained. I prayed earnestly that when I was ordained I might have a testimony of my calling to this office. But the testimony did not come at the time of the ordination. However, the branch was organized and I was placed in charge. Shortly afterwards we held our Wednesday night prayer meeting. One evening at our prayer service a brother and sister of the church requested administration. They were both quite ill. I had seen people administered to but I had not acted in that capacity. I knew that of myself without God’s help no good results would be had. Before administering I requested that we all bow in prayer and I started to pray. Immediately the power of God rested upon me and I arose and administered to these two people and they both said afterwards that they were immediately relieved of their distress. This convinced me that God had accepted my work and from then on I was sure that my ordination was all right. I was ordained an elder July 31, 1899 by Apostle J. W. Gillen. On April 4, 1903 I was ordained to the office of seventy by Apostles W. H. Kelley and Gomer T. Griffith. On April 20, 1909 I was ordained an apostle of the church. I served in the Quorum of the Twelve for twenty-nine years. On April 9, 1938, I was ordained an evangelist or patriarch. I am still serving in that office. I received my first appointment to do missionary work from the General Conference in April 1900. I have just completed fifty years of missionary effort. When first called to the office of elder, I thought that it would be impossible for me to preach for I did not think that I would make a preacher, but as I had received evidence that my ordination was proper I began to feel condemned because I did not try to preach. I feared that to try, was to fail, for I had little confidence in being a minister so far as preaching was concerned. I began to feel condemned because I didn’t try, and I really did not know what to do about it. One night after retiring to bed, in a dream or vision, a messenger appeared. I recognized him as an angel and he walked up to my bed and I looked up into his face and he spake to me and said, “The Lord says that inasmuch as you will lift up your voice to proclaim the gospel, he will stand by you and bless you.” Instantly I was taken to a school house a few miles away and in my dream I preached in that school house to quite a number of people. It seemed to me that I preached about an hour. The service was opened and closed in the regular way. At the close of the service, I saw the people go out into the yard and most of them had gone out into the road getting their rigs to go home. But there were some six or eight still in the yard where I was, when immediately this same messenger that had stood at my bedside, walked through the yard to where I was, and he spoke to me and said, “Don’t you see the Lord said he would stand by you and bless you, and he has,” and I said, “Yes, I see he has,” and immediately, I found myself wide awake filled with the spirit of God. Time passed. Where would I commence to preach was the question. I did not know. Little did I think that I would preach my first sermon in this school house. I thought that my dream was for the purpose of encouraging me. But on a Sunday later, my wife and I attended Sunday school in this school house. The subject discussed was the gathering of Israel. A free Methodist minister was in charge of the Bible class which we attended. He made some statements that I took exceptions to, and I tried to get a chance to explain my position. But with an open hand he pressed it toward me, and I had to keep quiet. When he did so, something seemed to give me a punch in the ribs, and a voice spoke to me and said, “You have been ordained an elder; get up and preach to them, get up and preach to them.” I thought that I could not, then I thought, “I have a right in the class to take part in the discussion under consideration.” So I tried again, but with no better results than before.; again I was stopped with the big hand pointing toward me. And again I heard the voice, “You have been ordained an elder; get up and preach to them.” I looked at the audience and there was one of the directors of the school board, a neighbor of ours by the name of Buzzard. I arose and walked down to Mr. Buzzard and asked him if he had any objections to my preaching in the school house? I was well acquainted with him. He looked at me and smiled and then said, “Preach all you want to.” I announced there would be preaching at the close of the Sunday School. Someone asked, “Who is going to preach?” And I said, “I am.” And I felt about the size of my little finger. I opened the meeting in the regular way, with a song and prayer and I preached to a congregation including the Methodist preacher. My subject was “The Gathering of Israel.”, which was the subject of the Sunday school lesson. I had good liberty for almost an hour and I felt so well about it that I had courage enough that I announced that two weeks from that day, I would preach again. I had forgotten my dream about preaching in this school house. Some two or three months passed by when one day I was driving by this school house and all at once my dream came before me and sure enough, there I had preached my first sermon in the school house as I had seen it in my dream. During my ministry I have baptized 1,092 persons and held 54 public discussions. I have labored in all of the states in the Union except three in the southern corner of the United States: North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. For years I labored in Canada, from east to west and north to south. In the year 1923, Brother Paul Hanson and I were appointed in charge of the European Mission. For a year we traveled in the British Isles, Europe, Asia, and Africa. I visited Palestine on this trip and had the wonderful privilege of baptizing an Arab’s wife and a Hebrew student who spake different languages, in the water of the Jordan River about one mile below where Christ was baptized by John. The Lord haw been good to me and his blessings have been many, for which I truly thank Him with all my heart. Yours for the gospel of Christ, J.F. Curtis (This was taken from a rough transcript of an audiotape made by J.F. Curtis. On the tape, J.F. gives the above testimony and then goes on to answer a few questions about his ministry, especially his street preaching. Part of this testimony has also appeared in the Saints’ Herald.) |
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| Autobiography graciously provided by Mary Jo Sartin, a Curtis family historian. |