Rare Historical Find in the Overson Negative Collection

The scanning and digitizing of the collection of negatives and printed photos from my Great-grandmother Margaret Godfrey Jarvis Overson is proceeding slowly. Recently, I discovered a remarkable set of photographs taken in front of the home of Stake President Andrew Kimball in Thatcher, Arizona. There is a copy of the photograph in the Arizona Collection. Arizona State University Libraries, Department of Archives and Special Collections. The description of the photo is as follows from the ASU Arizona Collection:

St. Joseph's Stake High Council Members of Thatcher, Arizona. Photograph Taken in Front of Stake President Andrew Kimball's Home. Kimball is Seated Fourth from the Left. From the Ryder Ridgway Photograph Collection. The finding aid to this collection may be accessed electronically from Arizona Archives Online: http://www.azarchivesonline.org/.

If you are not aware, Andrew Kimball was the father of LDS Church President Spencer W. Kimball.

Here is a copy of the original photograph. If Grandmother Overson had this photo in her collection, she likely had the original negative from which this print was made. The photo does not appear to be a copy of a pre-existing photograph. Speculating, the photograph could have been taken by her father, Charles Godfrey (De Friez) Jarvis.

The photo in the ASU Arizona Collection appears to be slightly damaged and printed on yellowing paper. It also appears to have crop marks. See link above. For a biography of Andrew Kimball click here. However, the photo above, from Grandmother Overson, has a notation "11x" in white which would have been on the negative when the photo was printed.

The big news is not the necessarily this historic photo, but the one that accompanies it. Here is the photo of the men's wives taken at the same time in 1910 at the same place:

The existence of this second photo, taken at the same time and place, argues for the fact that the photos were taken either by Charles Jarvis or his daughter, Margaret Godfrey Jarvis Overson. I am sure both photos warrant additional research.

Lester Glade Funeral, Part 10

Elder Spencer W. Kimball's address continued from here...

In the Beatitudes the Lord says, "Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God."  [1] No one will ever see God unless he is pure in heart, no one. Let us read just another line or two here:

They are they who into whose hands the Father has given all things. They are they who are priests and kings, who have received of his fullness and of his glory and are priests of the most high after the order of Melchizedek, which was after the order of Enoch, which was after the order of the only begotten Son. Wherefore, as it is written they are God's, even the sons of God. Wherefore, all things are theirs, whether life or death or things present or things to come, all are theirs, and they are Christ's and Christ is God's and they shall overcome all things." [2]

And so the Lord has made us great promises. He has sent us here for special purposes, to give us a body, even the infant gets its body. But we have another purpose in life and that is to grow up to maturity if that is permitted to us, and then to perfect ourselves until we can become as God and eventually become God, for as man is God once was, and as God is man may become.

And so I am greatful [sic] for these occasions, they must come, death is inevitable, death is desireable, death is adorable. We would never want to live without death, it would frustrate the whole scheme of life. We're never quite prepared for it of course, never quite ready. We would continue on and on and on but death is a great release, death is the beginning of a great life and so we do not mourn unduly but we understand the program and we know that this is just a part of the great plan of life and exaltation. And so we are glad for our loved ones when the proper time comes for them to go on in their perfection toward Godhood and to build the kingdom.

Oh I pray that the Lord will bless these good people who are mourning at this time, it's right to mourn but not too much. That their lives will be filled, that the influence of Brother Glade will continue to hover about and inspire them to greater deeds and to a greater degree of perfection, I pray this. I pray that it will extend to all of us, that our very presence here today with the sweet music and the sweet influence may bring us closer to our Heavenly Father and give us a greater determination that that perfection, that holiness, that sanctification, will be a reality in our lives when we have reached this point Brother Glade has reached today. May he bless us all I pray, in the name of Jesus Christ . . . . . Amen:

To be continued...

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[1] Matthew 5:8.

[2] Doctrine and Covenants 76:55-60.

Lester Glade Funeral, Part 9

Elder Spencer W. Kimball's address continued from here...

And in the Hebrews we learn that through the things which he suffered Jesus became perfect. [1] In my opinion Jesus was not perfect when he entered into the world, neither was he perfect when he went into the temple to preach to the great leaders, intellectual thinkers. And neither was he perfect when he fulfilled his ministry nor when he went to Calvary, but as his spirit left Calvary he had become holy, burdent [sic] by the things which he had suffered, and he had overcome all things and therefore had become perfect. And then he says for us to be holy as he is holy. [2] And to those of us his children upon the earth who live the commandments he has promised everything, the earth and the fullness thereof, the world beyond, the joys and the blessings. Here he is speaking to those who hold the priesthood and he says, "For who so is faithful unto the obtaining of these two priesthoods of which I have spoken, and magnifying of their calling are sanctified, overcome, holy, perfected by the spirit unto the renewing of their bodies." They become the sons of Moses and of Aaron and of the seed of Abraham and the church and the kingdom and the elect of God. And also all they who receive this priesthood receive me sayeth the Lord, "for he that receiveth my servants receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth my father, and he that receiveth my father receiveth my father's kingdom." Therefore, all that my father has shall be given unto him and this is according to the oath and the covenant which belongeth to the priesthood. [3] Nothing that the Lord has, of honor, of power, of glory, of exaltation, nothing will be withheld from the man and the woman who have [wholly] measured up, who have become perfected, who have become sanctified, who have become holy through the overcoming of the weaknesses of the flesh.

When I come to funerals like this I go away feeling that I will try infinitely harder than I have ever done before to overcome everything so I may receive these blessings that are promised. In the 76th Section the Lord makes the same promises, time and time again. He holds them up here to us, a great reward for our faithfulness. He's telling who will enter in the celestial kingdom, and he says all those who overcome by faith. It's all a matter of overcoming. It's why we came to this world, it's why Brother Glade was given his body so that through those 58 years he could perfect it, he could control his bodily functions and urges and desires to the point where they would be harnessed and bridled, and so that he could go back to the eternities God-like, ready for the growth, the blessings, the glories that could come to him. Be they are they of the church of the first born, they are they into whose hands the Father hath given all things. [4] It's a little like a Doctors Degree note, not much because it's so much grander. But a student goes to Grade School and then to High School and then he goes to College and he is taught by men with Doctors Degrees. He finally goes forward and gets his Masters Degree, and finally gets his Doctors, and then he has everything that his Professor has in the way of honors. Everything, the only difference could be in accomplishments, but he has the whole thing, there are no higher degrees in the world of letters. And so we reach that point in the kingdom, not that we will ever catch up with our Heavenly Father in his graciousness and his goodness and his power, but we will receive all that the Father has if we are worthy.

To be continued...

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[1] Hebrews 5:8. "Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered..." Interesting quotation of the scripture and worthy of a longer footnote than this.

[2] 1 Peter 1:16.

[3] Doctrine and Covenants 84:33-39. Ignore the transcriber's quote marks in this passage, since it's all a quote from "For whoso is faithful" to "oath and covenant which belongeth to the priesthood."

[4] Doctrine and Covenants 76:54-55.

Lester Glade Funeral, Part 8

 Elder Spencer W. Kimball's address continued from here...

From all that's been said and all that I have known of Brother Lester Glade, and I have known him less intimately than these other Brethren but considerably, I would think that he has reached a great degree of perfection as many of you who are here today have done so. And this very suffering that he has gone through, this long approach toward the eternity, can have brought him far closer to his Heavenly Father than had he had good health all this time and then suddenly been taken at this date. His suffering is a great blessing, the tribulation and sorrows are great blessings in disguise.

"And all the angels stood round about the throne and about the elders and the four [beasts], and fell before the throne on their faces and worshipped God saying Amen, blessed, glory, the wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and light be unto our God forever and ever. . . . . Amen. But one of the elders answered saying unto me, what are these which are arrayed in white robes and whence came they? And I said unto him, sir thou knowest, and he said to me these are they which came out of great tribulation and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb. Therefore, are they before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his Temple and he that siteth [sic] on the throne shall dwell among them." [1]

Perfection that's the word. Brother Glade has been striving for it. He has advanced closest. Perfection be thee therefore perfect. Then we have little folks who say that nobody can be perfect, we all have our faults, we all have our weaknesses. They justify their own weaknesses by that trite commonplace, we all have our weaknesses, nobody can be perfect. We can be perfect and I can point out to you people that I am sure were within a hairs breath [sic] of perfection, some whom you know and who have gone into the great beyond very close to that perfection. Why did the Lord ask it of us if it was unatainable [sic]? Why would he ask us? All through the revelations, all through them, we have the commandment to be perfect. Let me read just a few of them. This is John the great Apostle:

"I, John, who also am your brother and companion in tribulation and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that's called [Patmos] for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ. I was in the spirit on the Lord's day and heard behind me a great voice as the trumpet saying I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last. What thou seest write in the book and send it into the seven churchs [sic] which are in Asia. And then he goes forth, he says, he that hath an ear let him hear what the spirit sayeth unto the churches, to him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life which is in the midst of the paradise of God. Be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee a crown of life. [He] that have an ear let him hear what the spirit sayeth unto the churches, he that overcometh shall not be hurt by the [second] death. [He] that have an ear let him hear what the spirit sayeth unto the churches. To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden [manna] and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it. He that overcometh the same shall be clothed in white rainment [sic] and I will not [blot] out his name, out of the lambs [sic] book of light, but will confess his name before my father and before his angel. Behold I come quickly, hold that fast which thou hast that no man take thy crown. Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the Temple of my God, and he shall go no more out. I will write upon thee in the name of my God and the name of the city of my God which is the new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of Heaven from my God and I will write upon him my new name. I know thy works that thou art neither cold nor hot, he says to the [Laodiceans]. So then because thou art luke warm, neither cold nor hot, I will [spue] thee out of my [mouth] because thou sayest I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing and knowest not that thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. I counsel thee to abide with me, gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich and white rainment [sic]. White rainment [sic], that thou mayest be clothed and the shame of thy nakedness do not appear, and annoint [sic] thine eyes with eye salve that thou mayest see. Behold I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and open the door I will come unto [him] and will sup with him and he with me. To him that overcometh will I grant to sit down with me in my throne even as I also overcame and am set down with the father in his throne." [2]

Overcome, overcome all the way through the scriptures, he that overcomes, white robes, temple cloak. He made all these things that are programs of which we are familiar but the Lord gave them through John. He says, be ye thee therefore perfect, and then Peter says be ye holy. Wherefore [gird up] the loins of your mind, be sober and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children not fashioning yourselves according to the former [lusts] in your ignorance but as he which [hath] called you is holy. So be ye holy in all manner of conversation because it is written, be ye holy for I am holy. [3]

To be continued...

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[1] Revelation 7:11-15.

[2] Revelation 1:9-11; 2:7, 10-11, 17; 3:5, 11-12, 15-18, 20-21. I corrected some of the transcription errors but not all, and some of the differences may be word changes by Elder Kimball, and some of the text here is his explanations bridging the selections.

[3] 1 Peter 1:13-16.

Lester Glade Funeral, Part 7

Elder Spencer W. Kimball's address continued from here...

When I moved with my parents and family to Arizona at the age of three, we came into a beautiful valley, deep and rich soil, thick [mesquites] from the river bottoms, natural vegetation; and there's the years too I saw that natural [vegetation] change to planted trees, vineyards and orchards, grain fields, and it became a beautiful place. On either side of the valley is a high range of [mountains] comparable to the Wasatch Mountains here on our east, and the hundreds of times I went down that valley, up and down it, and saw high mountains lofty and piercing the sky on either side. I suppose the question went into my mind hundreds and hundreds of times, what's on the other side of that mountain?

And then one day not long ago I stepped into a plane. It circled about the field a little, climbed high into the air until I could see both the mountain ranges on the level with me, and then a little higher and we soared up over this mountain range and I saw what was beyond. It was beautiful, heavy forests, lakes in-between, comfortable homes now and then in the pines, little rivulets, high cliffs and finally many beautiful little valleys that were cultivated and enjoyed by the Lord's sons and daughters. I think it's a little like that in life. We come here between two high mountain ranges, eternities before and eternities after, and we wonder as the years go on what lies beyond. And then a rather abrupt change comes into our lives, we take flight and we climb above and beyond and we see what is there and it's good, it's beautiful. The Lord said, "[Eye hath] not seen, nor [ear] heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." It[']s glorious and as we imagine we can hardly touch with our imaginations the things which are ready for us if we but live the commandments.

The Lord in his Sermon on The Mount said, "I cannot drew [?] or destroy the law, and to the Prophets, I am not come to destroy but to fulfill and to add to, to increase, to exalt." And then he goes forward with a great sermon, I am certain you have heard it said by them of old times, "Thou shalt not kill, but I say unto you that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment." He says that you have heard that it hath been said that in old times, "Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery, but I say unto you whosoever look upon a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery already with her in his heart." The [lesser] law was being fulfilled, the greater law was being given. And then again you have heard it that it hath been said that in old time, "Thou Shalt Not Forswear Thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oath, that I say unto you swear not at all." You have heard that it hath been said, "An Eye For An Eye And A Tooth For A Tooth, but I say unto you that you resist not evil but whosoever shalt smite you on they right cheek turn to him the other also." "If any man will [sue] ye of the law of take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also." "Whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him [twain]." "Give to him who ask of thee and from him that would borrow of thee, turn thou not away." You have heard it said, "Thou Shalt Love Thy Neighbor and Hate Thine Enemy, but I say unto you love your neighbors, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you, that ye may be the children of your Father which is in Heaven." Then at the conclusion is a beautiful thought. "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in Heaven is perfect." Will we reach perfection, very, very close to perfection in this life, that is the most due.

To be continued...

(There are a number of obvious problems with the transcript, but I have left most of it as is.) Photo "On the Way to Mt. Graham" from www.flickr.com/photos/steev/211809450/.

Lester Glade Funeral, Part 6

Remarks By - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Elder Spencer W. Kimball

My Beloved Brothers and Sisters: I think that here is Heaven. A funeral is a glorious experience, here gathered together the sweetest singers, the most delightful people and here everyone has a singleness of heart. No [soul] comes to this meeting with conflicts. Everyone is full of love, sympathy and understanding, and I think when the Lord sends his angel to part the curtains of the [veil] that we get a little glimpse on the other side. Perhaps at no time in our lives, unless it would be in the Holy Temple, do we come closer to the infinite, closer to our Heavenly Father, closer to those who have gone before, than we do at a funeral service.

I hope that I may be able to go to a place and to a condition where there will be people like Brother Glade and his family and you good folks. I hope that there will be where I should go, the singleness of heart and the singleness of thought. I hope that I will go where Sister Jessie Smith will be so that throughout all the eternities I can hear that beautiful voice. I hope I'll go where these lovely ladies go, who play so beautifully on these violins. I think there will be violin music in Heaven. And I should like to be where Brother and Sister McMaster sing throughout eternity. I think if their voices could be improved, they will be, perfected in the eternities. I think they will get joy in bringing satisfaction and peace to us throughout the eternities. And then I'm glad for Brother Sperry and his closeness to Brother Glade. I've always wished I had the eloquence of Brother Hin[c]kley, and his depth of feeling. He's kind of an ideal to me; and then you good folks.

I think that frequently on the earth we get a taste of Heaven, we feel its nearness, its beauties, its ecstasies. I think that's true here today. I have thought that maybe the angels weren't far away today for I think I have never felt a sweeter spirit than is here today.

To be continued...

(President Kimball served in the Central States Mission at the same time as Lester Glade, so they were acquaintances from several decades prior to the funeral.)