Biography

Major Dorimus Church was born on January 6, 1869, in Maury County, Tennessee to Thomas Holiday and Harriet Elnora Burchard Church. [1] His biracial mother was enslaved to his white father until the end of the Civil War and the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment to the US Constitution. Major’s father had joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1847, and his mother became a member in 1876. Thomas and Harriet Church eventually had eleven or twelve children together, all of whom received baptism and confirmation as Latter-day Saints. Around 1878, when Major was about ten years old, Thomas and Harriet Church, together with their eight children, left Tennessee to travel to Utah Territory to join with other members of their faith. Major would live the rest of his life in Utah communities.

No record remains that tells how Major acquired his unusual first and second names. It seems that Thomas and Harriet Church named their other sons in honor of men who were important in their lives. Perhaps this was the case with Major. By the time Major was born in 1869, Thomas Church’s first wife, Nancy, and all but one of her children had died. The last surviving son from Thomas Church’s first marriage lived with his father in his home, but recently freed Harriet and her children lived in a separate dwelling nearby. Although Harriet’s children were of predominantly white ancestry, in 1870, the census taker, knowing that they were recently emancipated slaves, described all the members of Harriet’s family as Black, including Major Dorimus. [2]

At some point, Thomas and Harriet married. In 1876, Harriet accepted baptism, and they set their sights on gathering with the Saints in Utah Territory. In 1877, before the family left the South, Major was baptized and confirmed as a Latter-day Saint. Thomas, Harriet, Major, and seven of his siblings then traveled across the country and settled in the small farming community of Deseret in Millard County. After arriving in his new home, Major, along with other members of his family who had previously been baptized in the South, received a second baptism and confirmation. On July 29, 1878, William Valentine Black of the Deseret Ward rebaptized him, followed by a reconfirmation the same day by Hyrum Topham Dewsnup. [3]

The Church family lived and farmed for several years in Deseret. The 1880 census was the first census in which the family appeared after they relocated to Utah Territory. This time, the census taker, knowing nothing about their enslavement in Tennessee, labeled all members of the family as “White.” From that time forward, all documents that listed the race of Harriet and her children described them as “White.” [4] In the West, Major successfully passed as white, although eventually, Church leaders became aware of his mother’s mixed racial lineage and withheld the priesthood from his brother. [5]

As a young man, Major followed his father into farming, also in Deseret. He married a Latter-day Saint young woman, Frances Ledora (Dora) Jacaway, on his twenty-first birthday, January 6, 1890. Dora, who was born in Millard County, was living in Deseret at the time she became engaged to Major. An elder in the Church, Thomas Callister, performed their marriage ceremony in Fillmore, Utah, the Millard County seat. [6]

While living in Deseret over the next few years, Major and Dora had three children. Their first, Clarence M., was born on July 25, 1891, but sadly, only lived a few weeks. He died September 2, 1891, and was buried in the Deseret Cemetery. A little less than a year later, on August 7, 1892, Dora gave birth to a baby girl, Frances Ruby. A third child, Bryan Franklin, was born on June 29, 1896. By that date, the Major Church family had moved to Hinkley, another small farming community near Deseret. [7]

In 1901, Major left farming to try his hand at mining. He moved his young family to Eureka, Juab County, Utah. Eureka was the largest city in the Tintic mining district. Three of Major’s younger brothers, Henry, Robert, and John, began mining in Eureka about this same time. The economic opportunities available to them in mining and business may have induced the Church brothers to leave farming. Major began working in the Centennial Eureka mine and later found success in mine leasing. [8]

In the summer of 1902, Major and Dora’s fourth child, Wanda Eveline, was born on August 23 in Eureka. Her parents took her to the Eureka Ward to receive a name and a blessing on October 5, 1902. [9] Over the next eight years, while living in Eureka, Major and Dora saw each of their children baptized and confirmed as members of the Church, demonstrating their commitment to their faith. In addition, their son, Bryan, received the lay priesthood, and Major, himself, despite his African heritage, was, at some point, ordained to the office of Deacon in the Aaronic priesthood. [10] The family’s mixed racial lineage did not prevent the male members’ ordinations. It is likely that their heritage was unknown in Eureka.

Besides working to support his family, Major was active in politics and in 1907, the citizens of Eureka elected him as City Marshal on the Socialist ticket. [11] A few years later, the law changed, and the position became an appointed one. The mayor then appointed Major to serve a second term as City Marshal. [12] Besides his political and mining work, Major also became a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, a fraternal organization that promoted the principles of friendship, love, truth, faith, hope, charity, and universal justice.” [13]

In addition to his political and fraternal work, Major found time to support union organizations and to enter into a new business venture. By 1915, he headed a coal business. [14] He bought advertisements in the local paper to encourage Eureka residents to buy their coal from him at the lowest price. [15]

Ten years after his election to the office of City Marshal, Major again ran for a position in city government. This time, he campaigned to be elected as mayor of Eureka. He was successful and won the election in November 1917. [16] At the end of his term, his younger brother, John Taylor Church, ran for the same office and served as Eureka’s next mayor beginning in 1920. [17]

The Major Church family did not stay in Eureka long after Major finished his mayoral duties. The 1920 U. S. Census listed Dora and the Church’s youngest daughter in Salt Lake, while Major and their son still occupied their home in Eureka. [18] Major continued to lease the Chief Consolidated Mine, a silver and lead mine in Eureka. [19] His son, Bryan, meanwhile, ran the pool hall that Major owned. [20] Sometime in 1922, the family reunited in Salt Lake City where they lived for the next several years and where Major ran an unspecified business. [21]

During the years that Major and his family lived in Salt Lake, they seem to have been engaged members of the Church. The Presiding Bishopric conducted censuses of Church members that listed Major, Dora, and some of their children in 1914, 1921, and 1925. [22] However, Major and Dora did not receive temple endowments, and they were not sealed as a couple during Major’s lifetime. In addition, none of their children received temple endowments in their lifetimes or chose to seal their marriages in LDS temples. However, there is no indication that their race prevented them from receiving temple rituals.

In 1928, Major and Dora had moved back to Eureka, where Major operated a root beer stand. [23] The Churches stayed in Eureka nearly until Major’s death on October 26, 1936. He died from myocarditis at the home of their daughter, Ruby Church Barney, in Salt Lake, where they had been visiting for a few weeks. [24] Major stayed in the Church until his death. Latter-day Saint Bishop Clarence G. Hogan conducted his funeral and was the main speaker. [25] The Eureka Reporter listed the notable attendees at Major’s funeral, referring to him as, “a prominent citizen of Eureka.” [26] Major was buried at Wasatch Lawn Memorial Park in Salt Lake City. [27]

About two-and-a-half years after Major’s death, his widow, Dora, arranged for a vicarious endowment performed on Major’s behalf. After receiving her own temple endowment, she participated in a proxy rite to be sealed to her deceased husband. This ordinance took place in the Salt Lake Temple on March 9, 1939. [28] In November 1949, Major was posthumously sealed to his parents in the Manti, Utah, Temple. Major, therefore, received temple blessings despite his African ancestry almost forty years before the Church rescinded the temple and priesthood ban for Black members, this despite Church policies which attempted to prevent such rituals, even by proxy after death. [29]

By Tonya S. Reiter

[1] United States, 1870 Census, Tennessee, Maury County.

[2] United States, 1870 Census, Tennessee, Maury County.

[3] Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Record of Members, Deseret Ward, microfilm 25,885, Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah.

[4] United States, 1880 Census, Utah Territory, Millard County, Deseret.

[5] See: Tonya S. Reiter, “John Taylor Church,” Century of Black Mormons.

[6] Utah, County Marriages, 1871-1941, Major Church and Frances Ladora Jacaway.

[7] United States, 1900 Census, Utah, Millard County, Deseret Precinct.

[8] “Major Church Elected Mayor of Eureka the recent city election,” The Eureka Reporter (Eureka, Utah), 16 November 1917, 4; “Former Eureka Mayor Died at Salt Lake City,” The Eureka Reporter (Eureka, Utah), 29 October 1936, 1.

[9] Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint, Record of Members, Eureka Ward, microfilm 25,938, Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah.

[10] Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint, Record of Members Collection, Eureka Ward, microfilm 25,938, Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah; “Church,” Presiding Bishopric, stake and mission census, 1914-1960, Family History Library, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah.

[11] “Socialists Are Victorious,” The Eureka Reporter (Eureka, Utah), 8 November 1907, 1.

[12] “Major Church,” The Eureka Reporter (Eureka, Utah), 16 November 1917, 4.

[13] “Resolutions of Condolence,” The Eureka Reporter (Eureka, Utah) 29 July 1910, 3; Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Sovereign Grand Lodge, , (accessed 28 October 2024).

[14] “Program For Labor Day,” The Eureka Reporter (Eureka, Utah), 2 September 1910, 6.

[15] “Coal for less money,” The Eureka Reporter (Eureka, Utah), 5 February 1915, 5.

[16] “Socialists and Citizens Parties Divide Honors in City Election,” The Eureka Reporter (Eureka, Utah), 9 November 1917, 1.

[17] “John Church Heads Socialist Ticket,” The Eureka Reporter (Eureka, Utah), 14 October 1921, 1; “Socialists Again In Control Of City Affairs,” The Eureka Reporter (Eureka, Utah), 11 November 1921, 1.

[18] United States, 1920 Census, Utah, Salt Lake County, Salt Lake City, Precinct 2; United States, 1920 Census, Utah, Juab County, Eureka.

[19] “Death Claims Civic Worker, Mine Operator,” Salt Lake Tribune (Salt Lake City, Utah), 26 October 1936, 9.

[20] United States, 1920 Census, Utah, Millard County, Eureka.

[21] 1925, Salt Lake City Directory.

[22] “Church,” Presiding Bishopric, stake and mission census, 1914-1960, Family History Library, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah.

[23] 1928 Salt Lake City Directory; United States, 1930 Census, Utah, Juab County, Eureka.

[24] Utah, State Board of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics, Certificate of Death, File No. 1764, Major Church, Utah State Archives, Salt Lake City, Utah.

[25] “Former Eureka Mayor Died at Salt Lake City,” The Eureka Reporter (Eureka, Utah), 29 October 1936, 1.

[26] The Eureka Reporter (Eureka, Utah), 29 October 1936, 2.

[27] Major Dorimus Church, Findagrave.com.

[28] Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake Temple, Sealings for the dead, couples, 1893-1942; heir indexes 1893-1942, microfilm 1,239,591, Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah.

[29] Devery S. Anderson, ed. The Development of LDS Temple Worship, 1846-2000: A Documentary History (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2011), 82, 101-2, 361.

Documents

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