After four months of development, we have
completed a comprehensive database listing all of the Church's stakes
and districts known to have ever operated. Information in the database includes the name of each stake or district and its corresponding country, administration division, creation date, former names, parent stake or district, notes, discontinuation date (when applicable), and reasons for discontinuation (if known). We hope that this database
will be utilized by researchers and the public to promote greater
interest and scholarship in the study of the growth of the LDS Church. If you notice any errors in the database or have something to add, please contact me by commenting to this blog post.
The database can be accessed here and may be viewed in Google Sheets or downloaded into Microsoft Excel.
At one point there was a district in Iceland, I do not know all the details of it, but have met the men who served as district presidents during that time.
ReplyDeleteYou've listed the Owingsville KY Stake as a former name of the Huntington WV Stake. Now I could be wrong about this but I'm pretty sure both the Owingsville & the Huntington Stakes existed at the same time. I believe Owingsville should be listed as its own stake as wards from the Lexington KY Stake and the Huntington WV Stake were used to create the Owingsville Stake in 1995 (there were no WV units in the Owingsville Stake). The stake, however, was dissolved in 2003.
ReplyDeleteI don't see any of the stakes listed from before 1847. I know there were a dozen or so.
ReplyDeleteThis is information I have been interested in for many years. Great job compiling it together! I will enjoy referring back to it again and again.
ReplyDeleteI see there is an Iceland District included in your list.
My understanding is the Hungtington West Virginia Stake was created on Nov. 7, 1982. It changed names to the Owingsville Kentucky Stake on May 3, 1995. When the Lexington Kentucky North Stake was created on Nov. 7, 2003, it took at least one unit from the Owingsville Stake -- the Owingsville Ward. On that same date, the Owingsville Stake was reorganized and renamed the Huntington West Virginia Stake.
Does anyone know if Church Headquarters maintains a record of discontinued districts? They evidentally do keep record of discontinued stakes, as those were published in the Church Almanac.
Yes - there is no listing for the Far West Missouri Stake of 1836.
ReplyDeleteGreat work Matt.
ReplyDeleteI note that only stakes discontinued in 1973 or later are in the database. For example, in 1877, there were 20 stakes, but only 17 are in the database, because 3 were discontinued before 1973.
There were 26 stakes in the US discontinued before 1973 and I could not find them in the database:
3/ Adam-Ondi-Ahman /28 Jun 1838/ John Smith Discontinued Nov 1838
2/ Clay-Caldwell /3 Jul 1834/ David Whitmer Discontinued 1839
1/ Kirtland /17 Feb 1834/ Joseph Smith Jr. Discontinued 24 May 1841 (Reinstated as No. 1447)
6 /Quincy / 25 Oct 1840 / Daniel Stanton Discontinued 24 May 1841
7 / Mount Hope / 27 Oct 1840 / Abel Lamb Discontinued / 24 May 1841
8/ Freedom / 27 Oct 1840 / Henry W. Miller Discontinued / 24 May 1841
9/ Geneva / 1 Nov 1840 / William Bosley Discontinued / 24 May 1841
10 / Springfield / 5 Nov 1840 / Edwin P. Merriam Discontinued / 24 May 1841
4/ Crooked Creek [Ramus] / 4 Jul 1840 / Joel Hills Johnson Discontinued / 4 Dec 1841
3a/Iowa [Zarahemla] / 5 Oct 1839 / John Smith Discontinued 6 Jan 1842
5/ Lima / 22 Oct 1840 / Isaac Morley Discontinued 1845
2a / Nauvoo / 5 Oct 1839 / William Marks Discontinued / 1846
4a / San Bernardino / 6 Jul 1851 / David Seely Discontinued 1857
6a/ St. Louis 4 Nov 1854 Milo Andrus Discontinued 1858, reinstated as 265
7a / Carson Valley / 4 Oct 1856 / Orson Hyde Discontinued 1858
21/ Little Colorado (Ariz., Colo.) /27 Jan 1878/ Lot Smith Discontinued 18 Dec 1887 ?Snowflake (31a)
22 / Eastern Arizona/ 29 Jun 1879 / Jesse N. Smith (Arizona, N.M.) Discontinued / 18 Dec 1887 / St. Johns (31), Snowflake (31a)
17 / Sanpete / 4 Jul 1877 / Canute Peterson Discontinued 9 Dec 1900 / North Sanpete (42), South Sanpete (43)
14 /Davis 17 Jun 1877 William R. Smith Discontinued / 20 Jun 1915 / North Davis (70), South Davis (71)
41 / Jordan / 21 Jan 1900 / Orrin P. Miller Discontinued / 8 May 1927 / East Jordan (96), West Jordan (97)
70/ Curlew (Idaho, Utah) 17 May 1915 Jonathan C. Cutler Discontinued 11 Feb 1940 Malad (32), Pocatello (40)
20 / Box Elder / 19 Aug 1877 / Oliver G. Snow Discontinued / 12 Nov 1944 North Box Elder (147), South Box Elder (148)
109 / Oakland / 2 Dec 1934 W. Aird Macdonald Discontinued / 26 Aug 1956 / Oakland-Berkeley (227a)
159 / Berkeley / 13 Oct 1946 / W. Glenn Harmon Discontinued 26 Aug 1956 / Oakland-Berkeley (227a)
122 / Moon Lake / 24 Apr 1938 / Edwin L. Murphy Discontinued / 10 Nov 1957 / Duchesne (62)
2b / Weber / 26 Jan 1851 / Lorin Farr Discontinued / 14 Jun 1970 / Mount Ogden (87)
The discontinued stakes are listed in the order they were discontinued.
ReplyDeleteThe creation date, the first president, and discontinuation date. If stakes are listed after the discontinuation date, these are the stakes the congregations were moved into.
When i pulled the data for all stakes in the US up to 16 August 2009 from the Desert News Almanac, the stakes were numbered by the number of stakes at the time of creation. When letters follow the numbers, it means that one or more stakes had been discontinued and the number was use for the second (a) or third (b) or later stakes with the same number.
ReplyDeleteYou have the Brigham City Utah Box Elder Stake created August 19, 1877 with prior names of South Box Elder Stake (1944-1959), Box Elder Stake (1959-1974), leaving a gap between 1877 and 1944.
ReplyDeleteIt should be noted that the Box Elder Stake was indeed created 19 Aug 1877, but was discontinued on 12 November 1944, with two new stakes--North Box Elder and South Box Elder created that same date. Today, we would probably have one stake continue and new stake created, but for some reason that didn't happen in a number of cases over the years.
The original stake was:
20 / Box Elder / 19 Aug 1877 / Oliver G. Snow Discontinued / 12 Nov 1944 North Box Elder (147), South Box Elder (148)
The new stakes were:
147a / *Brigham City Utah North *Box Elder North / 29 May 1970 / North Box Elder / 12 Nov 1944 / John P. Lillywhite
148 / *Brigham City Utah Box Elder *Box Elder / 30 Aug 1959 / South Box Elder/ 12 Nov 1944 / Abel S. Rich
Another minor point. With respect to name changes, there were two name standardizations that occurred--one of limited impact in 1970 and another that affected every stake (except Salt Lake) in existence in 1974.
ReplyDeleteMike-
ReplyDeleteIs there any way you can put these discontinued stakes prior to 1973 in a Excel format? If so, I can add them to the database. You can use Google Drive to upload Excel files.
I hope this link to google docs works
ReplyDeletehttps://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-_SZDWFVScBBKcfvaZ_KKeSLjNU68--3Qbv9NMNgUV4/edit#gid=809529526
ReplyDeleteThe data from the Church news is in column K. The other columns I have added. I should note that when I did this spreadsheet, the North America East Area still existed. The Area column may not be accurate anymore.
ReplyDeleteSome of the information on Salt Lake Stakes such as Salt Lake Liberty is off, because it was not organized in 2004 as the program seems to be assuming but in 1904.
ReplyDeleteSalt Lake Millcreek Stake is another example of this
ReplyDeleteThe Detroit District was formed in 1997 from portions of the Bloomfield Hills Michigan Stake and the Westland Michigan Stake.
ReplyDeleteI believe there was also a Camden New Jersey district for a time. I believe the Church Almanac mentions that it existed.
ReplyDeleteThe Sevastopol Ukraine District would have been formed from the Ukraine Donetsk Mission, which was assigned the Crimea from the Kyiv mission in 2001. I think the district there may have been in Simferopol, not Sevastopol, but I will try to find out.
ReplyDeleteWard and Branch Creations the last two Sundays:
ReplyDelete30 November 2014
1. Eagle Mountain YSA 2nd Ward, Brigham City Utah West Stake (10 wards, 2 branches)
2. Faanui Ward, Punaauia Tahiti Stake (11 wards)
7 December 2014
1. Kowloon City Ward, Hong Kong China Kowloon Stake (7 wards, 1 branch)
2. Pasco 11th Ward, Pasco Washington North Stake (8 wards, 4 branches)
According to what is currently listed in CDOL, there were 46 wards and branches created in November.
Michael-
ReplyDeleteA new branch appears to have recently been created in Sierra Leone called the Lumpa Branch. Can you verify when it was created?
It is very encouraging that the Church in Sierra Leone has been continuing to organize new units despite the Ebola epidemic and the withdrawal of full-time missionaries.
Michael, is the following really correct?
ReplyDelete>>>1. Eagle Mountain YSA 2nd Ward, Brigham City Utah West Stake (10 wards, 2 branches)
There would be a lot of stakes in between the new ward and the Brigham City West Stakes. Not only would the stake cross area boundaries, there is an area in between the areas where the ward and stake are.
LDSTemples.org has the following in the Brigham City Utah West Stake:
ReplyDeleteBrigham City 3rd Ward
Brigham City 7th Ward
Brigham City 15th Ward
Brigham City 18th Ward
Brigham City 22nd Ward
Brigham City River Ward
Brigham Willows Ward
Corinne 1st Ward
Corinne 2nd Ward
Eagle Mountain YSA 2nd Ward
Brigham City 27th Branch (Correctional Facility)
Brigham City 28th Branch (Correctional Facility)
I wonder if Eagle Mountain YSA 2nd Ward is really correct in the stake. I wonder if a clerk put in the wrong stake ID for the new ward.
Answers to above questions:
ReplyDelete1. The Lumpa Branch (Kossoh Town Sierra Leone District) was created on 5 Oct 2014.
2. The Eagle Mountain YSA 2nd Ward is listed in the Brigham City Utah West Stake. CDOL lists the Brigham City and Brigham City North Stakes as additional participating stakes. The location for the ward is 319 E 700 S in Brigham City.
My guess is Eagle Mountain 2nd YSA is not named after the city of Eagle Mountain, but something else.
ReplyDeleteThere is a Bald Eagle Mountain in the Pilot Range, west of the Great Salt Lake at approximately the same latitude as Brigham City. It`s a bit of a dreary area and I highly doubt that the ward is located near this mountain. However, given the fact that the mountain actually has a name (that`s pretty uncommon), it could be a dominant enough landscape feature to name the ward for it. Just a suggestion. I can`t quite come up with another explanation.
ReplyDeleteJust as FYI, the Eagle Mountain YSA 1st Ward is at the same location as the YSA 2nd Ward, but is under the direction of the Perry Utah Stake, with the BC Box Elder, BC South, BC West, and Willard Stakes participating.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Michael. Interesting about the name in Brigham City. I have found an Eagle Mountain Golf Course in Brigham City.
ReplyDelete