This is a photo of the branch presidents and early bishops of the Bessemer Branch, Birmingham Alabama District, Alabama Florida Mission. The photo was taken about 1977 in the chapel of the Bessemer Stake Center. I knew each of the men in this photo personally and closely. I served with each of them in various capacities all except brother Vining who I also knew well and often visited at his home in McCalla, Alabama.
Left to Right, they are: Willard Langston, Samuel Jahue Vining, Johnnie Frank Densmore, John Archie Acker, Samuel Fletcher, David LeGrand Sanders.
My wife and I joined the church in Feb. 1969 in Kokomo, Indiana Branch, Indianapolis Indiana Stake. I was in the military (USAF) during the Vietnam War. In February 1970 I was transferred from Grissom AFB in Indiana to Castle AFB in California. While there, my wife and I were sealed in the Oakland Temple.
Upon my discharge, I moved back home to Alabama where my wife and I were members of the Bessemer Branch, Birmingham District, which had been part of the Southern States Mission. Soon as the Alabama Florida Mission was formed with Elder Hartman Rector, Jr. (1924-2018) of the First Council of Seventy as mission president, the Birmingham District became part of that mission.
Elder Rector’s Executive Secretary was Richard Raymond Riley (1931-1987), a member of the Bessemer Branch so we saw Elder Rector often. Since my wife and I were one of the few couples in the district who had been sealed in the temple, I was soon asked to serve in a leadership capacity. My first calling was as home teaching companion to Brother Willard Langston (1913-1995), on the extreme left in the photo. He grew close to my wife’s family who almost all joined the church within the next several years.
The Bessemer Branch already had a long history when we first arrived there in 1970. It began as an unorganized Sunday School in the home of Wesley and Dovie Acker Brackner near McAdory, Jefferson County, Alabama a few miles south of Bessemer. The first building was built and donated to the church by Samuel Jahue Vining (1888-1979) who is 2nd from the left in the photo. It was called the McCalla Branch. Brother Sam Vining also became the first branch president.
In the late 1950s, the church sold the McCalla Branch building and built a new “Kent” three-phase church building on Briarwood Drive adjacent to U.S. Highway 11 which is also 9th Ave. in Bessemer, Jefferson County, Alabama. Consequently, the name of the unit was changed to the Bessemer Branch but was still part of the Birmingham District. This first phase building held sacrament meetings in what later became the Primary Room. The Relief Society Sisters were pleased to brag that they had roofed that part of the building when the building was being built about 1957.
About 1973 I bought land in the then unincorporated community of Woodstock which straddles both Bibb County and Tuscaloosa County, Alabama. I needed help constructing a home so I contracted with Leroy Bush (1923-2009) and Johnnie Frank Densmore (1932-1984), 3rd from left in the photo. They dug and poured the footing for the foundation of my home on U.S. Highway 11 in Woodstock.
Under President John Acker, I was called as the first person in the Bessemer Branch to serve as a seminary teacher which was then held on Wednesday evenings prior to YM-YW MIA (youth) meetings. About 1972 or 1973 I was called as 2nd counselor to John Archie Acker (1917-1993) in the Bessemer Branch Presidency. John is 4th from the left in the photo.
The Birmingham District President, Fred M. Washburn, reorganized the Bessemer Branch Presidency about 1974 and I was called as Pres. Acker’s first counselor. Brother John Acker was an electrical contractor and general contractor. He built the 2nd phase of our building (including the chapel). Afterward in the late 1970s, he retired and moved to the Washington D.C. area to serve as a leader in the newly constructed Washington Temple. Still later, he was called as counselor in the first temple presidency to serve over the newly built Atlanta Georgia Temple in the mid-1980s.
When John Acker was released, Samuel G. Fletcher, fifth from left in the photo, was called as branch president of the Bessemer Branch. Dr. Fletcher, CCC-SLP Aud., was president of the Speech and Hearing Association of Alabama, 1973-1975. He was also a famous inventor of speech therapy devices. I served as his first counselor in the branch presidency about this same time. Upon my release I was called as his executive secretary, the first person to serve as an executive secretary in the Bessemer Branch. President Fletcher later became president of the Bessemer Alabama Stake.
Upon his release, David LeGrand Sanders was called to lead Bessemer. About this time Birmingham District was organized into the newly formed Birmingham Stake and Bessemer became a ward with David Sanders serving as its first bishop. I served as David Sanders executive secretary. He is last on the extreme right in the photo of the Bessemer Bishops. Bishop Sanders was a superintendent of construction for Dunn Construction. He built much of the third phase of the Bessemer Ward.
It should be noted that many of the leaders in the Bessemer Branch or Ward from the late 1950s until near the late 1970s were highly skilled in construction work. Bessemer had general contractors, electrical contractors and master electricians, plumbing contractors, master plumbers and one brother who was a county plumbing inspector, master carpenters, and other highly skilled tradesmen. Many of these brethren served in bishoprics and branch presidencies. One of the won the bid as general contractor of a building phase. Others won a bid for such things as concrete, plumbing, and electrical work. Bishop Sanders and Leroy Bush worked nearly 24 hours straight finishing the concrete floor under the basketball court. He later did the concrete finish work for my basement for the home I built in Woodstock, AL where my eight children grew up.
My children, Leroy Bush’s children, John Acker’s children, and David Sander’s children later all grew up to become leaders in the Bessemer Ward, some as members of the the bishopric or stake presidency. While many of these were descendants of the six men in this photo, there were other families involved, many of whom were related by birth or marriage. Therefore, this photo conjures many memories for those of us who served in various leadership positions for several decades in the Southern Stakes or Alabama Florida Mission, the Birmingham District and Stake, and the McCalla or Bessemer Branch or Ward.
~written 31 October 2019 by Ron Vincent~
Ronnie, this is a great article and the picture is great. My family showed up and was baptized in July 1977. I knew and loved each of these men. When we joined Dale VanWagoner was Bishop. I assume he had recently been called. That year I was called the Seminary teacher, Wednesday evenings. I don’t know how much they learned but I loved them sooo much. Thanks
Gail, thanks so much for the comment. I’ve always wondered if anyone ever published a history of the Bessemer Ward or the mission. We were originally part of the Southern States mission which covered almost everything in the lower 48 east of the Mississippi (all the way to the Caribbean). We quickly moved from that to progressively smaller and smaller missions until Birmingham was made a stake. What shocked me was comments on Facebook for this photo told me that two of the people in our current stake served on the high council in the Birmingham Stake and remembered the men in this photo! We southern church members share a lot of history we may not be aware of. Again, thanks for your comment. ~Ron.V