Century of Black Mormons · Pendleton, Eva Lena Sargent · J. Willard Marriott Library Exhibits (2024)

Pendleton, Eva Lena Sargent

Biography

By the time of her baptism at age 18, Eva Lena Sargent had been acquainted with missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints since she was a little girl. Her mother, Nellie Gray Patron Sargent, had prepared meals for the missionaries, as well as washed their clothes and mended their shoes for more than half of Eva’s life.[1] After ten years of serving the missionaries and hearing their message, Eva’s mother decided to get baptized. On August 19, 1906, Eva joined her mother and her six siblings at a creek near Golansville, Virginia, where missionaries John Clement Farr from Ogden, Utah, and Thomas E. Ricks III, from Rexburg, Idaho baptized and confirmed the entire family (except for Eva’s father John Sargent who did not join them in their new faith). The missionary or clerk who entered the family’s baptisms in a Latter-day Saint record book scrawled across the baptismal entry for Nellie and her children the words “A Colored Family.”[2]

Eva Lena and her twin sister, St Clara, were born on April 1, 1888, to John and Nellie Sargent. They were raised in the small community of Golansville, in northcentral Virginia, where Eva’s sister Novella recalled that the family’s baptism into a “white church” caused a small stir. The family was ostracized from social events and sometimes shunned because they had joined the Latter-day Saints.[3] Adding to the family’s sense of isolation was the fact that although other people in the region embraced the Latter-day Saint message around the same time as the Sargent family, the others were all white. Many of the white converts emigrated to Utah, leaving Eva and her family alone without the support of a congregation and regular worship services to sustain them. Eva’s mother Nellie nonetheless continued to study the gospel literature which various missionaries brought to her.[4] No doubt Nellie’s example had an influence on Eva and the family she then raised, especially because Eva continued to live at home for the first decade of her marriage.

Soon after her baptism, Eva married Abner Lewis Davis and started her own family.[5] Eva’s family grew over time to include nine children, the two oldest of which, Gladys and Norman, were also baptized.[6] The 1910 and 1920 censuses listed Eva as living in her mother’s household as she raised her children, a fact which may help to account for the oldest children’s baptisms.[7]

In 1936, Eva divorced Abner Davis on grounds of desertion.[8] By 1940, she had remarried, this time to a man named Phillip Pendleton who had a daughter Lillian from a previous marriage. The blended family lived with Phillip’s sister, Ida Smith, in Washington, D.C. where Eva joined the Capitol Ward and then the College Park Ward, the same Latter-day Saint congregations where her sister Novella worshipped. By 1951, she and Phillip had returned to Golansville and thereafter were a part of the Fredericksburg, Virginia, congregation, about thirty minutes from Golansville.[9]

Eva lived to be 91 years old, dying on February 3, 1980, just over one month after her twin sister Clara died. Her obituary in the Richmond Times Dispatch stated that Eva’s funeral would be held at the LDS chapel in Fredericksburg, marking almost 74 years for Lena as a Latter-day Saint. Her body was laid to rest in the family cemetery at Ruther Glen, just south of Golansville.[10]

Eva passed on her faith through at least one of her children. Gladys, Eva’s oldest daughter died in 1993, also as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.[11]

By Karen Samuelson Ricks

Primary Sources

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Record of Members Collection. Southern States Mission, Virginia District. Microfilm 1995. Family History Library. Salt Lake City, Utah.

Commonwealth of Virginia. Bureau of Vital Statistics. State Health Department. Eva L. Davis, Divorce from Abner L. Davis. Virginia Divorce Records, 1918-2014. Richmond, Virginia.

Commonwealth of Virginia. Department of Health. Bureau of Vital Records. Death Certificate. Eva Lena Pendleton. State File Number 80-004929. Richmond, Virginia.

Commonwealth of Virginia. Vital Records. Abner Davis to Eva Lena Sargent. Marriage record. Microfilm 30854. Family History Library. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Salt Lake City, Utah.

“Davis.” Presiding Bishopric stake and mission census, 1914-1935. CR 4 311. Church History Library. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Salt Lake City, Utah.

“Pendleton.” Presiding Bishopric stake and mission census, 1940-1960. CR 4 312, 313, 314, 315, 316. Church History Library. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Salt Lake City, Utah.

United States. 1900 Census. Virginia, Caroline County, Madison.

United States. 1910 Census. Virginia, Caroline County, Madison.

United States. 1920 Census. Virginia, Caroline County, Madison.

United States. 1930 Census. Washington, District of Columbia.

United States. 1940 Census. Washington, District of Columbia.

Secondary Sources

Emery, Jessie L. Black Saints in a White Church: Contemporary African Americans Mormons. Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1994.

“Mrs. Eva Pendleton.” Free Lance-Star (Fredricksburg, Virginia). 5 February 1980, 19.

“Mrs. Gladys V. Thompson.” Free Lance-Star (Fredericksburg, Virginia). 23 June 1993, C9.

“Pendleton.” Richmond Times Dispatch. 5 February 1980, B-2.

Richards, Debra E. “Open the Gates of the Temple.” The Daily Universe (Provo, Utah), 12 April 1976, 3-4, 9.

Sargent, Novella Frances. (KW8C-JKC). “Three Generations of Sargents.” Memories page at FamilySearch.org.

[1] Novella Frances Sargent (KW8C-JKC), “Three Generations of Sargents,” Memories page at FamilySearch.org.

[2] Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Record of Members Collection, Southern States Mission, Virginia District, Microfilm 1995, Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah.

[3] Debra E. Richards, “Open the Gates of the Temple,” The Daily Universe (Provo, Utah), 12 April 1976, 4.

[4] Jessie Embry, Black Saints in a White Church: Contemporary African-American Mormons (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1994), 48.

[5] Virginia Vital Records, Abner Davis/Eva Lena Sargent marriage record, Microfilm 30854, Family History Library, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah.

[6] Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Record of Members Collection, Southern States Mission, Virginia District, Microfilm 1995, Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah. For evidence of other church rituals among Eva’s children see “Davis,” Presiding Bishopric stake and mission census, 1914-1935, CR 4 311, Church History Library, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah.

[7] United States, 1910 and 1920 Census, Virginia, Caroline County, Madison.

[8] Commonwealth of Virginia, Bureau of Vital Statistics, State Health Department, Eva L. Davis, Divorce from Abner L. Davis, Virginia Divorce Records, 1918-2014, Richmond, Virginia.

[9] United States, 1940 Census, Washington, District of Columbia; “Pendleton,” Presiding Bishopric stake and mission census, 1940-1960, CR 4 312, 313, 314, 315, 316, Church History Library, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah.

[10] “Pendleton,” Richmond Times Dispatch, 5 February 1980, B-2; “Mrs. Eva Pendleton,” Free Lance-Star (Fredricksburg, Virginia), 5 February 1980, 19.

[11] “Mrs. Gladys V. Thompson,” Free Lance-Star (Fredericksburg, Virginia), 23 June 1993, C9.

Documents

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