From My Yet To Be Completed Story

I ran across this history and have included it in my story. Thought you might find it interesting.

In the Encyclopedic History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by Andrew Jenson, Assistant Church Historian, published in 1941, about 2 years before we moved back to Penrose, it states:

“Penrose Ward, Big Horn Stake, Big Horn Co., Wyoming, consists of a few saints residing in a scattered condition in a farming district on the south side of the Shoshone River in Park County, Wyoming, about eight miles west southwest of Byron, and 5 ½ miles south southeast of Garland, a railway station on the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad. Only two families resided on the town site in 1930 on which the meeting house and school house is located. The rest of the people live on their respective farms which are irrigated from the Elk and Lovell Canal. This canal taps the Shoshone River about six miles above Penrose.

Penrose may be termed an outgrowth of the Byron Ward and came into existence as a branch in 1905, with Jeremiah Johnson as presiding Elder. He was succeeded in that capacity in 1907 by Peter Shirts, and in 1911 the Penrose Branch (thus named in honor of the late Charles W. Penrose) was organized as a ward, with Seth Alvin Johnson as Bishop. He was succeeded in that capacity in 1915 by James B. Wasden, who in 1928 was succeeded by Charles G. Anderson as presiding Elder. The Church membership of Penrose Ward Dec. 31, 1930, was 66, including 12 children.” (Note: That means Grandpa served as Bishop for 13 years.)

The following was written about Grandpa in the Latter-Day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia published in 1936. Check out how long Grandpa served as Bishop.

 “Wasden, James B., Bishop of the Penrose Ward, Big Horn Stake, Wyoming, from 1915 to 1928, was born July 16, 1870, in Scipio, Millard Co., Utah, the son of John B. Wasden and Anna Sophie Jensen. He was baptized by Isaac Pierce, moved to Big Horn, and filled a mission to the Southern States in 1898-1900, was ordained a High Priest July 30, 1910, by Jesse W. Crosby, jun., and a Bishop April 11, 1915.”