I love this photograph. The lady on the left, Mrs. Prescilla Dean Fordham, was my great great great grandmother. I think of her sons as the good old boys. Seated beside her is her son Dennis, my great great grandfather. Of course, his three brothers seated to the right of him were my great great uncles.
What I enjoy about this picture is that it tells such a rich story of my own roots. The most fascinating tidbit I know about my great great grandfather Dennis Fordham is that he was present when Louisiana’s Methodists determined to create an orphanage which has since grown into Louisiana United Methodist Children and Family Services.
It happened on Saturday morning, December 20, 1902, in Alexandria, Louisiana, during the 57th Annual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
That morning, just after the Conference vote to pass a resolution to establish Louisiana Methodist Orphanage, my great great grandfather, Rev. Dennis Fordham, was accepted into the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, from the Methodist Protestant Church.
“Being duly recommended by the Arcadia District Conference, the order of Dennis Fordham, a local elder in the Methodist Protestant Church, were, on motion, recognized upon the usual Disciplinary conditions.” (page 34-35)
Conference Journal of the 57th session of the Louisiana Annual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, held in Alexandria, Louisiana, December 18th to 22nd, 1902.
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