BRITTANY, LA. — Standing in his front yard in Brittany, La., Pat Richardson points to a clearing in the trees.

The spot and the LDS chapel that used to stand there have a special place in his heart as well as in the history of the Church in this southern Louisiana community.

Now second counselor in the Baton Rouge Stake presidency, President Richardson attended Church meetings in the one-room chapel until he was 13. He passed the sacrament there. He participated in Primary on the chapel's front steps and under the oak trees that still grace the site.

It was there on that site that he learned the gospel from pioneering Church members, including his grandmother, the first to join the Church in Brittany, and from his grandfather, who donated the land and the materials for the chapel.

Samuel and Mary Alice Acy Ferguson first learned of the gospel in late 1920 when they attended a scheduled debate between Newton Ficklin, an uneducated Church member of 20 years from the neighboring town of Gonzales, and a minister who was head of a theological seminary in New Orleans.

The debate was held at a school, just down the street from the Ferguson's home and was scheduled to last for two eight-hour days. However, on the second day of debate the challenging minister left for lunch and never returned.

"As my father was leaving the building," wrote Reno Ficklin in his biography about his father Newton Ficklin, "a rather tall distinguished looking gentleman approached him extending his hand. 'Ferguson is my name,' he said. 'I came to this debate . . . out of curiosity. Mr. Ficklin, you have converted my wife and I and we want to join the Mormon Church."

Sister Ferguson, and her eldest daughter, Cleo, were baptized January 1921 in a bayou near their home. Their 8-year-old daughter, Pansy — Pat Richardson's mother — had to wait several months for warmer weather.

Brother Ferguson joined his family in the waters of baptism the next year. Before the event, he went to Baton Rouge and purchased a new suit. He said his baptism was the most important day of his life, with the exception of his marriage date, and he wanted to dress for the occasion, President Richardson said.

Today, more than 200 of the Fergusons' direct descendants and their spouses are numbered among the worldwide membership of the Church.

"I don't think they had a big vision of what the Church was going to become here," said their grandson, Larry Richardson, bishop of the Gonzales Ward and former president of the Baton Rouge Louisiana Stake, and Pat Richardson's brother. "They just felt the Spirit. They knew it was true and that they were going to live it in their lives ."

Thinking of the number of missionaries and Southern Church leaders that are direct descendants of his grandparents, Bishop Richardson can't believe how many people are now members of the Church as a result of his grandparents' pioneering efforts.

They shared the gospel with extended family members and friends. They faithfully attended Church meetings. When they needed some place to meet, Brother Ferguson built the log meetinghouse.

Nancy Jane Ferguson Larsen, Samuel and Mary Alice Ferguson's youngest daughter, remembers early meetings in the chapel — attended mainly by two families and a few others. "We had no electricity," she said. "We had no piano and no organ. We still sang the hymns with emotion. We were very strong in the gospel."

With the help of stalwart members like the Fergusons and Newton Ficklin the Church moved forward.

Soon, two areas of strength developed within the small community — one in Brittany and one in Gonzales, where Brother Ficklin lived and preached the gospel.

Each had its own chapel. On Oct. 29, 1939, the Gonzales Branch was created. Members attended Sunday School in their own community; it was held weekly in both the Gonzales and the Brittany chapels. Sacrament meeting was held in one chapel and then the other on alternating weeks.

The seven-mile distance between the two chapels was challenging for members on both sides of the branch — since few owned automobiles.

Yet the branch continued to prosper. In 1954, when the distance between the chapels was no longer a challenge, use of the Brittany chapel was discontinued and all meetings were held in the Gonzales chapel.

A year later, in 1955, the New Orleans Stake was created.

Unity was further fostered as branch members participated in building fund-raisers, put on roadshows, and as the youth, in 1961, traveled to San Antonio, Texas, and then to Salt Lake City, to participate in the all-Church softball tournament.

"We didn't have any uniforms so my mother and her sisters (Mary Alice Ferguson's daughters) made uniforms," Bishop Richardson recalled. "They didn't have any patterns so they went to a local high school team and borrowed a uniform. They ripped it all out and made different patterns by adjusting the size. We had great uniforms in all sizes.

"It was a great event," he continued. "It made us realize we were part of the Church more than ever before. It was really kind of a turning point."

That year, Pat Richardson became the first full-time missionary from the branch to serve. Larry Richardson was called on a mission in 1966. By 1967, the branch, which had an average attendance of 50, was supporting five full-time missionaries.

Today there are 530 members of the Gonzales Ward, now part of the Baton Rouge Louisiana Stake. Members meet in a beautiful meetinghouse, located not far from the bayou where the Fergusons, their children and many of their grandchildren were baptized. In addition, the Baton Rouge Louisiana Temple is strengthening new and pioneer members in the area.

Several years ago, President Richardson made shadow boxes containing remembrances of the Brittany Chapel for the direct descendants of Samuel and Mary Alice Acy Ferguson. The herculean task took months, as he placed in the frame the minutes from the last meeting held in the Brittany chapel, pictures of both the inside and the outside of the building, a history of the Church in the area and a piece of wood from the chapel.

"This is kind of a legacy for us and our family and the Church," he said, standing less than 100 yards from the site of the old chapel. "I wanted to do something to preserve that. Their children, their grandchildren, their great-grandchildren, can look at that and say our family is part of the pioneer history of the Church here."

E-mail: sarah@desnews.com