The Rise and Fall of the Independent Temple

Abstract

Gould returned to Las Vegas to resume his school. He tried to conceal the verdict from Methodist authorities there, but they found out and fired him. He started a church of his own where he could preach to his heart's content. He called it the Independent Temple and it met in the Las Vegas Opera House. For the first months of its operation it was a success, attracting crowds intrigued by his nonsectarian liberal philosophy. He divorced his wife and married Texie Head in May 1885. When his church venture had run its course, he got a job as a reporter for a Las Vegas newspaper, later becoming editor, and subsequently worked as editor for various newspapers in New Mexico until his death in Albuquerque in 1911. Frank Bristow taught music in the Covington, Kentucky, public schools, divorced his wife, married a rich widow, who divorced him. He died in 1914.