THE CAST OF CHARACTERS
Frank and Mollie Hurt

Frank Hurt, twenty-one in 1903, was a friendly, tall, handsome, fair-haired, blue-eyed young man. He, like many of the Holy Rollers, had belonged to the Methodist Church until joining the Salvation Army--it’s not known whether the Methodists begrudged the Salvation Army the members it wooed away. Frank was also a devoted follower of Creffield’s before that summer, and left not only the Salvation Army to go to Smith Island, but his job as well. “Our religion [Creffield’s religion] is to help one another,” he said as explanation. He, like others in his family, wanted to do good works, and he felt he would have more opportunities to do so by following Creffield than by toiling as a shipping clerk at Ainsworth Dock in Portland.

“Creffield, our leader, is an apostle,” Frank Hurt said in awe. “The same as those mentioned in the Bible.”

Frank was engaged to Mollie Sandell, one of the first of Creffield’s followers to leave the Salvation Army to join his church. Her family were well-to-do Methodists who owned considerable property in Seattle. Mollie, twenty-two in 1903, a slight woman with gray eyes and light-colored hair, had left the Methodist Church two years earlier to join the Salvation Army. She had recently reached the rank of Captain when she resigned her commission to follow Creffield.

Mollie’s twenty-six-year-old sister, Olive, another former Methodist turned Salvation Army soldier, also came to Smith Island.

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Frank Hurt's Commitment & Asylum Records

Maud Hurt's Commitment & Asylum Records

Photos on the right are stills from How the Fire Fell, Edward P. Davee’s movie based on the Holy Rollers.

Most were taken by Destiny Lane.
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The Cast of Characters

Photos & Bios

Edmund Creffield

The Hurts

Maud Hurt

Esther Mitchell

George Mitchell

Donna & Burgess Starr

Frank & Mollie Hurt

Attie Bray & Rose Seeley

Sophie, Cora & Lewis Hartley

The Police & Lawyers

Trailers for How The Fire Fell

Destiny Lane Photography

Edward P. Davee, Director of How the Fire Fell

Holy Roller Family Trees