Notes on family history: Part 1

Dad became a Christian in 1946 or 1947. His first car was a Studebaker—about 1946. He worked for Henry Johnson. Dad bought his own land and Henry Johnson planted flax on it. It was a great crop and Dad bought a 1948 Chevrolet in 1948 or 1949. He also bought 680 acres [is this in addition?]. In 1947 he bought a horse (Spot). He also bought cattle. The next car he remembers was a new Ford in Florida. Then a couple of Ford Falcons. He had a Dodge Dart when we moved to Oklahoma. He traded it in on a Chevrolet because it was a lemon.

Dad and Mom were married in June of 1950 in a Bible Presbyterian Church in Minneapolis. Dad worked in George, IA, helping with the harvest. He got sick. While Dad was studying at Northwestern in Minneapolis, they lived at the Sweet’s house. But they moved because Mrs. Sweet didn’t want to have babies around, and Mom was expecting. They moved to share a house with Mrs. Johnson. Downstairs lived her daughter, Mrs. Pelfry. Sharon was born at this time. Dad graduated from Northwestern in 1952. In the summer of 1952 they went back to the farm. They intended to live there, but Dad wasn’t happy there. They returned to Minneapolis and lived at Mabel Miller’s house. Mom had worked for her when she first went to school. She lived on campus for a semester. Mabel’s mother had died, and Mabel was going away for a year. Gary was born during this time. Then they moved to an apartment above a grocery store. They lived in several grocery store situations. They were living above a store on Chicago Avenue when Northwestern closed its seminary. This was the summer or fall of 1956. Went to Covenant Seminary in St. Louis in 1956. So Dad had two years of seminary at Northwestern and one at Covenant. The day they got the news about the seminary closing was the day Sharon was going to kindergarten. Dad worked at Sears for five years, in Minneapolis, St. Louis, and Florida. In Minneapolis Mom worked at St. Barnabas Hospital. She also worked at an art instruction place—she typed for them. She also worked for Employers Overload—they temporarily employed people as secretaries.

When we moved to St. Louis, Gary was afraid in that house so we moved after a month. There were a lot of roaches, the neighbors were noisy, and there were a lot of street vendors. One would say, “Rags.” Another would say, “Woe-dee-melon.” We moved to Wellston. In Wellston, Luke and Arlene lived downstairs. Mom worked a couple of days at the Piggly Wiggly, but they wanted her to sell liquor, so she quit. In Florida Mom worked at Singer and giving out water bills.

In January of 1958, Dad went with Tom Cross (General Secretary of National Missions) to look at possibilities in Florida. We arrived in Florida in February of 1958.  We stayed with aunt Dot and uncle Dave a couple of weeks in Tampa. Walter had pulled all his eyelashes out. From there we moved into the “shack house” in Pinellas Park. Mr. Pratt was the man who collected the rent. He never wore a shirt. We lived in the shack house until November of 1959, when we moved to 9000 90th Street. We lived there until we moved to Oklahoma in January of 1971.

Bill Albany had been trying to get something going at D&D mission, but he had left to go with the McIntyre group. The Synod of the Bible Presbyterian Church was in Lakeland, FL, in June of 1958. About 25-30 of them went to the shack house for a cookout. A handful of retired missionaries and Bill Albany’s parents attended. Some of the first people to attend were the Pearls, the Ackers, and the Barbies. Dad went knocking on doors—thousands of houses—from February through the end of the summer. He went in the afternoon through the early evening and kept records of contacts. He started in Kenneth City and worked eastward from there. Kenneth City was new are fairly near D&D mission. Tom Cross had been there before, and had a contact who had expressed interest in donating property. But this never materialized. The Browns and the Myers came from this area, as did Ethel Butts (Badgley). Jay Adams was appointed the new General Secretary of National Missions when Tom Cross took a pastorate in Greenville, SC. He and Elmer Smick came down to visit about 1960 to look for property. At that time the attention shifted to the Skyview area. There were probably about 30-35 attending at that time. The Schrums, the Plumleys and the Scotts were attending from the Skyview area. Smick and Adams bought Dad a fishing pole and told him not to work so hard. They put a down payment on property where the church is now. Janice was about a year old (1961) when we moved the church to the Skyview community Center. That was the year we went to Ben Lippen. While we were away, they put shingles on the church. They money came from the members ad from Elizabeth Shoemaker. An Italian man—Vincent—said he’d give the first $100. Then they raised the whole thing for the extra land they had to buy.  To put up the building they sold bonds. This was about 1961. The new building was occupied at the end of 1961 or the beginning of 1962. There were about 50 people attending at that time. When we left in 1971 there were 75 members, with about 100 attending worship. The church grew by people inviting their friends. Dad visited every house in the Skyview development. He visited 2 or 3 streets a day. The Hales, the Whitrights and the Wises were some of the ones who came as a result. People liked the preaching, Dad and Mom became close friends with many and invited them to our home for fellowship. We moved to 9000 90th Street in November of 1958. Dad made payment with the profit-sharing plan at Sears. When we sold the house we invested the money (about 1000 dollars) and lost it.

For four or five years there wasn’t enough money to live on. We used to pick up pop bottles and turn them in for the refund. For a while we had beans three meals a day. Neither NPM nor the church gave us as much as they were supposed to. We lived on a little over 100 dollars a month. By the time Sharon went to college Dad was making about 6,000 dollars a year. Dad made more in Oklahoma, but not until they were living in Coulterville did Dad have a regular and respectable contribution to his retirement fund.

About 1965 Mom fainted in the choir. As it turns out, she had iron-poor blood. She was working, had four kids, was writing cantatas, and working in the church. What was Mom like? Here are some thoughts we had at the time I took these notes:

1.    Had a zest for life and lots of energy
2.    Would do anything for anyone
3.    Had a zeal for what she believed in
4.    She would visit with older couples, play her violin. She once washed the feet of a man whose feet were caked with stuff (Gary saw this).
5.    She loved to entertain.
6.    Never let a barrier stop her.
7.    Very committed and persuasive.
8.    She would read books to us at night.
9.    Godly woman
10.    Musical and creative

Things learned from ministering in Florida:

1.    That he didn’t want to plant a church again. It was good in many ways, but very demanding and in some ways not too rewarding. But there was the satisfaction of seeing people come to know the Lord and get involved in ministry.
2.    You have to be persistent.
3.    He made the mistake of trying to do too much by himself. Dad did everything. It was hard to get people to do things. Dad ended up doing everything himself for 13 years. Maybe that’s why the church didn’t continue well after we left.

Dad took the pastorate in OK because Kyle Thurman encouraged him to. Bob Rayburn told him not to go—that they would get “stabbed in the back.” We were there from January 1971 through June or July of 1977.  The condition of the church upon arrival was not great. It wasn’t divided, but it had not grown. Some didn’t think Dad was doing what he should—like not shaking someone’s hand or other petty things. Evidently some people were intimidated by Mom. Dad submitted his resignation and a small majority rejected it. Those who wanted him to leave had their names on the rolls, but never attended. The elders had given Dad a hard time about cleaning up the rolls. Oscar Robbins and Alex Woodworth wanted him to leave.

While they were on vacation with the Powers, the session had a meeting and decided to ask him to leave. This wasn’t legal in the RPCES. After the session meeting, Dad got threatening letters in the mail. There were about 70-80 people attending—about the same as when we arrived. The Presbytery suggested that he leave to avoid animosity. Dad thought he would never get another church, because the elders would give a bad report. Dad thinks the presbytery was wishy-washy.

Highlights of the time in Minco include, a good youth program, summer presbytery camp, the missions program picked up, and dad enjoyed it until people started trying to get him to leave. Mom liked parts of Minco, but not at first. Ruby Robbins welcomed them with “I hope you appreciate all we’ve done for you.” They tried to teach them how to shop and so how to live on less. This may have been the main motive of asking them to leave. They didn’t think Dad should be making so much. They were used to having pulpit supplies. Ministering in Minco taught him to work harder at being a people person.

The Synod was meeting at Covenant College and Dad met Gene Fullerton there. Within weeks after the session meeting at Minco they left. They were in Coulterville by July.