Chapter 15
At the close of the General Assembly, which was October 2, I joined
Brother E. O.
Chalfant and we made a run from Kansas City to Stockton, Illinois. From
there to Martintown,
Wisconsin, then to Baraboo. From there we went across to Minneapolis
and joined Brother
Wordsworth over Saturday and Sunday; leaving Minneapolis we came back
to the beautiful little
town of Menomonie, and made a run ten miles into the country where we
have a nice country
church. Had a great service with our good pastor, Brother Waltz, then
back to Menomonie, got a
train and went about a hundred miles; got off the railroad early next
morning and went five miles in
the country to a beautiful Quaker church and had a beautiful morning
and afternoon service. That
night we ran twenty miles and took several auto loads to Beulah camp
grounds, where there is a
large Methodist church, and had a great service. During the day I put
the Herald of Holiness in
eighty homes. The offering came up beautifully. That night we drove
twenty-five miles to Richland
Center and spent a part of the night with some good Kentucky friends.
At break of day we boarded
the train and pulled to Madison, Wisconsin, and had a good morning
service and raised money to
help take care of the pastor of a new church that had just been
organized. That afternoon we ran
into Racine; there I was joined by the Aeolian Quartet and held a
week's convention for Oscar
Hudson.
At the close of this
convention we set in again and toured the most of Illinois, one night
at a
place. My, my, such trips as we had. We went to at least a dozen new
churches that had just been
organized since we left in May, giving each one a great boost. In some
of them we raised as much
as $1,000 to help put them across.
Coming back up to
Chicago I gave Brother C. H. Strong a two Sunday meeting in the Austin
church. This was a beautiful campaign. There is no finer man living to
work for than Brother
Strong. At the close of this convention I went over to Woodlawn church
and gave Brother Haynie
two Sundays. There on Monday, I was joined by good Brother Jarrette and
Sister Aycock and we
had one week together and they stayed for a week longer. Then I ran to
St. Louis and gave my old
friend, William E. Fisher, a beautiful campaign. Ran across and gave
Kansas City one night. From
there to Yuma, Colorado, and gave Brother Howard Eckel ten days. Ran
over to Denver and gave
Brother Crockett one night. From Denver to Colorado Springs and gave
Jim Black one night. From
there I ran to Canon City and was there from December 18 over the 23rd.
There I was joined by
the Aeolian Quartet, who had been touring Colorado. The quartet and
this old globe-trotter left
Canon City on December 24. We were now headed for Phoenix, Arizona. We
spent Christmas day
on the train going across Colorado and Arizona. We had one of the
greatest turkey dinners we ever
sat down to at the beautiful city called Las Vegas. There the train
stayed long enough to give the
passengers all the time they needed to eat turkey and cranberry sauce.
Then we boarded the train
westward bound, and about dark pulled into Albuquerque, New Mexico.
There the quartet stopped to
give Brother Lee Gaines a two days' convention but I went on
to Phoenix. I arrived there late in the night and was met by E. G.
Roberts and wife and Brother
Marvin and Sister Lillie Young. They lodged me in a good hotel and my,
my, what a rest I had
there for two days. The Quartet came on and joined us on Saturday and
we ran over the last Sunday
of December, which was the opening of the great campaign. Dr. R. T.
Williams came on and
joined us on Wednesday following. We ran there then over the third
Sunday of January. Here we
had between three and four hundred people at the altar.
When we closed there we made
a run for Los Angeles. However, I stopped off two nights
in Somerton where Brother E. Arthur Lewis was holding a great campaign.
In his letter he tells me
how many were saved each night and he said he wrote down the last night
the word "Glory" after
the altar service.
The last Sunday of
January we opened in the First church in Los Angeles of which Dr. C.
H. Babcock was pastor. Professor John E. Moore led the choir and the
Aeolian Quartet sang every
day. Dr. Williams and I ran over three Sundays there. We literally had
hundreds of people at the
altar. In these two campaigns we had 865 at the altar and we took more
than one hundred people
into the church out of the two conventions.
At the close of this
convention I worked my way up the coast, stopping at a dozen towns for
one or two days at a place. I gave Brother John B. Creighton a ten
days' meeting at Selah,
Washington, a few miles from Yakima. Also Brother Hepburn in Yakima two
days at the close of
our regular meetings. From there I made a run to Billings, Montana, and
was there with Brother
Kring and Brother Bennett, our District Superintendent, two days and
nights.
From there I ran to Casper,
Wyoming. I gave Brother Dunn three days, Friday, Saturday
and Sunday, which, if my memory serves me correctly, we closed on the
second Sunday of May.
We ran all day on Sunday. I preached five times; Sunday school at nine,
to the church at eleven, to
the church at 2:30 and the young people at six and the church again at
7:30. That day we had
nineteen saved and sanctified. I left there with Brother Dunn and his
wife and their delegate to the
District Assembly in Colorado Springs which was to meet after the
second Sunday. We pulled out
of Casper a little after midnight for Denver. At four o'clock Monday
evening we were pulling into
Denver and got supper. Brother and Sister Dunn and their delegate ran
out to his brother's but I left
that night on a through train for St. Louis, headed for Indianapolis.
There I joined Brother and
Sister Lillenas and we had a week's convention. Brother
Kenneth Wells led the singing. Brother Short was boss and general
manager. At the close of this
convention we put in the last week of May touring the state of Indiana,
one night at a place. By June
1 I reached Cincinnati for the great campmeeting. Here were such
preachers as Joseph Smith, C.
W. Ruth, John and Bona Fleming, George Culp, John Knapp, M. G.
Standley, Lew Standley and
Brother Charles Slater. I suppose we had three hundred preachers on the
ground and people saved
day and night for ten days. The Cincinnati Camp is one of the greatest
places in the world, to my
mind.
At the close of
the camp I ran down into Indiana and gave Brother Short's district one
more
full week. We made one town each night in the
week and three towns on Sunday morning,
afternoon and night. I ran back to Cincinnati. There I got
a through train on Monday after the third
Sunday of June and made a run from Cincinnati
for Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
I preached one week in the
First Church of the Nazarene. I gave two days and nights in
Princeton and gave Brother Roby a week at Miami, but the weather was so
warm down there that I
almost lost my voice and couldn't do much. I made a run from Miami,
Florida, to Lake Charles,
Louisiana. There I joined our good pastor, Dr. McGraw. We had a great
convention. From there I
ran to Houston and gave one night in the Raymond Richie tabernacle.
There were people by the
multiplied hundreds. From there I joined Brother Fisher in Waco, Texas,
with a great convention.
Brother and Sister P. H. Lunn came down from Kansas City and Professor
London was there. This
was a very remarkable time.
I ran into Dallas for a
night and went out and preached at Cedar Hill. From there I made a
run to Columbus, Ohio, then to Eaton Rapids, to Romeo, and from there
to Gaines, then to Grand
Rapids and took in the District Assembly. From Grand Rapids to
Clarkesburg, Ontario, Canada.
There I was joined by Professor Kenneth Wells. We held a big
campmeeting there in September
for good Brother Goff, who was the founder of a holiness church in that
part of Canada. We had a
beautiful meeting, and went from there back to Detroit and went out to
the lake with the Vallayde
brothers on a two days' fishing trip. This was the best time of my
life. There is no finer band of
brothers to go out with than the Vallayde brothers. On the trip I
preached one night at Kingsville,
Ontario, Canada, in the Canadian Methodist Episcopal church, which is
the church home of Jack
Miner, a man of nation-wide fame for what he has done with birds.
When my visit was over
I made a run to Rochester, Michigan. There I went out to see the
silver fox farm, where they had over seven hundred in one great farm.
Ran from there to Pontiac
for a couple of nights. From there I made a trip through Ohio, giving
three or four short
conventions, giving one week in Uhrichsville. Here we had a great
campaign. From there I ran to
Long island, to the New Rockaway church where Brother Paul Hill was
pastor. There I joined
Professor L. C. Messer and wife and we had a wonderful convention,
running over two Sundays.
Then we went to our school at Wollaston, Massachusetts, stopping one
night in New Haven,
Connecticut, and had a service with Brother L. B. Byron, one of the
fine young men of the
Nazarene movement. The next day we drove in to the Nazarene College. We
gave the school the
28th, 29th and 30th of October and had a beautiful convention.
Then I made a run back to
Brooklyn and joined Brother Morrison, Brother Zahniser,
Brother Yates and Brother Hogue. Brother and Sister Cook presided over
the Holiness
Association convention. At the close of this convention I went over and
held a convention for
Brother Brown, in the old Utica Avenue church. Brother Frank Smith of
Portland, Maine, led the
singing. From Brooklyn I ran down to Pittsburgh and had two nights with
Brother Brown. I ran
back up the river to a little town and joined Brother Strickland for
one night. This was a beautiful
service. He put me on the interurban at eleven o'clock and just before
midnight we pulled into the
union station at Pittsburgh and on Thanksgiving morning I pulled into
Chicago and was met by
Brother Chalfant and Brother Will McPherson and another fine old
Nazarene boy. We had ten days
on the north side in the Church of the Nazarene. The Lord gave us a
wonderful convention. Our
Thanksgiving day and dinner were something never to be forgotten.
Leaving Chicago for Kansas City I
stopped off for a night in First church; running through
and giving a day and night in Emporia, Kansas. From
there I made a run to Amarillo, Texas. I had a
week's convention there with Brother Dunn for whom I
had held the convention in May in Casper,
Wyoming. We had a great convention in Amarillo.
Leaving there I made a run for home and
stayed
at home until after Christmas.
Then about the last of
December I started south, reaching San Antonio and gave Brother
Sharpe the last two days of December and the first few days of January,
1925. I ran from there
down to Houston and joined Brother and Sister Sutton and we had a great
convention for J. E.
Moore, running over three Sundays. At the close of this convention I
ran down to Port Arthur, and
gave our good pastor, Brother Hampton, a two days' convention. Ran
across from there to Lufkin,
Texas, for two days with Brother Harmon; then ran over to Nacogdoches
and gave Brother Smith
one day. From there on up to Dallas and joined Brother Pierce, closing
with him on the first day of
February.
From Dallas I turned south
and made a run to Gulfport, Mississippi. Stopped off with an
old friend for three days and preached a half dozen times. My next stop
was in Fort Lauderdale,
Florida. I spent the last three weeks of February in the home of
Brother and Sister Frank Davis in
Fort Lauderdale. By the time I reached there I was nearly broken down.
I had three weeks' rest, yet
while I was there I preached twice in the First church at Lauderdale
and twice down at Princeton. I
gave Brother Howard Eckel in Miami one Sunday and Brother Roby on the
north side one night.
These three weeks spent with Brother and Sister Davis, looking at that
great country, eating
oranges and grapefruit, were three weeks that I will never forget in my
life.
Leaving there on March 2, my
next stop was Little Rock, Arkansas. There I joined Rev.
John Oliver, C. C. Rinebarger and good Sister Oliver. We worked
Arkansas as it had never been
worked before. We opened on March 4 and closed April 7. We made thirty
towns in Arkansas and
put the Herald of Holiness in three hundred and eighty homes. This was
one of the greatest boosts
that Arkansas had ever had. I wrote nine letters on Arkansas as the
wonder state and not one
unkind word or ugly criticism did I give Arkansas. One of the leading
men in the state a year later
said publicly that Arkansas ought to put me on a pension, for the
Herald of Holiness is read around
the world.
After making these thirty
towns and putting Arkansas on the map for God and holiness as it
had not been before I made a run to Washington, D. C. There Brother
Marvin Cooper was pastor,
the same dear old Marvin I had worked with in Detroit, and he had
called Miss Essie Morris to
lead the singing in this convention. We filled the church and ran it
over, which some of them said
would never be done, but it was done.
From Washington I came back to
Alliance, Ohio, and gave Brother Johnson a ten days'
meeting and this was a beautiful convention. From Alliance I ran across
to Detroit, Michigan,
again and joined Brother Willingham and had a three days' convention in
First church, of which
Dr. Howard Jerrett is now pastor.
On the first Sunday of May
we ran over into Canada and had one great service in our
church in the little city of Windsor, Ontario, Canada. From there
Brother Willingham and I started
west. We were now on a campaign to work for Olivet College. We stopped
off for two nights in
Hammond, Indiana, with Brother and Sister Turner, then made a jump to
the state of Iowa, opening
up in Cedar Rapids. We made twenty towns in the state, and put our
school before the people and
they stood by us in a most beautiful way. We came back from Iowa to the
Olivet Camp. This was a
very great campmeeting.
From Olivet Camp I made my
way across by Cincinnati and was only there one night in
1925. Leaving Cincinnati after the night service I stopped for three
days with Brother Strickland in
Youngstown, Ohio. From there I ran down to Akron and gave Brother H. B.
Macrory a four days'
convention, closing on the first Sunday of June. From there I ran down
to St. Mary's, Ohio, and
gave J. C. Walker an eight days' convention. This was a very great
convention. We had a big tent
and then we had to sort of line up the people and preach to them by the
acre. He is one great old
boy.
From there I started
east and stopped off one night in Baltimore where I found E. Arthur
Lewis in a great campaign. From Baltimore I made a jump across by New
York City and ran away
up to Wolcott, Vermont. There our good Brother Manchester was in
charge. We had a wonderful
convention there. I made a jump from there to Manchester, New
Hampshire, with Brother Mann.
There I was joined by L. C. Messer and wife and his sister, Eva. We had
a beautiful convention.
We went from there to North Reading, Massachusetts, to the great New
England District
Campmeeting. My yokefellow was Brother B. F. Neely, who was at one time
my pastor. The
singing was in charge of Brother and Sister Lowman. This was a very
great campmeeting. From
there I ran across to the campmeeting at Beacon, New York. This also
was a great camp, run by the
New York District. My yokefellow there was Brother Lewis Reed, pastor
now of First church, at
Long Beach, California. We had a most beautiful campmeeting. It seems a
little strange that the
campmeeting committee would call two men from southern California, to
the state of New York
for a campmeeting. Our fellowship was sweet. We had many preachers in
the camp. Brother C. B.
Jernigan was District Superintendent of the New York District and was a
great booster in this
camp. Brother Howard Miller was District Superintendent of the New
England District and he
also was a booster for North Reading Camp. No finer men on earth than
our good District
Superintendents.
Leaving New York I ran down
to Washington, D. C., and gave Marvin Cooper an all-day
meeting. From Washington I joined Miss Hattie Goodrich and went down
the old Potomac river to
one of the old forts on the Maryland side and had a two days'
convention. Coming back to
Washington, I made a run to Sale City, Georgia, and joined W. W.
McCord; this made the fourth
time I had been with him at Sale City. He was one of the most untiring
workers I have ever seen I
closed there on the last Sunday of July; leaving Monday morning.
I reached Asheville, North
Carolina, Tuesday at noon. There I joined E. W. Black in the
Wesleyan Methodist church and gave him four days, closing on Friday
night. My home was with
Brother Lidy Crooks. There are no finer boys than the Wesleyan
Methodist boys. From there I
made a trip on Saturday down the mountain with a good brother in an
automobile to a beautiful
camp known as Camp Free at Connellys Springs, North Carolina. This was
organized by Rev. Jim
Green, one of the finest old boys of North Carolina. This was a very
great camp. Brother John Paul
of Taylor University was my yokefellow but he didn't get in for a few
days after the meeting started
and Brother Raymond Browning did a lot of preaching. He is one of the
great preachers of the
Southland.
At the close of this camp I
went to Hendersonville and spent three days with Raymond
Browning giving the story of my life in one of the large Baptist
churches and Brother Raymond put
me in his big car and drove me nearly three hundred miles over the
beautiful mountains of North
Carolina, to a campmeeting near the Tennessee line at Fig, North
Carolina. Brother Raymond
stayed with me over one Sunday. Here we had a beautiful camp. I stayed
in the home of a good
brother named Maxwell. From Fig a good brother took me across the
country to Greensboro and
we had a four days' convention. Then a good brother took me to Greer,
South Carolina, and I held
a camp for the Southern Methodist church there. This was the greatest
campmeeting I have had for
years; we had over five hundred people at the altar.
Then we made a run back
north and stopped at Concord and took dinner with Brother and
Sister Broom and preached at two o'clock; then made a fast drive into
Thomasville and preached
at night in the high school auditorium to one thousand people and
stayed in the home of Brother
Mason. Next day we went over to High Point and preached there afternoon
and night in the Pilgrim
Holiness church of which Brother Ruth was pastor. Leaving there at
midnight over the north bound
Southern train I pulled into Washington, D. C., the next day for
breakfast and Marvin Cooper and
the boys met me at the depot and we had a few hours together. My next
stop was at Cambridge,
Maryland. Here Brother Bean is pastor of the Pilgrim Holiness church.
This was a most wonderful
convention.
I made a run now from
Cambridge, Maryland, to Pasadena, California, reaching home on
the 26th of September. Brother Charles Slater and I had a big day in
the First Church of the
Nazarene. Brother Slater raised a thousand dollars for missions. Monday
the 28th, Rev. Charles
Slater, Brother Clark Frazier, George C. Wise and this old soldier made
a run up over the
mountains into the great San Jacinto valley and spent the night with
Brother Frank Cooper on his
great ranch. Tuesday the 29th, he put us in his big car and drove us to
the giant forest. My, this was
a trip. The largest known tree in the world is in this forest, the
General Sherman. This tree is 36
feet and 6 inches through, 280 feet high and supposed to be not less
than five thousand years old.
This was one great day among those great trees. There is one rock that
stands up over three
thousand feet high. We made our way back into the valley that night and
spent the night again with
Brother Cooper and next evening drove home.
On the first Sunday of
October, Dr. C. E. Hardy of Nashville, Tennessee, and I opened a
convention at First Church of the Nazarene, Los Angeles, where Brother
John Little was pastor.
We had a great convention. At the close of this convention I made a
jump to Spokane, Washington,
and joined Kenneth Wells and wife and had a convention with Brother
Henry Wallin in First
church. There were such crowds that had to be turned away that Brother
Wallin and the board
planned to enlarge the church. They went to work and within six months
they had a church that
would seat 600 people. He is a miracle worker.
Running from Spokane to Portland,
Oregon, there we joined Brother O. B. Ong and Ong
and Robinson and the Wells had a two weeks' meeting with First Church
of the Nazarene of which
Rev. Donnell J. Smith is pastor. This was a very remarkable meeting in
every way. In this
campaign they also made plans to build a large, new church and already
the first installment of it
has been dedicated.
From there we ran up to
Centralia, Washington, and joined Brother Ralph Gray. We had a
great week with Brother Gray. From Centralia we came back to southern
California, Robinson and
the Wells holding conventions in Anaheim, Long Beach, two in Los
Angeles, one or two down in
the valley, one full day in First church in Pasadena' one great day
with Paul Goodwin in Lamanda
Park, and then stopped for Christmas. This takes us up to Christmas,
1925.
December 28 I left
home for the greatest trip I have ever made in my life. I stopped for
ten
days in McAllen, Texas, with Brother Clyde T. Dilley, preaching in the
Southern Methodist
church. Their good pastor was a brother beloved of the Lord. Leaving
there Monday morning I had
a run along the coast from McAllen through the beautiful orchards and
gardens until we struck the
beach. Then we had a full day right along the shores of the Gulf of
Mexico. This was a delightful
trip. I pulled into Houston at seven o'clock and was met by J. E. Moore
who ran me across to the
Nazarene church and had a wonderful service, then he ran me back to the
depot.
At nine o'clock I got my
sleeper and next morning I ate my breakfast in New Orleans. At
twelve o'clock, January 12, I pulled into McComb, Mississippi, and was
joined by R. H. M.
Watson, our good District Superintendent. We had a beautiful convention
in McComb, and from
January 12 to 31 we made fifteen towns in Mississippi, many of the most
beautiful towns of the
state. We had two days in Jackson, two days in Hattiesburg and two days
in Meridian, and we
gave the other towns from one to three days. We were in Columbus three
days, preaching on
Sunday morning, January 31, then made a run after dinner to Tupelo and
preached in the theatre in
the afternoon and preached in the evening in the First Methodist,
South, church where Dr. Lewis
was pastor. This finished up our conventions.
Then to Georgia for
February. Rev. A. B. Anderson, District Superintendent, and I toured
the state. We made twenty-six towns in the month of February, preaching
in ten of the largest
Methodist churches in the state.
From there I
made a run to Alabama. There I joined Brother H. H.
Hooker, District
Superintendent, and wife, Miss Essie Morris, song leader,
and Miss Linis Jackson, pianist. We
made twenty-seven towns in Alabama. This was a
great campaign. We preached to people by the
thousands. In Georgia and Alabama we put the Herald of
Holiness in 600 homes.
Then I made a run to
Kentucky There I joined Brother J. W. Montgomery, District
Superintendent of the Kentucky District. We made altogether twenty
seven churches in a month,
preached to people by the thousands, raised three thousand dollars for
home missionaries to buy
tents with. This was a great campaign.
From there I made a jump to
Arkansas again, opening at Batesville the first day of May.
There I joined Brother Oliver, Brother Rinebarger, Sister Oliver and
daughter Loraine and Paul
Hill and wife; two carloads of us. Brother Rinebarger led the singing,
Loraine Oliver played the
piano, Sister Oliver with the Woman's Missionary Society and Brother
Oliver raised money and
Bud Robinson did most of the preaching. During this time we made
thirty-three cities. This makes
the second time I have toured Arkansas. I ran from there to Olivet Camp
for the last week of May
and then to Cincinnati for the first week of June. I came from there to
Pasadena, reaching home on
June 10 and had four days in the District Assembly.
Chapter 16