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The 2x2s must have come to the Northwest part of Pennsylvania about 85 years ago.  Two sister workers, Nettie Miller and Inez London, were en route to Keating Summit, PA, by train.  Seeing two young women traveling alone, the conductor took an avuncular interest in them. Clearly they were not worldly-wise. He told them he was concerned about setting them down in Keating Summit, a pretty wild coal mining town. He urged them to get off at Wrights instead.  People were, well, more family-minded and clean-living there, and the women would be more likely to find suitable accommodations with some local family.

Nettie and Inez did as the conductor suggested, and later that day they found their way to the home of Delmer and Ocea Nelson, about half a mile up the Hamilton Road. It was a  hree-generation household, with Delmer and Ocea's son Milford and Milford's wife Pearl and their little girl, Olive, also living there. Ralph may have been born by then.

The young wife and mother, Pearl, saw the two workers as an answer to prayer. For months she had been trying to get a midweek Bible study going, and it had been rough going. It was winter and the church trustees didn't want to start the furnace and get the building heated an extra time between Sundays for a couple of hours of Bible discussion, no matter how many might show up.

Milford and Pearl attended the Methodist Church. Growing up, Pearl Robbins had attended the United Brethren Church, the only other church in Wrights. Now she was a faithful Methodist, along with her husband, who was a lay leader, a Sunday School officer and a trustee.  Quite likely the reason Nettie and Inez were directed to the home where they lived was because of Milford's church offices.

Pearl's idea about Bible studies did have some support. There was some talk about the United Brethren and Methodists hosting the midweek Bible studies alternately, but there was continued reluctance in both churches because of heating the church buildings for the extra time, even every other week. Some UBs seemed suspicious that some sheep stealing could occur. The two congregations were friendly enough, but there was some rivalry. Besides, already two Nelson brothers had married Robbins sisters and "converted" them to Methodist!

Pearl had come up with another variation on her midweek Bible study theme: Why not hold them in the homes of parishoners?  They could still be "inter-faith." The various families that wanted to host the meetings could take turns. It would not be so difficult to heat someone's parlor for the get-together. If too many people started attending, the study group could split. That proposal was under consideration when the two sister workers arrived.

When they began to talk about holding meetings in homes, Pearl was convinced this had to be God's way of endorsing her pet project. The workers asked permission to hold some gospel or salvation meetings in the Methodist Church. In those days, revivals were common, and were usually welcomed by the local church-goers. Such events often brought in new members. They were often quite entertaining, with lots of hell-fire and damnation preaching, and music, and dramatic altar calls and repentance scenes. Usually there were offerings received, and shared with the host church. It was uncommon for the revivalists to be women, but not all were ordained ministers, so Nettie and Inez were considered something like "domestic missionaries," not necessarily "women preachers," which would not have been acceptable to the conservative churchfolk in that time and place.

At first, the gospel meetings were well attended. But numbers dwindled when the visiting evangelists began holding forth on it being wrong to have church buildings and ordained ministers, to pay preachers or have stationed pastors, etc.  Delmer and Ocea Nelson, their son Guy, his wife Lulu, and their children, stopped attending. After a while, so did Milford.  He and Pearl had some hard words about it. But she continued to attend whenever the weather allowed her to go on her own, pregnant, walking the half mile or so, taking her children. Pregnancy was probably one reason she was not baptized when some other initial converts were, but about a year later. She may have attended when Joe Seyler was baptized, with his wife Ada, née Heath.

Milford was opposed to Pearl's professing, but she did. He was particularly upset by her wish to be baptized. There was such finality in that ceremonial renunciation of her earlier beliefs and practices. Milford said the burial language related to baptism was fitting, because it would kill their marriage, and harmony in their home. Already there was coldness between them. Not to mention the rift with his parents.

Delmer and Ocea were sick of having Nettie and Inez around. Pearl invited them to supper one day, and as she was out picking the stringbeans in the family garden, Ocea took the basin from her, declaring, "We are not giving  those women any more of our food or money. They are not welcome here."Pearl said it was her home too, and the women were her guests. That situation would soon change, said Ocea.

And it did. Guy and Lulu were living in a newer home on part of the Nelson farm, they having married more recently and not being able to fit into the homestead farmhouse. Now Milford and Pearl's household was transferred to that house and Guy and Lulu came to live with Delmer and Ocea.

On a Sunday morning the following summer, as Pearl waited to be picked up to be taken to her baptism, in the Portage Creek behind Joe Seyler's (where meetings were held), Milford gave in. "I will go along with it, if that will make you happy in our marriage," he told her. He attended her baptism. That night he went to the Methodist pastor and resigned from his church offices, turning in the books and records in his possession.

Over the years, three of Pearl and Milford's daughters went into the work. Olive spent more than 50 years in Argentina. Edith was in Pennsylvania and Florida before being sent to Brazil, where she died after suffering a stroke. Alice was in Pennsylvania for quite a while, later Michigan and New Hampshire. She has since returned to Pennsylvania, suffered more than one heart attack, has had some surgery and other treatment for this but has congestive heart failure. She will probably retire from the work too and live with Olive in an apartment on their married sister Leah's property. Leah is married to Lawrence Lewis, now elder in that meeting group. There are very few professing people in that area now. All of the original converts have died. Quite a few of the second generation have, but many others have left the sect.  Some third generation members are active and rearing children in the sect; but more are not, having never professed.

Another part of the aftermath of the first conversions and establishment of the cult in the area is the deep divisions that occurred in the families involved. The Nelson and Robbins families that did not "profess" became estranged from those that did. Milford Nelson's brothers Guy and Don and their sister Ione Caskey did not convert to the 2X2 sect. Pearl's sisters Lulu Nelson (married to Guy) and Anita Winterquist and her brothers Orlo and Alton Robbins also did not "profess." They probably would not have been hostile or even cold toward those who did profess, but the exclusivism of the 2X2 belief system not only causes its adherents to become aloof from others, it also offends others. It goes beyond "holier than thou" to "we are holy and you are not." Children are taught that cousins outside the sect are "unsaved" and those other churches are "wrong" and "against the Bible." All the people in them are "poor, lost, deceived sinners." The resulting resentments and feelings of rejection cut gaping holes in the family fabric. The writer grew up having very little contact with "unsaved" relatives, paternal and maternal.

Milford left the sect for a number of years, after Pennsylvania overseer Jim Beacom and others persecuted his daughter Alice, young in "the work," was excoriated for wearing gun metal stockings instead of black. There may have been other issues. After having some health problems he eventually did return and was "professing" at the time of his death.

The writer's father, Ralph, was "marked for the work" but married a "professing" woman instead. He had grave doubts about the beliefs and practices of the sect, but "kept a united front" in the home. When the younger daughter left home and the sect, he too discontinued his participation. Toward the end of a long struggle with cancer, he "re-professed" to ease the anguish of his beloved wife and his elderly, frail mother, constantly concerned that he was bound for hell and he would not "spend eternity with" them. He told the writer frankly that he did what he had to do to give them peace of mind, and also to "get them off my back" because of the constant pressure to "get right with the Lord before it is too late." He did not accept the core 2X2 beliefs as valid or their practices as "sensible."

Ralph's daughter Sylvia married a 2X2 man (having been all but betrothed to him by an understanding between the families when they were toddlers). They had three children. The eldest "professed" and married a "professing" man. They are rearing their children in the sect. Her sister and brother and their children are not very close to them because of the division created by
2X2 attitudes. The writer left the sect in her teens. Her children were exposed to the 2X2 beliefs and lifestyle when spending time with grandparents Ralph and Mary Nelson, but were not at all persuaded by it. They were not very close to their cousins, growing up, because the cousins were being reared in the sect, and the "disapproval" was always there, usually unspoken.

Milford's and Pearl's younger son George "professed" late, married a "professing" women. Two married "professing" men, and have been in and out of the sect. The youngest daughter married a man who "professed" late, apparently so that he could marry her. Their two children never "professed."

By:  Martha Nelson Knight, 1999
 
Olive Nelson, my aunt, now retired from the work and living near me, told me about how "The Lord's Way" came to this community when she was a child.

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Click Here to view photo of Pendleton, Indiana Convention (1913)

By the first convention in Indiana (Pendleton in 1910)  there were only a few friends.  A few churches were existing to feed the last convention there in 1913. 
 
In the east there were meetings at McCordsville and Pendlelton for the first convention from the time George Walker and Herbert Reid had the mission at McCordsville in late 1906 and early 1907.  The mission was tested in Feb. 1907 and the Helms, (George, Dora and George's mother) Mont Woods family and a few others began.  George had met the James Layman family at Brazil after the Toronto convention of 1906 and they had made a start.  The first saints in Indiana, George Burger, also made a start (Brazil) then.
 
In the 1909-09 year Tom Noble and Hugh Miller met the Will Koeniger family at Pendelton, where the convention was established.  Tom had helped George some at McCordsville earlier because Herbert had symptoms of TB and had to return to North Ireland (Londonderry).  In Ripley County Tom Noble had met Mae Galvin at Correct soon after the time he went to help George at McCordsville.  Afterwards, Sam Boyd was with him and he met Art Demoree's parents, and Belle Murphy at Benham. A meeting was placed at Belle's home.
 
In the 1909-10 year Minnie Wilson and Jenny Kelly were at Moorland and Sarah Rogers and Kate Armstrong not far away (20 mile) when the Newt Koons family, Kathrene Johnson's mother and a few others made a beginning.  This seems to have been most of the friends, though no doubt, there were others by the time of the first convention at Pendlelton 1910.
 
Efforts preceding all of this began in the 1905-06 year.  George Walker and Jim Jardine had worked through some of the north part with no evident results.  Jimmy Patrick and Willie Jones (two Scotch coal miners) tried the coal fields south of Terre Haute at Hymera and Dugger that spring and summer.  Belle Cooke and companion were around Brazil.  So it seems after the Toronto convention, it was George and Herbert and Maggie McKenzie and Charlotte Braden who returned to Indiana.   By the time of the last convention at Pendleton (1913) there were churches added at Uniondale, Jamestown, south of Vallonia in Washington County, Odon and Flatrock.
 
Of these the Jamestown group was likely first.  Sarah Rogers and Mary Spires were in that part in the 1910-11 year and met the Pete Hubble family, Joe Johns family, Frank Parman's and perhaps others.  The next year Sarah returned with Sarah Young and Sarah Dawson and the Hazelrigg's professed south of Jamestown at Hazelrigg.
 
At Uniondale, Alphie Magowan came and it seems he may have been alone.  Herman Foehl was there later with Alphie, as was Willie Wilson and Fred Croft.  This would have put the mission around 1911.  Frank and Kit Barrick, Florence Miller, the Shivelys and in all about twenty-five began.  It was in 1915 that Alec Anderson and Tom Webb were there, and Alec had his appendix taken out on the kitchen table at Frank and Kit's.  The neighbors came to help hold him down while the local doctor did the surgery.
 
The Flatrock mission was one Alphie was also in.  Willie Wilson was with him in the 1911-12 year.  The Martin Schultz family professed and the convention was on their farm from 1914-16.  They didn’t continue and moved to California.  Fred Croft began in the work in 1912 around this part with Alphie.

Both the Vallonia and Odon missions were worked in 1913 by Jessie Dawson and Kate Armstrong.  At Vallonia the Mike Holstine family, Ora Calloway and Harry Borden began.  The Holstine children were Burky, Lizzy, Mary and Winnie.  Thead McCleery's attended but didn't begin until 1920-21 when Hugh Miller was resting at Holstein's before leaving for Azizona and California.  Alphie Jewell was caring for him then.
 
At Odon, Pat and Alice Dial professed where the convention was held from 1923-32.  Also the Overtons and several others including John Canady who later farmed near Marco.  It was through him that Harley and Ruby Hollingsworth heard.  When John died, his wife buried him out of the Methodist church. When the pall bearers were bringing his body down the steps, John Freeman said, "If he were alive no six men in Odon could have carried him in."  Some began at Newberry--Amy Dial's in-laws, the Thomas's.  Hazel Overton went in the work in 1919.  Both Mary and Winnie Holstine went from Vallonia about 1917 and Harry Borden in 1919.
 
So by the 1913 convention, these groups plus those at McCordsville, Pendleton and Moorland were representing most of what had been accomplished in Indiana.  The first friends at Brazil had moved to Oregon not long after beginning and George Burger was left isolated until some began near Greencastle in 1918, and later in Terre Haute in 1935 when Fred Croft, Virgil Simpson and Edgar Rhoderick came and Albert and Amy Fields, Reuben and Jerry Norton, Fred and Tillie Wills, Delpha Kuhn and Lester and Bertha Fortner began.
 
For the years the convention was at Flatrock 1914-16, perhaps one well known mission was in the fall of 1913 when Mary Kelly and Mary Spires were in the Scottsburg Little York area.  They first found Earl Huckleberry at Little York, and in a later mission Harriet McGowan returned with Mary Kelly and that was the beginning for Mattie Lewis (Martha and Rowena's Mother) the Sweeny and Pixley families.  In the Scottsburg area, Grandma Sweeney was first, when Mary and Harriet came in the fall of 1914.  Her three daughters, Stella Pixley, Mattie Lewis and Bertie Beers soon followed.  That would have been the beginning that Stella's daughter, Cletus Jordon and the three Lewis girls--Martha, Mary and Rowena could trace back to.  Grandma Sweeny's son George professed twenty-six years later and that led to his daughter Martha Guthrie.  Stella was an aunt by marriage to Bodine Pixley, Olive Hazelwood, Mary Russell and Seldon Brown's wife Loreen.
 
Dave Lyness came to Indiana in the fall of 1913 from Illinois and he and Fred Croft were together in southern Indiana.  That was the beginning at Shelbyville in 1914 (Harry Goodwin helped in that mission).  Muriel Collin and four other ladies began.  Later they found Otis and Mona Crawford at Leesville (Wilma Jackson's parents).  Part of 1914 for them was spent helping Tom Webb care for Sam Charleton who had milk fever near Neoga, Illinois.
 
The 1913-14 year was also the beginning at Danville, Illinois when Bill Corbett and Harry Goodwin (from Connecticut) met a German family, the Mike Hollandburger's (Hazel Saathoff's parents) and Curt and Lou Campbell.
 
Dave Lyness came the next year with a man from Michigan who didn't stay long, Grover Multersbaugh.  Some in Danville were added in 1914.  Then Dave joined Tom Webb in 1915 around Delphi and Sarah Young and Isabel Norris came.  Curt Campbell professed in the sister's meetings.  The Campbell's lived by the Hollandburger's on the state line at Rileysburg.  Thus Danville became associated with Indiana.
 
That year (1914) at Danville, Dave and Grover met Mrs. Coors, Mrs. Johnson and John and Molly Clem where the meeting was established.  In that mission Ada Smith began (Ethel Holden's mother an aunt to Harry Smith at Terre Haute), also Dora Sexton who was from the Oakland City area and the Sven Ferns.
 
Later when Fred Croft came to Danville with Harry Borden in the summer of 1922, several of the Fern children professed, the Larson's, Swanson's (John Helms married Jeanette) and Anderson's (Leonard Milligan married Ethel).  At that time the two Christman families, Everett and Luna and George and Goldie professed.  Luna was a sister to Russell and Bob Kyger's father.  Mable Smith was a daughter to George and Goldie. Kermit Jumps mother was a sister to Everett and George.
 
1914 was also the beginning at Connersville.  Hannah Kelly and Viola Robertson met the Simpson's,  Virgil and Ceber's parents at Springersville; and at Alquina, Ida Mae Harvey's parents.
 
In 1915 Dave and Tom Webb found Turple and Liz Martin and Fred and Bessie Martin.  At that time they lived near Burrows, east of Delphi.
 
In the Spring of 1915 Lawrence Baker began in the work from the Neoga, Illinois area.  He began with Hugh Miller around Martinsville at the Cross school house near Mahalasville.  There they met two children, Forest and Mary Voyles (around 10 years old) who came to the meetings often against their parents wishes.  Forest went into the work in 1923 and Mary in 1924.  In that mission Mrs. Ferguson and her two daughters professed, (Rachael Bybee and Thelma).  The meeting was placed in Mrs. Ferguson's home.  John Lemon also professed then and joined Hugh Miller in the work in 1918.  Hugh and John were together when Arthur and Maude Hilligoss were baptized in 1919.  So by the time the last Flatrock convention came in 1916 friends had been added in most of Indiana except the northwest and southwest corners.  They were the two last places.
 
In the Northwest the beginning was at DeMotte among the Dutch.  A family had moved to Washington by the name of Ploegsma, professed and had the workers contact Abe DeCoker, south of DeMotte.  Sarah Young came first alone in 1918,and later that year Tillie Cunningham and Goldie Barton.  That was the beginning for the DeCoker's and DeFries'.
 
In the Southwest likely the beginning was at Augusta on Highway 64 when Tom Webb and Willie Webb came in 1918.  That was the beginning for Frank and Gertie Laswell, Tom and Teeny Humes and Alma Tooley, there were fifty that began in that mission.  Tom and Willie were also at Bloomington that year 1917-18 and met Pearl Fullford (Floyd's mother) and some others which was the beginning there.
 
That same year (1917-18) Lilly and Nellie Bateman were northwest of Greencastle a few mile and the Knauer and Eubank families began.  Perhaps there were others at that time.  Delta Alexander and her daughters Martha McCleery and Mary Mobley also Viola Fisher, Mary Arthur, Madonna Shockley and Louise Hicks could trace back to this mission.  Southern Indiana opened up very well in the years right after the first World War.  In just a few years over five hundred professed.
 
In 1918-19 Patience Bateman and Eliza Cox were just south of Pikeville at Cup Creek  where they met the Porter Collins family and thus the Belcher families can trace their beginnings to that mission.  Goldie Barton returned to that area with Patience the next year.
 
Fred Croft came back from the first World War in June of 1919 and went back to England for a home visit from November until March of 1920.  When he returned, Earl Huckleberry joined him around Bloomfield and that area had its beginning.  It was then they met the Ooley's and Mrs. Arthur.  Near Worthington they met the Stinogles and Daisy Stahl (Louise Quinn's mother) at Koleen they met Ms. Wright (Hazel Hudson's mother) and a little group professed.  The church was in Mrs. Wright's home on Kentucky Ridge.  The ladies at Clay City, Pauline Smith, Dorothy Holtsapple, Edith Stinogle and Stella Mitton (Edith's sister and Pauline and Dorothy's mother) who alter professed in 1947, trace back to the Worthington mission in which Edith professed.  Many with Bloomfield area connections likewise go back to the 1920 work in the Bloomfield area—Emma Watkins, Ott and Fern Watkins, Wayne, Roy and Harold Arthur, Ralph and Vada Ooley and others.
 
In the same year (1919-20) Alphie Jewell began in the work with Hugh Miller.  Alphie was from Davis Creek West Virginia.  They worked out from French Lick and met Harmon Kerby and Louise Love's mother and grandmother.  Mrs. Stout (Inez Crawley's grandmother) at Red Quarry and they professed.  They were also in Powell Valley where they met Inez Shipman and her parents, Elmer and Lucy Jones and others.  Later they tried to have a mission at Hardinsburg where there was interest.  Hugh was so sick with symptoms of TB that he could not continue.  He had measles in 1913 around Martinsville when he was with Willie Wilson and they broke out inwardly instead of outward.  He never could recover and tried to help out in Ohio for special meetings in the spring of 1920 and then rested at Arthur and Viola Cathcart’s in Connersville afterwards.  After the McCordsville convention in 1920 he rested more at Holstines in Washington County.  That was when Thead McCleery's professed.  Alphie Jewell was helping with his care.  At the first of the year (1921) it was arranged for him to go to Arizona for doctoring.  Later that spring he went on to the San Diego region where he passed away in April, 1923, at 35 years old.  Word came to the Indiana workers at the Danville special meeting.  He was the same age as Willie Wilson to the day.
 
Lizzie McGregor and Eliza Cox came to Indiana from Kentucky in September 1918.  Lizzie and Barbara Elliott met the Arthur Hilligoss family (1919) and the next year (1919-20) Eliza was with Barbara in the Hillsboro area and that was the beginning for the Jim and Sina Cooper family at Melott and the Parsley family at Rob Roy. John and Dessie Childers began in those missions also.
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After convention in 1920 John DeFries went back to the Bloomfield area with Fred Croft and they met Edna Gresham at Freelandville.  When John went home and Hugh went west, Fred took Alphie back to the French Lick area.  They used the Quackenbush School on Emmons Ridge in 1921, eleven began.  (Ab Quinn, Dick Jones, Sam Albright and Albert Freeman among them), although some had been to Powell Valley.
 
It was while Fred and Alphie were walking from Dick Jones (where they had placed a meeting) to Mrs. Kerby's for their mail that they encountered Ellis Moore who was married to Inez Shipman's sister, Naomi.  Ellis tried to club Fred, and when he warded off the blows, pulled a gun.  He then marched them for about a mile with the gun in Fred's back, toward Dick Jones's store, ordering them to close the meeting and leave the area.  Fred and Alphie went to Hardinsburg, twenty made a start.  Among those were the Holidays' and George and Georgia Mattax (Opal Robbins parents).
 
In the Spring of 1918 in Northern Indiana, Hugh Miller and Lawrence Baker met Claire Miller and her Mother at Georgetown.  They were added to the group at Turpie Martin's near Burrows.
 
In the 1921-22 year in Southern Indiana, Alphie Jewell and Elmer Tomey were out from New Albany along Highway 64.  They had several good missions and met the two Mills families near Marengo (Ercle Hilligoss's parents and Paul and Elmer's parents).  The next year Harry Borden returned with Alphie and several began at English and Tasswell.  A Sunday morning meeting was established at English where they had met Opal and Lottie Allen, Ebbey and Relly Brown, Clint Longests', the Sloan's, Wanda Lasch, the Austins and others (Louise Love professed there).  Opal went to Kentucky to begin in the work with (Ille  ??)  Keith in 1926.
 
In the 1922-23 year Virgil Simpson began in the work with Fred.  They had the mission at Antioch church, northeast of Hillsboro near the Linquist farm.  That was the beginning for John and Mae Lingquist and Ruby Croft.  Several professed in the mission.  Sam and Verna Lewsader first heard here.  Fred and Virgil, after the mission at Antioch, had Lizzie and Eliza come to the area after special meetings.  A few more began at this time including the Lewsaders'.  Fred came back to test their meeting.
 
In the fall of 1923  Willie Wilson returned to Indiana from New York and took Virgil to the south around Booneville.  There they met Alta Kyger's parents (Kellys') and Sam Crons' near Folsomville.  The meeting was placed at Crons' (Fern Martin and Helen Garrisons' parents).  That same year Fred had Alphie and Dave Hamilton with him at Shoals before taking Forrest Voyles to the Cambridge City area.  There they met Helen Green, her brother Lum and wife Lithe, Homer and Faye Kerns (Wilma Fisher and Mary Olson's parents) and Earl Troutman and his mother.  Ruby Quinn began here also. Harry Quinn began later that year (1924) at a tent in French Lick.  In the beginning of 1924 Homer and Mary Hohn (Mildred Lumley's parents) began at Bloomfield in Ezra McDaniel and Harry Borden's meetings.  The Bloomfield meeting was in their home for thirty-one years.  1923-24 was the beginning at Cambridge City-Dublin.  Clyde Oler's, Hardy and Eva Lawrence, Hazel Mashino's mother and two aunts, (Mrs. Coleman and the Elliot sisters) professed in Fred and Forrest meetings.  Later near Tel City (Bristow) Willie and Lloyd Watkins met Herb and Blanche Metz and Blanche's mother Mrs. Goble.  Convention began at the Kerns farm in 1933.
 
In eastern Indiana Tom Dearman and Earl Huckleberry were east of Connersville at College Corner in 1921-22.  Several began including Lloyd Watkins wife, (Mary Guiler) her mother and Martha Dane.
 
The Hillsboro convention began in 1926.  The Hillsboro and Melott churches were established.  Virgil and Bessie Garrett's family had been added at Melott, when Lizzie and Claire Miller were there in the fall of 1923.  A church had been formed at Hoopston, Illinois when Tom Dearman and Dave Hamilton were there.  A fourth church was at Danville and one at Williamsport.  These, coupled with existing meetings in the Jamestown area, Delphi and DeMotte made a sizable nucleus for the convention.

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After convention in Chicago, Illinois, Hugh Matthews and Ferring Hawkins came to Missouri and started the first mission in Missouri near Jameson.  A number came.  First to profess were Mr. and Mrs. Lloyd (& Polly) Smith.  Then Mr. and Mrs. Oral (& Zona) McNeil…also others.  When interest developed, George Walker came to help in the mission.  These professed in December.

George Walker felt Missouri would be a good field for sisters to work.  Leroy Shaw (Minn.) wanted to give her life in the work, so George had her meet Jean Weir in St. Louis, Missouri, in February.  They tried around Pattonsburg and later went to Jameson to help establish the church there.

Mr. and Mrs. Lloyd Smith had the first 2 conventions in Missouri on their farm near Jameson.  In 1918, a convention was held on the farm home of Mr. and Mrs. W. Oral McNeil near Jameson.

Mr. and Mrs. Lloyd Smith died in Oklahoma.  Their daughter, Mrs. Melita (Smith) Leeper lives in Enid, Oklahoma. 

Mr. and Mrs. W. Oral McNeil died in Missouri, buried near Galatin, Mo.

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Missouri - 1915:  After conventions in the fall of 1915, Harry Fleming and Arthur McCullagh came to Knox County in northeast Missouri to bring the gospel.  They had meetings in the Davis Church which was located about seven miles SE of Edina.  A few professed but failed to continue.  Henry Robertson and wife Hattie who lived NE of the Davis Church came to some of the meetings and invited Harry and Arthur to come home with them and have meetings in their community. 

They went to their home and started a mission in the Pleasant Ridge Baptist Church where one person professed.  Many came to the meetings and wanted to hear more so Harry and Arthur got the use of Antioch School.  They were then invited to continue the meetings in the Russell Parrish home.  Several people decided at this time and a church was established. 

It was not on record how Harry and Arthur arrived in the area, possibly by train or on foot. Due to very hard times and stiff opposition by many of the area church members, Harry and Arthur endured many hardships.  Those who professed were also rejected by family, friends and neighbors.  However, several endured and continued faithfully in the Truth. 

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Early Missouri Conventions 1912-1960

1912-1913 Lloyd Smith, Jameson, Missouri (See 1912 Photo in Photo Gallery)
1914-1917 Lewis Shannon, Sumner, Missouri
1918 Oral McNeal, Jameson, Missouri
1919 Henry Robertson, Knox City, Missouri
1919 Alfred Glenn, McGirk, Missouri
1920-1923 Robert F. Chaney, Gilman, Missouri
1920 J.A. Murray, Bolivar, Missouri
1924 Robert Wright, Indian Grove, Missouri
1925-1930 George Wahlbrink, Triplett, Missouri
1932-1933 George Wahlbrink, Triplett, Missouri
1931 John Murphy, Melbourne, Missouri
1931-1945 Mrs. Bertha Schupbach, Spokane, Missouri
1932 C.C. Eoff, Rutledge, Missouri
1934-1935 Miner Stevens, Lock Springs, Missouri
1936-1944 A.R. Widel, Blackwater, Missouri

1945 Gas Ration (5) One-Day Conventions:
George Wahlbrink, Keytesville, MO.
A.R. Widel, Blackwater, MO.
Hall, Kansas City, MO.
College Building, Springfield, MO.
Chester Eoff, Knox City, MO.

1946-1968 A.R. Widel, Blackwater, Missouri
1946-1960 Walter Schupbach, Clever, Missouri

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First Missions in Indian Hill, Wyoming

Beavers Heard the Truth, 1914  

In 1914, at Indian Hill, two workers, Ed Poole and George Kiemig, walked into the community spreading the gospel. Byron was away, and they asked Mable for a drink, which she got for them, and then fixed them a meal. They were inviting all the neighbors to their gospel meetings, which were held in the Black Hills School, 1-1/2 mile north of the Beaver place. The workers stayed one night with each family at that time.

After the Harrisons professed, the meeting was put in their home. They had the largest dugout, and Grandpa's (Buford's) seat was a trunk. Byron had bought a Dart car, and that is how they traveled to meeting. The Harrisons lived one mile north and four miles east of the Beavers.

Edith Middleswarth had a dugout which was 1/2 mile north, and 1/2 mile west of their mailbox. About 1/2 mile to the east was Warren and Edith's parents' place. When their Dad got killed by a horse, Warren came home to take over things. Eventually, he married Nellie and they had three sons, Ed. Charles, and Norman.

Charles Middleswarth also remembers going to the Dempse Harrison home for meeting, and one time when Byron Harrison was in the work in about 1925, Byron brought a little Austin car that belonged to the Beavers to their place and took him a ride in it. He also took Charles for a ride on a horse, letting Charles ride on the back of his saddle.

The Fleming family, Travis' mother and dad, moved into the dugout that Edith had when they left that country.

There was a preacher named Markley, who had services at Hillsdale, and came up Sunday afternoons and had services in the school house at Indian Hill. He would take up a collection.

Alfred and Sophronia Egyabroad lived in South Dakota and were seeing each other, and each met the workers separately. She was a school teacher and he was a harvester. They just could not wait to see each other again, to share notes, that he had met brother workers, and she met sister workers. After they professed and married, they moved to Indian Hill on a claim. which they had filed in Cheyenne, and that is where Convention was for several years.

When they first came to their home site they hauled gravel from 1/2 mile east of their location. Then, when they starred digging the foundations for their home, they found they were sitting right on a g ravel pit. Eventually tons and tons of gravel were hauled out of that location. The first year for Convention was 1918, then 1919, 1920, and in 1921 there was no Convention there.

The only piece of equipment left on that homestead was an old walking plow, which Dennis Egyabroad came out and several brother workers helped him lift it on his trailer. It is now at his home in his yard in Washington. Cannot remember what year that was that they came out and got that.

It was in 1921 at a Special Meeting in the Harrison home that Grandpa (Buford), sitting on a trunk, professed. He was VERY timid, and bigger boys made fun of him. He could not remember which workers were there at that time.

Now we understand that Byron Harrison went into the work. He was a twin to Bernice, and lived in Oklahoma. He had meeting in his home. His daughter Irene went in the work also .

In 1922 and 1923. Convention was held at Bogsty's, which was near Pine Bluffs, and then it came back to Indian Hill at Alfred's (Egyabroad) for years 1924, 1925 and 1926.

In 1927 and 1928. Convention was held at John Kennon's which is over by Antioch, Nebraska. After that, Convention started at Chugwater at Herman Hellbaum's place, where Rob lives now, for the years 1929 - 1932.

1933 was the first Convention where it is now, which was at Herman's again, until Earl and Florence married, and had Convention there until Lerwicks bought it in 1997. Convention is still here, w ith Glenn and his family owning it, and Henry and Rachel Borchardt on the place.

Buford lived there at that place until 1937, when he and Grandma (Alice) came east of Chugwater on Valentine's Day and looked at this place, which they subsequently obtained. They were married on July 1 of that year and have lived in this same house ever since. Meeting was put in this home in about 1955, and has been here since that time.

(This information was given to Noaleen Beaver on Febr. 1, 2003, by Buford while sitting at the breakfast table. All except the Convention dates. which the Beavers had written down for several years. The dates were confirmed with Sylvia Rhodes.)

Whether the Beavers moved to Indian Hill in 1914 or 1915 is unresolved.

See Photo of 1926 Indian Hill Wyoming convention in Photo Gallery

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Early Missions in New Mexico

Edwin Parker Hartman was born on January 10, 1896 in Nebraska. His parents were William Tecumseh and Ema F. Opel Hartman. Parker was the eldest of nine children, one of which only lived one day. Three of these children were in the work in later years: Parker, Tec and Charlotte.

The gospel came to the Hartmans through Anna Taylor and Martha Sprague. The Hartmans lived out on a farm about six miles north of Osceola, Nebraska at that time, and that was their home until the parents moved into town in their old age. Anna had been in the work about two years, Martha six weeks.

It happened to be a Monday, which was washday, and that was not an easy chore for a big family in those days. Mrs. Hartman was out hanging the last pieces on the clothes line when the girls came walking in and came up to her. They met, and she finished hanging the things up and then she started to the house. The girls followed her. Mr. Hartman didn’t believe in preachers and thought they were just out for the money they could get. There had never been a preacher in their house, so I guess it wasn’t that easy to invite them in. However, she did, and they helped her fix lunch and had the meal with the family. Then they helped with the dishes and left.

Later the girls started meetings and the Hartmans went. On the first night, the Hartmans asked the girls to go home with them, which was so important in those days. Otherwise they might spend the night in the school. So they got acquainted and the Hartmans continued to attend the meetings. One night, Mr. Hartman took up a collection, but of course, Anna refused it and asked him to give it back to those who had given it. This really impressed Mr. Hartman. He later made a start, but didn’t go on. It was in those meetings that Mrs. Hartman and Parker professed in the little schoolhouse two miles from their home. Parker was twelve years old. He went in the work in 1916.

Parker preached in Nebraska, Colorado, New Mexico and Texas. He came to New Mexico in October, 1922. Herman Shields was his first companion, and they started in Raton where Mr. & Mrs. Hills decided, also Mr. & Mrs. Tyndall. Mr. Tyndall didn’t continue in the Truth, and left her, but Irene was faithful to the end. The Hills told the boys of the Kiowa community, and that is where Mrs. Rice and the Tulls decided. Mrs. Rice professed in February of 1924. Mabel Foster of Gladstone came into the fold along in this period of time also.

There was a mission at Maxwell where Mr. & Mrs. Charley Ayers professed. Glen Billeter was his companion by then. In May of 1925, Parker and Glen and Herman had a short mission in the Ayers home at Maxwell where Leon Darras and Munn Van Skelan decided, both Roman Catholic Belgians. Both died in the Faith. I don’t know if this is when Mrs. McKinley professed or not.

Then the boys took a tent to Albuquerque. Mrs. Crain had heard the Truth in Montana, but moved to Albuquerque soon afterward, so the boys went down to help her. About this time the Nyborgs, their daughter Freda, Mrs. Kilgore and daughter decided. Mrs. Kilgore’s granddaughter is Judy Tinklepaugh, who is now in the work in Washington state, and has preached in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Mrs. Britten heard in the above mentioned mission too.

Those ladies told the boys about Barton community; in fact. they took them out there. Mrs. Meeks decided first, then Les and Rosetta Bassett. We think the Wards professed about then, too. Then they found the Prices and the Normans. Dan Heckman was one companion and Tommy Hill was another during that time.

To backtrack a bit, the first fruits of New Mexico was a Mr. Smith. He professed, but his wife was very bitter against it, and they soon moved to Oklahoma. However, he didn’t live long. I believe he died young of an appendicitis attack, but he was still professing.

Frances Middick is often thought to be the first in New Mexico, because she was there so much longer and better known. She professed through Clara Gerlach and Octavia Leighty. Mrs. Garcia was the next. She professed in meetings held by John Patterson and Herman Shields. Tom and Mollie Brown and Bessie Steele were next. (Bessie’s husband made a start but didn’t continue.)

Garcias lived in a sod shanty with a houseful of children, three or four of which they lost in an epidemic of diphtheria. They had an old car and when Mr. Garcia got into it or any other car, he would say, “Be careful with Garcia!” He was friendly to the workers but that’s all, and sure enough in later years, he lost his life in an automobile accident.

In those days, the workers would go into a community, get the use of a little schoolhouse, send out post cards written with a lead pencil, and get the meetings started.

Howard Waterfield was with Parker when they found the Yeates family. Mrs. Yeates, Clara, Ida Pearl and Lucille all decided (Lucille was 15 yrs old.)

After convention, the boys came back to Northwest New Mexico and met Mrs. Douglass at Grenville. It happens that Winnie Spath and he sister, Beulah Wright had come in to Grenville to make an open home and were school teachers there. Mrs. Douglass had come to know them for the older of her children had them as teachers. Mrs. Douglass had met Octavia Leighty and Clara Gerlach first, but I don’t know if she went to meetings then.

Now here comes Parker and Glen Hilleter and started meetings in the schoolhouse. Mrs. Douglass and her husband, Slim, went to some meetings, but he didn’t go much. Parker came to the house to visit one day, and as he was leaving, Mrs. Douglass said she thought that this was the right way. Slim said he didn’t know about that. Mrs. Carder was getting interested about this time too. There was a Special Meeting being held in a house. Mrs. Carder came to the meetings and her husband came and got her and made her go home. It was some time before she got back to meetings. Many years later her husband professed himself. These Carders would be Wretha Douglass’ parents.

Parker tells it this way: Mrs. Douglass was making jelly and standing at the stove stirring away, thinking about the meetings and concerned about getting right. Suddenly she just stopped what she was doing, got in the old flivver, and went into Grenville to Mrs. Spath’s. The boys were staying in a hotel room upstairs, and she told them of her decision. It was the beginning of days for her and her big bunch of children.

Carl Myers tells that it was May of 1929 that Parker turned down their lane. Lots of walking was done in those days, and it was not an odd sight to the resident either to see someone come walking along up to the house. Also making a start at that time were the Barkers and Walkers.

One of the last missions was at the little pink schoolhouse called to this day (and still pink) “Big Springs” school. It is out north of Clayton. James Walden was his companion, and during this mission, Aaron Price, Clark, Minnie, Edith and David Oldham professed. The other Oldhams had already professed through Robert Chambers.

In those early days the workers did lots of walking as already mentioned. On one occasion they were having to walk in the snow, and it was deep and became pretty hard walking. Parker attached his belt to his suitcase and was pulling it along behind him in the snow. They came to a house and went up to the door, doubtless hoping for a rest and perhaps a cup of something hot. The owner came to the door and must have thought that they had had car trouble or left their car in a snow bank. So he said, “Are you broke down?” To which Parker replied, “Not yet!”

Would you please excuse the errors and omissions of this account, for Parker was 90 years old when he sat down in my kitchen and would talk a bit, and then I would write down what he had said. Even I am aware at this later date that some are left out, but it was certainly not intentional. We do know that Mrs. MacBeath professed through Parker and Kenneth Boehning in Clayton in 1928. Then soon after Mrs. Evans at Texline came in.

Parker left the work and married Mrs. Douglass (Slim had been killed in a truck accident just south of Raton in February of 1935). Lorene was already gone from home, also Evelyn. Robert married Wretha Carder not long after Dad died.

Parker liked to say that for a man who had no children, he could say he had two and a half dozen girls and they each had a brother. Some people could count up different figures on that--most of them astounding. That was a true “Parkerism.” He was actually saying that he had two (2) plus a half dozen (6) girls, and they all had a brother--Robert. That’s a total of eight girls and one boy.

Although Parker was good to us, and it is true that he was sorely needed with a widow struggling to make ends meet, bringing up a bunch of children, yet I feel that his heart was never far from the work. He never missed an opportunity to talk to anyone who would listen about the Truth. His legacy to us is singleness of heart for the Truth and a beautiful spirit.

There were also several around Vernon and Wichita Falls, Texas. Perhaps the Lanes, Fields, Burch’s and Yates cover those. There were also some folks named Dorsey who came into the fold, but didn’t stick with it.

By Frances Douglass Smith

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