Reclaimed Memories

arrisburg, Ohio, is situated on the 'Three C" highway linking Cleveland in the extreme north, Columbus, almost mid-center of the state and Cincinnati, to the southwest, near the Kentucky border. Harrisburg is a small, very pleasant town, fifteen miles slightly southwest of Columbus. One of the churches was located here. The other one was at Pleasant Corners, which was around five miles nearer Columbus, on the same highway. It was a settlement of houses surrounded by farm lands. There was a nice post office at Harrisburg, but Pleasant Corners was on a rural route, probably from Grove City, where the high school was located. This entire area was beautiful farming country, with fairly good roads running in every direction.

Otterbein College was a United Brethren supported college, located in Westerville, Ohio, 15 miles slightly northeast of Columbus, so Troy had to travel thirty miles, each way, three days a week in order to get classes. Marion traveled about twenty miles by school bus each day. Troy was fortunate in being able to schedule his classes on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. This cut down on time and travel expense, giving him an opportunity to study and take care of his parish duties.

The elementary school in Harrisburg was almost across the street from the parsonage. It was a nice brick building, with separate rooms for each grade. As I stated before, Howard did not go to school at the age of six, because of health problems. I taught him at home and he was entered in the second grade at Pricetown. When I took him for entrance in Harrisburg, the second grade teacher insisted that he be put in the first grade, since he had not been in that grade in public school. Without giving him any tests she was sure he would be back on some of the skills he needed for that grade. After about a week of testing the first grade teacher sent him on to the second grade.

The parsonage at Harrisburg was very similar to the one on the Union Circuit. It was a large white, frame house, with three nice bedrooms upstairs, along with a hall. There was a rather large reception room and our piano was housed here. The rest of the downstairs consisted of the living room, dining room and kitchen, all of fair size. A kitchen door led down to a full sized basement, with a dirt floor. This floor was later concreted by Troy and the young men of the two churches.

Picture above taken by Howard Brady

After working on each section of the basement floor they would all go swimming in Little Darby Creek. Howard remembers that the car would be full of young people, with some hanging on the outside. Here is where Troy did the baptizing of those who wanted to be immersed. Howard says he almost froze to death when his dad baptized him here.

I'm sure Troy and Marion has another memory of Little Darby Creek. It was a beautiful, warm fall day and they had dug the potatoes. They were hot and tired and one of them suggested that they go swimming. I do not remember who dived in first, but whoever did just stayed in long enough to be sure the other got the same icy dip he had received. Then they both climbed out, no longer hot, but still tired.

There was a large front porch, but no back porch. Two or three steps led down to the lawn and out some distance to the outdoor toilet.

A beautiful, large Bartlett pear tree gave good shade in the back yard and luscious fruit in the fall. We shared its fruit with neighbors and parishioners and canned dozens of quarts for our own use, along with many pints of good pear butter. I was so angry, when we visited a couple of years after moving away to find that the pastor who followed us had cut it down. They did not care for the fruit and the school children annoyed them by coming over to get it. The Parsonage Trustees should never have allowed that valuable tree to be cut down. The next family to live there may have loved it, as we did, if it had been spared.

While we were living in Harrisburg someone told Troy about a man who was dying, in a home on the highway between there and Pleasant Corners. The house, or rather a shack, was three or four miles north of the parsonage. Troy went immediately to talk and have prayer with the man. When he came back he reported that he had never seen anything as bad, in the eight years he had spent as a pastor in the hills of West Virginia. The man was lying on a filthy bed in the front room of the small house. There were no screens on the doors and windows and the chickens were wandering in and out. Two hens were perched on the headboard of the bed. There were vermin crawling on the walls and floor. Troy did not sit down, but talked to the old man about the condition of his soul. He was not sure the he could hear or understand. He read some encouraging scripture, had prayer and left, hoping that he had done all that could be done under the circumstances.

Howard remembers vividly the map Troy put up on the wall, after the invasion of Europe in World War II. As we followed the news of the war Troy marked off the lines of the allied advance in color. That made quite an impression on Howard's young mind. Of course the war remained uppermost in our minds, not only for our country, but for the fear that Marion might be involved.

Marion graduated from Grove City High School in 1943 and almost immediately went to work for Columbus and Southern Ohio Electric Company. The plant where he worked was in Piqua, Ohio. He rode the bus to Columbus, where he was picked up by other workers at that plant. He worked there until fall, when he joined his dad at Otterbein College.

Marion secured part time work at a filling station in Westerville and boarded with friends there, after a period of time of riding the bus with his dad. Older people will remember the period during the war, when gasoline was rationed. Everyone tried to save their precious gasoline stamps for emergencies, and rode the buses whenever possible. The couple with whom Marion boarded, Earl and Vesta Bender, were good friends of both Marion and Troy. I believe Vesta was teaching, while her husband was getting his college education. He, like Troy was older than the average college student and both were serving small churches. The couple were very fond of Marion and Earl said to him one day, "Marion, if I ever have a son, I could wish for nothing better than that he would be a young man just like you." Of course, that made us very happy, as parents.

The year that Troy and Marion were in Otterbein together, we had lots of company on weekends. Helen Teter, who was from the church Troy served in Freemansburg, was also a student there. The months that Marion had spent in Akron before enlisting in the Navy he had palled around with Rollie Reese, son of the pastor of Park church where Marion attended. Rollie was also a student at Otterbein. Marion, Rollie and Helen were the most frequent visitors, but their friends also came. These young people were all Christian, and they liked to attend our church, especially during the time of revival. One weekend during this period, we had them sleeping in sleeping bags all over the house. The boys were downstairs and the girls were upstairs. I do not remember the exact number, but it was in the 'teens. I know that we had the most guests that weekend that we had ever had, even during family reunions.

Marion was seventeen just about the time he finished his first year of college. He decided that he would like to have more work experience before finishing his education. He went to Akron and boarded with Blossom and Ted and worked for the B. F. Goodrich Company. When he neared the age of eighteen he enlisted in the navy, rather than waiting to be drafted for the army.

Prior to Marion's enlistment in the navy, he had taken flying lessons and had secured his private pilot's license. The day he was to solo I was very nervous as I waited to hear the sound of his plane overhead. As he flew over the house he saluted us with the wings of the plane. It gave me an eerie feeling to know that my young son was the only person in the "flying machine" that day. Shortly after enlistment he was selected for combat air crewman and later for the pilot's training.

He was sent to Denison University in Granville, Ohio, for the first period of his training. We were able to visit him there once or twice and he was able to visit home occasionally. The cadets were glad to get away from school on the weekends, so he usually had a friend or friends with him. We have kodak pictures of three of them in their white uniforms. They had come on Saturday and the next morning all went with us to church at Pleasant Corners. We had one family there, the Hatfields, who remained our very close friends over the years until their deaths. They had two children. Loretta, was just about Marion's age, and Bruce, who was younger. Loretta and Marion were good friends, but I do not think they ever really dated.

But, this particular Sunday morning, there were those three good looking young men, in their dress "whites," sitting in the congregation! It was just "too much" and Loretta prevailed on her mother to ask us, along with our guests, to go home with them for dinner. I was very happy for the invitation and the opportunity to let Mildred, who was an excellent cook, provide for us that day! The young people quickly got acquainted and all of us enjoyed the day so very much. The pictures remind me of some of the "horsing" around the young people did after the excellent noon meal.

While Marion was at the university it became apparent from the news that the war was soon going to be over. He and his best friend there had enlisted for four years. They were sorry they had been chosen for air training, because it was rumored that they would have to serve out the full time of their enlistment, but if they were in the regular navy they would be sent home, as soon as peace was declared. Their efforts to get back into the regular navy failed so they decided to "wash out." They took a plane up without permission and buzzed the drill field and successfully accomplished their goal of washing out. They soon found themselves on a destroyer in the North Atlantic. There were probably many times that the young men wished they were still treading the halls of Denison. Standing watch at night their clothing would become wet with the spray "and freeze on their bodies. But they did accomplish their purpose and were home soon after the end of the war. By that time we had moved to Elkins.

We had a wonderful retired bachelor neighbor, who lived directly across the street from the parsonage in Harrisburg. He was very faithful in attendance in church, but had never made a formal profession of faith, which concerned us. His name was Wesley Spangler and he would come over for a short visit three or four times every week. During the war it was very difficult to find many things that we needed in the stores. One day I mentioned that I needed some more table spoons, but had been unable to find them. The next time he came over he brought me three or four spoons, which had belonged to his mother.

We were bothered with gophers in our lawn and Marion and Troy were able to kill some with the .22 rifle. One day Marion saw one sticking its head out of his hole in Wesley Spangler's yard. He drew a bead on it and, I believe, killed it, but the bullet must have also hit a rock. Mr. Spangler's laundry was hanging on the line and the bullet ricocheted and went right through his long underwear. We were sorry to damage his long john's, but he was amused as we were, about the incident.

Howard has happy memories of driving to Otterbein College to hear the orchestra concerts and remembers especially the time they played [Edvard] Grieg's "Peer Gynt Suite." We had this on records and before Marion was born Troy used to say that he was going to play that suite while the baby was being born, because he wanted him/her to appreciate good music. He did not live up to this boast, but he got two sons who enjoy good music, and have given enjoyment to others by their own contributions along these lines.