Richard Haworth - of Illinios, Autobiography
(Scanned by Scott Haworth, August 2000)
1. Ancestry-----Birth.
2. Early Childhood--farm life.
3. Education.
4. A Teacher.
5. Minister--Pastor.
6. Retired---Ranch life---Editor.
7. Incidents Along the Way.
Ancestry.
I was born a Friend. Both my parents were birthright Friends. My father was a minister and my mother an elder for many years prior to their death. My father's father also was a minister. Grandfather Haworth migrated with his cousin Jonathan Haworth and their families from western Ohio to the state line between Indiana and Illinois, approximately 75 miles west of Indianapolis, Ind., in the fall of 1820. There they built their homes in the edge of the timber and started life anew. When surveys and locations were established, grandfather was living in Indiana and his cousin, Jonathan, in Illinois though they were less than a half mile apart. My father, James P. Haworth, was the youngest child in the family and was born several years after the family settled at what was afterwards called Quaker Point, Ind.; so named because Quakers settled in a point of timber jutting out into the vast prairie extending hundreds of miles beyond to the west.
When a Post Office was established, later, it was in our home and was
given the official name Quaker Hill, which name continued until 1886 when Post
Master General Bisselll, during Grover Cleveland's administration, cut
off the word "Hill" and left it Quaker.
The name Quaker continued to be the name of a large postal service until
a few years ago when Rural Free Delivery absorbed
all
the patrons.
I was born in a small three room frame house built by my father on land
which he inherited from his father.
In
it was a large open wood fireplace, later made smaller for a coal grate. It was only three miles to a coal mine wh where we got
coal at $1.00 per ton. Later the upstairs was finished thus adding three rooms
to the house.
We lived in that same house until I was 16 years old. At that time father bought from the heirs a part of a deceased brother's place adjoining ours and the house and barn on the new place being a little better than ours, we moved there, a distance of less than a quarter of a mile. That was the only time we moved while I was at home.
I was the fourth child in a family of eight children, five boys and three girls, the oldest, a boy, and the next to the youngest, a girl, died in infancy. Six of us, two girls and four boys, grew to womanhood and manhood and five still live (May, 1943) and are active in life. On my father's side he was the youngest in a family of six children and on my mother's side (Rebecca Thornton Haworth) she was the fourth in a family of nine children.
Mother was a good woman, steady and positive. I did not always think so, especially when her "spank" made me quit doing the thing I wanted to do. At her funeral a neighbor said: "I have known Rebecca ever since she was just a little girl. She was a very Godly woman. I'll just say there never lived a better woman. There may have been just as good, but none better."
She mothered the entire family for many years. Father was away in evangelistic work every winter for several months at a time and Mother always kept the family and home in tact until his return.
From my earliest recollection we rated as poor people and
our
one expression: "These hard times," was indellibly impressed on my
mind. Mother made our clothing and
knitted our stockings and mittens.
Father
worked the farm and sold such produce as he could but still we were poor.
EARLY CHILDHOOD.
I always liked to play but work never appealed to me very much. My cousin, Eva Haworth, and I were together as often and as long as our mothers permitted. We were the same age and size and always said we were going to marry when we grew up. I do not remember that we ever quarreled or disagreed in our play. Our homes were about the distance of three city blocks apart and it took only a few minutes to go back through our orchard and across their small spring lot to their house or the reverse if she came to play with me. Her home was the one that father bought later. Although neither of us had money or toys at home we always had fun at some sort of game. That was before we were old enough to go to school.
Our barn was made of logs cut from the heavy timber near by. In it were stalls for the horses, a shed for the wagon and a crib for corn; above all of which was room for several tons of hay. Around the barn was a fine lot where we could play ball. As I grew older the boys of the neighborhood and I played much together. Our home was just half way between the school house and the meeting house which were a mile apart. We walked to school and, most of the time, to meeting. When the boys of the neighborhood came to play, or I went to one of their houses to play, we played ball, or marbles, jumped, rode horseback etc., but our time was always limited. We were seldom allowed to be together more than an hour at a time which to us was all too short a time.
I liked to listen to the chickens, especially when they took a spell of cackling. It sounded like they were in a big contest to see which one could cackle the loudest or the longest. I knew many of them by name; names that I gave them just to distinguish them one from the other. It was fun to watch them eat and knock one another around to get the most or the best food.
Many varieties of birds nested in the trees or shrubery not far from the house. I learned how to tell the kind of bird by the color of the eggs. The balck bird never nested near our home but soon after their nesting time great flocks of them came every year for short periods of time and sat and sang in our trees. I called those times "blackbird camp meetings." It was fun to watch them and listen to their" camp praises" then suddenly clap my hands to see the hundreds of them fly away at once thus making a great black cloud. They didn't even wait to "break meeting." The robin, wren, bluebird, martin, woodpecker, lark, quail, thrush, cat bird and many others were very familiar to me.
One thing I did not like. My parents would not let me go hunting and carry a gun until I was 14 years old. There was plenty of game not far away and I thought I could handle a gun safely. Even so I could hunt rabbits successfully in the deep snow without a gun. With a good club I could get several in a half day's hunt.
It was always great fun to play in the snow, especially when it was some where from six inches to 18 inches deep. Skating, snow balling, fox and geese, and other similar games, were fine but nothing was equal to coasting down the hill on our sleds.
One day mother said the snow was too deep for me to go to school. I was probably about six years old. At one time during the day she permitted me to go out and play in the snow for a few minutes. The length of my legs was the exact measure of the depth of the snow. It was too deep for much fun. I didn't remain out very long.
Christmas was just another day: no presents and no celebration. It was not observed as a religious event in the church, nor commercialized in the business world.
EDUCATION.
At the age of six I entered school at the No.10 school house. McGuffey's Readers and Spelling books were used in our school, and to be a good speller and reader were goals worthy of strenuous efforts. When I was in the Second Reader the teacher offered a prize for the highest number of "headmarks" made by any member of the class, during the term of school. The one who stood head of the class at the close of the lesson period was given one mark and went to the foot of the class the next day. At the close of the school term I had to my credit 60 marks. The nearest competitor had six, the next four. Several in the class had never stood at the head. I retained that prize for many years as an incentive to being a good speller and a pleasant memory of one contest won.
It was an easy matter to finish the Grade school but some things in the Academy were not so easy. However, I got passing grades for two years at Vermilion Academy and then entered the Preparatory Department of Earlham College. It took almost a full year in that department but in five years I completed the full college course and had taught a grade school one year at Walnut Grove near Thorntown, Ind.
At Commencement time, June 17, 1891, the faculty of Earlham College, at Richmond, Ind., issued diplomas to 25 young people, 16 boys and nine girls, the largest class to be graduated up to that time. I majored in history and literature, receiving the degree B.L.
Those college years were filled with fun; some of the happiest, care-free
years of my life.
Of course we had
to study and study hard, but sometimes we played and lessons suffered.
I had to make my own way, financially, and because of that I entered my
Sophomore year a month late.
I
began the study of German that year.
Being
a month behind the class it seemed like I never could catch up.
The combinations of words and sentences did not make sense and the
pronunciations seemed impossible. At the call of the President of the College I visited the
room of the "Green Carpet."
At
the end of the first term I was slated to be dropped from the German Class as
one too stupid to learn the language.
The
Professor was a brilliant native German.
At
the close of the term I handed in my examination papers.
In a few days the Professor called me to his room for questioning.
After a few minutes he said: "Your translation was perfect. I had to give you 100% on that, and your composition was of a
high grade.
You will go right on
with the class."
I was elated.
Toward the end of the college year I was chosen, by the same Professor,
out of a class of 40, to be in a German play, because of my knowledge of the
language and my accurate pronunciation of the words.
The "Ionian" was the men's literary society of the College.
I was honor by being elected rho president of that society at the
beginning of t my Senior year.
About the same time an alumnus of the College sent a barrel of the finest
Michigan apples to the society.
The
next day, while the students were at dinner, the apples disappeared; barrel and
all.
Then followed for one week a battle of wits to see who would get and hold that barrel of apples. The barrel was moved to a number of hiding places during the week.
I was informed one day that the barrel was to be returned to the Ionian
Hall that night.
A group of us
obtained the keyt to the room and waited
to capture the apples.
They didn't
show up.
Just six days after their
disappearance the driver of the College "hack" delivered the barrel,
full of apple at the front door of the Students Dormitory.
The College authorities had found it in one of its hiding places.
The group with which I worked only missed finding the barrel by one shock
of corn.
We heard the fellows leaving
but in the darkness we searched the wrong shock.
The College Superintendent distributed the apples to all the boys.
We had a lot of fun.
I lost only
three nights of sleep.
My
lessons suffered.
On the athletic field I took part in about every type of game that was
played: foot-ball, tennis, running, jumping, tumbling, pole-vaulting, gymnasium
etc. Some how the other boys were
so poor in some of the above that on a certain field day the judges gave me the
prize of being the best all round athlete in College. Almost every day of the College year I spent some time out in
the open for my physical culture.
On
e rainy days I went to the gymnasium.
I always liked physical culture.
It
was necessary for my health.
During my Senior Year I almost ruined my health by taking too much mental work and too little physical culture. I thought I must finish my College course that year on account of finances, so I tried to do too many courses of study. I got through but with poor health. The College, at that time, had 200 to 250 students regularly. During that time the College took on an expensive building period. The large, and well arranged, Lindley Hall, the Science Hall and Laboratory and the Gymnasium were constructed, at an expense well above $100,000.00. The President, J. J. Mills, was a statesman of no mean ability, and the Superintendent, Allen Jay, was probably the best money solicitor of any Friend of that day. Later, during the presidency of David Edwards, Lindley Hall was destroyed by fire and the present building erected to take its place.
TEACHING.
At the end of my senior year, I went as principal of the Sugar Planein
Academy at Thorntown Ind.
My work
there was very heavy.
Two of us
carried the work of the grade school and the Academy in the same building,
except that we had a helper for a few classes part of the year.
Following that year I went to Oregon in the spring of 1892. I was offered a position while there as teacher of a grade
school and remained in the state a little over a year. In the summer of
190
1893 my parents came to Newberg, Ore. to attend the opening of Oregon Yearly
Meeting.
My brother, Justin, had
settled there a year and a half earlier and we were all together at his home,
only about three miles from the city of Newberg, where the Yearly Meeting was
being set up.
That was a great time
in the religious history of the Friends of Oregon. Prominent ministers and other visitors were there from
various parts of the country.
The
Friends in and around the city had built a fine, commodious church sufficiently
large to accommodate the Yearly Meeting about to be established.
The crowds which flocked to the meetings taxed the seating capacity of
the building to its limit.
The
whole was a wonderful success and was a great Impetus to the work of the Friends
in that state.
Early in August my parents and I returned to Indiana but, on reaching Chicago, I remained for a week visiting the great World Exposition being held in the city. It was a very wonderful experience for me and very educational. I spent six days looking at everything I had time to see.
On arriving at my old home in Indiana, some of the neighbors got after me to take the principal ship of the graded school there. Before leaving Oregon I had agreed to teach a school in a small town between Newberg and Portland. The Township Trustee came out to see me and urged me to accept the place. After careful consideration I telegraphed my resignation to the President of the School Board in Ore. and stayed in Ind. About that time I became engaged to marry a very fine young lady (Clara Bond) with whom I had become acquainted in College.
Not long after the opening of the school year I was asked to preach one
Sunday in a neighboring country meeting.
Soon after that I was asked to preach
there
twice a month at my home meeting.
Before
the school closed my old home Monthly Meeting recorded me a minister of the
Gospel. That eventful day was March
10, 1894.
Three weeks later I began
a summer pastorate at Greentown, Ind. The salary there was my board and room and $15.00 per month.
While there I decided to continue teaching for a few years in order to finish paying my College debts. I was offered the Principal ship of the Friends Academy at Tonganoxie, Kansas with the Privilege of choosing my own assistant. After due consideration I chose the young lady to whom I was engaged and on Aug. 16, that same year we were married and the next day started to our new work.
The work was heavy and the students liked it. We boarded in the home of two congenial young women. We had three weeks of preparation before the opening of school. As bride and groom we had a great time during those three weeks (our honeymoon) riding around through the country soliciting students. It was a typical Friends Academy of that day.
We remained there two years and then the Board of Directors sent me to the Atlantic coast to solicit money for the school, for building improvements and a sustaining fund. I spent something over two months in the vicinities of Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, D. C., New York and New England. I attended the Yearly Meeting sessions at Philadelphia, Poughkeepsie, N. Y. and at Newport, R. I. I then returned to Tonganoxie and reported: then asked to be released from further teaching in order to give myself for full time pastoral ministry.
In the fall of 1896 1 entered Earlham College for a double line of study viz. Biblical, for pastoral preaching, and Biblical-Historical Research for a Master's Degree. I spent the entire year in study but engaged in pastoral preaching at Marion, Ind. First Friends Church, beginning March 1st.
In July of that year we moved to Marion and began a teaching-preaching pastoral ministry. We continued in that same type of work for ten years when I was asked to organize and head a Biblical Department in Fairmount Academy in Fairmount, Ind. The movement was under the joint management of Fairmount, Marion and Wabash Quarterly Meetings. The salary was not sufficient to support my family, consisting of my wife and three children, so I continued, with the general consent of the school and meeting authorities, to do regular preaching pastoral work at Wabash, where I was then located, and later at Fairmount. I continued in these two lines of work for six years; until my health began to give way under the heavy strain. I then gave up my teaching and continued in regular pastoral work.
Later I was called to take the work as head of the Biblical School at
Friends University, Wichita, Kansas
bu
but, owing to conditions then existing, I could not accent the position.
Still later I spent two years as principal of the Lowell School near
Whittier, Calif.
In all my work as teacher I kept steadily before me, two times of vital importance. 1st. Building Character into the pupils. 2nd. Preparing each pupil for a life of usefulness when school days were over. Those teaching days were some of the happiest of my career. I can look around today and see many leaders in school and church who used to be in my classes in the school room. One of them, only a few years ago, had full charge of all the vocal music for the National W.C.T.U. Convention. Another was General Superintendent of the largest Yearly Meeting in America. One has been for many years Secretary of the State Chamber of Commerce of one of America's great states. Others are successful evangelists, pastors, teachers. So, thought I am no longer in active pastoral nor teaching work I am represented in the field by many former students, who are doing far more and better work than I could possibly do.
MINISTRY.
It is one thing to talk or write about the ministry but a very different
thing
to practice it. There are God-called ministers and there are others who
choose them ministry as a profession in
preference to some other line of business.
Among the God-called ministers, some are pastors, some evangelists,
teachers, visitors, singers, etc.
I
was a God-called, evangelistic, pastoral preacher.
I never doubted my call and was never ashamed of it.
My personal choice was to enter the field of law: a religious, conscientious lawyer. After thinking it over for a year or more, while deciding what way to begin my law study, or what school to enter, God made it very clear to me that it would be far better to preach God's law to the people and get them to follow it rather than plead common law and get people to reform. It, therefore, became very easy for me to prepare and preach God's law and way of life as far superior to any other way. My testimonies pointed to that type of life and ere long I was asked to deliver discourses to the people.
My first pastorate, or rather the beginning of my preaching, was at my old home where I was born and reared. I did not feel capable of preaching every Sunday and carrying on my regular public school work. Accordingly Edward Woodard and I were asked to take alternate Sundays, I to take the fifth Sunday when there were that many in a month.
Some time before that I had made my first attempt at preaching a sermon. John Henderson, a cousin of my father, was evangelistic superintendent of Vermilion Quarterly Meeting in Western Yearly Meeting and a member of our meeting. He took me in his buggy, one fine Sunday morning in Oct., over to Henderson Chapel about three miles distant, a country meeting. I looked over the audience, prayerfully, and gathered courage to speak from the text: "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." Matt. 5:4. That was a pretty large undertaking for one who had never preached a sermon, but I had previously studied rather extensively on the real meaning of that text. The impression made on John Henderson was such the he recommended to our meeting that I be asked to become their pastor. I accepted on the conditions named above. The following spring the Monthly Meeting recorded me a minister of the Gospel on the l0th of March, 1894.
On the first of the following April I went to Greentown, Ind. and began regular pastoral work on full time. That meeting was small and unable, financially, to support a pastor. Accordingly in the fall I went on with my teaching. Three years later I accepted a call to the First Friends Meeting at Marion, Ind.
There I found my place and task. Several of the older members could not see the need of pastors in Friends meetings and, therefore did not contribute any money for the support of the pastor. If led by the Spirit to do so they would occasionally contribute some food or possibly a little money, but that was not regular nor in large amounts. They were members of the meeting in good standing and, for the most part, willing workers. It was my task to find a way to work with all the members.
I began by preaching a full Gospel of salvation through Jesus Christ as Savior, the infilling of the Holy Spirit and the enduement with power for service. I visited, as soon as I could, every family in the meeting and invited them to attend our own services. I found that some quite frequently attended other churches and others seldom went any where to worship services.
Before I had been there very long I discovered two special needs, viz. a mid-week Bible Study Class and a Personal Workers' Class. Each was organized with a large attendance. The Bible Class pursued a course studying the life of Christ; using the text of the four parallel Gospels as our background. The Personal Workers' Class gathered a large group of Bible texts on personal work and soul winning. These were culled and the choice ones printed on slips for use by members of the class in their personal work. They covered the subjects of soul winning, personal salvation and Christian living. A little later these were grouped and printed in pamphlet form.
During the four and one half years that I remained at Marion the work progressed and much good was accomplished. It was a sort of pioneering pastorate. The meeting was learning the need and usefulness of a pastor and certainly this pastor was learning how to best serve a meeting.
A fine large parsonage was built and paid for when finished. The meeting was better united and becoming a tower of strength and religious activity in the city, and in the Yearly Meeting as never before. The missionary activities, both home and foreign, were much stronger and more extensive than ever before. The Christian Endeavor Societies and the Sunday School were much enlarged in numbers and took on new life and influence. No church in the city had a finer group of young people in active Christian work. The Junior C. E. was invited to sing and tell of their work at the State Interdenominational C. E. Convention one year. Out of its 60 members a fine chorus group made a very favorable impression on the convention and carried home with them a banner indicating that they rated as the banner Junior C. E. in the state of Indiana.
That was many years ago and as I think back, of the blessings,
opportunities and privileges of that pastorate, I am made to exclaim:
"Praise the Lord for calling me to such a life work as that of a
pastor."
It has brought me
much pleasure and numerous blessings.
The
church has bestowed on me many honors, both in the Yearly Meeting and the Five
Years Meeting: much more than I deserved.
For
35 years I gave my best to the church and have no regrets for the type of
service into which the Master called me 50 years ago.
My chief regret is that I was able to accomplish so little.
I early saw the need of more extended and special study of the Bible
itself. I, therefore took advantage
of some kind of Biblical study during the summer.
One of the best and most far reaching terms was one at Winona
Lae,
Lake, Ind., the summer of 1905, when Dr. W. W. White transferred his New York
City School to Winona Lake for a month.
I
took as many classes as I could for the entire month.
Drs. White and Rogers were the outstanding Masters during those weeks.
It was about that same time that I combined the study of History and
Biblical Research and obtained a Master's Degree from Earlham College.
I continued in pastoral work, but was approached by a joint committee
from Fairmount, Marion and Wabash Quarterly Meetings and asked if I would head a
Biblical Department which was about to be organized in Fairmount Academy.
The whole situation was canvassed very thoroughly and prayerfully and the
result was the establishment of such a department with
a
a two years' course covering many Biblical and church subjects.
I continued with that work for six years, as before mentioned, during the
last four of which I almost completely
broke my health by serving both the Fairmount Church as pastor and the Academy as head of the Biblical Department. During that same time I was appointed one of the nine members of the Evangelistic Board of Indiana Yearly Meeting and elected President of the newly organized Bible School Board of the Five Years Meeting. The Board began the publication of the Friends Quarterlies, having taken over the work which had previously been carried on by P. W. Raidabaugh. Two of us were made co-editors of those quarterlies. No wonder I nearly died before I got from under such a load.
My pastoral work continued until the fall of 1935 when I retired from continuous pastoral service. Since that time I have done considerable preaching as a supply in various places. It has fallen to my lot to preach in 25 different Friends Churches since my retirement and always, to the best of my ability, I have preached a full Gospel without fear or favor. On retiring from pastoral work I went to Indiana to attend the Yearly Meeting and the Five Years Meeting at Richmond. During the time of that visit I preached in eight different Friends Meetings. It was both a religious and social visit.
RETIRED-EDITOR.
On returning from my trip to the Five Years Meeting, about the first of Nov., I preached at the home coming celebration of the First Friends Church in Long Beach, Calif. The following day, Monday, Nov. 4, 1935, we moved into our home at East Whittier.
At the close of any pastorate in Long Beach in 1919 I had bought a lemon ranch in East Whittier; near enough to Whittier College so the children could attend Whittier College and live at home. My wife had passed away some years previous, at Earlham, Iowa, during my pastorate there, and the children and I were keeping house as best we could while carrying on other heavy work.
A little more than a year after buying the ranch, I was married to Jessie P. Nelson of Long Beach and thus the housekeeping arrangements were much simplified, and the children all graduated from the College.
After the children had finished their College work, my wife and I moved to Sunnyside, Calif., for pastoral work. We closed our work there after nine years and returned to the ranch, primarily to give my wife's mother, Pauline N. Lambert, a home with us.
The Meeting at Sunnyside was very anxious to have us remain there and bring Mother Lambert there for her home but it seemed best that we provide for her in our own home, which was much more convenient and suitable for her. Here I do some of the work caring for the lemon grove and such religious work as time allows.
A year and a half after moving home I was called to supply the pulpit of the Pasadena First Friends Church for five successive weeks, during which time Mother Lambert passed to her eternal reward. A little later I supplied for the Bethel Meeting in Long Beach 12 weeks, until their newly elected pastor arrived. Every year I do some supplying but do not carry the responsibility of organizing the meetings nor doing any special pastoral work aside from the pulpit supply.
In the summer of 1929 Nannie M. Arnold decided to turn the Pacific Friend
over to California Yearly Meeting.
Accordingly
in June, during Yearly Meeting the offer was accepted and a Managing Board
appointed.
I was elected Pres. of
said Board and continued in that capacity for 10 years, at which time the
editor, George Taylor, became unable to continue his work. The Board then undertook the publishing of the paper and it
fell to my lot to manage it editorially.
After
six months of that arrangement, I was elected Editor and Financial Manager.
Thus it worked out that I became not only a ranch manager but manager and
editor for the Yearly Meeting Church paper.
The Pacific Friend has never, editorially nor otherwise, tried to plan
and lead the determining policies of the Yearly Meeting.
Rather it has been a leading factor in circulating newsy information
concerning the various activities
activities
of the Yearly Meeting and the local Meetings constituting the Yearly Meeting.
In other words, the Pacific Friend is a reporter and news carrier for the
entire work of California Yearly Meeting.
The
Managing Board keeps the paper circulating to all parts of the Yearly Meeting,
to the Mission fields and to many other places among Friends.
My business is to prepare material for each issue, keep the subscription
list up to date and pay all bills.
Who determines the type of material that makes up the main body of the paper? Does the editor have complete control of that? No. The paper is owned by the Yearly Meeting and a Board of control outlines the fields to cover, and the policy to maintain. That places the responsibility of decisions on the editor and leaves him to choose what he thinks best to publish for the good of the cause and the reputation of the paper. It also leaves him quite a bit of time to devote to the management and work of the ranch.
When I bought this ranch, in 1919, I went in debt $l5,300.00 and began paying $1,018.00 interest annually. When we retired in 1935 we owed $500.00. We finished paying the debt at the beginning of the year 1937, and have made no more debts. It took 16½ years to pay the debt and when it was gone we felt a great load lifted. When the debt was paid we felt that we could hire work done if we wanted to: we could make repairs to the house, or change ranch plan and not feel that we were using money that belonged to another. The first year that we were out of debt we bought a new car and paid cash for it. We finished tearing down the old barn and built a nice garage: we put a new roof on the house and some new floor coverings on the inside and did not skimp in our living nor make new debts: put in a new irrigation pipe line parallel to our east line and midway between the east and west lines of the place.
We plan to hire all the heavy work done on the ranch and I do only such the light work as my strength and time will permit. This leaves time for incidental activities that from time to time need attention. We want to continue this kind of life just as long as the Lord see fit to keep us well and capable of serving Him.
INCIDENTS ALONG THE WAY.
A Boy Entertains.
While teaching my first school, at Walnut Grove, near Thorntown, Ind., two of the upper grade pupils, a boy and his sister, used the same book for the preparation of a certain lesson. One day I noticed that the boy, Frank, was not studying and was attracting the attention of several pupils near by. He was occupying the back seat in his row. I asked him to prepare his lesson. He explained that he did not have the book. I asked what he was doing. "Just playing." What with? "A piece of paper." He was hidden behind the large boy who sat in front of him. On examination I found that he had made a whirl-a-gig from a piece of paper, using a pin as the axle and was blowing and whirling it thus attracting attention. I asked him if he was doing that to attract attention. He answered me that he was not, but did not object to their watching him. I suggested that many of the pupils could not see what he was doing, would he be willing to come out in front and blow the whirl-a-gig so the whole school could see him? Sure he would. How long would he blow it, five minutes? "O yes. I took out my watch and told all the pupils in the room that we were now to be entertained for five minutes, watching Frank blow a whirl-a-gig. He blowed and blowed and the pupils roared with laughter. By and by he slowed down as he began to get red in the face. I asked if he was tired and he said: "A little." I said you have kept it going fine for one minute. He went on blowing a little slower. At the end of one minute more the sweat was beginning to show on his face. I stopped him and asked if he thought that was enough of a demonstration so that he would not need to blow any more during school. He said: "Yes." Then I asked the pupils if they had learned enough so they would need no further help and thus release Frank from the other three minutes. They said: "Yes." I then released Frank from further obligation. He did not make any more whirl-a-gigs school, was a good boy and a good friend of mine to the end of our school days together.
A Runaway Girl.
While
at Tonganoxie Academy in Kansas a young lady, 20 years of age left her boarding
place on Friday evening for a short walk at dusk. She did not return and the sister who was boarding at the
same place, came to our home supposing her sister had dropped in there for a
short visit.
We had not seen her.
A search of the town revealed no clue.
The next morning a man one half mile out of town said she was seen
walking north, with neither coat nor hat, just as it was beginning to
d
get dark.
She had walked home,
eight miles.
We had no telephones
and did not know for 24 hours what had become of the girl.
Many were greatly worried.
On Sunday evening the parents of the girl brought her back to school and explained the whole situation. They did not uphold the girl in leaving as she did and thought she should apologize and promise that such conduct would not be repeated.
The girl had violated one of the boarding rules of the school and should
be dealt with accordingly.
She told
me she thought she should be punished but, with a very independent toss of her
head said: "You can do as you please."
I studied her case and decided to assign a Latin paragraph to be
translated into English.
She was
studying Latin.
She displayed a
very different attitude when she returned with an
fair translation.
She was very
penitent, as she said: "I know I shouldn't have done as I did.
Can you forgive me?
I don't
deserve to be kept in school.
The
punishment you gave, was the best thing you could have done for me.
It made me think."
She
continued in school a very fine student.
A Singing Student.
In Biblical School we permitted some of the students to go out and assist in special evangelistic campaigns and make up their lost lessons when they returned. One of the boys, an especially fine singer, was called to direct the singing for a two weeks' revival campaign. He returned in a glow of Evangelistic zeal. When he was ready I gave him a written test covering the work the classes had done during his absence. In answering a question relative to a certain Bible story he wrote a long disquisition covering two pages. He hadn't touched the subject but had discussed a kindred subject at great length.
When I returned his papers I asked him why he discussed another subject in place of the one in the question. He said: "I didn't know anything to say on the question asked. So I wrote something else, hoping to convince you that I knew a little of the Bible anyway." I said: "Well I'll give you another chance after you have studied these lessons some more." He made good later and has been making good for many years as minister of the Gospel and Executive Secretary of a State Chamber of Commerce.
My Conversion.
In my boyhood days it was the custom in our meeting to hold a revival every winter. At such times the attendance was always large and a good many people were converted. Practically every boy and girl in the community was converted before reaching the age of twenty.
When I was about 16 I was induced to go to the altar for prayer. At heart I had been wanting to go for several days before. Several Church workers came to help me to confess my sins and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation. One woman in particular (since that time gone to her eternal reward) made the way very clear to me. I did as she suggested, made my prayer of repentance and received by faith the forgiveness of my sins. That little incident changed my whole life. As I walked home that night it seemed to me that everything and everybody was happy and rejoicing. I was thrilled with an entirely new sensation.
Since that time I offered myself to God for some kind of complete time
service for God and was filled with the Holy Spirit and offered myself to the
church for the Gospel Ministry.
It
was God who called me to them ministry
and He has cared for me all the way.
Seeing the President of the United States.
While serving the Meeting at Fairmount, Ind., as pastor, it was arranged on the part of some politicians to have Pres. Taft stop at Marion, the County Seat, on his way west and make a speech. When that arrangement was completed some of the peace, Christian politicians decided to make some public recognition of the President's peace principles and some peace speeches he had recently made. It was decided to give him a large boquet of American Beauty Roses. But who should make the presentation speech? For a Democrat or a Republican to make it would be to show favor to that one. Therefore, it should be a Prohibitionist. Since peace was a religious, rather than a political subject, it should be a prominent church man. To show no favors it was decided to give the honor to that denomination having the largest membership in the county and to the pastor of the largest church of that denomination. Could any one qualify under those conditions? It was found that the Friends had the most members and Fairmount the largest church membership and that I was the pastor: also I was a registered Prohibitionist. They came to me and said I filled every requirement.
Accordingly I was told to take the 42 American Beauty Roses, march to the speakers' platform with the State and County dignitaries and the President's guard, sit beside the President during the preliminaries and his speech, then with a short presentation speech on behalf of the church people of the County and the Friends church in particular and all the peace loving people of Grant County, in recognition of his recent strong peace speeches, present him with the boquet. I did so, in the presence of 10,000 people or more. The President responded with a brief note of thanks, and it was all over. I had seen the President.
My Call to the Ministry.
After graduating from Earlham College I at once began thinking of what my life work should be. I had talked with some of the College professors and decided to teach school for a few years before deciding finally on my life work. During that time I took a summer vacation in Oregon. I engaged to help a surveying crew in the mountains for the entire summer.
I was away in the mountains with very little opportunity to see or talk to any one except our crew and no reading matter except a vest pocket edition of Proverbs and on rare occasions when we went for mail and possibly got hold of a daily paper. Under such circumstances God had a splendid opportunity to get my attention. He got it. God spoke. I listened. The voice (message) said to me definitely: "Make the ministry of the Gospel thy life work." Accordingly during the sessions of Oregon Yearly Meeting in 1893 when a call was made by Hannah Pratt (Later Hannah Pratt Jessup) for any one to come forward who felt called to the ministry I went forward. A consecration service was held for those who went forward and my life from that time forward was dedicated to that one purpose.
One point, relative to the ministry, was presented to my mind in a very positive, appealing way. An honest lawyer does the best he can to right wrong a minister of the Gospel does the best he can to prevent wrong. Therefore it is far better to prevent wrong than to right it after it has been committed. When you save an old person to Christianity you save a unit: when you save a child you save a multiplication table. The study of law had no farther appeal to me but the study of God's law in relation to humanity had an irresistible appeal.
Signed, Richard Haworth
Attachment: a handwritten note, that Scott Haworth believes was from the hand of Richard. addendum