In the Valley of Hope

by Richard Weirich

  The line was already forming to board the northbound train. Marie took John's hand and gripped it tightly, all the while weeping, and then she looked at him longingly for one last moment.

  John picked up her bags and followed her and Silas to the train.

  “Please don't say goodbye,” she said.

  “We'll meet again someday. I promise.”

  As Marie climbed onto the first step of the passenger car, John stopped her and handed her a small leather bag.

  “I almost forgot. Here's a little going away gift for you and the boy.”

  Silas awoke just as the train pulled away from the station. Marie hugged him tightly as she stared at John, Jr., who was standing on the platform doing something she never thought she would witness. For the first time in the six years she had known him, he was weeping.

  It would take a long time to overcome a broken heart, and she was sure that she would never forget the last time she saw him. The way he looked at her and the emotion he displayed at her departure caused Marie to wonder if his affection for her was greater than she had realized.

  Then she remembered his gift. Inside the leather bag was an envelope with a ten dollar bill and a deposit ticket from the First National Bank of Beckley, West Virginia where one thousand dollars was deposited in her name. Across the bottom of the paper, John had written, “forever yours with all my love.”

  Three weeks later, on June 24, 1910, John Levi Wissler, Jr. married Anna Randolph Koontz in Albany, Missouri. Aside from John, Jr., the only Wissler in attendance was his sister Maude who served in the ceremony as the maid of honor.

  When John, Jr. informed his parents of his wedding plans, Ada immediately jumped into action planning what she envisioned as the greatest social event in Strathmore's history, that is, until she informed the mother of the bride-to-be. Celeste Koontz, in no uncertain terms, made it clear that Ada had no business planning the wedding. She was perfectly capable of planning her daughter's wedding.

  Ada was so outraged at Mrs. Koontz's rejection that she forbade her family from attending or participating in the wedding, which ultimately didn't matter since the Wissler's were left off the invitation list.

  When John, Jr. and his bride came to live at Strathmore after the honeymoon in Canada a reception was held in their honor given by Mr. John Wissler. Mrs. Wissler said she had more important things to do that night.

  Eventually, she did give the couple a wedding gift. Her contribution to the newlyweds was to hound her husband so severely that he would build a third home on the property to “get that hussy of a daughter in law out of her house once and for all.”

  Unanswered Prayers, September 9, 1910

  In 1910, baking a cake was a major production and Mary Shown never undertook the project without Mable's help. Mable's role in the process was to milk the cow, churn the butter, retrieve eggs from the hen house, and then load the stove with wood.

  Mary assembled the ingredients and beat the batter into a smooth consistency with a hand mixer. Then she set the oven temperature to “I think it's about right.” True enough, baking only took about 30 minutes but the prep time was more like half a day. Consequently, cakes were only baked, at least in Mary Shown's kitchen, on special occasions.

  The occasion for her favorite Golden Cake recipe was the sudden decline in Teeny Shown's health. She suffered a hip injury earlier in the week, and the family planned to pay her a visit the following day.

  “Been praying for Granny Teeny every day,” said Mable while standing over the sink. “Reckon why God let her fall and get hurt? I asked Him to keep her safe since she's old and all.”

  Mary thought for a moment. “The Lord works in mysterious ways.”

  “Why's he have to be so mysterious? The Bible says we should pray and that he'll give us what we ask for, but I've asked Him for a lot of stuff that He didn't give me.”

  “Maybe you're asking for the wrong things.”

  “I asked Him to find Pearl a husband so she won't be an old maid, but He ain't done it.”

  “His time is not our time. To God, a thousand years is like a minute because he's eternal.”

  Mable laughed. “That's a long time for Pearl to have to wait for a man.”

  “Used to always pray for my friends Charlie, Frank, and Priscilla. Prayed that God would keep us together and let us be friends all the way through school. Then Charlie’s daddy came and took him away. Frank just stopped coming to school. That just left me and Cilla and she always wanted to get into mischief, and I didn't want any part of it. That girl ain't right.”

  “Now, Mable. Don't give up on God just because he's not doing things your way. He won't give up on you. So don't you give up on him.”

  “I was reading in my Bible about how God gave us dominion over animals.”

  “That's right.”

  “Then it's OK if I step on that spider that's getting ready to crawl on your foot.”

  Mary let out a squeal and jumped back. Mable laughed so hard she nearly fell over.

  “Just kidding. Ain't no spider,” said Mable still chuckling.

  Mable was Mary's baby, and the two of them were as close as a mother and daughter could be. Of all of the Shown children, Mable was the most like her Mama.

  “You got me good,” said Mary with a big smile. “Now, be still or you're gonna make the cake fall.”

  Mary maintained a strict protocol of assigned duties for her children whose tasks had increased since the two older sisters, Ella, and Lessi, were married and no longer lived at home. The only girls remaining to handle the “women's work” were Pearl, 24 and Mable, who had turned 13 in May. Brother Walter, now 17, helped Moses with the more physical “man's work.”

  Mary Green Polk was born in Fauquier County in Warrenton, Virginia, which is nearly 70 miles from the Pine Church property. She was soft-spoken, refined, educated, exceedingly wise, and according to some of her neighbors, a “bit too snooty” for their liking. Mary had learned to adapt to a simpler life, but things weren't always that way. In fact, her life began in the lap of luxury, wealth, and high society.

  Mary often spoke of her life as a little girl and the mansion in Warrenton. She was born on November 17, 1859, and was two years old when the war broke out. She could still recall the horrifying nights when she was awakened by gunfire, shouting, and screams of agony from wounded soldiers. “They called it the Civil War,” she would often say. “But there was nothing civil about it.”

  Soldiers from both sides stole their horses and just about anything else they wanted. “I saw awful things, unspeakable things, that I pray to God you children will never have to see. If the war had lasted another month, we would have died of starvation. We were running out of food, and so was everybody else.”

  She thought that things couldn't get any worse, but they did. She recalled the night a polite soldier knocked on their door requesting refuge in their cellar. The visitor was Colonel John Singleton Mosby, leader of the notorious Confederate regiment known as Mosby's Raiders. When General Phillip Sheridan of the Union Army learned that Colonel Mosby was rumored to be hiding in the Green home, he sent a detail to have it destroyed.

  By the time the troops arrived Mosby had escaped but that did not stop the soldiers from fulfilling their mission. On that snowy night, November 17, 1864, Mary and her family were ordered out of their home and then tearfully watched as everything they owned burned to ashes. Mary said there was no question about the date of the tragedy because it was her fifth birthday.

  With only the clothes on their backs remaining, Mary Elizabeth and her parents, Benjamin and Mary Sue Green, road together on horseback to the home of Benjamin's parents where they stayed until a new home could be rented. They never regained the esteemed position in life they had once enjoyed.

  When Mary was eighteen, she met Moses, ten years her senior, who was staying at a boarding house in Warrenton while working in the area on a railroad expansion project. The married on November 11, 1897, a week shy of Mary'
s eighteenth birthday.

  The railroad project wrapped up soon after their wedding and Moses faced finding other employment or going back to his home in the Shenandoah Valley. He eventually sold her on the idea that they could build a house on his mother's property.

  When Moses took Mary to the humble home of his birth and introduced her to Teeny, she wanted to run for her life. Teeny's fondness for tobacco was just about more than she could take. As Mary put it, “Smoking a pipe is unbecoming a lady. It's just plain nasty. And if you think I'm going to live in a house out in these woods you got another think coming.

  Soon after Moses heard that St. Mary's Pine Church had an opening for a caretaker, and part of the pay included a house. They've lived there ever since.

  “Ain't that about the best smell in the whole wide world,” said Mary as she retrieved the finished cake from the oven.”

  “Heavenly,” said Mable bending down to get to take a bigger whiff of the sweet aroma.

  “Mable, I think I just heard somebody outside. Moses and Walter couldn't be back from town yet. Go see.”

  As soon as Mable stepped into the living room there was a knock at the door. Mary was watching out the window and had already identified the caller.

  “Go ahead and open the door, Mable,” she called. It's Reverend Beck.

  When Mable opened the door, she was greeted by a round clergyman. “Good day, miss. I'm here to see your daddy.”

  Mary took over the conversation when she arrived at Mable's side. “Reverend Beck. Won't you come on in?”

  “I was hoping to catch Moses. Is he home?”

  “No sir, he’s gone to town.”

  Reverend A. R. Beck, a Lutheran minister, served four different churches at the same time, one of which was St. Mary's Pine Church. In fact, were it not for him living in the parsonage of Solomon Lutheran Church in Forestville he would probably be living in the Shown home that was built to be the Pine Church parsonage. It was common practice for clergymen to serve simultaneously at multiple churches. Services rotated between churches with the pastor presiding over each church one Sunday out of each month.

  “Mrs. Shown I'm afraid I've got some bad news.”

  “Oh my? Is this about Teeny?” asked Mary as she motioned to the clergyman to come into the house.

  “Yes, mam. Can't stay long,” he said struggling to fit his portly posterior into a wooden rocker. Mable marveled that the chair was holding together under the strain.

  “Yes, I'm sorry to bring bad news...but Mrs. Teeny passed away this morning.”

  Mary fought back tears as Mable ran to the bottom of the stairs and called to her sister Pearl. “Granny Teeny passed away! Pearl, did you hear me? Granny passed!”

  Pearl hurried down the stairs with her face covered in rouge and perfume so strong that it nearly knocked Mable down when she passed by.

  “Is Granny dead?” blurted Pearl as she stomped into the room.

  Mary stared at Pearl sternly. She had always taught the girls that it was not proper to say that someone had died or was dead. It is appropriate however to say, “they passed,” or “they passed on,” or they “passed away.”

  “Yes, dear. Granny Teeny has passed,” said Mary with a heavy emphasis on “passed.” “I'm sorry Reverend. Please continue.”

  “Teeny took a hard fall last Tuesday, and they're pretty sure her hip was broken.”

  “Mable, bring Reverend Beck a glass of water,” said Mary remembering her duty to be a generous host to a visiting preacher.

  “He could have some of that cake we baked for Granny. She won't be needing it.”

  “Well, that is right. How about a piece of my golden cake?”

  “That's mighty nice of you...and it does smell mighty good if it's no bother. But just a little piece.”

  “Moses went over there one day this week to check on Teeny. Said she was in a lot of pain but in good spirits, good enough to be puffing on that foul old pipe of hers.”

  “Yes, mam,” the preacher chuckled. “She loved her tobacco for sure. I expect you all didn't know about her other health problem. She said she was only telling me because she didn't want to worry her family. She was suffering from throat cancer.”

  “Had no idea,” said Mary shocked at the revelation. “She always seemed so healthy. Do the sisters know she passed?”

  “Barbara knows since she lives just down the road. I was going to stop by to see Becky and Molly on my way back. Figure Moses and them will want me to do the funeral.”

  “I'm sure they will,” said Mary.

  “Here's your drink and some of the finest cake you'll ever put in your mouth,” said Mable trying to figure out how the preacher could handle a glass in one hand, and a plate in the other.

  Seeing the dilemma, Mary instructed the Reverend just to sit his glass on the table, surprising both girls, considering that their Mama never allowed anybody to sit a glass on the furniture in the living room.

  “Thank you kindly, miss. Aren't you a pretty little thing? Mary, you're going to have to put a lock on the door to keep the boys away from this one.”

  “Just might be,” laughed Mary.

  Then the preacher opened wide and consumed an enormous piece of cake with one big bite. With his mouth full he gave commentary on the dessert spitting out crumbs while he talked. “You're right. Some of the best cake I've ever had.”

  Mable thought it strange that a man of God could have such a lack of manners. Taking such a huge bite, talking with food in his mouth, spitting crumbs on the floor, and sitting a glass on the table were high on her mother's list of “Thou Shalt Nots.”

  After consuming the remainder of the cake with his second bite, the preacher turned his attention to Pearl. “Pearl, how you been doing? Ain't seen you in a long time. Heard you got married.”

  “No, that wasn't me,” replied Pearl. Maybe you heard about Carrie. She got hitched two years back.”

  “Is that right? Guess I ought to know that since I'm the one that does the marrying,” said the preacher laughing. “We got some handsome fellers who need a good woman over around Forestville. I'll put out a good word if you want.”

  Pearl just stared and said not a word.

  “Well I got more stops to make before it gets dark on me,” said Reverend Beck. “I'll see myself out.”

  The preacher had to push on the arms of the chair with all his might to extract his body from the rocking chair and when he was finally able to stand he grunted loudly. He reached for the door knob then paused and turned back around.

  “You don't reckon I could have another piece of that cake for the road do you?”

  “Well, of course, you can,” answered Mary as Mable took a tally of another Thou Shalt Not. “When visiting in someone's home only eat what is put in front of you. Thou shalt not ask for more. You'll wear out your welcome.”

  “Mable while you're at it cut a big piece of ham to go with that cake,” ordered Mary without rebuttal from the clergyman.

  With Pastor Beck finally on his way, Mary turned her attention to Pearl. “What on God's green earth is that red stuff caked on your face?”

  “It's the latest thing. Don't you like it?” inquired Pearl as she angled her head so her mother could get a closer look.

  Mable was amused but accustomed to the bickering between her mother and Pearl. Most often the discussions revolved around Pearl's unusual taste in clothes and makeup but more often, the skirmishes were about snuff. Pearl kept a tin of snuff tucked away in her bosom and whenever there came an urge she would sniff a pinch of the tobacco substance up her nose.

  “I'm no expert on makeup,” said Mary, “but I'll bet that stuff is not intended to be plastered all over your face. Maybe a little dab on your cheeks, but not all over. You look like a ...” and then she stopped herself not wanting to say what she was thinking in front of a child. “Get up there and wash that mess off your face. And you don't need but a dab of perfume, not the whole bottle. You ain't never going to find a fella lookin
g like that.”

  “Well, the clerk at the drugstore told me that men find it irresistible,” snapped Pearl as she spun around and marched out of the room.

  “Mable, don't you ever do that to yourself. That girl's already 23 and well on her way to being an old maid. Ain't no man in his right mind that'll want a woman that smells like a French woman of ill repute with snuff up her nose.”

  Mable wondered how her mother knew what French women smelled like, but she concluded this was not the proper time to ask. Then her thoughts turned to a more important matter, the passing of Granny Teeny and another unanswered prayer.

  Fire at Strathmore – October 30, 1910

  For the third year in a row, Bill and Charlie Polk hired on for the apple harvest at Strathmore Orchard. Even though there was a lot of work involved Charlie enjoyed being able to spend time with his friend, Frank Wissler III.

  Again Bill was assigned to pick apples but Charlie was given a new task and one he liked very much. Charlie was given charge over the stable of horses used for pulling the apple wagons.

  Frank III wasn't the only Wissler to befriend Charlie. Frank, Jr. and John Jr. had also taken a liking to the hard working thirteen-year-old. They were particularly put out with the way Bill Polk treated Charlie and went out of their way to compliment Charlie in Bill's presence which unfortunately only made him meaner.

  Charlie's job required him to stay later than the other hired hands since he had to unhitch the wagons then feed and groom the horses in preparation for the next day's work. It was already after dark, and Bill was none too happy that he had to wait for his son.

  “What took so long?” said Bill. “It's after dark. Hard to maneuver this old road at night.”

  “Takes time to shut down the stable,” said Charlie. “Worked as fast as I could.”

  “You don't know the meaning of fast. You've always been too slow. I could have had it done an hour ago but them Wisslers want to use a snotty nosed ignorant boy instead of a hardworking man. Just shows they don't know nothing about farming. Now when you get home, you still got chores to be done. I expect every one of them to be done before we head back over here in the morning. You hear me?”