The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1917, Page 26

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

⤓ Download .txt · copy text

pa mae
y=

ae

a

26 The Lutheran Pioneer. P,

A Trip to Vredenburgh, Ala.

You want to know exactly where we are located,
and how to get here. Well, we are in Southwestern
Alabama, just across the line from Monroe County.
We live and have our work in Wilcox County, but
get our mail and “do our trading” in Monroe
County. If you are coming from the north, east,
or west, you buy your ticket to Selma, Ala., rest
there all night, and in the morning go over to the
Louisville and Nashville station, get a ticket to
Corduroy, Ala., and then — but wait, we must also
tell you how to get here from the south. Well, if
you intend to come here from the south, you go to
Flomaton, Ala., change cars there, and come on
to Corduroy via the Louisville and Nashville Rail-
road. But what are we to do when we get to Cor-
duroy? Just wait a minute, and I shall tell you.
Stand there on the platform until the regular train
leaves: ‘There, now, it’s gone, and here comes our
train, backing up to- the platform. It’s a mixed
train; one passenger coach and a number of freight
cars. The thing for us to do now is to get on and
find seats. We don’t get any tickets at the office,
for this is a private line, a private train belonging
to Mr. Vredenburgh, a private man, and you are
a private passenger. You buy your ticket after you
get on the train. The fare is high, for it costs
you fifty cents to ride the eight miles to Vreden-
burgh, which is the end of the road. But what’s
that? Think of where you_are going, and then,
too, remember that you are a private passenger on
a private train. If the train does not suit you,

you may get off at the next crossing and walk;

for the conductor will let you off at the crossing
if you want him to, and he will also take you on,
if you wave your handkerchief or a piece of paper
at the engineer. cers ;

Why that sudden stop? Well, you see we are
going through-a pasture, and cows, you know, are
liable to get on the track, and— and — lawsuits
are s0 much trouble and-quite an expense. Be-
Sides, ours is a private line, and we have plenty of
time. Now we are off again. — Here is another

stop; it is Buena Vista. We have a flourishing
mission-station here. Forty adults and twenty-five -
__ children have applied for instruction. Our Sunday- ’
_ school has a membership of seventy-five, and the
day-school, opened the first of the year, has an en-

rolment of thirty-five and prospects for that many
And that’s not all; just across the hill

there, a little over a mile distant, we have five acres

of land, which cost us sixty dollars, and an old
house, for which we paid twenty-five dollars. We
have services there twice a month and Sunday-
school every Sunday.

But here we are in Vredenburgh. ‘That red
building over there is the general store, the post-
office, news-stand, pay-office, and several other things,
too numerous to mention. Vredenburgh is a regular
sawmill town. Those cottages which you see to the
left over there are the homes of the white employees
of the company, and those whitewashed boxed affairs
over to the right constitute the “Negro quarters,”
the homes of the Colored employees of the company.

Our mission-station is about three miles away
from here on the old Sedan road; but we will have
to walk to get there, since it is not considered good
form in these parts to take a cab or a street-car.
Come on, and we will cut right through the woods.
Here we are in less than an hour. hat log hut
over there with the stick chimney and no windows
is the place where we used to have school and
services. O yes, it rained in there quite frequently,
and those big cracks left a lot of wind in, too.
But when it rained, the children put on their hats
and cloaks and coats, and. stood up to keep them-
selves from getting too wet; and as to the wind,
they just had to let it blow. You see, we could
not make much of a fire for fear that our chimney
might ignite, which we did not want to have happen.
Of course, we always had to keep a little fire, for
most of our children go barefoot all the winter,
and have very little clothes.

_.Now, come out here and take a good look at
these fine china-berry trees. On Sundays I used to
gather my catechumens under them for instruction.
That tablelike contrivance there setved as a kind
of beacon light to those who came to instruction
at night; for on it we used to-build a big pine
torch fire to light the way. You ask how we got
along inside the building without lamps? You
see, we didn’t have to do much seeing, and what ;
little seeing we did was by.the light of a pine
torch; as that is the custom here; and then, I had
a pocket flash-light, which I used to good advantage
when a Scripture lesson or hymn or Bible passage |
was to be read. I just turned on the electricity,
read what I wanted to read, and turned it off again.

But now that you have seen where we used to
teach and preach, let me show you our new work- —
shop. On December 23d last we gathered up our
few belongings (several home-made benches), and
took possession of our new schoolhouse and church.