While we know our northern friends may not feel it, in the South, Spring is
here. So we thought we'd share a few of our gardening sites appropriate
for this time of the year. Along with gardening, there's grilling, and getting
ready to diet so that you can fit back into that bathing suit this summer!
"Our lives are songs, God
writes the words,
And we set them to music at pleasure;
And the song grows glad, sweet, or sad
As we choose to fashion the measure."
Mary A. Flickinger
Mrs. Flickinger is gratefully remembered for
five years of untiring service as assistant
superintendent.
The sphere of her observation and suggestion
included all the women's work in the
buildings, occupied by the students, and the
special care of the garden and Boy's Hall.
In connection with this daily oversight,
there was always manifested a feeling of
personal responsibility, to carry to
completion at the end of the day, any
unfinished work, that would otherwise
prevent some of the larger girls from
enjoying the privileges of the school,
during the evening study hour.
Trained in her youth to execute speedily all
the kinds of work, usually required on a
well arranged farm, and also as a sewer and
nurse, one proved a very valuable helper.
She became the home physician, administering
the medicines and caring for the sick. Her
method of treatment included the prevention
of some of the milder, but common forms of
disease, by the regular administration of
some inexpensive antidotes. These two
principles were frequently expressed:
"Self-preservation is the first law of
nature," and "Prevention is better than
cure." The young people were also encouraged
to learn, how to keep and intelligently use,
a few simple remedies in the home.
She and her husband are both natives of Port
Royal, Juniata County, Pa., and their
marriage occurred there, June 20, 1878. They
have filled pastorates at Doe Run, Pa.,
Walnut, and Fonda, Iowa. They raised the
funds and secured the erection of Churches
at Marne, Fonda, Pomeroy and Varina, Iowa;
and a commodious parsonage at Fonda. He has
served as a trustee of Corning Academy,
Buena Vista college and of the Presbytery of
Fort Dodge; stated clerk and treasurer of
the latter twelve and a half years, and as
Moderator of the Synod of Iowa, at
Washington in 1901; and by special request,
as author of the Pioneer History of
Pocahontas county, Iowa, in 1904. Mrs.
Flickinger in her youth became a teacher in
the Sunday school, and during all the years
that have followed, has been an efficient
and aggressive solicitor and teacher of the
children, in that important department of
the work of the Church.
She has ever manifested an unusual degree of
energy, always preferring to do all her own
home work, rather than have it done by
others. One who enjoyed the privilege of
witnessing her unflagging energy and
enthusiastic devotion to her work, rising
early and working late, at a time when she
was supposed to be unable to do more than
take care of herself, paid to her this
friendly compliment: "You work with the
untiring industry of a bee, the patient
perseverance of a beaver, the overcoming
strength of a lion, and the double quickness
of a deer."
Her liberal responses to the calls of the
needy have been limited only by her ability
to work, save and give.
"I'll praise my Maker with
my breath;
And when my voice is lost in death,
Praise shall employ my nobler powers."
-The Psalmist.
Bertha Louise Ahrens (B. Feb. 26, 1857),
missionary teacher among the Choctaw
Freedmen of Indian Territory since 1885, and
principal teacher at Oak Hill Academy,
1905-1911, is a native of Berlin, Prussia.
Her parents, Otto and Augusta Ahrens, in
1865, when she was 8, and a brother Otto 5,
came to America and located on a farm near
Sigourney, Iowa, after one year at
Bellville, Ill.; and four, at Harper, Iowa.
The schools and Churches first attended used
the German language. Her first studies in
English were in the graded schools at
Sigourney and here at seventeen, she became
a member of the Presbyterian Church under
the pastorate of Rev. S. G. Hair. He loaned
her some missionary literature to read and
it awakened a desire on her part to become a
missionary. This desire was expressed to the
Women's Missionary society of the Church and
she was encouraged to attend the Western
Female Seminary, now college, at Oxford,
Ohio. After a course of study at this
institution she enjoyed a year's training in
the Bible school connected with Moody's
Chicago Avenue Church, Chicago.
During the next year, after hearing in her
home town an appeal in behalf of a Negro
school in the south, she was led to offer
her services to the Presbyterian Board of
Missions for Freedmen. In December 1885, she
received a commission with request to locate
among the Choctaw Freedmen at Lukfata, in
the southeast part of Indian Territory. The
route at that early date was quite
circuitous. Going south through Kansas City
over the M. K. T. Ry., to Denison, Texas,
she passed eastward by rail to Bells,
through Paris to Clarksville, Texas; and
thence northward forty miles to Wheelock and
Lukfata. Clarksville, south of Red river
continued to be the nearest town and station
during the next ten years.
She has now completed twenty-eight years of
continuous and faithful service as a
missionary teacher among the Freedmen.
During these years she has served the
following communities and Churches.
Lukfata, Mount Gilead 11 years 1885-1896.
Fowlerville, Forest 3 years 1896-1899.
Goodland, Hebron 1 year 1899-1900.
Grant, Beaver Dam 4 years 1900-1904.
Valliant, Oak Hill Academy 6-½ years
1904-1911.
Beaver Dam 1 year 1911-1912.
Wynnewood, Bethesda Mission 2 years
1912-1914.
She is now serving as principal teacher in
the Bethesda Home and School, located three
miles northeast of Wynnewood in the
Chickasaw Nation. This school was opened
Nov. 1, 1899. It was founded by Carrie and
Clara Boles and others; and its object is to
provide a home and Christian education to
the orphan and homeless youth of the colored
people.
Miss Ahrens has been a life long and
conscientious Christian worker, among the
Freedmen of the Choctaw Nation. Her name is
a household word to all of them. She found
it necessary from the first to locate as a
lonely teacher among them in territorial
days, and share with them the unusual
privations, incident to a life of such
seclusion and unselfish devotion. During the
first fifteen years, she had to live alone
in little, rudely constructed huts in a
sparsely settled timber country, where
quarrels and murders, among both the Indians
and colored people, were events of common
and almost annual occurrence; yet she never
thought of leaving her work or forsaking her
mission on account of personal danger.
The following is an accurate description of
the little hut she occupied three years
while at Forest Church. It was built of
saplings, eight feet square and chinked with
mud. It had a fire place, an opening
eighteen inches square for light, and
another one for entrance, that was about
three inches lower than her height. The
chimney was built of mud, so small and
crooked that only a part of the smoke could
be induced to go up it, on a windy day. The
blind for closing the window opening was so
open, it merely broke the force of the wind,
it could not keep it out, nor the lamp from
blowing out. The little door left similar
openings above and below it. On windy days
the smoke found its way out through these
and other openings overhead. These
conditions after a while were relieved, by
the insertion of a window in the opening,
and covering the walls of the room with
sheets.
The floor space was fully occupied, when it
was supplied with a bed, trunk, sewing
machine, book case, table and one chair. It
lacked room for the organ, which had to be
kept in the chapel.
There was no porch, and into this little
room the children on Sabbath afternoons
would crowd to sing, standing until they
grew weary, and then sitting on the floor.
This rude and lonely hut was located about
one fourth of a mile from the Church. Near
it was another and larger one-room cabin,
having a porch, that was occupied by a good
elder of the Church, his wife and a family
of six children.
The school rooms, that she had to occupy, in
order to fulfill her mission, though the
best the colored people could afford, were
also of the rudest sort. It was a difficult
task, to make them look within like tidy
temples of knowledge.
Her work was also very elementary. As the
pupils would advance and their work become
interesting, they would drop out of school.
Yet it never occurred to her the work was
wearisome, because it was monotonous and
often disappointing. If experiences were
disappointing, or the day, gloomy, there
remained to her the Bible, with its precious
and unchanging promises; and the organ,
responsive as ever to the touch of her hand.
These were home comforts that enabled her to
forget the trials and burdens of each day,
before its close.
Her work as a teacher has been increasingly
attractive. The secret of this unflagging
and ever increasing interest, is found in
the large place, given the Bible in all her
teaching work. It has been a daily text book
in the school room. On the Sabbath, her
opportunity to read and explain it to all
the people of the community, as
superintendent of the Sunday school, has
been even greater than that of some of the
ministers in charge, when the latter was
only a monthly visitor, while she served
faithfully every Sabbath.
The world is needing the light of Bible
truth. It is life giving. "Go teach," is as
urgent as the commission, "Go preach." The
opportunity to supply the world's great
need, with the life giving Word of God, is
an inspiration to the consecrated Christian
teacher.
She has felt this inspiration, and has
become a very capable interpreter and
practical expositor of the Bible. She has
been well equipped to lead the people in
song, and has received many evidences of the
highest appreciation of her work, as a Bible
instructor.
Though not possessing what might be
termed a rugged constitution, she has never
lost a week, at any one time, from the
school room on account of illness. She has
been free to express the desire to continue
to labor, as a faithful and efficient
teacher, among the Freedmen as long as her
strength will permit. Ruth expressed her
sentiments, when she said to Naomi:
"Entreat me not to leave thee; where thou
lodgest I will lodge; Thy people shall be my
people and thy God my God."
She has been a true missionary hero. She has
been willing to work in one of the most
solitary places, for the lowliest of people,
without the ordinary comforts of home and
friends. Whilst her Bible work has been
continued through the entire years, with but
two exceptions, her income-a mere
pittance-has been limited to the terms of
school. This has made necessary very close
economy in personal expenses, but has not
prevented liberal offerings to promote the
work of the Church. Her seclusion,
privations and dangers, during the first
fifteen years, were as great as of many of
those, who have gone to the remote parts of
the earth. The heroic spirit of Martin
Luther, translator of the German Bible she
learned to read in youth, has always proved
a source of great inspiration, to be
faithful and courageous. When he was warned
of the danger of martyrdom at Worms, where
he had been summoned for trial for declaring
the plain words of the Bible, he bravely
said, "Were they to make a fire that would
extend from Worms to Wittemberg, and reach
even to the sky, I would walk across it, in
the name of the Lord, I would appear before
them and confess the Lord Jesus Christ." And
a little later, "Were there as many devils
(cardinals) in Worms, as there are tiles
upon the roofs, I would enter," for the
Elector had promised him a safe conduct.
When he arrived at Worms and stood before
his accusers, he finally said: "Here I am, I
neither can, nor will retract anything. I
cannot do otherwise; God help me." These
noble and courageous words of Luther are
well adapted, to prove an inspiration to
every one that reads them.
Her courage has led and kept her in the
place of privilege and duty. Her
faithfulness and devotion have enabled her
to win the confidence and esteem of all who
have come within the sphere of her
acquaintance and friendship. She continues
to pursue her chosen and loved employment,
of serving as a missionary teacher among the
Freedmen of Indian Territory, now Oklahoma,
in the spirit of the Psalmist.
"My days of praise shall
ne'er be past,
While life, and thought, and being last,
Or immortality endures."
Adelia M. Eaton
The superintendent, teachers, students and
friends of Oak Hill were called upon to
sustain a great loss and experience a deep
sorrow, as the sun was setting, on June 5,
1908, when Adelia M. Eaton, our highly
esteemed matron, after three and one half
years of unusually efficient service, and a
brief illness of one week after the end of
the term, peacefully and trustfully passed
from the scene of her faithful missionary
labors, to the enjoyment of her eternal
reward. Her illness, which terminated with
heart failure, seemed to be the outcome of a
weariness that ensued after rendering some
voluntary but needed services for the
comfort of others.
She was the second daughter of Harvey Eaton,
one of the hardy, prosperous pioneer farmers
of Pocahontas County, Iowa, She grew to
womanhood on the farm, where she learned to
be industrious and earnest.
She early became identified with the work in
the Presbyterian Church and Sunday school at
Fonda where she received her first training
in Christian work. After enjoying a four
years' course at Buena Vista College, Storm
Lake, associated with her elder sister, she
spent four years in mercantile pursuits in
Sioux City and Fonda. All of these previous
employments and experiences seemed to be
parts of a varied training, to fit her most
fully, for the position she filled as a
missionary teacher at the Academy. In the
management of the affairs of this
institution, her responsibilities and duties
made her the executive helper of the
superintendent. Here she found
responsibilities and opportunities, that
called forth all her noblest powers, and
enabled her to make it the most highly
useful and crowning period of her life.
She naturally possessed an attractive
personality. She was tall, slender and erect
in form, very prompt, dignified and graceful
in movement. Her countenance indicated
intelligence, energy and culture. She had a
good voice for public address, possessed
rare executive ability and was so gentle in
manner that obedience to her commands was
accorded with pleasure and delight. Though
never unmindful of her resources, she never
manifested any pride, save that which every
truly noble soul manifests in the quality of
its work, by putting forth a constant effort
to perform every duty in the most thorough
and efficient manner.
She was a happy, willing worker. The key
note of her work as a teacher seemed to be
the one expressed in the words: "My meat is
to do the will of Him that sent me and to
finish his work." John 4, 34. Although she
had many other important duties on that day,
she was always present at the services on
the Sabbath. The memory of the living will
not soon forget the personal interest she
manifested in the spiritual welfare of every
member of her large class of older students
in the Sunday school, her tender and
affectionate appeals to the young people at
the Endeavor meetings, her interesting and
instructive addresses at institutes and
conventions, and how she voluntarily
lingered to extend friendly greetings at the
close of the Church services.
The call, to engage in this educational work
among the Freedmen in Indian Territory, came
to her at an unexpected, but opportune time.
When the need for her services and desire
for her co-operation were stated, she
immediately gave her assent to make a trial
of the work for a term of three months. As
the work progressed her interest in it
increased, and she became more firmly
attached to it. Her affections, interest and
ambitions seemed to be transferred to the
people and work at the Academy. Her
attachment and devotion to this work was as
remarkable as it was unexpected. This was
the secret of the unusual merit of the
service rendered. In this new sphere of
usefulness, she found a field of opportunity
that afforded full scope for the exercise of
all her intellectual, moral and spiritual
powers, and, engaging in this work with all
the enthusiasm of her noble nature, she
rendered a continuous service so faithful
and efficient, as to call forth heartfelt
appreciation and words of highest
commendation.
Mrs. John Claypool
Mrs. John Claypool, matron 1908-9, the
successor of Adelia Eaton, came from
membership in the class of Mrs. A. W.
Crawford of the First Presbyterian Church of
San Diego, California. Her work is
gratefully remembered for its uniform
faithfulness and efficiency, and the sweet
beneficent influence exerted by the noble
womanhood and manhood of herself and
husband, previously employed in a bank, who
also came and remained with her at the
institution. Through the aid of the latter,
the profit on the poultry was greater that
year, than in any other. The garden that
year was greatly enlarged and surrounded
with a new fence. He nailed the pales on the
panels and they remain as a memento of his
interest and handiwork. The fact that she
represented one of the Churches giving most
loyal and liberal support to the Academy,
and was thus a living link connecting the
work of the institution with the many
friends, supporting it on the Pacific Coast,
gave to her work an additional charm that
was greatly appreciated. They are now living
in Texas.
Mary I. Weimer
Mary I. Weimer, who served as matron 1909 to
1911, a native of Port Royal, Pa., came to
Oak Hill from Knox, in the Devils Lake
Region of North Dakota; where, after a
course of preparation at the state teachers
college at Fargo, she achieved an unusual
degree of success, both as a teacher and
manager of affairs on the farm. These
interests prevented her from coming the
previous year when first solicited.
At the Academy she rendered a service so
efficient and faithful as to merit the
gratitude of all. After the loss of the
Girls' Hall, which occurred during her first
year, when all of its occupants were
deprived of comfortable quarters, the fear
was entertained she would want to be excused
from further service. Instead of pursuing
this course she became one of our best
counselors and helpers in the effort to
provide for the comfort of herself and the
girls, and keep the latter from returning
home at that critical period.
The superintendent will never cease to be
grateful for her favorable decision at this
trying hour, and the self-denial she
voluntarily proposed to undergo, in order to
make it possible, to continue the work of
the institution. It was the period when Mrs.
Flickinger was a helpless invalid at Fonda,
patiently awaiting the return of her
husband, with daily anxiety. He could not
leave, however, until the cellar excavation
and concrete walls of the building had been
completed. This done, Samuel Folsom was
ready to serve as foreman of the carpenters,
in the erection of the new building, and it
fell to the lot of Miss Weimer, to serve as
general manager, in the absence of the
superintendent. The situation was one that
required unusual courage, as well as
prudence and self-control. Her heroism was
equal to the call to duty. Loyalty and
faithfulness were her constant watchwords.
At the end of the next term in 1911, she
found it necessary to give her personal
attention anew to the interests of her own
home and farm. She enjoys the distinction of
having served as matron, the last year in
the Girls' Hall and the first one in Elliott
Hall. She is gratefully remembered by all,
who became the subjects of her daily care
and domestic training.
Jo Lu Wolcott
Miss Jo Lu Wolcott, matron, February to
June, 1912, was a daughter of the late Dr.
Wolcott of Chandler, Okla. She has had
considerable experience as a teacher in the
public schools of Kansas and Oklahoma, and
in the government school for the Indians at
Navajo Falls, Colorado. She is now serving
as a teacher in an Indian school in South
Dakota.
Malinda A. Hall
Malinda A. Hall rendered six years of
faithful and efficient service as assistant
matron, and teacher. Having completed the
grammar course at Oak Hill in 1900, and then
a four years course at Ingleside Seminary in
Virginia, she was well prepared for the work
at the Academy, and proved a very reliable
and valuable helper. She was capable and
always willing, when requested, to supply
any vacancy occurring among the other
helpers. She enjoyed good health, and never
lost a day from illness. Her strength and
energy enabled her to execute promptly and
efficiently, every work entrusted to her.
Her work throughout was characterized by a
never failing promptness, faithfulness and
energy. She was familiar with the needs and
traits of her people, was thoroughly devoted
to the promotion of their best interests,
and her suggestions were always gratefully
received. The ability and enthusiasm of her
work, as the teacher of a large class in the
Sunday school and leader of the young people
in their Endeavor meetings, will never be
forgotten by those, who came within the
sphere of her voice and influence.
Since her marriage in 1911 to William
Stewart she has been devoting her time and
attention to the improvement of their home
on the farm near Valliant. She is needed on
the farm, but the thought lingers, that
there continues to be a great need for her
services in the educational work among her
people.
Miss Hall's exploits, as a sharpshooter with
her own gun, during her first year as a
teacher at Oak Hill, indicate her
responsiveness to the spirit of chivalry
that prevailed among the people during the
period of her youth.
One day in the spring of the year, while
hunting eggs in the second story of the old
log house, she discovered a large snake on
one of the rafters over her head. Hastening
quietly to her own room for a gun, she
brought the snake to the floor with the
first shot. It measured over four feet in
length, was dark in color and was of the
kind that eats eggs and chicks, commonly
called a chicken snake. She also, at the
request of Mrs. Flickinger, stunned a small
beef, that they together butchered; at a
time the superintendent was absent.
Mary A Donaldson
When Carrie E. Crowe was called away in
January 1906, the place was rather
reluctantly assumed but very acceptably
filled by Mrs. Sarah L. Wallace of Fairhope,
Alabama. After two months she also was
called away. The place was then filled by
Mary A. Donaldson of Paris, Texas. She had
been an attendant at the first Oak Hill
Normal, in 1905, and then became a
missionary teacher at Grant. Attendance at
the Normal led to her recognition, both at
Grant and Oak Hill. After teaching several
years she pursued another course of training
at New Orleans and has become a professional
nurse.
Solomon H. Buchanan
"He that is faithful in that which is least,
is faithful."
Solomon H. Buchanan is a native of Glen
Rose, Somervell Co., Texas. At the age of
eight he was bereft of both of his parents,
and those, into whose care he drifted, were
not willing he should learn a letter. By
some means he attracted the favorable notice
of Miss Mary A. Pearson, a missionary of our
Home Mission Board. Furnishing him the funds
for the trip, she sent him at the age of 18
in 1903, to Oak Hill Academy with request to
become an earnest Christian teacher. At the
Academy Mrs. Mary R. Scott of Pittsburgh
became his teacher. She taught him his
letters and first lessons in spelling and
reading, giving him considerable time and
attention, while the other boys were
playing. Perceiving his special fondness for
music, she taught him the chords on the
piano, and thus gave him a start on that
noble instrument, which has ever since been
his favorite.
He has always found the study of books a
rather difficult task, owing to the lack of
early training in them; but he has proved a
good student and a very valuable helper at
the Academy. The longing desire to become a
capable and successful teacher, has kept him
there, amid all the changes that have
occurred since his arrival in 1903. He has
now acquired an unusual degree of skill as a
performer on the piano and his enthusiastic
accompaniments on that noble instrument
contributed greatly to the pleasure and
delight of the work at the Academy. He has
become an earnest worker in the Sunday
school and endeavor meetings. He has a
strong voice for song or public address, and
has become an excellent leader of religious
meetings. He served one year as an assistant
teacher at the Academy. He has proved
himself a very efficient and valuable helper
at the Academy, always looking after the
entertainment of visitors.
In 1912 he was ordained an elder of the Oak
Hill Church and in May of that year was sent
as one of the commissioners of the
Presbytery of Kiamichi, to the general
assembly at Louisville, Ky. Through the
courtesy of Rev. E. G. Haymaker, he spent
the summer of 1903 at Winona Lake, Ind. He
is now serving, as superintendent of the
farm work and musical instructor, at the
Bethesda Home and school at Wynnewood, Okla.
The boy who wins is,
"Not the one who says, 'I can't';
Nor the one who says, 'Don't care;'
Not the boy who shirks his work,
Nor the one who plays unfair.
But the one who says, I can',
And the one who says, 'I will;'
He shall be the noble man,
He the place of trust will fill."
Student Workers
These tributes to worthy workers seem
incomplete, without some reference to the
faithful co-operation of some of the young
people, who, making rapid progress in their
studies and industrial training, during the
later years of this period, and serving
efficiently as workers, foremen and
occasional teachers, made possible the large
amount of improvement work necessary to
overcome the losses sustained. The memory
recalls the names of the following students,
whose responsible and efficient co-operation
was thus worthy of grateful mention.
Occasional Teachers and Leaders: Paul
Thornton, Vina Jones, Delia Clark1,
Isabella Monroe, Ruby Moore1,
Virginia Wofford, Sarah Milton, Celestine
Seats, Solomon Buchanan, Riley Flournoy,
Clarence and Herbert Peete.
Carpenters and Cement Workers: David
Folsom1, Solomon Burris, Louis
and Alvin Pitchlin, Isaiah Nelson, Clarence
Peete, Noah Alverson, Riley Flournoy, Fred
and Percy McFarland, Thomas Wilson, George
Hollingsworth, Frank Dickson, Ashley and
Alonza McLellan and Brown Gaffony.1
Painters: Solomon Buchanan, Frank
Dickson, John Black, Eugene Perry, Wesley
Lewis, Herbert Peete and Cornell Smith.
Farmers and Trustworthy Teamsters:
James Stewart, James Burris. James Richards,
Dee McFarland, Robert Johnson, Robert Maxie,
S. S. Bibbs, and Everett Richards.
This site
includes some historical materials that may imply negative stereotypes
reflecting the culture or language of a particular period or place. These
items are presented as part of the historical record and should not be
interpreted to mean that the WebMasters in any way endorse the stereotypes
implied .
Choctaw Freedmen and Oak Hill Industrial
Academy, 1914, Robert Elliott Flickinger
