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Archiver > BRETHREN > 2008-01 > 1199390431


From: NORMA BRUCE <>
Subject: Re: [BRE] Champaign and Franklin Grove, Illinois CoB
Date: Thu, 03 Jan 2008 15:00:31 -0500


Thank you Dwayne, I'll add that to my file. Now if we just knew who "Pal" was.

Norma

----- Original Message -----
From: Dwayne Wrightsman <>
Date: Thursday, January 3, 2008 8:06 am
Subject: Re: [BRE] Champaign and Franklin Grove, Illinois CoB

>
> Norma,
>
> The two ministers at Champaign were Woodford W. Peters and Merlin
> Estes
> Garber. Biographies of both men are published in Minnie S.
> Buckingham,
> CHURCH OF THE BRETHREN IN SOUTHERN ILLINOIS, Brethren Publishing
> House,
> Elgin, Illinois, 1950, pp. 214, 266-267.
>
> The Franklin Grove Church was in the Northern Illinois District.
> I don't
> have that book.
>
> Dwayne Wrightsman
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "NORMA BRUCE" <>
> To: <>
> Sent: Wednesday, January 02, 2008 4:36 PM
> Subject: [BRE] Champaign and Franklin Grove, Illinois CoB
>
>
>
> Recently I received a copy of a letter my mother (d. 2000) wrote
> sometime
> probably in the fall of 1932 or 1933 (mentions Homecoming) to a
> friend from
> Franklin Grove, Illinois, when her mother was running a boarding
> house for
> university students at the University of Illinois (713 W.
> Illinois, Urbana,
> Illinois). Grandma Weybright rented the house in Urbana and
> provided room
> and board for students, using the income during those times of the
> Great
> Depression to help maintain their farm near Franklin.
>
> Mt. Morris College had a fire in the spring of 1931 (when my
> mother was a
> freshman) and then closed the next year, merging with Manchester
> College in
> Indiana. By going to Urbana with her mother, my mother was able to
> attend
> classes at the university and help with the work. She reports in
> this
> letter on classes in Hebrew history and early Greek literature and
> said that
> the classes weren't difficult, although much larger than those at
> Mt. Morris
> College. "I think that anyone who likes to study will get along
> all right.
> Those that are just here for a good time get left just like at Mt.
> Morris,
> only the teachers don't have time to nurse them along down here."
>
> In writing to her friend, "Pal," in this undated letter, Mother
> mentions
> some church activities that I thought might interest anyone who
> had family
> during that time in either the Champaign Church of the Brethren or
> the
> Franklin Grove Church of the Brethren. Several different pastors
> are
> mentioned: Peters and Garber in Champaign, and Studebaker at
> Franklin Grove.
> She also mentions BYPD (forerunner of CBYF, and a revival).
>
> [Friday] "Speaking of Miss Long (a teacher at Mt. Morris College),
> the
> minister of our church knows her. Peters is not the minister now
> but a
> young graduate of Bridgewater by the name of Garber. He has only
> been here
> for a month or so. . . He makes a live wire preacher and has
> certainly put
> life in the church. They have an attendance of 140 and are aiming
> at 200.
> They have the same activities as at Franklin, but they really have
> more
> life. Of course, I don't know how things are now since Studebaker
> is there.
> There is a BYPD party tonight. I think I'll go." . . ."Everyone
> uses the
> telephone so much here. The fellows sit down with their math
> problems and
> work them out over the phone with someone else. It's so amusing
> at times."
> [She observed this from watching the students at their boarding
> house while
> she was writing the letter.]
>
> [Sunday] We went to church this morning. The attendance was 176.
> They had
> a rally day program. It wasn't as well organized a program as we
> have at
> Franklin, but it wasn't bad. . . There were 26 at the BYPD party
> Friday
> night. We had a very nice time. The group isn't nearly as well
> organized
> as ours at home, but they have a good crowd to work with. . .
> Revival
> meetings begin tonight. I don't know if we will get over or not.
> I guess
> it all depends on whether anyone comes after us or not." [The men
> in the
> family stayed and worked the farm, so they had the family auto.]
>
> Perhaps someone on the listserv can identify the full names of the
> pastors.
> Both churches have websites, but very little history. It seems
> that both
> churches had good sized youth groups and interesting programming.
> At least
> I think 26 youth at a church with an attendance of 140 is pretty good.
>
> Norma Bruce
>
>
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