Community and Religious Activities

The only roads in the country were wagon trails, so most of my husband's travelling was done on horseback. He would leave for a morning service at Livingstone. I would do the noon chores, get the children ready, and we would set out on foot after lunch for Bixbys. It was 1 1/2 miles by the road, but we went across the prairie, a shorter distance but very rough walking. Margaret could walk both ways, but Hugh was just learning to walk and had to be carried most of the way. I tried putting him on my back and holding his arms, but that tired him, so I put him in a flour sack and held it by the corners. I would turn him loose and let him walk a while, then put him in the sack again. When we got there, I conducted the Sunday school and my husband came later and held the service. I rode the horse home with Hugh in the saddle in front of me, while my husband walked and led the horse.

Verdant Valley school was built in 1912, and from then on it was used for church and Sunday school. For several years Miss Ewin and I taught the Bible Class. . . .

We were most fortunate to find ourselves in a community of Church going people. They came to Sunday School as families and stayed to Church. It did not matter what their nationality was, or what denomination they belonged to. . . . Some people had religious ideas of their own. One neighbor refused to poison grasshoppers, saying, "We are supposed to have those grasshoppers, or they would not be here." Most people were doing their utmost to get the poisoned bait out by daybreak.

One of those early winters we had a Literary Society at the Livingstone School. We had good programs, and some real good debates. Some people came from Moodie’s mine to it.

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