Tag Archives: Milton College

15k. Ellis Raymond Lewis

April 18, 2009

Ellis Raymond Lewis (1882-1950) was the youngest of seven children born to Robert and Minerva (Oshel) Lewis. He was born at Stonefort, Illinois, on the Robert Lewis home place, October 10, 1882 and passed away on June 29, 1950, at Fayetteville, Arkansas.

He was married to Nellie Grace Mulvey, daughter of John Lionel and Samantha (Gram) Mulvey who was born in Stonefort, Illinois on July 11, 1884. She passed away on July 3, 1962, and is laid to rest near Riverside, CA, alongside their son Bill, and his wife, Marian (Green) Lewis.

Ellis and Nellie were married in Stonefort, Illinois on June 25, 1905 by his father, Robert Lewis. The family Bible shows that his brother, John Lewis, and her sister, Olive Mulvey stood with them as witnesses. Over the next ten years, six children were born to them, at their home in Stonefort.

  1. (Alfred) J.R. born 3/6/1906, died 4/8/1908, buried Joyner cemetery
  2. Lillian Bessie born 5/4/1907 died 12/31/1989 in San Diego, CA. According to her, she was named Lillian Elizabeth, but her father wrote Lillian Bessie in the family Bible. Her birth was recorded solely in the family Bible, and not recorded in the Illinois birth records where she was born.
  3. Harold born 10/1/1908, died 7/12/1920, buried Joyner cemetery
  4. Dorothy Olive, born 6/12/1910, died 3/6/1979, buried Bluff cemetery, Springdale, Arkansas. She changed her name to Dorothy Jane.
  5. Nellie Grace, born 5/27/1912, died 11/7/1947, buried Thornberry cemetery, Gentry, Arkansas. She was known in the family as Gaye.
  6. William B, born 4/30/1914, died 2/3/1992 in Riverside, CA. There will soon be a linked page with more information on William B. and his family

Ellis grew up on the farm near Stonefort, and after completing his schooling there, entered Milton College in Wisconsin. In 1902, he enlisted in the United States Army. His service record can be found In “ US Army, Register of Enlistments, 1798-1914”. He enlisted into service on May 14, 1902 at Jefferson Barracks, MO. He received a “good” service discharge at Fort Leavenworth, with the rank of Pvt. on May 13, 1905.

Immediately following their marriage, Ellis and Nellie made their home on Howell’s farm, just across the road from the SDB Church, and opened a grocery store in Stonefort. But they yearned for the country life, and Ellis’s father had promised to give them some land for a farm, so they chose a spot which lay approximately a half mile due north of Albert’s farm. Much of the land was in timber, which meant clearing must be done for both farming and building a home. Ellis built his own house, barn, and other needed buildings. He purchased large Percheron horses for farming, raised Poland China hogs, and white Leghorn chickens. Throughout his life, Ellis supported his family through farming.

Dollie Martin and Nellie were close friends. Dollie’s mother, Eugena Martin, who was called Aunt Deany, married Rev Robert Lewis in 1910, two years after Minerva Oshel died. After Deany and Robert’s marriage, when Nellie and Ellis had their fourth baby, Dollie came to help. When the fifth baby was due, Ellis asked her to come again to help Nellie, but Dollie had reservations, because it was no easy task to look after a growing family. Dollie and Ira were planning to marry in September, but Ellis encouraged them to marry sooner and come live with them. So Robert Ira Lewis and Dollie Joanna Martin were married on June 3, 1912, by his father, Robert Lewis, at the home of Nellie and Ellis Lewis. Then Dollie became pregnant, and had morning sickness, and was not much interested in housework. So Ira and Dollie asked their parents, Deany and Robert, if they could stay with them for a while, because the house intended for them would not be available until September.

In adulthood, Ellis contracted, what was most likely, tuberculosis. He was ill for several months, suffering bouts of fever, and was confined to a tent outside the house to protect the children from contracting the infection. During this time, he read many of the classics, including the complete works of William Shakespeare, and The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayam, committing long passages to memory. He was always an avid reader, and in this way very well-educated.

Growing up in the Seventh Day Baptist Church, Ellis became interested in the study of the Bible. Eventually, he felt a call to enter the ministry, and began to prepare himself for it. He was licensed to preach in May of 1922 and became pastor of the Stonefort Seventh Day Baptist Church, having been called by that congregation. He remained in that capacity until he was called to the Gentry, Arkansas SDB Church in 1925.

From Gentry, Ellis took missionary trips into the southern states of Texas and Louisiana, visiting families, preaching the Sabbath, and baptizing many. Pastor Beebe accompanied him on some of this denominational work.

Ellis built a beautiful stone barn on the farm at Gentry, and also a small one room stone house in the orchard there, where he used to go to write his sermons.

In 1934, Ira and Dollie moved from Stonefort, Illinois to Gentry, Arkansas, where Ira was to manage the farm, while Ellis continued his missionary work. The families of Ellis and Ira remained close throughout their lives. Several of the Lewis family, including Ira and Dollie, relocated to California in the years following WWII. In the 1950’s, Dollie and Nellie were neighbors in Riverside, California, where they participated in the SDB Church. Their sons, Philip and Bill, raised their families in Riverside, and several grandchildren continue to attend there, at this writing in 2010.

Ellis retired from the ministry in Gentry about 1942, and returned to work on the farm. In 1950, he fell off the roof of the barn and was taken to the hospital at Fayetteville, AR, where he died on June 29, 1950. He is buried in the cemetery at Gentry.

Ellis as a young man


Nellie’s wedding portrait


Ellis and Nellie c. 1940

Thanks to Ellis and Nellie’s granddaughter Dorothy Jane for helping edit this and providing photographs. Thanks to another granddaughter Anne Burns Linklater for providing additional details.

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15i. Cora June Lewis Green

April 18, 2009

Cora June Lewis Green was born June 9, 1875 in Stonefort, Illinois.

Cora Lewis Green young portrait cropped

Cora went to school in Stonefort and later at Milton College in Milton, Wisconsin.  She taught school in rural schools around Stonefort.  Cora was a deeply religious person.  She was an astute student of the Bible, and was believed to have been gifted with spiritual powers.

She met her husband, Milo Green, at a Seventh Day Baptist Church Conference.  He was a farmer, and they were both very active in church affairs.  Cora married Milo Green on March 14, 1914.

Cora and Milo

Cora and Milo

She died Jan 30, 1966 and is buried at Joyner Cemetery beside Milo.  They had no children.

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Chapter 21 – My Retirement Years And A Look Back on My Life

April 6, 2009

Now that I have finished my teaching (and most everything else of importance), I will look back over my life. Maybe I can think of some things of importance to add to what I have already written.

I remember Father telling about some neighbors coming by there squirrel hunting one Sabbath. He gave them all the melons they could eat and one to take with them. That evening as they came home they stopped in the melon patch and pulled all the vines and piled them up.

One summer we raised a fine crop of corn, also a fine patch of melons. Ellsworth went up to Mr. Brake’s store, and Mr. Brake wanted to know how much corn we raised. Ellsworth told him 900 bushels. He said we ought to have raised a fine crop, for we spent all summer tending it. Ellsworth replied, “It kept us from stealing our neighbors’ watermelons.” (His boys had stolen a bunch of our melons.)

Growing up on a farm, I learned to love the country and country people—I still do. Just give me a farm with stock, and I could be happy—if I were able to work it.

I am so glad Father and Mother taught me to be honest and truthful, to hate trickery and deceit, to select the better class of people as my friends, to be loyal to a friend and never try to injure any by malicious gossip or cowardly lies, to stand up for the right, and to be sure I was right and stick with it . I have learned to be careful what I say. I remember the Proverbs:

Answer not a fool. (Prov. 26:4, KJV)

Cast not your pearls before the swine lest they trample them under foot and turn and rend you. (Matt. 7:6, KJV)

Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit? There is more hope of a fool than of him. (Prov. 26:12).

Jennie’s Stroke

My wife had a slight stroke in the last of September 1945, and Brady and Mary took her down there. Mary was taking care of Leortha, so I stayed at Brady’s and cared for Jennie. She was so she could walk about the house a little. We got along very nicely as Mary was at home to get breakfast and supper and Ruth would fix our dinner. They were all very nice to Jennie, so we had a fine time until after Thanksgiving, which was the third Thursday in West Virginia. Then Archie came after us, and we had a second Thanksgiving, which was the last Thursday in Tennessee.

The Milton Years—1946-1948

We stayed at Archie’s until the 14th of December, when Archie and Avis took us to Elmo’s [in Milton, Wisconsin]. This was a little the worst trip we ever took. There was a little snow on the ground in Tennessee. We got along very well till we crossed the Ohio River at Louisville, where we stayed all night. From there on it got colder fast. By 4 p.m. we could not keep the ice off the windshield, and Archie was so cold he said we would have to stop. We put up at a hotel, and Avis and Archie went out and got some bread, meat, coffee, cakes, etc., and we warmed it on the fire. We had a dandy supper with plenty left for breakfast. We waited till late to start the next morning. We had a very nice trip the rest of the way, although it was still very cold.

We got to Elmo’s about noon Sunday. Everybody was sure glad to get in where it was warm. We found it was 17 degrees below at Milton that morning. Some cold for December 16! Jennie did not seem over-tired by the trip, but later she proved to be.

It warmed up a little but stayed quite cold for some time. Jennie got along very well till the excitement wore off, when she took a severe cold and had a complete collapse.

Elmo’s said Dr. Crosley was a very fine doctor, so we sent for him and found he was one of the best. He told us that she blacked out on him (she really did) and that he would make no promises. He found her in a very poor condition, and she had but little strength on which to build. He said he would do all he could, which proved to be enough as he soon had her going around.

We have been very lucky in finding Dr. Condon of New York, Dr. Crosley of Milton, and Dr. Sullivan of Cleveland, Tennessee, very fine doctors. Jennie had two or three severe spells while we were in Milton. When we left there in the spring of 1948, she was much better than she was when we went there.

Milton Church and Friends: For the first time in years we had a chance to go to our church on Sabbath, and it was so nice. The people were so friendly and nice to us. I will never forget the way they treated us and the nice things they said about Elmo and Madeline. We soon got acquainted with the people. The women were so nice to Jennie, and we were invited to the homes of many of our people. We met some of our old ministers—Dr. Ben Shaw, Rev. Van Horn, and W. D. Burdick. These have all died since we left Milton.

I picked apples with W. D. Burdick two falls for Prof. Stringer. He was a small active man who was past 80 years old. He would go up into the trees like a man half his age. He was a very high-class Christian gentlemen and minister.

There were several very nice widows well up in years for whom I did some little work. I enjoyed this work very much.

I must not forget to mention Prof. Stringer, who was teacher of vocal music in the college and was church chorister. He had a fine young apple orchard two miles out. I helped him pick apples both falls I was there. The limbs would be hanging to the ground with fine, big apples, which I picked so fast that it was fun. The last year I was there, I made nearly $40 and then gathered apples he left that lasted Elmo’s nearly all winter. How I would have liked to have been there to pick apples this fall!

We found our Seventh Day Baptist people very sociable. In fact, they were as fine, nice people as I ever met. I will mention just a few who were especially nice to us—Dr. Crosleys (his wife was a sister to W. D. Burdick and very nice); Rev. W. D. Burdick, than whom there were none finer; Milton and Mary Van Horn; the young dentist (he and Milt hunted with us a lot); Prof. Cy and his wife; Prof. Stringer (who was very nice to me); a young Shaw who was very nice to us; Miss Clark and her brother; Mr. and Mrs. Lowther; and two widow ladies for whom I did a lot of work. They were so very nice to us. In fact, there were so many that I should mention that I will say all of the Seventh Day Baptist folks treated us like old friends and neighbors. But I should not forget the two Hurley families who were very nice to us.

Fishing, Hunting and Gardening: Elmo and I went fishing some, but I did not have very good luck. One day we were out Elmo caught two wall-eyed pike; one weighed 2¾, the other 3¾ pounds. Once when I was not with him, Elmo caught a cat that weighed 6¾ pounds. A fine cat!

I enjoyed duck hunting very much. The second fall we had excellent hunting. The season opened at noon. Four of us went out together, and we came in that evening with 20 birds. The most of them were nice-sized ducks. We had duck to eat for several days. It is great sport to go out with two or three congenial companions and hunt or fish. I have missed this since coming to Tennessee.

I did some work in the garden; in fact, we raised some fine gardens. The last year we were there, we had all the green beans we needed to eat and can and had more sweet corn than they wanted, so they sold some.

Rabbit Enterprise at Milton: Elmo had just moved a number of rabbits (New Zealand Whites) into the back yard. He planned for me to care for them and share in the profits. I enjoyed caring for the rabbits very much (the fact is, I always enjoyed caring for animals).

We raised a large number of rabbits, but we could not raise enough to supply the demand. We bought several more rabbits and were just getting ready to buy all pure-bred rabbits and make good money when we decided in the spring of 1948 to go back to West Virginia. We bought a large number of young rabbits to butcher to hold our customers. We made good money on those we bought, and it also paid those who raised them. Before we left, Elmo sold the whole outfit for $150. The venture paid very well and gave me something to do. I am very glad I had this experience with rabbits.

A Teaching Experience in Milton: I will give a little experience I had in teaching a pre-kindergarten pupil. Johnnie [Elmo’s son] (who was also named after me) was past four years old. In the fall before we left I told Madeline, if they wanted me to, I would teach Johnnie to read. She said, “Why don’t you?” So I went to work. Ann brought home some pre-primers. Johnnie would climb on my knees, and I would tell him a word (he did not know his letters) and turn to another page and tell him to find the same word there. He soon got so he could find the words anywhere in the book. Then I would teach him a new word. As soon as he began to get restless, we would quit.

There were two chief reasons why he learned so well: he is bright and wanted to learn, and he was all alone so it gave him an extra game to play. Oh, it was fun for each of us! He soon learned every word in the first book and could really read every story in it. Then we took up another one. He finished three pre-primers. Then in the same manner we did three primers. When we finished these, we took up a first reader, which we had about finished when Jennie and I left for West Virginia. I have wished so often that I could have taught him for another year! I would have taught him spelling, writing, and arithmetic so he would have been ready for the second grade when he was six years old.

In life there are many disappointments, but there are also many pleasures. The teaching of Johnnie will always be a bright memory, with a lot of other bright memories in my teaching life. It often happens that teaching is a thankless job. There is some compensation when in later life your old pupils come to you and say (as several have done to me) that they first became interested in getting an education from me. I know that I got many interested in getting a high school and college education. I hope I have helped several to live better, fuller lives.

Back to West Virginia, March 1948

We left Milton on March 31, 1948, and got to Brady’s April 1. We spent a year in West Virginia, mostly at Brady’s although I spent about as much time at Ashby’s. For a while I milked the cow and tended the garden. In the late summer they decided they did not want to be bothered with the cow (she was our cow), so we sent her up to Olta’s as they were glad to have her. She was a very fine cow. Late in the fall we sold her for $150. This was the last property of any amount we owned except one-half interest in the farm on Bug Ridge.

We had intended to go back to the farm that summer, but we found there were no household goods to keep house with, and Brady’s were very much opposed to it. So we did not go to the farm. Jennie worked faithfully on Alma and Mary Ellen’s wedding outfits. Alma was married in their church. Jennie and I went up to Huffman’s so we were not there (at the wedding). After Jennie got the sewing done for Mary Ellen, we went to Ashby’s till Brady’s family came back from the wedding at Washington, D.C.

About the first of September Archie’s came by Ashby’s and offered to take us back to Tennessee with them. We decided to wait till later in the fall. Instead of going to Tennessee, we went to Brady’s for a while.

Before we got ready to go (on October 6), Jennie fell one evening and broke her hip. We took her to the hospital at Sutton, where she stayed for 33 days. I tried to make things as bearable for her as I could by going down by 8 or 9 a.m. and staying till about dark. This kept her from being lonesome. I would go out and get my dinner. Jennie did not eat much, and it would often hurt her. It got so everything, nearly, hurt. They gave her penicillin till she was so sore.

After she came back to Brady’s, they got her a hospital bed from Bill’s, which made it nice for her. She would seem to get better, but then she would take spells of terrible pain. They finally gave her a course of streptomycin, which seemed to help.

On to Tennessee

I came to Tennessee the 3rd of April. Archie, Avis and Alois went up two weeks later and brought Jennie back on a cot in the back part of the car. I was surprised at the way she stood the trip. She got along fine for a few weeks, then she got worse. We got a very nice doctor who was so nice to her. He would give her dope to ease her suffering and medicine he thought would help her. When it didn’t, he would try something else; nothing did any good for long.

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The Transition–Leaving Home and Entering Graduate Study

April 6, 2009

The summer of ’35 was a period of crucial change in several areas of my life. My classmate friend, Byron Whitford, from Little Genesee, New York, invited me to spend the summer with his family before entering the School of Theology in September. Being in New York State appealed to me if for no other reason than I would close to Helen Mae Button.

In the beginning of the summer Byron and I teamed up with his Dad, Ferris Whitford, selling HURLBURTIS STORY OF THE BIBLE and Bibles door to door in the rural area around Little Genesee. Our salesmanship was not very productive so we gave up on that project. Next Byron and I undertook cutting wood for a pulp mill. I believe we were to receive $6.00 per cord. The trees we cut were elm and willow growing near a stream. Our task was to cut down the trees–some quite large–saw them into four foot lengths, debark them and stack them in cords. I enjoyed working with ax and two man crosscut saw but Byron was inexperienced and that slowed our production. We didn’t stay with it long.

When it was the season to harvest hay, I moved to Helen Mae’s home and began working in the hay fields for neighboring farmers. The pay was $1.00 a day and dinner. I helped harvest the hay for three farmers I can remember and stayed in the Button home nights. Haying was hard, hot work but I soon learned the correct techniques for “pitching,” “cocking”, “mowing away” etc. When I stopped at Mr. Guilford’s barn for my pay, he stood up from his milking stool, paid me and said, “You were better help than I thought you would be”. (I had letters of recommendation from president Bond and Dean Harley Bond but the farmers weren’t interested in them.) It was while we were in a hay field at work that news came of the death of Will Rogers and Wiley Post in an airplane crash in Alaska on a round-the-world flight.

It was very pleasant living in the Button home while working on surrounding farms but as the summer wore on it became increasingly obvious that Helen Mae was no longer interested in more than a casual friendship with me. I suspect that through our correspondence she may have fantasized a “me” that didn’t measure up to her expectations. It is fair to say that I was devastated by the breakup of what I hoped would be a lasting and deepening relationship. She went to Salem College as a sophomore and I entered the Alfred University School of Theology. It tore at my heartstrings when friends in Salem reported to me that the word on the campus was, “Button, Button, who’s got the Button?”

I attended General Conference at Alfred in August and stayed with my uncle Alvah and Aunt Mary Randolph. Uncle Alvah was said to have the highest grade average of any Alfred alumnus up to that time. He taught me a valuable lesson that has helped me through the years.

At Conference I was asked to speak on the Young People’s program. wrote a speech and asked uncle Alvah to critique it for me. In the introduction I was apologetic. Who was I to be addressing the General Conference, etc., etc.?” On reading my speech, uncle Alvah said, “Elmo, if you have to apologize for what you’re going to say, don’t say it.” I rewrote the speech and have always been thankful for the advise.

How the arrangement came about, I can’t remember but Bertha Lewis went from Alfred Station, New York, to Salem College and lived with my mother. My first year in seminary I lived in Alfred Station with Bertha’s mother, Ivanna Lewis and high school age daughter, Jean. Mrs. Lewis was a brilliant woman who was Postmistress of the Alfred Station Post Office for many years. In high school Jean was an outstanding student. I enjoyed an interesting, happy year in the Lewis home. It was often fun teasing Jean and then retreating to my room where she was not allowed to enter. Ivanna Lewis was an educated conversationalist and a good listener. She helped me through homesickness and intellectual and spiritual trauma. The two mile walk to and from Alfred was good exercise but there were times when the wind and the cold were intense.

It was sometimes difficult going in the beginning days at the School of Theology. (Before leaving home in Salem I went to Pastor Shaw for any advice he might have for me. He simply said, “Just use your good horse sense.”) I did experience some loneliness and homesickness. It was my first extended time away from home and Mamma. Then, too, I had been in the limelight through college in Salem and in Alfred few university students knew me or cared. No doubt I suffered a deflated ego from the ending of my romance with Helen Mae.

There were three of us in Dean Bond’s first class: Marion Van Horn, Luther Crichlow and I. Through our years together we developed warm, strong ties of deep friendship. Marion was the son of a Seventh Day Baptist minister, Christopher Van Horn. I believe he was a Milton College graduate. His health was precarious. Luther Crichlow, a Negro, was a graduate of Howard University in Washington, D.C. He was a fine trumpet player and had played varsity football in college. (Alfred’s football coach persuaded Luther to play tackle on a winning team one year.) I believe Luther Crichlow was the first Negro I had known personally. He and I became fast friends during our years together. The three of us, with Dean Bond, became quite successful singing as a quartet.

I came to seminary with an open mind. There was no preconceived intellectual or theological position I was committed to defend. The conservative religious beliefs of Lon and Amelia Button seemed to work good in their lives and so I thought to lean in that direction until something better came along. In church and college experience I had been surrounded with people of intellectual integrity who practiced genuine Christian principals in their daily lives. The School of Theology proved to be an excellent environment in which to discover direction and meaning for my life.

Dean A.J.C. Bond served as a safe harbor in a stormy sea for me often. He brought a wealth of knowledge and experience to his role as Dean. Perhaps even more importantly, he loved and understood his students. A rich sense of humor was one of the attributes we lauded him for. His teaching field included Bible, homiletics and Seventh Day Baptist polity and beliefs. How fortunate we were to come under his teaching and to have him as a counselor and friend.

Dr. Edgar Van Horn was our professor of practical theology, giving us the techniques of pastoring and administering a church and congregation. In addition to his teaching, he pastored the Second Alfred Church in Alfred Station.

The whole range of history courses related to Christianity and other religions were taught by Dr. Walter Green. We admired him for his prodigious knowledge of his field and his enthusiasm in sharing it. In his college days he had been formidable as a football player. His presence was impressive.

Frail, sweet, elderly Dr. Powell was our Greek professor. Some university student wag was reported to say that he knew Dr. Powell moved because when he saw him at one point on the sidewalk and then looked minutes later he was not in the same place. Dr. Powell had a passion for Greek and tried valiantly to imbue us with it.

The little chapel in the Gothic was a perfect setting for the Sabbath Eve worship services Crich and Van and I conducted for Seventh Day Baptist university students. We took turns leading the services and received excellent support from the dozen or more faithful attendees. It was also in this chapel that we did our practice preaching under Dean Bond’s critical but compassionate ear and eye.

Another activity the three of us became en-aged in was the publication and distribution of the Seventh Day Baptist Youth Newsletter, THE BEACON. We ran each issue off on a mimeograph and when it broke down one option was to end the publication. Instead, we mounted a campaign with youth across the denomination to raise a fund for the purchase of a new mimeograph machine. The campaign was successful and publication of THE BEACON continued.

My first opportunity to conduct a Sabbath Morning Worship Service came when Pastor Harley Sutton invited me take over for him in the Little Genesee Seventh Day Baptist Church one Sabbath. I prepared an eight-typed-page sermon and placed the manuscript on the pulpit at the beginning of the service. At the insistence of the choir director, I wore a choir robe with flowing sleeves and before time for the sermon caught the robe sleeve in the corner of the sermon manuscript. Page by page the sermon fluttered to the floor.

A quick decision was called for. Did I go down the steps, stoop over in my robe, pick up the pages one by one and finally, put them in order? I thought, “I wrote this sermon and I know what’s in it, so let it lay.” I preached without the manuscript and at the close of the service an elderly lady stopped to shake hands and said, “If that was your first sermon, I’d like to hear your last one.” I did not ask her to explain her meaning.

On several occasions our Dean arranged for us to visit other seminaries for guest lectures or conferences. One such visit was to an Interseminary Conference at Gettysburg Theological Seminary in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. On the afternoon before the conference began we three had a guided tour of the Gettysburg Civil War battlefield. The experience left a deep impression on us.

At dinner time Crich, Van and I went into a Gettysburg restaurant to eat. As we checked the menu, the waiter said, “Do you want to eat it here or take it out?” Taken aback, we replied, “We want to eat here.” Then the waiter said–looking at Crich–”Your friend can’t eat here.” When he suggested the two of us could stay and eat we informed him, “This place isn’t good enough for us, either”. We were stunned to experience blatant racial discrimination so near the site of a decisive Civil War battle fought less than a century ago.

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