We left Kansas City, Missouri, for Portland, Oregon, Sunday evening, June 5, 1926. We left from 704 Olive Street at 3:30 PM.
Our bunch consisted of six cars, well equipped with cots, bedding, gas stoves, and everything to camp with. Melvin Simpson and family, Fred Morgan and family, Mrs. Morgan and daughter, Bro. Damron and family, Aunt Jennie, and Margaret, Bro. Alfred Smith, his sister and nephew, Burns Lundy and family, Bro. Potts and family, Sis. Duty and nephew John Fields and his wife were all in this group.
more ...Dear Friends in Christ,
I had been sick for some time, living in Nebraska, and we heard the Gospel from a sister that had been here, so my husband John and I decided to come out May 16, 1916. I was prayed for and wonderfully healed, also in 1917, first part of Kenton camp.
The year the Tabernacle was built in Woodstock, our twin boys had passed on and Sister Crawford thought it that would be good for us to move on to the camp grounds to help watch. Bro Jim Eldrige and two other brothers were living there so would always some one be there. So I saw the Tabernacle being built from start to finish, but was a wonderful time.
Your Friend,
Mrs. John T Wilson
Dear Amos and Pauline,
It was very nice talking to you two this last Nov.
I’ll write you what I know. My dad was in Portland from 1906 (if he came there the same year as Florence Crawford did.) I’m not sure what year they divorced and I don’t know who or when she, Florence, was married before she married my dad. But my mother and dad were married in Portland 12/12/12 and I was the youngest child, born 8/20/18. My mother’s name was Elizabeth Hannah Fish Crawford. She felt my dad was free to marry because his first wife, Florence, was married before and had a living mate.
My mother wouldn’t marry my dad until his mother died. She was an atheist and when she died she let out a blood curdling scream as if she saw hell.
more ...The meetings at second and Main went on until camp meeting time in May or June of 1907. They sent the colored man who had the mission before Sister Crawford came, to see if they could have the campground where he had held meeting each summer before at 12th and Division Streets. But the owner told him they were afraid their "tongues of fire" would set the trees on fire. So this thing had to be prayed through, and God softened the mans heart, and he let us have the grounds.
I wanted to camp on the grounds so badly, but had the three small children, and Esther was only a little past one year old. We also had a cow and some chickens on our hands. We didn’t know what to do, but thought we might sell the cow and chickens ...
more ...This is an account of the events leading to the conversion of my parents, Mary and Ed Hess and their association with the Apostolic Faith Org. in Portland, Ore.
The two people responsible for bringing the latter rain gospel to my parents were Sis. Florence Crawford and Bro. Jackson White. Sis. Crawford attended the Azusa St. meetings and received the baptism experience there. While there she met Bro. White who at about the same time had received that experience also.
more ...Bro. N. B. Lesher and I have worked together in the Apostolic Faith work since 1910, the year I moved to Portland, Ore. from Hobart, Okla. Bro. Lesher moved to Portland in 1909 from Ft. Collins, Colorado.
Mr. Seymour came to Portland, Ore. about 1911 with some of his helpers and tried to take over Sister Crawford’s work at Front and Burnside St., but met with complete failure.
Pastor Durham wanted Sister Crawford to let him preach his “finished work of Calvary” at Front & Burnside St. and she told him he never would. He said he would open a mission close by and take all her members away from her. She said “You are welcome to every member you can get.” He got a mission on Ankeny St. about 3 blocks from our place and one night a group of about 5 from the Apostolic Faith, including Bro. Lesher and myself went to hear him but very few people were there ...
more ...As I look back on my life, I marvel at the way God led our family in to the gospel. In 1911 we were living out in a little desert town in Arizona. We had moved there to take up a homestead and drill for artesian water. But things were not going as we had planned, but instead, my health broke down. The Dr. said I could never have health without surgery. There was no hospital in our town. I would have to go away from home, and me just a young inexperienced young woman. We did not know what to do, so my mother, being a real Christian, began to pray. She had been receiving papers from a place in Los Angeles that told how God was healing the sick through prayer.
We (or she) had been receiving some papers from a Dr. Yokum in L. A. about Pisgah Home - a place where sick folks could come and get prayed for. I cast them aside, but she saved them. After dad and I were married, we left Safford and went out to Bowie with my folks to take up a homestead and drill for artesian water. (We hoped to get it. It has never been found but they are drilling deep wells and pumping and turning the desert into cotton fields.) My health broke while there. God's way of leading us to the Gospel. Mama prayed to find out if I should go to California to seek for healing. A light shown across her bed and a voice said, "If she goes to L. A. she will be healed." That was enough for us. God had spoken.
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