Over My Shoulder

Chapter 13—Launching Out on My Own

Our good ship, the Moana, anchored in the San Francisco Bay on Thursday night, September 20. All day Friday we were held at the quarantine station on Angel Island and it was not until very late that afternoon that we were allowed to leave. Some of Father’s good friends met our group at the San Francisco dock and took us to their homes for the night. OMS 96.1

One would have thought that Grandma would be exhausted after the long voyage, but the very next day, on Sabbath afternoon, she spoke to a large congregation in the Oakland church. OMS 96.2

On the ship Grandma had wondered where her next home would be. But she did not worry about it, because, as she later wrote: “When I was on the vessel crossing the Pacific, on the way from Australia to America, the angel of the Lord said to me, ‘I have a refuge for you.’” ⁸ OMS 96.3

After landing in San Francisco she and Father began searching for this refuge. Father suggested she go up to St. Helena to the Sanitarium, and she journeyed the sixty-five miles. In hills and woods away from the city she found rest. Best of all, she found the “refuge” promised her by the angel. She wrote how it happened: OMS 96.4

“At the Retreat [St. Helena Sanitarium] I was telling Mrs. Ings how thankful I was for such pleasant rooms.... I told her my experience in house hunting in Oakland.... Sister Ings then told me that there was a place ... which she thought would suit me, and she wanted me to go and see it.... I went to see it, and found a place of retirement, on high ground, all ready for us to occupy.” ⁹ “Here was a house all furnished, and we could, as soon as the decision was made and terms accepted, go into this house, and find everything ready in excellent order.... Here were horses, carriages, and nearly everything ... in good order for us to possess.... I never anticipated so much in a home that meets my taste and my desires so perfectly. Next week we shall live in our new home and we will seek to make it a home after the symbol of heaven.” ¹⁰ Besides the home and grounds, the Elmshaven Estate contained seventeen acres of fruit trees, three acres of pasture, two acres of garden, ten acres for hay, plus five acres of hilly land where a large spring was located. In the family orchard near the house were apple, pear, peach, cherry, plum, nectarine, fig, walnut, and olive trees. The prune orchard alone contained two thousand trees. There was also a large vineyard. The barn could stable six horses and at least two cows. This was the home God had indicated would be in readiness for Grandma. Here she could gather her workers together and without delay continue the preparation of her books. OMS 96.5

The purchase was made, Grandma and her family moved in, and soon the click of typewriters could be heard coming from a four-room cottage between the house and the barn. This little house had been the home of the former farm manager and his wife. It could answer the immediate purpose until a more commodious office could be erected. OMS 97.1

Father rented an apartment from a family living nearby. Mabel attended school, and I seized the first opportunity to travel over the hills to Healdsburg College, thirty-seven miles away. Our summer vacations were spent gathering and drying fruit on Grandma’s farm. OMS 97.2

One summer, under the delusion that distant fields are greener, Mabel and I went with friends to pick and dry fruit in the orchards in the vicinity of Vacaville. Unfortunately, there were more workers than jobs that summer and we went home nearly as poor as we started out. But I needed money for my next year’s schooling. Why didn’t Grandma help? I wondered. She did later, but that year there were demands upon her resources more urgent than our needs. So I hunted up my old bicycle and with a prospectus in hand, set out for Napa. From house to house I went, selling The Desire of Ages, Steps to Christ, and The House We Live In. After canvassing from Monday till Friday afternoon, I would pedal the twenty miles from Napa to St. Helena and spend the weekends at home. OMS 97.3

One Friday afternoon, feeling unusually weary, I decided to make the trip by electric interurban car and bring my cousin, May Jones, home with me for a visit. By the time we reached St. Helena Station, I was feeling faint and ill, almost too weak to get out of the cars and into the buggy that was waiting for me. By Sabbath morning I was well covered with suspicious-looking spots. Mother looked me over carefully. OMS 97.4

“It can’t be measles,” she said. “You’ve had both kinds of measles, and they say you can only have them once.” OMS 98.1

She took a second look. “It must be smallpox!” she exclaimed, backing away. The doctor who was called confirmed her diagnosis. He had read in the newspaper that there were three hundred cases of smallpox in Napa. I was placed in quarantine, and Mabel and cousin, May, were shut up with me because they also had been exposed. OMS 98.2

Following the physician’s counsel, we were fed principally on oranges, grapes, and other acid and semiacid fruit. Within a few days I was feeling normal. May had only a light attack and Mabel did not stay in bed at all, but spent most of the time outdoors in the sunshine. OMS 98.3

Our confidence in the smallpox diagnosis was somewhat weakened when we learned that the epidemic in Napa had been so light that it was called “Manila fever.” Not until years later, when repeated vaccinations failed to affect either Mabel or me, was the smallpox diagnosis confirmed. Ever afterward we were able to care for genuine smallpox patients without fear of contracting the disease. OMS 98.4

One especially pleasant experience I remember of my early life in California was attending the Camp of Peace, a three-week teachers’ institute held in tents on the side of Howell Mountain near the sanitarium. Frequent messages on the subject of Christian education had come to our church leaders through the Spirit of Prophecy. Schools must be established, textbooks were required, and experienced teachers were needed to prepare them. Earnest, prayerful study was given to this project at the institute, which was attended by some of our most prominent educators. OMS 98.5

At its close, before the tents were taken down, several of the most progressive teachers in attendance were hard at work outlining courses of study and planning textbooks on the various subjects assigned them. I volunteered to teach the first four grades if I could work with an experienced person. But demands for church school teachers far exceeded the number of teachers available, and I allowed myself to be persuaded to accept an eight-grade school in Reno, Nevada. Today I stand amazed at my courage in taking on such an assignment! There was insufficient time for the writing and printing of the complete church school textbooks before the opening of school in the fall. But the newly-appointed textbook writers did the best they could, preparing the lessons piecemeal in pamphlet form and sending them out month by month through the mail to the teachers. OMS 98.6

One afternoon soon after the opening of school, I found my mailbox jammed with lesson pamphlets. By the time I had given them a cursory examination, it was long after midnight. Each pamphlet contained an entire months’ lessons on a certain subject for a certain grade. I marveled at the skill with which the lessons had been prepared in so short a time. If only I had had time to become knowledgeable about the various subjects before trying to teach them, all would have been well. In the morning I took the materials to school and was obliged to begin teaching from them without having time even to read them through. OMS 99.1

A few days later, more lesson pamphlets dealing with other subjects came along. All but one of the eight grades was represented in my school of twenty-three pupils, and in spite of my efforts to combine classes, I still had forty-two lesson periods listed on the daily program. I much prefer to draw a curtain over my first attempt at teaching. I might mention, however, that one of my pupils years later accosted my husband with the statement, “You know, your wife she learned me grammar, and I thought she done fine!” OMS 99.2

Those lesson pamphlets marked the beginning of a concerted effort by early Adventist teachers to prepare textbooks for our church schools. Those dedicated, faith-filled pioneer teachers refused to be discouraged, and continued working, praying, studying, and counseling until finally, with the help of new recruits, they developed the symmetrical, practical, even glorious pattern of Christian education followed by Seventh-day Adventist schools today. OMS 99.3