1

MARSHALL WILSON LOVELL

Nov. 16, 1907 -- Feb. 18, 1995

Marshall Wilson Lovell, third child of William Henry and Nellie Fisher Lovell was born at
Pleasant View, TN., November 16, 1907.

He attended elementary schools at Delrose, Cumberland City, Springfield, Theta, TN., and High
School at Williams Preparatory School in Gallatin, and Dover High School, Dover, TN.
finishing High School in May of 1924.

Some months before finishing High School he went to Cumberland City and met with a
committee to examine candidates for the ministry and for becoming local preachers. One of the
questions asked was: "Do you believe in backsliding?" He answered, "Yes," and the questioner
replied that he didn't but that he believed in the possibility of it. This is what Marshall meant,
but through his long years in the ministry he has become convinced that some Methodists believe
it both ways! He was licensed to preach at the District Conference of the Clarksville District on
June 21, 1924.

In the summer of 1924 he went with Eugene to Westminster, Maryland to sell books for the
Southwestern Book Company of Nashville. Eugene took the southern part of Carroll County and
Marshall the northern part. some of the experiences were plenty rough, such as walking miles to
find places to spend the night. Not all the folks wanted to take in a rank stranger. Marshall spent
two or three nights sleeping in hay barns with the permission of the owners! But by the end of
the summer he had cleared about $325.00 for his freshman year at Emory University.

He enrolled in September of 1924. In about two months after that our father died with a sudden
heart attack and was buried in Mt. Hope Cemetery, Franklin, TN. It was an experience of very
deep grief to all of us. Marshall thought something of changing schools during those days, but
he continued at Emory and afterwards was happy that he did.

In the summers of 1925 and 1926 he again sold books, going in 1926 to Carrolton, KY., and in
1925 to Charleston, S.C. He worked out in the country near these places and again had good
success in making money to stay in school during the following school years.

In the summer of 1927 he sold Wearever Aluminum, and after several weeks began to do well at
it.

His first experience as a Wearever salesman was a most unforgettable one. He was sent to a
little town in Georgia, not far from Jackson. He found a rooming place at the home of a country
doctor, who had an old maid daughter that brought about this experience. Marshall told her in
the course of a conversation that after a few days he would like to have the P.T.A. to sponsor a
party at the school and that if fifty couples were present a set of the Wearever would be
presented to the school. Well, she set her heard that that should be done that very day or night!
Marshall didn't want to go ahead for he wanted to learn more about cooking and seasoning the
food. She was very insistent and he finally gave in, very much to his sorrow after that. He went
 2

over to Jackson, GA., to buy a beef roast, cabbage, apples, Irish potatoes, and some brown whole
wheat bread. An oil stove was moved to the school house. There was no kitchen but a room was
selected for it. Well, the floor of the room was not level. Some of the burners kept going out.
He decided he would not have time to cook the roast and so he spent his efforts on the
vegetables. Some couples arrived and he gave his lecture on food and its relationship to health.
At the end of the lecture it dawned on him that he had forgotten to bring any seasoning and any
silverware. One can imagine how vegetables would taste without the seasoning and butter.
Well, as could well be expected nobody enjoyed what he had cooked. for a week he stayed there
and tried to sell some of the Wearever, but he didn't succeed in selling one piece of it!

Marshall contacted the area supervisor and asked to be moved to Franklin, TN., where his
mother lived or to be sent to some place where a more experienced salesman could help him. He
was sent to Forsyth Community. There they continued for some weeks but barely made
expenses. Marshall was then sent to Barnesville, GA., and after a week or so his luck began to
change. he was able to sell aluminum all over the town and in eight weeks cleared some
$450.00.

In those days the University allowed a pre-theological student to take about three years in the
college and then begin his seminary training. Courses in the school of theology would count on
his college degree if he were majoring in certain fields. His major was philosophy. So, in the
summer of 1927 he entered the School of Theology at Emory and continued there until the end
of the summer of 1929, the summer of 1928 excepted. He received his A.B. degree in the early
summer of late spring of 1929. He was not able to get his B.D. thesis written by the end of the
summer of 1929 and did it the next year while he was in the ministry, receiving his B.D. in 1930
"en absentia."

Marshall was a member of the Georgia Student volunteer Union while he was at Emory. He
attended Student Volunteer Conferences at Agnes Scott, Wesleyan, and Brenau Colleges. He
was president of the Georgia Student Volunteer Union in 1928-1929. He was also a member of
the Student Volunteer Band at Emory during most of his years there. Some of the contacts with
missionaries or officials of the mission boards of different churches were very helpful and
challenging.

We had some wonderful professors in the Candler School of Theology. One of them was Dr.
Plato Durham, a great thinker, mystic, and a marvelous speaker. At times his lectures on men
like Luther and Wesley brought the Lord so close to us in the class room we would walk all the
way back to Dobbs Hall under the spell and power of the Holy Spirit, not saying a word to
anyone. Another was Dr. Franklin Parker, the dean, a man of strong character and a man with a
very vital Christian experience that was reflected in his face and in all his relationships. Still
another was Dr. Andrew Sledd, Professor of New Testament, undoubtedly the greatest preacher
on Salvation by Grace through Faith that I have ever heard. One week he led the chapel services
in Durham Chapel in the School of Theology speaking from the text "By grace are ye saved
through faith and that not of yourself, for it is the gift of God." During that week he spoke with
great convincing power. Marshall experienced a brokenness of heart that finally led him to a
great and marvelous experience of Christian assurance. For weeks he seemed to walk on air, and
 3

it was a joy to share what had taken place with others. It was like an Aldersgate experience for
him. An abiding peace came on Feb. 14, 1929 after searching Jan. 24 to Feb. 14.

Representatives of the Board of Missions of the M.E. Church, South, visited Emory, seeking
personnel for different mission fields. Marshall was asked to attend the annual Board Meeting of
the Board of Missions in Nashville in May. there he was appointed to go to Japan and was due
to have gone at the end of the summer of 1929. But the sailing was postponed for two or three
reasons. He wanted to get some experience in the ministry in America for he had never been
responsible for the work of a local church. He desired to finish his work on the B. D. thesis, and
he also felt it unwise to go to the mission field without a wife and companion. He has always
felt that the decision was wise.

At the Annual Conference of Middle TN., Methodism in October of 1929, Marshall was first put
down to go to Cumberland City, TN. He did not want to follow immediately in the footsteps of
his older brother Eugene. He asked that the appointment be reconsidered. He was put down for
West Point-Chinubee Charge, a mission charge in Lawrence County. He would have $250.00
more in salary had he gone to Cumberland City. He was admitted on trial and ordained deacon
on Oct. 17, 1929 at Belmont Church, Nashville.

Marshall moved to West Point near the end of October. Since Eugene had married, his mother
most graciously consented to move to West Point with him, keeping house for him and making a
home for Margaret, Marvin, and Marshall. Eugene took us in his car. It was a long, expensive
move. The parsonage was disappointing, lacking both beauty and comfort, as so many were in
those days. There was no running water and no indoor bathroom facilities. He still marvels how
his mother would consent to being a part of the Methodist itinerancy again after many years of it
with his father and again a year with Eugene. Only her love for her preacher sons could have
been the motive and her desire to see them make good. Marshall had no money for an
automobile and was in debt on his college education. So, he decided to walk to the five
churches, arranging the appointments so that he could make them all. Once he borrowed a horse
to ride to Wayland Springs about six miles from West Point. The next day after he got back and
two or three days after that he was so sore that he never did it again. He enjoyed especially five
young ladies at the West Point Church. They were school teachers and tithed their income.
There were games of tennis during the summer and a picnic or two. They were cooperative in
the work of the church. This meant much to him where there were so many things to discourage
and dampen his spirit.

The salary for the year was $750.00, and the Tennessee Conference Board of Missions paid
$200.00 or $250.00 of the amount. But with mother's help he got through the year paying off his
school debt and having a little money to buy a used car at the end of the year.

One the unforgettable experiences on the charge was running into some unkind bed-fellows in
one of the homes at Wayland Springs. Marshall had gone down to prepare for the coming of
some people in the district to talk about Epworth League work. He spent the night in the home
of one of his members. Soon after retiring he found that he had some unwanted company. After
lying there in bed for some few minutes and scratching and scratching, he got up, put some
 4

newspapers on the sheet and took out his ammunition against his foes, a can or tin of Bee-Brand
powder. After sprinkling the powder rather generously he lay back down, but there was little
sleeping that night. Several times he got up and sat in a chair. To top it off, the lady of the house
came in the next morning with her little boy some four or five years old. She was going to make
up the bed. He climbed up in it and smelled the powder. He exclaimed: "Mother, I smell bed-
bugs." It was all Marshall could do to contain himself. His mother said: "No, Brother Lovell,
when his father was sick and stayed in this room, we found a bed bug or two and that is what he
is thinking about." I presumed she found out that it was more than that. Marshall made a point
not to spend another night in that house.

At the Annual Conference of 1930 Marshall was appointed to Delrose where he had lived as a
boy in the Methodist parsonage, where he had started to school, and where he joined the church a
few weeks before he was seven years of age. Mother was glad to move to more comfortable
parsonage with running water in the kitchen and also to go among some of her former friends.

Gilbert helped Marshall find a used car. It was a Whippet that had been about "whipped out." It
cost only $150.00. Gilbert drove it down to West Point since Marshall hadn't ever driven an
automobile. Marshall made his appointments on the West Point Charge for the last time the
Sunday after Conference driving the car. The next week we moved to Delrose.

Many, many of the people remembered his father who had served that charge some fifteen or
sixteen years before that time. Marshall did a lot of visiting, had some good revivals, holding
one himself at Bee Springs Memorial. The Spirit of the Lord was among the people and there
was one or more services in which preacher and people had an experience of being melted by the
Spirit. One Presbyterian elder was called upon to lead in prayer and he had great difficulty
getting through his prayer. It was a time of blessedness.

Our father, Marshall, Eugene and one or both of the Haggards and Uncle Thomas Burr Fisher
served one or more of the churches on that charge over the years. Our father was on the charge
two different times.

This was an important year, 1930, in the life of Marshall. In the early summer of 1931 he went
to Toccoa, Georgia, to visit with Eloise Groover whom he had met at the Tennessee Student
Volunteer Conference at Maryville College, Maryville, TN., and with whom he had a date on his
way back to West Point going by Scarritt College to date her. The visit with her for a few days
at Toccoa was very fruitful. He found that he had truly fallen in love with Eloise. Marshall and
Eloise had much in common - coming from strong Methodist families, both planning to go to the
mission field, and having had something of the same training and same outlook on life.

After his visit with her, several weeks passed and one day Marshall received a telegram from
Eloise saying that the Secretary of the Woman's Division had requested her to go out to Korea as
a missionary. She asked what I felt about the matter. Marshall was in a revival. Before leaving
for the service at Shiloh Church, he sent a telegram to her saying that he hoped very much that
the matter could be put off a little longer until they could see how our relationship developed but
that she would have to reach her decision. It was truly an upsetting experience for Marshall. He
 5

wanted nothing more than to win her hand and be united in marriage with her. So, as the visiting
preacher brought his message, Marshall sat there in misery wandering what the outcome would
be. The two preachers had an invitation to dinner and supper in homes of some of our members.
Marshall had no appetite and could down very little food. He had asked Eloise to wire back her
reply. The telegram came to Fayetteville but the office there could not be reached before going
out for supper and for the preaching service that night. On the way back to Elkton to take the
visiting preacher back home he stopped at the parsonage at Delrose to try again to get the
telegraph office. Finally, he received word that she had delayed the matter of going to Korea.
That was such good news that he felt like shouting and when he shared it with other older fellow
minister he praised the Lord for the news. That following Sunday Marshall had a wonderful
time in the pulpits with a heart full of joy and rejoicing. In early October of 1931 he went back
to Toccoa to see Eloise and they were engaged to be married.

The Great Depression of the early thirties was settling down upon the country. The Delrose
Charge paid only about $924.00 of the $1000.00 salary. Marshall feared that it might dip lower
next year, and he was planning to get married. He had a talk with his presiding elder telling him
how he felt and asking him for a move if he could arrange a transfer to a better-paying
appointment. He emphasized that he did not want to move for a very small increase in salary.
The presiding elder talked with Marshall's former one and it was arranged that he be moved to
Savannah Station, which he reported would have the salary at $1250.00. The station had been
paying more than that but not for the year immediately preceding. He moved with his mother,
sister and brother near the middle or end of October.

At that time Savannah was a small town with a population of some 1700. At the first Official
Board meeting the matter of salary was talked about. They were determined to set the salary at
$1000.00. He told them what had been reported to him, but they insisted that they had not
settled on a salary of $1250.00. Finally one of the men moved that the salary be set at $1000.00
and that at the end of the year they give the pastor a gift of $250.00 rather than incorporate it in
the salary and have an increase in apportionments and in the amount for salaries of the presiding
elder. Well, the upshot of it all was that $850.00 was paid on the salary and nothing was ever
heard of the gift. The second year the salary was set at the same figure and $750.00 was paid.
Many of the members had it hard during the Depression and those who were not hit so hard
would not increase their own contributions to sustain the loss of gifts from those not in a position
to do much for the church. There was nothing to do but to stick it out.

In December of 1931 Marshall went down to Toccoa, stopping by Atlanta to pick up Dr.
Edmond Rice, a schoolmate at Emory and later a medical missionary to China and to Pakistan,
who was to be the best man. One or two nights were spent at the hotel Albermarle in Toccoa and
the wedding took place in the home of Eloise's parents in the afternoon of the 30th of Dec. It
was a beautiful home wedding. Refreshments were served afterwards and then Marshall and
Eloise got away to Atlanta followed by those throwing rice at the car. A brother-in-law and a
future brother-in-law had locked a cow-bell to one of the rods under the car. It was necessary to
stop at a filling station and have the lock cut off. We had a day or two of honeymooning on our
way back to Savannah.
 6

Eloise was warmly welcomed into the church community at Savannah and participated in the
activities of the church. Life in a parsonage without running water and without bathroom
facilities and with little money for food and clothing was rather difficult but the adjustment was
made and the days passed. We had some mighty fine people there in the church including the
Bell family and the Henry Williams. Mrs. Peter Bell remembered the days when Marshall's
father was their pastor back before the turn of the century. He and his wife made their home in
her fathers's home during those days. She showed us the Bible that he used to read from when
he conducted the family prayers. Mrs. Bell was ambitious for her children, one of whom was
teaching High School at that time with his wife, another was in Point-Four work, others were in
college, and the one who was in High School is now in the agricultural department at U.T. in
Knoxville and has taught there for many years. People of this quality, including others not
mentioned made it easier for us.

Mother, Margaret and Marvin moved to Nashville in the summer of 1932, after keeping house
for Marshall some three years. The move back to Nashville was the fourth for her in less than
three years.

Our first baby, Helen Elizabeth, was born in the Savannah parsonage on Nov. 18, 1932. She was
named after Helen Rosser, a classmate of Eloise at Scarritt, who spent years in Korea and was
among those captured by the Communists and taken on a long march to the north. Helen was a
beautiful little girl and she brought great joy to her parents.

After two years at Savannah we were moved in 1933 to Williamsport Circuit in Maury County
near Columbia. It was a four-point charge, we had four very good years there. Our support was
better. Marshall had a wonderful garden with all kinds of vegetables in it including head lettuce,
onions, carrots, English peas, radishes, Irish and sweet potatoes, Chinese cabbage, cabbage,
tomatoes, cucumbers galore, corn, beans, and other things. During the last year on that charge he
bought a good cow and we had plenty of good milk and butter. We also had chickens with
plenty of eggs and fryers during the years.

We had good years in the work of the church. Much visiting was done, revivals held, and four
quarterly Conferences each year. There were many fine people who loved the church and
supported it. We introduced the weekly giving plan of giving and our claims and the salary were
paid in full.

During our second year at Williamsport little Helen developed a tubercular bone condition near
the hip joint. The specialist in Nashville thought at first that it would be necessary to stiffen the
whole joint but later on he operated and Helen soon recovered from surgery and walked
normally again.

We had not given up the idea of going to the mission field. So, in the Spring of 1937 we offered
ourselves to the Board, hoping we would be sent to the Congo. At the May Annual meeting of
the Board we were accepted and appointed to go to China. We were due to sail in the Fall of
1937. During the latter part of the summer the Japanese army invaded the area of China where
our mission was located. So, it was decided that we should go ahead in our work in the
 7

conference.

At the Annual conference of 1937 we were moved to College Grove, TN., where we had a much
better parsonage and had three churches. Our predecessor had been there nine years and it took a
while for the people to adjust to the new preacher. We had two very fine years in the ministry on
this charge. The people were very fine and supported the work of the church. We instituted the
weekly plan of giving which helped a great bit. The salary was $1200.00. We had a very good
garden, the same good milk cow, and a flock of chickens.

We had some very good revivals, particularly at Wesley Chapel. A goodly number of people
were taken into the church. It was a very good charge to serve.

In January of 1938 Helen Elizabeth began to have difficulty again. She complained of pain in
her leg. The X-ray showed nothing. But in a few days this infection got into the blood stream
and there was nothing they could do to combat it. She was bedfast for some four months and
finally passed away on May 5, 1938. One of our members, Mrs. Julia Demonbreun, who was a
nurse came to help during the last days. We were deeply grieved, but when we fully cast our
burden of grief on the Lord He sustained. She was buried at Mt. Hope Cemetery at Franklin, and
her grave is in the row with father, mother, and brother John. No people could have been more
lovely to us than were the people of College Grove and other churches on the charge. We shall
always be indebted to those lovely folks.

During that summer of 1938 Eloise and Marshall went to Lake Junaluska to the Missions
conference. It was a great experience for us. We had the privilege of hearing Dr. Walter Judd
and other great speakers. The fellowship was wonderful.

Our second child was born on March 12, 1939, in St. Thomas Hospital, Nashville, TN. William
Eugene was named after his two grandfathers and his uncle Eugene. We were greatly comforted
and enjoyed him so much.

During the summer of 1939 the TN. Conference Board of Missions asked us if we would be
willing to go to the Congo supported by the churches of the Conference. We had been in the
Conference about ten years. We were well adjusted to the Methodist itinerancy. It was a hard
decision to reach. We finally stated our willingness to go. The Board accepted us and decided to
give us some schooling after the Conference year was over in October.

During the latter part of October we were sent to the Kennedy School of Missions in Hartford,
Connecticut, to study under Dr. Edwin Smith, an authority on African culture and institutions
and languages, and to take other courses for a good orientation for our future work. We enjoyed
the stay in Hartford and the opportunity to go to school again. We were there until near the end
of May 1940. The training helped us immensely as we later began our work in the Congo. Dr.
Smith asked about books such as "The Life Of Aggrey".

During our stay at Hartford we had a trip to Mt. Hermon School where the Student Volunteer
Movement was born back in 1886 or about that time under the leadership of Dwight L. Moody
 8

and also as an answer to the prayers of Robert P. Wilder and his sister. The country there is
beautiful overlooking the Connecticut River valley. Also a trip to Boston and Cambridge and
surrounding sites.

Marshall went down to New York to the Board of Missions of The Methodist Church to
purchase supplies and a few articles of furniture for the Congo. He went on down to Atlantic
City, New Jersey, where the First General Conference of The Methodist Church was being held
after the unification of the M.E. church and M.E. Church, South, and the Methodist Protestant
Church. It was a wonderful experience hearing the procedures of the conference and hearing the
giants of the church, men like Bishops Francis McConnell and Bishop Edwin Hughes, perhaps
the greatest preacher he was ever privileged to listen to. He also got to talk several times with
his future bishop in the Congo, Bishop John M. Springer.

We came back to Toccoa, Ga., where Eloise and Billy were to stay most of the time until we
went on our first journey to the Congo. Marshall spent a good bit of time in the Tennessee
Conference, speaking especially in the Pulaski and Winchester District, where Cullen T. Carter,
a very colorful character, was the District Supt. He got into most of the charges of that district
and they underwrote his support in the Congo for two or three years or more or a part of it. At
the close there was a missionary rally at Belmont Methodist Church where he joined the
Conference on trial in 1929. Several folks spoke and Marshall had a few words to say. Bishop
Paul B. Kern who had the Nashville area at that time brought an excellent message.

Later, Marshall went to Chicago for the consecration service in the Methodist Temple. It was
good to be there, but it was good to get away. Never in all his life has he experienced such heat -
over 100. The experience of lying in bed and perspiring and being unable to sleep at night we
never had in the Congo and up to that time nothing like that in the States.

Our sailing date was around the 8th or 10th of August. We were booked on the Noordam, a
Dutch merchant marine with facilities for quite a goodly number of passengers. We had
expected to sail to Capetown, South Africa, but due to the sinking of so many ships in the South
Atlantic by the German submarines it was decided that we would sail to the Panama Canal,
through the Pacific and then across the Indian Ocean to Durban, South Africa. The first night
was rough. We got into the tail end of a storm off the eastern shores of our country. The next
morning we were sea-sick. Never had Marshall experienced such nausea and terrible sickness.
He tried to walk the decks. When he went into the dining room, he had to leave very soon. The
only relief was in the cabin lying on his back in the bunk. Fortunately, the seas calmed down by
the time we reached the Florida Straits and we sailed on to the mouth of the Mississippi and up
that river to New Orleans. We spent three days there, then down through the Caribbean which
was choppy too. Experienced some more sea-sickness. Eloise seemed to fare better than
Marshall. Some of the stewardesses helped a little bit with our son who was about 18 months
old. We enjoyed seeing Colon on the Atlantic side of the Panama Canal, and the day through it
was one of the most enjoyable we ever had on a voyage. We emerged on the Pacific side as the
sun was about ready to set. What a beautiful scene. We sailed on to Los Angeles, where the
ship was docked for the night. The next day we set out across the Pacific and after many days of
sailing, with black-out at night, we reached the port of Balik-Papan where the ship was refuelled.
 9

The next night we transferred from the Noordam (which was one of the few ships not sunk in
World War II), to the "Swartenhout" or some such name, meaning "black dog." It was docked at
a Port in the Java Sea and the Captain of the Noordam refused to sail into the harbor because
mines had been planted in those waters. So, we had to wait until the black dog got up enough
steam to sail out to meet me. We transferred into little boats in the choppy water and nobody
was hurt. Some of the missionaries forgot a few articles on the first boat. We sailed on to
Batavia, Java, where we spent three days. We took a trip into the interior. It is a beautiful
tropical island and very colorful or was in those days.

We set sail on the Indian Ocean which was choppy all the way to Durban and we ran into a storm
the last day. A submarine followed us to give protection. One day we suddenly began to zigzag
in the sea. We grabbed our life belts and went out on the deck to see another submarine, a larger
one. Fortunately for us it was a friendly one. We stopped a short while at one or two islands in
the Indian Ocean and spent one night at Lorenzo Marques in Portuguese East Africa. After
going through the storm the next day, we were so happy to reach Durban, after spending almost
seventy nights on the seas, much of that time walking with Billy in his harness. So, Marshall
tells people he walked most of the world's seas with his young son. (Meat on the boat)

On the "black dog" Billy had a terrible attack of malaria. The doctor was very slow in giving
him any drugs to combat it. When he finally did, he got better. But it was some experience for a
few days and nights.

We spent one or two nights in Durban and pulled out on the train for the Congo going by
Johannesburg, where we had a few hours. We went out to the interesting zoo there. We shall
never forget our little son's lifting up his eyes to see the heard of the tall giraffes. As we came
through and spent a few hours in a Northern Rhodesian city, Marshall asked an African woman
what tribe she belonged to. She clicked as said "Xhosa." She was of the tribe whose language
has clicks in it or is spoken with clicks. We stopped at the great Victoria Falls on the Zambezi.
It is a wonderful sight. We finally reached Elizabethville and were met by Newell Booth and
taken to his home for the night. We were royally entertained by Rev. and Mrs. Booth. He was to
be elected our bishop in 1944. The railway trip from Elizabethville to Luluabourg was about two
or three days and nights. Most of the trains burned wood as well as coal, and if a lot of rain fell,
then the speed of the train was slowed or decreased. We were met there by Eugene and Mildred
and Gene, Jr. How happy it was to get this long, long journey, two-thirds of the way around the
world, over. We travelled by automobile two days to reach Minga Station where we were to do
our language study, spending the night at Lusambo, where the Scottish people had a mission and
bought our supplies for us in Lusambo. We sent the truck down once or twice a month for them.

On our long trip to the Congo we travelled with several missionaries of the Presbyterian, U.S.
Church, including the Hoyt Millers, Plummer Smiths, Lachlan Vasses, Ira Moores, Day Carpers
who were the parents of Gene, Jr's., wife, Frances. Plummer Smith was good with children and
he helped a good bit by taking Billy and showing him pictures, and talking with him, or talking
to him. We have cherished the friendship of these people and have visited in their homes in the
Congo.
 10

The Minga Station missionaries and the Africans came to greet us very warmly and we were
given our own home with some African helpers. In a few days they decided that they would give
us some African names. Marshall was named after a big chief in that area whose name was
"Ukit'Ukunda," meaning inheritor of the woods. Eloise was named, "Mama Hanyangi," meaning
a woman of great poise and inner strength. Our son was simply called "Uwandji Billy." The
word Uwandji means chief. Well it wasn't long until my namesake was around asking for gifts.
He was great at begging. He reminded me that Bishop Arthus Moore had promised him a gift of
some kind and had never sent it. It may have been his way of trying to get me to write the
bishop and remind him. I never did that, however.

We had language study five or six days a week. Two of the missionaries were responsible with
an African helper who would correct our pronunciation. Marshall determined to apply himself.
He had been a preacher for ten years before coming to the Congo and he wanted to preach as
soon as possible in the Otetela language or dialect. It is one of the dialects of the "Bantu-
speaking people." There are some 350 or more of them from north of the Equator down into the
Union of South Africa. Within six months he was preaching a little bit in the language. He went
on a preaching trip after six or seven months of study. Carriers carried his chop-box, food,
bedding, and a man was secured as a bicycle man. He told Henry Wheeler, our senior
missionary that he didn't need a bicycle man. He insisted, and it wasn't long until he found out
how ignorant he was of the terrain of that part of the country. There were hills like mountains to
ascend and descend and some small streams to pass over. it was a trip of some five or six days.
In each of the villages where we had a church, Marshall preached, gave the sacrament of the
Lord's Supper to the church people chosen to take it by the African preacher of the village. It
was a strenuous trip and we had to keep on the move to get back by Saturday. We had begun at
the first of the week. Marshall was warmly welcomed in most of the villages. The churches
were rather weak in most of them. The majority were women with a sprinkling of men.

Bishop Springer came by on his way to Annual Conference of 1941 which was to meet at
Wembo Nyama. Marshall had turned up with his first experience of mumps, and the doctor
ruled that he couldn't go. The bishop never came near. Finally, Marshall sent word to him to
come to the front yard or porch of our home and talk with him. He did. Marshall told him that
he would much prefer to have evangelistic work or the superintendency of a district, that he was
not interested in getting lined up for school work. He made no promises, seemed to resent the
suggestion. But Mr. Wheeler felt as Marshall did. He would have been glad to have Marshall
and family back at Minga, but he wanted us to get into full-time work in the churches. So, we
were appointed to the Wembo Nyama District, whose superintendent had gone home on
furlough.

Soon after the Conference we moved to Wembo Nyama where Eugene and Mildred were
established. As soon as we could get settled, Marshall began to itinerate in the district. From
1941 to 1943 or 1944, he was able to give his full time to the work. There were some eighty
preachers and over one hundred preaching places. Some of these could be made in the
automobile. Others only by bicycle and foot, with carriers going along, and the path cook. He
found that a large number of the catechists were poorly prepared for the work and spent a good
part of their time in their gardens or making trips here, there, and yonder. Several of them had to
 11

be dismissed because they were not giving their time to the work and others fell into the sin of
adultery or hemp-smoking or something else. It was an interesting life, however, and always
something new coming up. some of the church people and some of the preachers and wives
were deeply devoted Christians and their witness for Christ counted.

At the end of some three years, other responsibilities were added such as taking charge of the
Mission Press work. Marshall had no training for this kind of work. One of the most interesting
and trying experiences was that of printing the first hymn book with responsive readings in it.
There were also little dashes to indicate where there were slurs. No job was more trying than to
get all in its right place and everything correct. One night Eloise began to laugh at a mistake he
had not caught just before the sheet was printed. He had caught it before that time and asked that
it be corrected and took it for granted that the foreman had seen that the correction was made.
Each hymn had the Otetela Title, and underneath that the name of the author of the hymn. This
song was entitled "KI, NYU TSHE" in Otetela. The English title was: "Peace Be Still". The
name of the author Mary A. Baker Well, as it was printed on 2500 copies, the English title was,
"Peace Be Still, Mary." Marshall felt like sinking through the floor. He remembered that the
sheet they had brought to him for correction was printed that way, and he had told the foreman to
take Mary out of the English title and put it below with A. Baker. Marshall thought he had done
it. Furthermore, there was a conference on the station at that time with Dr. George Carpenter
who was the head of the printing work of the Congo Protestant Council at Leopoldville at that
time or soon after that. He was a very capable leader and afterwards became an official in the
Council of Churches of America. And when Marshall looked at it again, he didn't give all the
attention that he should have to it. He had them take a space an blot out Mary on those sheets
and printed some 10 copies extra for the missionaries. Some people wondered why he had two
groups of hymn books!

Another job was that of taking charge of the Industrial Work at Wembo Nyama. He had to
oversee the work of the carpenters, the brick makers, the building of some buildings at the Girl's
Home. He had never had any experience lake this before.

Thus he was in charge of the district work, the printing work, the industrial work, and for a few
months the transport work from our mission to Lusambo and back. None of it was too well
done, and it was a great relief to turn part of this over to Eugene when he came back from
furlough in 1945. Especially when I brought money to the station at the time of the uprising of
the soldiers.

Eloise worked in the Girls' Home for a year or so. She enjoyed it, and she made a good home for
Marshall and our son, Billy. Nobody here in America realizes what a job it was to get everything
done in the missionary homes in the Congo. At that time we had no gas stoves, no kerosene
refrigerators, no store to go to for meal, flour , and other supplies. So, most every missionary
household had a man who would go out and bring in wood and cut it up for the wood stove. He
usually would heat the "icy-ball", the only form of refrigeration that most of us had. It was a
pipe, a crooked one, with a metal ball on each end of it. Ammonia was in it. It was necessary to
heat one ball over a fire slowly while the other ball was immersed in a half-drum of water. After
heating it for some time, the hot ball was placed in water which drover the ammonia back into
 12

the other ball, making it cold. We could only have one tray of ice or a try of ice-cream in it. It
did cool off the box where it was placed. It was a daily operation. Another man would go get
water from the spring, and the one at Minga was about a mile away. He would bring it in two
buckets tied on to a pole thrown across his shoulders. Another man would cultivate the garden
with the hoe. We had no plows, and he would also cut the grass and keep the yard in good
shape. Another man would cook. He had to roast the coffee beans and grind them up, grind the
meal, cook or bake bread every two or three days, and take care of keeping the fire stoked, but he
would not wash the dishes! He did the cooking. Another man would serve as the household
boy, sweeping the house, making the beds, dusting, washing the dishes, setting the table, and
helping the missionary housewife. During these later days the homes have had running water
installed, there is no "icy-ball" to heat, some have gas stoves, heated by the bottled gas.

During our first term we had regional revivals where the church people of several villages would
come together for a few days of preaching, heart-searching, and praying. Then we had a yearly
revival at the station church for all the students, the mission village people, and church people
and others from all over the district. They would stay in homes or build little temporary places
to sleep and keep their supplies. Missionaries and African preachers took time about in
preaching.

Our first term ended in the Spring of 1946. We went to Luluabourg and boarded the train to Port
Franqui on the Kasai River, took a boat to Leopoldville which was two to four days of traveling.
We then took the train down to Matadi where we waited for a boat. Finally a U.S. Constitutions
freighter came into the port. They telephoned us to know whether we were willing to travel with
a man and his child who had tropical dysentery. We told them that we preferred not to be put in
the room with them. When they said that we could wait for another boat then, we told them that
we would take the place. We felt that something could be done about it. And surely enough the
American captain who was a man of good sense put the child and her father in the dispensary
room of the ship and arranged for Mrs. Lovell and Billy to stay with missionaries from Angola
and Marshall to stay with the husband of one of them. It was not very pleasant traveling for
Eloise and Billy for this one and her husband had some children who had grown up "native" and
they made it very hard for our little boy who was then seven years old. But we made it. There
was a stop-over in the Gold Coast where we picked up quite a few cocoa beans.

Our 1946-47 furlough was spent on the campus of Scarritt College. Both Eloise and Marshall
took some courses. Billy attended Peabody Demonstration School. Marshall did a good bit of
speaking on the Congo. He made all the District Conferences of the TN. Conference, and spoke
in many churches. Near the end of our furlough the churches of the Conference raise enough
money to buy us a car for our second term in the Congo, and to pay the freight of it from New
York to Matadi.

We attended the first Conference for Furloughed Missionaries at Albion, Michigan, in the
Methodist college there. It was a very interesting and helpful experience.

After visiting with loved ones in Georgia, we drove to New York and took the car to the docks.
We sailed on a Norwegian or Swedish steamer with just a few passengers, including Dr. and
 13

Mrs. Elmer Leslie. Dr. Leslie was head of the Old Testament Department of the School of
Religion of Boston University and was then working on his great book on the Psalms. We
enjoyed their company very much and they were to visit with us later in our missionary home at
Katako-Kombe Station. There they made him "Khumi Ukunda" lord of the woods order.

We were advised to drive the car through the country. After being at Matadi, the only port for
the Congo - of any size - some 95 miles up the Congo River, for several days, we struck it out. It
was no hay day, we had a time of it! We had to go in first and second gears over many sections
of the road that had deep ruts in them. Stretches of the road had grass, cut grass, lain in the ruts
or over them. We got stuck several times and had to dig out. The first night we spent in a little
rest - house and almost froze. We kept the open fire going all night long. We slept in our
clothes and wrapped up in duffle bags and anything else to keep from getting so cold. The next
night we spent at a Roman Catholic Mission. That was better but the beds were not so
comfortable. The next night was in a dirty, filthy rest - house. The sentry, Marshall found, built
a fire near the back of the car, and he perhaps caught it in time before an explosion of the gas
tank could have occurred. We got up early the next morning and crossed the ferry. We do not
know exactly how it happened, but the trailer hitch came off and we travelled some 30 - 40 miles
before we discovered that we didn't any longer have our trailer with clothes in trunks, car parts,
gasoline, tires, and other things. It was the type with coiled springs around the axle and we were
bone-tired and didn't know it had fallen off until we got out to eat dinner. We back - tracked
looking down the slopes wondering if it had gone to a ravine below. Then finally we saw a truck
pulling it toward the town where we were going. Nothing had been stolen. The Belgian
government official had instructed the African truck driver to hitch it to his truck and take it with
him. We turned around and went on to a Protestant Mission Station at Kitwit, resting and
waiting a day or two for the trailer. After getting some bolts from a Portuguese merchant and
trucker, we got on our way. At another ferry the African ferryman dropped the bolt and
fortunately we had another. The next night was spent at another Protestant Mission station
which was Mennonite. The next one was at Tshikapa, one of the diamond mining towns of the
Congo. We put up in a hotel there, after getting permission to be there. Then, the next day, on to
Luluabourg and the next day to Lusambo. Then we made it to Wembo Nyama where we spent
the night with Gene and Mildred. We went on to Katako-Kombe the next day. We were to be
the only resident missionaries on this station for a year and a half. We had the supervision of
ever type of work in the district and on the station - church work, station school, industrial work,
boarding departments of the school and the girls' home, the dispensary, the regional schools out
in the district and the district work. None of it we were able to do well. We were worn to the
bone when we reached Katako-Kombe and it took several weeks for us to get back to normal.

After a year and a half there alone, we were joined by Alex and Hazel Reid who had opened this
mission station and by a new missionary family, Dentist Hugh Deale and Marjorie and their son
Ricky. Marshall turned over the district work and church work to Alex Reid, Eloise the home to
Hazel, and Marshall was asked to be the language teacher for the Deales. It was a difficult job.
They were having difficulty getting adjusted, Hugh was doing some dental work for the
missionaries of the mission and for Africans. They just didn't study as they should, and Marshall
felt that he was a rather poor teacher, not being able to inspire them to do more ground work.
 14

At the Conference of 1949 held at Wembo Nyama, Eloise was appointed to the regional schools
and Marshall appointed the District Superintendent of the Wembo Nyama district. He was also
asked to be the Legal Representative of the Mission, a liaison person between the state and the
mission, with reports to be made in French, and correspondence to be maintained. He was also
asked to be Missionary School Inspector, whose job it was to see that the schools that expected
to get government subsidy for their work were in line with the educational program planned by
the state, which by the way allowed all schools to teach religion. This job also meant testing the
students and pupils in all the mission schools, and at the end of the year preparing a full report on
every part of the school work of every school, including teachers' names, preparation, diplomas,
salaries, the boarding departments, materials for school work, and a lot of other things. It took
two to three weeks of solid work, day and night, to get up the reports, and on the basis of the
facts of the reports, subsidy was given on missionary teachers' salaries, school materials,
boarding departments, etc. The district work was sometimes neglected because of all of this
other work.

We were at Wembo Nyama from 1949 to 1952. Eloise had charge of the regional schools - some
seven of them - with around 800 students and twenty teachers. She did an excellent work with
them, exercising more patience than most any ordinary mortal could have. She was also a
teacher in the teacher - training school at Wembo Nyama, supervising the practice work of
student teachers and for a while principal of the elementary school at the station.

When our furlough was due in 1952, we were really ready for it. Bill had been in school at
Lubondai from 1949 - 1952. He joined the church at Wembo Nyama the Sunday before he left
with us the next day for school. He looked forward to it, but he had a terrible time with
homesickness for some weeks there, but he got adjusted.

We flew all the way to America in 1952. We were taken to Kindu and flew from there to
Stanleyville on a small plane. Then a large plane from Stanleyville over the Sudan and Egypt,
looking down upon the valley of the Nile which seemed like a crooked string down there
surrounded by miles and miles of desert. We reached Cairo at night and spent some five days
sight-seeing in and around Cairo. We took in the British Museum or the museum established
years ago by the British to house so many wonderful things from Egypt's past. We saw the
pyramids (the three great ones), the Sphinx, where Bill had a camel ride, the older one beyond
the ruins of the ancient city of Memphis, some of the mosques, a Coptic church or two, the
bazaar, and other places.

Then we flew to Athens, Greece. We knew a merchant at Kindu and he gave us the name of a
nephew or cousin who was a druggist in Athens. After we had taken a trip the afternoon of our
arrival and the morning afterwards to the Parthenon and other places there, including the
Olympic stadium, Marshall went to see this relative. That afternoon to our amazement he hired a
taxi and took us to some of the interesting sites and to a Byzantine Greek Orthodox Church. It
was all very interesting. We went back to our hotel, had supper. This relative called to tell us
that he wanted to carry us out that evening. Marshall tried to beg out. Eloise was fatigued and
didn't feel like going out. That Marshall told him, but he insisted that he would come for
Marshall and Bill. He took us out in a taxi, then hired a horse-drawn taxi - surrey to show us
 15

some of the sites, and finally near mid-night to an open air place where ice-cream was being
served. Then back to the hotel. We had never experienced such hospitality by complete
strangers. We enjoyed the Acropolis and Parthenon remains, the beautiful view of the blue sea
from the heights of the Acropolis and the mountains on the other side with the sight of Athens at
the foot of the mountain. We also visited an old temple quite well preserved near the foot of the
Acropolis. The food was delicious at the hotel. It was a strange thing to be paying for things in
bills of thousands. Believe it took some 30,000 drachma to make a few dollars.

We flew to Rome and had two or three days there, seeing many things of interest such as St.
Peter's, St. Paul's, St. John's, the cathedral where Michelangelo's Moses is found - so lifelike and
magnificent. We also went through the Vatican library and museum and the chapel where popes
are elected with all the wonderful painting of Michelangelo, the church of the Capuchin Monks
where the bones of saints decorated the walls of the basement and are piled up like a pile of
wood in one corner, the catacombs, the ruins of the Colosseum, and other interesting places.
Eloise had a difficult time getting into St. Peter's because she wore a blouse with short sleeves.
She finally tied a scarf around her arms and they let her in.

We flew to Brussels and spent only a short time there, seeing some of our missionaries who were
going out for the first time to the Congo after their studies there. We then flew from Brussels to
New York and after a day or two there went by train to Toccoa, GA., where we planned to spend
our furlough with Mrs. Claude Groover, Eloise's mother.

Bill went to school in Toccoa. Eloise was with her mother. Marshall did a good bit of speaking
going to Iowa around Cedar Rapids, Marshalltown, and other places, places in North Georgia,
and in Tennessee.

During that year Eloise and Marshall took some short courses at Cornell University at Ithaca,
New York, and in Washington, D.C., at a seminar arranged by the agricultural department. We
visited churches in and around Philadelphia and went down to Atlantic City, N.J., to visit with
Rev. and Mrs. Pete Anker with whom we had worked at Wembo Nyama. We went up to Ithaca
by way of Charlottesville, VA., and visited the Monticello. While in Washington we visited Mt.
Vernon.

Then in March Marshall was asked to go to Lakeland, Florida, and speak in a Methodist Church.
Eloise's mother and sister Marguerite, Bill, and I went down together, going down by
Jacksonville, St. Augustine, the Aquarium on the east coast, New Smyrna Beach, to visit a few
minutes with Marshall's sister-in-law, Mrs. Joe Lovell, on to Lakeland. We visited the Bok
Tower, Tampa, Clearwater, St. Petersburg, and had a very fine trip of it. We all enjoyed it very
much.

Itinerary in the Wythville District of the Holston Conference with Melvin Seymour, D.S., an old
School of Theology classmate for some ten days. Eloise and Marshall went to Greencastle,
Indiana, for the Furloughed Missionaries' Conference in June. It was advised that she should
have surgery in the near future by the medical advisor of the Board of Missions. We enjoyed the
 16

conference very much. One morning Marshall was going to the shower room and came face to
face with Rev. Moritaka Samejima of Japan, with whom he had roomed at Emory while in the
Candler School of Theology. He had not seem him in about 24 years. They enjoyed being with
each other and fellowshipping together at that conference. There were some wonderful
addresses, on of which was by a large South Sea Islander, telling about the coming of
Christianity to his people who were pagans and cannibals. We shall never forget the story of the
conquest of the cross through devoted servants of God.

After a visit with Marshall's mother and people in Nashville, we went on back to Toccoa, GA.,
and made plans for Eloise's surgery which took place at Emory or Wesley Memorial Hospital.
We had to postpone our sailing to the Congo, for it took her some time to recover from it.
Marshall taught Bill some Freshman courses in High School. Finally near the end of September
or the first of October we drove up to New York, placed our car in storage to be shipped later to
the Congo, took the old Rotterdam to Holland on our way to Brussels where we were to spend a
few months in the study of French. It took eleven days to make the trip. We went from
Rotterdam to Brussels by way of automobile, being met at the port in Rotterdam. It was
arranged for us to stay in the apartment house operated by a Rev. and Mrs. Dupont, Protestants
of Belgium. We got settled. We had private lessons in French. Marshall also attended a class
taught by the Colonial department of the government but did not take the work for credit. We
had several very interesting sight - seeing trips to different places around Brussels, Binche,
Antwerp, and other places. Marshall and Eloise continued to teach Bill until after Christmas. He
had a Belgian lady who taught him French. Then he flew to the Congo to re-enter Lubondai.
Never has a boy been so happy to get out of another country and to get out from being taught by
his parents as was Bill.

We continued on in Brussels until April of 1954. Then we sailed from Antwerp to the Congo.
Our automobile was shipped from New York and arrived there in Matadi about the same time we
got there or perhaps few days late. We stopped at the Madeira Islands and had a very enjoyable
trip on the island, seeing an extinct lava bed, acres and acres of bananas, waster vats to catch
irrigation water, and other things. We arrived in the Congo in May. Then we drove through the
country again after going to Leopoldville for a few days. The trip was hard but we had no trailer
at this time. We went by Lubondai to see Bill and then headed on to Wembo Nyama. African
pastors were made District Superintendents that year. Ours was Rev. John Wesley Shungu, who
later became the first African Methodist bishop in the Congo. We were asked to take over the
work of a district missionary who cooperates with the Superintendent and to take over again the
legal representative and school inspector job. Eloise again did regional school work.

The Board of Missions had cut down the terms of service from five to four years. So, we had
only three on the field, and made plans for our furlough in the summer of 1957. We flew to
Leopoldville and from there took a plane to Geneva, Switzerland, where we had several days of
sight - seeing. We then went on to Brussels and from there to London, where we enjoyed a week
or more of most interesting sight - seeing in London and out to the Shakespeare country. We
sailed from South Hampton on The United States and made it in about five days. It was too
windy to spend much time on deck. It was cool too.
 17

We had about three days in New York to see the Board people and to purchase a new
Ford. Bill and Marshall went out to Long Island to pick up the new car. On the way back into
the city on the freeway, we got off at the wrong place and had to go all the way to New York
airport before we could turn around. On the way back Marshall was driving in the passing lane
and got picked up by the patrolman. He demanded the license. I gave him an old permanent
license of Georgia which I had gotten in 1952, and also the Congo license. I told him that we
were from the bush in Central Africa, that we had gone out to get car purchased for us by the
Board of Missions, and that we were on our way back to the hotel where Mrs.Lovell was waiting
in the lobby with our baggage. Marshall also told him that he had gotten the idea that he would
have to make a left hand turn, forgetting that that wasn't done. Well, he said, "Be careful and
don't do it again." We got black by getting directions from him and from someone else, picked
up the baggage and set out. But we had noticed some noise coming back from Long Island. It
got worse. Marshall stopped at a filling station and the man in charge said it might be serious
and advised going back to Long Island. Marshall told him he never wanted to drive out there
again. Finally he took a look and found that one of the back shock absorbers had pulled loose
from the frame of the car, telephoned the agency where we had bought the car, telling them what
had happened. He agreed to fix it. We then got on our way to the New Jersey Turnpike and
headed toward Wilmington and decided we would go down Chesapeake Bay way. We traveled
on down through to a community not far from the ferry across to Norfolk, VA. Made the trip
across, looked up Dr. Sapy or tried to find him, with whom we had worked in the Congo. He
and Mrs. Sapy were not there. We headed for Richmond, VA., and spend the week - end in
Richmond with some Presbyterian friends. Then we went down to the 350th anniversary of the
Jamestown Colony, enjoying Williamsburg and also the Jamestown Colony reconstructed as they
thought it was back in 1607. Then we went on to Nashville to see Marshall's mother and
relatives.

We settled in Atlanta for the furlough. Bill had finished High School at Lubondai and he wanted
to go to Emory University. Eloise's older sister had found us an apartment near the Emory
University campus.

Bill enrolled as a freshman at Emory. The fraternities put the pressure on him to join one of
them. But we were happy that he didn't, and later he was glad that he did not join.

Marshall began to do some itineraries for the Board of Missions. Bishop Arthur J. Moore invited
Marshall to a conference of district superintendents and pastors of both the North and South
Georgia Conferences at Epworth by the Sea. It was a very interesting and inspiring occasion.
The sand flies would almost eat one up if he were outside very long. He got to see where the
Wesleys preached under the oak trees to the Indians, old Fort Oglethorpe or the remains of it.
On the way back to Atlanta Bishop Moore asked him to ride with him and Mrs. Moore and
Bishop Short of the Nashville area who had been down at the conference speaking.

Marshall was invited to go down to South Georgia and make all the missionary institutions of
that conference. It was a very strenuous schedule. He was having some trouble with his
prostrate gland at that time and the schedule didn't help the situation very much. But it was good
to see the preachers and laymen of that conference and to visit in Savannah and other places that
 18

he had never been to.

The next itinerary was in the North Mississippi Conference during the first part of the month of
October or near the middle of October. It began at Jackson where there was a missionary
conference at Galloway Memorial Church. From there several of us missionaries went to
different areas of the state. Marshall made only some six or eight engagements for this mother
was very critically ill and had been taken to Vanderbilt Hospital for surgery. She passed away
on the 21st of October.

The next itinerary was in the Tennessee Conference, making the missionary institutes. Marshall
enjoyed that very much. Floyd Middleton, missionary to Bolivia, was making the same ones.
There were also speaking engagements in some of the churches of the North Georgia and
Holston conferences.

Both Marshall and Eloise took some courses in the Candler School of Theology during the
winter quarter. We enjoyed this time of study and refreshment.

Marshall had a great bit of trouble with the prostate infection. He found that he was running
fever and finding it difficult to void. Instead of going to a specialist he went to the student
dispensary clinic at Emory. The doctor had no better sense than to massage the gland, the result
of which was a high fever of 104 degrees for a while and rest in bed with anti - biotics. When he
got better, he went back and another doctor did the same fool thing again and the results were the
same. It was such a foolish thing to do. He sought a specialist thereafter. It cleared us
considerably and the specialist didn't think it would be necessary to have surgery, that is before
going back to the Congo. Marshall lost some three weeks or more out of school because of the
foolish thing the doctors at Emory dispensary or clinic did.

During the Spring Marshall enjoyed very much some speaking engagements in the Tennessee
Conference. He was among a number of people whom he knew - pastors particularly.

Marshall and Eloise went to Greencastle again in 1958. Bill had gone to Emory and Henry
College just a short time before that. He went with a friend of his who was transferring from
Emory University to Emory and Henry College. Near the end of the Greencastle Conference
Marshall and Eloise took a trip to Emory and Henry to see our son for a few hours. We had
dinner together in or near Abington, went back to the college, met the president, saw something
of the grounds. Marshall also met Beverly Bookhout who had already gotten acquainted with
Bill. We were pleased that he was in a smaller school and in a good environment.

We went on our way to New York, arriving around noon the day following. The car was taken
to a storage place that the Board might ship it out to us. We caught a plane to Brussels and from
there on down to Leopoldville and Luluabourg, then to Lodja. We were met there and taken to
the Annual Conference which was meeting at Wembo Nyama. Our appointment was Wembo
Nyama again. This time it was teaching in the teacher training school at Wembo Nyama. Eloise
also taught there. She was also appointed again to direct the regional schools.
 19

We got settled in our missionary residence which had been remodeled a bit but which was not
finished. It took a number of weeks to get all the work finished and Marshall had to supervise
and do some of it since the workmen were busy on the Lambuth Memorial Hospital.

The school work was rather difficult for the lesson plans had to be made in the French language
day by day. Part of the time the texts were rather meager and we did not have access to other
works that would have helped a great bit. Marshall taught courses in Religion, French, Biology,
The United Nations, and The History of Belgium and the Congo. It kept him very busy day and
night. It was most taxing.

The car arrived safely. It came to Lusambo where it was received and driven down to Wembo
Nyama.

The old prostate trouble began to bother Marshall again. There were days in which he had some
fever. Finally the doctors recommended that he be sent to a specialist in Johannesburg, South
Africa, but before he was to go the doctor felt that he should have a special examination at
Luluabourg. Another missionary was to have the same. We went down in Marshall's car and
going from Lusambo to Luluabourg we ran into a freshly worked road and into terrible rains. It
was something else to drive in it. There were times when the steering wheel was being spun
right and left to keep the car from going into the ditch. But we finally made it to Lake Mukamba
where we spent the night. The next day we reached Luluabourg and arranged for the
examination. After it was over Marshall was advised to go on to Johannesburg. He flew from
Luluabourg to Elizabethville and had the privilege of spending the night with Bishop and Mrs.
Booth in the new episcopal residence. Then he flew on down to Johannesburg, staying there two
or three weeks. The treatments or massages and the antibiotics did him a lot of good. The
climate of Johannesburg is delightful, being that the city and the area is something like 5000 -
6000 feet above sea level. During his stay there he took a tour to one of the gold mines, going
some 4000 feet or more under the earth. It was all very interesting. The tourist were taken to the
place where the crushed rock is washed and the gold separated from the rock dust. A block of
gold worth some $40,000.00 was on exhibit, and to lift it with both hands was quite a task. The
doctor felt that with massages and anti - biotics my trouble could be kept under control, but it
wasn't long after my return that I had more trouble.

Spring months passed and Annual Conference was held, when we were appointed to the Legal
Representative and Missionary School Inspector jobs again and to the work of district
missionary. Mrs. Lovell continued on in her work and took over the work with the women in the
district. Marshall was relieved of the teaching job, for which he was thankful.

After Annual Conference the doctors felt that Marshall should go back to Johannesburg again.
Eloise and he went together. We drove to Kindu and flew from there, going to Elizabethville,
Congo. We spent about a month in Johannesburg and counted it our vacation. The massaging
and medicines helped there, but it wasn't long until the old trouble was bothering him again.
However, since he had been relieved of the school teaching job and its tension and strain, he got
along better.
 20

The schools of the mission were inspected and the reports were made in May and early June of
1960. Mrs. Lovell's regional school work went along nicely.

Sometimes during 1959 we had an ashram at Wembo Nyama under the leadership of that great
and saintly man, Dr. E. Stanley Jones. He was a guest in our home. Missionaries and Africans
ate together, prayed together, had joint discussions, worked together. His program for the
ashram was full. It began in the early morning. After our breakfast together we gathered in the
church for times of reading portions of Scripture or devotional materials, quiet prayer, and
sharing with each other. Near the first of the ashram we had a time of sharing with each other
our needs. After the time of devotions Dr. Jones led us in some discussions, including the matter
of independence for the Congo. Then there was a work period in which we cut grass, lined up
the paths and roads, cleaned up where ever there was trash. There was a rest period in the
afternoon. Then there was a service at night for the general public and also a round-the-clock
prayer vigil in which two would go for some thirty minutes and then others would do likewise so
that two were there all the time praying. It was a time of very rich fellowship and deepening of
our spiritual lives.

Bishop Pickett who was connected with the mass movements in India toward Christ also visited
the great revivals in the Lodja District where there was quite a mass movement. Eloise and
Marshall went to one of these. There were perhaps around 2000 people in attendance. Many of
the people had given up medicines which they had secured from the medicine men, called
ordinarily "witch doctors," at a great price. Bishop Pickett spoke in the one we attended.

In earlier years, 1948, Dr. Frank Laubach came to Wembo Nyama for the purpose of launching a
campaign to teach illiterate adults how to read. It was an amazing thing to see how this man of
God who had all kinds of patience and love for illiterate adults led some of the older men and
women to read after a period of a few days. He never lifted his voice, never scolded anyone,
never smiled or laughed at anyone's mistakes, was most sensitive to their sensitiveness. There
were many who were amazed that they could learn to read so rapidly with his method of each-
one-teach-one. He also emphasized that this was one of the best methods of winning people to
Christ. During that time an elderly man came to Wembo Nyama hospital and he told Miss
Kathryn Eye that he wanted a needle (injection) for his ignorance. He wanted to learn to read.
When the Africans decided to give him Dr. Laubach a name it was one that meant, "a mender of
old baskets." The Africans appreciated Dr. Lauback very much.

As the time of Independence drew near in the Congo we could notice quite a difference in the
attitudes of many of the African people, especially the youth, toward white people. They began
to assert their rights and often expressed resentments. It was the growth of nationalism within
them. It made it harder to work with them and to discipline them in the schools and in the
boarding departments.

On June 30, 1960, when Independence from Belgium was granted, we had a wonderful day at
Wembo Nyama. Everything was quiet and peaceful. The chiefs had warned their people to be
very respectful toward the white man and treat him kindly. We gathered in the church for a
service. There were prayers for the success of the Independent Republic of the Congo and for
 21

the leaders, a regular worship service with a sermon, and at the end an offering for the work of
the Congo Protestant Council, which was now headed by one of our own Otetela ministers, Rev.
Pierre Shaumba, who had received his degree from Paine College in Augusta, GA., and who had
studied in Belgium. After the service the missionary ladies, or some of them and the African
women who wanted to, dressed up in independence dresses with pictures of Lumumba on the
cloth, printed in the cloth when it was made. We had a picnic under the beautiful trees of the
concession. Every family brought its own food and the delicious barbecued goat was shared
with all the families. Everyone had given to buy the goats and one of the cooks had done a
wonderful job in preparing it. Everything was very quiet and our relationships were wonderful
that day. We felt that the Congo was off to a good beginning as an independent country.

About two weeks before this time Marshall had taken Eugene and Mildred to Kindu, where they
were to leave on furlough, going by way of Europe. On his way over to Tunda, he crossed the
Lomami River. On the ferry there were workmen who were two-thirds drunk. On the Tunda
side they let the ferry move down stream. He started up the motor and it died on him. Somehow
with the moving of the ferry and his not getting off quickly the car fell off one of the board and
fortunately the other was beneath the car holding it up. Otherwise, it would have tumbled into
the river and perhaps been lost forever and Marshall would have been drowned. It was a most
frightening experience. Marshall with the help of the men got the car back on some boards. but
he felt it most unsafe to try to get off under the power of the car itself. So, he sent word to
Eugene to come with the mission truck and chains. He came in a hurry and we got the car off the
ferry without any damage to it. Marshall gave the drunks a good tongue-lashing and hoped they
would be in a different condition when he returned.

Well, soon after Independence Day we began to hear of trouble in the Lower Congo, the mutiny
of the Congolese Army, women being raped, and bedlam breaking loose. It spread to our
provincial capital city, Luluabourg, where there was a large military camp. The whites of
Luluabourg along with some missionaries were in a large apartment house, surrounded by Congo
soldiers who were shooting into the walls of the building at times. Finally Belgian paratroopers
came and parachuted down and brought in armored cars and put the mutinying Congo soldiers
down. The white were taken to the air-field and lifted to other places.

Our missionaries were in contact with the Presbyterians on the stations not too far from
Luluabourg. Some of them advised all of us to evacuate.

Our Annual Conference was to be held about the middle of July at Katako-Kombe. All the
missionary families and African delegates went there. Bishop Booth had been prevented from
getting to Katako-Kombe from Belgium due to conditions at Leopoldville. We gathered together
in a missionary home at Katako-Kombe to discuss what we should do. The majority were in
favor of evacuating for a time. By short wave transmission the American consulate was asked to
send in planes to the field at Katako-Kombe. Our missionaries who knew how to operate short-
wave transmission sets were to help them come in to this air strip. One of the planes had great
difficulty finding it and got short on gas and went back to Kamina Airbase. Two navy planes
came in. The families with children left on them. Then an army plane came to take the rest of
us. It was heavier than the other two planes. The field was not cement or asphalt. The ground
 22

was too soft. He took off, reached the peak of the hill and went over it, giving the plane all he
had. Some of us thought he would never make it, but finally he got up in the air at the end of the
strip. He told one of our missionaries that it was the closest call he had ever had and had it not
been for the prayers of the missionaries he would have never made it.

Before we left Katako - Kombe Station we had a meeting in the church and tried to explain to the
Africans why we were leaving, that we hoped to be gone only a short while. We expressed our
regrets and managed to turn over to them funds and the work until we could get back. Most of
them could not understand why we left. And as it worked out there was really no danger to us or
immediate danger. But this was only the first evacuation, the second was very necessary. As it
was, they were better prepared to take over by our having left. Some five of the men stayed on,
but Bishop Booth urged them to leave too. They came out soon after we did.

We were flown down to Kamina Airbase, built by the U.S.A. during

World War II, and there were planes evacuating people from the Congo. At that time it was not
certain that the United Nations would do anything before Russia tried to take over the Congo.
She was at least taking advantage of the situation and Lumumba was playing into his hands, it
seemed. Some 185 of us Methodist, Presbyterian, other missionaries and families, and a few
others were flown on a big Flying Fortress down to Salisbury, Rhodesia, in the middle of the
night. It was early morning when we got to bed in places made available to us. The Mission
Stations of The Methodist Church took in the Methodist missionaries. We went to Old Umtali.
It was very cold down there. In the day time we sat around the open fire in the house. At night
we slept under about three wool blankets. We saw a bit of the station, attended two or three
religious services.

Bishop Booth met with all of us to give direction to what we would do. He advised some of the
missionaries to go to America. The medical advisor of the Board of Missions was there soon
after that. Eloise and I had a conference with him. Marshall was still suffering from the infected
gland. It was not getting any better. We suggested the possibility of going back to Johannesburg
where he had been for treatments twice or going to the States to take care of the situation. He
advised going to the States. Permission was gotten from the Board and after some ten days at
Old Umtali we went to Salisbury, took a plane to Johannesburg, and from there we caught a Pan-
Am plane for New York, flying over Victoria Falls and circling it two or three times, on to
Leopoldville where the plane had to have some repair work done on it. Then on to Accra in
Ghana, Roberts Field in Liberia, Dakar, and from Dakar across the briny deep to New York. It
was a very wearing flight. The plane had to go to Philadelphia since it didn't have sufficient gas
to keep circling over the Kennedy airport until word came through for it to descend. It was
refueled at Philadelphia and turned back to New York, landing in the afternoon. We were dead
tired and checked in the hotel which the Board had contacted. We spent the day or two there and
went by bus to Washington and on down through the Shenandoah Valley country. After
spending the night at a town in Virginia, we caught another bus and went to Bristol, VA., where
Bill was working with the youth during the summer, under Rev. Cecil Hardin, a schoolmate of
Gene and Marshall in the school of Theology at Emory. Miss Beulah Minga who was boarding
Bill took us in. We enjoyed visiting with him so much and seeing Brother Hardin. Bill took us
to the airport at Tri-Cities and we flew to Nashville, where we stayed with sister Margaret until
 23

we could get an apartment.

Marshall bought an old vacuum-shift Chevrolet for $150. We got an apartment on Blakemore
Ave. and stayed there a few months, and finally moved to Hillsboro Road in a small apartment.

Marshall began to go to a urologist. He wanted to try all kinds of antibiotics, before thinking of
surgery. Were invited to Dr. and Mrs. Bookhout's for Thanksgiving. Picked up Bill at Emory
and Henry and had a most enjoyable visit. Bev. for Christmas.

Marshall made several speaking engagements, did an itinerary in Delaware, during January. He
was also on a ten day speaking tour in West Tennessee. He also visited churches in the Tenn.
Conference and one church in the North Alabama Conference.

Eloise took some courses at Peabody and at Scarritt College. She prepared a history of the
Otetela Tribe or study of it.

Gene and Mildred were at Scarritt and Mildred was taking courses there. We got to see each
other quite often.

In April of 1961, he was asked to speak in some church in West Texas. So, it was arranged that
Margaret, Eloise, and Marshall go with him and stop over at Farmersville, Texas, to visit with a
first cousin and to see where our father grew up as a young man around 1869-1883. We got to
visit with another first cousin, and other cousins. Both Gene and Marshall spoke in the
Farmersville Methodist Church where some of the Lovells had been pillars in the church years
ago, including Uncle Jefferson Franklin Lovell. We visited Dallas and S.M.U. Gene drove on to
West Texas and came back for us. We came back by Winnsboro, Texas, to visit with Dr. Frank
Wheeler, our cousin and family. Then from there on back to Nashville.

Bill finished Emory and Henry in May of 1961. We went up for the graduation. The
commencement worship service was held in the beautiful chapel at Emory and Henry. Marshall
was asked to give the benediction. That evening the degrees were conferred and the diplomas
presented. We were interested in the address of Dr. Pollard, an atomic scientist and also an
Episcopalian priest of Oak Ridge, TN. Gene and Mildred came up for the commencement too.

the next day we left with Bill and his baggage on our way to Franklin, North Carolina, where he
was to assist the pastor of the Methodist Church, which was his assignment from the Duke
summer program for those entering the school of religion and those in school. We got on the
Blue Ridge Parkway travelling on to Ashville. We enjoyed the scenery very much, seeing a deer
on one of the stretches of the winding road. We stopped for several beautiful mountain lookout
scenes. We arrived in Franklin near night and spent the night at the hotel where he was to stay.
They serve most delicious meals there, including country ham and black walnut pie and
homemade ice cream. We had some of each. We went over to the church but did not get to see
the pastor who was out of town. Bill had worked with youth in the State Street Church at
Bristol while he was at Emory and Henry, living in Bristol during the summers and travelling
back and forth on the week-ends during the school sessions.
 24

We went on down to North Georgia to visit with loved ones. We visited Eloise's sister Claudia
at Toccoa. While we were there Marshall baptized one or two of Claudia's grandchildren. Her
daughter Mary Anne was married to Gerald Watson in the airforce, and they were visiting at that
time.

After a few days with the other sisters of Eloise we went on back to Nashville and again to
Greencastle, Indiana, for the furloughed missionaries' conference. Marshall had talked some
weeks prior to that with Bishop Short telling him that if the Board of Missions didn't agree to use
him for deputation work and translation work then he would like to come back to the Tennessee
Conference for an appointment. He talked with the District Supt. of the Nashville District, who
advised him to transfer his membership back to The Tennessee Conference. He had transferred
it to the Central Congo Conference in 1947. So at the Greencastle Conference the secretary for
Africa, Dr. Melvin Blake, strongly urged him to go back to his annual conference in the states.
Marshall wrote to Bishop Short about his decision to transfer back to the Tennessee Conference.
On the same day Marshall wired Bishop Booth at Elizabethville his decision to transfer his
membership back to the Tennessee Conference, and requested that he wire the transfer to Bishop
Short. The transfer by wire came to Bishop Short before Marshall's letter reached him. He
thought that Marshall wanted to come as a supply pastor, said that this situation was difficult in
the conference, that they loved Marshall, but he was afraid that he would be disappointed with
what they could do for him. He said they would do the best they could.

The Annual Conference met at McKendree Methodist Church June 21-25, 1961. We all felt that
Bishop Short took too much time for introductions and other matters and pressed the business of
the conference into one or two days at the last. He didn't have either Marshall or Eugene say
anything about the work in the Congo. There were some four or five of us missionaries from the
Congo there with our wives. One day he did introduce the missionary men from different fields.

The appointment was to Bethlehem Station about six miles north of Franklin on the Hillsboro
Road, and only some 11 miles south of Nashville. It was a very small station church that
students had held for different years. The church was to pay $3100.00 salary and telephone and
water bills, and the Conference Board of Missions was to pay $500.00. Later the local church
accepted to pay $400.00 on travel in addition. So, the salary was $4000.00, that for a man who
had been sent to the mission field by the conference and had 32 years in the ministry, 10 in the
Tennessee Conference and 22 in the Congo.

We met one of the members of the Conference and arranged to go out to see the parsonage and
church before moving out. They had a nice small parsonage, but the sanctuary was out-of-date,
having been built around 1849, with different changes made in it. The Sunday School
Department was a brick structure with a large fellowship hall and some four class-rooms on the
second floor.

We moved our few things out in our old Chevrolet and got settled soon after Conference. The
first sermon was preached near the end of June. There were only morning worship services and
the MYF in the evenings. We had Sunday School each Sunday. The attendance was some 40 -
80 people on the services.
 25

After we got settled, Marshall began to call in the homes and it wasn't too long until he had made
most of them. The people received them in a very hospitable way.

A bookcase was bought for the parsonage and a nice desk was given by the company Cuter's
Office Supply, where one of the members was a salesman.

Eloise soon began to feel that she should get a teaching position in the county. We went to see
the Superintendent of Schools in Williamson County and she was given a position at Trinity
School, some 15 miles away. that called for buying another automobile. So Marshall purchased
a 1956 Ford with automatic shift and she began to practice up on her driving.

Bill and Beverly's wedding was soon to take place. The date was August 30, 1961. We went a
day or two beforehand for the rehearsal. Marshall was to be the best man. We also had to make
final arrangements about the rehearsal dinner which Eloise had planned and arranged for. The
place of the wedding was Duke Memorial Methodist Church in Durham. We were most happy
over his selection of Beverly Bookhout, daughter of Dr. Cazlyn G. and Elizabeth Bookhout,
professors of Duke University. He is a marine zoologist, and is in charge of the oceanographic
program of Duke at Beaufort, N.C., on the coast. He has taught in the graduate school on the
Duke campus and teaches the oceanography graduate students. Mrs. Bookhout is in charge of
and teaches physical education at the Woman's College of Duke. Both are dedicated Methodists.
His father was a Methodist minister in the New York Central Conference.
Gene Jr., and other classmates of Bill's at Emory and Henry who were entering the Duke
Divinity School with him were in the wedding. The ceremony was very beautiful, the bride most
beautiful. Both Bill and Beverly spoke their vows to each other, not following the minister in
repeating them after him as is usually done. At the close of the ceremony the knelt and all the
attendants were asked to join with the newly weds in their first family prayer together, which
was the Lord's prayer. The only disappointing thing was that the florist mixed up the date and
didn't have the flowers there. A few were gotten for the main people in the wedding, the bride
and brides maids. It was quite disappointing to Mrs. Bookhout. But in that beautiful church the
flowers were not missed very much by most of us. We felt as did Mrs. Bookhout that this match
was made in heaven. We all enjoyed the wedding reception.

After the wedding was over and the bride and groom had dressed for their honeymoon trip, Dr.
Bookhout took them to the place where their car was supposed to be, at the back of a Methodist
Church on the outskirts of Durham in order to hide it from Gene Jr., and the other boys. it took
some maneuvering for Dr. Bookhout to lose the pursuing boys. He finally did, but when they
arrived at the church, the car was gone. Bill had arranged it with the pastor but he had not told
the caretaker. While this man was mowing the yard, he found the car parked back of the church
and assumed that it was a stolen vehicle. He called the patrol office and they had it towed to a
garage in Durham. Finally Bill found out where it was by calling the patrol office. He could not
get in touch with the caretaker. The man who towed it in had a big laugh out of it and released
the car to Bill without charging him anything.

Marshall and Eloise and Gene Jr. headed back toward Emory and Henry, spending the night near
 26

Ashville, N.C. After leaving Gene Jr. they headed on for Nashville and Bethlehem.

Marshall had been visiting a man whose wife was a member of his church. The man also
attended the church service regularly but he wasn't a professed Christian. He made a profession
in his home and said he would like to be taken into the church the following Sunday. Marshall
had him come over to the parsonage or the church to go over the vows. He said he wanted to be
baptized by sprinkling. There was a stewardship emphasis in our church and conference at that
time. This man remarked to Marshall that he did not believe in making a pledge to the church
but in giving as one felt like giving. On the following Sunday Marshall preached a sermon on
tithing. At the close he told how the brother had made a profession of faith and asked him to
come forward for baptism and reception into the membership of the church. He had noticed that
the man didn't seem to be very composed during the service. Well, he got up and said he wasn't
prepared to join the Methodist Church. It was quite a let down for Marshall, for the man's wife,
and for others. Marshall went to see him several times, but he never came back while he was
there. Someone told him later that the man was bad to drink, had had an accident about the time
he made the profession, and that they thought he was really in earnest about the whole matter but
fearful of a jail sentence.

Marshall was asked to preach in the revival in the fall and gladly did so. We had a man from
Franklin lead the singing. We had a good spirit in our meeting but no professions of faith. A
few weeks prior to the revival we held a class for children and took in three or four children on
profession of faith.

The people were talking about what to do about the old sanctuary. There were those who didn't
want it torn down and another built in its place. Finally Marshall told the folks that he wasn't
willing to come back for another year unless they planned to do something about it. Dotson
Sawyer, a member for many years and an excellent carpenter who had built many homes and
renovated some old colonial styled homes, said that he would be willing to supervise it and asked
how many would give labor and money. A number of hands went up. We set out to have it
authorized by the Quarterly Conference so that we could get a loan at the bank. Pledges were
taken. Marshall and Eloise gave $500.00 to get them moving. Marshall was sent back in 1962 at
the Conference which met in Gallatin, TN., and the first order of business was to move the pews
to the fellowship hall in the Sunday School building so that we could have our services there.
We stored the organ in a home and used the piano because of the dampness of the hall. Then we
began to tear down the old church, as well as the two Sunday School rooms attached to it at the
back. The old furnace was taken out. The bulldozer called in, and the foundation for the new
sanctuary was laid.

Dotson used more or less the floor-plan of Lovell Memorial Church. Different ones helped in
the work. The chancel was semi-divided. The choir was back of the choir screen separating the
pulpit and lectern from it. The communion table was placed in the center of the area before the
screen. The chancel rail was a divided one with a piece to place when communion was served.
It made a very beautiful and serviceable chancel. Back of the choir was a wooden cross with a
neon light shedding the light on the white wall. The total cost of this building, new pews, new
pulpit and lectern, new chancel screens, rug on the center aisle and also in the pulpit and
 27

communion area, central gas heat, central air-conditioning (later installed), a vestibule and two
nice class rooms, a cloak room and stairs in that area was only around $25,000.00. We borrowed
$20,000.00 from the bank and raised the rest of it.

We had our opening service with a speaker from Scarritt College. That afternoon we had open
house and many people came and remarked about the beauty of the sanctuary.

In the process of building and planning some of the members had some feeling toward the
preacher who was doing his best to help them have a beautiful sanctuary. So, when the pastoral
relations committee met, three voted for a new preacher. Most of all the members wanted us
back. This movement was on the part of some relatives who more or less had controlled the
church for some years. The District Superintendent was willing to send us back and we felt that
most of them except for one family would have continued on. The District Superintendent said
he would see if he could get a better paying appointment for us. So we were moved.

Near the last of our stay there Marshall cultivated a Mr. Collins and his wife. He had been the
choir leader of First Baptist Church at the time and sung over W.S.M. radio. They were coming
fairly regularly and were considering joining the church. They were shaken when they heard that
we were moving. Marshall went down after Conference and told him that there were some
dissatisfied people but most of the folks wanted the Lovells back, but that the District
Superintendent had gotten an appointment that would pay $5000.00 rather than the amount I had
been receiving. Marshall encouraged them to go ahead and join the church, transferring their
membership from Louisville, KY., where they had been with the L. & N. Railway. He urged Mr.
Collins to help with the music and see the church grow. It wasn't long after we moved that they
united with the church and have made a great contribution to the music as choir director and
continued to do many things as well. The church has grown very much since that time and is
becoming one of the best middle appointments in the Columbia District. Sub-divisions have
grown up all around it. The parsonage has been enlarged and they are now considering building
more Sunday School rooms.

During our second year there Marshall had a prostatectomy at Vanderbilt Hospital. The
operation helped him very much, but he still has to take some medicine to keep down the
infection. the operation was in the summer of 1962.

The Annual Conference of 1963 met at Cookeville, and we were appointed to Beech Grove
Station near White's Creek and Goodlettsville and close to Madison. The pastor there was
leaving for the chaplaincy in the navy. The parsonage was a good bit larger than the one at
Bethlehem. They also have one of the most beautiful churches for a rural church in our
Conference.

marshall did not realize that he was being moved to a church where two or three factions were
working against each other with strong feelings stretching back over the years. He faced this the
whole time he was there. We had some excellent people in the church who were not with either
of the factions.
 28

When the drive for the Home for Retired, McKendree Manor, came up, Marshall began to have
his difficulties. It was in the Fall of 1963. Our quota was only about $700.00 but we succeeded
in getting $1200.00 pledged. The Church Lay Leader was bitterly opposed to the whole project
and would not give a dime. Two of the factions or the families would not give one thing.

Another matter that came up was the enlargement of the Church School building. The former
pastor had plans drawn up but had not gone through all the regular procedure for such an
undertaking. The new committee which was authorized by the Quarterly Conference met several
times and finally presented the plans to the congregation for a vote after a notice of at least 10
days. The chairman had postponed and postponed bringing this matter to the congregation until
a great bit of interest had subsided. The vote was a negative one. So, that matter was dropped.

We had several very beautiful weddings in our church, which lends itself very well to such
ceremonies.

During the month of February we had a training class for children and took into the church
several from the class.

All in all we had a good year. Members of one faction left the church and went to a Southern
Methodist Church, and now some of them have helped to organize what some of them call a
Bible Presbyterian Church and have built a building. These people were strong for MacIntire
and his thinking, accusing so many of being Communists.

At the 1964 Conference we were reappointed to Beech Grove. The year began well. Our
finances were in good shape. We had a good revival with Doyle Masters of Calvary Methodist
Church preaching. But we had no additions.

We began our class for the children again in the winter. Some four or five were taken into the
church on Palm Sunday.

During February of 1965 Marshall had a terrible attack of inner ear, could not get out of bed for
three or four days by himself. He was out of his pulpit for two or three weeks. On the Sunday
morning when it struck him before Sunday School time, the charge lay Leader took charge of the
service. Other speakers were secured for the other Sundays. It took Marshall several weeks to
get back to his normal work. It really took several months before he felt anything at all up to par.

Several of one of the factions wanted Marshall moved. They wanted that in 1964, But he felt
that it would be difficult to move since he had not fully gotten over the effects of the inner ear
trouble. Too, Eloise had secured or obtained a position teaching the second grade at the
Hendersonville Elementary School in 1963. She wanted to continue there. It was only about
twelve miles away.

The Conference of 1965 sent us back again. We had another good revival with Rev. Lexie
Freeman preaching and Jimmy Bass leading the singing. There was a fine spirit and good
attendance. No additions, however, but some people touched and brought to a consideration of
 29

accepting the Lord and uniting with the church.

One family, that of W.K Talley, an electrician, was taking more and more interest in the church.
His father had been a strong man in the church and knew how to handle the factions. We were
delighted to see this man's interest growing all the time.

We had our course for children in Feb. and March. One of W.K. Talley's sons was in the class.
On Palm Sunday when they were received into the church, just as Marshall was giving the vows
or about to begin, Mrs. Owens, the maternal grandmother whom we had talked to a number of
times came forward. She was all broken up but in great sincerity with her contrition and her
new-found faith. She said she wanted to be included. The wife of another member had come up
too. So, we had a great day of rejoicing receiving some five children and two adults into the
church on profession of faith.

We had a campaign to get members to purchase the new Methodist Hymnals for the church.
They had never had the Methodist hymnal. It went along wonderfully well. One of the members
gave one in honor of a good friend who has lived in Florida for some time and is a millionaire or
a very wealthy man. His parents were devoted members of that church. Marshall wrote him
about it and asked him to send a check for $500.00 to be used for hymnals and in other ways.
Well, this posed a problem. One-half of the books had been subscribed to and paid for. We felt
that if the other half were bought from this gift, the other members would not do anything about
giving books. We told two or three people but asked them to keep quiet until we had most of the
books. Then we used a portion of his gift for books but only after we closed the campaign. The
balance of his gift was kept for other work.

This church remained with two strong factions. Every year when it came to naming a
nominating committee for the following year they would almost fight to get represented on the
committee so strongly were they pitted against each other. Marshall had difficulty getting people
to take all the places in the church during the spring of 1966. Both factions were represented on
the nominating committee and he felt that that was proper and that the faction that was
attempting to keep members of the other group from serving in certain positions should be a bit
more lenient but discerning. Finally he got all the nominees for the positions for 1966-67.

At the Quarterly Conference which was held in May, when they came to voting on the new
Nominating Committee, the District Superintendent didn't ask the members of the Quarterly
conference to sit separately from the others. Indeed that is usually very unnecessary. He did
state that only the member of the Quarterly Conference should vote. When the votes were taken,
there were several people who were not members who wrote on the ballots but only one handed
her vote in. It was a rather tense situation. One could tell that there was an effort to fill the
places with one faction. On the other hand, the mistake was made of the nominating a man of
the other faction and his sister too. So, when the votes were counted none of the people on the
other faction were elected. At the close of the Conference some remarks were made by the
members of the faction that had lost out that it was the most unfair election, that voting was done
by those not members of the Conference. A member of the other faction challenged the
statement and asked that they go in and asked for the ballots to be counted again. He kept on
 30

insisting. Finally the husband of the woman who had spoken about the voting pulled his coat off
and the other man began to pull his coat off and they were about to have a fight on the steps of
the church. It was a very tense moment.

Marshall went down to count the votes again the next morning. He knew that one person had
cast a ballot and that it should not have been counted. However, even without that vote, the
other side would have lost. But he felt that this mistake was at the root of some of the trouble or
had brought about the remark about votes cast by those not members. So, he reported the matter
to the District Superintendent. He told him that there was one ballot above the number of
members who had attended the Quarterly Conference and suggested that the election be voided
and that we have a special session and go through with the election again. He hesitated but
agreed to do this.

After the announcement was made that this would be done and the date fixed for the new
election, one of the members of the winning faction who had been on the verge of a nervous
breakdown felt that Marshall had worked against him and those who were members of the other
group or had been influenced to call for another election by the other side. That was not true.
He made the decision himself. The man had to be placed under the care of a doctor at Madison
Hospital. He was the only bread-winner of the family. His wife had been in that condition that
he was in several times. Marshall went to see him regularly. He had been a strong supporter of
Marshall in the work of the church and supported it well.

His recovery was a bit slow in the beginning. Marshall began to feel deeply concerned over his
condition. He had lived with his faction-torn church for three years and it wasn't so long until he
himself lost some of his appetite and could not sleep well at night. He felt that he would be able
to throw it off, but it got worse and worse.

The new election was held about a month after the first one. The results were the same. The
faction that lost out in not having anyone on the Nominating Committee seemed more
discouraged and depressed than ever. Marshall felt that he had failed in trying to get those two
groups to work together. His condition worsened. He should have seen a doctor without delay
but did not do it. Eloise felt that he would pull out of it.
The matter came to a head only at the meeting of Annual Conference. Marshall and Eloise went
to only one and a part of another session of the Conference. He became more and more
convinced that he should ask for a Sabbatical leave for health and rest. So, he telephoned the
District Superintendent at Conference that that was his decision. The request was granted.

Beech Grove had no pastor appointed to take Marshall's place. That hurt him too and worsened
his situation for a while. He had no hard feelings toward anyone in the church and had hoped
that his decision wasn't too late for the Cabinet to appoint a man to the Charge.

Eloise and Marshall felt very discouraged. The District Superintendent come to preach and talk
to the church officials that Sunday after Conference. Marshall had prepared the bulletin and he
wanted the D.S. to have the full service. However, the District Superintendent asked him to lead
the worship part of the service which was very difficult. At the close of the morning worship
 31

there were many people in tears over what had taken place and they expressed their regrets that
we were having to leave them. Most of the people, excepting those of the losing faction, wanted
us to continue another year.

Eloise and Marshall found an apartment on Neeley's Bend Road in Madison, to which we
moved. After Marshall got out from the burden of this situation the torn condition of the church
and had to see the doctor regularly. Marshall began to improve. In about a month or two he was
much better. We took a trip to Georgia and spent about ten days on a North Georgia lake in the
lake house of Eloise's sister and brother-in-law. Swimming, fishing, motor boat riding helped
him a lot. We went by Cherokee, N.C., to see "Unto These Hills," but just as it was about to
begin it poured down rain and didn't let up. So, we didn't get to see the pageant that evening.

We came back to our apartment. Marshall fished a number of times on Old Hickory Lake. He
also preached for Bill, who after completing his B.D. work in 1964 and his Masters of Theology
in the field of Pastoral Care at Duke Divinity School in 1965, had a charge near by - Gideon and
Slater's. Their little daughter was born in 1965. Her grandparents were delighted and tried to see
the family at least once a week.

Marshall's former D.S. telephoned him and asked him about filling in on a circuit which was
vacant. He went up to see the place. It is above Westmoreland, TN. He and Eloise talked about
it and decided that it would not be wise to take it.

But a short while after that Marshall went to the Pastor's School of the Memphis and Tennessee
Conferences held at Lambuth College, Jackson. There Bishop Finger himself asked him to help
in the situation. Marshall promised that he would
32