Chapter Thirty Seven: The “Combine”, “Revival” Experiences and A Medical Crisis

              Editor Note:  This chapter begins in June 1923, with the ripening of farm wheat crops in the Southern Great Plains.  Approaching Grandfield, Oklahoma today on U.S. 70 from the east, as in my teen years of the 1950s, there stands a sign that proclaims, “Where the harvest begins”.   Pearl introduces in this narrative, a new word to some who are reading, the “combine”,  pronounced with the accent on the first syllable. Combine is a noun and requires a little explanation.  Wheat, since Bible times, was cut (scything), bind into “sheaves”,  “shocks” or bundles, and deliver to a threshing place (“threshing floor” in Ruth 3). Threshing is where wheat seeds are removed from the chaff (husks and straw), done by hand until the Industrial Revolution. Some water stream and horse-powered stationary mechanical threshers were used in this era, the first one invented by a Scotsman, Andrew Meikle, patented in 1788.  But, in the 1800s,  the steam engine followed by the internal combustion engine could belt drive a stationary large thresher as in the one below.  The horse-drawn wagon, in the photo below, with a man standing in the wagon,  has delivered a load of cut and bound wheat bundles to the thresher.  This method was used widely by the 1880s, and was the usual way of threshing wheat, even as late as 1923.

 

In 1835, Cyrus Hall McCormick, an inventor from Virginia, invented a primitive “reaper”.  His company, established in Illinois as McCormick Deering Company, later in 1914, patented the “combine” to be pulled by an early tractor and move through the field, cutting, skipping the binding, and then delivering the wheat directly to enclosed threshing box, separating the seed into a hopper for later unloading. Revolutionary in early 1900s. By 1923, this method was still not widely used.  Managing this complex machine would be a daunting task for most farmers.  Frank Noel was a bit ‘techy’ for his time, having trained three years earlier as an automobile mechanic, as we were told earlier. RAN 

 

    

                                                      The wheat harvest        

     Summer of 1923 came, and harvest.  Frank had engaged a combine to cut our wheat crop.  Combines were new, but Frank, as an enterprising individual, decided to go this route, instead of using the binder, thresher method.  True, the grain must stand in the field longer to give it a chance to ripen before putting the sickle to it.  So, the day came.  Luther Hollers was over to see it done, and his family came along with him.  His nieces, Ina and Ada Skinner from Davidson were visiting them, and also, Ruth Alexander, who lived a mile up the road.  Viola and Lona came, too-they may have come with Austin.  We ladies, Maggie Hollers and I and all the girls named, seated ourselves on a grassy spot after the combine had mowed the first swath, with all the observers following closely behind, as the combine began the first round in the field of golden grain.

Ed. note: Early photographs of 1920s wheat harvesting with two combines. The first combines were tractor towed with a ‘power take-off’ drive attached from the tractor to the combine to drive the sickle belt to the threshing bars, separation screens,  the augur taking wheat grains a “hopper” or bin atop,  and discharging the chaff at the back onto the ground.  RAN.                  https://ironsolutions.com/a-brief-history-of-the-combine/

 

     An outstanding item commands my memory of this occasion: Viola and Lona had “bobbed” their hair, and this was the first time I had seen them in their new hairstyle!  I can see their hair blowing in the wind as we sit and visit, waiting for the combine to return in its round in the field. 

Ed. note: Two examples of a new style popular in the early “flapper” 1920s, even in rural southwestern Oklahoma! RAN

A Recollection of Three Years Before

(Ed. note: This recollection of Pearl is of summer in 1920. She takes us back to a cherished moment in time when unmarried Pearl, at 15 years old,  along with her Noel girlfriends, is being driven by their recently widowed oldest brother, Frank Noel, now 25 years old, to a church meeting nearby. Many small town and rural churches, renting a school building for more room for seating,  planned annual summer “revival” meetings,  every evening for a week, in which a dynamic visiting “evangelist” preacher gave a compelling Christian message, encouraging people to commit their lives to Jesus Christ. This “conversion”, placing faith in Christ, was called “getting saved”, followed most often by baptisms.  In addition, the preaching  encouraged others to bring back to life, to “revive” their Christian faith, if they had drifted or “back-sliden” from it.  This ‘summer revival’ experience was an annual thing for us in the 1940s and 1950s in Baptist churches from my childhood through my college years in much of Oklahoma and the South. RAN) 

       We young people back in 1920 had an experience at Sanford School when a revival was in progress.  Frank drove Viola, Lona, and me to church there at least one night.  I was impressed with the large choir and seeing the many young people that we knew in this group.  I had never considered making a move to profess faith in Christ before, but that night they sang an invitational hymn I had never heard before.  It was a very beautiful song that appealed to me.  “Jesus is Tenderly Calling” was the hymn, so when heads were bowed, and the hands of the needy were lifted, I raised my hand for the first time in response to an invitation.  On the way home, Frank drew me closer to him on the front seat of the car, and said, tenderly, “I saw your little hand go up tonight….” With a little squeeze of my shoulders.  The still recent experience of his Christian conversion in February, 1920, following Lola’s death gave him a tender heart and a desire to see me experience a joyous, outstanding conversion, such as his.  Ed.note: A YouTube link is provided below for an old, listenable rendition of the song mentioned by Pearl.  RAN

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTlb4tLvhic

Ed. note: Viola (foreground) and probably Lona are on either side of Pearl in “church dress”.  Frank is playfully tipping his hat in the background.  Viola is one year older than Pearl.  They were best friends in those mid-teen growing up years and throughout their lives. RAN

Now back to the Summer of 1923 and Revival meetings

     Following this bit of diversion three summers ago, we will return to the summer of 1923.  In late July and August, the Methodist Church building was finished, a two-week revival meeting was scheduled, and members were out visiting.  Two of these came to visit Frank and me on a Sunday afternoon; I believe it was the new pastor, Rev. George Hooper, and another man from the church.  They were enthusiastic about the beginning of a church in the community and their fervor fired an interest in our hearts.  We promised to attend revival services which would begin on the following Sunday. 

      Frank and I didn’t get started on the revival meetings until about Wednesday of that week.  Due to the very warm weather, the services were moved to the outside of the church.  To those of us not used to attending church,  that arrangement seemed more comfortable, and less confining.  The second night we attended, I made my way to the front at the altar call.  I wept, feeling very repentant; also, very frightened but not ready for a decision.  I could sense an awareness of God’s presence there, but the proper perspective had not been presented to me.  I still seemed to be carrying with me the childhood impressions of God that were prevalent in our home.  God was a figure to be respected, awed, and even feared, but not a person to receive unto oneself.

We continued to attend the evening services.  But it was not until the following Sunday evening, when the services had been moved back into the building, during the altar call, when the church aisles were filled with persons with various decisions, that Rev. Oscar Garner, pastor of the new Baptist church, two and one-half miles away, appeared beside me.  He was attending the Methodist meeting, after the two weeks Baptist revival had closed, to help out with the singing.  I was sitting on the west side of the building holding Mildred,  the baby, who was 20 months old.  Rev. Garner talked with me briefly and following introductions, as he held my hand, he asked me a few simple questions.  “Do you believe Christ is the Son of God?  Do you believe He can save you?”  To those queries, I answered, “Yes”, and then came the crucial question, “Do you believe he can save you right now?”  I found myself saying, “Yes”, to this question, also!  That is when it happened!  Then, I saw the light!  I had truly believed! I had at that moment been received into the family of God!

Ed. note: This photo is about the same time, the 1920s, judging by dress and automobiles.  Thought this is a different church building than in our narrative, it illustrates the rural church structures and gatherings typical then. You will hear more about Pleasant Mound church in later chapters. RAN

     Frank experienced a renewal of his Christian commitment, and the first person that he thought of was Orb Hurley and his wife Ola.  He went down early Monday morning to see Orb, relating the wonderful experiences we had all been having at the revival meetings.  Orb’s brother, John, was one of the pillars of that new church, but he probably hadn’t felt that could persuade Orb to attend church.  And, probably, he was right.  It would take a fellow closer to him, such as Frank, to influence him.  He promised Frank he would go to church with us that night.  After a few night’s attendance, both Orb and Ola made professions of faith!  We all rejoiced together!

     On the final Sunday of the revival, all of the young Noel children professed the Christian faith!  That was a glorious day as Frank, the baby and I went to Mandy’s for lunch.  As we entered Mandy’s home and began to relate the glorious news, she began to “shout”, a term understood to mean walking around, clapping the hands, and praising God for his wonderful grace!  She was still using crutches from the broken leg she had experienced in the spring of 1922, but forgot the crutches during the moments of gladness!  Of course, she returned to dependence upon them following the brief outburst of joy! 

      As I recall, we were baptized at the pond some ten miles west of our home, near the Red River; not quite so far from the two churches who participated.  You see, not all of the professions of faith at the Methodist church joined the Methodist Church; some were of a Baptist persuasion.  So, we all gathered at the pond, under the nearby grove of trees, with the two pastors ready to receive the candidates.  The Baptists were the first to baptize. My brother, Billy, and I went with the Baptists and several others, but Viola and Lona Noel went into the Methodist Church.  Mandy and the two younger children, Lavada, 14 years old, and David, 12 years old, talked it over and decided the young ones might not be old enough to understand joining a church, so they did not receive baptism.

Ed. note: This panoramic photograph was found in Mama’s albums in 2014.  No information on it.  Old buggies and Model Ts in the background left suggest this is in the era being narrated by Pearl.  This pond may have been quite similar to the above description.  I recall, in my childhood observing a ceremony of baptism of a new convert in a creek near the Pleasant Mound church. RAN

 

     A couple or three weeks following the close of the revival services, twenty-one-month-old Mildred was playing near the sewing machine in the next room at the foot of our bed.  A large kerosine lamp, unlighted, sat on the machine, with a glass shade.  It was late in the evening, near bedtime, and Mildred had slipped into the semi-dark room and was reaching for the scissors lying by the lamp.  She knew that she was forbidden to have the scissors, so in her haste to get them before she was discovered, she pushed the lamp off the machine with a big crash.  Only the glass shade was broken, but we quickly picked up the lamp and opted to leave the broken shade until morning.  A tragic option!

Ed. note: This photo shows Frank in the center with an unidentified man. Mildred, appearing to be about two years old,  is standing under the window, playing with a towel over her head. And Pearl looking out the window. No date on the photo, so I presume it was in this time frame.RAN

The next morning as I started to make the bed, here comes Mildred running to the foot of the bed to climb up and tease me while I tried to make the bed, by jumping on it.  As she came around the bed, one little foot slipped on a rounded piece of glass allowing the knee to fall on a sharp part of the lampshade!  It cut to the bone, I suppose!  Frank was still at the barn milking cows, before going to the field.  He started the car and we hurriedly took Mildred the twelve miles to Grandfield, to see the doctor.  In his haste, I believe, the doctor used a local anesthetic on her little knee while he put in the stitches.  He bound it up well, instructed us in the care of the wound, and ordered her to stay off it for a week or 10 days.  He underestimated this twenty-one-month-old!  We could keep her nowhere.  By the third day, she was crawling, which was just as bad or worse than walking.  Of course, her unhealed wound became infected, and some stitches were pulled out.  The doctor informed us that she would always carry that scar-and indeed she has!

Ed. note: This image is of a doctor’s office in 1920 in the midwest US.  In Grandfield, Oklahoma, the doctor’s office was pretty practical, not too fancy, as seen here. RAN

     My faith was sorely tested at the time of the accident!  I silently prayed to God, all the way to the doctor, for the Lord’s abiding care over the baby!  I was too young, too immature to realize that what I could have done in caring for her, could produce much better enduring results than the damage of the initial wound.  But, we were both too inexperienced to realize what we could do.  Frank could have whittled some smooth strips of wood and put a walking splint around her knee; and, when padded well, it would not have been too uncomfortable.  Mildred has suffered some embarrassment from it; I cringe every time I see the scar, but it has never caused any pain, and it doesn’t show as much as it once did. 

Ed. note: So ends some insights into Frank, some gentle revealing of spiritual yearnings, satisfied in both Frank and Pearl, and Mandy’s children at home.  Ending with those painful images of this inexperienced 18-year-old young mother, caring for her first child, and her family living out some joys and heartaches. More to come in Chapter 38.  Please leave a comment, a thought, or a memory down below.  Thank you. RAN