Elder Williams

       In 1912 Elmer Williams was called to serve as a full time missionary to the Central States Mission headquartered in Independence, Missouri.  According to Vera, who was counting the days, he left on November 6, 1912.  Only three letters he wrote from the mission field have survived the passage of more than a century of time.  They are dated January 2, February 25, and March 9 of 1913. Elmer’s 39-year old mother died on April 9, 1913, and at her request he did not leave his mission to attend her funeral.  But her death may explain why only three letters were preserved.  Elmer was the oldest of seven children, and it is easy to imagine how the full responsibility for care of a large, motherless family may not have included long-term preservation of the weekly mail.  Without a doubt, Vera saved all his letters.  But they would have been consumed by the 1929 fire that destroyed their home and everything in it.

       Surprisingly, at first Elmer was not a proselytizing missionary as he expected.  Instead he was assigned to teach school in the rural township of Marlow, Oklahoma. Up to this point in his life, Elmer had graduated from high school and spent many long, lonely summers herding his father’s sheep. While skills learned as a student and a shepherd could serve as a foundation for missionary life, they were surely not sufficient for the responsibilities handed to the young elder. Elmer's January 2nd letter expressed concern at being “put in” as Sunday School Superintendent, theological teacher, school master and Presiding Elder.  He was actually the “only elder left,” in the area, he admitted, as the other two had been transferred or released. “I don’t have a minute to spare,” he wrote.  Apparently, Elmer replaced a female teacher who could not handle the man-sized rebellious boys in the class. Elmer’s teaching methods certainly lacked professional finesse. One is left to wonder whether or not the techniques learned at home on the range were as effective with his stubborn students as they were with his woolly flocks. You are invited to listen to highlights from the February 25^th letter read by a great grandson. Click on the podcast link in the column at the right.