For All the Saints

People born before 1900. Pop, my paternal grandfather, was a circuit-riding Methodist preacher, taught in his youth in a rural one-room school, got the attention of the farmer boys by lifting a boulder they could not move in clearing an area for sports. Pop could have tried for Olympic glory in pole vaulting but it was an old new idea that didn’t draw him. Grandmom, his wife sought out kids living in chicken coops during the Depression to invite them to Sunday school. Granddaddy, Mother’s dad, was raised to be a Baptist preacher, named for an evangelist. Joined the Methodists, was inspired to tithe, did, when money was tight, and when giving buildings came from the tenth, was recognized as Mr. Methodist in West Texas, paid the patent fee on machinery he designed that was stolen from him when that company did not. Grandmother was a lady, more educated than her husband, a faithful helpmate and mother. I could speak of their ancestors, a precious heritage, and all of them make me who I am. I have worth, and I know that for they gave me theirs, These saints love me, and God loves me, so I will live this day without fear and be grateful for all the saints who show me the path.                              

Rhapherd Thomas Breedlove (born December 7, 1888, Irma, children Sam, Mary, and Irma Tom

Joe H. Anderson and wife Lena Lorice Anderson on 50th anniversary about 2/2/1960