[or-roots] Juker,Dull,Powell,Thompson (aunt Charlotte's Jab Powell)

[kat1928 at integrity.com]

Quoting DAVIESW739 at aol.com:

> I remember attending a Meeting held on the banks of the Yamhill river.
> Off to 
> one side of the grounds was a half dozen camps, they were quite apart
> from 
> the rest and nobody went there. We children were told not to go near
> that part 
> of the camp grounds. We were not told why, but we saw the older ones
> glance 
> that way furtively and heads were shaken and mouths drawn down. Even the
> names of 
> the family camped there was spoken with lowered voices. There was
> something 
> terrible at that place, we children were all sure of that. We feared
> that it 
> might be catching and we talked about it among ourselves and wondered
> and peeked 
> whenever we had the chance.
> 
>   One night just as preaching had begun we heard a big commotion in the
> 
> Clark's camp. "Glory to god." we heard, Then "Jesus is with us tonight,
> 
> halleluiah." (Only they called it Hulli-u-jay).Little heads all along
> our row were picked 
> up. We forgot that we were ladies and opened our mouths and stared. The
> 
> "shouting" old ladies jumped up from the congregation and started toward
> the 
> Clark's camp. "Mothers in Israel" they were called. some of them, I
> remember were 
> very fat and each one seemed trying to reach the Clark's camp first.
> They were 
> all excited and were hollering "Glory to god" and pounding each other.
> Someone 
> had "gotten religion." a poor unfortunate, who had been shunned by
> everyone 
> that was there and despised, had found her way to God, apparently
> without 
> guidance. Good people can be so cruel sometimes. My Mother was deeply
> religious, but 
> her religion was of a different kind. She was very dignified and quiet
> and 
> she was always easy for anyone in trouble to go to.
> 
>   Joab Powell was at that Camp Meeting. He thought himself quite a
> singer, 
> maybe he was. I thought so anyway. He had a big, big voice that fairly
> made the 
> woods echo. One of his favorite songs was "I yield, I yield, I can hold
> out no 
> more to the pleadings of Mercy etc." He sang through his nose and I
> thought 
> he said: "ienal, ienal," etc. and I could not find out what it meant. He
> sang 
> another that went something like this: "Escape for life, with horror
> then my 
> vitals froze." I thought he said: "Scrape for life, with horror then my
> victuap 
> forze." I sang it with him as loudly as I could till Mother heard me and
> made 
> me stop.I remember going to one Camp Meeting. Uncle Abram Garrison was
> the 
> preacher. In those days, preachers were nearly always very poor, few of
> them had 
> even a home, though land was to be had for the staking of it, and
> material for 
> a cabin grew on the land, itself. Everybody was willing and glad to come
> to a 
> "house raising" and there would be a home quite as good as anyone else
> had. 
> But most of the preachers traveled about from settlement to settlement
> and 
> stayed wherever night overtook them. That was not true of Uncle Abram,
> he was a 
> farmer and an unusually thrifty one.
> 
>   When he presided at the Camp Meeting, everybody knew that there would
> be 
> plenty to eat, plenty for everyone and to spare. Aunt Peggy was a famous
> cook 
> and could make the most of everything that she had. Like everyone else,
> they had 
> nothing except what they grew themselves, but before Camp Meeting they
> would 
> kill a beef and cook it in a big pit. Aunt Peggy would have head cheese
> and 
> baked hams, and homemade cheese round and plump and yellow. They would
> spread 
> the dinner out under the trees and Uncle Abram would hop upon a stump
> and call: 
> "come, come, everyone and fill up the table." The Meeting would
> sometimes last 
> for a week and Uncle Abram and Aunt Peggy saw to it that everyone had
> all 
> that he could eat. Of course, those who had plenty, took their own, but
> nobody 
> stayed away from Camp Meeting because their cupboards were bare. In
> fact, I 
> would not be at all surprised, if that was not the reason that Uncle
> Abram's Camp 
> Meetings were always so well attended. There were many bare cupboards in
> 
> Oregon then.
> 
> Walt Davies
> Cooper Hollow Farm
> Monmouth, OR 97361
> 503 623-0460 
> 


Dear Walt;

Thank you for the wonderful recollection of early Camp Meetings. I was not
raised in a Christian home so never witnessed camp meetings, etc.
My upbringing was strict-almost puritan and I was raised by an athiest 
Step-Dad.  However, he taught me good principals.
When I investigated churches, I stayed far away from and Baptists; thinking
they were so strict!  I ended up in a Baptist church, just as my Gr.gr.gr
grandfather, Joab Powell was; right where God wants me! I'm proud to be his
Grand-daughter!

It is so refreshing to hear other people's early experiences.

Thanks again.

Dorothy Webb
kat1928 at integrity.com