Old Leamersville Church 1912 (reverse side)

In the meantime, our family with a few more families started a mission Brethren Church which is now the second church, with a big congregation now. I am thankful that I was a part of starting the Brethren gospel in that town. After two and a half years we moved back to the farm in September. Lester, my brother, was three months old. I was 16 then. In October my girlfriend, Sophia Wineland and me went to the woods to get ???, and there George and some of his friends came. That was a Sunday afternoon, so that evening George was at the church where I went and walked home with me. That was the start of us going together. So after that he came and, of course, in those days we walked everywhere we went. Oh, once in a long time he was allowed the horse and buggy. Our biggest thrill was to walk about a mile to McKee to the railroad station for to see the 7:30 train come in. The next summer when we would walk there we were with Bill Wertman and Sophia, about every weekend either at her home or mine. In September the boys got a three-seated carriage with two horses and three couples drove to the Henrietta picnic which was a yearly picnic. That was 1910. That was a long drive, about 30 miles, but we all had fun. George and me sure didn’t get to our homes to help with the milking that evening. The two winters we went together when there was snow, a lot of the young boys and girls would go on sledding parties. That was the Leamersville Church of the Brethren young people’s Sunday School class that went on the sledding parties. A big bobsled with two horses. The sled would have the bottom filled with straw, then horse blankets on top. We would all sit on that and have covers on us to keep warm. One evening we went from Leamersville to Altoona to Arvilla Sall’s sister’s home. We didn’t get home till almost morning. Of course, there was no automobiles in those days.