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8.29.2012

Off Plumb

 When they say that a certain pastor "built this church" they only occasionally mean built it with their own hands.  From July 57 until January 58  Charlotte and a crew of about a dozen men built the Sunday school wing first and then the A Frame sanctuary.  They thanked God for an unusually dry November and December.  Charlotte made a name for herself in town by personally negotiating the price for every stick of wood.  Charlotte and Dorothy took not a dime of salary in all of 1957. In 1958 the Women's missionary society of the Yearly meeting started sending them $75.00 a month, when the Board of Evangelism approved the work but no money for the work. The local families sacrificed to buy the materials.



When you see Charlotte in these pictures you see the plans in her hands. She was the crew boss. She also hammered nails and raised walls.

One of the surviving crew members told me this story:

 One morning Charlotte walked onto the site. We had just raised one of the supports, and were nailing it into place.

 Charlotte looks at our work and says "Great work men, but that post looks a little off plumb to me.  Charlotte, I says, I just put the level on that thing - it was plumb as can be. She says, would you humor me by putting the level on it again - I'm thinkin' it's about 3 degrees off to the East.  I was a bit put out, but  there never was any arguing with that woman. So I put the level back on the post to show her that it was right as rain. And Danged if it wasn't three degrees off plumb and to the East!


He told me that story with nothing but love and respect for a workman who would accept nothing less than the best work possible.




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// posted by Peggy Senger Morrison @ Wednesday, August 29, 2012
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