a history lesson

 My west coast brother informed me that today is "Ancestor Appreciation Day."  I do appreciate my ancestors on both sides of my family and applaud them for their hard work to build good lives for themselves and, by example, for those of us who came after.  Today I want to share a bit about my maternal grandmother and grandfather.  

In the late 1800s my grandfather worked in the coal mines of Pennsylvania to earn enough money to go to seminary to become a Brethren minister.  He went on to serve as a pastor in three or four congregations.  The first of which spoke 'low German' while he spoke English and 'high German.'  He learned.  The last of which gave him, as a retirement gift, a quilt containing the carefully stitched signatures of members of his congregation.  When I knew him he was retired and living in a retirement home where he served as minister.  

My grandmother grew up in the Laurel Mountain area of Pennsylvania, was six years older than my grandfather, and told my mother that she married my grandfather because she "wanted to see what was on the other side of the mountain."  From things I've read, she served with him in his ministries and was revered as a very good Sunday school teacher.  Sadly she died in her 50s.  

Here's a picture of the happy couple.  I'm guessing they were married about 1904.  My mother, their third child, was born in 1910.

PS My grandfather was also a self-published author who wrote several books of poetry.  I guess I come by the urge to write honestly.