Chapter 16
Professor L. C. Messer and I had planned a trip to Canada, so he left his home in Durant, Oklahoma, on Monday, June 7, in his big Willys-Knight car. He and his wife reached Pasadena the same day that I reached home. We left Pasadena on June 15 and worked our way clear north to Red Deer, Alberta, Canada. We gave one night in Rich Grove, California one night in Lindsay, one night in Fresno, one in Stockton, two in Sacramento, one in Medford, one in Portland, Oregon, one in The Dalles, Oregon, one in Yakima, Washington, one in Walla Walla, Washington, two nights in Spokane, Washington, and left Spokane on Monday the 28th, headed now for Canada. At noon we went through King’s Gate at Eastport and traveled for two hundred miles on the western slope of the Canadian Rockies. On that Rocky Mountain trip we went by Columbia lake, out of which the great Columbia river flows that makes a big curve and crosses the line into the United States and makes the dividing line between Washington and Oregon and out into the ocean. We went through the Canadian National Park and saw the great moose, the deer and the Rocky Mountain goats.
We gave three days in Calgary, Alberta, for Roy Smee in the First Church of the Nazarene and July 2 we drove into Red Deer. Brother O. B. Ong was my yokefellow here. In ten days we had five hundred people at the altar. This is one of the greatest camps that I have been in for a number of years. At the close of the camp Brother and Sister Messer ran back to Calgary, and I ran over to Edmonton for one night. Our trip was beautiful and we had a wonderful service. Boarded the train at midnight and was back for breakfast next morning in Calgary. Edmonton is the capital of Alberta and a most beautiful city but my recollection is that Calgary is larger and more beautiful.
Here we turned east and made a thousand-mile run. We stopped and preached one night in Morse, one night in Medicine Hat, one night in Moose Jaw and went on to Regina, the capital of Saskatchewan. Our yokefellows here were Brother Jones and Brother Metcalf. No finer boys living. Brother Metcalf was educated in Pasadena College and Brother Jones in Bethany-Peniel College of Oklahoma. When we closed in Regina we went through the greatest wheat fields I have seen in my life. We saw wheat that made eighty bushels per acre; as far as your eyes could see it was wheat fields.
We drove out through southern Canada and crossed the line between Canada and Montana to Miles City and spent the night. They claim that Miles City is the largest horse market in the known world. Next night we drove to Billings, Montana, and preached in the First Church of the Nazarene and had a most beautiful service. Our good pastor had just arrived a week before from the Washington-Philadelphia District but was getting a fine start. Next morning we were up early and made a run for Yellowstone National Park.
We drove in at noon and drove all through the park by the next afternoon. We did not stay long at each place. Drove out at the west gate and drove that night to Idaho Falls, eating supper and going to bed at midnight. Next night we drove into Boise. There we joined Brother Sanner, Dr. Morrison, Brother and Sister Aycock and a host of other fine workers. There were nearly four hundred at the altar during this meeting. Closing on August 8 and leaving August 9, we preached on Monday night at Pocatello, Idaho, Tuesday night at Salt Lake City, Wednesday night at Grand Junction, Colorado, Thursday in Canon City, Colorado, Friday night in Dalhart, Texas, Saturday night we reached the campmeeting at Dodsonville, Texas. Here Brother and Sister Ellis were in charge. When I got there my old friend of twenty-five years, A. D. Buck, was in charge. We ran for ten days and we had hundreds of people from at least three hundred miles distant, from Texas and New Mexico. This camp was one of glory and power, although we were well-nigh rained out at times, but God was on the scene.
At the close at Dodsonville we turned the nose of our great car east and stopped one night in Joplin, Missouri, one night in Iberia, Missouri, and one night in St. Louis.
Our next stop was at Columbus, Indiana. My yokefellow was Rev. H. N. Dickerson and Professor Messer in charge of the music This was a beautiful camp. At the close of this camp we decided to take a few days’ rest, but as we had to go east we drove out through eastern Indiana and to Toledo, Ohio, left our big car to have some work done and ran into Detroit for one night, then to Pontiac, Michigan, and had a week’s rest. We gave them one Sunday in the Nazarene church.
From Pontiac we ran back into Toledo, got our car and drove on east, spending that night in Cleveland. Driving the next night into Rochester, New York, where we had a two days’ convention, then into Syracuse for a two days’ convention, then to Brooktondale for a day and night and joined H. V. Miller, District Superintendent of the New England District, and made a run to Springfield, Massachusetts, where we had one beautiful night. From there we ran to Keene, New Hampshire; from Keene, we crossed to Leicester, Vermont; from there to Waterville, Vermont; from there to Hill West; from there to Johnston, Vermont; from there to Wolcott, Vermont; from there we made a run to Jackman, Maine; from there to Auburn, Maine; then to Bath, Maine; from there we went to Portland, Maine; giving one night to South Portland and one morning and afternoon to First church in Portland and back to South Portland at night.
Our next stop was Livermore Falls, Maine, and our next stop was Haverhill, Mass. Here we have a great church with a great pastor. Then we made another trip into New Hampshire stopping in Derry for one night, where we have a beautiful new church and had a good time. Next in Fitchburg, Massachusetts. Here Brother Arthur Ingler was in charge. Our next stop was in Worcester, Massachusetts. Here we have a beautiful work, a new church organized in the summer. From there we ran down to South Manchester, Connecticut. There we had a great time and went from there to Danielson, Connecticut. We had a great service there and God was on hand to bless. Our next stop was in New Bedford, Massachusetts, with Jimmie Kirkland. This was a wonderful service. From there we ran to Cambridge and had one night with G. E. Waddle, one of the most beautiful men in the world. Next night we were in Everett, Massachusetts. This was a most beautiful service. From there we ran over to the college at Wollaston and had a five days’ convention: It was a great convention.
At the close of this we turned the nose of our great car southward and in one day we passed through Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Jersey, New York and a good portion of Pennsylvania. We camped that night twenty-five miles below Philadelphia and drove up to Washington next morning in time for breakfast. At Washington’s old home we had the pleasure of seeing Queen Marie of Rumania, also her son and daughter. We took supper that night in Richmond, Virginia, drove on twenty-five or thirty miles down the highway and put up for the night. Drove into Greensboro, North Carolina, the next night and preached. The next day we drove into Charlotte, North Carolina, and preached at night. Next night we drove into Atlanta, Georgia. Here we took in the District Assembly and stayed a week longer and had a most beautiful convention.
At the close of our beautiful convention in Atlanta with Brother Anderson and Brother Simmons, we made a run northwest; spending one night in the northeast corner of Mississippi with Brother Messer’s aunt; spending the next night in Little Rock, Arkansas, with Lee Gaines, the pastor; we spent the next night in Antlers, Oklahoma, in the home of the Isbell family, the mother of Sister Messer.
Leaving Sister Messer there with her mother, Professor Messer and I drove on to Dallas, Texas, and joined our pastor, Brother Parks, on November 5, running over the 14th. This was a most beautiful convention. All of the afternoon and night services were held in the Haskell Avenue Methodist church of which Rev. Robert Thompson, a beautiful Scotch brother, was pastor.
Leaving there on Sunday night, the 14th, we drove through to Durant by 5:30 the next morning, getting three hours’ sleep and driving to Henryetta for the night. Rev. Allie Irick was opening a great campaign. I preached one night, November 15, and Tuesday I left Brother Irick and Brother Messer in the thick of the fight and made a run to Kansas City and stopped over two nights with the boys at the Publishing House.
Then I made a jump to Charleston, West Virginia, held a ten days’ meeting in the great Union Mission of which Brother Pat P. Withrow is superintendent. This is one of the greatest and most beautiful missions I have ever worked in. Their buildings are probably worth a half million dollars. My stay with Brother Withrow could not have been more pleasant. I preached twice while there in the great Central Methodist church; went up the river one day and preached one afternoon in a beautiful Baptist church for Dr. Smith, but was back at the mission in time for the night service.
From there I made a jump into southeast Oklahoma and joined Brother S. H. Owens, the District Superintendent, Professor L. C. Messer and his father and we opened a tour for the district in Poteau. We began December 1 in Poteau and closed December 19 in Durant. We made seventeen towns in these nineteen days. This was an unusually interesting trip. We were in such cities as Poteau, Muskogee, Tulsa, Sapulpa, Collinsville, Bartlesville, Hominy, Shawnee, Henryetta, Holdenville, Atwood, Ada, Tishomingo, Madill, Hugo, Antlers, and finished up in Durant.
This brought us to December 19. In 1926 I worked in forty-two states, three provinces of Canada, preached nearly five hundred times and put the Herald of Holiness in 2800 homes. I wrote the “Good Samaritan Chats” every week and the closing of my year’s work of 1926 completes forty-seven years of religious work. During this time I have traveled just about one million miles, have preached 18,000 times. I have prayed with more than 80,000 people at the mourner’s bench and have traveled and worked the United States like it was a field, and have worked four provinces of Canada. Up to the present I have written thirteen books. They have sold by the tens of thousands and the end is not yet. This date finds this old preacher blood-red, sky-blue, snow-white, straight as a gun stick and red-hot. May the blessings of heaven rest upon every man, woman and child that may read this book. I send it forth loaded to the water line with the activities of forty-seven years of labor in the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Faithfully yours, Bud Robinson
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