CAMPBELLs, LUGGs, & BLACKWELLs of Nelson, PA

In the fall of 1929 I made a real change. One day I said to the minister of our Presbyterian Church, "You know I have always wanted to be a missionary." Reverend Patterson said, "Why don't you be one?" I replied that I was sure I was too old, thinking I would have to take out some time for Bible study and training. Reverend Patterson replied that he felt confident I could apply to one of our mission schools and be accepted. He assured me that he realized I had been faithful in our church and had taken part in much Bible study. He encouraged me to apply to our Board of National Missions, saying he would also write to them and was given a chance to go to the Menaul School in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Menaul was a high school for Spanish speaking boys from the little Spanish towns or plazas in Northern New Mexico.

I was assigned to what was called the sixth grade. It was the opportunity grade for boys who were not quite ready for high school.

It was an experience for me, full of many new activities. I had never seen a mountain. Albuquerque was surrounded by mountains and was nearly a mile high in elevation. Not only was the landscape different, I soon learned many other new things.

The food at Menual was mainly what I was used to, but I soon learned that "chili" was a common dish and enjoyed by all. It was made of beans and meat seasoned by hot chili peppers. The beans were very diff erent. My mother had always used the small white navy beans. The beans they used in New Mexico were small, mottled brown beans called pinto beans. I really learned to like and appreciate them. Not only were they delicious, but they were cooked easily - a slow cooking, perhaps overnight.

Menaul had a large campus, about 300 acres. The school had a herd of Holstein cows. There was a large garden, fields of alfalfa, and to my delight, a fair sized peach orchard.

The school was right on the edge of Albuequerque. Eighteen miles east were the Sandia Mountains. One could see a group of extinct volcanoes on the west or one could see Mt. Taylor. Then, in contrast, the great American desert was beginning on the western horizon.

I had studied Latin in Brainerd High School and I found that the Spanish language, which our school boys used, had many Latin derivatives. I began to "pick up" a few words. Of course, only English was used in our school.

I was given a room in "Teachers Hall" where the single teachers lived. The married faculty members had their own homes on the campus.

I soon found that the climate and altitude made a difference in my living. Bronchitis, a real trouble at times in Minnesota, left me.Then came the sand storms in New Mexico which affected my breathing a bit so sinusitis was a new trouble. On the whole, though, I really enjoyed the new and different climate.

I was not the only new worker that fall at Menaul School. Among the new workers was a man from California who had been employed to be the new "shop teacher." He was to teach the boys in carpentry, learning how to handle all the tools of that trade. Other trades, also, were added.

One thing that really developed was the study and care of automobiles. Friends of the school began to leave their cars for the boys to work on. Some became regular customers t our school auto shop. Welding became a new and popular trade to learn. The school had a forge to use in the machine shop, so that iron was heated and shaped on the big iron tables with sledge hammers. I got very well acquainted with the new shop teacher. He was a graduate of the Bible Institute of Los Angeles, an institute that I had been very interested in.

To make an interesting part of my life story short, I must tell you that H. George Prescott and I met in August. We became engaged in October. the next June we traveled to Minnesota to be married in the Presbyterian Church of Brainerd, Minnesota.

The  Reverend William J. Lowrie from Windom, Minnesota, came to officiate at the marriage ceremony. The Lowries had been friends of mine since my early teenage days. Reverend Alexander Patterson, the minister of the Brainerd Presbyterian Church, assisted. My niece. Irma Anderson was the maid of honor. Twelve year old Elizabeth Lowrie was my junior bridesmaid. My train bearer was the the tiny daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Dillon. The Dillons were dear old friends from high school days, that is Alfred was. Mrs. Dillon or Dorothy and I didn't become acquainted after she married Alfred.

George and I headed west after our marriage. We visited my brother Edd and family in Lewiston, Montana. We also spent a night in Yellowstone National Park. We finally came to Fort Collins, Colorado, where George enrolled for the summer term at Colorado State College. He studied farm and shop mechanics there.

Back in Albuquerque, George took several night courses in the University of New Mexico. By taking extension courses at the University of New Mexico and by returning for another summer term at Colorado State College, he received a Bachelor's Degree from both schools.

We lived and worked at Menaul School in Albuquerque for twenty years. Then we left to go to Sitka, Alaska to work at Sheldon Jackson School.

George became a teacher of carpentry there from 1950 to 1960 when he reached retirement.