an when he turn his back I jump down and run. When he looks he jus
laugh.

"My father he lived to be eighty nine. He died right here in this house
and he's buried over by the church. His name was Sam. They called my
mother Willie Ann. She died when I was small. I had three brothers and
one sister. My father married again and had seven or eight other
children.

"I've had eleven children; five livin, six dead. I've been preaching for
forty years and I have seen many souls saved. I don't preach regular
anymore but once in a while I do. I have preached in all these little
churches around here. I preached six years at Sugar Loaf Mountain. The
presidin elder he wants me to go there. The man that had left there jus
tore that church up. I went up there one Sunday and I didn't see
anything that I could do. I think I'm not able for this. I said they
needs a more experienced preacher than me. But the presidin elder keeps
after me to go there and I says, well, I go for one year. Next thing it
was the same thing. I stays on another year and so on for six years.
When I left there that church was in pretty good shape.

"I think preaching the gospel is the greatest work in the world. But
folks don't seem to take the interest in church that they used to."




Maryland
Sept. 30, 1937
Rogers