Junior and Phyllis's daughters). My Schlatter cousins had taken Charley Hathaway to raise. They invited Charlie's sisters to spend the two weeks with all of us and attend Bible School. Charlie's sisters were from Chicago. We would have our meals in the summer kitchen and one summer there were seventeen around the table. I don't think many of us were used to so much food and it was so delicious. Needless to say, we all had a wonderful time and we have beautiful happy memories. My cousins have all gone now but those memories linger on. We all love them so much and appreciated their hospitality. My cousin, Rame Schlatter, Adam's brother, also had a tragic death. His tractor brakes didn't hold while he was repairing his tractor and it ran over him causing his death. He and his wife, Rhoda, were so hospitable to everyone especially those that served on foreign missions. Their missionary children spent their furlows with them. Our cousin, Philip, and his wife, Thelma, were so special too. Thelma taught my children in Bible School and they loved being in her class. Phil Schlatter was the youngest of the Schlatter family and closest to me in age. Phil and Thelma's daughter, Sharon, and her husband, Fritz, bought the Schlatter home place. I'll never forget the auction. Fritz and Arnie bid against each other to raise the prices. It worked! The auction was a huge success. It was sad to see part of our life ending though. We have so many precious memories. Aunt Mary married Erb Watson. They lived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania for many years and had two children, Armatha and George Edward. In later years they moved to West Palm Beach, Florida. Armatha was married to Bill Morrow in Philadelphia but they divorced and she married Frank Wortman in West Palm Beach. George married Lucy who was from Philadelphia. They moved to West Palm Beach and there had a daughter named Cindy. Lucy died and later George married Bonnie who had been a good friend of Lucy. One time Frank Wortman told me to try to keep in touch with Cindy because she didn't know many of her relatives. This last year we made sure to send them an invitation to our reunion and Cindy and Jeff Hartman, Her husband, came to the reunion with their two sons. We were all really glad to see her and I think she was happy to meet some of her relatives. After George died three years ago, Bonnie moved to Arizona. I keep in touch with her. She's a nice person and she's good to Cindy. My Mother's fourth sister was Aunt Kate Schwartz. Her birth name was Fanny but she and my sister Fan traded names. My sister Fan's birth name was Katherine but she wanted the name Fanny so they traded. I don't know if they did it legal or not. Aunt Kate was engaged to be married, but her sweetheart died before the marriage. She never married then but kept house for Grandpa after Grandma died. Aunt Kate was very shy but she kept a nice home and was a good cook. Uncle Adam Schwartz was my Mother's only brother. His wife was Aunt Mary. I don't remember her maiden name. They had a farm near Grandpa's two miles from Bluffton. They had two children, Mable and Edward. Mable used to give the clothes she had outgrown to me. I was really happy for them. She died when she was pretty young. She was married, lived in Fort Wayne and always tried to keep in touch. After Edward died, I went to his wife's auction. I bought Ed's car and it was in good condition. I wish I had bought Uncle Adam's violin. It was a Stradivarius. I saw the name inside. After I bought the car for $800, I had little left. Another woman was bidding on the car. Her name was Isabelle Grandlinard. I didn't know her at that time, but when I moved to Linn Grove later, I found out she was Leonard's sister-in-law and sold Avon products. I wasn't about to let up on bidding because I wanted Ed's car. I knew he took good care of it, so I stood there flat-footed and out bid her. Later we became friends and I bought Avon from her. I don't think she ever realized it was me that had out bid her that day. I never thought about telling her. I wish I had enough to buy their forty-acre farm. It went for $45,000 and later a lot of it was sold for commercial buildings. It extended nearly to Bluffton. Some was sold for housing. My Dad had three brothers. Uncle David Meyer lived in Bluffton. He was a businessman and married into a prominent English family. His wife'' name was Maggie Engler. They had two children. Ruth died of tuberculosis when she was in her early twenties and Raymond who still lives in Bluffton. He was a "ham radio" operator for years. A good one too. The second brother, Jacob Meyer, was our neighbor. He was a farmer and his land joined our land. He had a large family. His daughters were Mary Beth, Lela, and Florence. His sons were Harry, Melvin, Furry, and Ralph. I knew his daughter, Florence, was in high school when I was. She was ahead of me though. We keep in touch, especially at Christmas. She lives in Fairfax, Virginia near her daughter. Furry was a Mormon and lived out west. They believe you can be baptized for your relatives so Furry asks my brother Ed to go around to all the cemeteries and send him the names of all his relatives so he could be baptized for each of them. So Ed did. My Dad's third brother, Jonie Meyer, was married to a nice woman. I can't remember her first name but her last name was Rich. She was just a little woman. They had four sons; Joe, Peter, Rueben, and Walter and two daughters; Anna (who was my age) and Lily (who was Fan's age). Joe had a mill at the corner of Route 116 and the road that goes to Vera Cruz. They use to say that Uncle Jonie would work like a horse and come from the fields and jump into the horse trough to cool off. He later died of a heart attack. Dad had four sisters; Sarah Frauhiger, Bertha Frauhiger, Ida Baumgartner, and Elizabeth Weinland. My Aunt Bertha Frauhiger was Dad's oldest sister. Aunt Bertha and Aunt Sarah married brothers. Aunt Ida Baumgartner was a refined lady. Aunt Ida was Dad's youngest sister and the only one that joined the Apostolic Christian church. She and my Mom were good friends. Her daughter, Mable, married Freddy Moser after her husband and Freddy's, Sadia died. She also had a daughter named Lucille that I keep in touch with. Their Dad's name was Uncle Lewie Baumgartner. Her sons were named Roger and Harry. I didn't know Aunt Sarah and Aunt Bertha but they both had large families. I did know Aunt Bertha's son. His name was Noah Frauhiger and at one time he was sheriff of Bluffton. He joined the House of David group in Michigan. He had a long beard. He was a big man and had a big family. I only remember his one daughter named Mildred. My Aunt Elizabeth Weinland was Dad's sister. When Aunt Lizzy died, she left $900 to each of her nieces and nephews, so we each got an inheritance from her. She never had any children. Her husband, Uncle John, was a really nice man. My Dad's father, Peter Meyer, was an intelligent man who hadn't gone to school a day in his life but owned much land in Wells County. He gave each of his eight children eighty acres of land. He came over to America from Switzerland with his parents. His father, my great Grandfather was both buried in a cemetery near Vera Cruz, Indiana. My Grandmother, my Dad's mother, was my Granddad's second wife. They say that she and my sister, Em, looked a lot alike. Grandpa Peter was a good friend to the Indians in that area. Grandpa lived one mile south of Vera Cruz. They would blindfold him and take him by horseback to their cave. They didn't want anyone to know where they lived. Grandpa said that it would take about a half-hour to get there so he figured that it was probably near Linn Grove. When I lived in Linn Grove, the children could find lots of flint arrowheads in the fields in the spring after the fields were plowed so no doubt there had been an Indian settlement there at one time. We had heard that Ezra Habbagger had a cave on his farm. That was near Linn Grove, so, who knows, maybe that was where they took Grandpa Meyer. Anyway, Grandpa was a good friend to those Indians. I guess I inherited that love for Indians from Grandpa. In fact, I love all races. I think it is interesting to have friends of other races. I have good friends in the black race and with four Japanese families.One of the men worked for Sid in his research lab. I met a wonderful Chinese family. Ping Tan, his wife, Che Ping, and their son, Xiou. We are very good friends. Ping Tan's mother, Wen Gue, was here from China two years ago and we became best friends. She couldn't speak or understand English and I couldn't understand Chinese but we got along great. I wanted to take her shopping, so I told her son to make a chart for us with a list we could point to with English on one side and the Chinese meaning right next to it. We would just have to point to the meaning in our language and the other could read what we meant in theirs. We had a lot of fun at the perfume counter. She finally chose gardenia. She has gone back to China now, but she sends beautiful gifts to me. When she was younger she was an attorney. Her husband has a high job in the Chinese Red Cross. I had a chance to write the plan of salvation to them and Ping translated it into Chinese. They were raised in the eastern religion, Buddhism, which believes that all life forms are reincarnated beings from an earlier existence. I explained that after the fall in the Garden of Eden, we were put into time and became old but that wasn't God's original plan. We can be restored back to our teens in the Kingdom that God has prepared for us. I recently ask Che Ping, Wen Gue's daughter-in-law, if I could get a Chinese Bible for her Mother-in-law. She said, "Oh, she has one". I'm disappointed that I never saw my grandparents on my Dad's side. I don't even have pictures. My Grandmother Meyer didn't believe in having her picture taken. I think that the first time I ever really felt the presence of God was when I was with Em and Bill staying with them on the farm right after they got married. I already mentioned how I helped shuck corn and helped in their garden. Anyway, they had big, tall, beautiful trees in the front yard and I would go out and lay on my back looking up at the sky. I knew that there was a God. I would feel a pull to go to Him. This one time especially I felt like I was floating up to Him. Then I went into high school and enjoyed sports and had friends that didn't talk much of God and the devil was putting temptations before me. I loved to dance and one summer evening I had a date with Jack Bender who was a popular football player. It was a double date and the other couple were Bruce McAfee and Obby Rudy (Earl Rudy's sister). Well, Bruce and I hit it off from the first. The next night I was over at Mag Morris' and Bruce knocked and asks for me to go to the Elk's dance. I had never gone to the Elk's before so I ask my Mother and she said I could. Bruce and I danced perfect together and from then on we dated through high school. He was real smart, always the highest in his class. He was a year ahead of me. He played piano and had a good voice for singing. I could talk to him about God and he understood. When he proposed marriage, I ask him what about my church. I figured that some day I would join the Apostolic Christian Church. He said he wouldn't stand in my way but he could never kiss those guys. The members of that church greet each other by kissing on the lips. They interpret the scripture (Romans 16:16) to mean to kiss on the lips. So, Bruce had more revelation than I had at that time. The Bible does not contradict itself. We then had an agreement to date others. One time Justine Moser, my niece, and I met Velma Leman from Breman, Indiana at an Apostolic Christian dinner in Bluffton. We were upstairs trying on everyone's coats and hats and having a blast. The Apostolic Christian Church members were having a dinner and sing downstairs. It was the first time we had ever met Velma and we really hit if off great.We really liked her. She invited Justine and me to visit her in Bremen, so we ask two of our friends from Bluffton and we accepted her invitation one-week end. The two friends we invited were Mag Morris and Mary Savage. Mag was from a wealthy family. Her Dad owned the Morris Dime Stores in Indiana. Mag was attending Ward Belmont School in Tennessee. It was an exclusive girl's school but Mag was down to earth and never put on any airs. She and her husband are both gone now but her son, Jimmy, won a seven million-dollar sweepstakes after Mag died. After he won the money, Bluffton wanted him to pay for a new bridge. It would have replaced the old white bridge, which was a couple miles east of town. Jimmy had other plans and left his hometown for the bright lights of LA, California. He probably found others to tell him how to spend his money. I hope he still has some left to live on. Once when Velma came to Bluffton she brought her brother Sam who I had met before when I had visited them. He was going to Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana studying