The Lumberjack Sky PilotWhittles, Thomas D. (Thomas Davis)
History
The Lumberjack Sky Pilot
Whittles, Thomas D. (Thomas Davis)
Church work with loggers -- Minnesota; Higgins, Francis Edmund, 1865-1915; Presbyterian Church -- Clergy -- Biography
Although Mr. Higgins grew to manhood in a timber country, yet he never
had visited a large lumbercamp until the winter following his residence
at Barnum. In his youth he had logged in the forests of Dufferin
County, Ontario, but the lumbering was on a small scale--it was only
the logging of farmers. Around Barnum, Minnesota, the camps were
operated by the lumber kings of the west. The winter's cut was counted
in millions of feet, not by hundreds or thousands.
In the fall of 1895 a delegation of lumberjacks came to the Sky
Pilot's home in Barnum and asked to be taken into the circle of his
ministration.
"We need you just as much as the camp of drivers you preached to in the
spring," they said, and they looked the part they professed.
Camp after camp petitioned for his services, and so the work grew until
all the logging camps around the village were receiving occasional
services from the unordained man who served the Presbyterian Mission
Church at Barnum. The field was large, white for a willing harvest, but
the laborers were few, few indeed--only one.
Mr. Higgins had recently married, and through the union encouragement
and effectiveness was given to his work in village and camp. In October
of 1895 Mr. Higgins was married to Miss Eva L. Lucas of Rockford,
Minnesota. Miss Lucas was an active church worker in her own town, and
after her marriage the bride often went with her husband to the filthy
camps and furnished music on the little portable organ. Her presence
was appreciated by the foresters, and with the lead of the organ the
music was bettered.
These were days of exacting labor and little pay. In his spare moments
Frank Higgins was trying to supplement the loss of university and
seminary training, and the midnight lamp glowed in the study as he
sought to prepare himself for ordination. There were sermons to
prepare, calls to make, the dead to bury, and a thousand unexpected
duties that are ever attendant on a village pastorate. But louder than
all the demands was the ever increasing Macedonian cry from the camps
for services and assistance. So much to be done and so little one could
do in comparison to the demand! Frank Higgins never asked for "flowery
beds of ease." His physical strength was unlimited, and he loved action
rather than repose. With the joy of a strong man he attacked his work
and found an increasing happiness in duty done. A few days after one of
his visits to the camps, two lumberjacks came to his door.
"We want you quick," they said, "we've brought one of the boys from the
camp to his homestead. He's asking for you. He's a very sick man."
In company with the woodsmen Mr. Higgins went through the forest to the
log cabin of the homesteader. The doctor had just arrived. Turning to
Mr. Higgins, the physician said:
"If we could get him to St. Luke's Hospital in Duluth there would be a
chance for him. He cannot obtain the necessary care here in his shack."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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