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Ida Chamness writings on travel and religion, 1927-1938
Page 6
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-6- As time went on John called me mother, and my daughters sisters, so that it may be said that almost the very day he learned of his own mother's death he found a second mother. John stopped smoking in 1936, and he gradually deepened spiritually; as the end approached he acknowledged himself a Quaker, and undertook to use the plain language. The date of execution for John and for young Allen Wheaton, was finally set for First month, 24th, 1938. In a letter to me just five days before his death, John wrote: "It is good to be at peace with God. It makes me feel so much apart from earthly worries and cares...If I must go, I will be standing straight in God's given strength, for I will be looking upward to the arms of my Lord Jesus Christ. Mother, I am inwardly so very happy, and so very much at peace." He sent a letter to the sheriff who was to be his executioner, timed to that he would not receive it till it was all over, saying he hoped that the Sproat family would forgive him, and that he had not hate in his heart for anyone "least of all for his executioner. He smiled on his way to execution, and refused an offer of whiskey. As Allen was being strapped up, John tried to comfort him, and spoke some cheering words to the sheriff while he was being strapped up himself. My son-in-law, Arvo, and I were at Fort Madison at the time of
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-6- As time went on John called me mother, and my daughters sisters, so that it may be said that almost the very day he learned of his own mother's death he found a second mother. John stopped smoking in 1936, and he gradually deepened spiritually; as the end approached he acknowledged himself a Quaker, and undertook to use the plain language. The date of execution for John and for young Allen Wheaton, was finally set for First month, 24th, 1938. In a letter to me just five days before his death, John wrote: "It is good to be at peace with God. It makes me feel so much apart from earthly worries and cares...If I must go, I will be standing straight in God's given strength, for I will be looking upward to the arms of my Lord Jesus Christ. Mother, I am inwardly so very happy, and so very much at peace." He sent a letter to the sheriff who was to be his executioner, timed to that he would not receive it till it was all over, saying he hoped that the Sproat family would forgive him, and that he had not hate in his heart for anyone "least of all for his executioner. He smiled on his way to execution, and refused an offer of whiskey. As Allen was being strapped up, John tried to comfort him, and spoke some cheering words to the sheriff while he was being strapped up himself. My son-in-law, Arvo, and I were at Fort Madison at the time of
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