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Book Review
By Harold Lehman
Grace S. Grove, L.J. Heatwole, A Granddaughter's View,
published by the author, 2001, 211 pp. $18.00, plus $3.00 for
postage and handling.
Lewis J. Heatwole, known in adult life as L.J., was born to David
and Catherine Driver Heatwole on December 4, 1852. Young Lewis,
an observant curious child, was early interested in the phases
of the moon and in the stars. In book learning, he was a precocious
scholar. As the eldest child in this mid-19th-century Mennonite
home in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, Lewis participated
in the chores of rural life, planting and harvesting, butchering
and soap-making, picking berries and chopping wood.
But a dark time was coming. With the presidential election
of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 and the subsequent secession of the
Southern states, the Mennonites in Virginia found themselves
within the battle lines of both the Confederate and Union forces.
The Shenandoah Valley was regarded as the "granary of the
South." Marauding parties from both sides ravaged the farms
for food, horses, grain and straw. During General Sheridan's
raid in October, 1864, the Heatwole family spent a chilly night
in the meadow while watching their barn being torched along with
dozens of other barns and mills within the immediate community.
Twenty years later L.J. published an eloquent article describing
the effects of the Civil War on the Mennonites of the Valley,
with the title, "The Civil War Unvarnished" (included
in the book). As a youth he had observed the peace stance taken
by young men who refused to bear arms. Some hid in the mountains
to the west; others fled to Union territory; others were imprisoned
for their stand.
For this era, L.J. had unusual opportunities for formal education.
After elementary schooling he attended Normal Institute at Bridgewater
and Harrisonburg, Virginia. Thus prepared as an elementary teacher
he taught in seven different one-room country schools for a total
of twenty-four years. Meantime he enrolled in a summer term at
the University of Virginia and through correspondence work was
granted a bachelor's degree and a master's degree from Oskaloosa
College, Iowa, by 1914.
On November 11, 1875 L.J. was married to Mary Alice Coffman,
daughter of Samuel Coffman. To this union were born seven children,
six of them surviving to adulthood. Although L.J.'s activities
often took him away from home, his first love was his wife and
children. He kept meticulous diaries of family activities and
records of family finances.
It is in weather observations and astronomy that L.J. made
a unique public contribution. At age fifteen he began to keep
weather records in his diary. Beginning in 1884 he was recognized
as a weather observer, sending regular reports to the U.S. Weather
Bureau and to newspapers. The weather station he founded at Dale
Enterprise, Virginia, is still in operation, now the third oldest
in continual use in the nation.
Kindred interests of L.J.'s were astronomy and almanac calculations.
At one time he was supplying weather calculations for sixty almanacs
worldwide. His proposals for a permanent calendar to correct
the inconveniences of the Gregorian calendar were presented to
the Calendar Revision Congress of the League of Nations in 1913.
L.J. understood the sciences of his day as reflected in his book
Key to the Almanac and the Sidereal Heavens, published by the
Mennonite Publishing House in 1908. He was intrigued by the connections
between religion, astronomy, and meteorology. He wrote articles
and gave lectures on his scientific interests.
L.J. thought his talents lay more in writing than in public
speaking. His diaries, notes, newspaper articles, travelogues
and scientific papers left an unusual paper trail of his life.
Added to these are his religious articles and sermons, all attesting
to the broad interests of this Mennonite leader.
The church called L.J. into the ministry of the Middle District
of the Virginia Mennonite Conference in 1887. His occasional
ten-to-fourteen-day circuit rides on horseback to the scattered
churches in West Virginia are recorded in his diaries. L.J. had
a special concern for the salvation of young people and found
himself frustrated by the objections within the district regarding
Sunday schools and "protracted" revival meetings.
In 1890 the Heatwole family took an interesting detour by
moving to Garden City, Missouri. While there L.J. was called
to the office of bishop with oversight of churches in Missouri
and Kansas. While he found the church situation less divisive
than in Virginia, the family returned home to the Shenandoah
Valley within three years. Factors in the move included family
illnesses and L.J. having experienced a close call in a deadly
tornado in Kansas.
On L.J.'s return, his father-in-law, Bishop Samuel Coffman,
called him to be an assistant. L.J. was soon caught up in the
turmoil which eventually resulted in a church split and the birth
of the Old Order Mennonites in Virginia. Although L.J. received
support from prominent church leaders elsewhere, the local charges
and countercharges took their toll on him.
As a churchman, L.J. in his later years held membership on
publication, education and music committees. In World War I an
indictment for treason and a substantial fine were brought against
L.J. for advising a West Virginia preacher to encourage his church
members not to purchase U.S. war bonds and stamps.
Early on, L.J. was a supporter and the initial board chairman
of Eastern Mennonite School. In 1926 his wife, Molly, died. A
son and daughter then took care of L.J. On March 11, 1928, L.J.
preached his farewell sermon (included in its entirety in the
book). He continued his weather observations and newspaper reporting
until the last year of his life. His death occurred on December
26, 1932, at the age of 80.
This is a well-written biography by granddaughters Mary E.
Suter (deceased) and Grace S. Grove. The writing, augmented by
many quotations from their grandfather, provides a delightful
blend of facts, stories and feelings about this many-faceted
man, about the social milieu of his day, and about Mennonite
life a century ago.
Harold D. Lehman, Harrisonburg, Va. Is retired from teaching
at Eastern Mennonite University.
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