Densho Digital Archive - Mary Blocher Smeltzer Interview (denshovh-smary-01-0003)

<Begin Segment 3>

RP: What do you remember about growing up here in La Verne?

MS: Well, I went to grammar school in La Verne, and I walked to school. And it was like... one, two, three, four, about ten blocks, something like that. It was a good walk. But I know walking home, there was a very famous woman who worked with the Mexicans and had Sunday school and stuff, and she had a lemon tree in front of her house, and we walked by it. I would pick up a lemon, and we'd kind of play catch with this lemon. And then we got to the Methodist church, and they had a fountain out in front. And I'd wash this lemon and then I'd eat it. I loved sour stuff. [Laughs] And then we had a, the girlfriend that lived a half a, well, half a block from me, and it was just a big pepper tree and a vacant lot between our houses. And she had red hair, and she was my best friend. And she didn't go to our church, but we went to the Church of Brethren and there was a bunch of kids there. And I was always the go-between between Nadine and these other kids that were in our church. I remember that's what I grew up doing, being a go-between. But well...

RP: What about the, you said there was a Church of the Brethren here in La Verne?

MS: Uh-huh, it had been here. The Church of the Brethren in La Verne and the college got started about in the 1890s. So it was here going.

RP: Pretty established.

MS: And it was a big frame building, the church was then.

RP: Can you give us a little brief background on the Church of the Brethren?

MS: Well, it's one of the historic peace churches, and it's celebrating the 300th anniversary this year.

RP: In the United States?

MS: Yeah. No, I imagine it's from when it started in Germany. It started in a town called Schwarzenau, and they baptized people in the Eder River. And I think it was kind of against the law because I think there was some kind of a national church. I think there was both Catholic and Protestant at that time. But I know they baptized... did I say baptized? They baptized people in the Eder River, and that was the beginning of our church, and that was three hundred years ago now. Well, I visited there. I lived in Europe, I lived in Austria, my husband did relief work there. So we visited Schwarzenau, and I went by somebody's house, and I admired a little candleholder that was in her china cabinet or something and she just opened the door and she hauled out and gave me one, and I've got it right over here. Anyway... what was I, where was I?

RP: We were talking a little bit about the history of the church.

MS: Oh, yeah. Well, it's always been a peace church, and one of the things they wouldn't do was to fight in the army. And some of the, what do you call it, the noblemen or the people that were higher class, they let us, I think they... I suppose we lived on some of their land or something, but we went from Germany, I think, up to Holland or somewhere like that, and then they came across to the United States. And they came to, I think it was called Germantown, it was a suburb of Philadelphia, and I can't tell you that year. I don't know what year that was. I ought to know it, but I don't. Anyway, that's where our church started, and right now, my son and his wife have churches in Pennsylvania, and they're of Church of the Brethren, too. And there's many more of Brethren back there and in Virginia. Virginia and Pennsylvania have many more Church of the Brethren people. Then there are some in Indiana, and some in Ohio, and a few in Iowa, and a few down in... well, Missouri, I guess. But then about in the 1890s, people started coming to California. And so our church started out here in 1890, and that's when the college started here, too.

RP: Is this the only Church of the Brethren in southern California area at that time?

MS: Oh, no, no. We've got one in Pomona, we've got one in Glendora. We used to have one in Covina, and they have some up north. We've got a good-sized church in Modesto. And there's a little town called Empire and Waterford and Lindsay, they all have Churches of the Brethren. But it's a very small denomination and we're not thick out here like big churches are all back east. There are some in Maryland and Virginia and Pennsylvania. I don't know what else you want...