Mary's Husbands

​As I was walking the western border of the cemetery a week ago, I passed Confederate Row and the over 700 Southern soldiers buried therein—casualties of the American Civil War. These men died during a time range of 1861-1865, and their gravestones once formed a makeshift wall separating the burial ground and surrounding farmland, once part of a plantation known as Birmingham. This part of Mount Olivet comprises the midsection of Area M, a linear section only 12-feet in width. The swath continues north and south of Confederate Row along a chain link fence with houses on the other side belonging to residents of the Carrollton development that has grown out of the Birmingham estate over the last half century.

Just beyond the Confederate graves, and to the south, the topography suddenly dips down. The next 50 yards or so of Area M consists of a hodge-podge of single gravesites, some marked, and others not. This is somewhat of a pauper’s location, and formerly carried the moniker of “Stranger’s Row” in the distant past. Here, one can find many infant and child mortalities, along with indigent residents as we’ve discussed in an earlier “Story in Stone” with focus on the section of Area M  north of Confederate Row.

Area M, the former "Strangers Row," south of Confederate Row

​As it always does, a familiar stone came plainly into view for me while on this walk, one of my favorite individuals in Mount Olivet because of his unique “life story.” He surely wasn’t indigent, and I've often questioned why he is buried here in this part of our 100-acre burying ground. It is an understated memorial which basically sits like an elevated footstone. Our interment books show this as Area M’s plot #13, and there are only a few grave monuments sitting over a collection of 13 individuals in this roughly 12’x12’ plot, with four interments being those of children.

​This is the grave of Robert Lindley Downing (1857-1944), one of the most successful stage actors of the late 19th century. He was fondly called "America's Tragedian." This Shakespearean-trained performer from Washington, DC shared the stage with some of the greatest actors of his day including Edwin Booth. He was best known for his depiction of “Spartacus the Gladiator,” a role he played thousands of times on stages across the US in the late 1800s and early 1900s. In 1907, he abruptly retired from the stage to become an evangelical minister and toured the country in that vocation. Afterwards, he lived a simple and reclusive life in Middletown, devoid of the great fanfare enjoyed in early life.  (Click for original "Story in Stone.")

Robert L. Downing

Stage Poster

Atlanta Constitution (Jan 18, 1895)

The Downing grave and monument is in the center of these three stones with German Shepherd looking on

​This humble plot of Area M/Lot 13 seldom has visitors, but rather plenty of passersby who have no idea that they are in the midst of a bonafide entertainment legend from an earlier era before motion pictures. I will note that this vicinity is, however, under the watchful eye of a dutiful German Shepherd on the other side of the fence.
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No other Downing family members are here, which is interesting considering Mr. Downing had married four times. He was widowed twice, and divorced once from his second spouse, Eugenie Blair, a noted stage actress in her own right. Downing’s third wife, Helene Kirkpatrick (1864-1930), is buried several hundred yards away to the north (and along this same cemetery lane) in an unmarked grave in Mount Olivet’s Area L/Lot 183. Downing’s parents, siblings and grandparents are buried in Washington, DC's Glenwood Cemetery.

(Oct 5, 1944)

​The answer to my question of, “Why here?” can be explained by the fact that Area M once afforded families and benevolent groups the opportunity to purchase or obtain single gravesites at a cheaper rate than the usual spaces for sale . Mr. Downing’s fourth wife, and widow, simply decided that she may want to be buried elsewhere instead of by his side.

That is what I believed when I wrote my story back in March of 2017, and recalled this fact again upon my impromptu visit last week. This time around, I took special notice of Robert L. Downing’s immediate neighbors, wondering who they were, and thinking of whether their descendants have knowledge of their respective "loved one's" proximity to such an interesting celebrity?

My observation soon commenced as I saw the gravestone of a man named Harry Wilson to the right of Mr. Downing. According to his monument, Wilson lived from March 18th, 1850 to May 25th, 1932. Closer inspection of our cemetery records showed that he actually died on June 25th of that year, a fact proven by his obituary stating so (as it appeared in the June 27th, 1932 edition of the Frederick News.)

Frederick News (June 27, 1932)

Harry Wilson as he appears in the 1920 US Census, living and working at the Montevue Home

​I didn't learn much at all on this man. As the article states, Harry Wilson was a resident of the Montevue Home for the aged at the time of his death. I found him there in the 1930 US Census, and he was also living at Montevue a decade earlier in 1920. However, the 1920 Census lists Mr. Wilson in the employ of the Montevue Hospital, and greater facility, as a “fireman.”  Sort of interesting that the Montevue would undergo a later demolition by way of fire as a training exercise, but I digress.

The only thing I could find was information claiming Harry was a native of Pennsylvania, and his parents were both immigrants from Scotland. The responsible party for Mr. Wilson’s burial was a Miss Alice Mull on behalf of Montevue Hospital.
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Unlike Mr. Downing, Harry Wilson never married. I assume his burial here, as opposed to the potter’s field at Montevue, was a gesture honoring his dedicated service to the county almshouse facility.

​I next examined the grave marker to the left of Robert L. Downing. It was positioned considerably closer to his grave space than the memorial to Mr. Wilson. Here lies a gentleman named Dr. Eli G. Jones. 

 I had no earthly idea who this former physician was, but would soon learn that he, too, would marry four times like the stage actor buried beside him 11 years later. Dr. Jones would also be widowed twice and divorced once.

Dr. Eli G. Jones possesses a stone that is also that of a footstone variety, but it is not elevated substantially like that of Mr. Downing’s. 

​The similarities, however, don’t stop there. Both men were one-time residents of Middletown. This fact could be explained by further exploring a major connection involving a woman from the nearby piketown to the west who had loved, and been loved by both of these interesting gentlemen. She was the one who was responsible for choosing the gravesites of both men.

This woman was not a cemetery employee, or county almshouse representative as we saw in the case of Miss Mull handling Harry Wilson’s burial. No sir, this woman was wife # 4 for Dr. Eli Jones, and wife #4 for Robert Downing. Meet Mary Shafer Jones Downing. Her previous husbands lie side to side, but she is nowhere to be found, so to speak.

That’s right, Dr. Jones and Robert Downing share a common link in the form of wife Mary, the former Mary Eleanor Shafer of Middletown.  She was the daughter of a teacher, former Frederick tax collector,  and ten times elected Burgess of Middletown. In fact, Mr. Peter W. Shafer was also a co-organizer of the Hagerstown & Frederick Trolley system. Her sister Eva was an accomplished artist and both sisters participated in the Washington social scene.

Mr. Shafer and wife Anna L. (Young) are buried in Christ Reformed Burying Ground in Middletown, just east of Mary’s former family home (spent with both husbands) on the west side of South Jefferson Street.

202-205 S. Jefferson St in Middletown (cabin to the left of image) served home to the Peter W Shafer family and later daughter Mary shared it with Jones and Downing.

Frederick Post (April 15, 1936)

Frederick Post (April 17, 1936)

​Through additional research, I found that Mary Eleanor Shafer was born July 19th, 1870. She grew up, and was educated, in her native Middletown. She graduated from Allentown College in Allentown, PA. Mary became a drama and literature teacher and did considerable writing for various professional publications. She would continue to teach while married to both husbands, who were considered accomplished teachers as well.

​Since I told you a bit about Mary’s second husband, (Robert), let me tell you about her first. I don’t know how, or where, she met Dr. Eli G. Jones, but the couple were married at Wayne, New York on August 27th, 1923. At the time, Mary was 53 and the good doctor was 20 years her senior. 

Jones-Shafer Pennsylvania Marriage License from August 1923

Frederick News (Nov 25, 1929)

​So, Dr. Eli Gresselt Jones moved to Maryland, and moreso, Middletown with his “young” bride (relatively speaking, of course). While Mary advertised her skills in preparing young students for careers in public speaking and the like, her new husband was often mentioned in local newspapers of the period as receiving visits from medical graduate students that he had taught. In fact, Dr. Jones ran a private school for cancer treatment on Middletown's Main Street. This was his latter life’s work, that of an instructor and author of several books that are still widely used today.

Dr. Eli G. Jones

​To my amazement, I soon learned that Dr. Jones not only had an incredible ancestry, but also had made quite a name for himself professionally, rivaling that of his marital replacement in Robert L. Downing who would eventually become husband to Mary E. Shafer.

Eli G. Jones
Eli G. Jones, MD (1850 - 1933) practiced for over 50 years, selecting methods he found truly useful from conventional medicine, Physio-medicine, Biochemic, Homeopathic and Botanical (Herbal) medicine.  He developed such skill in treating difficult cases, that he became known as a "doctor's doctor," assisting his fellow physicians on up to 2,000 cases a year. He wrote many excellent articles and books. 

There are countless online references to Dr. Jones’ work, especially in regards to cancer research and therapies. He was one of the first to do so, and made the claim that he could even cure the terrible disease. In Cancer:  Its Causes, Symptoms and Treatment (originally published in 1922), he describes specific and different approaches to each type of cancer then known  laying great stress on individualizing the course of treatment for each patient.

Dr. Jones even has his own Wikipedia page with his biographical information therein:
"Jones studied conventional medicine and practiced for five years before deciding that the medicine of the day was harmful, because of its dependence upon harsh cathartics like calomel. He then turned to eclectic medicine, which relied upon herbal extracts including those of the Native Americans, went back to school, graduated, and practiced eclectic medicine for another five years. He decided to learn homeopathy, went back to school, and then practiced as a homeopath. He next turned to Physiomedicalism and, after studying, practiced that for another five years.

And finally, he studied Dr. Willhelm Heinrich Schüssler's biochemical cell salts, which is similar to homeopathy, but relies upon salts found in the body and practiced that. After his forays into the various medical schools of his time, Jones developed a syncretic practice using all the schools he had learned. He tended to use a low dosage herbal tinctures or homeopathic mother tinctures in high doses. His Definite Medication proposed low dosage herbal extracts and engendered opposition from non-homeopaths."

As mentioned earlier, Dr. Jones wrote Cancer – Its Causes, Symptoms and Treatment – Giving the Results of over Forty Years' Experience in the Medical Treatment of this Disease, and Definite Medication. He also published “A Journal of Therapeutic Facts for the Busy Doctor,” which gave doctors the pro and con experience of various treatments. The 1912 and 1913 issues have been transcribed by David Winston.

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Link to Dr. Jones 1911 Book on Cancer

I next stumbled upon a website of a gentleman named Donnie Yance, an internationally known master herbalist and nutritionist. He is the author of the book, Herbal Medicine, Healing and Cancer and Adaptogens in Medical Herbalism. Specifically, Mr. Yance writes a blog, and one such article from June 25th, 2015 is entitled: “The Wisdom of Dr. Eli Jones, One of the Greatest Physicians of All Time.” I will share the link to this blog in a moment, but this is how Mr. Yance’s article begins:

“In my opinion, one of the greatest physicians of all time—and perhaps the person that has influenced me more than any other in my clinical practice and pursuit of doing all that I can to help those with cancer—was Dr. Eli Jones, an American Eclectic physician. He was a master of knowing the specific actions and indications of each herb, and especially the applications of herbs for cancer.

The basic principles of Eclectic medicine can be distilled to these simple precepts:

Nature is the great physician who, if permitted and not interfered with, provides for our physical requirements.
Disease (dis-ease) of whatever nature is caused by a lack of equilibrium (an imbalance), the result of an abnormal condition in the body, or the result of congestion due to poor elimination.

Dr. Jones was a true Eclectic in that he read all medical textbooks of that time, including allopathic, Physiomedical, homeopathic, and of course, Eclectic. He believed in the exploration of every system of medicine, regardless of its origins, to discover and apply the most useful principles for the wellbeing of humanity. He combined his own botanical formulations (internal and topical) with simple Nature Cures such as hydrotherapy, and he also used some homeopathy.

Eli Jones practiced from the late nineteenth century into the early twentieth century and was the most successful doctor ever to treat cancer. He believed that a tumor is only a local manifestation of a constitutional (or blood) disease and that the underlying cause—a weakened constitution—must be addressed to successfully cure the cancer. Cancer, like most diseases, affects the whole organism, and should be treated as such. Modern conventional medicine fails to recognize this, and instead focuses on removing the cancer through surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation, all of which further weaken the constitution.

Eli Jones gave these four main reasons for the increase of cancer in America, England, and most of the modern world (note that he made these observations a century ago):

Stress: he called this “worriment of the mind.” Worrying weakness the nervous system, lowers vitality, and opens the way for the invasion of cancer.

Vaccinations: In all states and countries where vaccinations are mandatory, you find cancer on the increase.

Diet: Overeating meat coupled with a low intake of vegetables and fruit increases the incidence of cancer. In England, where cancer increased 4 ½ times over the last fifty years, meat consumption rose to an average of 131 pounds per year per person. In the La Grande Trappe monastery in France, where the diet excludes meat, tea, coffee, and other stimulants, there was not a single case of cancer for twenty-seven years.
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The abuse of stimulants: This includes tea, coffee, alcohol, tobacco, etc.”

(Read Blog on Donnie.Blanche.com)

​Like other Mount Olivet residents I have met by researching and writing these “Stories in Stone,” I love reading quotes from our decedents. The cliche is true, as these rare opportunities help bring people back alive. Dr. Eli G. Jones wrote in the early 20th century the following passage:

“In America we are becoming a nation of nervous, hysterical people.  You must realize that if the nerve power falls below the normal standards there is danger of the invasion of cancer. What our people need to be taught is how to live.  Good pure water, good pure air helps you make good healthy red blood. Unadulterated food, mostly vegetables which are easily digested, keep the nervous system strong and vigorous. “STOP WORRYING and return to the simple way of life.”

Christopher Jones (1570-1622)

​Dr. Eli G. Jones was the son of a Quaker preacher (named Eli Jones) and grew up in the Society of Friends, himself. Both father and son were born at China Lake, Kennebec County, Maine, about twelve miles from Augusta. Our subject was the grandson of Abel and Susannah (Jepson) Jones, a direct descendant of Captain Christopher Jones (1570-1622), who commanded the legendary Mayflower, that brought the Pilgrims to Plymouth Rock in November of 1620.

In 1833, Eli Jones (the physician’s father) married Sybil Jones. They were the parents of several children including our subject (Eli Grelett), who was born July 26th, 1850. He had aspirations of becoming a lawyer, and excelled on his school’s debate team, but his mother wanted him to stay in medicine. Eli would be sent to Friends Boarding School in Dirigo, Maine for schooling, and eventually studied under a homeopathic doctor named Dr. Frances Roberts. Here is where he learned the Materia Medica.

Eli Jones next studied under David P. Bolster and attended Oak Grove Academy in Maine before attending the Eclectic Medical College in Pennsylvania,  and University of Pennsylvania College of Medicine and Surgery in Philadelphia.

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1870 US Census showing Eli G. Jones living with his family in China Lake, Maine

​By age 20, the US Census of 1870 shows his profession as that of a physician. He was practicing in his hometown, but still continued his learning by attending Dartmouth University, graduating in 1871.
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A decade later, Dr. Eli G. Jones was living in Amesbury, Massachusetts, the hometown of John Greenleaf Whittier who wrote the legendary Ballad of Barbara Fritchie. Although Dr. Jones would not have personal familiarity with Frederick at that time in 1880, I’m certain he knew all about our Civil War heroine Barbara Fritchie, and Frederick’s “Clustered Spires” long before moving here over 40 years later.

In the 1880 US Census, Dr. Jones is married to first wife, Cynthia Sophia Roberts from Sharon , NY. They had wed in 1872 and she was a college-educated woman who first worked as a teacher, and later as a nurse. The couple had a 6-year-old daughter named Cassina Mae (1874-1941) at this time. A second daughter, Mabel Florence (1882-1971) came next.

Interestingly, Cynthia and Eli Jones' marriage would not last. In fact, she would not die  before Dr. Jones as I had assumed, but instead would do so just ten months after his death in November, 1933. This was puzzling for multiple reasons. I learned that Dr. Jones would marry again in the year 1883. This was to a woman named Hannah "Hattie" Emma Little (1853-1907). Dr. Jones had two additional children with Hanna: Walter Grelett (1885-1951) and Sybil May (1893-1974).

​This new iteration of the Dr. Jones family lived in Ohio and New Jersey, but by 1900, they could be found living in a boarding house on 33rd Street in Manhattan, New York and Hannah’s profession was that of a stock-broker.

1900 US Census showing Dr. Jones and family in Manhattan

As for Dr. Jones’ first wife, Cynthia , she was living with her mother and daughter (Cassina) in Hanover, New Hampshire in the 1900 US Census and working as a nurse. Her own marital status reads “widowed” in the census of that year as well. I jumped up a decade to 1910 and found Mrs. Jones and now 28-year-old daughter Mabel Florence working and living in Indianapolis, Indiana.  

Cynthia Jones would eventually move to Tulare, California in 1914 to live with now-married daughter Mabel Florence (Herd).  I checked for Cynthia in the 1920 census, and her own marital status reads “widowed." She lived here for the next 13 years. I was still curious as to the reason of their marriage dissolution going back to the early 1880s, but have been told that many people simply used the widow moniker to avoid the scrutiny and shame associated with divorce in those early days.

New Brunswick (NJ) Daily Times (Sept 19, 1907)

​Meanwhile,  Dr. Eli G. Jones would endure his second wife Hannah’s death in 1907, and raise his children into adulthood. He can be found in Burlington, New Jersey in 1910. Interestingly,  Dr. Jones’ marital status in 1910 simply read that he was engaged in his second marriage with a new woman named Merie (Marie), who ran a boarding house where the physician also lived as her husband. Shouldn't this be his third marriage? Perhaps an annulment wiped out that marriage with first wife Cynthia, or his secret (divorce or an abandonment by one party or the other) was easy to conceal as he regularly moved from place to place around the country?

1910 US Census showing Dr. Jones and Merie in Burlington, NJ

Philadelphia Inquirer (Sept. 5, 1912)

In 1912, Dr. Jones found himself at the helm of a new national medical society called the American Association of Progressive Medicine. As it's founder, the following editorial appeared in early July, 1913:

Our Association is a Grand Brotherhood, composed of the best, the brainy men of all schools of medicine; men who want the best there is in medicine; men who are doing things in their profession, whose heart and soul are in the work of saving human life. This is a call for every man who loves his fellow-man and his profession, and who wants to do his whole duty by his patient. We want you with us! Will you come and will you do it now.
 
A PHYSICIAN'S DUTY TO HIS PATIENT.
I have always felt that a Doctor's duty to his patient was the paramount issue, that it overrides every
other consideration. Your patients have shown their confidence in you by employing you; they expect
the best medical treatment that you can give them, and they have a right to it.

In this enlightened age, no Physician can afford to plead ignorance of the most common remedies
used in the different schools of Medicine. In his ignorance of these remedies he is handicapped in
dealing with diseased conditions. When a Doctor refuses to consult with another Doctor because he
doesn't happen to belong to his particular School of Medicine, or if he refuses to use a remedy because
it doesn't happen to be in. the Materia Medica of the School of Medicine that he is identified with, then
I say that he is not doing his whole duty down to an early grave, because their Doctor followed blindly,
slavishly the 'Authorities' of his particular School of Medicine. It is a pity that many of our Physicians
born under the shadow of "Old Glory," rocked in the cradle of Liberty, yet they are cowed down by a
slavish fear of the "Powers that would be" of their particular School of Medicine.

Brothers! Are we freemen or are we slaves? If we are freemen, then let us use the brains God has
given us to use for suffering humanity, and not depend upon Some one else's brains to tell us our duty
to the sick. When I graduated at Dartmouth Medical College, N. H., one of our Professors said to the
class, 'Boys, you want to be Captain of them all.' I understood what he meant and took his words to
heart, and resolved then and there, that I would be 'Captain of the whole.' To do this I decided first
that I must rid myself of all prejudice against any School of Medicine; that I would study the Materia
Medica and Practice of all Schools of Medicine to fit myself to heal the sick. I took up one School of
Medicine at a by his patient.

To refuse the help of a brother Physician is a greater responsibility than I personally would dare to
take upon my shoulders. We should remember that there is a remedy somewhere for every diseased
condition, and it is your business and mine to find the remedy and use it. If not, then we have not done
our whole duty."

Dr. Jones outspoken nature played out in several newspaper articles I came across in my research.

Oakland (CA) Tribune (Sept 4, 1913)

​Sadly, Dr. Jones lost third wife Marie sometime between 1910 and 1920 because the census of the latter shows him living alone as a boarder in Erie, New York. He still had his professional life, and like Robert Downing, continued honing his craft as he traveled through life. An article in an Ohio newspaper from 1919 referred to him as the eminent physician of the Buffalo, New York area. This tipped me off to the move from New Jersey.

1920 US Census showing Dr. Jones, with widowed status, in Erie, NY living in a boarding house

Dr. Jones traveled the country, appearing at medical conferences all over. In 1921, I found a reference to him serving as the official statistician of the American Medical Association, something he had been doing at least since 1915. As said earlier, Dr. Jones would next marry Middletown’s Mary E. Shafer in 1923, and soon became a resident of Frederick County and Maryland where he continued in his profession, gave lectures and read books.

That brings us to late January, 1933. The front page of the Frederick Post published word of Dr. Eli G. Jones’ death. He would then be buried in Mount Olivet’s Area M, Lot 13. Little did he know that his wife would marry again in 1936. This was to Robert Downing. Eight years later, Mary would be widowed in 1944, and had to bury her second husband in an 11-year span. She placed "America's Tragedian" in a grave right next to her third husband. Both of these highly accomplished men are resting in peace within Mount Olivet's  Stranger’s Row. And to me, that's the "strangest" part of this story.

Robert L. Downing and Dr. Eli G. Jones had eight wives between them. However, that final wife for each, is  not here in Mount Olivet, but buried in an unmarked grave in southeastern Pennsylvania. I could not find an obituary, but I did locate a particular death certificate from the Keystone state. 

Death certificate of Mary E. (Shafer) Downing

239 Dean St in West Chester, PA (center duplex with red roof) was the last residence of Mary (Shafer) Downing

Mary died on June 5th, 1951 in Norristown State Hospital. The document shows that she had been residing in West Chester, PA and that her cremains were placed within West Laurel Hill Cemetery in Bala Cynwyd, PA.

I assumed that I would find her final resting place on Findagrave.com but that was not the case. There is certainly no shortage of Downings here in this famous garden cemetery, as I suddenly recalled nearby Downingtown, PA. My search for Mary was fruitless, telling me that her grave is likely unmarked. What a disappointment and shame, because Mary had wed two very prominent men during her lifetime, and was the daughter of outstanding locals. If anything else, her remains should be honorably memorialized in Middletown's Reformed Cemetery in the plot with her immediate family.

My last point of business for this story was confirming her burial, which I was able to do thanks to Laurel Hill's impressive cemetery website: laurelhillphl.com. Using a locator tool on the site, I found the location of Mary's burial (River 582/Site 2). 

Ground view showing approximate area of Mary's burial, roughly 30 yards in near the center of this visual

What an odyssey, one that began with a simple, impromptu visit to the grave of an old subject of mine. This led me to explore "next door neighbors." One, Harry Wilson, originally from Pennsylvania (and perhaps Philly), died at our local county home. The other, Dr. Eli G. Jones, spent a chunk of his life just upriver from Philadelphia in Burlington, NJ. As I've illustrated, he has left an incredibly rich legacy, however he is virtually invisible in the annals of local Frederick history as is Robert Downing. 

Both men are slowly being forgotten to national history, where once they were known near and far across the country as they traveled it in their respective professions complete with audiences of eager hearers.  Their final resting places are in the equivalent of our "econo section" just feet away from some clunky sheds and outbuildings and under the surveillance of a trusty canine. Was this "the final scene" either gentleman imagined?
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​Last but not least, the woman responsible for both Dr. Jones and Robert Downing being buried in Mount Olivet,  is herself in an unmarked grave in Philadelphia. Oh, if she was only back here in Mount Olivet in Area M/Lot 13. What a strange connection between all these individuals.

That said, I thought it would be fitting to leave you with this quote from one of Dr. Eli G. Jones’ books:

"We shall not pass this way again,
 
Oh, heed the passing hours,
 
And let each day a record make
 
Of something pure and noble.
 
A smiling face, a cheering word
 
Makes others round us happy,
 
And lightens up the rugged way
 
That leads us on to glory.”
 
~Dr. Eli G. Jones