Mamas, Daddies, Sisters, and Brothers
I love getting texts from my brother, Steve. We are the only two left from our little family of four. I’m glad that we stick together.
Today I’d like to tell you some inspiring and totally random fun facts about mamas, daddies, sisters, and brothers in American history.
The Erikson Family. Norway’s King Olaf I taught Leif Erikson about Jesus. Erikson traveled to Greenland and taught the people there. One person who put her faith in Jesus was Erikson’s mother, Thjódhild. She guided the construction of the first church building in Greenland.
The Penn Family. William Penn, the founder of the colony of Pennsylvania, had a difficult relationship with his father, Sir William Penn. The senior Penn did not approve of his son’s Quaker faith. At one point, the two disagreed so much that Sir William ordered his son to leave his house. However, they continued to love one another, and William wrote letters to his father.
The junior William Penn was imprisoned several times for his beliefs. One time while he was in prison, he wrote to his father: “. . . whatever shall come to pass I hope in all conditions to prove thy obedient son.” Sir William was deeply grateful for his son’s letter. When he answered it, he called him “Son William.” Sir William was near death, so in his letter he asked his son to bury him beside his mother. He told his son, “Live all in love.” William was soon released and made it back to his father before he died.
Sir William left his son a large inheritance. When William Penn established the colony of Pennsylvania, he named it after his father. Its name means Penn’s Woods.
The Garfield Family. President James Garfield’s mother was the first mother of a president to attend her son‘s inauguration. She moved into the White House with his family. Garfield was a strong man of over six feet in height. He personally carried his frail mother up and down the White House stairs.
The Hayes Family. Future president Rutherford B. Hayes was born in 1822. His father, who was also named Rutherford, died ten weeks before he was born. Hayes’ mother, Sophia Birchard Hayes, taught her children at home. “Rud” and his sister, Fanny, were close. She shared the writings of Shakespeare with him and also the poetry of Sir Walter Scott. When Hayes was 34 years old, Fanny died. He was deeply saddened and always thought of his sister as his “dearest friend of childhood” and the “confidant of all [his] life.”
Lucy Webb was a friend of Hayes’ mother, Sophia. Sophia thought that the two would make a good match. They agreed and married in 1852. Lucy was a strong Methodist and an abolitionist. She was also opposed to alcohol. She had grown up without a father. He passed away when she was two years old after becoming ill on a trip to Kentucky, where he had gone to free enslaved people he had inherited.
Though 40 years old when the Civil War began, Hayes volunteered to fight. He led men into battle and was wounded five times. Lucy visited her husband during the war. Sometimes she took her mother and children with her. She tenderly cared for wounded soldiers who fought with her husband. This service resulted in the first of her two nicknames. The soldiers called her Mother Lucy. People later began to call her Lemonade Lucy because she refused to allow alcohol to be served in the White House during the Hayes administration.
The Powell Brothers. John Wesley Powell was a natural history professor and a Union veteran of the Civil War. In 1869 he led a brave exploration of the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. One of the nine explorers who accompanied him was his brother Walter.
Ida McKinley and Her Sister. First Lady Ida McKinley became a widow after her husband President William McKinley was assassinated. Ida had long been an invalid and her husband had taken tender care of her. After his death, she moved back home to Ohio. Her sister took care of her there.
The Odell Brothers. Route 66 is perhaps the most famous historic highway in America. Entrepreneurs on Route 66 created fun advertising. Some of the most famous ads were for Burma-Shave shaving cream. Two brothers built the first Burma-Shave signs out of scrap lumber. Burma-Shave signs had a few words on each of a series of signs that motorists could read as they drove along. These signs entertained motorists with their humorous jingles. Here is an example of one set of six Burma-Shave signs in a row from 1948:
I use it too — The bald man said — It keeps my face — Just like — My head
Burma-Shave
These first four photos are of reproduction Burma Shave signs. They are part of the John Margolies Roadside America photograph archive (1972-2008), Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division. The fifth photo is from Carol M. Highsmith’s America, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.
Mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers — what blessings we can be to one another. In 1 Timothy, Paul gave the young evangelist instructions on how to relate to various Christians. He told him:
Do not sharply rebuke an older man,
but rather appeal to him as a father,
and to the younger men as brothers,
to the older women as mothers,
and to the younger women as sisters, in all purity.
1 Timothy 5:1-2
God wants families to love one another. The last words of the Old Testament are:
“Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet
before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord.
He will turn the hearts of the fathers back to their children
and the hearts of the children to their fathers,
so that I will not come and strike the land with complete destruction.”
Malachi 4:5-6
When the angel foretold the birth of John the Baptist, he told Zechariah:
And he will turn many of the sons of Israel
back to the Lord their God.
And it is he who will go as a forerunner
before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah,
to turn the hearts of fathers back to their children,
and the disobedient to the attitude of the righteous,
to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.
Luke 1:16-17