St. Mark's parsonage, 1990
From A Brief History of the Stivers
When the moving van arrived in Claremont July 1959, a large number of men were there to move the furniture into the house and set up each room. A group of teen age girls took all the crystal, china, and other fragile items out of the barrels, washed them, and put them in cabinets.
The house was next to the church and had a large front yard that the boys and town boys used to play football. Also near the house was a large water tower and on top out it a fire siren. When it went off, it was loud.
On the first Sunday in July, 500 people attended the worship service, and my installation was that night. Pastor Robert Eibling, one of my seminary classmates and pastor of Millers Lutheran Church in Hickory, installed me. It was a most festive occasion. It always pleased me that if 500 people came when I arrived that on my last Sunday in 1990 [September 30], 700 people came.
Here in Claremont I found community development to be an exciting challenge and opportunity. Claremont may have been a town of 800 to 1000, but it was great working together. St. Mark's offered a beacon ray of light and hope.
25th wedding anniversary, 1974
