I posted this a couple of years back on another forum I never knew my grandmother, Ollie (she passed away long before I was born). I was able to put this story together after A LOT of research (Ancestry.com, historical books from the region I live in, a biography by an Evangelist, and through interviewing family members). My family has a Spiritualist background. A few of us are still Spiritualists, but the majority went the way of Conservative Christianity during the '40s. But, I thought I'd share the story of my Grandmother for those who are interested. Following is the story:
My Grandmother, Ollie Christian Warren was born in July of 1892 in Kansas. She was born to Levin and Leatha Mills. She had two younger siblings named Minnie and Lizzie. Not a lot is known about Ollie’s early life.
Ollie married a man named Amos David Troxel in 1911. They had no children. Amos passed away on May 23, 1925. He was buried in Iowa.
Now, there is a mystery involved with Amos and Ollie. He passed away in May of 1925, and is buried in Iowa. However, Ollie was married to my Grandfather, Walter L. Warren on November 18, 1925 in Vancouver, Washington. This is only 6 months after Amos’ passing away. It always seemed odd to me that Ollie would leave Iowa, travel to the Pacific Northwest and have a whirl-wind marriage to Walter L. Warren. Then I read the book Thank You God by Evangelist Rose M. Fidler. My Grandparents knew Rose Fidler. I believe that Ollie and her first husband, Amos are mentioned in this book. Ollie and Amos were possibly living in Longview, Washington in the early ‘20s. Longview, Washington was a planned city. In February of 1924, it was incorporated and a municipal government was established. Rose Fidler’s husband, Herbert was Captain of the Ferryboat that crossed between Rainier, Oregon and Longview, Washington. The Ferryboat was going to tie up on the Longview side of the river instead of the Rainier side, since Longview was growing so rapidly in only a couple of years time. This meant that the Fidlers had to move to Longview. I believe it was in Longview that Ollie and Amos Troxel first met Rose Fidler. It’s very possible that Ollie and Amos Troxel had moved out here from Iowa, and that he passed away in Washington State, and that his body was shipped home to Iowa for burial. It all ties in: the timing, the reason for Ollie’s whirl-wind marriage to Walter L. Warren, and the fact that Rose Fidler mentions a Mrs. Troxel in her book. Now, the book is poorly written, but I found it interesting because of the connection to my Grandparents. Here is what she wrote on page 59 of Thank You God: I went to see some new arrivals and met Mrs. Troxel. She was receptive to the Scripture and seemed happy to know about God. It was not long before she gave her heart to God and was born again. Her whole life style changed. She had become a new creature in Christ Jesus. She read her Bible and started going to Church. Her husband was distressed over the change in her for she wouldn’t do the things she had done before. He got so depressed and sad that he tried to commit suicide. He drank some battery acid. At three o’clock in the morning the telephone rang…… we quickly dressed and hurried over (to Mrs Troxel’s home). We laid hands on him and cried out to God. “Please God spare this life.” He immediately vomited, but his throat was badly burned…... God healed him and the next day he gave his heart to God. Joy and pace then filled that home.”
Can I be sure that the above story relates to Ollie and Amos Troxel? No, I can’t. It doesn’t mention Ollie by her first name, and it actually calls her husband John in one part (his name was Amos). However, the book was written in 1979, which is 55 years after this event happened, and Rose was a very old woman by then. So, she was going by memory. However, it does fit into the time-line of Ollie showing up in historical records of Washington State, and also there is a proven connection between Ollie and Rose Fidler. I believe that the above story does relate to Ollie and Amos Troxel, and I also believe that Amos did not truly recover from drinking battery acid, but that he died from the suicide attempt. I don’t believe that he was miraculously cured. This would have happed around 1925, which is the year that Amos Troxel died.
So, for me, the mystery as to WHY Ollie would marry Walter L. Warren six months after Amos’ passing is solved. They had moved to Longview, Washington around 1924 and Amos passed away in 1925. His body was shipped home for burial, and Ollie remained here. She apparently was acquainted with Walter L. Warren, and so they married in November of 1925.
Ollie kept a relationship with Rose Fidler. She also knew my maternal Grandparents, Mr and Mrs Charles Manke. In 1933 Rose Fidler broke away from a small Church she was preaching at in Rainier, Oregon. The Church wanted to join the Foursquare denomination, and Rose was not interested in doing this. She also had a desire to start a ministry in Woodland, Washington. In the book Fields of Flowers and Forests of Firs...A HISTORY OF THE WOODLAND COMMUNITY…1850 ~ 1958 as revised by Judy Card, we read a short piece about the founding of this Church. It reads: The Fellowship Tabernacle started the Spring of 1933 by Pastors Herbert and Rose Fidler. Charter members were Mrs. Charles Ekman, Mrs. Charles Manke, Mr. and Mrs. J.W. Breedlove, Mrs. Olive Stennerson, and Mr. and Mrs. Walter Warren.
Now, Mr. and Mrs. Walter L. Warren were my father’s parents. Mrs. Charles Manke was my mother’s mother. They were friends. Together they helped start the Fellowship with the Fidlers.
There seems to be a mystery involved with both of my Grandmothers. Although they clearly were involved in the ministry of Fellowship Tabernacle, they were also involved in Spiritualism. But, is this a mystery, or is it the natural outcome of the type of ministry that Rose Fidler operated? Rose Fidler clearly did not want to be associated with any denomination. Fellowship Tabernacle did eventually join the denomination of the Open Bible Church. No one seems to know when the Church joined this denomination, but it seems that it was decades after its founding in 1933. I believe that Rose Fidler was a medium, although she would not have called herself one. She would have used the word ‘prophetess’ or ‘inspired.’ Throughout her book Rose records divine healings, visions, visits from the departed, the raising of the dead, premonitions, spirit voices, and more. To me, some of these events could have been from her imagination; or perhaps some of it was exaggeration; some of it was clearly from hysteria caused by emotional agitation during highly-emotional meetings. Some of it, I’m sure, really happened. One interesting story Rose tells is when she recalls that before her ministry began, she would tell fortunes, and that she was often consulted for fortune telling, and that the fortunes would often come to pass. So, it should not come as a surprise that my Grandmother Ollie was a practicing medium.
When I was about eighteen, I was staying at the Oregon Coast with an aunt and uncle. This was my mom’s brother, Uncle Eldon. Eldon is now gone. But, we were sitting at his kitchen table, discussing family history. He informed me that my grandparents from both sides knew each other. I’d never been told this before. He said that the Mankes would go to the Warrens’ home for séances. He said that Ollie was a large woman, and that she had a loud, booming voice. She would sit everyone around a large table and would open the séance by singing I Come to the Garden Alone. She would go into a trance, and then ‘things would happen.’ He claimed that Ollie was a physical medium. She used a trumpet, which would be sitting in the middle of the table. During the séance, the trumpet would begin to vibrate and would rise up off of the table. It would pass through the air and would ‘visit’ with guests at the table. He says that my Uncle Sam would get messages from the trumpet from his spirit guide, Chief Red Blanket.
I believed my Uncle. However, I wanted to be sure. So, one day my Uncle Sam had come to visit, and was sitting at the table. I turned to him and said, “Have you heard from Chief Red Blanket lately?” He turned as white as a ghost and looked away from me. He didn’t wish to talk about Chief Red Blanket. He clearly was frightened by the memory.
My Grandmother passed away in Portland, Oregon on March 2, 1943. She had been an invalid for several years before her death, due to a heart attack caused from complications of diabetes. My Grandfather, Walter had to attend to her 24 hours a day during her last years. A cousin of mine recently emailed me about Ollie’s death. He recalled, “We had no phone where we lived out Green Mountain road and my mother (Walter and Ollie’s daughter) had asked how she would know if Ollie passed on. Ollie told her that not to worry she would let mom know. The day Ollie passed away my mother was too ill to get out of bed. She told Donna and I that Grandma Ollie had passed on. Later that morning the man down the road came to our house and said that Grandfather Walt had called him to have him inform mother Ollie had died.”
Ollie was only 50 years old when she passed on. I received a copy of her obituary from THE DAILY NEWS of Kelso, Washington dated March 9, 1943. The obituary read: "Warren, Mrs Walter, 50 of Woodland, died March 2nd in Portland; survived by widower and one son, Walter; funeral services in Friendship Tabernacle, Woodland, Wednesday at 3:30 p.m. with Sister Fidler officiating. Reardon Funeral Home in charge."
Ollie was buried at the Odd Fellows Cemetery in Woodland, Washington. Because our family was so poor, they could not afford to buy a head stone. Years later some family members went to the funeral home to locate her grave, but were informed that the cemetery offices had burned down at some point and that all of the records were lost. So, if there was no marker on the grave, they could not locate where she was buried.
I go to the cemetery every once in a while to visit the graves of other family members (such as my Grandmother Manke’s grave), and I go to the general area where Ollie is buried, and wish that I could place a marker on her grave… simply out of respect for her. But, it’s probably not to be. And, does it really matter? I know that Ollie is Summer Land, and that she is happy. I also believe that she is the one who compelled me to research her history, if for no other reason than for me to get to know who she was in her earthly trek.
My Grandmother, Ollie Christian Warren was born in July of 1892 in Kansas. She was born to Levin and Leatha Mills. She had two younger siblings named Minnie and Lizzie. Not a lot is known about Ollie’s early life.
Ollie married a man named Amos David Troxel in 1911. They had no children. Amos passed away on May 23, 1925. He was buried in Iowa.
Now, there is a mystery involved with Amos and Ollie. He passed away in May of 1925, and is buried in Iowa. However, Ollie was married to my Grandfather, Walter L. Warren on November 18, 1925 in Vancouver, Washington. This is only 6 months after Amos’ passing away. It always seemed odd to me that Ollie would leave Iowa, travel to the Pacific Northwest and have a whirl-wind marriage to Walter L. Warren. Then I read the book Thank You God by Evangelist Rose M. Fidler. My Grandparents knew Rose Fidler. I believe that Ollie and her first husband, Amos are mentioned in this book. Ollie and Amos were possibly living in Longview, Washington in the early ‘20s. Longview, Washington was a planned city. In February of 1924, it was incorporated and a municipal government was established. Rose Fidler’s husband, Herbert was Captain of the Ferryboat that crossed between Rainier, Oregon and Longview, Washington. The Ferryboat was going to tie up on the Longview side of the river instead of the Rainier side, since Longview was growing so rapidly in only a couple of years time. This meant that the Fidlers had to move to Longview. I believe it was in Longview that Ollie and Amos Troxel first met Rose Fidler. It’s very possible that Ollie and Amos Troxel had moved out here from Iowa, and that he passed away in Washington State, and that his body was shipped home to Iowa for burial. It all ties in: the timing, the reason for Ollie’s whirl-wind marriage to Walter L. Warren, and the fact that Rose Fidler mentions a Mrs. Troxel in her book. Now, the book is poorly written, but I found it interesting because of the connection to my Grandparents. Here is what she wrote on page 59 of Thank You God: I went to see some new arrivals and met Mrs. Troxel. She was receptive to the Scripture and seemed happy to know about God. It was not long before she gave her heart to God and was born again. Her whole life style changed. She had become a new creature in Christ Jesus. She read her Bible and started going to Church. Her husband was distressed over the change in her for she wouldn’t do the things she had done before. He got so depressed and sad that he tried to commit suicide. He drank some battery acid. At three o’clock in the morning the telephone rang…… we quickly dressed and hurried over (to Mrs Troxel’s home). We laid hands on him and cried out to God. “Please God spare this life.” He immediately vomited, but his throat was badly burned…... God healed him and the next day he gave his heart to God. Joy and pace then filled that home.”
Can I be sure that the above story relates to Ollie and Amos Troxel? No, I can’t. It doesn’t mention Ollie by her first name, and it actually calls her husband John in one part (his name was Amos). However, the book was written in 1979, which is 55 years after this event happened, and Rose was a very old woman by then. So, she was going by memory. However, it does fit into the time-line of Ollie showing up in historical records of Washington State, and also there is a proven connection between Ollie and Rose Fidler. I believe that the above story does relate to Ollie and Amos Troxel, and I also believe that Amos did not truly recover from drinking battery acid, but that he died from the suicide attempt. I don’t believe that he was miraculously cured. This would have happed around 1925, which is the year that Amos Troxel died.
So, for me, the mystery as to WHY Ollie would marry Walter L. Warren six months after Amos’ passing is solved. They had moved to Longview, Washington around 1924 and Amos passed away in 1925. His body was shipped home for burial, and Ollie remained here. She apparently was acquainted with Walter L. Warren, and so they married in November of 1925.
Ollie kept a relationship with Rose Fidler. She also knew my maternal Grandparents, Mr and Mrs Charles Manke. In 1933 Rose Fidler broke away from a small Church she was preaching at in Rainier, Oregon. The Church wanted to join the Foursquare denomination, and Rose was not interested in doing this. She also had a desire to start a ministry in Woodland, Washington. In the book Fields of Flowers and Forests of Firs...A HISTORY OF THE WOODLAND COMMUNITY…1850 ~ 1958 as revised by Judy Card, we read a short piece about the founding of this Church. It reads: The Fellowship Tabernacle started the Spring of 1933 by Pastors Herbert and Rose Fidler. Charter members were Mrs. Charles Ekman, Mrs. Charles Manke, Mr. and Mrs. J.W. Breedlove, Mrs. Olive Stennerson, and Mr. and Mrs. Walter Warren.
Now, Mr. and Mrs. Walter L. Warren were my father’s parents. Mrs. Charles Manke was my mother’s mother. They were friends. Together they helped start the Fellowship with the Fidlers.
There seems to be a mystery involved with both of my Grandmothers. Although they clearly were involved in the ministry of Fellowship Tabernacle, they were also involved in Spiritualism. But, is this a mystery, or is it the natural outcome of the type of ministry that Rose Fidler operated? Rose Fidler clearly did not want to be associated with any denomination. Fellowship Tabernacle did eventually join the denomination of the Open Bible Church. No one seems to know when the Church joined this denomination, but it seems that it was decades after its founding in 1933. I believe that Rose Fidler was a medium, although she would not have called herself one. She would have used the word ‘prophetess’ or ‘inspired.’ Throughout her book Rose records divine healings, visions, visits from the departed, the raising of the dead, premonitions, spirit voices, and more. To me, some of these events could have been from her imagination; or perhaps some of it was exaggeration; some of it was clearly from hysteria caused by emotional agitation during highly-emotional meetings. Some of it, I’m sure, really happened. One interesting story Rose tells is when she recalls that before her ministry began, she would tell fortunes, and that she was often consulted for fortune telling, and that the fortunes would often come to pass. So, it should not come as a surprise that my Grandmother Ollie was a practicing medium.
When I was about eighteen, I was staying at the Oregon Coast with an aunt and uncle. This was my mom’s brother, Uncle Eldon. Eldon is now gone. But, we were sitting at his kitchen table, discussing family history. He informed me that my grandparents from both sides knew each other. I’d never been told this before. He said that the Mankes would go to the Warrens’ home for séances. He said that Ollie was a large woman, and that she had a loud, booming voice. She would sit everyone around a large table and would open the séance by singing I Come to the Garden Alone. She would go into a trance, and then ‘things would happen.’ He claimed that Ollie was a physical medium. She used a trumpet, which would be sitting in the middle of the table. During the séance, the trumpet would begin to vibrate and would rise up off of the table. It would pass through the air and would ‘visit’ with guests at the table. He says that my Uncle Sam would get messages from the trumpet from his spirit guide, Chief Red Blanket.
I believed my Uncle. However, I wanted to be sure. So, one day my Uncle Sam had come to visit, and was sitting at the table. I turned to him and said, “Have you heard from Chief Red Blanket lately?” He turned as white as a ghost and looked away from me. He didn’t wish to talk about Chief Red Blanket. He clearly was frightened by the memory.
My Grandmother passed away in Portland, Oregon on March 2, 1943. She had been an invalid for several years before her death, due to a heart attack caused from complications of diabetes. My Grandfather, Walter had to attend to her 24 hours a day during her last years. A cousin of mine recently emailed me about Ollie’s death. He recalled, “We had no phone where we lived out Green Mountain road and my mother (Walter and Ollie’s daughter) had asked how she would know if Ollie passed on. Ollie told her that not to worry she would let mom know. The day Ollie passed away my mother was too ill to get out of bed. She told Donna and I that Grandma Ollie had passed on. Later that morning the man down the road came to our house and said that Grandfather Walt had called him to have him inform mother Ollie had died.”
Ollie was only 50 years old when she passed on. I received a copy of her obituary from THE DAILY NEWS of Kelso, Washington dated March 9, 1943. The obituary read: "Warren, Mrs Walter, 50 of Woodland, died March 2nd in Portland; survived by widower and one son, Walter; funeral services in Friendship Tabernacle, Woodland, Wednesday at 3:30 p.m. with Sister Fidler officiating. Reardon Funeral Home in charge."
Ollie was buried at the Odd Fellows Cemetery in Woodland, Washington. Because our family was so poor, they could not afford to buy a head stone. Years later some family members went to the funeral home to locate her grave, but were informed that the cemetery offices had burned down at some point and that all of the records were lost. So, if there was no marker on the grave, they could not locate where she was buried.
I go to the cemetery every once in a while to visit the graves of other family members (such as my Grandmother Manke’s grave), and I go to the general area where Ollie is buried, and wish that I could place a marker on her grave… simply out of respect for her. But, it’s probably not to be. And, does it really matter? I know that Ollie is Summer Land, and that she is happy. I also believe that she is the one who compelled me to research her history, if for no other reason than for me to get to know who she was in her earthly trek.
