Uncle Serenus' Ministerial Career

At the time uncle Serenus decided to become a minister, both uncles Lawrence and Milton were in the profession and perhaps it was their example that led him in that direction. However his sense of mission also entered, this being a sort of natural outgrowth of the religious environment of the Peterson household. As I mentioned he was rather old to be entering the field and in addition he didn’t have the educational background that was normally required. In fact I don’t know for sure if he had any college training at all or even high school for that matter.

Apparently the church organization (the Augustana Synod at the time) waived these requirements, perhaps because of the presence of uncles Lawrence and Milton in the ministry and any influence they may have had. There may have been influence also from other quarters who knew of the character of the Peterson clan. At any rate he was accepted for the training in the Augustana Seminary in Rock Island and was at school there in the early 1930s.

It was while he was living there that our family made one of its few or its only vacation trip. It must have been shortly after the Essex was acquired in 1929 and we all rode down to Rock Island (8 people, including wiggly young children) cooped up for 200-plus miles in the not-too-roomy car. Where all the baggage was carried is still not clear to me. I remember on the trip down that my mother kept urging my father to maintain the speed. The Essex really did not operate well over 40 miles per hour, so even at top speed the trip would have lasted well over 5 hours. But eventually we got there.

I can remember only a couple of things from the trip. I slept with my cousin Eugene (I believe that he was between Clarice and me in age) and I recall the strange sensation of the lights outside the house and the city noises as of the traffic in the street outside as we were going to sleep. I also remember the excursion we made to a sort of man-made grotto garden that was the work of one Dr. Palmer who was I seem to recall a chiropractor. It was filled with exotic relics of his travels to foreign countries. Of the return trip to Gowrie I have no recollection.