My wife and myself left Middlesboro Monday morning for Jellico, our home.  After about four months I received a letter from Harrison AUSMUS stating that he was thinking about me.  He wrote, "I am the man who had a heart to heart talk with you at the tent entrance.  I have gotten over on the Lord's side and I am praying for you to come over too." I wrote him to keep on praying as I did not know when I would be ready to change.  In about one year after receiving his letter, I made the change over to the Lord's side.

I visited Middlesboro again.  Harrison AUSMUS heard I had come and he looked for me.  We met near the Baptist Church.  There was a seat nearby.  We both sat down together and talked over the change we had made in our lives and we both agreed it was the best investment a man could make in this life on earth.  It gave contentment and a certainty to us as to where we were traveling.  He told me all about his wicked life.  He mixed with gamblers and card players and with drinking and fighting men and of fighting them when he caught them cheating.  He said, "I have fought with them in Texas and in St. Louis and in other places.  Now," he said, "I am over on the Lord's side and I feel like a man again and I am going to stay on His side."

A few months after our meeting, my wife and myself visited Middlesboro again to have Thanksgiving dinner with my two daughters.  A prayer meeting was held in the Baptist Church.  Harrison AUSMUS came in and sat close to me.  I noticed that he had a bandage around his neck.  He told me it was very sore.  It was a carbuncle.  There was a large crowd at the meeting and many of them spoke, telling how thankful they were.  It came my time to say a few words.  Then AUSMUS stood up and spoke.  He said, "I have been a very wicked man.  The apostle Paul would not have made a corporal guard for me."  He had been so bad against things that were good.  Before the meeting closed AUSMUS and myself were called upon to stand up in front so that the audience could shake our hands.  We all felt good on leaving the Thanksgiving meeting.

A few months afterwards, I heard that AUSMUS was very weak and sick and then there came word that he had died from his carbuncle affliction and I went to his funeral.  At the grave there were many sad hearts together with my own.  He had done many good deeds in Middlesboro, since he made a change in his way of living.  He was a strong supporter of his church and all things that were good.  We do not understand God's way when He takes away a strong man, who is trying to make amends for the things he has neglected in the past.

In May 1923, my wife and myself visited Knoxville to see two of our daughters and one son who lived in Knoxville.  While there, they must have talked to their mother about moving to Knoxville and buying a home there so that they could be nearer to her.  My wife spoke to me about what they wanted.  I asked her if she wanted to change.  She answered, "Yes, they want me to."  After thinking over making the change, we both agreed about changing.  We had a good home at Jellico, but it was now too large for only us two.  All our sons and daughters were living elsewhere.  When we built that home we thought it would be our last home on this earth, but in a long life there comes many changes.

We found a location on North Broadway about half way between Maggie and Louis, thinking it would be convenient to call when passing.  The real estate men had already started to build.  It was a small house compared to the one in Jellico.  We purchased the house for $6900.00 cash.  We made many changes in our new home before we could live comfortably in it.  My son, Paul, bought the home at Jellico when we left Jellico.  We left many friends and many were the happy days that we spent in that home with weddings and other forms of entertainment.

After being settled in our new home, I received a letter from Dr. BROWN, pastor of the First Baptist Church, stating that it would please him if we would place our membership in his church.  This we did and we soon had many new friends.  For nearly ten years my wife and myself attended church together there from 1923 to 1933.