Horine and More Baleen

Day 123 of the "What are you reading, and why?" project and Karen has been reading History of Richwoods Methodist Church, by Norma Horine, because her family founded it. The church. Of Horines!

This is a plastic ring binding of photocopied typescript, published for an interested audience. We have lots of this kind of thing--family history, church history, church ladies cookbooks, memoirs, etc. at Babbitt's and it was wonderful to hear from Karen what is in one of these, and a bit of what is left out. There is a lot about Miss Mabel, a bit of a rival perhaps to Mrs. Norma? Great anecdotes. Brief accounts of all the preachers over the years, church dinners and picnics (Dinner on the Ground), descriptions of the stained windows, and how each came about. Sadness, the loss of a child. Even murder in the small town.

The Horines of Missouri are one branch of the family, pronounced horEYN, and another branch lives in this area, pronounced horEEN, the piano people. The church in the area dates back to 1829, in the itinerant preacher days....which reminds me of that Eudora Welty story, where the preacher meets the bandit and they both meet Audubon. This church history also reminds me of Gilead, by Marilynne Robinson, which I've read, and Home, which awaits me.

The baleen whale has nothing to do with Horines. I had just discovered it in my entry on scrimshanders...

Tomorrow I'll tell you what my parents are reading, and then I head off on the train to Printers Row Book Fair in Chicago, and I'll find out what people are reading there!