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"Here's to our Dr. and Mrs. Tayler,
You never see him, without seeing her."
(Camp Song, by the Wilders.)
In 1900 Mr. Coleman had his second (or I would rather say his third), great religious experience; the first had
been connected, no doubt with his confirmation at St. John's, and the second with his joining the Presbyterian
Church. He had gone to Sunday School faithfully, and I believe had taught regularly. He had been interested in
missionary work, (I think beginning the responsibility for the education of our dear friend, Tien Fuh Wu, then
a little child, at the Presbyterian Home in San Francisco under Miss Donaldina Cameron's predecessor, towards the
end of that early period of his life). Then in 1900 he went as representative from our Church in Norristown to
the Ecumenical Conference in New York,--(I think taking his minister, Dr. Beeber, and Mrs. Beeber, as his guests,--and
probably the trip was at his own instigation ;--some one had told him to hear Mr. Hudson Taylor if he ever had
the opportunity ;--the Beebers somehow do not appear in the picture, so I am not sure about their going to the
Conference.)
In the few days there he entered into a new experience. He came in contact with the China Inland Mission. He heard
and met Mr. Hudson Taylor, (founder of the C. I. M.), Dr. and Mrs. Howard Taylor, (son and daughterin-law), and
Dr. Harry Guinness of London and the "Regions Beyond" Mission, (Mrs. Howard Taylor's brother); and from
then on he had a new family and a new language, and a new vision. The China Inland Mission was a "faith"
misson. It became his inspiration, his spiritual home, and his chief Cause.
I do not know which one he met first. It was Dr. Harry Guinness with the famous friendly "Guinness charm"
who took him to the breakfast party at which he met all these new lights and also Mrs. Livingston Taylor of Cleveland
(who is said by our Mrs. Howard Taylor to have been greatly impressed by his earnestness, his ability and his brown
eyes). He apparently took some of the meals with a new acquaintance, a member of the China Inland Mission, Mr.
Horace Sibley, whom I met years later and who, by dint of proximity, was always associated by my husband with this
entrance into a new world. He often told how Mr. Sibley asked him if he believed in "Premillenial Teaching",--and
he "did not know what he meant,--any more than if it had been a new breakfast food." But he knew what
he wanted, as few men do, and recognized at sight a thing that was to be a "living bright reality" to
him, and from that moment he pursued and loved the C. I. M., and the feeling was mutual.
I had always supposed be bought the bulk of the Camp Diamond property during that Spring, 1900, in order to have
a summer place of his own to which he could invite the missionaries. But the date on the old deed shows that he
bought it the previous year, 1899. So evidently he had already decided before the Ecumenical Conference in 1900
to further the little community with an atmosphere and responsibility of its own,--but it was the missionaries
who now gave it its special character. It soon began to take on its new outward form. The "old farm"
was moved up the hill ;-- (who had lived in it, so long ago, we do not know). And very near its site the foundation
stones were rounded to a new eminence, and the present large white house was built. Mr. Herbert Little was brought
from Stewartstown (perhaps first to the old farm?) as permanent manager, with his French-Canadian wife, his father
and step-mother, and his (eventually four) children. I will tell about the Litties later in chapter VIII. Other
new buildings began to be added, in whose names the reader will be able to foreshadow the future Camp as we have
known it; the Ch&let, in its simple original form; the Glen, used first by the Taylors and the Shearmans, afterwards
by the Wilders, the Luces, and others; Arden (which we call "the Speer Cabin"); Woodcroft (built for
Dr. and Mrs. Beebet, rebuilt later for the Taylors, and occasionally called by various occupants the honeymoon
house); the Uplands (or "Erdman Cabin"); Stony Point, of course connected with the Stones, (later with
Mrs. Livingston Taylor, and now with the singing Ristines). I do not know in what order these and other buildings
came. There were still tents interspersed with the cabins along the "Street" for many years. The farm
was a very real farm for a long time, supplying vegetables, chickens, milk, and even beef from the cows that came
home to the big new barns so quietly at evenings; the pigs also, and the little lambs whose bells resounded Swiss-like
on our hillsides in the gloaming under the evening stars.
Dr. and Mrs. Taylor had gone across the sea, I think, after the Ecumenical Conference, and after their tour of
American Colleges. (I heard Mrs. Taylor speak at Goucher in Baltimore in 1900. ) I am not sure whether the Conference
was in January or December of 1900. It is possible therefor that the Taylors went to New Hampshire in the spring
or summer of 1900 with Mr. Coleman to see the new buildings, but we have not a complete record. At all events the
first regular season seems to have been 1901.
The old friends continued to come to board at the Camp under the new regime, and the missionary friends came, and
all mingled together, and became friends, and made the Camp what it has been.
The pioneer missionary representatives at Diamond Pond in 1901 were Dr. and Mrs. Taylor, of course; their influence
has been permanent and constant; as it was in the beginning, so it is unto this day. As we always said, from their
cabin "the voice of prayer was never silent". Also (that first year, I feel sure) Mrs. Scott, a sedate,
strong-charactered and saintly lady of the C. I. M. (who visited us at 1326 many years later); one of their early
group who went to China on the "Lammermuir."
And from the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions, the great and good Senior Secretary, Dr. Robert E. Speer,
with Mrs. Speer and their two children. Doubtless my husband felt that he knew Dr. Speer from hearing him speak,
and certainly he knew that he wanted him at Camp; but we have still Mr. Speer's first letter in which he records
the surprise with which Mrs. Speer greeted his announcement, "I met a man today who wants us to spend the
summer at his Camp in Northern New Hampshire." She hastily inquired how they could give their small children
baths and milk at such a place, and Mr. Speer records his reply, along the following lines: "Wherever there
is country, there are cows,and there is milk. Wherever there are water and matches, we can heat the water and bathe
little babies and dirty little boys." The little boy was Ellloft Speer, (later of Andover and Princeton and
the First World War, of Lafayette as Chaplain, and of Northfield, as Headmaster of Mr. Hermen School); the baby
was our Marnie, Margaret Bailey Speer, (now in these troublesome times, the Dean at Yenching University, Peiping,
China);--two who made Camp their own--and whom Camp made its own,--with a promptness and completeness hardly exceeded
by the vigor with which my husband and the C. I. M. had adopted each other a few months earlier. As surely as the
sun rises, and air is breathed, Margaret Speer carries with her, and often consciously, something of the light
and air of Little Diamond Camp; and just as surely Elliott, on his short, joyous, shining road to Heaven took something
of it with him, all the way. And how many elements of that intangible Camp
Fourteen
atmosphere they all contributed, no man can number; gallant Patty (Constance, now Mrs. Robert Barbour of Great
Britain, mother of three little British Barbours), and Billy (William, now six feet six, married, and teaching
for some years Past) ,--were not yet thought of; nor was even the little Eleanor Speer, who came to this world
between Marnie and Patty, and went so very soon to Heaven. All of them came eventually to Camp and brought their
special love and happiness. We have still the little faded blue hairribbon belonging to Eleanor Speer which my
husband carried in his pocket every day for thirty years, from her death in 1906 until his own.