Just a Couple of Farm Felines

Lending a Steady Paw

I Thessalonians 5:14 …Support the weak…

One morning I gazed out my parents’ farmhouse dining room window to observe Yoda, a half-grown farm cat, sitting on top of the wooden feed box that serves as a secure storage place for cat food. The four young cats vie for that sitting place. Playing “Cat” of the Mountain on that spot is a favorite activity in the early morning or late afternoon.

 I was astounded to see Little White Kitty – so called because we were planning to give the kitten to a neighbor letting him provide the name – stretching his chubby, little frame as far up the side of the wooden feed box as he could. Bravely, the white kitten began his attempt to scale that side of the box as Yoda stared intently down on him. The determined little feline extended his furry right front paw hanging his claws on the lid of the wooden box. In a surprising gesture, Yoda reached out his left front paw placing it on top of the fluffy, little paw of the tiny, white kitten. This amazing action by Yoda steadied Little White Kitty enough for him to climb onto the lid of the wooden feed box. Those two friendly cats were a perfect vision of comradery.

 How often do those of us who follow Christ act as Yoda did to assist the kitten in arriving at the very same place he was? Do we do as Paul instructed the Thessalonian Christians to do? Do we  “support the weak”? May Yoda’s example encourage us to reach down to steady and uplift those weaker believers assisting them to grow to the highest level of obedience and service in the kingdom of God.

 Lord, help me to seek for ways to uplift and support those You bring into my life. May my life be a “steady” example of encouragement that spurs those younger in the Lord to honor and glorify You in their lives.

Yoda Just Waking Up on the Feed Box

Little White Kitty Posing on the Feed Box



The Marriage of John Fredrick and Elizabeth Studebaker Gates

Elizabeth Studebaker had been born deaf but was educated far beyond most women of the Post-Civil War Era in the United States becoming fluent in sign language. She was formally educated at the Kansas School for the Deaf until she was sixteen years old.

In an article written for Kansas School for the Deaf, her daughter, Ella Gates-Meyer relates how her parents met. Elizabeth had left the Kansas School for the Deaf in 1867. Nine years later in September of 1876, Elizabeth received a letter from Girard, Kansas, written by a former classmate. The letter told of a thirty-five-year-old farmer living in that same locale who was deaf, too. John Fredrick Gates had normal hearing until at age 14 he contracted scarlet and typhoid fever. Often these diseases were fatal; however, John recovered, but was left profoundly hearing impaired.

Elizabeth at age 25 traveled to Girard to “visit him” as Great-aunt Ella Gates-Meyer stated and within a week she became Mrs. John Fredrick Gates.

It is said that John could drive a team using sounds. Sign language was the primary language in their home.

 A Portrait of Elizabeth Studebaker Gates and John Fredrick Gates married on

September 21, 1876. They were married forty-one years until his death

following a stroke.

Education of Elizabeth Studebaker Gates

An Amazing Phone Call about an Even More Amazing Lady

I received one of the most amazing phone calls on the morning of July 13, 2000, from the Kansas School for the Deaf. The person calling on behalf of the school was trying to locate descendants of prominent alums. She had found Dad’s name with his contact information on the internet.  This school official knew my grandfather’s name was Edmund Gates. So acting on a hunch that the two were related, she had called at my father's home. She was planning the 140^th anniversary of the founding of the school. I knew my great-grandmother was born deaf but was astonished to learn she was the first student of the school.

Elizabeth Studebaker was born to Daniel and Elizabeth Jacobs Studebaker on May 16, 1851, in South Bend, Indiana. She was the first daughter born following the birth of three sons. She would have two sisters born later. Little Elizabeth was born deaf. At the age of six, she and her family moved west to Kansas in a covered wagon.


First Building to House the Kansas School for the Deaf

Elizabeth Studebaker Gates 

Above is a photo of the original building at Baldwin, Kansas, that housed the Kansas School for the Deaf. Records show Elizabeth Studebaker, whose portrait is above, studied there for six years following her enrollment as the first student on December 9, 1861. Her father would have taken her the approximate thirty miles between their closest town of Clinton to Baldwin, the only place Elizabeth could learn sign language. American Sign Language was a relatively new language at that time having been taught for less than fifty years. The school’s photograph, as well as the information below, is available on the school’s present website in its history section.

 Elizabeth Studebaker from Clinton arrived with her father, along with some ham, butter and eggs. These items, along with the following week's arrival of a wagon load of corn, served as the barter for the school costs of roughly $2.50 per week.

I am greatly indebted to Great-aunt Ella Gates-Meyer for information she wrote for the school about her mother, Elizabeth Studebaker. Her article about her mother indicated that Elizabeth did housework for one dollar per week to pay for her room and board. Great-aunt Ella stated that the only way her mother could attend the Kansas School for the Deaf was the school’s willingness to accept produce from Daniel Studebaker’s farm near Fort Scott, Kansas, in lieu of tuition fees. The forward-thinking Dunkard* minister, Daniel Studebaker purposefully and sacrificially sought out education for his deaf daughter in a time when many felt girls needed no education and one with a disability was considered “inferior.”

Tombstone of Daniel Studebaker, father of
Elizabeth Studebaker Gates. He is buried in
Colyer Cemetery in Douglas County in Kansas.
He was born on September 11, 1820 in Ohio.
He died on May 8, 1894 in Kansas.

*The Dunkards were a branch off the Church of the Brethren, a group that began in Germany in the early 1700s. The present day Dunkards strictly adhere to the New Testament. They practice “triple” immersion baptism once in the name of the Father, once in the name of the Son, and once in the name of the Holy Spirit. This ceremony was performed after an individual professed faith in Jesus as his/her Savior and Lord. Some categorize their doctrine as “Baptistic.” Incidently, Daniel Studebaker’s other six brothers were also Dunkard ministers according to Aunt Ella Gates-Meyer. A Dunkard congregation still exists in Kansas.