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Farmer’s Wife Becomes Evangelist
oughly convinced of the importance of Christian education. In three houses in which
the family lived after that time, Mr. Robeson was willing to forego family use of a room
so that a church school could be held in the home. He was committed to make it
possible for not only his daughters but also all the other Adventist children in Carroll to
have a Christian education. (Taken from a letter to the writer, Evelyn Robeson Faust, Cerritos,
California, July 27, 1984. See appendix A, 2.5.)
During the summer of 1914, L. P. Sype was enough better physically to return from
Canada to work with his wife in an evangelistic effort at Lake City, Iowa, in the centralwestern part of the state. Bessie Scism, a Bible worker, completed the team. The Sypes
located a lot near the center of Lake City, a community of about 2,000 people. Nearby
were other attractions: the moving picture theater, a chautauqua lecture hall, and traveling shows. But since Minnie Sype and her co-laborers believed that God had a work
for them to do in Lake City, they trusted their heavenly Father to send people to them
in spite of the strong competition.
Mrs. Sype’s preaching generated a rewarding interest. The tent in Lake City was often
completely filled, with as many as 250 people in attendance. The meetings were held
every night of the week, including the fourth of July. Minnie had never commanded
keener attention from her listeners than at Lake City, nor had the literature that she
distributed on each topic found greater receptivity. As a result, Mrs. Sype and her
helpers started a Sabbath school with 25 to 32 people in attendance.
Mrs. Sype was still in charge of the work in Carroll; Mr. Sype was there, distributing
literature. A Bible worker conducted house-to-house visitation in Lake City. And now
some members at Grant City implored Mrs. Sype to get the Adventist work revived in
that village, near Lake City.
In Grant City Mrs. Sype held meetings in a church yard that adjoined the land of the
Pelmulder family. Dorothy Pelmulder, a girl of 12 or 13, accepted the Seventh-day
Adventist message in those meeting s. She was baptized by Minnie Sype as part of the
harvest from the Lake City and Grant City meetings. This baptism was held in the
Raccoon River during 1914. Dorothy Pelmulder Blaine Kistler’s daughter, Joy Estes,
and daughter-in-law, Mariel Jean Blaine, have provided documentation. (Mariel Jean
Blaine, Redlands, California, letters to the writer July 28 and October 15, 1984 (see appendix
A, 2.6); C. Joy Estes, Los Angeles, California, telephone conversation with the writer, January
16, 1989; see appendix A, 2.7). Besides the baptism, another memory that Mrs. Kistler
enjoyed sharing was how Mrs. Sype, when she talked about Catholics, became rather
vehement and stamped her foot.
Hazel Halverson, who also attended the meetings in Lake City and the river baptism,
described Mrs. Sype as an interesting speaker with an arresting personality, a large and
rather prestigious woman. (From Hazel Halverson, telephone conversation with the writer,
June 18, 1989.)
By 1914 Ross Sype was a minister in the Iowa Conference in addition to his mother.
The conference administration assigned him to work with his mother; the two of them

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