A Heaven-Sent Wife for the Preacher

By Doreen Milstead

A Heaven-Sent Wife for the Preacher -- A man living our west, a preacher, feels very lonely without a wife to keep him company, but finding no suitable women where he lives, asks for help from a relative back east. Many lives change as they meet each other and as the young woman finds God and is able to recover from her life once lived "on the streets" of New York.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Susan Hart
• Release date: Feb 17, 2020
• ISBN: 9780463819869

Book preview

A Heaven-Sent Wife for the Preacher

by

Doreen Milstead

Copyright 2020 Susan Hart

Table of Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Synopsis: A Heaven-Sent Wife for the Preacher -- A man living our west, a preacher, feels very lonely without a wife to keep him company, but finding no suitable women where he lives, asks for help from a relative back east. Many lives change as they meet each other and as the young woman finds God and is able to recover from her life once lived on the streets of New York.

Chapter One

Lewistown had turned sour, filled with gold-diggers and claim jumpers. Pastor Calvin Peterson had grown very weary as he searched continually for a worthy woman of God to become his wife. He had met many women, but with each one there was a hidden secret, or an obvious replacement. His heart yearned for a wife, someone that he could share his life with and his love for God. He had all but given up several times, and each time he hit a low, he reached out in faith and tried again. He trusted God, and he knew that if God wanted him to find such a woman, then He would provide.

Judith Mountains, N.E. of Lewistown in 1880 …

Calvin’s story begins in 1882, but to set the tone for where his life was, and what it was like, we look back to 1880, when gold was discovered. It didn’t take too long for the small community to become the largest community in Central Montana. Everyone wanted a piece of the gold, and very quickly the prospectors moved in and took over the beautiful surroundings of Maiden Canyon. It went from a peaceful and beautiful area to business booming, along with all the negative aspects, including gun fighting, street fights and claim jumping. Where there was an understood law among people, it quickly went to having no law. Many would come and go, some not being able to make it and they would commit crimes that havocked the community. Others came and planned to stay no matter what it took, and they would jump on claims of gold that were not theirs.

In 1880, the first Post Office was founded, which served as a trading post, and it was called Reeds Fort. A school was also founded in 1882, and was finally built in 1883. Before all the major changes that swept through this beautiful part of Montana, the cattle and the sheep would graze in vast open ranges all around Lewistown. It was nothing to see Texas trail riders roaming the hill sides. But when the town became filled with the gold-diggers, the beauty faded away. Lewistown was becoming a stranger in the land of the known. As time went on, the gold prospecting came to a lull, but the drifters who never managed to make their fortunes were still around, left behind to spoil the town.

Spread throughout the region was little wooden built shacks that the women would entertain the gold-diggers and to see them wandering around Lewistown became quite common. With the men coming and going, what were left behind were the women that had been their providers. Calvin was not looking for these types of women, but through his desperation, he attempted to change a few, hoping that they would be interested in a washing of the blood. He had no luck, and he was searching for love in all the wrong places. He could no longer find a right place to search. And, he became quite weary. He often thought of moving away, but he also felt that God had called him to that part of Montana, so he began thinking on how else he could find a bride. He thought that perhaps he could have one brought to him. And, this is where Calvin’s story began …

January of 1882, Lewistown, Montana ….

Calvin decided that he would take matters as God would see fit. He had been fasting and waiting on God to act in his life, concerning finding him a wife. He had tried many times on his own, and had struck everything, but gold. This time, he was laying it in the Lord’s hands. The first thing that he would do would be to write a letter to his Aunt Milna, who lived in Chicago, Illinois. She owned a retail store that provided Chicago’s finest with everything from clothing to fine antiques that she would run across when she would travel her two months of the year. He knew if anyone could help him find a good woman that she could. Calvin was young, only twenty-five, and he did not want to entirely give up on finding a mate. He was going to write the letter, walk away and let God take it from there. He would no longer walk around Lewistown and try to convert a woman that had one thing on her mind. So, he sat down and wrote Aunt Milna, hoping that she would be able to not only find him a decent woman, but send her to him as well. Here is a part of his letter that he wrote his Aunt …

Dearest Aunt Milna,

I am growing weary by the day as I search the country side of Lewistown and the valleys all around, for a decent woman to give to her my hand in marriage. Aunt Milna, I wonder if you could be so kind as to help me in my search. I am afraid with all the gold-diggers that moved into Lewistown, they left behind their types of women when they left. This place crawls with disgust. I cannot bear to try to convert any more unappreciative women to follow the Lord. These women have only one thing on their minds and could never supply me with faithfulness, much less joy.

May I ask that you look for me and find my bride? I am sure that you know what kind of woman my heart yearns to find, and I would owe you always and forever if you could assist me in my search. I have no problem in paying you for your time and for her transportation to come to Montana. Please contact me as soon as you are able to find her. I wish for a woman of honesty and faithfulness; attractiveness is not mandatory; but of course, would be sweet. I love you Aunt Milna and hope to hear from you very soon.

Love,

Your Nephew,

Calvin

Finishing his letter, it was sealed and off he was to the post office to have it mailed. He was depending upon a delivery to be made within a month, due to the mail only running three times in the winter months. He was confident that the Lord would know of his need, and would supply his remedy. Each day, he waited; he looked forward to the next visit to the post office. He stopped looking the day that he mailed the letter to his Aunt. God had spoken to his heart, and he knew it was time to not worry about any women he may come across in Montana. His heart longed to receive word that she had found him as special lady that could appreciate his love and faith in Jesus.

He tried to stay to himself as he waited, but he was always being called out to special happenings. Some woman gave birth and needed him to bless their child, someone had died and needed blessed for their burial, or someone had committed a horrible crime and they thought one prayer would do the trick. But he found the same sadness that no one wanted to know Jesus.

They all wanted a quick fix, or they just wanted their household to look proper. He was a lonely man and as he would walk back to this little cabin that sat alongside a beautiful brook, he would stop and gather fresh handfuls of wildflowers. Then he would take them into his cabin and place them into a tiny vase that his Aunt had sent to him, that he considered very special. He looked at the vase each day and as soon as the flowers would begin to wilt, he would go back down the trail and pick fresh ones.

He wanted to always have beautiful flowers sitting on his kitchen table. It made him feel like a woman could be present at any time. The smell of the blooms gave him comfort to his senses, and he enjoyed the beauty as well. He wished he could offer to some pretty little lady, flowers like these all day long, and he could if he could first find the lady.

Calvin had grown up with all sisters. When he was young, he of course, always wished for brothers, and they never came. But as he grew older, he grew to appreciate girls more and his sisters were devout women of God, budding into beautiful Proverbs 31 women, straight from the bible itself. They were so devout that they all moved away when they began to see the changes coming to Lewistown. And if he had listened to his sister’s advice, he would have traveled with them.

But, at that time, Calvin thought he could change Lewistown back to the way it used to be. Too many people with not enough God among their interests finally proved to him that his task was too great. He missed his sisters and one day he plans to