1940-1959

June 21, 1842

•The 1940’s saw a wider use of the grounds. The state W. H. & F. M. Society met here again during camp meeting 1940 and the Eastern Regional W. H. & F. M. Society in 1950. The climax of these extra meetings was probably the centennial meeting of the Maine State Conference, September 1-5, 1949. The General Eastern Society of Loyal Workers was on the grounds in 1941, 1945 and 1956.

•The late forties and fifties brought new leadership to the youth: Ariel Ainsworth and David Osborne, Jr., Young People’s Institute (YPI) directors, Mary Shuman, Bertha Van Duyne and Jean Osborne, DVBS leaders. A series of Youth Bible Camps was instituted in 1946. The names or Lorne Ross (recreation) and Robert Fillinger (Lakeside Breeze editor) appear and for three years, Gil Dodds, champion runner and track coach at Wheaton College drew the youngsters.

•Evangelists during this same period were Joe Tom Tate, Rolly Chambers, A. Corbin Kiser, Nelson Melvin, Ray Bowden and others. Bible and prophetic teachers included Lee Baker, Clarence Hewitt, C. V. Tenney, J. A. Nichols, Jr., A. Elmore Plummer and David A. Dean.

•In 1955 during the tenure as president of the Rev. Benjamin D. Tibbetts, the 75th anniversary was celebrated. A Sunday afternoon service was devoted to a look at our past based upon a paper prepared and read by Mrs. Lelia Bruce. Unfortunately that paper cannot now be located. Mrs. Ursula Knox Walker was recognized at that service as having been at every camp meeting session. Born in the spring of 1880 she attended through 1958 and died in 1959. She did not attend in 1943, however, for no camp meeting was held because of gasoline and food shortages. It was also about this time (1955) that the new boys’ cabins were dedicated.

At the risk of omitting names of many people who have made Lakeside all that it is, some should be briefly mentioned. Among those who have devoted many years of their lives to Lakeside are George R. Fuller, Ruby Blair, Pearl Jackson, Ferd Flagg, Eleon Shuman, Frank Oldham, Elwin Cooper, Herman Clapprood, Clarence Cook, Baden Frewin, Donald Wrigley, Lyle Shuman, Lois Waning, and Anna Hutchinson. The new generation of workers, of whom there are many, will have to await their recognition in a future history.