A BRIEF HISTORY IN TESTIMONY
This is not intended to be a complete and indepth history of Pilgrim Camp. Perhaps some day soon one will be forthcoming. In the meantime, the following are testimonies of early campers recounting their first years at Lake George and Brant Lake.
From previous writings and taped interviews In 1946, the beautiful thirty-four acre tract of land at the head of Brant Lake in the Adirondack Mountains, formerly the summer estate of a wealthy New Yorker, was purchased, and Pilgrim Camp came into being. The earliest beginnings actually occurred years before, in 1939, when Hans R. Waldvogel, pastor of the Ridgewood Pentecostal Church, suggested to several of the young men that they take their Sunday school boys camping on Lake George. After the success of these trips, which continued annually there for several years, Pastor Waldvogel planted the idea of purchasing some land for camp use. Some time before, he had received a substantial amount of money from the sale of a house he had purchased before going into the ministry. He had given the house to his parents when he entered the ministry. On their death, the money returned to him, but he felt this money should be used for the work of the Lord. On March 26, 1946, Edwin and Edith Waldvogel, Karl Sailer and Gordon P. Gardiner went up north scouting for a site. They looked at various properties on Lake George but did not find anything suitable. Finally they were put in touch with a real estate agent from Warrensburg, who suggested they look a little further north at two possibly suitable properties. The first site, a "camp" on Friend's Lake, was inaccessible, due to the winter thawing. The second property was part of an estate bequeathed to a Manhattan hospital, the trustees of which were negotiating the sale. When they arrived on the grounds of what is now Pilgrim Camp on Brant Lake, the surveyors had begun to divide the 34 acres into smaller parcels, since it had been on the market for so long with no prospective buyers. Later, after driving Pastor Waldvogel up to see the property, and after much prayer, it was decided they would make an offer of $15,000. (The asking price was $25,000.) Gordon Gardiner recalled the day they received an answer. He had just left the Faith Home in Woodhaven, where the Gardiners had been living at that time, when the call came. Caroline took the message: the estate trustees would not accept the offer of $15,000, but they would accept $18,000 cash. This counter offer was accepted and things began to move in earnest. "While the legalities were in process, we were given permission to do work on the exterior of the property, providing we did not sleep on the grounds and that we did no work inside the buildings," Gordon remembered. It was during this period that Edwin, his brother Arthur, Charles Hofflander and Karl Sailer stayed off grounds and did a lot of needed work. The understanding was that if the deal did not go through, they would not be reimbursed for any improvement expenses. On July 1, 1946, the closing took place, and on July 13, 1946 the first group of boy campers arrived. My uncle first became acquainted with Lake George through the Meiers, whom he had met in Europe in 1932. After they came to America and settled in the midwest for a while, they accepted a job offer to work as gardeners on a Lake George estate. The Meiers had received the baptism before going upstate, and so my uncle would visit them once in a while and spend a few days with them. I accompanied him several times on these trips. He would take me along just to give me a good time. Of course Lake George was magnificent to me. At that time it was not very populated. The only way to get to Bolton was by boat. The train would pull into Lake George and a short distance away was a boat dock where three steamers were available to take people up the lake, stopping at several towns along the way. Later the construction of a highway began that went through to Ticonderoga. (This proved to be the death knell for Lake George as it was then, because this beautiful area, once secluded and a haven to wealthy city folks, became increasingly inhabited by tourists. One by one the beautiful large estates were put on the real estate market.) So in 1939, having become familiar with the area, my uncle encouraged Gordon Gardiner and Charles Andrews to take their Sunday school classes there. They rented three cottages, managed by Mr. Steves, a man who worked with Mr. Meiers. There was no running water and we had old fashioned kerosene stoves. For several years we rented those cottages and had a wonderful time. Later, when the war came with its associated gasoline and tire restrictions, we were able to rent some additional motel units, since the tourist business was so bad. Then the older people from the fellowship began coming up, and year after year we had a nice group of people. I remember when the girls first wanted to get in on things. They grew a little tired of the fare offered them and decided to have a spaghetti meal one time. So up came Rosie and some of the other adventurous ones to cook on those kerosene stoves. After waiting several hours past the noon meal hour, they still couldn't get the water to boil. Finally they realized the pot was too large for that stove, and only when they got the idea to divide the water into smaller pots, did things move a little faster. Although we may not have had the best facilities and accommodations there, the spiritual side was another thing. People sought the Lord, and He came in a wonderful way?especially to the young fellows. Later, when the adults began vacationing there, my father and uncle both came and ministered in the tent we would set up on the property. The town people came also. So we had a real camp going there for a while. When the war ended and travel began again, Mr. Steves decided not to rent us the cabins anymore, and we understood that very well. But it was one of the reasons we decided we would look for property of our own, a place that we could expand?where boys and girls could have a little of the outdoors and swimming. We looked around the Lake George area, but we couldn't find anything with a good, safe, accessible beach along that whole western side. Of course properties there were very expensive too. At that time Lake George property was going for $100 per foot of lakefront, whereas further north it was only $10 a foot. So in the spring of 1946, several of us went upstate. We spent the first two days in Lake George. Then on the third day, after spending a morning in prayer, we decided to go further north. I remember driving up and seeing beautiful Brant Lake. As we came to the end of the lake and drove on the property, we met Allen Meade, the caretaker of the estate and a local political official. Later he would become a good friend of the camp. As we went around and looked at the grounds, Mr. Meade would have to remove some of the boards and shutters to allow a little daylight into the buildings. The power was turned off at that time. The property, we felt, was ideal. Although we felt that this was an answer to prayer, the Ridgewood church had just purchased the building on Harman Street and the brethren felt the church should not accept this obligation. That is why to this day the camp and the Ridgewood church are legally separate. We feel this has been an advantage all through the years. Eventually we purchased the property, and now there were the jobs that had to be done. First of all, the place was cluttered with more than just deer heads and other stuffed animals. Mr. Freedman had travelled and collected relics from all over the world—swords, daggers, incense burners from Asia, large decorated stands, lamps and other brass items, many of them with serpents and other beastly designs—really heathen in appearance. This had quite an effect on Mr. Gardiner especially, and they had to be taken off the property the sooner the better! We kept some as decorations, but we disposed of many items and donated other things to an Indian museum in the Bronx. We immediately went to the Board of Health in Glens Falls and asked for suggestions. They were amazed that we came to them and asked for advice before we started. They said that generally it was the other way around. The only sanitary facilities available were chemical toilets located in what is now the ladies room. There was no running water there. A few small buildings were in such bad shape that they had to be torn down. We also had to take down some trees. Several had purposely been allowed to grow through the lodge porch deck and roof, and although it may have been nice to have these trees there when they were smaller, they had increased in size and they now almost entirely filled the holes that had initially been made for them. When the wind blew, the entire lodge would sway. While working on the cesspools with some of the young men that first year, the Lord showed me at one of our morning worships that a trial would be coming that day—and that we should be prepared for it. I passed the word on to the fellows, and we prayed about it. God did a wonderful thing that day. As they hauled in material from Mr. Meade's gravel pit, one of the side walls of the cesspool caved in. The man in charge began jumping up and down and cursing. But none of our fellows was troubled at all. Nobody made a remark, nobody showed disappointment. The Lord just held us. There was no murmuring or complaining. We just got to work and began rebuilding the wall. It was wonderful. And afterwards we found out that this had made quite an impression on them and that Mr. Meade had expressed to others in town that "those fellows have the real thing." We had enough wood on the property to keep the kitchen woodburning stove going. Brother and Sister Onkes were the first cooks at Brant Lake, and they really had to endure. When it became very hot outside, it was even hotter inside. But we also needed lumber for other projects, and at that time permission was needed from the government to use any kind of lumber for building purposes. We met a local fellow whose wife was one of a group of very fine prayer warriors in the Wesleyan Methodist Church. He expressed to us that he liked the work we were doing among the children and said he would give us any lumber we needed. He had trees on his property, he had his own sawmill, and any wood he cut or milled did not come under government control. He also put at our disposal kegs of nails, which in those days were very scarce. Anything we wanted, he tried to help us with. We saw again the hand of God in arranging for us to get in touch with that contractor. Later he helped us with other projects. One thing that really changed camp radically was the relocation of the main town road, which originally came right through the camp property—along the shore, in front of the Lodge and down past the Palace. The turn in the road there by the directors' cabin was quite a difficult one to maneuver, too. But it took a very serious accident to wake up the county that something needed to be done about that road. Eventually they decided to re-route it from the bridge right through our property and down in front of the newly-built Palace. In fact, the county had already staked out the path a new road would take, which is why even today the Palace is built on a slight angle from the road—in line with the proposed staking at that time. But then they changed their minds and decided to bring the road through behind the Palace and down to the Village area where we now have the archery set up. The road was to continue along the shore in front of the property adjoining ours. When Mr. Heller, our neighbor, heard this proposal, he was upset. Ultimately he became very persuasive with the officials and came to some sort of agreement. As a result of these negotiations between Mr. Heller and the county, although they had already started clearing trees on our property, this work was halted and the plans were changed to construct the road as it is now, bypassing both the camp and the Heller property. No one can fully understand what a blessing that has been to the camp, and again we saw how God stretched out His hand for us. The caretaker of the Freedman property lived in what we now call Cherub Inn, which was located much closer to the lake than it is now. Next to it was an old garage with a gas pump nearby. Karl Sailer moved both the house and the garage back and years later built another similar structure called Seraph Inn. The old garage eventually became the site of the children's chapel. Although the water we pumped up from the lake for drinking and cooking was pure, it was not very cool by the time it came from the faucet. Several years after camp opened, one of our German sisters [Mrs. Bremer] took a drink from one of the fountains, and the water was lukewarm. This was just too much for her. As a result, she paid for the search and digging of a new well, for which we were very thankful. From the very start, all improvements and moves made at camp were prayed over and considered very earnestly by the camp trustees. My uncle would join us and we would pray together and consider what to do. We always determined, by the grace of God, to seek His will. We wanted to please Him in everything, praying that the government of camp would be on His shoulders. The Gardiners were the first directors. They were able to be at camp the entire summer and give themselves to the camp work. Karl Sailer, also one of the early trustees, was a wonderful gift of God to the camp as our caretaker for many years. Gritli Sager came along and was our nurse. How thankful we are for these oldtimers. Alice and Margrit Blum came, Sister Elisabeth Lindau used to come and work diligently until she went out as a missionary. Sister Pearl Young also spent summers at camp. And so God has always raised people to work at camp. He has put a real love in their hearts for the work of the Lord. That has been a marvelous thing to me all these years. It is a joy to ask our Sunday school children how many found the Lord at Pilgrim Camp and to see the response. Some were saved and filled with the Holy Spirit. The adults, too, have been touched by God and have received healing. We trust that in the coming seasons the Lord will allow us to continue seeing His kingdom grow, His will to be done and His work accomplished in the hearts of the young and old. Most of all, we pray that children who don't know Him will find Him; and all those who do have a knowledge of the Lord will open the door wider to Him. From a 1971 taped interview Several car loads of us went up that first year in 1939. Gordon Gardiner and I had asked our Sunday school classes about the trip, and they all wanted to go. Frank Galish drove his car and stayed with us. Since there were no plumbing facilities in the cottages we rented, we had to bring water up the hill from a little stream down below. All the boys took turns doing dishes and other chores. They all pitched in and helped. Gordon and I were the cooks that first time, and we went into town and bought food on a daily basis. Neither of us knew much about cooking, and so we'd have to ask the butcher how much meat we needed for this many boys. I believe there were 14 fellows that first time. (The second year at Lake George, 1940, my mother came up and did the cooking for us, which was very helpful. Of course we had more time with the boys then.) Later Edith Waldvogel and others helped with the cooking. One day Charlie Kreuzer volunteered to cook pancakes. He wanted to make them from scratch. They turned out very well, and the boys made it clear that they liked his flat pancakes much more than the ones we had made from the box. I think it was that year that Anthony (Sid) Galeoto and Vito Gaglio prepared a dinner. They worked for a long, long time on that meal, but it was worth it. It was interesting to be with the boys in that setting. I remember Vito complaining that he was kept awake until 4 o'clock in the morning from a robin's chirping. I guess a New York City train wouldn't have done that, but a bird did. We had a real good time. We usually started out in the morning having worship after breakfast. While Gordon and I prepared dinner, the boys would play ball and run around. In the afternoon we would go swimming. Ernie Bieber served as our lifeguard. He was a little older and a good swimmer. Once we took a day trip to New Hampshire to visit one of Gordon's relatives. Gordon and I would generally take some time during the day and go off some place to pray. Usually to a cemetery. I feel those seasons at camp prepared me for my ministry in the years to follow. Mr. Waldvogel came there to Lake George and was with us a for a few days at the beginning. He set the pace. He started us with reading Proverbs, each boy reading around and commenting on his verse. As a result of this, one of the campers, Eddie Gadzaliszyn went home and told his mother that he wanted to follow this pattern. I think Eddie in particular is an outstanding example of the help camp has been to our young people. He was a changed boy. (We remained friends, and years later he visited us and attended one of our street meetings while he was in the Navy. Shortly after, he was killed while serving his country.) On Sundays we took the boys to a little Wesleyan Methodist church not far from Lake George. On one of those days there was a travelling evangelist there, an elderly man. He had one eye. We had a little difficulty there, because the boys began laughing. But we got through it anyway. Other times we would go over to Hudson Falls to a Pentecostal church. The girls decided they wanted the camping experience, too, so in 1940 they had their own time. Mr. Waldvogel evidently had this camp work in his light for years. After the first couple years at Lake George, I began driving him around looking for our own camp site. We went all over upstate and around Albany. At that time there were several estates for sale right on Lake George. But Brother Waldvogel was very careful. He would often just make suggestions and put out feelers and see if anything developed. From a 1970 taped interview Some of us had been going to Lake George several years before the camp began. Louis Klaus and my brothers Edwin, Herbert and I enjoyed camping there in tents, and we had one of our Sunday school picnics up there, too. Later I helped as a junior counselor for two years. I was 21 at that time. I was given care of a cabin with three or four of the boys who were 10 or 12 years of age. The cabin had two or three rooms and a porch. Altogether there were about 30 boys at this time in four cabins, which were quite large?five rooms in each. We had meetings in one of them and we ate in one of them. Sometimes we had to feed the boys in two shifts. I believe the adults ate by themselves. Different people cooked at different times: a woman from Yorkville was there, Edith Waldvogel, Wally Roth, Mrs. [Rosa] Kreuzer—they all helped out. I remember Mrs. Kreuzer coming back from an early morning jaunt with some fresh raspberries or blackberries which she had just picked. Another time my father came from town with about a dozen pies. The water we had to carry from the brook was not only used for drinking and cooking, but we used it to wash the dishes, too. It was a small brook, but it had quite a bit of water. The boys all took turns getting water, and I think we took turns washing dishes on the back porch, too. My father would have meetings or Bible studies in one of the main houses on the Steves' property. My uncle would also come up now and then. He had a tent and would show Mickey McGuire films. Often there were swarms of mosquitos, so we would build fires. We tried to play ball, but these mosquitos were so thick they would get into your eyes and your mouth. It was terrible. After a few years on Lake George, we realized that we'd have to make a move. First of all, the cottages were in very bad shape and falling to pieces. Screens would come loose from the windows and the doors were coming off the hinges. The place was just falling apart and the whole arrangement with kerosene stoves and no running water?just proved too primitive. If I recall correctly, we had to use lanterns. We also realized we did not have the privacy we wanted for worship and prayer, and we began hearing things from the neighbors. Then, too, the whole idea of camp began catching on with the girls. I remember Emma Schuschat [Posta] brought up some young ladies, and it started catching on more with the adults, too. There was a definite indication that a need existed for our own place. Eventually we located the camp site on Brant Lake. I first went up there with Uncle Hans and Gordon Gardiner before it was bought. We stayed in Chestertown at the Panther Mountain House. It was early in the Spring and it was quite cold yet. Others had already looked at the property before. After we purchased the property, I went up to help prepare the place for the first campers. It all happened so quickly. We took possession just a few weeks before camp was to open, and a lot of work was necessary. That first year at Brant Lake both boys and girls were campers. I was working on the grounds primarily. Charlie Hofflander and Caroline were acting as counselors for these groups. We would have our meetings in what was then the dining room and is now the adult library. We'd sit around the tables in there. Uncle Hans came and helped sometimes. I remember how he prayed for one fellow. He said there was a small candle of light that God had placed into this boy. And he prayed that the Lord would take care of that light that it wouldn't go out. The second year of camp they built the Palace, which was used to house the campers. Two large rooms downstairs were used as dormitories, each holding 16 boys. On either side of these large rooms, in the middle of the Palace, was a small counselor room. Charlie [Hofflander] and I were the counselors this year. We had a really rough time. Most of the kids were new to any kind of camp life and we were new to camp life. I used to stand in the middle of the room at night until those kids calmed down and went to sleep. They would throw their shoes at each other, shine flashlights around and just cut up. To have all those kids in double bunks in one room, you can imagine what fun they had. At that time the activities weren't as structured. We had to devise all our own activities. It was very strenuous. The Gardiners and Sister Gritli helped us along this line in directing us. We had our worship right there where we ate. By the second season we had also built the children's dining room, which is now Mayhew Manor. In those days we had ball games and would play against the Boy Scouts. We would go to town and play. We'd also pile into an old truck and go out to the sand pits. It was a lot of fun riding on that truck. We also did quite a bit of hiking those first years and explored a lot of places. I think the first year we were there the workers went up to Pharaoh Lake together. Something happened at camp in those early years, on a Labor Day weekend. We were expecting quite a group of young people and adults. Brother Gardiner came to me beforehand and mentioned he would like me to find out about renting a film. Those were the days before retreats, and he wanted something special for the weekend. I contacted a local company that came around and would show films for a fee, and after looking through a catalog we chose one on the life of Franz Schubert. From its description, it appeared to be harmless and interesting. So the day came, and two men arrived with their equipment and started showing the picture. Well, it turned out to be a rather worldly film. I remember it showed some very wild parties. All of a sudden Brother Gordon calls out, "Stop!" Now remember, a lot of people were there watching this film. And he says again, "Stop! I'm afraid this is not the kind of film we want to be watching here. This is not in keeping with our standards at camp, and it's not the kind of thing we want to see." Even some of our people were kind of puzzled and taken back. There were quite some groans from the young people, many of whom had just returned from the Army. But Brother Gardiner stood his ground. He told me to quickly go over to Watch Rock and get a fire going for a wiener roast. It turned out to be a nice evening after all. But it made an impression on me. I saw that this man was willing to stick his neck out and be very unpopular, if necessary, to keep the standards up; and I admired him for that. A lot of things at camp developed gradually. Camp life was all new to the Gardiners and the others. We just had to feel our way. In the early days the young people might go out in a boat at night or read, or play anagrams. But then there were problems, too. And I suppose that's why it became necessary to have activities and scheduled meetings. When we were first there, we were a small group and a family. We knew each other and trusted each other. But as things grew and others came, we found people might not share that same attitude. So it had to be changed. There was a time, too, when people wanted to have more freedom?go off to Lake George at nights, some wanted to buy a piece of the property and build a cabin. There were all kinds of pressures in the first few years. People had their ideas about the way things should be run, and it was a struggle for the Gardiners—determining how to do things and how to please God. One time in a meeting, Hans Waldvogel began a sort of groaning, which naturally puzzled people. Only later he told Brother Gardiner that the Lord had given him a sight or vision of what Pilgrim Camp could become if the flesh were allowed to reign and unless they kept it "holiness unto the Lord". I believe Brother Waldvogel spoke firmly to them about this being an important part of directing the camp, and the Gardiners took it very seriously. | ||