http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/14268830/person/83996295

Things known by J. S. Johns about Robert and Ella Louise Johns:

August 29, 1991 (JSJ33)

Father: Robert (no middle name because he was born so small and not expected to live) Johns was born August 20, 1899, in Hecla, PA as the 11th child of John Christopher Yauntz (1856-1937) and Ernestina Yauntz (1858-1957). Bob was the one of 2 children born to the couple in the USA. The others were all born in Germany. The family came in through Ellis Island, NYC, and in their money exchange Grandma Johns was given 10 cents for her purse full of German money!  They changed their name to Johns to be more American. They moved to Whitney, PA, then to Dorothy, PA, and Greensburg, PA. Bob was baptized at St. John’s Middle Churches, Mt. Pleasant, PA. Sept. 18, 1899. The family moved to Greensburg in 1905 and united with First Lutheran Church. He was confirmed March 28, 1915, by Rev. Charles Slatzert. He graduated from Greensburg High School, 1919, Thiel College in 1923, and Mt. Airy Theological Seminary in 1927. He entered the natural gas business as promoter, geologist, and field superintendent. He assisted Rev. H. H. Will for 9 years at St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Uniontown, PA. His family purchased a small farm located on a hillside on Rt. 51 between Uniontown and Connellsville. A frame house with barn and attending out buildings, including a wonderful two story spring house where they kept their fresh milk and other home grown items cool. They used a horse to till the fields. They had a large vegetable garden right above the house. It is told that Grandma Johns "cured" her arthritic hands by digging in the dirt with her hands in that garden.  She had full use of them until she died at the age of 99.

Grandfather Johns I never met. He died the spring of the year I was born, April, 1937. He had broken his leg and wouldn't go to a doctor to cast it. It didn't heal right and something affected him and he died. Grandma was a tiny, short (maybe 5 foot), feisty, white haired lady who commanded respect as she spoke in broken

English--what a hard worker and independent spirit she was! She ran the show in her family of 6 boys and 6 girls. The children I knew were big people. My Dad was 6 foot, one inch tall, and weighted a muscular 200+ pounds. Dad and next closest sister, Anna, went to public school in the US and came home and taught the family English. German, of course, was the language of the family for some years after they moved to the USA.

It is said that Grand Dad worked in the coke ovens that surrounded the country side in that coal mining area. What a sight at night to drive by lit ovens on the hillside when I was a kid. Dad told me he used to help his father draw down coal to make charcoal for steel mills, etc. The whole family worked hard to make it on the farm. I knew Huey, Edward, and Lena as a kid. I haven't seen any relative since Dad died in 1952.

Besides Dad who went to college, his sister Anna became the first female to graduate from the Philadelphia School of Medicine as a medical doctor. She married Albert Gestler, a Lutheran Missionary, and went to India. She died there in her first childbirth.

Dad went to Thiel College, Greenville, PA. One course he took was geology. What was learned in class was observed in the hills around home… there was natural gas under those hills. During college he got a partner to supply the money, Carl Sadler, and Dad did the fieldwork. They hit it BIG! It is told that Dad drove new large Buick roadsters to Thiel and always kept a box of cigars on the fireplace mantel for his fraternity brothers (Sadha Alaph). My mother told me as she was at Thiel also she never liked Bob Johns for he always seemed too BMOC for her taste. They didn't start to date until after both were around Uniontown after school. Dad was a fullback on the football team at Thiel. In practice one day he was kicked in the side of the head and was semi-conscious. He kept going to class, playing football, passed tests, worked, etc. One day in his college dorm room he liked snapped back to reality and asking his roommate what day it was. He came to piece together that for 6 months he had functioned in that state. The continuing after effect of the football injury was that he had no central vision in the right eye, only peripheral. He had to depend on his left eye and adjust to doing things because of that. He had to shoot a rifle or shotgun left-handed. After finishing college he wanted to go into the ministry, as his sister Anna and her husband were in the foreign missionary fields. So Dad went to Mt. Airy Lutheran Seminary, Germantown District, in Philadelphia. One of the summers of Seminary he joined the Merchant Marine to get a trip to see the mission fields and see where he might like to go. He came back disappointed.  He said the church was "westernizing", not "Christianizing" the people. He did finish seminary only to be told by the President of the Pittsburgh Synod he couldn't have a call until he got rid of his gas leases and holdings. He wouldn't give them up! He out waited Dr. Sheffler’s term of office by working in the gas fields (I remember going to the wells and derricks with him as a little kid, I knew the names of all the parts of the rigs, I remember the workers always being proud of me for knowing the names.) All this fell apart when his partner absconded to Canada with the profits. Dad could never track him down. Meanwhile as a lay assistant (he had completed Seminary) to Rev. Herman Will, St. Paul's Lutheran, Uniontown, he served for 9 years. He also worked as a safety foreman at the Frick Coal Mines near Uniontown at nights during the 2nd World War.

I remember going to the mines and still have a safety lamp he had from those days. The day he went to join the army was the day that the Germans surrendered. He was never in the armed forces.

After Sheffler was out of office Dad was called as Pastor to the Accident, MD Parish of the Synod of West Virginia for one year, licensed July 20, 1945, for one year and then ordained in Parkersberg, W. Va., 1946. His first parish was a three church yoked parish in the panhandle of Maryland. We lived in Accident, MD, near Deep Creek Lake (great place to fish) and he served St. Paul's in Accident, The Cove, and Friendsville.

Dad was there until 1948.

He moved us to Youngstown, PA, June 1, 1948, just outside Latrobe, where St. James Lutheran Church is located.

In 1951, Mother went back to teaching at Baggley Elementary School. The church was in a totally remodeling program and was digging out the basement to make room for more classrooms, but no bathrooms. A lot of stubborn people were at St. James and they were known to be hard to work with.

Dad became ill with something that couldn't be detected at the Latrobe Hospital. He was taken to Johns-Hopkins in Baltimore, MD and it was there a 2-inch hole, non-malignant, through the back wall of the stomach was discovered. He was on the operating table for 8 hours.

He died September 3, 1952, from post-operative shock. I had just attended Latrobe High School for the first day as a freshman and he died that night. The stress of that church’s people killed him. The shock of it all was great for the family. We first had Dad buried at Fairview Cemetery, in Connellsville, and later Mother had the Jimmy Gault Funeral Home, Pleasant Unity, PA, move the body to Unity Cemetery in Latrobe, where she was teaching and making a home for Ann and me. Rev. G. Lawrence Himmelman, President of the Pittsburgh Synod conducted the service at St. James, Youngstown.

I remember dad taking me rabbit hunting and I'd be the dog by jumping on the brush piles. This took place in MD. He would take me fishing at Deep Creek Lake. Wow, could he ever kick a football---impressive!!! I was in Dad's last catechism class that he taught before he died. He as a man with wavy white hair, and ruddy red face, strong and erect and always stood out in a crowd. He was one impressive German man. Large hands with strong finger nails, I had always wished I had hands that would grow that strong. I never gained the height I had hoped to be. I never made it over 5, 9 and a half. Bob would whistle everyday of his life it seemed. You knew where he was if you just listened; down in the basement, out in the garden, back from a car trip. People in MD would marvel, in the midst of the coldest winter, snow 2 to 6 feet deep, down the street Bob would walk with only a wool sweater on, whistling away. How respected and helpful a person he was. He would give a person the shirt off his back it was said. After his death my mother never dated anyone for she always said she had the best husband she could ever have… that was that!

Ella Louise (Balsley) Johns (Feb. 14, 1906 to Nov 1973.)

Her father was Samuel Long Balsley, a skilled cabinetmaker, who lived in Connellsville, PA. Mother's real mother died when she was very young, and she was raised by her stepmother, Ida (Ankeny). When mom was born she was so small (under 2 lbs) that they kept her on the open oven door to keep her warm. She had a brother Thomas who was older than she, and William, younger, who is actually a half-brother.

The family was very close and worked and lived well together. Thomas was a master interior finisher until he got lead poisoning and couldn't work with paints any longer. He for a number of years ran the Connellsville Sanitation Department Garbage collection agency.

He was also an insurance salesman. He loved making movies on 16mm and showed them to us often. His wife was Betty (Keller) and their only daughter is Patty Schroyer. The other brother Bill, during WW2 became an officer in the Army. He learned radio! He's been a ham operator before and after the service. For years he worked in West Penn's meter division in Connellsville and is super active in community and church life. Bill and his wife, Louise, have two daughters, Barbara and Sally. Their grandfather built the altar, pulpit, etc. for Trinity Lutheran Church which is still used to this day. Mother was a very skilled person. In High School she won a scholarship via the Peterson Hand Writing System for college. She went to Thiel College for 2 years and got her "Normal School" teaching certificate in elementary education. She knew Bob Johns at Thiel but just in passing. She got a job as a teacher in Uniontown at an elementary school and it was during this time she and Bob dated for over 4 years and finally were married on Thanksgiving Day, November 29, 1934.

After John Samuel was born in Uniontown, December 28, 1937 she stopped teaching to raise her family. Ann Ernestina, born January 14, 1940, was their second child. Mother was a very great artisan. She was often chosen to be the art teacher in her school. She knitted sweaters, etc. and she crocheted many beautiful things. As we still lived in Hoppwood I remember her churning butter on the large screened back porch in a hand turned glass bowled churning device. Her kitchen often smelled of great baked things. There were several large sour cherry trees and one sweet cherry tree in the back yard and as a small child I can still remember how great they tasted. Mom and Dad had an extremely large garden on their "truck farm". They sold some and used a lot for themselves. Mother pressure canned tomatoes, corn, peaches, cherries, etc. and the fruit cellar had its walls of shelves totally loaded with these beautiful mason jars filled full for the winter’s eating.

I remember one year Dad had planted sweet potatoes at the bottom of the garden, near the ever flowing creek, that as my favorite play area. When it came time to harvest the beautiful looking plants he dug down a foot or so and could not find any sweet potatoes. He dug up all the plants and no potatoes. There had to be potatoes! So he dug down to the creek bed level and there he found the largest and best crop he had ever grown. How pleased and proud he was.

Some folks rented the large barn on our truck farm and raised horses and ponies. They let me ride the ponies. There was a large two story chicken house where Dad raised many chickens. I've seen many a chicken beheaded by the blunt axe I still have. Mother would scald the feathers off the bird and clean out the entrails. Stink!

And to think I ate that chicken--kids today would barf! We also raised turkeys, guineas, and ducks. We had a unique duck house that was built like a square, but all the walls where halls! I loved to run around inside that neat structure. My parents owned that house and made a beautiful home for us. When Dad was to be ordained to be a Lutheran pastor they sold that two-story home on its (12) acres and never did own a house again.

Mother was one of the finest mothers a child could have had.

She taught us, she read to us...she put herself out and bought us the nicest clothes for church and school. Her love showed in everything she did for us. She worked hard. Used the old swing arm clothes washer and wrung out the clothes and sometimes would injure her hand in the rollers. The clothes were hung outside any time of the year on a clothesline. Sprinkling the white shirts for Dad, ironing the pillow cases, the sheets!, the pants, the shirts, etc. How rough and red her hands often were from these duties. She put lotion on them to comfort their wear. 

Mother was the President of the PTA in Accident. She worked in the church and would play the piano often. She was a good pianist.

She typed every bulletin my Dad needed for church.  That was a family project every Saturday night: type the bulletin, run it off on the on ink mimeograph, put each sheet out to dry (covered the first floor of Youngstown parsonage I recall), picked them up, folded them, took them to church each Sunday, as if they appeared like magic!  (I vowed if I ever became a minister I’d never do a bulletin – I think I’ve done 2 since being ordained in 1963).

Mother returned to teaching the year before Dad died.  She taught at Baggley Elementary School her first year back, 1951.  When Dad died unexpectedly she kept the family going by her teaching.  First we lived for three months in the parsonage of St. James until they got a new pastor.  We moved to half a house rental near St. James church in Youngstown.  After 2-3 years there we moved to 308 Cherry Street, Latrobe, PA.  We were there until Ann finished college.  Mom moved to 1008 Alexandria Street, Latrobe, PA just a few blocks from 4th ward elementary school where she taught 4th grade.  When she retired she moved to Rural Valley and had a nice apartment on Main Street for several years.  She had a series of illness that hit her, but she kept getting back up and getting back to living: gall bladder stone removal, passed a kidney stone, had a heart attack, developed glaucoma, had Parkinson’s for 8-10 years and after being in several nursing homes died of heart failure.  On the many friends she and dad had.  There were a blessing to thousands!

Brief History of John Samuel Johns:

He was born December 28, 1937, in Uniontown, Fayette Country, Pennsylvania.

 Father was Reverend Robert johns (1889-1952) and Ella Louise (Balsley) 1904-1967, was his mother. They are buried in Unity Cemetery, Latrobe, PA. The family home was in Hoppwood, PA on a small truck farm and the family moved from there when he finished first grade. The family moved to Accident, MD, where his father was a pastor of Lutheran churches located in Accident, The Cove, and Friendsville. In 1948, the family moved to Youngstown, PA where his father was a pastor of St. James Lutheran Church. Sam attended Baldridge Elementary School in grades 5-8. He then went to Latrobe High School from 1952-1956. Then he went to Thiel College and graduated in 1960 with a B.B.A. degree. He went to The Lutheran Theological Seminary in Gettysburg, PA and completed his schooling in 1963, with a Master's of Divinity degree. August 4, 1962, he married Carol Sue (Edmiston) of Latrobe, in Trinity Lutheran Church.

They met at Thiel College in 1958. Carol taught English at Biglerville High School during Sam's last year at seminary. The summer of 1963, after being ordained June 13th, at Holy Trinity, Greenville, he took his first quarter of CPE in Pittsburgh, with Pastor John Pfahler, Supervisor, through the Lutheran Service Society of

Western PA.

His first parish was The Potter County Lutheran Parish, living in Coudersport, PA., with three churches being served: St. Paul's, Coudersport ; St. Paul's, Galeton; and St. Matthaeus, Germania. There was a sixty mile drive to cover the three churches on a Sunday.

Carol taught English at Port Allegheny High School (1963-1968) until Stephen Robert was born April 30, 1967 at the old Coudersport Hospital..

The second parish was Grace Lutheran, Butler, PA. He served there from 1968-1971. Grace Church had a baptized membership of over 500 baptized members. Gregory Samuel was born April 8, 1969, at Butler County Memorial Hospital.

The next call was as a field staff person of the WP-WV Synod of the LCA. As the "Area Vice Pastor" and pastor of the Central Unit of the Congregational Development Center he was there from 1971-1983. During this time he served 17 churches which developed into a cooperative ministry with a staff of three pastors and over the years he personally supervised eight seminarian interns. Churches served:

First Church, Pleasant Union, and Jerusalem (Rural Valley); St. James, Timblin; St, Mark's, Eddyville; Trinity, Reynoldsville; St. Paul's, Hormtown; Grace, Brookville; St. Matthew's, Ramsaytown; Mt. Zion,

Trade City; Salem, Smicksburg; Luther Chapel, Coral; Brush Valley, Brush Valley; Hebron, Avonmore; Maysville, Maysville; Trinity, Homer City. During this time he was a volunteer firname for 12 years and

an EMT for 9. Joseph Aaron was born in between snowstorms February 3, 1977, in Indiana County Hospital, Indiana, PA.

The fourth call was as a Pastor-Developer for Hosanna! Lutheran Church, San Antonio, TX from 1983-1990. He made over 7,000 initial calls in the first year and began worship in Crestview Elementary School, Live Oak, TX until the new building was built at 6925 Crest way Drive, San Antonio, TX, in 1987. Resigned 93090.

The fifth call was to be the Director of the San Antonio Lutheran Coalition, a coalition of the 14 Lutheran churches inside Loop 410 and to be pastor of St. Luke's, SATX for a 2 year term call.

A heart attack April 10, 1991, led to a short-term disability via the ELCA. He resigned as the coalition director July 9, 1991, but he remained on as the pastor of St. Luke's, working on a reduced basis until the end of 1992. The congregation voted to have him serve through 1993. By the ELCA permanent disability he served not under call, but on a contract basis for St. Luke’s.  Working no more than 1712 hours a week, subject to two months notification of termination by either party. He supervised another seminarian intern,

William Swantner, who shared work with St, Luke's Church and the coalition, from May 1, 1992 to May 31, 1993.

A second quarter of CPE was taken at the Ecumenical Center, SATX.

1985.

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August 27, 1991

History of Kidney stones, etc. (file material 1-31-72)

1960 Hospitalized in Latrobe Hospital 3 days--stones passed. Dr Limber and Doherty.

1968 Nov. 5th operation RIGHT side for ks-Butler PA. Dr. Carl Danielson.  Passed 21 stones this year and one lodged.

1968 1st of 26 trips & IVP's at Cleveland Clinic, Dr. Bruce Stewart

1969 8 days Butler Hospital -- passed two stones.

1970 January 18-20th at CC for PARATHYROID operation (3 of 4 removed) Dr. Esselstein: One of 400 people operated in study of parathyroid problems. I was one of 200 who had lowered blood calcium. This was done at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio.

1975 March 11-20, Kidney stone operation on the LEFT side, Dr. Katz Latrobe Hospital, Latrobe, PA. Old stone--had been there several years (3+).

1984 Basal Cell Carcinoma removed from forehead, Dr. Calvin Day, SAT

1989 Right knee meniscus tear repaired, Dr. Patrick Palmer, SATX

1990 Diagnosed a diabetic: Macronase is the medicine; Dr. Park. UC

1991 April 1-4, NE Bapt. Vertigo due to right inner ear. MRI discovered an Arachnoid cyst which is apparently not growing. Dr. Samuel Neeley.

1991 April 10, Myocardial infarction, Angioplasty for a subtotal occlusion of the left anterior descending artery just beyond the first diagonal branch with poor flow thru the lesion into the distal vessel. Discharged 4-19-91. Dr. Kevin James.

1991 August 19th, Dr. Peter Berndt

1991 Sept.16-20; NEBH, Angiogram (Mon), Angioplasty (T), Thallium Treadmill (F). Permanent disability encouraged; Dr. James & Brendt.

August 30, 1991

1992 March 3, Thallium Treadmill, NEBH, Dr. James; pressures

October 6, 1992, Thallium Treadmill, BEBH, Dr. James; continues to show blockage from heart attack March 30, 1991.  Consistent with all the tests done since the attack.  Pain and pressures due to poor flow in the left ventricle or a plugging of a by-pass.  Physical condition is likely the cause of the pressures, pain, aching, shortness of breath that is still occurring  November 23, 1992, statement of continued disability sent to Board of Pensions.  The disability is extended until July 31, 1993, as notified 12/16/92.

Extended again till July 1996.

1993, June, NEBH, Chest pressures and pains, breathlessness, dizziness.

1995, March 26-28, NEBH, Cardiolight Treadmill, slow blood flow on inner wall of heart.

JSJ32