Religion: Harvest Festival

It had not rained for 62 days. The crops around Clarissa, Minn. (pop. 645) had withered away to almost nothing. In the village park the pines had lost their green vigor and the dry earth was dust brown. But everyone, as Reporter George Grim of the Minneapolis Tribune noted, had gathered nonetheless for the community service that features Clarissa’s annual harvest festival. They joined in singing:

0 God, our help in ages past Our hope for years to come . . .

“We welcome you to this religious service that knows no denomination,” said Dr. F. N. Grose. For a while, the doctor had feared he would not get to the service himself—but the baby came just in time.

The Methodist minister gave the invocation, the Lutheran minister led responsive readings, and Father Kampson of St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church pronounced the benediction. Mrs. Einar Olson and her son Ronald played the prelude and postlude. She pumped the old parlor organ and Ronald did his best with an ancient upright piano.

“Motorists passing on the highway slowed down,” Grim reported. “Some stopped to listen, remained to catch the spirit of the morning.” A thin sun broke through the haze. Tanned farmers, assembled from their parched fields, looked silently up at it. “We thank Thee for Thy goodness,” said a voice from the platform. Children romping on the brown grass were shushed by their parents. George Etzell, editor of the Clarissa Independent, took notes on the sermon, sitting near the war memorial bearing the names of Clarissa citizens who fought in two wars. Three families at the service were thinking of their sons in Korea. The benediction was given and the congregation sang My country, ’tis of thee.

That night a soaking, life-giving rain came to the farms of Clarissa, Bertha and Eagle Bend.