The Happy Weavers

You see, the last time I saw my father was around 1949 when I was five years of age. After that he moved to California and I never saw him since.  He died in California in 1989. For the first time I saw pictures of myself, my mom, dad, brother and sister in  Intercession City when we lived there from 1945 to 1948. Now, I have always heard the story about us living in Intercession City and at the age of three vaguely remember the place but was told I almost died there.  So, all my life until the discovery of my Dad's photo album my thoughts were: Oh, my dad from Marion, Ohio must have been a sucker.  Perhaps he read an ad in the newspaper “Cheap land in Florida” and perhaps bought that 5 acre parcel of mosquito infested land sight unseen.   But that is not what happened.  During the  summer of 2016, I was browsing through my dad’s photo album and I discovered some strange photos I never paid much attention to before.   Several photos show a group of people traveling from Point Pleasant, West Virginia, to Intercession City, Florida in 1935.  The automobiles and trucks were from the 1930s.  The captions below the old photos were “Going to Florida on School Bus 1935.  Arrive in Florida from West Virginia 1935.”  Next, came photos of a vacant two story building with archways surrounded by weeds.  And finally a picture of my father, Lawrence Weaver, in front of a palm tree with the caption “First time to Florida 1935.”  I was elated that my dad on most all of his photos had dated and identified each photo.  I looked at the photos of the vacant two story building with arches and read: “Osie England Bible School Intercession City, Florida 1935. Hotel at Intercession City, Florida 1935.” Thoughts flooded my mind: Who in the world is Osie England?  Why was my dad with this group of people and what about the pictures of the hotel and Osie England Bible School?  I began to research the internet to see if I could gather any information. I entered into my search block  Intercession City. It did not take long in discovering Ted LaVigne’s website “Historic Intercession City.” What an eye opener for me. I devoured everything the late historian Ted LaVigne placed on his site about the history of Osie England and Intercession City.  Then I began to piece together the missing story of my father’s life and connection to Osie England and Intercession City. At age 72 I was able  to put together the missing pieces of my early life and that of my father’s life with Osie England from Point Pleasant, West Virginia to Intercession City, Florida, being one of the pioneer famiies. I shall always be thankful and grateful to Ted for his research of Osie England and his posting of the history of Intercession City on his website, without which I would not be where I am today in Intercession City writing this story.  

 

After discovering Ted LaVigne’s  website during the summer of 2016,  I reached out to him using an email posted on his website.  I never received a response and assumed he was too busy or not interested in my findings and photos of Intercession City.  Unbeknownst to me I was using a discontinued email and Ted never received my inquiry.  The following December, several months later I felt that perhaps I should try again to contact Ted.  With a little research I was able to find a good email address and reached out to him sending him some of the pictures of Intercession City from my dad’s album. I received a response right away and he was elated to see the photos and hear my story. As fellow historians we became close friends. A few weeks later in December  just after Christmas my sister and I visited Ted and he showed us all around Intercession City pointing out  the landmarks and telling the history.