Fairmont Daily Sentinel

Miracles of Healing generally seem to occur in far off places, but now it appears that one has taken place right in Martin County - in the presence of witnesses - and a girl who was hopelessly crippled two weeks ago suddenly - yes, instantly - was made well and normal and is able to walk and do the things she has not been able to do for four years.

That girl is Betty Baxter, 15 year old daughter of Mr. & Mrs. William Baxter of Center Creek township.

In four years she had not been well enough to go to school, having quit in the fifth grade with what then was diagnosed as a kidney ailment. Two years ago she was taken to University hospital and was sent home with the information that the hospital could do nothing for a serious back condition that was not fully explained to the family. Last November she collapsed during the Armistice storm and since has grown steadily worse, until the past month or so when her back was doubled so that her head nearly touched her knees and hard lumps grew on her spine.

CURE INSTANTANEOUS

Then, on Sunday, August 24, at 3:10 p.m., in the presence of Center Creek and Nashville township neighbors and some other relatives, most of whom were kneeling and praying for her recovery, she straightened up in her chair, stood erect and walked.

Betty told two Sentinel reporters yesterday afternoon that she earlier had a vision of the exact time and place when her miraculous cure would take place and that she had asked her mother to invite certain neighbors to be present at the time, accounting for the fact there were so many witnesses on hand.

"WORD FROM GOD"

Betty, a sweet and frail-looking girl, said she had "word from the Lord" many times regarding her illness and ultimate recovery, but none quite so clear as the vision she had received about noon August 14 when the details of her recovery and the exact time and place were revealed to her.

She told how once in her sleep she had a communication from God, in which He asked her if she had faith that she would be healed. "I told Him, ‘Sure I do’." Betty went on, "But I did not know when it would be exactly. I knew it would not be then, but in the fall."

The August 14 vision of the time and place came to her when she suddenly lapsed into a coma while sitting in a doubled-up position in a large chair near the dining room table were the family was a dinner. She seemed to swoon away, her mother said.

MOTHER HAS "WORD"

 Mrs. Baxter said, she, too, had the "assurance from God" that her daughter would be healed, with a particularly strong message shortly before Betty’s strange vision.

"The Lord has spoken to me many times," Mrs. Baxter said sincerely.

The mother calmly verified Betty’s statements regarding her previous and present conditions, supplied the names of the persons present, told of the details of the miraculous cure as the devout neighbors knelt in the Baxter living room and prayed for her girl, who sat hunched in an over-stuffed chair.

Betty’s Pastor Present

The entire interview was conducted in the presence of the girl’s pastor, Rev. Dexter Collins of the Granada Gospel Tabernacle, whom The Sentinel reporters had invited to accompany them to the Baxter home. Rev. Collins had just returned from Chicago, where he had been preaching. Rev. Collins left Granada a day or so before the girl’s sudden cure and was notified of it by telegram in Chicago. He had visited the family on Friday, August 22, and had seen the girl hobble out of her bedroom, bent double head almost to her knees, and sit thus in a chair.

Betty told Rev. Collins at this time that he should be present Sunday at 2:30 p.m. for she would be healed at that time. Rev. Collins said he was sorry that his engagement in Chicago was taking him away, but asked that family to wire him if the cure was effected. This the family did about 4 p.m., or about and hour after it occurred.

Buy Her New Clothes

After Betty’s August 14 vision, and her mother’s communication from God, the family was so confident that it would occur that they went to Fairmont and bought Betty a new dress, shoes and coat.

Like any normal girl, Betty asked time yesterday afternoon to put on her new dress and shoes before she posed for any more pictures.

The first photograph of her was taken in her hose dress, hair net on her head, sitting on the arm of the chair in which she was healed, just as the reporters and Rev. Collins had met her upon entering the farm house.

She was startled by the flash bulb, as were her mother and little brothers and sisters grouped around her for the first photograph, then flushed prettily, probably thinking of her new dress like any normal girl would do.

Family History Given

The Baxter really are not newcomers in the nearby community, although they came to the present place, the farm of Wm. M. Potter of Blue Earth, in section 6, Center Creek, the extreme northwest corner of the township, two years ago from Northfield.

Mrs. Baxter was the daughter of Mr. & Mrs. Frank Louks of near Guckeen and Pilot Grove neighborhoods in Faribault County until nine years ago when they moved to Northfield where they lived two years before coming back to Martin County. The Frank Louks now live at Owatonna.

Betty was born on a farm near Guckeen.

There are seven children in the Baxter family, namely: Dorothy, 20; Wanda, 17; Betty, 15; Evelyn, 13; Billy, 12; Kenneth, 6; and Ross, 4. Yesterday, Dorothy was at the home of her aunt, Mrs. Earl Adams, near Imogene, and Wanda was helping out at the George Sturm home.

It was while at Northfield that Betty became ill with what Mrs. Baxter said was a kidney ailment and she was not well for the next two years, having to quit school.

Has U. Hospital Care

While still at Northfield, Betty was taken to University hospital for treatments and remained there about two weeks.

Many x-rays were taken of Betty’s spine and the young girl said the doctors there then told her there was nothing they could do for her, that her spine was in very bad shape, and that she should to quote Betty’s own words:

"Go home and enjoy life as long as possible."

Betty volunteered, "But I knew God would heal me."

All this time, up to last November, Betty could not do housework, or any of the thing young girls normally do. She could push a chair around the floor, but could not lift it. She became gradually weaker, had frequent attacks and severe backaches from time to time.

Worse Since Armistice

Then came the incident of the Armistice Day storm last November.

"Daddy told me to come to the door and look out at the wind and the snow." Betty said, "I went to the door and then I fell down."

Mrs. Baxter said the girl did not fall so as to injure herself, but simply crumpled to the floor and that she caught Betty as she was falling.

     Toward the last, her mother provided her with an open front housecoat, it being impossible to put on a dress in her crippled condition.

This was the way Rev. Collins saw her on his visit the Friday before her sure. "I knew the family was terribly depressed," Rev. Collins said, "so I made it a point to visit them just before I left and see if I could encourage them. I saw Betty all doubled up and I knew that if something did not change soon, that she could not live long. Then she told me about her strange vision and asked me to be present Sunday as a witness."

Strange Lumps on Back

In recent weeks strange lumps apparently as hard as bone, had appeared on Betty’s spine, beginning near the base of her neck and continuing downward.

Rev. Collins said he saw the lumps and touched the one on her neck when he visited there a week ago Friday.

Mrs. Baxter, the children, and neighbors had seen them, too, and said they were about half as large as a hen’s egg.

Tells of Vision

Betty was asked to tell more about her visions and talks with her God, asked if she could hear the words as if they were spoken out loud.

Betty and her mother said the words were not heard as if spoken by a human being, but that they heard them in their minds, or spirit, most distinctly and knew exactly what was meant each time.

Betty said she had a vision of heaven with the angels all around waiting anxiously for God to appear and that she saw Jesus approaching.

"There was a little tree, all bent double, and God touched the tree and it straightened up at once," said Betty. "Then I knew that would be me, and I also knew at the same time it would be on Sunday afternoon about 2:30 P.M.

Neighbors Called

At Betty’s request, her mother called the nearby neighbors, Mr. & Mrs. George Sturm, John Strum, Mrs. George Teubner and Mr. & Mrs. Earl Adams, the latter sister of Mrs. Baxter.

The neighbors began to assemble shortly before 2:30, but John Sturm had company at home and could not come. Present were Mrs. George Teubner and her mother, Mrs. Strosser, of Missouri; Mr. & Mrs. George Sturm, near neighbors; Mr. & Mrs. Earl Adams and two children, Donald, 19, and Viola, 17, and Donald’s wife, living near the Imogene corner; and Lawrence Louks of Owatonna, a brother of Mrs. Baxter, who had happened to call that day, and all nine of the Baxter family.

Betty said she previously had had the "word" regarding whom to call for the occasion, thus accounting for the numerous persons present.

At about 2:30, most of the group began to pray for Betty’s recovery, kneeling in the small living room near Betty’s chair where she was hunched. Mrs. Earl Adams had her hand on Betty’s bent back when the miracle occurred at 3:10 p.m.

Back Straightens Up

Mrs. Adams said she could feel Betty’s back straightening steadily and in a few moments it was perfectly normal, and the mysterious lumps had disappeared.

 All of those present testified to hearing cracking noises as though bones were snapping back into place. Betty’s older sister, Wanda, 17, said the noises were like when the Winnebago osteopath gave her treatments a number of months before.

All of a sudden, Betty was sitting erect, and then she stood up and stepped over to a nearby dining room chair and lifted it off the floor.

"See what the God I serve can do!" She cried.

The assembled group, of course, was astounded, but made no unusual display, letting the girl obey her natural impulses, the first of which was to go to the neighbor’s, John Sturm’s, who was unable to be present, and show him what had happened.

Neighbor Astounded

Mrs. Baxter complied with Betty’s request immediately and took her in the family car to the John Sturm place, only a very short distance down the road.

Betty said she walked into the Sturm home and that Mr. Sturm was astounded to see her walking erect and looking happily at him.

"Am I dreaming?" Betty said Mr. Sturm asked her.

Then Betty said Mr. Sturm asked her is she was going to church.

"Nothing can keep me home." Betty said she told him.

It is a fact that Betty, that same evening, went to the Gospel Tabernacle church service in Granada with her parents and others and there testified as to her cure. She had not been able to go to church for more than a year.

The next Sunday, September 1, she again went to church and sang with the choir morning and evening and again testified as to her recovery. She was the happiest girl in the world and everyone said she sang beautifully.

Normal at Home

At home, since her cure, Betty for the first time in four years has had no pains or aches of any kind. She walks around the house and yard normally and her mother said she even had taken a walk down to nearby Elm creek.

Evidence of her alacrity was displayed yesterday afternoon when she was asked to come outdoors for another picture, which she did, and then ran back into the house to put on her new dress.

She walked about the yard with her family and visitors and then went to sit on the porch railing. Suddenly she jumped down, went in the house, and came out with her coat on. It was rather chilly about 6 p.m.

"Is that your new coat that you got before it happened?" a reporter asked her.

"Yes," she smiled happily and girlishly. She seemed to have forgotten those weeks when her mother had to help her into the housecoat, being unable to get into a regular dress.

Mrs. Sturm Verifies

Upon leaving the Baxter place, the reporters and Rev. Collins went to the George Sturm home to interview one of the witnesses.

Mrs. Sturm was busy cooking supper, good old fried potatoes and pork and salad and tomatoes and cake, etc., for silo fillers who were just coming in to eat, but she took time off to talk for a few minutes. Wanda Baxter, Betty’s older sister, was helping Mrs. Sturm.

Mrs. Sturm told of Betty’s hunched condition and of having seen her often in the two years the family lived neighbors. She said she was kneeling, not looking at Betty, when the moment of the cure occurred, but that in an instant she saw her sitting straight up, then get up and lift the chair. Her story was essentially the same as that told by Betty and her mother.

Father is Happy

Just as the visitors were about to leave, William Baxter, Betty’s father, came around the barn and was introduced by Rev. Collins. He was all smiles and seemed to be the happiest man in the world, even if he was a bit bashful about the dust and grease from running a corn cutter.

"You know, we can see and hear enough to believe theses things," he said, "but this certainly proves to all of us that there is a higher Power taking care of us."

Baxter was a bit hesitant about having his photograph taken in his work clothes, but finally consented to have a picture with his daughter, Wanda, who came out of the house in her kitchen apron, flushed and as happy as her father.

The Baxters all seem to be sturdy every-day folk and certainly Betty is no longer a care as she had been for her mother in recent months.

Neighborhood Happy

Everyone in the neighborhood is extremely happy over the strange occurrence.

Many stories have begun to go around concerning the case, some of which were becoming exaggerated and erroneous through constant repetition.

Betty has promised to take good care of herself and both scientific and church people are anxious to watch her case. There is no doubt in Betty’s mind or in the mind of her family, that she is permanently cured, and of course, everyone hopes so.

It is truly the strangest case The Sentinel men ever had to cover and the interview could have lasted for hours.

NOTES ON THE BAXTER CASE

As recently as last month, Betty Baxter was examined by a Fairmont physician. With Betty ’s consent, and the consent of her mother, the newsmen interviewed the physician.

"I would not say such a miracle as you have related is impossible," he said. "In fact it is wholly probable. I advised she go to Rochester for examination. I am glad to hear of her healing, and hope that her good condition will continue."

Today was a happy day for Betty and her family. They set out for Owatonna to see her grandparents, Mr. & Mrs. Frank Louks, planning to stay at least until Friday. It was her first vacation in a long, long time.

Only one picture of the Baxter girl was taken during her crippled condition, this on the day of her cure, but the photograph was not immediately available, having been sent away to be developed. The Baxter family will give the picture to The Sentinel as soon as it returns, along with another picture taken immediately after she became well.

Betty has been a highly religious girl, active in Sunday school work and choir singing in which she particularly delighted.

Hanging in the Baxter living room is a picture of Christ, which Mrs. Baxter said was Betty’s favorite picture. Betty would sit in the over-stuffed chair and contemplate the picture for long periods. Another plaque in the room says: "God Is the Head of This Household."

The other Baxter children seem to be a happy and healthy lot. Four year old Ross came down out of the apple tree with an apple nearly as big as his little tousled head. He had lots of tricks with his dog, too, and the half dozen kittens running around the place. Six year old Kenneth has nearly white hair and is equally active as little Ross. He took over the dog to show some more tricks. Kenneth and the 12 year old Billy had on new overalls, for it was the first day of school. Kenneth had just put in his first day of school. Evelyn, 13, is a rather quiet girl, but she doesn’t miss a thing that goes on.

She ran in and put on another dress before the first picture was taken.

Both Rev. & Mrs. Collins were reluctant to have Betty’s case publicized. "It is a miracle, that is true," said Rev. Collins. "But I am afraid if it is publicized Betty will be subjected to curiosity-seekers, which might have an untoward effect on one so young."

When it was pointed out there was already much talk about the case, and that a simple, straight-forward account of what actually occurred were printed might help, rather than hinder the cause of Christianity and faith in the Infinite, the pastor agreed to accompany the newsmen.

The Sentinel has attempted to present the entire case in an entirely dispassionate manner, with facts from personal interviews only from persons who knew the Baxter girl. One motive was to still wild rumors and inaccurate tales already started about the strange case. The story is one of the strangest and most gripping that has occurred in the annals of this newspaper. The incident certainly has done much to strengthen the faith of the people in Betty’s community.