When Barbara was fourteen or fifteen, she told her dad that she wanted to be a missionary someday and her father, being a Baptist minister, was proud of his daughter, taking it to heart and made plans for it to happen.  Her father, the Rev. Fred Junior, had over the years made friends with the founder and president of the Trinity Bible College* in St. Petersburg.  As we have seen from Barbara’s letters, she had visited the college several times with her parents, evening asking Morris to go with them one time.  The thing was, Barbara didn’t want to go, she wanted to get married.  She knew classes would start in the fall, but never thought she actually would go, she thought she could get out of it.  

Morris came to see her on Saturday, and she didn’t give going to college any thought, not even mentioning it to Morris.  The next day, Sunday, her father and mother came up to her and said “pack up, we’re taking you to college tomorrow.”  Barbara says in her memoirs, “What could she do but obey.” and she packed.  The next morning they left to go to St. Petersburg.  On the way there, Barbara at first tried to telling her parents she didn’t want to go but they said she was going and that was that.  What upset Barbara the most was that she hadn’t told Morris anything about going to college, and Morris did not have a telephone at his house there was no way she could let him know. The first thing she did after getting settled into her dormitory room was write him a letter.  

Morris knew about the Trinity College for Barbara had talked about visiting it with her parents but she never said anything about moving there and going to school.  Morris writes a letter to Barbara sending it to her house in Ocklawaha not knowing that she was whisked away to St. Petersburg.  

 

It is now September with Barbara at the Trinity College in St. Petersburg and Morris writes....

 

*Note: Barbara always called it “Trinity Bible College” but actually there is no “Bible” in its name.