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I Owe Every Missionary’s Wife A Sack of Flour

In 1899 William Winspear Spendlove received a call to serve as a missionary in the Southwestern States Mission. He was married at the time with a wife, Alice, and five small children. The Spendloves were farmers in the small town of Tropic, Utah. William managed to earn enough money to start on his mission in October 1899. It would be up to Alice to somehow come up with the $20 each month to support him while he was out there. 

Alice rented out the farm and moved back in with her widowed mother. With the help of her family and the rental income, she was able to take care of her family and support William. 

By 1901, William was expected home soon, so Alice moved back to the farm in Tropic and began fixing up her home and preparing the fields for William, but in so doing, it meant she had no rental income. Money soon ran out and so did Alice’s flour supply. That family knelt for prayer that night and prayed sincerely that the Almighty would provide. As the children went to bed, Alice stayed up and went to work sewing a dress she hoped she could complete and get paid for the next day. 

It was after midnight when someone pounded on the door. When she opened it, there stood George Henry Mecham, a neighbor. He explained that he had been at the gristmill in Panguitch, griding some flour. As he was on his way and saw her lamp lit, he decided to stop “and pay you that sack of flour I owe you.”

Alice protested that George didn’t owe her anything.

“’Oh, yes, I do,’ he responded. ‘I owe every missionary’s wife a sack of flour.’ And he brought in from his wagon a large sack holding the flour ground from two bushels of grain.”

The next morning when the children awoke there was biscuits for breakfast and bread every day until William returned. 

Source: Ardis Parshall, http://www.keepapitchinin.org/2010/04/05/george-henry-mecham-pays-a-debt/