Salvation Army Sheridan, Wyoming, History of Dan Ross

The Phrase: "Home, Home On The Range"

I'm living on the mountain, underneath a cloudless sky.
I'm drinking at the fountain that never shall run dry.
O yes! I'm feasting on the manna from a bountiful supply,
For I am dwelling in Beulah Land.

Climb, climb up sunshine mountain
Heavenly breezes blow
Climb, climb up sunshine mountain
Faces all aglow Turn, turn from sin and doubting
Look to God on high
Climb, climb up sunshine mountain
You and I

This march was written to celeebrate the 100th anniversary of my home Division, the Intermountain Division. Divisional Headquarters is in Denver, Colorado.

 I remember the very first time I ever saw a Salvation Army uniform. I was sitting in a pew in the Baptist Church in Sheridan, Wyoming. There was a congeniality among Christians of all denominations and so we would all get together in one church on Sunday nights about once a month to sing. As I sat there in the Baptist Church, a Salvation Army Captain walked in and walked right past me. I turned to my friend, the Baptist minister's son and asked what the policeman was doing in the meeting. My friend told me that he was a Salvation Army officer, not a cop. Later, he became our first corps officer when we started going to "the Army." This officer was Rex McCulley who was promoted to Glory last month, November, 2003.

"The Salvation Army Corps" is the name for the local congregation and building in the Salvation Army and the "Corps Officer" (also called the 'Commanding Officer' at that time) is the name for the pastor. The building was downtown across the street from the police station. In the basement of the building was a "transient shelter" where men passing through town could stay over night if they couldn't afford a hotel room. Every night the police would go into the Salvation Army basement and see who was there. I suppose they checked their identification and looked for men wanted by the police. I think they also kept a record of every man who slept there.

The Salvation Army corps building itself probably seated around 120 people. I remember having that many people on many occasions. The "hall" is the name used for the Salvation Army sanctuary. At the front of the hall was a small platform. A door next to the platform led to a large fellowship room where we spent many days and nights having daily vacation bible school, parties, dinners and other social event.

In The Salvation Army, each Corps has a residence for the officers. This residence is called the "officer's quarters" and it just about ALWAYS belongs to The Salvation Army. For officers, this is a blessing and a curse. If an officer is appointed to a different corps, he doesn't have to worry about selling his house. On the other hand, The Salvation Army tells the officers who can live there. If an assistant is appointed to help an officer, the headquarters tells them where to live and that would be called in a normal household, "the spare room."

In Sheridan, at that time, the Salvation Army officers' quarters were in the corps building on the second floor. Since this was Salvation Army property, it was used frequently for small meetings and parties.

The officers that I remember were Captain and Mrs. Virgil Simpson, Captain and Mrs. Moore and their two daughters, Captain Runie Olson, Lieutenant Ed World, and Captain and Mrs. McCulley.

These were all fine Salvation Army officers and pastors. The ones I remember most were Captain Moore and his family although all of them kept us very active. One night we were having a party and someone passed out sandwiches. Mine tasted horrible. I looked at my brother and he had turned red and was choking on his sandwich. The Moore girls asked us if anything were wrong. Trying to be polite and nice we said "No. The sandwiches are great." We continued to gag and turn purple, but we got the sandwiches down. Everybody else thought the sandwiches were great. Finally, the girls couldn't hold it in any longer and confessed that they had doctored our two sandwiches with some disgusting stuff as a joke. I was only ten years old at the time. I think the older daughter liked my brother.

The other reasons the Moores are remembered best is because Captain Moore was a licensed pilot and had been flying a Cessna 140. We had a Taylorcraft. Captain Moore had also been a pastor in The Church of the Nazarene. After they were transferred, we saw them one more time several years later in Seattle at Youth Councils and have never seen them since. Captain Moore was also a ham radio operator. His call sign was W7YXM. I remember this because he would get on the radio and call "C.Q., C.Q., C.Q, This is W7YXM, that's W 7 Young X Marine. Over." He taught us kids morse code. We all brought radios to the corps and he helped us take them apart. We began altering them to allow them to receive shortwave frequencies and we almost got them to work when he was transferred by Salvation Army. This was a problem throughout my life in The Salvation Army and it has just recently been improved. This summer, 2003, The Salvation Army announced that all appointments of Salvation Army officers to corps will be for four years. This time schedule will only be altered in special circumstances.

Being in The Salvation Army in Sheridan was fun even though there was absolutely no music to speak of. My mother played the piano occasionally, but she was not very advanced. Activities at the Corps were centered around Sunday School and youth activities. On winter nights we would go ice skating on the Bighorn River. Two rivers come together in Sheridan. They are the Tongue River and the Bighorn River. During the winter, these rivers are covered in ice. After a couple of cars drove down the street after a snow fall, we could skate in their tracks. We would skate down the street to the river and then be able to skate across town using the rivers. Our corps would have snow parties for the kids on the rivers. We would roast marshmallows and play ice hockey. We also had sledding parties on some of the steep hills around Sheridan. We usually ended up at the corps building or our house where we had popcorn, hot chocolate and a taffy pull. We actually made taffy by hand and then ate it. Life was pretty good in this small town and the Salvation Army corps was a nice little church.

There was no Salvation Army Band in the Sheridan Corps. However, I eventually played in The Salvation Army Seattle Temple Corps Band, The Salvation Army Baltimore Corps Band, The Salvation Amy Baltimore Area Band, The Salvation Army Waco Corps Band, The Salvation Army Texas Divisional Youth Band, the Salvation Army Northwest Divsional Band, The Salvation Army Texas Divisional Band, the Salvation Army Houston Temple Corps Band, The Salvation Army Northwest Divisional Brass Sextet, and many other fine bands. In Sheridan, my only music came from a violin.

Eventually, our family moved to Seattle. This was right after I finished the sixth grade.

 The Salvation Army Sheridan Corps is located in Sheridan, Wyoming. Sheridan, Wyoming is located in North Central Wyoming near the Montana border and the Bighorn Mountains. It is at the confluence of the Tongue River and the Little Bighorn River. It's about 50 miles south of the site of the Battle of the Little Bighorn in which Colonel George Armstrong Custer led the US Seventh Cavalry into its worst battle. He attacked over 10,000 Indians with just a few companies of Cavalrymen in violation of direct orders from the President of the United States, US Grant, and the Department of the Army. As a child in the 1950s, I would go downtown and look in the window of the Pawn Shop. In that window for many decades was a copy of the newspaper on display with accounts of the battle in which Custer and several of his relatives died.

The Salvation Army Sheridan Corps
Salvation Army
(307) 672-1787
PO Box 2011
Sheridan, WY 82801

Salvation Army, Truck Pick Up
(307) 672-2901, PO Box 2011
Sheridan, WY 82801

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