A Frightened Mama and Her Baby at the Red River

 It is my hope that family stories of courage, strength,  and perseverance amidst fear-filled, dangerous situations will propel us through our own 21st century storms and difficulties, especially we women who descend from Rosa Jarrell Rainey.

Crossing the Red River

                In the last half of the 19^th century, the railroad was the fastest mode of transportation. This burgeoning industry could hardly construct railways quickly enough to meet the clamor for connecting the United States and its territories.

                William Marion Rainey and Thomas J. Rainey, his father, joined the force of sturdy, strong men laying the rails in Texas. (The first blog post about William Marion Rainey was posted on October 20, 2013.) William had married Rosa Jarrell Rainey in Bloomfield, Missouri, on December 19, 1889. While my great-grandfather and my great-great grandfather were working in Texas, Rosa, my great-grandmother, stayed busy cooking for the hardworking men on their crew. (For more about Rosa go to the blog post entitled  The Matriarch of the Rainey Family posted on September 29, 2013.) Amidst all the rigorous demands on this young couple, their first baby was born in Texas on September 30, 1893. They named her Daisy Dean.

                Then Bill Rainey, as so often happens today in the 21^st century, followed the job opportunities. He crossed the Red River into Indian Territory, leaving his wife and baby daughter behind in Texas. So in 1894, Rosa, pregnant with her second child, clutching Baby Daisy in her arms, crossed the Red River in a wagon. I recall my grandmother, Gladys Vivian Rainey Smith, telling me of her mother conveying vividly how challenging and frightening this ordeal was for her.

                What a brave 26-year-old she was! She most likely crossed at the traditional ford of the Chisholm Trail near Terral. The National Weather Service’s hydrograph of the Red River near Terral shows a range from a low of 6+ feet to 22 feet at flood stage for this crossing.  

Source: http://www.blogoklahoma.us/place.aspx?id=608
This marker was placed to mark the crossing by  the
Historical Society of Fleetwood
Terral, Indian Territory (Oklahoma)

               The Chicago, Rock Island, and Pacific Railroad Company had begun construction of the railroad in the Chickasaw Nation in 1892. (http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/J/JE002.html) They laid the tracks alongside the old Chisholm Trail that had been used by the cowpunchers for so many years during the cattle drives that culminated in Abilene, Kansas.

                Whether it is a mention of the Red River Rivalry or someone traveling from Texas north or an Okie going south toward the Bluebonnets, often at those times, I think of the courage of my great-grandmother, reins in hand, traveling with her precious little baby. As she approached the Red River, tension gripped her muscles. The burden of responsibility for her baby girl, the team of horses, the wagon containing all their worldly goods, and her unborn child weighed heavily upon her. Rosa tried to steel herself to her worries and anxiety, hummed nervously a lullaby to Baby Daisy Dean, and plunged the team of horses pulling the wagon into the murky water. What relief she must have felt as the strong steeds pulled the wagon with all her family’s belongings onto the Indian Territory side of the riverbank!

                On December 10, later in the year, Rosa gave birth to Lewis Elbert Rainey, her first son, in Terral, Indian Territory. The newly formed railroad town was only a couple of years old. According to my grandmother’s personal, handwritten family records, it was while Rosa and Bill were living in Terral that the two of them were converted and then baptized by Reverend Parker.

              In light of this information, my heart goes out to that frightened, young ancestor of mine, who had not yet experienced the peace that Jesus brings when our lives are committed to him. Great-grandma Rosa didn’t yet have a relationship with the heavenly Father to whom she could pray and ask for strength and safety as she forded the Red River with tiny Daisy. Possibly the paralyzing anxiety and utterly debilitating helplessness she experienced as the horses splashed through the muddy water, straining to draw the heavy wagon onto the dry ground caused Great-grandma Rosa to begin to realize she needed strength beyond her own ability. Later when she heard Reverend Parker’s sermon in July of 1896, she and my great-grandpa responded to God’s work in their hearts. It is my prayer that those of us who descend from this couple will be sensitive to God’s quiet work in our lives and affirm our need to follow Jesus. No better legacy would this pioneer couple desire!