Strength and Courage in the Face of Fear

The earliest photograph of Rosa Jarrell
 Rainey that I have seen.
  from my grandmother, Gladys Rainey
Smith's photograph album.

March is Women’s History Month. 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 those about the women from whom we descend. What a perfect time to honor Rosa Jarrell Rainey with a retelling of her courage and faith since we marked the 155^th anniversary of her birth on March 7!

Crossing the Red River

                In the last half of the 19^th century, rail travel was among the fastest modes of transportation. This booming industry could hardly construct railways quickly enough to meet the outcry for connecting the United States and its territories. The Chicago, Rock Island, and Pacific Railroad Company had begun construction of the railroad in the Chickasaw Nation in 1892.** 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.

                William Marion Rainey and Thomas J. Rainey, his father, joined the force of sturdy, strong men laying the rails in Texas. 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. 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. 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, Oklahoma. 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.

This marker was placed to mark the crossing by the

  Historical Society of Fleetwood
    Terral, Indian Territory (Oklahoma)    

              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 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, commit our lives to Jesus, and then follow Him daily. From the many stories my mother has told of her dearly loved Grandma Rainey and her faith, I am reminded of the words John the Apostle wrote in his third letter, verse four. These would convey her desire for those of us who descended from her.

I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.

*    http://www.blogoklahoma.us/place.aspx?id=608

**  http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/J/JE002.html