Jessie Stewart

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This t r ibute i s writ ten in appreciation fo r theconsistent Christian l i fe which my mother lived fo rover f i f ty-f ive years. Because of th is l i fe she hasshown the way for many people to know Christ as the i rpersonal Saviour.

My purpose in writing th is i s not to write a l i fes tory, nor to eulogize her. She had feet of clay l ikethe res t of us. My purpose i s to present some of thecharacter is t ics that caused her to be the dedicatedChrist ian woman that she was.Jessie was born into a t ruly pioneer family. I fthe whole story were tOld, i t would be as interest ing

and adventuresome as the Laura Ingalls Wilder s tor ies .Her grandfather Cornelius had traveled across thecountry to the Oregon Terri tory on two occasions. Thef i r s t to find a land donation claim which he did in1847. He choose a scenic, fer t i le viece of propertyto which he returned in 1851 with his bride, SophroniaBriggs. I t was la ter called Jasper af ter his oldestson, who was the f i r s t white boy born in the area.

To them were born eight other children, who inturn set t led close by to make homes of their own.Jasper married a g i r l of the land too, sweet,

pet i te Flora Neet. They moved three miles east ofJasper where the Willamette River and Fall Creekflowed together. Here on th is picturesque spot the i rfamily was born, helpful Elsie, serious Charles,fun lOVing Ray and Fred, my mother Jess ie , sweetGrace, the red headed darl ing Hallie, and mischie-, vous L a ~ T e n c e . This pioneer family had to wrest al iving from the soi l by the sweat of the brow. Themore ingenuity, however, the less sweat; and Jasperwas the ingenious sor t .

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Jessie was a high spiri ted gi r l ; pretty, in te l l i -gent and l ike her father, ingenious. Her fatherencouraged this attr ibute by asking her to do thingsthat would take courage and creativity. Jasper wasone who liked his children to do as many things forhim as was humanly possible. To get them to accomplishthese fp.ats he would t e l l them how confident he wasthat they were well able to do whatever was asked ofthem. Definitely an optimist, where some people wouldsee danger and problems, he would only see the endaccomplishment and believe that i t was possible. Hiswife would become upset by Some of the things that hewould ask of his children, but would not meddle af te rthe decision was made.

Jessie , i t seemed had a good self-image when i t came to her abi l i t ies . Perhaps one reason for this was because not only her father believed in her, butalso because of the love and acceptance of the relat ives who lived close by.She was teased a great deal by her brothers, butnot in a way that might tear down her self confidence;just in the way to get a reaction and show her highspir i t s . She was not the meek and docile person thatwas expected of pioneer women at that time.Life was not always challenging and adventuresome,however. One of Jessie 's early experiences caused herto realize that she had a need in her l i fe other thanful f i l l ing the needs of the body and the soul.At about two and one-half years of age a babybrother came into the home but i t did not l ive long.Jessie , for some reason, fe l t a deep gui l t about hisdeath and she wondered i f she might have dropped thebaby and injured him. In the las t few months of herl i fe she told me about the baby's death with pain and

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deep concern. After hearing this , I asked Aunt Hallieabout the child and what caused his death. She saidthat i t was "brain fever". The relaying of thismessage must have brought great re l ief from the gui l tthat Mother had fe l t most of her l i fe .As a child, Jessie used to look out upon theWillamette r iver and wonder what l ayou t beyonn. Whatwere the answers of l i fe ; why were we here and whatdid the future hold? God must have given her a hungerfor spir i tual l i fe as a child and then la ter in her

l i f e , when she did find the reali ty of Christ , she wasso thankful for the fulfil lment of this great need thatnothing this l i fe had to offer compared with the hopethat she had of an Eternity with Christ in Heaven.There are a number of points which made her thewoman that she was.JESSIE'S FAMILY WAS VERY IMPORTANT TO HER. Aswith most rural people of that day there was a familycloseness. Besides brother$, s is ters , and parents,there were grandparents, uncles and aunts and cousinsa l l within just a few miles. These early pioneerswere always most hospitable and made each other feelloved and welcome.Jess ie 's own family was very dear to her also.Realizing early in l i fe that she would not be able tofu l f i l l her potential , nor the need that she had fo rrecognition, she sublimated this by spending timehelping her children to reach their goals in l i fe .When her children were working toward any goalshe was behind them, reinforcing them a l l the way.

Jessie and LaSells did not spare expenses when i tcame to educating the i r children. Each of theirchildren has a college degree because of the i r concern.

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I t was during the height of the depression that Iasked to go to Wheaton College in I l l inois , and thatrequest was granted even though i t may have cause thema financial hardship.As her children married, she extended her love.When she was troubled or upset by problems she fe l tfree to ca l l her son-in-law for advice. She not onlyasked for advice, but she usually accepted i t as well.Had she not done so, there might have been times that

she would have brought greater problems upon herself .And on occasions she would cal l him; not to askadVice, but to give i t .She perhaps, even more than most grandparents wasexci ted and thri l led every time there l'as a new grandchild in the offing, After Larry and I lost a child

through a miscarriage we adonted our son, David. Whenwe took him to her at about three days of age, shelooked a t him and said that he would be a blessing tous. Then when i t came to great grandchildren, theywere extra special.While the term "worrier" is not really accurate,she was very strongly concerned when i t came to the

welfare of her family, Their health and spir i tua lwelfare were a real concern to her, Before her deathwhen she learned that several of her grandchildren hadaccepted Christ she was happy to the point of weepingwith joy. Her prayers of many many years were beinganswered.JESSIE AND THE NEW BIRTH. The Hills family did

not attend church regularly. Cornelius was not abeliever, but the family did, on occasion, attendmeetings that were held by the Circuit Riders of thearea, The Neets were more devout in thei r fai th and4


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Flora, Jess ie 's Mother, went about her work singinghymns from morning unt i l night. Except for a tenminute nap af ter lunch, Flora usually worked from sunup unt i l af ter sun down. So Jessie had the backgroundof hymns being sung in the home and occasional attend-ance at meetings.

A year af ter she and LaSells were married theywent to Minnesota for several weeks to help LaSell 'sfather with the farm work. David Stewart had hadpneumonia and was not able to be up and about to do thefarm work so LaSells l e f t his work of logging to helpget the spring crops in .

I t was the custom with David and Eliza to go tothe Baptist church in St. Francis each Sunday. Davidwas an Elder in the church and attendance a t Churchwas very important to him. Here the Gospel waspreached and the al tar cal l given nearly every Sunday.Jessie wanted very much to go forward then and receiveChrist as her Saviour, but LaSells did not desire this .

I t was while LaSells was in the armed forces inFrance during World War I that she started attendingchurch regularly. She began going to the Firs t BaptistChurch in Eugene where Eva, LaSells s is ter attended.Although joining the church and being baptized in water,she did not exnerience the New Birth. I t was duringthis period that she was invited by a neighbor to goto some Evangelistic meetings that were being held a tthe Church of God. She attended these meetings a fewtimes and did go forward and prayed a t the a l ta r , buts t i l l did not experience peace of heart.I t was at home in bed one night, about two o'clockfollowing one of these services, that she experiencedthe joy of salvation. Being so thri l led and happy she

fe l t like getting on the house top and shouting to

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everyone that Jesus was her Saviour and her sins wereforgiven. With Jessie this was no half hearted conversion, but there was a complete change in her l ife .Sins had been washed away by the blood of Jesus, everything was new and wonderful, and she never faltered inthis new found faith in Jesus as Saviour. There is anexpression "being a fool for Christ," and as she puther whole l i fe into the cause of Christ that is justwhat she became in the eyes of many who knew her.

JESSIE BELIEVED IN RESTITUTION. After acceptingChrist, her repenentance of past sins was so completethat she tried to make resti tution for every wrong thatshe could remember. This was i l lustrated by theoccasion when she was cooking for a logging crew in herteens. Some of the fellows in the crew wanted to havea chicken dinner. They thought i t would be fun tosteal some of her aunt's chickens. Jessie agreed thati f they got the chickens she would cook them. Theresult was a dinner of chicken and dumplings fromsome of her aunt's laying hens. After Jessie becamea Christian she fel t that she needed to make that rightwith her Aunt and this she did.

BIBLE STUDY PLAYED A LARGE PART IN HER LIFE.After Jessie f i rs t gave her heart to the Lord shestarted studying and memorizing the Bible as thoughher l ife depended upon i t . If people wanted to knowwhere a passage could be found they would cal l her asshe would most always know. Mother had several Biblesand they were well worn. Her Bible was, to her, moreimportant than food, and she loved food. Jessie notonly memorized passages when she was a young Christian,but continued doing so a l l through her l i fe . She wasa great advocate of people reading and memorizing theBible. Joshua 1,8 portrays how she fe l t about God'sword. "This book of the law shal l not depart out ofthy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and

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night that thou mayest observe to do according to a l lthat is written therein. for then thou shal t makethy way prosperous, and then thou shal t have goodsuccess. "

JESSIE SPENT MUCH TIME IN PRAYER. Prayer was apart of her l i fe and during her prayer time each dayshe would pray around the world, n a m i n ~ countries andmissionaries. Her prayer would be for "souls". Mothernot only prayed for the missionarip.s daily, but alsoprayed for her family and many friends and other peoplewho had needs.

Each of her family would be named by her daily andshe would ask the Lord to be with them.When her sons, Loran and Faye were overseas Motherfe l t she couldn't possibly die while they were gonesince she was needed to plead their cause each day.

This she did unt i l they came home safely and continuedto do so af ter that . I t was her firm bel ief that Godanswered prayer and her part was to keep the prayerscoming. Her prayers went before her and I am sure thatthey are continuing to be fe l t with God at the Throneof Grace.JESSIE BELIEVED THERE WAS A HEAVEN TO GAIN AND A

HELL TO SHUN. This point was brought very vividly toher mind before she b e c ~ m p . a Christian. A few monthsbefore she and LaSells were married, Jessie went tovis i t Elsie, her oldest s is ter and her husband, John,and their family a t Heppner. Here she had a reoccur-rence of her problem of appendicitis and her appendixruptured. She was taken to the hosnital and operatedon, and for some time was in a cr i t i ca l condition.During this period, when near death, she h8d theexperience of being shunted back and forth between

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Heaven and Hell. I t was such a vivid and terr ibleexperience to her that she never forgot the awfulnessof Hell. She had a great desire to keep people fromgoing there and was willing to take the scoffing andbe a laughing stock i f , by her l i fe , she could encour-age people to accept Christ. So, often in her witness-ing, she would speak about there being a "Heaven togain and a Hell to shun."

Wherever Jessie went she told people about Jesus.She not only told them, but she t r ied with a l l of hermight to convince them of their need. She fe l t thati t was her responsibility to convert anyone who cameto the house. When she would get into what sometimesseemed to me to be a heated conversation, I would oftenleave the room and put my hands over my ears. ThoughI believed with a l l of my heart, i t would embarrass mefor pressure to be put on people. When I was young,she would take us to the "Steel Bridge" to go swimming.While we were swimming she would be putting tracts intothe cars that were parked there.As a result of her concern that other peopleshould know Jesus too, many people will have a home inHeaven who otherwise might not have known the Way.However, I f Mother were here now, I am sure that shewould say that with her new found love of Christ andenthusiasm for His work that a t times she would havebeen much wiser to have relaxed her own efforts and

le t the Holy Spiri t do His work through her.JESSIE BELIEVED IN THE BAPI'ISM OF THE HOLY SPIRITAND SFEAKING IN TONGUES. Mother received this exper-ience soon af ter moving to Cottage Grove when shestarted to attend the Pentecostal Church. The exper-ience that she received at this time was wonderful toher, but she didn' t continue to use her prayer l a n g u a g ~ One day a lady asked her i f she used her prayer language

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each day. When she said no, the lady told her theimportance of doing so. From that time Jessie madei t a point to use her prayer language each day.Probably not any day went by in her l i fe after that ,but what she prayed in the Spir i t as well as in herunderstanding. She fe l t that i t was one of the m o s ~ important things that she could do to keen herspir i tual l i fe fresh and vibrant.

JESSIE'S BELIEF THAT JESUS IS COMING SOON WASVITAL TO HER. Soon af ter she received the Baptism ofthe Holy Spiri t and had her prayer language she was ina prayer meeting. During the prayer she received ashort message in tongues and then received the inter-pretation. The message was. "Jesus is coming soon,t e l l the people." The man in charge of the prayerservice asked Jessie i f she would promise that shewould be faithful in proclaiming that message. Sheraised her hand and said that she would. Since thiswas 1926, or before, this message was not as commonto people as i t is today.

Now many people know that we are living indiff icul t times and that something unusual must begoing to happen soon.True to her word Jessie systematically started

going up and down the s t reets of Cottage Grove, t e l l -ing the business people that "Jesus is coming soon."One banker called LaSells to him when he was in thebank and said, "Your wife came in the other day andsaid that Jesus was coming soon, but he came soonerthan I thought." An I talian section hand from Dividehad come into the bank who had been given that namea t birth and signed a check. The banker from theother bank, that la ter failed during the depression,also called LaSells over to him. He said that he hadalways thought that LaSells' wife was a smart woman,

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but now he thought that she was "losing her marbles."These things were a terr ible blow to LaSells' pride.He had been brought up by very proud, precise peoplewho were concerned about thei r good name and whatother people thought. LaSells had le f t home becausehe fe l t that his folks were too religious and he didn' twant to accept Christ and His claims upon his l i fe .Then, for his wife to become much more religious thanhis folks, created very s t ressful conditions in thehome.The church was just being established in CottageGrove and was in a small store on 7th Street . Differ-ent evangelists were coming with a great deal ofemotional appeal and God was working by saving andf i l l ing people with the Holy Spir i t . But with thisnew found fire there wasn't the background and wisdomto wait fo r the Holy Spir i t ' s leading.The people in the. church were suffering variouskinds of persecution. One night the people as theyle f t had eggs and tomatoes thrown at them. To be aPentecostal in those days took hardy people who t rulyloved the Lord above anything else . Jessie was oneof those people. Even though LaSells was convincedthat she should quit going to the church and stop

witnessing of her fai th, she did not feel that i twas right for her to do ei ther . She fe l t that i twas necessary to "obey God rather than man." Later,however, as she grew in the Lord she fe l t that , insome cases, she had gone ahead of God and so shebecame much more careful not to unnecessarily antag-onize her husband.In spite of the problems between them a t thistime LaSells, I am sure, realized that Jessie hadJesus in her heart and was obeying Him as best shecould. A few years before he died he also acceptedthe Lord and showed this by his testimony. Because

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of his stroke he was not able to speak a great deal,but by his actions and motions you knew that therehad been a change.JESSIE BELIEVED IN WRITING LETTERS. Whereverthe family was they would know that her let terswould be following them. They were more than justwords on paper; they were newsy and about the peopleand happenings at home. Much of the le t ter wouldinclude Christian council and concern. Even i f shedid not hear in return she would keep writing.Ruth Lodde was a niece of Mother's who had beenencouraged much in her Christian "'alk by her. WhenRuth baCk-slid for a period, Mother's le t ters keptcoming regularly. Ruth was so under conviction thatshe would not even open them, but kept them in adresser drawer. Later when she came back to the Lordshe read these let ters and they were a blessing to

her. She, too, had a great deal of persecution forfollowing Christ and she so much appreciated thecounCil, fellowship, and prayer from her Aunt Jessie.The missionaries that Jessie helped supportcould also count on a regular monthly le t ter from heralong with a contribution.Besides l e t ter writing Jessie sent many birthdaycards and pictures. She always kept her camera handyand would so often take pictures of the people whowere visiting her and then she would send the pictureon to the people. Keeping photograph and scrap albumswas something she enjoyed doing very much.JESSIE BELIEVED IN HIGH STANDARDS OF HOLINESS.In the years before the Pentecostal revival therehad been a loosening of Holiness principles in many of

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the churches. The Pentecostal movement was part of atrying to reestablish these principles in the mindsand hearts of the people. Great emphasis was beingplaced upon passages such as 1 John 2115, 161 "Lovenot the world neither the things that are in theworld. I f any man love the world, the love of theFather is not in him. For a l l that i s in the world,the lus t of the flesh, and the lus t of the eyes, andthe pride of l i fe , is not of the Father, but is of theworld."

Although worldliness is a state of the heart,the emphasis at that time was more on outward appear-ances. Christianity was being measured by outwardHoliness. (Now, according to Guy Duty, the pendulumis once again swinging toward the side of permissive-ness.)

In the early days of Pentecost as people werelooking a t the outward man they were finding manythings to cri t ic ize in thei r brothers, and pastors.Much of this criticism was done in front of the chil-dren. As a result many of the children of the earlypentecostal people became bi t te r a t other people bywhat they heard said in front of them and dropped outof church as they grew older.

In la ter l i fe when I had a family Mother Cau-tioned me many times to be very careful what I saidbefore my children so that they would not becomebi t ter toward people. She tr ied very hard to bridleher tongue and be careful what she said. She told mehow she had a relative that had caused many problemsin the family by talking about people. EvidentlyJessie 's Mother, Flora, did not want to follow in thispattern and she would absolutely never talk about any-one, but would always find something good to say aboutthem.

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Jessie was very much in favor of high standardsof holiness, however, and kept these standards a l l ofher l i fe .

When short hair had come into vogue she wasamong the f i r s t to get her hair cut. But when shefe l t that the Bible stressed long hair for women shealways kept hers long even though i t would have beenmore convenient for her to have had short hair . Jessieliked to look well and did a l l she could to keep looking her best . People would speak about her "lookingl ike a doll", even when she was in her eightieS. Butin spite of trying to look well she did not go farastray from her standards.

Mother did not l ike for LaSells to drink and whenhe would bring a bott le home and hide i t i f she foundi t the contents would always be poured out. laSe l Isnever drank in front of the family or kept i t in thehouse, but he did t ry and find a place outside to hidehis liquor.

At that time there were many Bible studies in thechurch and the principles of Holiness were taught verythoroughly, There were not many Bible Studies in thehomes as i t was fe l t that personal devotions and witnessing were of g r e ~ t importance, Also women weretaught to stay a t home and be good home makers, andt ra in their children, Jessie had when she was wellmore extra time than most people as she would get upearly and get her work done as soon as possible. Shehad a routine of how work should be done; washing,ironing, cleaning, and baking. Because of that shehad more time to read her Bible and pray than manypeople.

JESSIE BELIEVED IN HEALING. The belief that Godhealed was always a fundamental belief af ter she sUo1ed

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going to the Pentecostal Church. In the beginningshe accepted this doctrine perhaps to the extreme.When her teeth were extracted she would not evenallow the dentist to put injections in her gums.However, as time went by, she relaxed some of herfeelings concerning medicine. Even when she begantaking some medicine she fel t that i t was the Lordwho was keeping her going and i f i t weren't for Himshe would not be l iving.

I I I Health had plagued her for many years. Shehad stones in one kidney to the noint that the kidneyhad to be removed. Later stones developed in theother kidney and a large stone dropped into. the,ureterkeeping urine from passing through. She was rushed tothe Eugene Hospital and Dr. Bradley said that she wouldnot be able to l ive long because of the poison that wasaccumulating in her system. And that her death wouldbe very painful.

God did undertake for her and she continuedliving nearly forty years af te r that . She did takevery good care of herself, however, but l i fe had agreat deal of suffering. Occasionally the kidneywould cease functioning. God would intervene eachtime and helped her through the problem.After LaSells passed away i t was diff icul t forher to l ive in the old home even though she did h a v ~ help. After prayer she fe l t that i t would be wellfor her to give up the house and move to the Ed Bateshome where a few older people were being cared for.She took with her a few things to f i l l her one roomand le f t her home phere she h ~ l ived for over th i r ty-

five years, without a murmur. When Mother madeup hermind about a course of action she t r ied not to lookback, comnlain, nor f re t .14


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JESSIE BELIEVED IN MISSIONARY GIVING. Jessie wasan avid enthusiast of missionary work. She lovedgeography and kept a map handy so she could tracewhere the missionaries were located whom she helpedsupport by prayer and contribution.

Loran was her conservator, and he would makeavailable from the estate , a certain amount of moneyfor her to spend each month. This was not spent uponherself for things of pleasure, but she would give fromi t to every good cause in order to spread the Gospelaround the world.

The last year of her l i fe , she would quite oftenoverdraw her bank account because of her love of givin&I t just didn' t seem to occur to her to check theaccounts to see i f there was s t i l l money in the bankand those who helped her didn' t do i t ei ther .Since her passing I have taken some of her pledgesand am s t i l l contributing monthly. Some of the c o that I have made in this way have been most rewarding.God truly is doing a great work throughout the worldin these last days.JESSIE GAVE WISE COUNSEL. My Father was a goodbusiness man and was successful, but he gave much

credit to his wife for his success in l i fe .She kept abreast with the news of the day. So,with her knowledge of the news, plus her great interestin people, she was a good conversationalist . She wasalways asking her visi tors about themselves and theirfamilies and expressed an interest in their welfare.People seemed to appreciate her interes t in them.Part of her conversation would be that of counsel.She fe l t that the Bible stressed the admonishing of oneanother.

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In the l as t month of her l i fe when her vi ta lstrength was fas t ebbing she made the remark. " Ifyou have a problem bring i t to your Mother." So inspite of get t ing weaker her sp i r i t was s t i l l strong.

In her counsel I fe l t that my Mother was astuteand in tui t ive . I , to a great extent , valued andaccepted her counsel up unt i l the time she l e f t theAssembly of God Church for the Latter Rain Movement.She s t i l l had her confidence in Jesus, but wasaccepting some new doctrines that did not seem to bescr iptural . This brought a r i f t in our fellowship.We s t i l l talked on the telephone one or more timeseach day. I vis i ted her usually sever.al times aweek, and helped her in any ay I could, but i t wasa distressing period for both of us. In my concernI was most vocal about my disapproval, and we nolonger were seeing eye to eye. I also was feelingthat she had a friend who was playing too large apart in her thinking. So there were several dif f i cul t years for both of us, but I am most thankfulthat in the l as t part of her l i fe our relat ionshipwas very much back to the place that i t had beenbefore.I t was through hearing the Bible read over theRadio by Vernon McGee that she began to real ize that

she had a fa i th in some points tha t was not scriptural lSo she confessed that she had been misled on somedoctr inal points. Soon af ter th is she asked and wasaccepted as a member of the Assembly of God Church a tCulp Creek. I t was Oscar Arnesen, the pastor of thatchurch, who preached her funeral .JESSIE IS REMEMBERED AND LOVED BY MANY. Even

though her brothers loved to tease her they lovedher and each showed her the ring that they were goingto give to the i r fiance before i t was presented to

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the gir l . Her sister-in-law, Mabel, each time Ivis i t her, te l l s me how much she liked Jessie, thatshe was always good and kind to her and always thesame, not changeable.Bonnie Cook the High School gir l who helped puther to bed several times a week was so broken heartedwhen she heard of my Mother's passing she spent theday crying and could not go to school.VirgIe McCaskill, who helped the family indifferent ways for over twenty years, when visited

the other day in the hospital broke down crying inremembering how he had not been able to visi t herafter a vacation before she died.A few days before she went to be with the Lordshe consented to go to a convalescent home in Eugenewhere she could get nursing care. There, each day,I visited her and the night before she died we had

such sweet fellowship together and with the Lord.She was praising the Lord and seemed to be so joyousand at peace.Here are some memories of my Mother, JessieHills Stewart. I t will soon be Mothers Day, thefourth that I have had to wear a white carnation.Her concern, love, and prayers have been missed.

To be able to take her a carnation once more andt e l l her that I love and appreciate her would bean honor indeed. The tears come, but I could notwish her back. I am glad that she is in Heavenwith Jesus whom she loved so dearly. And, becauseof her, many others will also be able to standbefore the Throne singing praises to the One who isworthy.

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Jessie Stewart

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