Estella Myers: Pioneer Missionary in Central Africa

71:16

I.

STRONG

BECAUSE OF

FATHER

Jesus, meek and gentle,

Son of God most high,

Pitying, loving Saviour,

Hear Thy children’s cry.

Give us holy freedom,

Fill our hearts with love;

Draw us, Holy Jesus,

To the realms above.

Lead us on our journey,

Be Thyself the way

Through the earthly darkness

To the heavenly day.

George R. Prynne

In the year of our Lord 1855, Iowa could be reached best by covered wagon because the railroad had not yet pushed its way across the state. The nine-year-old prairie state was calling for settlers even though Indians were still massacring the immigrants who were crowding them out of their ancestral lands. The vast farms of that pleasant land were as yet a dream unrealized.

Some time during 1855 a particular covered wagon left the settled state of Virginia for the Iowa wilderness. Was this wagon a Conestoga with the typical body of blue and upper parts of red? Had it been fashioned by Tunker hands in the pleasant Conestoga Valley of Pennsylvania?

Since we cannot pierce the veil which Father Time has dropped between us our curiosity about this wagon will remain unsatisfied. Let us take a peek within at the family which was traveling from Augusta County, Virginia, to Williamsburg, Iowa. Christian Myers was the owner of the wagon and the head of the family. With him were his wife, Catherine, and their son John. No doubt they were clad in the typical garb of the Tunkers, for Christian and Catherine Myers were members of the German Baptist Church.

Christian cared for the mechanics of the wagon and the welfare of his horses or cattle. Catherine watered the slips of flowers and the seedlings which she was carrying from the old home to the new. At their first glimpse of the prairie grass of Iowa, Christian could see in his mind’s eye the crops he would some day harvest from the land which was to be his. Catherine wondered about her house and home. Both dreamed of a prosperous future.

John had been born at the old home in Virginia on November 7, 1850. At the time of the migration to Iowa John was about five years of age. Like other little Tunker boys, John was clad as his father. If John dreamed, he did not dream of the future as did his parents. His childish dreams may have been of Indians lurking in tall grass. Perhaps his dreams at night returned his thoughts to the old home in Virginia and he started with childish amazement as he opened his eyes each morning to the gray light within the canvas walls of the covered wagon. The present, not the distant future, prompts the dreams of a five-year-old child.

On that long journey from Virginia to Iowa we can be reasonably certain that John shed many tears. Hunger, thirst, fear and things of which the present generation cannot know, plagued the life of the children of the pioneers. John Myers could not have escaped the hardships of the trail, and so he wept often before the new home was reached. Endurance such as was required by this journey with all its experiences shaped the future of the child and did much to mold his character.

Dear little five year old in the Tunker garb! How precious he was to Christian and Catherine. With the stern piety of the German Baptists¹ they had committed this son to the Heavenly Father. God held his future in His all-kind hands. The Indians could not massacre the family in this wagon, nor could hunger or thirst defeat them. God had a plan for John.

As the wagon swayed, many thoughts flitted through John’s mind. We can be reasonably sure that he did not think of Africa. At that tender age, he may not have known the name Africa. And little did he dream that some day he would be willing to give up his life that the Gospel might be taken to that dark continent.

The Myers family, typical of pioneer families, spent the next few years clearing the land and building a house. John took an increasing share of work on the farm.

In the midst of the hard work God was not forgotten. Christian and Catherine remained faithful members of the German Baptist Church. John was nurtured in the cradle of Tunkerism where there was always room for a baby, but where the doors of the church were almost closed to children. John followed the usual pattern in his church relationships; therefore, it was not until he reached the age of twenty-one that he became a member of the church.

God Who had guided the covered wagon across the prairie was not finished with John when he joined the church. In the winter of 1874 John was in Colorado. While there somehow a copy of a wonderful book fell into his hands. Somehow? God Who had guided John in ordinary ways was now about to do an extraordinary work.

The book which John discovered that winter was a history of the Reformation written by D’Aubigne². This book was used of God to open John’s eyes to spiritual truths. His desire was to become a reformer within his own church.

Like all reformers, John soon discovered that his role was unappreciated. In the winter of 1875 he traveled back to the home state of Virginia. Carrying his precious history book with him, he opened his mouth in favor of reform which, alas, never came. Instead of reform he met with misunderstanding. Like the young and eager Moses he supposed his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them: but they understood not.

Back in Iowa John continued his futile work of reforming the legalistic church. Then after five years in the German Baptist Church he withdrew to organize a new group. This new group retained all the truth of the Gospel of the older church but cast off the legalism which was defeating the old. The new group was called the Brethren Church. All but one family of the old church withdrew with John Myers. The new group called John to be their pastor.

Another phase of John’s life began about the same time. The work of reform may be moving on, spiritual battles may be waging, but Cupid never allows his arrows to rust in his quiver. The young reformer had other things to see to as well as reformation. On May 27, 1880, he took Annie V. Stoner of Westminster, Maryland, to be his wife. We can well imagine that during the protracted meeting of October 1880, Annie was the subject of discussion as often as the evangelist or his sermons.³

John was now ready to do an important task for God. He was about to rear a family. The training which John gave to his little flock of six children was destined to send one of that number to Africa as a pioneer missionary.

The pen of a gifted son of a French family had opened John Myers’ eyes to spiritual truths. John Myers was to retire his debt to the French by sending his daughter to serve the Lord God in a faraway land where the French flag was flying.

________

1

The Church once known as the German Baptist Church is today widely known as The Church of the Brethren. Many precious saints once belonged to this church and had distinguished its name by both faith and works. However, at the time when our story begins, apathy had settled upon this once-vigorous body of believers. Retaining the outward forms—dress, haircuts, and so forth, they failed to enjoy the Gospel of Christ in their vain efforts to win God’s approval by their lack of conformity to the world. It was in such a church as this that John Myers was reared.

2

Merle D’Aubigne was the son of a family which was prominent in French Protestant circles for many years. His distinguished ancestor, Theodore-Agrippa D’Aubigne, was one of the Protestant group of warriors who supported Henry of Navarre. Believing that Henry was as brave spiritually as physically, this group hoped to see him seated in his rightful place on the throne of France. D’Aubigne supported Henry in his every struggle until that dark day when, with victory in sight, Henry left his Protestant supporters to become a member of the Church of Rome. The circle of brave and good men who had supported Henry feared that their cause was lost by this abnegation of the Protestant cause. Henry ascended to the throne of France as Henry IV. D’Aubigne kept a private journal of those stirring days when he and his companions in arms raised Henry to the throne. This journal came into the hands of Merle D’Aubigne generations later. The later D’Aubigne took up the pen which his illustrious ancestor had neglected in favor of the sword. The histories of these two men of this famous family demonstrate the truth of the proverb, The pen is mightier than the sword. The sword of the father elevated to the throne a man who was without spiritual values although not entirely lacking in gratitude. When Agrippa D’Aubigne laid down his sword he believed that his cause was lost.

The pen of the son recorded for posterity a graphic account of the soul-searching days of the Reformation. When Merle D’Aubigne laid down his pen his work had only begun. Through the reading of his book thousands have been stirred to defend their faith. It was this book which caused John Myers to change completely his way of life. This spiritual change in him influenced his daughter Estella. How strange are the ways of God! When Estella went to Africa, God sent her to a place where the French flag was flying. There she spread the Gospel which both the D’Aubignes had loved and each defended in his own way. Where Estella labored a young church is growing which may someday, God willing, be a means of great blessing to the nation.

3

J. H. Swihart was the evangelist who held the meeting which resulted in the organization of the Brethren Church.

II.

STRONG

BECAUSE OF

HOME

…

The priest-like father reads the sacred page,

How Abram was the friend of God on high;

How Moses bade eternal warfare wage

With Amalek’s ungracious progeny;

Or how the royal bard did groaning lie

Beneath the stroke of Heaven’s avenging ire?

Or Job’s pathetic plaint, and wailing cry;

Or rapt Isaiah’s wild seraphic fire;

Or other holy seers that tune the sacred lyre.

…

Then kneeling down to Heaven’s Eternal King

The saint, the father, and the husband prays:

Hope springs exulting on triumphant wing

That thus they all shall meet in future days:

There ever to bask in uncreated rays,

No more to sigh, or shed the bitter tear,

Together hymning their Creator’s praise,

In such society, yet still more dear,

While circling Time moves round in an eternal sphere.

…

The parent-pair their secret homage pay,

And proffer up to Heav’n the warm request,

That He who stills the raven’s clamorous nest,

And decks the lily fair in flowery pride,

Would, in the way His wisdom sees the best,

For them and for their little ones provide;

But chiefly in their hearts with grace divine preside.

Robert Burns

A great amount of confusion reigned in the Myers’ household on August 9, 1884, when the second child was born into the family. Ida had earlier come to bless the household. This day the second child arrived. Perhaps John and Annie had longed for a boy. Or perhaps the doctor was frightfully fatigued. Anyone who could tell us just how confusion reigned that day has had his lips sealed in death for many years. The second child of the Myers household was registered at the courthouse as a boy. This would not be unusual except that the child was a girl!

In 1884 it was not uncommon to wait for some time before naming a baby. Six months passed before Annie and John gave their second daughter the name of Estella Catherine. Although John had the deep-set eyes and long beard which are usually depicted in paintings of the Old Testament prophets, he was not conscious of his prophecy in naming this his second child. Estella would be truly a star, one of those stars which appear during the night and are still visible as the day dawns. Estella was to appear in the darkness of pagan Africa and there to shine until the light of God’s Word had penetrated the heart of that vast continent.

Perhaps John was thinking of his mother as he gave her name to his daughter. Little could he know that the second Catherine would be a pioneer like the first. The first Catherine turned her back upon Virginia and her face to the unknown West. The second Catherine turned her back upon the well-developed state of Iowa and her face to the unknown heart of Africa. Oh, John and Annie! Had you known what you were doing, we are sure you would still have named this child Estella Catherine, for she was not yours forever—you gave her back to God to be what He meant her to be. Oh, happy Estella Catherine, God will keep His hand upon you just as He did upon your father. Happy girl, not one of your family will ever suggest that you refuse God’s will for you.

While John was reading and thinking⁴ Estella Catherine was growing into a tomboy. History comes near to proving that in John’s desire for a son he was attempting to make one out of Estella. The birth of a third daughter, Ethel, took place later. After her came, one by one, three little boys—Ernest, John and Lester.⁵ Although the boys arrived, Estella was firmly established in her place as father’s companion. The little brothers were to be protected and loved, but it was Estella who followed her father around the farm.

All kinds of tasks were given to Estella. According to her word in later years, she did every kind of work but planting corn. Mornings and evenings she and Ethel milked the cows. Every harvest brought its share of heavy work. Cutting hay or husking corn were some of the tasks which she shared.

One day Estella was cutting hay. She was alone in the field when an unknown something caused the horses to take fright. Off they sped across the field. Estella with the broken lines in her hands was seated upon the mower as the horses dashed crazily across the field. She turned on the seat and jumped off from the back. Something caught the sickle and stopped the frightened horses. Estella then released the sickle and led the trembling horses home. Something? God had His hand on this child from the day of her birth.

Although Estella undertook many of the tasks of the farm she was also trained for the work of the house. When the long winter evenings were used to sew carpet rags, Estella was taught by her mother to use little stitches in order to save thread. Some people may