A Flower with Roots

The Story of Mary D. Jesse and Shokei Girls' School

Stephens

• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Year: 2018
• eBook ISBN: 9781532634314
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Church

You are about to read a book with a double storyline with many intertwining segments. Mary D. Jesse, a woman from a family of means, abandons everything to follow her vision to help lift the burden of Japanese girls during a time when education was a privilege and not a right. She is a model of faith, perseverance, and leadership, who discovers God's guidance in difficult experiences. Already a school with history, Shokei Girls' School begins its walk with Jesse as she and other missionary colleagues share their Christian faith--the flower--their love for the students, and Christ's love as it is--rooted--in their daily living. Mission, culture, and character intersect here at Shokei, leading to changed lives. At the same time, the drama of misunderstanding, misery, and pain leads to forgiveness and rebuilding. The story of Shokei Girls' School is a compelling account of the resiliency of a mission school, where you will see the love and loyalty of the students for their school while the school leadership was experiencing endless drama in management and personal relations. A Flower with Roots will take you on a journey you won't forget.

1

From the Beginning

Epping Forest—Mary Ball Washington & Mary Daniel Jesse’s Birthplace (courtesy of Judy Jesse McCarthy- Dexter Press, Pearl River, N. Y.)

In the bulb there is a flower; in the seed, an apple tree;In cocoons, a hidden promise: butterflies will soon be free!In the cold and snow of winter there’s a spring that waits to be,Unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see.

—Natalie Sleeth1

We left Kilmarnock, Virginia, on that sultry Sunday heading north on Highway 3, known in years past as the Kings Highway of the Northern Neck of Virginia. Our tour bus was filled with Japanese high school girls, and we were on a pilgrimage of sorts. I think I was the only one whose heart was beating rapidly out of excitement rather than the oppressive heat!

The driver turned left onto a gravel road. I asked the bus driver to stop so that we could read the large white sign standing at the edge of the road. It said, “The Historic Home of Mary Ball Washington,” then in smaller letters, “The Mother of President George Washington.” Although it was truly a privilege to visit the birthplace of the mother of the first president of the United States, we were looking for another “Mary” whose name was not written on the sign. This was also the birthplace of Mary Daniel Jesse, the second Missionary-Principal of Shokei Girls’ School (Shokei Gakuin) in Sendai, Japan.

As we drove deep into the large tract of land called Epping Forest, we were surrounded by acres of maturing corn. Looming in the distance was a large white colonial frame house surrounded by scattered oak and cedar trees. In the background a thick forest wrapped itself around the edges of the cornfields.

Could it be true that after eleven years of research I was finally able to pinpoint this grand house and meet Mary D. Jesse’s relatives? Furthermore, was it not a dream to be able to share this moment with students who were experiencing the very legacy left by her at the mission school where she poured out her heart for forty years, planting a flower with deep roots? Today, in honor of her, the students changed into their bright summer kimonos and gave a concert in front of this grand old plantation house. The time was too short to explore, but it was the start of another pilgrimage for me to find out what the early years of “this Mary’s” life might have been like.

Namesake

We are all made up of the stuff that has come before us. And so it was with Mary. She was born of tough but elegant Virginia stock. Although her mother and grandmother were both named Mary, her namesake was different. Not only was she named after Mary Ball Washington, she was born and raised in the same house and, according to tradition, born in the very same bedroom as Mary Ball.2 Parents hope that we will live up to our namesake, and surely this was true for Mary Jesse.

Mary Ball Washington’s grandfather, Colonel William Ball, was a seventh generation Ball. He emigrated from England sometime between 1646 and 1649.3 From 1677 and 1693 he acquired some adjacent parcels of land between the Rappahannock River and Chesapeake Bay, and it was referred to as “the forest,” “Forest Plantation,” and “Forest Quarter” in various documents. William deeded his lush piece of land to his American-born son, Colonel Joseph Ball, where Joseph built a plantation house that has lasted over three hundred years. Sometime between 1799 and 1826, Epping Forest was the name used for the area.4 The landowner during that time, possibly Rawleigh Downman, perhaps felt nostalgic for the similarly named forest in England. The name Epping Forest came from a large piece of woodland historically used by kings and queens in Essex County, England, for hunting.5

Mary Ball was born in ca. 1707/1708, but only lived in this house for her first three years. After her father died, her mother remarried and moved about fifteen miles away. In 1721, upon her mother’s death, she inherited two horses and a plush side saddle. Because the house and land remained in the Ball family for many years, according to tradition and local folklore, she often returned to Forest Plantation and nearby White Chapel to visit her mother’s grave, most likely on horseback. Some surmise that she also participated in many a fox hunt. There would have been no better place than in “the Forest.” Perhaps it was the image of being the belle of Northern Neck that she portrayed as she rode, that caused people to refer to her years later as “the Rose of Epping Forest,”6 even though during her years there the land was not called Epping Forest. We truly will remember her as the wife of Augustine Washington, married in 1731, and the mother of George Washington, born February 22nd, 1732 at Wakefield.

Mary D. Jesse’s Roots

Mary D. Jesse’s ancestors, like the Balls, had also emigrated from England. The two-hundred-forty-one-year-old plantation was sold to Mary’s grandfather, William T. Jesse, in 1844. William T. and his wife, Mary, began a life and legacy in Epping Forest which would last at least another one hundred years. Like other places in that area, the Epping Forest plantation house in the first half of the nineteenth century was a welcoming place of rest for travelers passing through. These Virginians were known for their hospitality and eagerness to hear news from travelers outside their immediate area. And plenty of news there was, with the slavery issue being at the top of the list.

During this era, all plantations and citizens with adequate means were dependent on the labor of enslaved Africans and African Americans. However, William T. was among the plantation owners who leaned favorably toward the Union and was against secession.7 He and other leading citizens were of the increasingly unpopular opinion that slaves should be racially separated from whites, and that they should be returned to Africa and freed there, rather than being declared free people in the U...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Abbreviations
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: From the Beginning
• Chapter 2: Not Just An Ordinary Teacher (1911–1919)
• Chapter 3: Divine Guidance—Visible and Invisible (1919–1926)
• Chapter 4: Hopes for a New Start (1926–1930)
• Chapter 5: Interlude (1930–1937)
• Chapter 6: Clouds on the Horizon (1938–1941)
• Chapter 7: Engulfed in the Storm (1941–1947)
• Chapter 8: Welcoming Free And Brighter Days (1947–1950)
• Chapter 9: Destinations and New Beginnings (1950–1952)
• Afterword
• Appendix 1: Glossary of Japanese Words
• Appendix 2: Alphabetical List of Letters/Annual Reports and their Origin
• Appendix 3
• Bibliography