Logan - Janette Oke

Chapter One

The Steeves Family

On a brisk February morning, seven-year-old Jean Steeves huddled under the quilts of her shared bed, tucked snugly between her sisters. Fingers of cold searching for exposed skin had roused her. On any other morning, she could have wiggled closer to Betty for warmth and fallen back to sleep, but on this day the crispness of the morning air was broken by a strange cry, and she stirred.

Betty, wake up, she nudged her sister. Whats that?

Nine-year-old Betty turned away and mumbled, Its just an old tomcat.

Jean tried to settle back to sleep, but the weak cry came again.

Thats a baby, she insisted, scrambling over Betty and across the cold floor. Moms got a new baby!

Betty crawled out after her sister, trying not to wake little June, who still slept soundly, oblivious to Jeans excitement. The two girls slipped out of the bedroom to discover that Jean had been right. In the living room they saw that a rocker had been pulled close to the heater-fire, and a small bundle lay cradled in their Aunt Leones arms.

Her name is Janette, Leone whispered in answer to their excited questions.

Can I hold her? each girl begged.

Not right now. Shes not a very strong baby. And we need to be pretty careful with her for a while, Leone explained, choosing her words cautiously. In truth, there were several furrowed brows at the sight of the sickly infant. Even as the older sisters reveled in the discovery of baby Janette, their mother wept alone, struggling with the possibility of losing her new daughter.

Though this young woman had only recently discovered a personal faith in God, scattered across the Canadian prairie that surrounded her stood home after home of those who knew the power of God firsthand.

As the news of the newborn traveled on, aunts, uncles, grandparents, and neighbors were praying fervently for the tiny addition to Fred and Amy Steeves family. Earnest tears were shed on her behalf, and each prayer reached the attentive ear of the Father.

During the next few months, Janettes little body did gradually gain strength and health, and the prayers for her changed to words of thankfulness.

As she grew, Janette learned by observation that the lives of the family members around her were woven closely together with the values they upheld. Church, faith, and God were a part of her everyday world and conversation.

What Janette did not know was that this family had not always held such strong convictions about the One whom they now considered Lord. Though a thread of faith ran from generation to generation, each member had come to his or her own decision about building upon or rejecting the foundation that had its beginnings hundreds of years before.

Janettes parents, Fred Steeves and Amy Ruggles Steeves, were simple folkprairie farmers like many of the characters in her storiesand had descended from two long lines of colorful people.

On one side of the family tree, Freds family had flourished near the shores of the Canadian east coast until his own father had chosen to travel west. Amy had been born in the United States, and over the course of time, her family had also arrived in the wide spaces of the Canadian prairie, searching for productive land and a place to call home.

When Fred moved to Alberta as a young boy, his family left behind an amazing number of relatives. In fact, a remark concerning the Steeves clan is that it is more than a familyits a nation!

It was in 1766 that the first Steeves familyStief back thencame to settle in Eastern Canada, and their descendants soon numbered in the thousands. In fact, about forty years ago Esther Clark Wright, a family historian, estimated the number to be between fifty and one hundred thousand. And, of course, Mrs. Wright was not including the generations that followed the publication of her work.

The Steeves family emigrated from Germany, seemingly to find freedom of worship. Although the family is uncertain as to when Heinrich and Rachel Stief came to North America, records show that in Pennsylvania on January 27, 1766, Heinrich signed an agreement with John Hughes, an entrepreneur of dubious intent. With the weight of this momentous decision heavy upon him, Heinrich prepared to uphold his end of the bargain. He would sail to what was then Nova Scotia and settle with his family in the Petitcodiac River area.

According to Samphire Greens , a book published by Esther Clark Wright about the history of the Steeves family, Mr. Hughes part of the agreement was to give each settler one lot in a town that was to be built, as well as two hundred acres of good land for every family of five Protestant persons. Further stipulations were made as to how the land was to be developed and farmed by the settlers, and the payment terms specified.

On June 20, 1766, Heinrich and Rachel stood on deck with their seven sons and watched as the docks of Philadelphia faded from sight. The Delaware River stretched on ahead of them, and as the ship entered the salty waters of Delaware Bay it swayed rhythmically with the waves. Tree-lined hills flattened into broad marshes, and soon, rounding the point of Cape May, the great Atlantic Ocean swelled before them.

Lewis Stief, the youngest son, gazed in awe at the vastness of the rolling waters. He had no memory of his familys voyage across this mighty ocean several years before. The America they left behind burned with the growing fever of revolution, but what lay ahead held dangers of its owneven his young mind understood some of that. But a glance toward his father and older brothers, who seemed so tall and strong, filled him with courage. Even the cold wind that cut against his face could not drive the excitement from him.

The ship sailed north to the Bay of Fundy, pointing like a broad, muddy finger out of the Atlantic Ocean, stretching upward past the coast of Maine and separating what is now New Brunswick from Nova Scotia. Famous for its extreme tides, navigation of the bay and the streams that feed it is very difficult. Ships caught in it while the tide is going out are gradually lowered fifty feet, sometimes becoming mired in the muddy floor until the ocean once again washes in to flood the area.

Into this basin sailed the ship carrying young Lewis and his family. They continued on to the northernmost stretch of Chignecto Bay and into the Petitcodiac River mouth. Here the swells churned as the rising tidal waters crashed against the flow of the river, driving it back in the direction from which it had come.

Few settlers had yet entered this wild countryside, but its beauty and natural bounty would cause many to follow. The rolling hills of the coastal areas, covered with pine and spruce, gradually changed, ridge upon ridge, to the inland mountains where oak, maple, ash, and birch sheltered thriving animal life. Deer, rabbits, and game birds were plentiful, and Atlantic salmon could be pulled from most streams and rivers. The land itself offered lumber aplenty, along with spacious areas for cattle to thrive and abundant rainfall for crops and gardens.

Even with the bounty of the land, these new settlers were very uncertain about the impending winter. John Hughes had promised a ship bringing supplies, and they watched the bay intently.

Many nights found Heinrich gazing at the water and praying earnestly in his German mother tongue for Gods provision for his family and their new neighbors. He had made the decision to sail to Canada, believing it was Gods direction for his family, and now his own faith was being tested. Would God provide?

During the anxious weeks of waiting, turnips and a swamp green called samphire were reportedly their main source of sustenance. Then God provided His own means of help from an unexpected source, proving once again that He is faithful.