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About Cottage Grove sentinel. (Cottage Grove, Or.) 1909-current | View Entire Issue (April 27, 2016)
COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL April 27, 2016 11A J OHNSONS Continued from page 8A children. Together, they have counseled hundreds of couples in both premarital and post- marital situations. Renna Hass joined the church in 1968. Refl ecting on the im- pact of FBC’s longest serving pastor, she summarized the Johnsons’ contributions. “Pastor Steve has shown the true love of Jesus to the con- gregation and how to share that same love with others. They have been great in counseling couples; bringing them closer to Christ and enriching their mar- riage.” To aid many displaced wood products workers struggling to make ends meet in the late 1980s, the church offered a free meal every Saturday to support the families caught in a major economic transition. This laid the foundation for what is now the annual Community Thanks- giving Dinner hosted for de- cades at FBC. “During the past several years we’ve appreciated how addition- al churches now help prepare and serve the meal – as well as providing their own weekly community meals throughout the year,” Steve said. Another highlight of their long tenure is the church’s strong commitment to missions. Mercy grew up on the mission fi eld in southern India before her father became the pastor of a large Christian church in Calcutta. She began her Early Childhood Master’s degree pro- gram at California’s University of Redlands. A seminary stu- dent there captured her heart for a lifetime. These circumstances are the foundation of her strong faith in Christ. Since childhood she’s enjoyed being a Sunday school teacher and Bible study leader. Embracing Mercy’s pas- sion for missions, the church now supports several missionar- ies each year. “I’m blessed to be a minis- try partner with my husband for more than 30 years,” Mercy said. “The joy of my life is get- ting to experience the faithful- ness of God and His power and provision for our family and our church.” Tom Mathis has been a church leader for more than a quarter century and has a deep love and respect for the Johnsons. “Steve is all about people. Just like the young Jesus, Steve is always “about the Father’s business”, and building up a person’s re- lationship with God,” Mathis said. The Johnsons say they look forward to more family time, more traveling and fi nding new ministry opportunities. They plan to stay in Cottage Grove until the end of the year before moving to the Eugene/Spring- fi eld area to live closer to their children and grandchildren. “The church and I grew to- gether and we grew to love one another deeply,” Steve said. “As a pastor, the most gratifying ex- perience has been seeing many people’s lives transformed by God’s power and Jesus’ love. Over these 30 years, I have wit- nessed lives changed as people lived out Godly principles and experienced for themselves the joy, peace, hope and content- ment that is available in Jesus Christ.” On Saturday, May 28, the Johnsons will be honored for their 30 years of ministry from 1-4 p.m. in the Fellowship Hall, 301 S. Sixth St. The community is invited to attend. bed time as often as the case needs.” If that didn’t work, there was a more aggressive recipe that was probably the emigrants’ go-to formula for dealing with malaria: “Dry beef gall to thick (mo- lasses consistency). Thicken it with eaqul parts May apple, bloodroot, cayenne pepper, cul- ver root, ½ part lobelia seed. Mix, role into pills with fl ower, common serve doses 2 to 6 a day as the case requires.” Would this have cured little Sally’s dysentery? Probably not, but it sure would have beaten bleeding her to “restore her bile balance” or soaking her feet in Epsom salts. Here’s what was offered to any wagon train participant who grew desperate enough to ask for help with a cough or sore throat: “Cough Surrup: Boil the lick- rish root to thick molasses. Take 1 fl uid oz Balm Gilead buds, 1 gil vinigar, 1 gil strong sirrip of skunk cabbage root, ½ fl uid oz tincter libelia. Take a tea spoon full or so as often as the case re- quires to keep the plegm loos to rais easy.” You will have gathered that spelling and grammar wasn’t part of Dr. Dains’ medical edu- cation. This wasn’t uncommon on the American frontier of the mid-1800s. Many medical prac- titioners were, in fact, self-taught – especially the Thompsonians, who considered themselves to be populist “heal thyself” types, in contrast with the paternalistic “submit to my orders” tradition of mainstream medicine. Possibly the most intriguing recipe in Dains’ book is some- thing he calls “Mother’s Relief,” which is an elaborate concoc- tion of extracts, including those of partridge berry vine, unicorn root, blue cohusk, spikenard, bayberry bark, birthroot, rasp- berry leaves, witch hazel leaves and lady slippers, given to wom- en to ease the labor of childbirth. Reading the ingredients list, one has to wonder if it might have had any real therapeutic value. Nonetheless, some frontier mothers seem to have had little need for anything of the kind. Here’s Mary Richardson Walk- er’s diary entry for the particu- larly eventful day of March 16, 1842: “Rose about fi ve. Had early breakfast. Got my housework done about 9. Baked six loaves of breads, made a kettle of mush and have now a suet pudding and beef boiling. My girl has ironed and I have managed to put my clothes away and set my house in order. May the Merciful be with me through the unexpected scene. Nine o’clock p.m. was delivered of another son.” and Fancy,” Oregon Historical Quarterly, Sept. 1960) O FFBEAT Continued from page 5A the inevitable “You have died of dysentery” could never be too many turns away. But if little Sally had been on Tetherow’s wagon train, she would have promptly been of- fered something called an “Ague and Liver Costive”: “Dry beef gall to thick molas- ses thicking it with May Apple, equal Colycynth and Bloodroot ¼ of the above,” Dr. Dains in- structs. “Role it out with fl ower (fl our) into pils. Dose 2 tsp at Prior To 1955 School age drownings in local creeks and lakes Were some of the highest in the U.S. Kathleen Richards Warren H. Daugherty & h e Community of Cottage Grove Jump-started one of the Most Successful Swimming Programs In our Country Our Pool Needs Maintenance Th is advertisement paid for by Bud Taylor. (Sources: Larsell, O. The Doctor in Oregon. Portland: Binfords, 1947; Bromberg, Erik. “Frontier Humor: Plain Finn J.D. John teaches at Oregon State University and writes about odd tidbits of Or- egon history. For details, see http://fi nnjohn.com. To contact him or suggest a topic: fi nn2@ offbeatoregon.com or 541-357- 2222. $ PUUBHF ( SPWF 4 FOUJOFM Our Community Newspaper since 1889 Subscribe and $AVE Birch Avenue Dental Park W. McClung, DDS • Tammy L. McClung, DDS Where dentistry is our profession but people are our focus WELCOMING NEW PATIENTS! Check out our exclusive Birch Avenue Dental Program that provides all the rewards of dental insurance without the headaches. For more information please call 541-942-2471 or visit us at www.birchavenuedental.com