The Mann on the Mountains of Death
Philipose Vaidyar
Kolli Hills, known as ‘Kolli Malai' on the Eastern Ghats, is not widely known for tourism. But people and tourists do go there. It’s a small mountain range located in the Namakkal District of Tamil Nadu with heights up to 1300 meters above the mean sea level. It is 90 kilometers away from Salem, the nearest railway station on the main railway line. People go there with different interests -the old Ghats road is steep with 70 hairpin curves. It interests the motorists. The hills are scenic with tropical evergreen, rich, diverse, and large and wide stretches of forests. There are rare species of trees and plants that are also protected here. There are silver oak, coffee, and fruit plantations on these hill ranges.
But I had a different reason to visit these hills. I had heard about Mother Brand who worked on the Eastern Ghats, who used to go around challenging people into missions. When I lived in Salem for some time, the long desire of having a peep into this 'tribalscape' was coming true.
Part I
Kollimalai means Hill of Death! so-called because of the widespread diseases in the area, and particularly that deadly malaria that took the lives of the inhabitants here. But that did not stop Jesse Mann Brand from coming to these interior mountains to help the helpless people.
Just before World War I, 108 years ago, Jesse Mann & Evelyn Brand, as newlywed couples, came over here by horseback and walking hills and jungles when there were no roads. They came here to serve the people with healthcare, education, and to enlighten their lives by sharing the love of God who created these mountains. Their vision also stretched to three more hill ranges: Kalrayan, Javari, and Yercaud hills.
Jesse Mann Brand, the all-rounder man
Jesse Man Brand was born in July 1885 in Guildford, Surrey, England, to Henry Brand and Lydia Mann. At the young age of 22 in 1907, Jesse reached India as a missionary after a long voyage. He worked in the plains around Madras, presently known as Chennai. During his stay at different mission stations in Tamil Nadu, he had heard about Kolli Hills- the mountains of death, where native tribes lived in ignorance and were affected by various sicknesses with no cure or health facility to access. He longed to go and serve those hill people. The terrain was difficult to reach with no roads to travel.
He used to write about the plight of the people, and it was published in the mission newsletters in England. During his next vacation, he was speaking at a Baptist Church in England and shared about the darkness that pervaded the hills in those South Indian hills.
The Woman Who Became Mother Brand
Evelyn Constance Harris was born in England in 1879 as the daughter of a well-to-do merchant. She grew up in a strict Baptist home in the fashionable St. John's Wood area of London. Her father saw that she had the best of education suitable to young ladies of that age and station in life. She accepted Christ as a young girl and was baptized at eleven years of age. Young Evelyn was very fond of artwork and painting. But after 20 years, she began to turn her attention to missions, which became her passion.
Her family was also involved in ministries to street and slum dwellers. In the home and at church, she was exposed to missions, particularly those in India. As a young lady, she would at times break out of the protection of her home, going into the London slums on missions of mercy. As a young adult, she was challenged by the letters published in a missionary journal written by a missionary to the hill people of South India.
At the age of 30, she had an opportunity to visit and help her sister in Australia for a few weeks. As she sailed back, she felt a strong call to missions among unreached places.
Evelyn was deeply moved by the stories of the church bulletin about the tribes in the Kolli Hills and their plights. She could also attend the meeting at the Baptist Church, where Jesse Mann Brand was sharing. While she spoke, she realized that it was he who had written about the Mountains of Death in the pamphlet that thrilled her. At the mission challenge, she answered silently, “Here am I. Send me!” From that day, her heart began to long for India. When she expressed her desire to go to India, her father exclaimed, “A missionary? Aren't there enough lost souls in London?” But at her persistence to obey God’s call, her father had to yield.
As much as her parents hated to see her leave home, they recognized that the hand of God was on her and that she must be obedient to the call of God. After a short course of missionary medicine, she proceeded to India in 1912. Her first task was to learn the difficult Tamil language. The hot, humid climate of Madras was depressing as well. Here again, she met Jesse Brand, who spoke Tamil like a native speaker. It was first as a language instructor, encourager, friend, and subsequently beloved that the relationship grew rapidly. For some time, due to sickness, she had to move to a healthier hill station to recover. Later, she joyfully accepted Jesse’s proposal of marriage.
The Wedding Bells
Jesse went up to the mountains to build a very simple three-room house with a small outhouse for cooking. They were married on 27 August 1913 and the same day, they both moved to the Kolli hills. She was carried by men in a woven cane basket through the forest hills, and she was drenched in the wedding dress in the downpour.
(On mobile, you can click open the following images for a better view or to read the captions)
Part II
“Together, Jesse and Evelyn ministered to the people
around the hills. They trekked all over the mountains on foot or hill pony.
Jesse was a man with many talents—doctor, dentist, preacher, teacher,
counselor, agronomist, builder, and much more - all things to all men. His
medical skills, which he had learned in England, broke down barriers. Their
first convert was a lad whose salvation brought great joy to their hearts. But
he died very soon of pneumonia. It was six more long years until the next fruit
was realized from their labors. Over the years, the work among the hill people
progressed. A church with outstations was established.
Two children were born to the Brands: Paul and
Connie. They trekked with their parents and were a part of the team. In due
time, they were left with family in England to pursue their education.
Strong, energetic Jesse was rarely ill, but in July
of 1929, he was severely affected with malaria that soon turned into blackwater fever—one of the most toxic complications of that disease. He died on
July 15, 1929. There was a simple service, and his body was buried there on the
"mountains of death."
Evelyn was devastated, alone there in the mountains.
The niece, Ruth, who was in her last year of medical training, dropped
out of college and came to be with her aunt in India. Some three months
later, she accompanied her back to England. By this time, Paul was 15 and his
sister was 13. After a long gap of years, they met their mother again. A year later, she returned to her beloved mountains. It was hard without Jesse, but she was
soon into the routine of medical clinics, teaching, disciplining, correcting,
and exhorting people all over the range of mountains for the next five
years.
It was a turbulent time in India with the war years;
the political unrest over the division of India and Pakistan, and years of
bloodshed. The mission board would not let her go back to the mountains. They
thought it would be too dangerous for her to be alone in the mountains. She served
reluctantly on the plains, but she was always persisting with the board to allow her
to return to the mountains. Finally, in 1947, there was a new India, now an
independent nation. Paul, now a medical doctor, returned to India as a
missionary to the Vellore Christian Medical College. Evelyn, at almost 70, went
to a new range of mountains. She built a small wattle-and-mud hut for home and
tirelessly ministered to the neglected people.
Paul was gaining a reputation for his work in
leprosy. In 1953, Granny fell in her home in the mountains and fractured her
hip. She was carried down out of the mountains to Vellore to be with Paul and
his family. At 74 years of age, Granny was a feisty old lady, very dedicated to
the task to which God had called her. Paul and his family were trying to
persuade her to retire from the rigors of mountain life and come live with them
in a comfortable home. She would have none of it. She said, “Since no man was willing to go to these
people, live under these conditions, and tell the people of Jesus, I would go
back”. And she did.
In 1963, at the age of 84, she moved to the third
range of mountains. Again, she had the same pattern of extensive trekking on a
small hill pony, walking with two bamboo poles for support, and living in very simple
conditions. She had an utter lack of dependence on things.
In 1965, after working alone in the mountains for
almost 35 years, a missionary nurse was assigned to work with her as her
companion, and they continued until the time of her death. In a letter to Paul,
Granny wrote that she would soon have her 95th birthday. She was sure a lot of
kindly people would write and praise her and say how wonderful she was to be
working still at 95 years of age. She said, "I am not wonderful. I am just
a poor, old, frail, and weak woman. God has taken hold of me and gives me the
strength I need each day. He uses me just because I know that I have no
strength of my own. Please tell the people to praise God, not me." Her
memory was beginning to fail, and so was her eyesight. In October, she came out
of the mountains to Karigiri near Vellore to see Paul, who was on a brief visit
to India. Here again, she fell, injuring her knee. There was no fracture, but
the injury was very painful. She slowly went down following that injury and
quietly slipped into the presence of her Lord on December 18, 1974, at the age
of 95. Her frail, wasted body was carried back and buried beside her beloved
husband Jesse there on the "mountains of death."
A few years earlier, she had written this free verse:
“Why
did You have to break me first,
Why
did You take my all away
Before
You satisfied my thirst?
Why
must I sink in deepest deep
Before
the promises to know?
I
realize now it had to be
Before
He taught my soul to pray,
Before
the glory, I could see,
The
glory that He promised me”.
Isaiah 52:7
- Dr. John A. Dresibach
________________
Acknowledgments:
Part II of the narrative is taken from the writing of Dr. John A. Dresibach, published on the
Gospel Fellowship Association website. Used with permission.
All photographs used inside (except the last one) are taken by Philipose Vaidyar during a visit to the hill and the mission base of the Brands in 2013.
Photo courtesy of the last picture of the renovated tomb:
Jayaprakash, Salem
Also, read more about Mother Brand The Lily on Kolli Hills
- The New Beginnings from where the Brands Left
How beautiful on the mountains
are
the feet of those who bring good news,
who proclaim peace,
who
bring good tidings,
who
proclaim salvation,
who says to Zion,
“Your God reigns! (Isaiah 52:7)
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