A Century of Faith: Edith Hoggard's Journey

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/what-we-find-in-the-dark/id1798550826

In this inspirational episode, we sit down with Edith Hoggard, a remarkable 101-year-old Cherokee Christian woman whose life is a powerful testimony of unwavering faith. Raised in Maywood, California, Edith shares her deep-rooted Cherokee heritage, her early transformation through faith at age nine, and a lifetime of devotion singing in church choirs.

Her story is filled with Christian miracles and moments of divine intervention—including the powerful healing testimony of her prayer partner. From growing up in the Great Depression to witnessing over a century of spiritual and cultural change, Edith’s journey offers a rich blend of Native American Christian history, miraculous healing experiences, and faith-filled storytelling.

Whether you're seeking encouragement, spiritual inspiration, or a connection to a living legacy of faith, this episode will leave your heart uplifted.

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https://uppbeat.io/t/northwestern/hometown

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Transcript

Jan: Welcome to Just Talking About Jesus. I'm Jan Johnson, a seasoned believer who loves relationships and, you know, just talking about Jesus.

Edith: She was telling me about this and we were rejoicing and rejoicing and she said, would you like a prayer language, you know, would you like to have the Holy Spirit?

And I said,

I said, I want everything that God has for me.

No, I want it.

Jan: Hey there, listeners. So glad that you are here today with me.

I just love this every week, being able to join you.

You know, last week we heard from Tim Gannaway who shared how he came to be a jeweler and how God showed him his majesty in the gold, copper and silver that he was using was so interesting.

So I hope you got to listen to that.

Have you ever wondered what it looks like to walk with God for over a century?

What if the prayers of a child at age 9 could shape an entire lifetime of spiritual impact?

I wonder how someone keeps their faith strong through 100 years of life changes and challenges.

Today, you're about to find out.

Meet Edith hoggard, a spunky, 101-year-old Cherokee woman whose story spans over a century of unwavering devotion and miraculous moments.

She began going to Sunday school at age 9 and from there taught Sunday school and VBS.

But her real passion was singing.

Sit back and listen as she recounts stories of her life and her faith.

Welcome, listeners. I'm Jan Johnson. If this is your first time here, I look forward to introducing you to amazing women.

Feel free to share this episode.

Well, hello, Edith.

Edith: Hi, Jan. You have lived a long.

Jan: Life and look at how good you look and healthy and yes, yes, God.

Edith: Has been very kind, very kind to me. I just had a blood test, hadn't had for years and I'm doing fine.

Jan: Where did you grow up?

Edith: Where did I grow up? I grew up in Maywood, California and that quite a bit of my life was spent there and some very hard things. Yeah.

Jan: Where did your people come from?

Edith: My father's name was Christopher Columbus.

Read really a Cherokee Indian and he did all of the papers and all that stuff.

And I tried genealogy for a while,

went through a whole bunch of things.

It was very interesting.

Jan: So what were some of the things that you found out?

Edith: Oh, well, I found out that my great grandfather was full blood and that I had mom and my grandmothers came from England.

But I learned a lot of things.

There's so many things I try to remember and I'm sorry that can't just be bubble out, but the trail of tears now that right away sort of identifies.

But my family were not part of that, that I know of. I don't have any record of that.

My grandfather was in the war, the War of the States,

and he was from the South. He got into that army and he was a guide Indian guy.

But the thing was that when they finished,

there was no money.

You know,

Law had no money.

And I believe that's true.

I don't think it was the other way around, because that's what I've heard so much of.

But anyway,

he found himself without any transportation.

Wherever you were,

he was leading, you know, and guiding.

And wherever you were at the end of the war,

they didn't have any money to get him home,

you know, so just get home whatever way you can.

And so whatever ingenuity appeared to him, he got home anyway.

And when he did,

they had all the Indians that had gotten together, you know, and they brought them to the camps and stuff,

and they wanted everybody to sign up again, you know,

get the names of people in the state. But my grandmother and father would not sign up because he was afraid they'd put him in the service again. You know, he'd been that route.

Jan: I'd done that. That once is enough.

Edith: He'd been that route.

And so anyway, they have records in Washington and all that.

This way, when they can communicate,

they communicate from the archives, and they're great big papers, pieces of paper like this. I give them records now of what my family was a part of,

the ending of the war and all that.

And. But he.

He was not going to.

Was left all alone by, you know, whatever he was in.

Jan: Like. Thanks a lot.

Edith: Yeah, yeah, I did all.

Jan: Done all this to help you and.

Edith: Now get home, whatever way you can get home. So that was the end of that.

Jan: About what year was that?

Edith: I have no idea. Yeah,

no idea.

That may be in the records in Washington, but it's.

I don't have it. But anyway,

I never thought about that famous Trail of Tears, right?

But he could have. But he didn't want to be a part of anything again.

He was going to be independent, he was going to get home, and he did.

So I've got pictures, but I had names and all that. But I remember Gonzalez.

We have that background.

He married my mother in Missouri,

and her name was Millie Mae Hawkins that time.

And then when he married my father, it was Red,

Millie Mae, Red.

And anyway,

he wanted to take. Go to California.

So it was a merchandiser. He liked to gather stuff together.

Every time he'd get. Stop signing someplace and they Came across the country and from.

I'm assuming from ever Missouri, from that area.

We don't know exactly where they started.

But he came in across the country to get to the place where you go at that time. And you know what? I've never been able to get a hold of the name of that town.

That's that stage in mother.

There's a. A big mountain there.

When they got there here, he had several wagons full.

Jan: So he was doing a covered wagon.

Edith: Stuff that he had brought with him that he was going to set up in California. He covered wagons, they were what they call springboard.

But now these men had to be paid. He paid them,

told them to go on home because they couldn't continue because it was snowing and the winter had hit there and it was impossible for them to get those wagons over mountains.

So I don't know exactly what town it was. But anyway they stayed there for as long as they needed to.

They finally got to California and where I was born,

I have nine brothers and sisters. But I never lived with any of them because I came last came after they got to California and.

But my father died at some 60 some, you know.

And so I didn't know him.

But the only thing that I remember about this was that always lived in the same building with the. With the store.

Anyway, we lived back behind there and so he was out in front and he wasn't feeling well.

And they always have a big barrel there like heat. And people from all over would come in, gather around.

I remember he was in a. In a rocking chair.

But I wanted to tell him something, whatever it was. But he says go on in the back.

Windjammer.

So that's how I knew what he called me.

And Indians have this thing they do a lot in what your value is or what great thing you did or some particular thing about you. They would give you a name that would signify some way or other.

And so he did me.

Jan: What are the fun things that you remember about growing up?

Edith: Fun things?

Singing and dancing.

I did a lot of that. And our store, our grocery store. People that would come in would get me to dance on the table. The cupboards of big. The cupboards of merchandise.

Jan: Was somebody playing music or that you were dancing to or was it on the record? Oh, you just singing.

Edith: I was singing. Dance.

And then there was a time when at school,

I don't remember what age I was,

they were going to have a program and they dialed me up like they can't do it now.

But then they made me look like a little picking my face and curled my hair. My hair was straight, like.

And I danced and I danced and sang for the program.

I remember that. And then I have a picture of myself there at home in the studio with the big bouquet of flowers and stuff that they had taken my picture.

Jan: Every Sunday. You inspire me when I come. Come to church, listening to you sing and praise God. Well, tell me about your spiritual walk.

Edith: My spiritual walk?

Jan: Yeah.

Edith: Okay.

When. When I was there in the store in Maywood,

I guess I don't know what age I was probably around five or something like that. And one of the ladies,

Mrs. Burt,

from the Baptist Church, was one of our.

Our people that came and bought groceries from us.

And she said, you know, Millie,

Edith ought to be in Sunday school.

And. But my mother didn't go,

you know, or anything. And so she said,

okay.

So she and I went to church, we went to Sunday school, and that's where I was born again when I was nine years old.

And I began then my life there in that church.

And I was a Sunday school teacher,

and I was also a vacation Bible school teacher.

Oh, and I was 11 years old, and I sang a song,

and I sang this song at church.

And when we got through with that,

the song and everything,

the choir director came and said,

you come in. You are part of my choir because you have 11 years old.

And I began in the choir.

Whatever they were doing, I'm doing in the middle of it and loving the Lord.

Anyway, so they stopped.

Stopped having a choir. And that was really hard for them.

Jan: Because you're a singer. That's your heart. Oh, yeah. Tell me, over the years, where has God been the closest to you?

Edith: My goodness.

Oh,

there was a day in.

I remarried.

I had always had a prayer partner,

and so I had a prayer partner.

Her name was Ruth.

She went into Los Angeles to one of those big meetings.

I can't remember, like a revival,

revival meeting. And there's so many miracles,

things that were taken.

And she had ms,

and so.

And one leg was short, had gotten shorter than the other one.

And so anyway, she went up on the platform and the Lord,

they watch while her leg was laying out like that,

and. And watching it grow out.

Jan: Oh, my.

Edith: Thousands of people,

you know, there that time.

And then she found that she could ask the Holy Spirit, you know, for prayer language. And that's what she felt she needed prayer. Anyway,

so she came to my house then right away,

you know, and come to tell me all about this.

Jan: Yeah.

Edith: And that leg hit were 4 inches.

The reason for that was because I had fixed her slacks,

you know, when they had to be shortened, you know, Right. And everything.

And so I redid that. It's just about four inches.

Jan: My goodness.

Edith: Difference.

God had straightened out that leg. Make it long enough like the yellow one.

Wonderful.

So in my living room there,

she was telling me about this, and we were rejoicing and rejoicing,

and she said, would you like a prayer language? You know, would you like to have the Holy Spirit? And I said.

I said, I want everything that God has for me. No, I wanted. But it was too late two weeks later,

and I was on my knees in the bedroom praying for Louise.

She at that time was married to a serviceman and had a little girl,

and they were having problems,

and so I needed to pray for her, but I really didn't know enough about what was going on,

you know, and. But I was praying. I was just praying all the things I could think of. And all of a sudden, this language came out, you know,

and I have had that now, since then. And that must have been in 57.

Jan: Isn't that beautiful? It's just like there's sometimes. And even in the worship today, it just brought me to my language.

Edith: Oh, you know, I'm singing in the spirit.

Jan: Yeah.

Edith: Because I can't read them. I can't read the signs up there.

Jan: The music up there. Yeah, yeah.

Edith: I can't read the signs.

And so I sing my own,

but, you know,

only twice.

And it was about two or three weeks ago was a couple came to me and they said, we just wanted you to know that your voice was beautiful. We loved having you when you were singing for the worship.

They didn't say, now, what kind of language did you sing?

You know,

And I had a second couple come to me two weeks later and ask me,

I mean, tell me how much they enjoyed my beautiful voice. I've had nothing but scratchy.

I've had nothing but scratchy since I fell in 2017.

Jan: I hope you were blessed by this. I can't tell you how much I enjoyed talking to those who have lived beyond my years and hearing their rich stories and perspectives about life.

It always brings a smile to my face.

I especially loved how filled with the spirit she is.

Such joy on her face.

When she talked about your value in your name based on who you are or the great things you did. It reminded me of how many times God changed the names of characters in the Bible.

I want to share about my new Bible study, discovering your finding God. In each step.

I have been teaching it in my Bible study group and it amazes me each week the insights that each member gets.

They've gone deep in creating maps of their lives and finding correlations to the lives with those of Ruth, Jonah, Joseph and David.

As an author, it gives me joy to see the final work that God has led me to write, not only because it's complete and published sitting in my hands,

but because of the tapestry of what he inspired me to write that touches others.

Sometimes I'm just in awe.

I'd like to credit Northwestern Music from Upbeat. It is the background music for part of this show, and I like to always give credit to where credit's due.

I'd like to recommend a podcast that I've started listening to. It's called what We Find in the Dark.

When we find ourselves in the dark after loss,

big questions often follow.

Where is God now?

Why can't we sense his presence?

How can I trust that God is good?

The deep theological wrestlings that arise after the pain of grief can be jarring.

But we need permission to ask the raw questions in space to say them aloud.

Join Aubrey Sampson and her guests, theologians, pastors and Christian thought leaders as they unpack what we find in the dark,

whether it be a dark night of the soul, disillusionment, disappointment or grief. And in each conversation offer glimmers of light, hope and healing.

You can find that pretty much wherever you do your podcasts, and I'll leave you with these scriptures.

Psalm 96:1 Sing to the Lord a new song Sing to the Lord all the earth and Psalm 100 verse 2 worship the Lord with gladness,

come before him with joyful songs.

Blessings, my friend. I look forward to joining you next week when we hear again from Ruth Cowles.

In this episode, we'll dig deep into who Jesus really is.

You won't want to miss this. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with someone that you know or know that would enjoy it.

Appreciate that so much and we'll see you next time.