Updated timeline of events in Jessie's life...

Date	What we know	To follow up
1877	Jessie Dougall Blair, third daughter born to John and Martha Blair (nee Dougall), First Clerk of the Green Island Presbyterian Church Deacon’s Court, Dunedin.	Family Tree
1895 Apr 1899 à	Jessie begins to think about entering the “foreign mission field”.  She is an active member of the Christian Endeavour Society (1895-1888/9), a Sunday school teacher and later runs a bible class for “lads”. Jessie writes a letter to the Executive of the Presbyterian Women’s Missionary Union in 1898 regarding her availability for missions.  Her letter intersects with a letter from the PIVM requesting an “intelligent young woman” as a missionary.  Jessie’s appointment is recommended by Professor Watts and the Rev J Spence of Clinton.  Miss Bernard of PIVM writes and accepts Jessie. 32 pounds 12s and 5d is raised for her passage by the local PWMU branches, and a portion of this is contributed from the Zenana Mission Fund. Jessie trained for a few weeks under Mrs Driver at the Missionary Training Institute, (moved to Castle Street, Dunedin 1901).  Classes given on bible study, Christian ethics, evidences of Christianity, outlines of Christian doctrine, physiology, medicine, English and music.  Mrs Driver (b 1862) previously a missionary in east Bengal (Bangladesh) 1887-1889 but had to return home due to ill health.  Settled in Dunedin 1892 and set up the MTI.  Helped establish the Baptist Women’s Missionary Union. d 1943. Brother, a doctor died in missionary service in Bangladesh of dysentery in 1905.  Mr H H Driver was General Secretary of the NZ Baptist Union and Missionary Society.
1896	The Plague (bubonic/pneumonic) epidemic started in Bombay (now Mumbai). Victims are sent to ‘detachment’ camps, their bodies burned when they die.  Also from 1896-1908 severe famine rages due the repeated failure of the monsoon.
Up until 1897	Amy Parsons (Australia) is the only woman worker at PIVM.
12 Aug 1899	Farewell at Victoria Hall, Dunedin.  Mr John Lowe (a former Engineer in Chief at NZ Railways) and his wife Charlotte and daughter Amy (they have one daughter, and six sons, including Manley and Frank who will travel with them) speak prior to their departure for India.  Jessie will be accompanying them.  Money has been raised for her passage. Their aim is to establish a resort in the hills (Mahabaleshwar Rest Station) to which missionaries engaged in teaching could retire to ‘recruit’.  Mrs Lowe was to be in charge of it, while Mr Lowe helped out with local evangelism. At this time there are 51 members of the Poona Village Mission – 32 ladies and 22 gentlemen*. (In 1895, Charles Reeve, an experienced evangelist from Tasmania, established the Poona and Indian Village Mission (PIVM) in Poona. He travelled regularly to England, Scotland, New Zealand and Australia to recruit missionaries and to raise funds.  The mission was multi-denominational).  The HQ of the PIVM was 10 Napier Road, Poona 1.	How well did Jessie know the Lowe’s?  Was Amy Lowe a friend? Who were these others?
Sep 1899	Jessie travelled Dunedin to Melbourne, leaving Melbourne on 12 September 1899 with 30 other missionaries on the SS Karlsruhe bound for Colombo.  She and the other women travel in the second class, the men travel in steerage.  At Colombo they board the B & I SS Lawada, primarily a cargo ship and travel to Bombay.	On what ship did Jessie travel Dunedin to Melbourne?
9 Oct 1899	Jessie arrived in Poona.  The usual length of service was 5 years before furlough, however most lasted just two years before they had to take a break due to ill health. New members who were part of Jessie’s party: Lucy E F Morison, L Pauline Morison, Ernest A Rimmer (-> Poona), E W Brown (-> Poona), J J Baily, Josiah A Ryburn (-> Poona), Flora Wilkes, A F Witty, J H de Carteret (-> Poona), Fred Strange (Nasarapur). The Lowe’s resided at No 8 Elphinstone Road, Poona (Lord Elphinstone was a Governor of Poona). Jessie worked as an associate missionary working with Miss Bernard and Miss Kesting in the Zenana Mission.
End 1899 or early 1900	Jessie refers in a later letter to one that she sent back to the church at this time.  Minutes of the PMWU February 1900 refer to a letter received from Jessie.	What happened to Jessie’s letters?
Dec 1899	Misses Hooper and Ford leave for NZ, both returning on doctor’s certificates. Work among Brahmins and students restarts after stopping for several months due to plague.  Misses M Steel, A Morton, K Steel, L Knights, F E Frith, R Roberts and M Sharp taking their annual holiday at Mahabaleshwar.  Staying in Norheim the temporary Mission Rest Home.
Jan 1900	Nurse Short, Misses Munnings, Simpson, Frederick, Kay, Jenkyn, Newton, Robertson and Beale to to Mahabaleshwar for a rest.  Nurse Morrison is convalescing from diptheria.
Feb 7-9 1900	Third Annual Convention of the PIVM.  Mrs Orlebar negotiating for the Fountain Hotel – her object to provide a Home where Christian workers may find spiritual fellowship and help and physical rest.
Mar 1900	Jessie’s mother, Martha travels to Scotland.  She is presented with a bible by the church before she leaves.  She is involved with a mission society in Scotland. 20th - The Lowe’s moved from Poona to “Bonne Vue” (Mahabeleshwar) for the rest of the season. Misses Harrison, Brown, Wier and Burder resting at Mahabaleshwar.
4 Apr 1900	Jessie’s LETTER to home church: Visited Paud, 20 miles from Poona, worked with 100 needy women.  (The church at Paud belonged to the Church of Scotland during the British era, now owned by Church of North India). Camp pitched in a valley surrounded by hills. Travelled overnight for 12 hours by mule and cart to Mahabaleshwar via Wathar (spelt incorrectly in the letter as Wathai) and Panchgani. Stayed at a “nice little bungalow” called “Ilona” belonging to members of the mission.  Situated high in jungle trees.  A few minutes walk from the bungalow can see the lake (Lake Venna). Sat on monument erected in memory of the late Governor of Poona. “Many missionaries from all over India are here” – the Fountain Hotel “occupied this summer entirely by missionaries”.  Mr Lowe conducts a bible reading there twice a week. Visited “old Mahabaleshwar”, saw two temples Wednesday morning’s prayer meeting at “Norheim” – neighbouring bungalow. Saturday evening’s weekly prayer meeting at American Mission Hall. Open air meetings in the bazaar. Famine “raging” in India (due to failure of the monsoon).  60 children being cared for in the orphanage. Learning the language (Marathi) with first exam due in September. Requests prayers for safety from “terrible plague”. Mr Fred Perry who has been suffering from insomnia goes to Mahabaleshwar “for a change.” PIMV holds “Soldier’s Meetings” at Evangelistic Hall.	Is Ilona still there today?  Old Mahabsleshwar 2.5 miles away.  Next door bungalow “Norheim”.  Also “Bonne Vue”. Does this still exist? Where was the orphanage?
May 1900	Messrs Irvine and Murray are recruiting at Mahabaleshwar, also Mrs Cutts (staying at Fountain Hotel) and Nurse Morrison (staying at Bonne Vue). .  Miss McGrotty of the ZBM Mission passed away May 21st – of “overwork”.
June 1900	Jessie and other members of the PIVM are photographed outside a bungalow, ? Location, but likely Poona.  Published in WATH, ? taken at PIVM convention in February.  Cholera breaks out at some of the Missions.  Most of workers have returned from Mahabaleshwar.  Half-toned block process Plant now at work – able to reproduce photographs in the newsletter.  Mrs Wilkie Brown, wife of Rev W E Wilkie Brown of the Free Church Mission in Poona “called home” after at first appearing to recover.
July 1900	The head office of PIVM is transferred to Nasarapur.  The monsoon is delayed.  Mr Reeves is unwell and having to rest.  Mr W Perry returns home to Australia, after being ordered to leave by doctor.
Aug 1900	Amy Lowe began training at the Mission Hospital for women in Poona. Miss Robertson, seriously ill for some days.  Mrs Cutts, Mrs Lowe and Miss Wilkes also unwell. From the other bungalow Messrs Low, Strutton, Wark, Ryburn and Valpy were also sick – “chiefly Malarial fever”.  Messrs Plow, Hinton and O’Farrell were also unwell at Nasarapur.
Sep 1900	15th - The Lowe’s leave India (from Bombay to Trieste) having been ‘compelled’ to by their son Frank’s ill health.  Earlier in the year their son Manley (aged 15) had died of a cholera-type illness in seven days (somewhere between April and August).  White Already to Harvest (WATH) September 1900 describes Manley as having a “buoyant disposition and gentle manners”.  He had hoped to undertake medical training and become a missionary.  He had been baptised on arrival at Poona in 1899. Missionaries resting at Mahabaleshwar:  A Morton, Miss K Steel, L Knights, SG Frith, M Sharp, R R Cuttle. 15 plague cases reported in a single day. Mrs Cutts leaves India due to her health.  Mr A H Leigh (PIVM Secretary) also to leave India on medical advice but in fact gets very sick and has to be treated in hospital then convalesce at Mahabaleshwar before he can leave. 13th – Poona Day of Prayer, YMCA rooms, East Street
Oct 1900	Increase in plague victims – 94 deaths in one day.  Miss L Simpson (from PIVM) to be in charge of Parsee Plague Hospital for a few months. 15th – Miss Glesen and Miss and Master de Carteret from NZ join PIVM. 22nd - Jessie dies of Typhoid (Salmonella typhi) in hospital in Poona (? At Sassoon Hospital).  Spread person-to-person via faecal/oral route or contaminated food/water.  Fever develops up to 60 days after infection.  Fever, headache, rash, +/- diahorrea, abdominal pain, delirium, dehydration.  Has set stages that generally take four weeks to progress through to recovery.  Death occurs when bowel perforation or septicaemia occurs.  Clearly Jessie had complications that caused her death. Inoculation for Typhoid was underway by 1910.  The fly was the usual agent of faecal-> oral transmission. Jessie’s mother got the news of her death while returning from Scotland on SS Perthshire on which her son John (from Waitana, Taranaki) was an engineer (SS Perthshire frequently travelled London>NZ (including Bluff>London). 29th – Mrs Reeve arrives in Poona for a 6-month visit.	Who cared for her?  Was her body burned or buried?
Nov 1900	Messrs Rimmer, Bartram, Strange, Duthie, Hinton, Evans, Brown and Badden are spending their holidays at Mahabaleshwar.  Miss Edith Reeve (daughter of Mr Reeve) remains unwell. Dr Watt gives a eulogy for Jessie at the morning service of the Green Island Presbyterian Church.
19 Mar 1901	At monthly prayer meeting of Presbyterian Women’s Missionary Union, Jessie Blair is remembered.  Her aunt, Mrs Kirkland speaks.
	*Miss Alice Henderson (1895-1901) and Miss Helen MacGregor (1892-1901) had previously been stationed in Madras.  Miss Henderson was from Akaroa, Miss MacGregor from Oamaru, she died in 1933 after retiring in 1928).  Miss Henderson and Miss McGregor clearly came to Poona to help out (both sent quite a number of letters – MacGregor 36, Henderson 10 - back to the Presbyterian church which are held in the archives. Miss Henderson wrote several books.) Other Mission stations were at Nasarapur, Khed-Shiwapur, Lonand, Shirwal.

Condolence letter from executive of Presbyterian Women's Missionary Union to Mrs Blair

From the minutes of the March 1901 meeting of the executive:

"The committee of the PWMU have instructed me to offer their deepest sympathy with you and your family in the sorrow which has fallen upon you in the death of your beloved daughter, a sorrow in which they share.

It seems but as yesterday that she stood among them so bright and full of hope to go out to the work so dear to her heart.  How little did they think when they said good-bye that it was farewell - "Early death is early glory" to the young Christian, let this thought be your comfort.

To you it is sorrowing, yet always rejoicing while you mourn your beloved taken away at the threshold of her work, and your hearts bleed for your bereavement, the pain will pass away, but the sure hope that your dear daughter now enjoys happiness unspeakable will not pass away.

Commending you and yours to the love and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, I am yours affectionately, Jane Macdonald."

Missionary Photographs...website

The following is a link to the "International Mission Photography Archive".  There are mostly pictures of southern Indian missions, but still some good ones of day-to-day life and missionary activity that would have been similar to that in Poona.

http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/impa/controller/simplesearch.htm?page=75&x=1328928983664

The Poona Indian Village Mission Group 1900

This photo is reproduced in White Already to Harvest, June 1, 1900.  It may have been taken in May, or perhaps even earlier in the year.  The copy below was provided by the Presbyterian Research Centre, Dunedin.  The photo came from the personal album of Rev. Robert Middleton Ryburn.  His brother, Josiah Ryburn is in the front row holding a bible.

I wonder if Jessie is centre right with the black tie...(click on the image to enlarge it)

Jessie gives a speech at the Presbyterian Women's Missionary Union monthly meeting prior to her departure

This is taken from The Outlook, August 26 1899, p 27, provided by the Presbyterian Research Centre, Dunedin:

"The monthly prayer meeting was held in the hall of First Church on Tuesday, August 15, when there was a large attendance, the hall being quite full...

...Miss Blair who leaves very shortly for India, said that she was going not in her own strength but in that of the Master.  She felt weak and unworthy for the work, but God has said that "they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint."  She asked all those present to follow her with their prayers.  She was going forward to tread an unknown path, but God promised to stand by His servants, and the work will prosper if done in entire dependence on His will.  God is calling now for men and women who will love him with a self-sacrificing love, with deep yearning over dying souls that they may be wakened to a sense of their danger and brought into His kingdom.  Miss Blair said no-one can overestimate the importance of interesting children in mission work, and mentioned two incidents which had given her much pleasure, one of a little boy of seven, who having saved all his pennies for missions gave her the contents of his money box (7s); another of a little girl, who with crochet hook and cotton was able to earn money with which she could help to send the Gospel to those in heathen lands.  Miss Blair concluded by again asking for the earnest prayers of those present."

The "SS Karlsruhe" on which Jessie travelled Melbourne to Colombo departing 12 September 1899

SS Karlsruhe

She had accommodation for 44 first class passengers, 36 second class passengers (Jessie travelled in this class) and 1,955 third class passengers.  Launched in August 1889 she was scrapped in 1908.

http://www.clydesite.co.uk/clydebuilt/viewship.asp?id=712

So what did Jessie do in her year at Mahableshwar?

It is difficult to know, other than what Jessie has described for us in her letter (April 1900) but Isabel Cutts writes in White Already to Harvest:

"HOW NEW MISSIONARIES SPEND THEIR TIME

Experienced missionaries are emphatic in telling us that the first two years of a young missionary's life in the new land of his or her adoption, are years of much importance.  This is found to be true in practical experience.  The language of the country has to be tackled under new and sometimes difficult circumstances, the heat is trying, and in numerous other ways the young missionary in a new and heathen land, has much to learn, in these first years.  It is with the idea of giving each new missionary a fair and square start, in the untried life that lies before them, that the management of the Poona and Indian Village Mission send their young women missionaries as they arrive from the home lands to the Receiving Home, which Home the readers of White Already to Harvest might like to know something about.

When one has all one's life been interested in Foreign Mission Work, and has loved and reverenced with the men and women who have served God in the past even unto death, it is wonderful for such an one, one day to realise at last she is in a heathen land, and that the opportunities and work which she has so longed and prayed for, are actually before her.

It is when our young missionary is brought face to face with men and women with whom she can hold no communication, and whose dark loveless lives she cannot touch, in the way she desires most; it is then that she understands that until she can speak to the people in their own tongue correctly and forcibly, she will be of little use.  To be able to do this will mean months of patient plodding and hard work; and those in authority have deemed that nothing shall come between the student and the aquisition of this difficult language as quickly and perfectly as possible.  The Home of which we have spoken is a large, cool bungalow with lofty roof, and spacious rooms.  Into this bungalow the last party of ladies who arrived from Australia in October were at once taken, and after having a few days to settle and to arrange their private belongings, they were introduced to Marathi and to their teachers, or pundits.  They have just taken in the situation, and knowing as they do, that only one thing is of more importance than being able to speak the language of this people, (among whom they have come to spend the rest of their lives) namely: the health of their won souls, and the abiding presence with them of the blessed Holy Spirit, they have believed that with God, all things are possible, and have gone on in simple dependence upon Him for help, nor has He failed them.

If one were to pass through the reception rooms of this Ladies Bungalow any morning, excepting Saturdays and Sundays, you would see in many corners of these rooms girls who have become children again, and have gone back to school: and as one passes on, one might hear strange sounds and if one were to go near enough, one might see strange characters on the page of the little book our student is so diligently studying with the help of her teacher.  You would be struck with the air of quiet determination on those young faces.  You would see no signs of the home-sickness one hears about in the homelands, as being endured by lonely young missionaries.  Perhaps if your visit was immediately after the delivery of the home mail you might happen to see a tear-stained face once in a while; but this sort of thing is by no means the rule, though the home ties are just as sweet and tender as ever they were, and will remain so too, please God.  Our sisters have put their hand to the plough, and they do not look back.

The girls study from between five and six hours per day; they have regular times for recreation, and each has some little household duty given them, each week; this helps to keep up the home-like feeling in the house.  The awakening bell rings at 6 am but many lamps are lit before that hour.  The dear girls have found that out that the "Morning Watch" is the bet time to meet God, to hear His voice, and to read His Word.

Mr Lowe gives a bible reading four mornings in "The Hall".  Thursday's and Saturday's are reserved exclusively for prayer.  The students have the great advantage of having the Scriptures opened up by Mr Lowe, and opened up in a wonderful way: the teaching is most helpful, and is much appreciated.  After breakfast, we have Family Prayers and a short season of united prayer, immediately after tiffin, draws the household together in the bonds of holy love and intercession.

Monday evening is reserved for mending and darning and while the garments are being mended, and the stockings are being darned, some one reads aloud, from some interesting and instructive book.  Very often Mr Strutton is the reader; and one Wednesday evening Mr Lowe came in to tea unexpectedly, and remained to the little sewing meeting.  Instead of the reading Mr Lowe gave a talk about God's wonderful works in the Heavens, the Sun, the moon and the stars-the work of His hands.  Not so much mending was done that evening: each one laying aside her work just to listen the more intently.  Saturday at the Ladies Bungalow is a rest day, no Marathi, or other work being done by the students.  In the afternoon of that day a little social gathering is held when each one can ask her friends to afternoon tea.  One feature of this home life is that no gathering is ever held (of whatever nature it may be) that God's blessing and guidance is not asked.  The party enjoys good health, and sometimes wonder when the are to meet the hardships they had heard about before leaving home.  They live in the most simple way, both as regards food and clothing; and as the days and weeks pass by every one is happy and contented.  The days are full of quiet work, and in a few months at most, those students will have gone away into the dark Bhor State, into one of the very strongholds of Satan's kingdom to be light bearers for the Master, to tell them of the redemption by the precious blood of Christ which as yet they know nothing of.  May God speedily choose and send forth others who in their turn will be sent on the same errand and with the same blessed message."

White Already to Harvest, February 1 1900.

Clearly this is where Jessie spent her first few months at Poona.  From here (most likely in April, as her letter describes the long journey) Jessie travelled to Mahableshwar, the "rest" station for missionaries in the north.  We know that Jessie's first language examination was in September of 1900.