Western Medicine in China

American Presbyterian missions to China began in the nineteenth century, during a period characterized by conflict within the church over matters of theology, governance, and attitudes towards slavery. This dissention resulted in the formation of new denominations and a split in the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. into Old School and New School branches. A major division in the church occurred with the onset of the Civil War, when Southern Presbyterians split from the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. to form the Presbyterian Church in the Confederate States of America, which would in 1865 become the Presbyterian Church in the U.S. The earliest American Presbyterian missionaries to China arrived in the field before this split, but for the most part American Presbyterian mission work in China was performed under the auspices of the two largest American Presbyterian denominations: the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. (PCUSA), sometimes referred to as Northern Presbyterians, and the Presbyterian Church in the U.S. (PCUS), or Southern Presbyterians.

Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. Medical Mission to China

China was the first and eventually the largest mission field of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. Before the establishment of the Board of Foreign Missions (BFM) of the PCUSA, plans for mission work in China had already begun under the Western Foreign Missionary Society of the Synod of Pittsburgh. At the PCUSA General Assembly meeting of 1837, the church formally organized the BFM, and the mission work of the Western Foreign Missionary Society was taken over by the new denominational agency. The first missionaries appointed by the BFM in 1837 were assigned to China, and they arrived in the field in 1838. Because of China’s restrictions on foreign residents, they settled in Singapore, which had a large Chinese population. The mission developed slowly during its early years because of these residency restrictions and because many of the missionaries had trouble adjusting to the climate and fell ill. With the signing of the Treaty of Nanking at the conclusion of the first Opium War in 1842, port cities opened to foreign settlement, and the mission began to grow. Over the years as the number of stations grew, the BFM organized the field into mission regions to facilitate the administration of the mission effort. By 1923, there were eight PCUSA missions in China: Canton (South China), Shantung, North China, Hainan, Hunan, Central China, Kiangan and Yunnan.

Dr. Divie Bethune McCartee established the first successful PCUSA mission station in mainland China at Ningpo in 1844. Dr. McCartee opened a small dispensary and visited patients in their homes. The opening of the Ningpo dispensary marks the beginning of just over a hundred years of Presbyterian medical missions in China. In the first decades of the mission, much of the medical service at mission stations was provided by non-medical personnel, who dispensed medicine and treatments for common ailments as they evangelized among the Chinese. In these early years, missionaries who held medical degrees engaged in both medical service and evangelistic work. By the late 19^th century, however, more professionally trained physicians and nurses were assigned by the BFM, and medical work gained recognition as an important part of the ministry of the mission.

The first missionary physician sent to China by the BFM for the sole purpose of providing medical service was Dr. John G. Kerr. He arrived in Canton in 1854 and the next year took over superintendency of Canton Christian Hospital, which had been founded by Dr. Peter Parker, the first American medical missionary to China (under the auspices of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions). Under Dr. Kerr’s leadership, the hospital expanded and became a major center for health services and medical education. Sun Yat-sen, the first president of the Republic of China, received some of his medical training at the hospital under Dr. Kerr. Dr. Kerr also founded the Refuge for the Insane in Canton, which was the first hospital in China dedicated to treating mental illness.

The medical work of the PCUSA ranged from the extensive hospital complexes built up over time in large cities such as Canton and Peking, to small dispensaries and clinics in the mission compounds. Many stations eventually opened hospitals. In 1925, the PCUSA missions throughout China operated 36 hospitals with a total of more than 2000 beds.[1]  Many of the hospitals included training programs for Chinese nurses and physicians. Union hospitals and medical schools were an important part of the Presbyterian medical mission. These institutions were the result of cooperation among various American, English, and Canadian Protestant missionary societies and charitable or educational institutions, such as the Rockefeller Foundation, the Harvard-Yenching Institute, or Yale-in-China. Although PCUSA and PCUS missions typically operated independently of each other, they cooperated in several of these union institutions. Missionaries also built institutions to meet social and public health needs; two examples are the Chefoo School for the Deaf in Shantung Province and the Ming Sum School for the Blind in Canton.

In addition to treating patients who came to the facilities within the mission compounds, many medical missionaries visited patients in their homes or set up village clinics to deliver prenatal and well-baby care and lessons on hygiene and nutrition. Home visits and village clinics allowed medical missionaries to reach more women patients, who, because of social constraints, were often unwilling to come to mission hospitals that served male patients or be seen by male doctors. These social constraints meant that women physicians were a vital part of the Presbyterian medical mission almost from its beginning. Many mission stations opened separate wards or hospitals for women and children.

The missionary physician who made the greatest strides towards medical care for women and children among Presbyterian missions was Dr. Mary Hannah Fulton. She arrived in Canton in 1884 and in the early years of her practice, saw patients in a small space in a shop rented by the church. Recognizing the need for an institution dedicated to medical care for women and children, Dr. Fulton, along with her brother, the Rev. Albert A. Fulton, raised funds to build the David Gregg Hospital for Women and Children, which opened in 1901. Over the next several years, Dr. Fulton continued to expand the mission’s services for women and children, adding the E.A.K. Hackett Medical College for Women, the Julia M. Turner Training School for Nurses, the Mary H. Perkins Maternity Ward, and a number of other facilities for medical students and staff.

Medical missionaries helped to lay the foundation for what would become China’s medical education infrastructure, with the establishment of medical and nurse training schools throughout the country, translation of medical texts into Chinese, the formation of professional medical and nursing associations, and the training of several generations of Chinese physicians and nurses. Over the course of the Presbyterian mission in China, the hospitals and medical schools built by the mission were gradually turned over to the management of Chinese medical professionals.

Bercovitz, Nathaniel, 1889-1979
Papers, 1910-1979 (bulk, 1918-1965)
0.08 cubic feet
Call number RG 402
Processed

Abstract
Nathaniel Bercovitz, Sr. was born in 1889 in Constitution, Chile where his parents worked as missionaries. The family later moved to Laguna, New Mexico, where the parents served as missionaries to the Native Americans, and then to San Francisco. Bercovitz graduated from Occidental College in 1910, and received his medical degree from the University of California San Francisco in 1914.  

Choosing the career of his parents, Dr. Bercovitz was appointed by the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. in 1914. In 1915 he married Elva Lorine Higgins, and they sailed for Hainan, China. Dr. Bercovitz was first stationed at Kachek, where for nine years he was superintendent of the Presbyterian mission hospital. In 1926 he was transferred, and became superintendent of the American Presbyterian Hospital at Hoihow. His work was both medical and evangelistic in nature.

Dr. Bercovitz was put under house arrest by the Japanese from 1939 to 1941, at which time he was sent back to the United States. During the war years he served as a civilian physician for naval trainees at Occidental College in Los Angeles. He returned to Hainan in 1946 to continue his work as superintendent of the American Hospital in Hoihow, as well as the Hainan orphanage and leprosarium. He also supervised the medical and relief program of the Church Committee for Relief in Asia. In 1950 he was again put under house arrest, this time by Communist Chinese forces. He continued under house arrest for nearly two years, 10 months, most of this time confined to a small room at the hospital.

After gaining permission to return to America in 1953, Dr. Bercovitz served as medical adviser to the Synod of Southern California until his retirement in 1959. He then continued as medical director for Westminster Gardens retirement home for missionaries, and was also an active board member of several Presbyterian retirement homes and hospitals in Southern California. He was Vice Moderator of General Assembly in 1954. His wife, Elva, died in 1965, and in 1966 he married Ruth (Hislaw) Walline, widow of Edwin Walline of the China mission. Bercovitz died in 1979.

This collection consists primarily of Dr. Bercovitz's writings, correspondence, and publications during his tenure as a missionary in China, as well as numerous photographic records of his clinical cases; notes contain personal commentaries on readings, Chinese politics, and missionary work. Also included in the collection are several clippings and publications pertaining to Wang Ngo Lim, M.D., who worked under Dr. Bercovitz.

Guide to the Nathaniel Bercovitz Papers, RG 402

Related material
For additional information on Dr. Nathaniel Bercovitz, see the following item:

Bercovitz, Nathaniel. “Presbyterian Medical Missionary Work at Hoi How, China” (1 page typescript, call number NT8.3 B463ph).

Bradshaw, Homer V. (Homer Vernon), 1899-
Papers, 1937-1982 (bulk: 1948-1950)
0.50 cubic feet
Call number RG 188
Processed

Abstract
Homer Vernon Bradshaw was appointed by the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. as a medical missionary to the South China Mission in 1928. The majority of his career was spent at Linhsien Station where he headed the medical staff of the Van Norden Memorial Hospital for Men and the Brooks Memorial Hospital for Women. He later taught surgery in the Hackett Medical College in Canton. From 1942 to 1945, he served in the U.S. Air Force as a flight surgeon with Chennault's Flying Tigers in China. Following the war, he returned to missionary service in China in his former capacity. In 1951, he and his wife, Wilda Hockenberry Bradshaw, were arrested by the Chinese Communists and incarcerated until their release in 1955. Bradshaw retired from mission work in 1964.

This collection consists primarily of Homer Vernon Bradshaw's correspondence, written between 1937 and 1957, with the bulk of the letters dating from 1948 to 1950. Included are sermons about his experiences while in prison and clippings and miscellaneous material relating to his work at the Van Norden Memorial Hospital for Men and the Brooks Memorial Hospital for Women in Linhsien.

Guide to the Homer V. Bradshaw Papers, RG 188

Related material
For additional information on Dr. Homer V. Bradshaw, see the following items:

Bradshaw, Homer V. Interview of Wilda and Homer V. Bradshaw by Margaret Deck (call number CASSETTE TAPE 930). There is a transcript of this interview as well (call number MS C272 (930)).

Homer V. Bradshaw papers, 1947-1950 (1 folder, call number MS B7286h). This collection includes correspondence regarding the administration of the mission hospitals in Linhsien and Dr. Bradshaw’s incarceration following the Communist Revolution.

Carpenter, Alice M. (Alice Margaret), 1897-1985
Papers, ca. 1900-ca. 1986 (bulk: 1920-1940)
0.50 cubic feet
Call number RG 206
Processed

Abstract
Alice Margaret Carpenter was appointed to the South China Mission of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. in 1922. Following two years of language study, she served as a teacher at the Ming Sum School for the Blind from 1924-1937. She taught English in Canton at the Pooi Ying Middle School and the Turner Training School of Nursing from 1925-1937 and 1938-1941 respectively. In 1943, she was evacuated from Canton and returned to the United States; she resigned from missionary service in 1945.

This collection consists of correspondence, photographs, clippings, and other miscellaneous items which primarily document Carpenter’s missionary service in China from 1922 through the early 1940s, though some later materials are also included. Her correspondence from the late 1930s is particularly rich in describing the war in China, notably the bombing of Canton, from 1937 until her evacuation in 1943. Records reflect her work as an English teacher at Ming Sum School for the Blind, Pooi Ying Middle School, and the Julia M. Turner Training School for Nurses, Canton, China.

Guide to the Alice M. Carpenter Papers, RG 206

Crawford, Francis Randolph, 1884-1966 and Crawford, Martha Paxton Moffett, 1891-1981
Papers, 1890-1941
1.25 cubic feet
Call number RG 437
Processed

Abstract
Francis Randolph Crawford was born in 1884 in Kernstown, Virginia. While in college at Washington and Lee University, he made the decision to become a medical missionary. He attended Johns Hopkins Medical School, graduating in 1911, and then continued his preparation as a surgeon at hospitals in Pittsburgh, Clifton Springs, New York, and Germany.

Dr. Crawford received his appointment from the Executive Committee of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S., and in February 1914, he left Germany and traveled through Switzerland and Italy en route to China. He arrived in April and assumed his position as chief surgeon at the Mid-China Mission in Kiangyin. In May of 1917, Francis Crawford married Martha Paxton "Paxie" Moffett. In September of that same year, the Crawfords moved to the Kashing Hospital, the largest Presbyterian Church in the U.S. mission hospital in China. Dr. Crawford served as the hospital's superintendent for ten years. Paxton Crawford engaged in evangelistic work for the mission.

By the mid-1920s the political situation in China was rapidly deteriorating. In 1927, under pressure to leave, the Crawfords left Kashing and went to Shanghai. After the Kashing mission compound was taken over by soldiers, they decided to return to the United States, where Dr. Crawford ran a private practice for two and a half years. In 1930, the Crawfords returned to mission work in China, serving until 1933. The Crawfords returned once more to the United States and Dr. Crawford again took up private practice. He retired in 1965. Dr. Crawford died in 1966, and Paxton Crawford died in 1981.

This collection consists primarily of correspondence and photographs. The bulk of the correspondence is addressed to Francis Crawford’s parents and sister and describes the work at the Kiangyin and Kashing Hospitals, as well as civil, political, and military events in China. The collection also includes Francis Crawford's 1914 diary describing his travels through Europe to China; a 1919 travel narrative by another missionary, entitled "A Trip Down the Dzein Daung River;" and a pamphlet on the Rev. Hugh Watt White. Photographs, photographic postcards, and negatives in the collection depict Dr. Crawford’s journey to China, the Elizabeth Blake Hospital in Soochow, the staff of the Kashing Hospital, and Crawford family members.

Guide to the Francis Randolph Crawford and Paxton Crawford Papers, RG 437

Dobson, William Hervie, 1870-1965
Papers, 1893-1964 (bulk: 1897-1904)
1.00 cubic foot
Call number RG 204
Processed

Abstract
William Hervie Dobson was born in 1870 in Vineland, New Jersey. In 1897 he was sent as a surgeon to the Yeungkong Station of the South China Mission of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. The first Presbyterian missionary to learn the Yeungkong dialect, Dr. Dobson worked in the Canton region as evangelist, surgeon, and teacher until 1940, when he was honorably retired from the mission field. He was married in 1899 to Effie W. Moore (d.1916). At the time of his death, Dr. Dobson was survived by his two sons: Hervey and Connelly.

The collection consists of correspondence, daybooks, photographs, and one folder of miscellaneous material. The bulk of the collection covers the early years of Dr. Dobson's work in the Yeungkong mission station and at the Forman Memorial Hospital (1897-1904). The correspondence is highly descriptive and contains Dr. Dobson's first impressions of China as well as narrative accounts of the daily life and duties of a missionary doctor. Included in this series is an account of the Boxer Rebellion. The majority of the photographs in the collection date from 1901 to 1904.

Guide to the William Hervie Dobson Papers, RG 204

Related material
For more information about Dr. William H. Dobson, see the following:

William Hervie Dobson papers, 1898-1956 (0.5 cubic feet, call number SPP 91 (10 0621)). This collection contains additional material documenting Dobson’s work as a missionary in Yeungkong. Included are “dear friends” letters and news sheets describing the work of the station, circa 1898 to 1940; correspondence received by Dr. Dobson during the same period; several of Dr. Dobson’s writings, including published medical articles; printed reports from Yeungkong station and Forman Memorial Hospital; a 1940 publication on the 38^th anniversary of Forman Memorial Hospital and Dr. Dobson’s retirement; South China Mission reports; a memorial minute for Dr. Mary Hannah Fulton; and assorted clippings and photographs.

Dobson, William H. “History of South China Mission,” 1937-1940 (call number MS D659hs). This is a typed draft and notes for a history of the mission compiled by Dr. Dobson. It includes information on the medical work being done at the mission and notes on work with lepers.

King family
Papers, 1895-1967
0.33 cubic feet
Call number SPP 70 (08 0608)
Processed

Abstract
Dr. Goldsby King became the city physician of Selma, Alabama in 1885. Dr. King, his wife, Annie G. King, and their two daughters, Annie G. King and Dulie A. King, were members of the First Presbyterian Church of Selma, Alabama. The Kings provided financial support to the foreign mission work and to the missionaries of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S., and were responsible for the establishment of three mission hospitals in China, Brazil, and the Belgian Congo.

Charlotte Audrey Dunlap was born in Simpson, South Carolina, in 1894. She was trained at the St. Joseph’s Training School for Nurses in Baltimore, Maryland, graduating in 1916 and passing the State Board examinations in 1919. She worked at St. Joseph’s Hospital as operating room superintendent and did private nursing. In 1922 she was appointed as a missionary to China by the Executive Committee of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S. After one year of language study at the Nanking Language School, and another year doing hospital work and continuing to study the language at Sutsien Station, she was assigned to the Goldsby King Hospital, in Chinkiang. She remained at the hospital until shortly after the Communist Revolution, when she requested an exit permit and left China. Dunlap also served as a missionary in Taiwan from 1953 to 1965.

This collection consists primarily of correspondence from Charlotte A. Dunlap to Mrs. Annie G. King and Miss Annie G. King, 1925-1965. Dunlap's letters from Chinkiang chronicle Goldsby King Memorial Hospital, her work, the Kings’ financial support and friendship, and China's political climate. A few 1930s annual reports, some correspondence from other Chinkiang missionaries, and a 1950 photograph further document the Goldsby King Memorial Hospital. Included as well is some correspondence from other PCUS missionaries assigned to China, Japan, Korea, Brazil, and the Belgian Congo, 1920s-1960s.

Logan, Florence Leila, 1897-1997
Papers, circa 1910-1954
0.33 cubic feet
Call number RG 241
Processed

Abstract
Florence Leila Logan was born in 1897 in Rhodes, Iowa. She graduated in 1919 from the University of Washington with a degree in journalism. She also attended the Bible Institute of Los Angeles and Moody Bible Institute, 1919-1921. Influenced by a Missionary Education Movement Conference, she applied to the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. and was assigned to Paotingfu Station of the North China Mission in 1921. Logan served as an evangelist there until her repatriation on the S.S. Gripsholm in 1942. She returned after the war, but was forced to leave after the Communist takeover. She served in Taiwan until her retirement in 1962. She published leaflets and songbooks in Chinese, as well as articles in English. She also translated for publication the works of The Rev. Andrew Gih, a noted Chinese evangelist.

The collection consists of home letters and photographs depicting missionary life and work with emphasis on evangelistic work. Home letters of Logan comprise the bulk of the collection, but there are also letters from several medical missionaries, including John Herman Wylie, M.D., (1923), Maud Mackey, M.D.,(1937), and Myrtle J. Hinkhouse, M.D. (1939-1940), included. The photographs (ca. 1910-1941) depict both the foreign and Chinese staffs of the mission, Chinese Christians, and the general population. There are also pictures of hospitals, dispensaries and clinics; missionary doctors and nurses in Paotingfu and Peking; and graduates of the North China Union Medical College for Women. Of note are a series of tinted photographic postcards showing the facilities and staff of Hodge Memorial Hospital in Paotingfu in 1931.

Guide to the Florence Leila Logan Papers, RG 241

McCartee family
Papers, 1854-1906
0.50 cubic feet
Call number RG 177
Processed

Access note: this collection is also available on microfilm (call number MF POS 1608)

Abstract
Divie Bethune McCartee (1820-1900) was appointed by the Board of Foreign Missions as a missionary to China in 1843. He arrived in Ningpo in 1844 and was primarily involved in medial and evangelistic work. In 1853, Dr. McCartee married Juana M. Knight, a fellow missionary also serving in Ningpo. Besides his missionary responsibilities, Dr. McCartee performed consular services in China until a regular consulate was established there in 1857, and in 1862 he was appointed vice-consul to Japan.

The McCartees returned to Ningpo in 1865 to resume their missionary work. In 1872, they were transferred to the Shanghai mission but resigned shortly thereafter so that Dr. McCartee could join the Shanghai consular staff as interpreter and assessor to the Mixed Court. Until 1877, Dr. McCartee served as professor in the Imperial University of Tokyo and acted as secretary of the Chinese legation in that city.

In 1885, Dr. McCartee was appointed counselor to the Japanese legation in Washington, D.C. Two years later the McCartees were reappointed by the Board of Foreign Missions to the Japan Mission, where they served until Dr. McCartee’s retirement in 1900.

Dr. McCartee was a prolific writer whose published works included treatises on Asian history, linguistics, natural science, medicine, politics and religion.

This collection consists primarily of the correspondence of Divie Bethune McCartee and his wife, Juana Knight McCartee, 1854-1906. The correspondence is mostly outgoing and includes letters to the Board of Foreign Missions, to Henry William Rankin, the McCartees’ nephew, and to Franklin Knight, Juana McCartee’s father. Also included is correspondence relating to Dr. McCartee’s consular service. While the letters do not contain extensive discussion of Dr. McCartee’s medical work they document the efforts by one of the earliest Presbyterian medical missionaries to set up the denomination’s first permanent mission station and its first medical dispensary in China.

Guide to the McCartee Family Papers, RG 177

Related material
For more information about Dr. Divie Bethune McCartee, see the following collections and publication:

Rankin family papers, 1842-1935 (2 cubic feet, call number RG 176). This collection includes notes on the history of mission work in China and Japan by Henry William Rankin; some of these notes focus on the work of Divie Bethune McCartee.

McCartee photographs (call number Gal. III M1268d). Portraits of Divie Bethune McCartee and Juana Knight McCartee.

Speer, Robert. A missionary pioneer in the Far East : a memorial of Divie Bethune McCartee. New York, Chicago [etc.]: Fleming H. Revell Company, c1922 (call number BV 3400 .M122 1922).

McKillican, Janet Christie, 1854-1943
Papers, 1888-1943
0.20 cubic feet (4 folders)
Call number SPP 12 (99 0810, 99 1124, 00 0225a, and 00 0823b)
Processed

Abstract
Janet Christie McKillican was born in 1854 in Van Kleek Hill, Ontario, Canada. She attended the Farrand Training School for Nurses in Detroit, Michigan. In September, 1888, she was appointed to the North China Mission by the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A . She arrived in Tientsin, China in November, 1888. McKillican was initially assigned to medical work, but in her second year in the field, was asked to take up evangelistic work for women. She taught at the Union Bible School for Women in Peking and worked in mission stations in Paotingfu and Shunteh. Although evangelism was her primary endeavor in China, she also taught at the Union Training School for Nurses, and during the Boxer Rebellion, she worked in the International Hospital in Peking. After 38 years in China, she retired and returned to Van Kleek Hill. She died in October, 1943.

This collection of correspondence and photographs documents Janet McKillican’s work as a missionary in China from 1888 to 1926. The letters describe her preparation for missionary service, her journey to China, and her work at mission stations in Peking and Paotingfu. The letters are very descriptive and paint a vivid picture of the daily life of a China missionary. Letters from 1900 describe the effect of the Boxer Rebellion on the missionaries in North China. The collection includes typescripts of letters from 1891 to 1899. Other materials in the collection include photographs of McKillican’s fellow missionaries and of Chinese patients treated at mission hospitals, and a 1943 memorial minute for McKillican.

Millican family
Papers, 1900-1984 (bulk: 1917-1964)
3.00 cubic feet
Call number RG 199
Processed

Abstract
Frank R. Millican (1883-1961) and his wife Aimee Boddy Millican (1884-1974) were Methodist missionaries from 1907-1915 in Hunan, China. They were granted a transfer to the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A.'s mission at Ningpo in 1916. From 1917 to 1929, Frank Millican served as Principal of the Presbyterian Boys' High School and later the Union Middle School. In the 1930s, he translated, edited and supervised the distribution of literature for the Christian Literature Society, Shanghai. Aimee Millican started a Christian Broadcasting station in Shanghai. Due to increasing political tensions in China, Rev. Millican returned alone to Shanghai in 1941 from furlough. He was interned by the Japanese until 1945. The Communist takeover forced the Millicans' transfer to the Philippines in 1950. Rev. Millican taught three years at Union Theological Seminary in Manila and at Silliman University, and Aimee Millican resumed her broadcasting work. The Millicans retired from missionary service in 1953.

Edith Frances Millican (1914-1985), their daughter, earned her M.D. from the Women's Medical College of Philadelphia and was appointed as a missionary in 1941. War delayed her sailing so she joined the staff of the Board of National Mission's Embudo Presbyterian Hospital in New Mexico. In 1943, she went to China as physician to the 14th Air Force Fighter Squadron, later working with refugees in Hengyang, Kweiyang, Pichieh, and Kweichow. In 1946 she took charge of the Chenhsien Hospital, Hunan. Unable to return to China after her 1948 furlough, she took a residency at the Women's Medical College, then returned to Embudo in 1951. In 1956 she worked at St. Luke's Hospital in Spokane, Washington, before becoming resident physician at the Mora Valley Medical Unit in Cleveland, New Mexico in 1957. She resigned from the Board in 1964 and entered private practice in New Mexico. She died in 1985.

Records document the Millicans' missionary experiences in China, and to a lesser extent in the Philippines, emphasizing the difficulties of their work during the Sino-Japanese War of the late 1930s and during the post-World War II years. Edith Millican’s correspondence documents her medical work in China during and after World War II, giving insight into the training and experiences of, and opportunities for, American women doctors. Also included are photographs showing Presbyterian mission facilities, fellow missionaries, and portraits of Millican family members.

Guide to the Millican Family Papers, RG 199

Related material
For additional information on Dr. Edith Millican, see the following publication:

Millican, Edith F. Where the cranes fly: the adventures of Edith F. Millican, M.D. in China, 1943-1948 : a medical adventure under the Presbyterian Church in war-torn China. n.p., c1987 (call number FOLIO R 722.32 .M55 1987).

Drexel University College of Medicine Archives and Special Collections, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, holds the following related collection:

Edith Millican, M.D. letters, [1943-1948]
16 items
Accession number 22

Mills, Annetta Eugenia Thompson, 1853-1929
Papers, 1883-1938, 1968
0.04 cubic feet (2 folders)
Call number SPP 66 (06 0506b)
Processed

Abstract
Annetta Eugenia Thompson was born in Portage, New York, in 1853. As a young woman she taught her brother, who was deaf, and when he was accepted at the Western New York Institution for Deaf-Mutes in Rochester, New York, she accompanied him. Her work with deaf students impressed the school’s director, and she was hired as a teacher at the school. While there, she met Rev. Charles Rogers Mills, a widower and missionary to China for the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. whose son was enrolled at the school. In 1884, she accompanied Rev. Mills back to China and they were married. She continued her work with deaf students in China, teaching her first class of students in 1887 in Tengchow. After her husband’s death in 1895, she suspended the work of the school and engaged in evangelistic missionary work so she could receive a salary from the Board of Foreign Missions. During this time, she continued to raise funds to reopen the school. In 1898, she and her family moved to Chefoo, where she reopened the school with a class of seven students. She continued to run the school until her retirement in 1923. Her niece, Anita Carter, succeeded her as the school’s director. Mills was living in Nanking with her son Samuel, who was also a missionary, during the Nanking incident of 1927, and evacuated the city along with the other foreign residents. She then returned to the United States, and lived in Chicago with her other son, Roger, until her death in 1929.

This collection consists of photocopies of 1968 typescripts of two of Annetta Thompson's 1883 letters to her parents, a photocopy of a 1968 typescript of Charles Rogers Mills' 1883 letter to Annetta Thompson's parents, a photocopy of Anita E. Carter's 1938 Sketch of the Life of Annetta Thompson Mills, Founder of The Chefoo School for the Deaf, and several annotated photographs mounted on board primarily documenting the Mills, the Chefoo station of the Shantung Mission, and the School for the Deaf at Chefoo. One photograph is of Mills working with a student, another is of a group of students in front of the school. Photographs date from 1890 to 1901.

Related material
For more information about Annetta Eugenia Thompson Mills, see the following:

Mills family papers, 1856-1975 (1.00 cubic foot, accession number 02 0322b). This collection includes memoirs and notes by Samuel Mills, Annetta E.T. Mills’ son. In his memoirs he describes his life growing up in a missionary family and talks briefly about the work of both of his parents. The collection also includes numerous photographs of the Mills family, several of which feature Annetta E.T. Mills.

The Presbyterian Historical Society also holds the following publication:

Carter, Anita E. Sketch of the life of Annetta Thompson Mills, founder of the Chefoo School for the Deaf. Chefoo: James McMullan & Co., [1938] (call number MR3 .M624s). Note: this is the pamphlet which can be found as a photocopy in the Annetta Eugenia Thompson Mills papers.

The Sophia Smith Collection at Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts holds the following related collection:

Annetta Thompson Mills Papers, 1857-1993
1.25 linear feet
Collection number: MS 455

Morgan, Lorenzo Seymour, 1875-1955 and Morgan, Ruth Bennett, 1877-1955
Papers, 1897-2001
1.33 cubic feet
Accession numbers 999.104, 2000.026, 2001.045
Unprocessed; collection is open for research

Abstract
Lorenzo Seymour Morgan was born in Illinois in 1875. Morgan attended Knox College, Galesburg, Illinois, where he became involved in the World’s Student Movement, which led to his interest in medical missionary work. He attended Johns Hopkins Medical School, where he met Ruth Bennett, a fellow medical student, who would become his wife in the summer of 1904. That same year, the Morgans were both appointed as missionaries by the Executive Committee of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S. They arrived in Chinkiang, China early in 1905 and studied the language there for a short period before being transferred to the Tsingkiangpu station of the North Kiangsu Mission, where they assisted Dr. James Woods with the station’s medical work. In 1908, they were transferred to Haichow to help complete the Ellen Lavine Graham Hospital which was then under construction. In addition to medical work at the mission station, Lorenzo Morgan was active in plague and famine relief in North China. In 1932, the Morgans transferred to the Presbyterian Hospital in Chinkiang. In 1934, they ended their connection with the Southern Presbyterian Mission, transferring to the Methodist Mission Board, and moving to Wuhu, Anhui Province, where they worked in the General Hospital. Ruth Morgan returned to the United States due to ill health in 1941. In November, 1942, Lorenzo Morgan, along with the entire foreign staff of the Wuhu General Hospital, was interned by the Japanese. He was moved to Shanghai, where he remained in Japanese custody until October, 1945, at which time he returned to Wuhu General Hospital. Lorenzo Morgan retired from the field and returned to the United States in 1946.

The collection includes original photos and photo postcards from the Morgans' medical mission work in China, including images of patients, hospitals, medical staff, plague prevention work in Tatung (north of Peking) in 1910-1911 and 1918, and famine relief work. The collection also includes transcripts of letters written by the Morgans to family members; and documentation of a trip to China in 2000 taken by the Morgans’ son Carrel Morgan and his family.

Related material
Yale Divinity School Library, New Haven, Connecticut, holds the following related collection:

Lorenzo and Ruth Bennett Morgan Papers, 1862-2001
21 linear feet
Record Group No. 126

Scovel family
Papers, 1832-1984
1.50 cubic feet
Call number RG 370
Processed

Abstract
Carl Wadsworth Scovel was born in 1866. He attended Hamilton and Roberts Colleges and Auburn Theological Seminary, graduating in 1894. In 1900 he married Louise Gilman Kiehle, a graduate of the Curry School of Public Expression in Boston. At this time he was serving as pastor of the Babcock Brown Memorial Church in Baltimore. Their only child, Frederick, was born there in 1902. In 1912 Scovel accepted a call to the Presbyterian Church in Cortland, NY; he served that congregation until his death in 1932.

Frederick Gilman Scovel entered Hamilton College in 1921. He went on to take his medical degree at Cornell, where he met a nurse named Myra Scott. They married after his graduation in 1929 and the following year they and their newborn son sailed for China as employees of the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A.

After language training in Peking, the Scovels were assigned to a hospital in Shantung Province. In 1943 the entire family, which had grown to include four more children, was interned by the Japanese. After six months' detention the Japanese deported them to the United States; Myra Scovel gave birth to a sixth child within hours after their ship docked in New York Harbor.

In 1946 the Scovels returned to China, this time to Anhwei Province. They transferred to the Hackett Medical Center in Canton in 1948, remaining there until 1951 when they were forced out by the Chinese Communists. In 1953 they began a six-year term of service to the India Mission, working as professor and librarian at the Christian Medical College in Ludhiana. In 1959 they returned to the United States for the last time. Dr. Scovel began a private practice in Stony Point, NY, and Myra Scovel wrote several books, some based on her family's China and India experiences and some written for children.

This collection is largely made up of papers of four of the Scovels; Carl and Louise Scovel and their son and daughter-in-law Frederick and Myra Scovel. There are also a few materials from Frederick and Myra Scovel's children, and one diary kept by Carl Scovel's brother Louie. Materials documenting Frederick and Myra Scovel’s work as missionaries in China include diaries; personal reports and letters from Myra Scovel; correspondence sent by Frederick and Myra Scovel to family members; and articles on China and on medicine kept by Frederick Scovel.

Guide to the Scovel Family Papers, RG 370

Related material
The Presbyterian Historical Society holds a series of slides taken by Frederick Scovel of medical mission facilities in China (call number SLIDES B47 (1-23)). Note that the slides are not labeled, so exact locations and dates are unknown. The society also has a number of Myra Scovel’s published works, though none of these provide extensive information about the couple’s medical work.

The University of Oregon Libraries, Special Collections & University Archives, Eugene, Oregon holds the following related collection:

Frederick and Myra Scovel Papers, 1930-1974
2 linear feet
Collection number Ax707

A copy of the finding aid to these papers can be found in the Scovel family papers collection at the Presbyterian Historical Society.

Shields, Randolph T., 1877-1958
Papers, 1914-1943
0.05 cubic feet
Accession number 991.26
Unprocessed; collection is open for research

Abstract

Randolph Tucker Shields was born in Natchez, Mississippi, in 1877. He graduated from Washington and Lee University in 1898 and went on to study medicine at the University College of Medicine in Richmond, Virginia, receiving his M.D. in 1901. In 1904, he was appointed by the Executive Committee of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S. to be a missionary to the Mid-China Mission. Before setting off for the field, he married Ella Randolph Page. The Shields were first stationed in Tunghsiang, where they studied the language and began their missionary work. After three years, they were transferred to Soochow, where Dr. Shields taught medical students at Elizabeth Blake Hospital. The following year, they were transferred to Nanking. Dr. Shields was part of the effort to establish the East China Union Medical College in Nanking, which, along with the Drum Tower Hospital, formed the medical department of the University of Nanking. Dr. Shields served as the Medical College’s dean and taught courses in anatomy, embryology, and histology. In 1917, he was assigned to the Cheeloo University College of Medicine (later called the School of Medicine of Shantung Christian University) in Tsinan. There he taught embryology and histology, and practiced obstetrics and parasitology. He served as the Medical School’s dean from 1926 to 1935. He remained at the University until his retirement in 1941.

The collection includes a small amount of general correspondence; writings by Dr. Shields on missionary medicine and on medicine in China; and two typescripts: "Changing China from Within," 1936, and "Co-operation in Medical Work," 1914. The collection also contains a number of printed materials from Cheeloo University, including reports of the School of Medicine for scattered years between 1926 and 1936; lists of graduates of the School of Medicine; a directory of Cheeloo University and foreign residents in Tsinan, 1939; and several Cheeloo University calendars.

Related material
For additional information on Dr. Randolph Shields, see the following collection:

United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. Commission on Ecumenical Mission and Relations. Medical Department. Records, 1921-1961 (5.00 cubic feet, call number RG 144). Correspondence from Randolph Shields is located in Series 6: Missionary/Colleague Correspondence.

The Presbyterian Historical Society also holds the following publication:

Shields, Randolph T. “Medical education in China.” n.p., [1936] (Reprinted from The Presbyterian Survey, Aug. 1936) (call number PAM FOL R 812 .C5 S5 1936).

Tootell, George T., 1886-
Papers, 1931-1950
0.25 cubic feet (18 folders)
Call number SPP 34 (86 1007)
Processed

Abstract
George Thomas Tootell was born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1886. He received his medical training at the Chicago College of Medicine and Surgery. In 1912, he and his wife, Anna Eleanor (Kidder) Tootell, were appointed by the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. to serve in Hunan, China. They arrived in 1913, and after a period of language study in Nanking, Dr. Tootell began medical work at Changteh Hospital in Hunan. In addition to his long tenure at Changteh Hospital, he also served as interim superintendent at Chenchow Hospital from 1917 to 1919 and from 1923 to 1924; as Director of medical work for the Hunan Mission from 1928 to 1929; as surgeon at the Yale Hospital in China from 1928 to 1929; and as Field Director for the International Red Cross from 1937 to 1939. In 1942 and 1943, he provided medical service to members of the Flying Tigers air squadron.

In 1952, the Tootells retired from missionary service, though Dr. Tootell continued his medical practice. He worked as an obstetrician in Berkeley, California, and served as ship’s surgeon for American President Lines during several voyages to the Far East.

This collection consists of typescript notes for memoirs, based on letters written by the Tootells and others between 1931 and 1950, during their work as missionaries in Hunan. The notes describe the life of a medical missionary, including hospital work, outcalls, other travels around China, activities of fellow missionaries, and, notably, political events in the region and interactions with the Chinese people. The collection includes an index to subjects and people mentioned in Dr. Tootell’s memoirs. This index indicates that the memoirs span the years 1913 to 1950; the notes present in the collection span the years 1931 to 1950. The collection also includes a memorial to George Tootell and a summary of his professional activities.

Related material
For additional information on Dr. George Tootell, see the following publication:

Tootell, George Thomas. Hazards of the mission field. Duarte, CA, n.p. [1951] (call number NT8.3 T619h).

Venable, Wade Hampton, 1867-1952
Papers, 1893-1952
1.00 cubic foot (14 volumes)
Accession numbers 96579 96580 96581 96582 96583 96584 96585 96586 96587 96588 96589 96590 96591 96592
Unprocessed; collection is open for research

Abstract
Wade Hampton Venable was born near Fredericksburg, Virginia, in 1867. He attended the University of Virginia, graduating with a degree in Latin and mathematics. He received his M.D. from the same university in 1889. After graduation, he received postgraduate training at the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York, and several hospitals in New York and Connecticut. In 1893, he was appointed as a missionary to China by the Executive Committee of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S. He sailed in the fall of that year. On the same ship was Eliza Talbot, whom he would marry shortly after their arrival in Shanghai. For the first year and a half of their stay in China, the Venables lived in Sinchang, near Kashing, studying the language. In 1895, the couple moved to Kashing and began providing medical treatment to that city’s residents. After years of conducting medical work out of modified Chinese houses, the station’s first hospital building was constructed in 1908. The Venables continued their work at Kashing until 1917, when they had to travel to the United States because of Dr. Venable’s health. They returned to China in 1919, taking up medical work in Kuling, where they treated many foreign missionaries as well as Chinese patients. The Venables retired from the field in 1927.

The collection consists of diaries kept by Dr. Wade Venable between 1893 and 1952. The diary entries, while typically quite brief, document Venable’s professional, social, and cultural activities throughout his career as a missionary and after his return to the United States. Most entries include a note of the day’s weather, and many discuss visits with patients and give brief information on the medical care they received. Other information found in the entries includes lectures and musical performances the Venables attended; social events with colleagues and friends; attendance at church and religious meetings; and the Venables’ travels.

Woods family
Papers, 2002
0.25 cubic feet
Accession number 03 1216e
Unprocessed; collection is open for research

Abstract
Edgar Woods, Jr. was one of the pioneering medical missionaries of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S. He was appointed as a missionary in 1887, arriving at Tsingkiangpu station in Kiangsu Province. His brother, the Rev. Henry Woods, an evangelistic missionary, preceded him to the station, having arrived in 1884. Another brother, Dr. James Baker Woods, was also assigned to the station in 1894. Dr. Edgar Woods was forced to retire from the field in 1899 because of his wife’s health. Dr. James Woods remained in China until 1941.

The collection includes color photocopies of family photographs, genealogical information about the Woods family, photocopies of excerpts from Edgar Woods' diary, speech given by Woods' granddaughter, Brooke Woods Frautschi, on the occasion of the anniversary of the hospital founded by Woods in China, and a 2002 pamphlet about the history of the hospital.

Worth family
Papers, 1909-1936
1.50 cubic feet
Accession numbers 991.56, 991.81, 994.009, 997.114, 999.021
Unprocessed; collection is open for research

Abstract
George Clarkson Worth was born in 1867 in Wilmington, North Carolina. He graduated from the University of North Carolina, and then received his medical degree from the University of Virginia. In 1895 he was appointed as a missionary by the Executive Committee of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S. He married Emma Chadbourn in July, 1895, and the following month the two sailed for China. After two years in Wusih, the Worths were transferred to Kiangyin, where they remained until retirement from missionary service in 1936. For much of his time in Kiangyin, Dr. Worth was the only missionary physician, though he trained a number of Chinese physicians.

The Worths’ daughter, Ruth Worth, was a medical technician who served as a missionary in China from 1932 to 1951, and later served as a missionary in the Congo/Zaire. The Worths’ two sons were also missionaries; Charles William Worth served as an evangelistic missionary in China, and William Chadworth Worth served as a missionary in Congo/Zaire.

This collection consists of correspondence, photographs, and two scrapbooks kept by Ruth Worth documenting her missionary work in Africa and China. The collection also includes personal correspondence of Dr. George Worth, Sr., written between 1909 and 1936, and correspondence to and from the Reverend Charles Worth in China, 1927-1936.

Yates family
Papers, 1922-circa 1981 (bulk: 1922-1954)
1.50 cubic feet
Call number RG 234
Processed

Abstract
Theodore M. Yates was born in England in 1894, the son of a Salvation Army officer who came to the United States in 1895. Yates attended Richmond Academy in Augusta, Georgia and earned his M.D. at the University of Georgia in 1919. He did his internship at Roosevelt Hospital in New York City, where he met Jean Kammerer from Toronto, Canada, who was attending the Roosevelt Training School for Nurses. In 1922 the Yateses were married and in 1923 went to China, under appointment by the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A.. The Yateses were assigned to the Hwai Yuan Station of the Kiangan Mission. A son, James Kammerer Yates, was born on December 22, 1923, and a daughter, Christina Jean Yates, on October 20, 1926. In 1941, due to war conditions, Mrs. Yates and the children returned to the United States, to be followed in 1942 by Dr. Yates on the S.S. Gripsholm. The Yateses resigned from missionary service in 1948.

The bulk of the Yates Family Papers consists of the letters of Dr. and Mrs. Yates to their relatives in the United States and Canada and to each other when they were apart. There are also several letters from other missionaries and Chinese workers. The correspondence provides a vivid picture of the life of a missionary family and the political, social and medical problems of missionary work in the turbulent China of the 1920s and 1930s. The collection also includes a diary kept by Jean Yates in 1933 and several photographs.

Guide to the Yates Family Papers, RG 234