Francis W. and Lydia Lord Davis Papers, 1877-1944

SERIES DESCRIPTIONS

Series I. Lord Family Correspondence, 1877-98, undated  (2f)

Contains letters to and from the Lord family of Ravenna, Ohio. Correspondence includes six letters (1887-88) from Lydia Lord (1867-1952) to her parents, Eleazer (1823-1904) and Mary Lord (1844-1929). A letter (1885) to Eleazer Lord from one J. Ross Lee describes Lydia's progress at Normal School in Ada, Ohio. Correspondence is chronologically arranged.

Series II. Courtship Correspondence Between Lydia Lord and Francis Davis, June-August 1889  (1f)

Includes two letters written by Lydia Lord and 21 letterswritten by Francis Davis. Letters date from the six-week period following the couple's first meeting and prior to their August 14 marriage. Subjects discussed include the propriety of Lydia's attendance at Francis' ordination, their expectations of Christian marriage, and their anticipation of a life together as missionaries in China.  Correspondence is chronologically arranged.

Series III. Personal Correspondence (Outgoing) of Lydia and Francis Davis, 1889-1906, 1924, undated .8 l.f.

Mainly includes letters sent by Lydia and Francis Davis to their friends and family in America during their eight-year stay in China (1889-97). Some letters are incomplete. Largely written by Lydia Davis, they describe daily life in abundant detail.Included also are letters written by Francis to Lydia during the Davis' furlough in the United States (1897-99); Francis' last letters to his wife prior to his murder (1899-1900); and Lydia's last letters to Francis in Shansi (May to August 1900). The series also contains a small group of letters from Lydia to her friend Mrs. Lois Pickett (1894-99, 1903-06) and one letter to her mother (1924). Correspondence is arranged alphabetically by correspondent, beginning with the joint correspondence of Francis and Lydia Davis. Thereunder, it is chronologically arranged.

Series IV. Personal Correspondence (Incoming) of Lydia and Francis Davis, 1888-1913, undated .8 l.f.

Contains correspondence received by Lydia and Francis Davis in China (1889-1900) and by Lydia after Francis' death (1900-13, undated). Located here are letters (1889-96) from Lydia's parents, Eleazer and Mary Lord, which often include as enclosures letters sent to Mrs. Lord by Lydia's Ohio friends. Letters (1889-99) received are mainly from Lydia's "Shansi sisters," (identified as "Missionary Colleagues" in the inventory) who included Susan Rowena Bird (d. 1900), Jennie Pond Atwater (d. 1900), Mrs. D. H. Clapp (d.1900), Mrs. James Goldsbury, Eva Price (d. 1900), D'Etta Hewett Thompson, and Alice Moon Williams (1860-1952).  The post-1900 correspondence includes letters of condolence to Lydia from family, friends, and from the clergy and parishioners of  Leavitt Street Congregational Church, Chicago (1900-04). Official correspondence (1900) from the U.S. State Department (ten letters) notifies Lydia of Francis' murder at Taigu. These letters are filed with five printed petitions (1909), which were submitted to the U.S. Court of Claims by Lydia Lord Davis. Additional correspondents include Judson Smith (1837-1906) of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (1888-89, 1899-1903) and Dr. Henry S. Upson (1859-1913), Lydia's Cleveland physician from 1898 to 1905.

Correspondence is arranged alphabetically by the correspondents designated by Lydia Lord Davis and chronologically thereunder. Notes in Davis' hand, accompanying the correspondence, identify her relation to the letter-writer. The category of "Missionary Colleagues" supersedes that of "Letters sent by others" in the original box listing.

Series V. Professional Correspondence of Lydia Lord Davis, 1902, 1920-43  .2 l.f.

Includes both incoming and outgoing correspondence of Lydia Lord Davis relating to her work as a fund-raiser, lecturer, and Field Secretary for both the Women's Board of Missions for the Interior (1919-26) and the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (1927-32).  Correspondents include officials of the A.B.C.F.M., the Commission on Missions of the National Council of Congregational Churches, the Kobe College Corporation, and the Women's Board of Missions for the Interior, Mid-West Regional Commission.  The series includes Davis' final report (1941) as Executive Secretary of the Oberlin Shansi Memorial Association.  Correspondence is alphabetically arranged by subjects designated by Lydia Lord Davis; it is arranged chronologically thereunder.

Series VI.  Diaries of Lydia Lord Davis, 1888-1900  3 vols.

Volume 1 (1888-89) offers a daily account of the journey of Francis and Lydia Davis from Ravenna, Ohio to Fenzhou, China (August 27 to October 21, 1889). Volume 2 (1891-97) was begun on the death of Lydia's first newborn, December 20, 1890, and contains annual entries on the anniversary of his passing. Volume 3 (1898-1900) records the news of Francis' death, received on September 8, 1900.

Series VII. Writings of Lydia Lord Davis, [ca. 1924], 1944 (1f)

Includes an unpublished typescript of an autobiography, "Letters to My Grandchildren," (1944), and one copy of My Letters from the Orient (ca. 1924). A second copy is filed in Series XI, Files Received From John Lord Davis, together with published and unpublished poems (undated) of Lydia Lord Davis.

Series VIII.  Miscellaneous Printed Materials Relating to the Shansi Mission and its Martyrs, 1899-1909, 1924, 1938,  (5f)

Includes printed materials relating to the Shansi mission, including a booklet by Judson Smith (1837-1906), Foreign Secretary of the American Board, entitled "China, The Situation and the Outlook," (1900). Papers relating specifically to the 1900 massacre include photocopies of news accounts in The Ravenna Republican (Sept. 13, 1900) and the New-York Daily Tribune (Sept. 9, 1900). Memorials to Francis Davis include a silk banner, hand-painted with Chinese characters. This is housed separately, in Box 9.

Series IX.  Photographs of the Shansi Mission, 1889-1924, undated (2f)

Contains photographs of the Davis family, group portraits of the Shansi missionaries, and photographs of the graves of the murdered missionaries at Taigu. The photographs are largely identified and dated on the verso. Photographs are chronologically arranged. Also, found here is a photograph of Davis house on 284 W. College Street, Oberlin, Ohio.

Series X. Album of Lydia Lord Davis, 1941  .2 l.f.

Includes a red silk album of letters from colleagues and friends presented to Lydia Lord Davis on her retirement as Executive Secretary of the Oberlin Shansi Memorial Association in 1941. Loose papers found in the album and housed in a separate folder include letters from President Ernest Hatch Wilkins (1880-1966), William Frederick Bohn (1878-1947), and letters to and from Kung Hsiang Hsi (1880-1967; A.B. 1906, L.L.D. 1926) relating to Davis' retirement.

Series XI.  Files Received from John Lord Davis, [ca. 1924], 1981, undated .2 l.f.

The provenance of these files differs from that of the remainder of the collection (see "Provenance Note" below). Included are materials received in 1980 and 1981 from John Lord Davis (b. 1896). Two folders contain ms. drafts of Lydia Lord Davis' poems and mediations (undated), booklets of published poems (undated), a second copy of My Letters From the Orient (ca. 1924), an issue of the periodical, Fenchow, vol. VI, No. 2, 1924, and a printed map of China (undated). One folder contains correspondence of John Lord Davis (1981) relating to Davis' disenchantment with Oberlin College.

The papers of the Rev. Francis Ward Davis (1857-1900) and his wife, Lydia Clara Lord Davis (1867-1952), constitute an excellent source for the study of the lives of China missionaries up to the time of the Boxer Rebellion of 1900 in which Francis Davis was killed. The couple's eight-year residence (1889-97) in Shansi Province as Congregational missionaries under appointment of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (A.B.C.F.B.) is well documented. The post-1900 papers relate primarily to the life of Lydia Lord Davis and her continuing service on behalf of missions and the education of women in China and Japan.

Davis, Francis W. (1857-1900)
Davis, Lydia Lord (1867-1952)

Lydia Lord Davis was born in Ravenna, Ohio, on August 31, 1867, the first child of Eleazer (1823-1904) and Mary Lewis Lord (1844-1929). After graduating from Ravenna high school in 1885, she attended the Normal School in Ada, Ohio (now Ohio Northern) and received a teaching certificate. Returning to Ravenna, she taught second grade from February 1886 until the summer of 1889, when she met Francis Ward Davis (1857-1900).

Francis W. Davis, the eldest son of blacksmith Charles (1824-94) and Mary Kelly Davis (1834-67), was born on September 8, 1857. A confirmed skeptic as a youth, Davis embraced Christianity as an adult. Enrolling at the Oberlin Theological Seminary in 1885 at the age of 28, where he was inspired by the tutelage of Professor of Church History Frank Hugh Foster (1851-1935), Davis early committed himself to a foreign missionary career. He was assigned to the Board's mission at Fenzhou in Shansi Province, China, which had been established in 1887. Martin Luther Stimson (1856-1935; B.D. Oberlin 1881) pioneered Oberlin's missionary work in China by bringing members of the Oberlin Seminary class of 1879-80 to Taigu in 1881. Calling themselves the "China" or "Oberlin Band," the Oberlin students and their spouses initiated the work of the American Board in North China.

In June 1889, Davis graduated with the B.D. and was ordained a Congregational minister. While serving as a guest preacher in Ravenna, Ohio, he met Lydia Lord. During their summer courtship, Francis encouraged Lydia to apply to the American Board for an appointment; in July 1889, Lydia, too, was assigned to Shansi Province. Following their marriage on August 14, 1889, Francis and Lydia Davis sailed for China from San Francisco, arriving in Fenzhou in late November.

The Oberlin missionary enterprise in China was primarily an educational one; in this it was unique. Missionaries were guided by the conviction that biblical instruction was only possible among the literate, and therefore every effort was made to teach reading.  As the Chinese believed girls should not receive an education, the work of Lydia Davis among Chinese women broke with native tradition. In 1893, Lydia Davis founded at Fenzhou the first girls' school in Shansi Province under the auspices of the American Board. When the Fenzhou school was reestablished in 1904, after the Boxer Rebellion, the school was renamed "The Lydia Lord Davis School for Girls."

Throughout their eight-year stay in Shansi, from 1889 to 1897, Lydia and Francis Davis studied the Chinese language, learning to pray and read the bible in Chinese. Francis Davis served as treasurer of the mission. Both endured the loss of infant sons in 1890 and 1894, but raised their boys William Potter Davis (1893-1975; A.B., Oberlin College 1915) and John Lord Davis (b. 1896 A.B., Oberlin College 1918) at the Fenzhou mission. A third son, Lewis Eleazer Davis (b. 1897, A.B. Oberlin College 1919), was born in  Ravenna, Ohio.

In the spring of 1897, Lydia, Francis and the two boys returned on furlough to the United States. All were physically weakened. Lydia Davis sought treatment in 1898 from Cleveland physician Dr. Henry S. Upson (1859-1913). Following Upson's advice, Lydia did not return to China with Francis in September 1899 but remained in Ohio to convalesce. The news of her husband's murder at the hands of the Chinese Boxers on July 31, 1900, reached her on September 8, 1900. From then on, Lydia Lord Davis dedicated herself to reopening the Shansi mission and to continuing the work begun by the slain missionaries of the Oberlin Band.

In 1903, Lydia Davis settled in Oberlin. There, in 1908, she helped to establish the Oberlin Shansi Memorial Association (O.S.M.A.) under the leadership of Oberlin College President Henry Churchill King (1858-1934). In 1912, she organized the Ping-An Club for High School Girls in Oberlin for the purpose of raising money for the mission school and hospital in Fenzhou and for O.S.M.A. and its school at Taigu. Davis was appointed Field Secretary for O.S.M.A. in 1926, although compensation did not begin until 1927. In 1929, she became Executive Secretary, serving until her retirement in 1941. During her tenure, the curriculum, faculty, and student body at the Taigu school were strengthened and new buildings erected. Teaching, coaching, and other activities expanded at Ming Hsien, the school built on land received by the American Board as restitution for losses in the Boxer Uprising.

In addition to her advocacy work for O.S.M.A., Lydia Davis became a well-known speaker and fundraiser for the American missionary work of the Congregational Church in the Midwest. After successfully raising money for the Ohio Branch of the Women's Board of Missions of the Interior, she served as Field and Thankoffering Secretary of the Commission on Missions for the Midwest region (1919-26). In 1924, she returned to China for a nine-month visit. The letters written during her stay were published under the title, My Letters From the Orient, (ca. 1924) to raise money for Kobe College. In 1927, she was appointed Assistant Secretary of the Home Department of the A.B.C.F.M., a post she held until 1932.

In retirement, Lydia Davis completed an autobiography, "Letters to My Grandchildren," (1944). Never published, it contains accounts of her family history and childhood, Francis Davis' youth and religious conversion, their lives together in China, and her subsequent work for the missionary cause. Beloved by several generations of Oberlin students who had sought her counsel and hospitality, she died in Oberlin on November 30, 1952.

SOURCES CONSULTED

Unpublished

Student file (28) of Francis Ward Davis.

Records of the Oberlin Shansi Memorial Association (15), Oberlin College Archives, Subgroup II, Series IV, Box 12: correspondence relating to the Ping-An Club.

Published

Baumann, Roland, ed., Guide to the Women's History Sources in the Oberlin College Archives (Oberlin, Ohio: Oberlin College, 1990).

Carlson, Ellsworth C., Oberlin in Asia: the First Hundred Years, 1882-1982 (Oberlin, Ohio: Oberlin Shansi Memorial Association, 1982).

Author: Valerie Komor

calligraphy (visual works)
diaries
letters (correspondence)
manuscripts
maps
photographs
photographs - photographic prints
poems
publications
records (documents)

English
Chinese