Smith Family Papers

Edward Huntington Smith, who led two generations of his family in service to China, was born at Franklin, Connecticut in 1873. His parents, Harriet H. and Owen S. Smith, came from a line of pious New England farmers. At the age of fifteen, Smith was baptized and received into the Second Congregational Church, Norwich, Connecticut. During his freshman year at Amherst College, Smith attended a Northfield Conference, where he became inspired by the evangelist, Dwight L. Moody.

After graduation in 1898, he spent several months with the YMCA in Cuba, helping American soldiers involved in the Spanish-American War. Later the same year, he joined the class of 1901 at Hartford Theological Seminary. After completion of his studies, Smith became ordained at the same Norwich church where his ancestors had worshiped for eight generations. In October, 1901, he married Grace W. Thomas, the daughter of a Methodist preacher.

The couple sailed for Shanghai from San Francisco in November, 1901, and arrived at Ing Hok, Fujian (Fukien) Province, the next month. ("Ing Hok" is sometimes referred to as "Ing Tai", "Yung tai" and other variations.) Edward Huntington Smith devoted his life to this mountainous district, often traveling by foot to its farthest outposts, or by boat down the rapids. He spent nearly 50 years (1901-1950) running an orphanage, raising funds, and promoting Christian education. (This figure includes years of furlough, etc.) One of the highlights of Smith's career occurred in 1918 when he met Chiang Kai-shek, whose Nationalist Army was then engaged in fighting war lord Li Hou-chi of Fuzhou (Foochow). (For a more detailed account see: "Chang-Smith Yungtai Memorial Fund" by Henry H. Wu. Box 10, Folder 39.) In 1946, although officially retired, Smith returned to Fuzhou (Foochow) at his own expense. After his expulsion in 1950, Smith spent much of his time writing on the subject of China, missions, his life and related matters. He died in 1968.

Grace W. Thomas Smith, who married Edward Huntington Smith in 1901, was born in 1874 at Pine Brook, New Jersey. After graduating from Tabor Academy, Marion, Massachusetts in 1893, she joined the first class of Wheelock College, Boston, and taught at the Perkins Institute Kindergarten for the Blind in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts for eight years. Her work in China included substitute teaching at the Union Kindergarten Training School, and the establishment of a local kindergarten, in addition to raising the couple's own four children. At the time of her death in 1939 she was known as the "Mother of all Ingtai."

The children of Grace and Edward H. Smith continued in service to China. Helen Huntington Smith, born at Ingtai in 1902, graduated from Shanghai American School, Class of 1921. Following graduation from Mount Holyoke College in 1925, she became a Traveling Secretary of the Student Volunteer Movement for one year. She received a Master's degree in Christian Education from Union Theological Seminary and Columbia University in 1928, and spent the next two years as Girl's Work Secretary at Union Settlement, New York City.

Appointed to China by the American Board of Commissioners of Foreign Missions in 1929, Helen H. Smith spent the next twenty years teaching at the Wen Shan Girls School of Fuzhou (Foochow). (This institution has various spellings and is also known as the Orlinda Childs Pierce Girls School. Helen Smith's maternal aunt, Eunice T. Thomas, was on the school's first staff and later taught at Fukien Christian University.) In 1941, when the school evacuated into the interior for a second time, she hid $8,000 in her hair and led 110 students to safety by trekking 300 miles on foot. She also participated in relief work for orphans and destitute students, in cooperatives, and in counseling at this time.

After being expelled from China, Helen H. Smith spent 1951-1962 as Director of Women's Work of the Ohio Conference of the United Church of Christ. She attended the Ecumenical Institute at Bossey, Switzerland in 1961, was a delegate to the Third Assembly of the World Council of Churches meeting in New Delhi, India, 1961, and served on numerous committees. In 1963, she became " ...the first woman to head a major national Board of a Protestant denomination..." ("Miss Helen Huntington Smith," Office of Communication, United Church of Christ. Box 8, Folder 2) The Defiance College, Defiance, Ohio, awarded her an honorary degree in May of the same year. At the time of her death in 1971, she was Research Consultant for the China Records Project.

Eunice Elizabeth Smith, born in 1906 to Grace and Edward H. Smith, attended college in the United States and received kindergarten training at Teacher's College, Columbia University. She served at the Union Kindergarten Training School, Laura Haygood Kindergarten Training School, and the China Nutritional Aid Council studying the soy bean. Her husband, Merlin A. Bishop, was involved in numerous organizations, such as the YMCA. (see: Correspondence), Sino-American Cultural Relations Committee, and the China Nutritional Aid Council, advising mechanical and structural problems. The couple had one daughter, Laura.

Grace and Edward H. Smith's youngest child, Margaret, born in 1912, married Charles E. Thrasher. Their only son, Edward Huntington Smith, Jr., died in 1910 at the age of six.