Hall, Madeline
Madeline and Winthrop Goddard Hall Papers
1907-1957
1907-1914
MS 603
1 box
(0.5 linear ft.)
Special Collections and University Archives, University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries
Residents of Worcester, Mass., Madeline and Winthrop Goddard Hall were part of an extended community of young friends and family associated with the American Board of Commissioners of Foreign Missions, including Charlotte and Edwin St. John Ward, Margaret Hall, and Ruth Ward Beach. From 1907 to 1914, Edwin Ward was sent as a missionary to the Levant, working as a physician and teacher at Aintab College in present-day Turkey and Syrian Protestant College in Beirut. Margaret Hall and Ruth Beach were stationed in China, teaching in Tientsin, at the Ponasang Women's College in Fuzhou, and at the Bridgeman School in Shanghai.
The Hall Papers include 67 lengthy letters written by missionaries stationed in the Ottoman Empire and China, with the majority from Charlotte and Edwin Ward. Intimate and often intense, the correspondence provides insight into the social and family life of missionaries and gives a strong sense of their extended community.
English
Shortly after their marriage in Longmeadow, Mass., on May 2, 1907, Charlotte (nee Allen) and Edwin St. John Ward set off together as missionaries with the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. For seven years on the cusp of World War I, the couple lived in the Ottoman Empire, raising a family in a succession of cities in present day Turkey and Lebanon.
Given the scope of the Wards' activities, the term "missionaries" might be somewhat misleading. A medical doctor, Edwin (b. 1880) worked in ABCFM hospitals and universities, and he eventually left the Board to focus on medicine. While in the Levant, Edwin lectured at Aintab College (Turkey) and Syrian Protestant College (Beirut) -- the latter of which became the American University in 1920. While at Aintab, he and his wife struck up a friendship with the college president, Fred D. Shepard, who gained a measure of fame when his biography,
Shepard of Aintab, appeared in 1920. The book, by Alice Shepard Riggs, was intended to give Sunday School students a positive role model, but since its republication in 2001, it has become a resource for those interested in exploring missionary life in the Middle East during the 20th century.
In Beirut, the Wards became acquainted with Howard Bliss, the second president of Syrian Protestant College, and the son of the college's founder, Daniel Bliss. Established in 1866, Syrian Protestant College became an important intellectual hub and center of newspapers and scientific publication, and it played a prominent role in bringing Beirut into the 19th century Arab Renaissance, al-Nahda. Most of the scholarship on Protestant missionaries in the Middle East centers on the time of Daniel Bliss, with comparatively little addressing the 20th century. The efforts of the 19th century missionaries to bridge cultural gaps between the West and the East, however, clearly affected the second generation of missionaries, of which Charlotte and Edwin were a part. At the conclusion of World War I, when the Ottoman Empire disintegrated and much of the Arab world looked to America for support in rejecting European colonialist expansion, it was Howard Bliss who suggested to Woodrow Wilson to convene a commission to plumb Arab opinion regarding the building of states in the Middle East. The King-Crane Commission determined that there should be a single Arab state comprised of Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, and Jordan, however its conclusions were completely ignored in Europe.
The Wards appear to have left the Ottoman Empire at the start of the First World War. In her final letters, Charlotte discusses the sight of British warships off the coast of Beirut becoming a common sight, and she mentions that she and Edwin were supposed to take a furlough.
The Madeline and Winthrop Goddard Hall collection contains 67 letters addressed to the Halls by Protestant missionaries in the Levant and China during the years immediately prior to the First World War. The majority of these letters (39) were written by Charlotte Ward to Madeline (Taber) Hall, with the remainder from Charlotte's husband, Edwin St. John Ward, to Madeline's husband, Winthrop Goddard Hall (1881-1977). The letters are arranged chronologically.
During their years in missionary work, the Wards kept a regular correspondence with their friends at home. Even before arriving in Turkey in late 1907, they wrote 10 letters while traveling on their honeymoon through England (from Leeds, Stratford, and Chester) and Paris, and while cruising off the Greek coast aboard the SS Bagdad. The first stops on their mission were at Aintab and Harpoot, both in central Turkey (now known as Gaziantep and Elazig, respectively), from which Charlotte and Edwin discuss the missionary community, Edwin's work at Aintab College, and their acquaintance with the president of the College, Fred Shepard.
Late in 1908, the Wards moved to Diarbekir (also Diyarbakir), Turkey, another ABCFM missionary and educational center. During the three or four years there (there is a 16 month gap between the last letter from Diarbekir and first from Beirut), the Wards wrote 21 letters, and had two children. Much of their efforts during this period revolved around Edwin's oversight of the construction of a hospital, however the letters touch on a range of subjects, including helping Edwin deliver a baby, and abortion among Turkish women.
From July 1912 to July 1914, the Wards worked in Beirut and the near-by city of Aleih. Edwin worked long hours at a hospital -- Charlotte discusses how he is gone for days at a time -- but during this time, the couple found enough time together to have a third child. In her letters, Charlotte mentions attending the funeral of Samuel Jessup, one of the last survivors of the first generation of American missionaries in the Levant; taking in a baseball game that Americans in Beirut played on July 4; and British warships off the coast of Beirut.
The remainder of the collection consists of 13 letters from Margaret (probably Margaret Hall), Gertrude (Blanchard?), and Ruth P. (Ward) Beach, missionaries in China. Written from Ponsang Women's College, Foochow [Fouzhou], Shanghai, and Tientsin [Tianjin], China, 1911-1914, the letters are primarily personal in nature, discussing family and friends within the missionary community, but provide some perspective on life in China after the Revolution of 1911.
The collection is open for research.
Cite as: Madeline and Winthrop Goddard Hall Papers (MS 603). Special Collections and University Archives, University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries.
Gift of Margot Culley.
China
Religion
Women
Processed by Adam Dupont, April 2009.
Beach, Ruth Ward
Hall, Madeline
Hall, Margaret
Hall, Winthrop Goddard, 1881-1977
Ward, Charlotte
Ward, Edwin St. John
Missionaries--China
Missionaries--Middle East
China--Description and travel
Lebanon--Description and travel
Turkey--Description and travel
American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions
Letters (correspondence)
1
Ward, Charlotte and Edwin St. John
letter to Madeline and Winthrop Hall, England
1907 May 16
1
Ward, Charlotte
letter to Madeline Hall, Paris, France
1907 June 3
1
Ward, Charlotte and Edwin St. John
letter to Madeline and Winthrop Hall, Paris, France
1907 July 1
1
Ward, Charlotte
letter to Madeline Hall, Paris, France
1907 July 2
1
Ward, Charlotte
letter to Madeline Hall, Paris, France
1907 July 10-23
1
Ward, Charlotte and Edwin St. John
letter to Madeline and Winthrop Hall, Paris, France
1907 July 29-Aug. 1
1
Ward, Charlotte
letter to Madeline Hall, S.S. Baghdad off the Greek coast
1907 Aug. 28-Sept. 16
1
Ward, Charlotte
letter to Madeline Hall, Aintab, Turkey
1907 Nov. 1-4
2
Ward, Charlotte
letter to Madeline Hall, Aintab, Turkey
1908 Feb.
2
Ward, Charlotte
letter to Madeline Hall, Aintab, Turkey
1908 April 24
2
Ward, Charlotte
letter to Madeline Hall, Aintab, Turkey
1908 May 3
2
Ward, Charlotte
letter to Madeline Hall, Aintab, Turkey
1908 June 24
Letter undated, but postmarked June 24, 1908
2
Ward, Charlotte and Edwin St. John
letter to Madeline and Winthrop Hall, Aintab, Turkey
1908 July 3
2
Blanchard(?), Gertrude
letter to Madeline Hall, Bern Switzerland
1908 Aug. 16
2
Ward, Charlotte
letter to Madeline Hall, Harpoot, Turkey
1908 Sept. 9
2
Ward, Charlotte
letter to Madeline Hall, Diarbekir, Turkey
1908 Oct. 26
2
Ward, Charlotte
letter to Madeline and Winthrop Hall, Diarbekir, Turkey
1908 Nov. 25
3
Ward, Charlotte
letter to Madeline Hall, Diarbekir, Turkey
1909 Jan. 8
3
Ward, Charlotte
letter to Madeline Hall, Diarbekir, Turkey
1909 Jan. 28-Feb. 22
3
Ward, Charlotte
letter to Madeline Hall, Diarbekir, Turkey
1909 Mar. 10
3
Ward, Charlotte
letter to Madeline Hall, Diarbekir, Turkey
1909 April 16
4
Ward, Edwin St. John
letter to Madeline and Winthrop Hall, Diarbekir, Turkey
1909 May 3
4
Ward, Charlotte and Edwin St. John
letter to Madeline and Winthrop Hall, Diarbekir, Turkey
1909 May 30
4
Ward, Edwin St. John
letter to Winthrop Hall, Diarbekir, Turkey
1909 Oct. 14
4
Ward, Charlotte
letter to Madeline Hall, Diarbekir, Turkey
1909 Oct. 21
4
Ward, Charlotte
letter to Madeline Hall, Diarbekir, Turkey
1909 Nov. 9
4
Ward, Ruth P.
letter to Madeline Hall, Ponasang [Foochow], China
1909 Nov. 15
4
Ward, Charlotte
letter to Madeline Hall, Diarbekir, Turkey
1909 Nov. 17
4
Ward, Edwin St. John
letter to Winthrop Hall, Diarbekir, Turkey
1909 Dec. 1
5
Ward, Charlotte
letter to Madeline Hall, Diarbekir, Turkey
1910 Jan. 16
5
Ward, Charlotte
letter to Madeline Hall, Diarbekir, Turkey
1910 Feb. 20
5
Ward, Ruth P.
letter to Madeline Hall, Foochow, China
1910 April 9
5
Ward, Charlotte
letter to Madeline Hall, Diarbekir, Turkey
1910 May 12
5
Ward, Charlotte
letter to Madeline Hall, Diarbekir, Turkey
1910 May 16
5
Ward, Charlotte
letter to Madeline Hall, Diarbekir, Turkey
1910 May 28
5
Ward, Charlotte
letter to Madeline Hall, Diarbekir, Turkey
1910 June 16
5
Ward, Charlotte
letter to Madeline Hall, Diarbekir, Turkey
1910 Oct. 5
6
Hall, Margaret
letter to Madeline and Winthrop Hall
1911 Jan. 11
6
Ward, Charlotte
letter to Madeline Hall, Diarbekir, Turkey
1911 Feb. 10
6
Ward, Ruth P.
letter to Madeline Hall, Foochow, China
1911 July
6
Hall, Margaret?
letter to Madeline Hall, Tientsin, China
1911 Oct. 8
7
Ward, Charlotte
letter to Home people, Beirut, Syria
1912 Jan. 6
7
Ward, Charlotte
letter to Madeline Hall, Beirut, Syria
1912 July 2
7
Ward, Charlotte
letter to Madeline Hall, Aleih, Lebanon
1912 July 14
7
Ward, Charlotte
letter to Madeline Hall, Aleih, Lebanon
1912 Aug. 25
7
Ward, Charlotte
letter to Madeline Hall, Aleih, Lebanon
1912 Aug. 26
7
Hall, Margaret
letter to Madeline Hall, Tientsin, China
1912 Sept. 5
7
Ward, Charlotte
letter to Madeline Hall, Beirut, Syria
1912 Dec. 27
7
Ward, Charlotte
letter to ones at home, Beirut, Syria
1912 Dec. 30
8
Beach, Ruth Ward
letter to Madeline Hall, Foochow, China
1913 Jan. 7
8
Hall, Margaret
letter to "New Miss Hall," Tientsin(?), China
1913 Mar. 17
8
Ward, Charlotte
letter to home people, Beirut, Syria
1913 April 28
8
Ward, Charlotte
letter to friends, Beirut, Syria
1913 May 8-10
8
Ward, Charlotte
letter to Madeline Hall, Beirut, Syria
1913 May 21
8
Hall, Margaret
letter to Madeline and Winthrop Hall, Shanghai, China
1913 Sept. 22
8
Beach, Ruth Ward
letter to Madeline Hall, Foochow, China
1913 Sept. 28
8
Ward, Charlotte
letter to Madeline Hall, en route to Beirut, Syria
1913 Sept. 29
8
Ward, Charlotte
letter to Madeline Hall, Beirut, Syria
1913 Dec. 9
9
Ward, Charlotte
letter to Madeline Hall, Beirut, Syria
1914 Jan. 7
9
Ward, Edwin St. John
letter to Madeline and Winthrop Hall, Beirut, Syria
1914 Jan. 9
9
Unidentified
letter to Madeline Hall, Bridgeman School, Shanghai, China
1914 Jan. 11
9
Ward, Charlotte
letter to Madeline Hall, Beirut, Syria
1914 Feb. 14
9
Ward, Charlotte
letter to Madeline Hall, Aleih, Syria
1914 July 2
9
Hall, Margaret
letter to Aunt Alice, China
1914 Dec. 20
10
Ward, Charlotte
letter to Madeline Hall, S.l.
Undated
10
Ward, Charlotte
letter to Madeline Hall, Longmeadow, Mass.
Undated
10
Powers, Clarence F. and Debra
letter to Lillian and Lincoln Adams and Ralph Haywood, Bergen, Norway
1957 Sept. 11