1900 - Anton & Elsa Lundgren

August 15, 1900

Fenyang, Shanxi

Anton and Elsa Lundgen.

Anton Peter Lundgren was born in Vendsyssel, Denmark, in 1870. As a 17-year-old he migrated to North America, where God called him to fulltime Christian service. In 1891 he sailed for China as a member of the Scandinavian China Alliance Mission, with whom he laboured for five years before returning to America on furlough. The Lundgrens felt they needed a break from the stress and struggles of the mission field and enrolled at a Bible school in Chicago. After two years they decided to resign from their Alliance mission and returned to China under the auspices of the China Inland Mission, arriving in Shanxi in the spring of 1899, invigorated in body and spirit and excited about the future.

Elsa Lundgren (neé Nilson) was born in 1869 near Malmo, Sweden. As a young girl her family emigrated to America. Elsa went to China as a single woman, and only met and married Anton after she had already spent a number of years serving as a missionary in Shanxi. Fellow missionary Eva French said of her, “She had a peculiar fascination for the [Chinese] women: her face pleased them; such black hair and white skin they always admire, and then she spoke the language very well. Above all, she had a gracious manner and real love for them.”[1]

The Lundgrens divided their time between running an opium refuge and conducting itinerant evangelism in the villages. Life was somewhat lonely for Elsa, especially when her husband was travelling, but the Chinese women loved her and constantly came over to visit.

Along with Annie Eldred, the Lundgrens were invited to stay at Fenyang by Charles and Eva Price of the American Board mission. Fenyang was considered a remote mission station with little chance of Boxer trouble. This prediction proved horribly wrong. When the mayhem started, the Lundgrens were genuinely concerned for the welfare of their small flock, and considered returning to their station. They were convinced that to do so would place the believers at more risk, so they stayed with the other missionaries at Fenyang. On August 15, 1900, they were massacred along with the Price and Atwater families, and Annie Eldred.