1900 - John & Alice Young

July 16, 1900

Ji Xian, Shanxi

John and Alice Young.

John Young was a Scotsman who volunteered to work with the China Inland Mission in 1894. After studying at the Glasgow Bible Institute, Young sailed for China in October 1896, where he was appointed to the interior province of Shanxi. The mission station at Ji Xian was an incredibly isolated spot, but Young never complained. It was said “he was a man of considerable promise, and of a humble, pleasing disposition.”[1]

Alice Troyer was an attractive and sensitive young American lady from Elkhart, Indiana. Born in 1871, from the time she was a young girl Alice had dreamed of becoming a missionary. Her family were Mennonites, but the opportunity to serve as a female missionary with the Mennonite Church was not available.[2]

To equip herself, she attended the Gospel Union Bible Institute at Abilene, Kansas. Alice wrote in her application to the China Inland Mission, “I want to be found in the battle when He comes, and I want to be an instrument in the hands of God in saving souls from death.”[3] On New Year’s Day, 1896, Alice commenced the long journey to China with three other single women. After a time of language study she was assigned to Shanxi Province, where she became a close friend of Hattie Rice, another of the martyrs of 1900. While in Shanxi, Alice met John Young. The two fell in love and were married at Tianjin on April 1, 1899. Alice endeared herself to the Chinese. A co-worker wrote,

“The native Christians were very fond of her and she of them, and it was her delight to get away to the villages amongst the Christian women. She loved to go to the different villages around, starting early in the morning…and spending the whole day telling of the Lord she so truly loved and served.”[4]

On July 5, 1900—just eleven days before her martyrdom—Alice Young wrote to missionary friends in another part of the province,

“We are so quiet here that we can scarcely realise the trouble you are having down on the plain. But I know that the God of Peace will keep your hearts and minds. The winds may blow, and the waves may roll high; if we keep our eyes off them and on the Lord, we shall be all right…. May God bless and keep you all.”[5]

When the soldiers who had feigned protection suddenly turned on the missionaries, John and Alice Young were seen holding each other as they were sliced and decapitated by their vicious attackers.

1. Broomhall, Martyred Missionaries of the China Inland Mission, 34.
2. There is a great deal of information on Alice Troyer Young available at the Billy Graham Center Archives at Wheaton, Illinois. See Collection 542, Box 1, Folders 5-10. The collection includes many letters to her family.
3. Hefley, By Their Blood, 20.
4. Broomhall, Martyred Missionaries of the China Inland Mission, 35.
5. Broomhall, Martyred Missionaries of the China Inland Mission, 35.