1900 - Annie Gould

July 1, 1900

Baoding, Hebei

Annie Gould.

Born in Bethel, Maine, on November 18, 1867, Annie A. Gould grew up in an atmosphere of faith and courageous Christian living. Her mother had moved to South Carolina to teach African-American refugees during the Civil War. Enraged locals, including members of the Ku Klux Klan, threatened to kill her if she continued her work, but she refused to bow to the intimidation.

Annie Gould was 24-years-old when she left for China in the fall of 1892. She had applied to the American Board, hoping to become a missionary in Japan, but the Board asked her to go to North China instead. She did not hesitate, saying, “I want to go where I am most needed.” Her arrival was a tremendous encouragement to the missionaries in Baoding, especially as some of their team had recently retired. One of her colleagues wrote:

“Miss Gould was certainly a noble and valuable addition to the working force of the station. Born into a home of Christian culture and refinement, a child of much prayer and of the tenderest parental solicitude, from her earliest years she gave evidence of gentle breeding and of those qualities of heart and mind which so eminently qualified her to be a teacher and guide of the youth.”[1]

The one missionary who appreciated Annie the most was Mary Morrill, who had grown up a short distance away in Maine. The two soon formed a strong friendship, so strong that on one occasion when Chinese friends accompanied Annie to Tianjin to welcome Mary back from sick leave in America, they “were so embarrassed by the impropriety of Annie’s behaviour—hugging and embracing Mary over and over again in pure abandon of joy—that they turned their backs rather than watch the public demonstration of affection.”[2]

Students of the Girls’ Boarding School in Baoding, with Annie Gould in the centre, in 1898. All the students survived the Boxer attacks.

Annie often thought of herself as lazy. She once said of Mary Morrill: “She needs me to make her take care of herself when she is tired and working too hard. I need her to prod me out of my laziness and easy-going ways—pretty well mated!”[3] On May 31, 1900, Annie wrote her final words in this life, in a heart-felt letter home to her family:

“I know perfectly well the possibility of danger, but generally speaking it does not weigh on me, or when it does, I just cry out and pray for grit. I am glad to remember that you pray for us. Last night when I was agonising in the effort to say in truth, ‘God’s will be done,’ I thought of what my mother says, ‘The nearest way to China is by the way of the throne,—the mercy seat’—and it comforted me. I can’t tell you exactly what I fear; not death, nor even violence at the hands of the mob, for the physical suffering would be over soon, and God can give strength for that.

Perhaps you can understand why with all this disturbance and my sleepiness I can’t put my thoughts on paper. If I live, I will send you another letter soon. Pray for Mary and me. If not on earth, will meet in Heaven.”[4]

At around seven o’clock on July 1, 1900, Annie and the other missionaries were captured and taken to a temple bound together with ropes around their necks. One account said:

“Miss Gould appears to have been so greatly frightened by the rough and brutal conduct of the Chinese that she had fainted from shock and fear, and remained in a more or less comatose condition for some time and was unable to walk. She was accordingly bound hand and foot and slung on a pole or lance, as pigs are carried in China.”[5]

Later in the day Annie Gould recovered her composure and was able to walk. The captives were led out of the city around six o’clock in the evening, and each member was beheaded, their bodies being thrown into a pit outside the Southeast corner of the city wall.

1. Ketler, The Tragedy of Paotingfu, 144.
2. Brandt, Massacre in Shansi, 161.
3. Brandt, Massacre in Shansi, 161.
4. Ketler, The Tragedy of Paotingfu, 338.
5. Ketler, The Tragedy of Paotingfu, 388, 390.