1900 - Charles, Eva, & Florence Price

1900 - Charles, Eva, & Florence Price

August 15,1900

Fenyang, Shanxi

Charles and Eva Price.

The Fenyang mission station was so isolated that their two nearest missionary colleagues, located just 10 miles (16 km) away, were killed on June 30th but the Fenyang missionaries didn’t hear about it until July 3rd.

When the persecution commenced the Christians at Fenyang encouraged the missionaries to hide in the mountains about 30 miles (49 km) away. They hired a large cart and loaded it up with food and other essentials and sent it ahead of them. Two local believers travelled with the cart to guard it. When the cart was just seven miles (11 km) from the city, a man told the two guards to run for their lives, as the Christians in the city were being killed and the mission buildings set on fire. The pair believed the story and fled for their lives, allowing a group of robbers to come and take possession of the cart and all its goods.

When the missionaries heard about this, they decided there was no point trying to leave the city. Every night Charles Price and the other men took turns guarding the mission compound, although they knew full well if the Boxers launched an attack they would be able to gain entry easily. Charles and Eva Price were respected workers with the American Board. They had operated a successful mission in Fenyang for a number of years. Dozens of people in the city and surrounding countryside had experienced the saving grace of God, and a small yet healthy church had emerged. Charles Price declared, “Though I know that we are now in the greatest danger, I am glad that God has used me in his holy work here. I am not sorry that I came as a missionary to China.”[1]

Of all who died for Christ during the Boxer Rebellion of 1900, perhaps nobody documented their experiences leading up to their martyrdom as much as Charles and Eva Price. Both of them kept detailed diaries telling of the stress they endured. Charles Price wrote:

28 June:

“[Chinese] Christians have in the main shown an excellent spirit. Though much excited and fearful, they are still true. Perhaps God is giving us this trial to let us see that He has some true loyal people in Fenyang. We have not heard of any recanting, though there has been no actual persecution as yet—only threats. But they all know that, if they were to say they would worship their false gods and renounce their Christianity, all danger would be over for them. May our heavenly Father abundantly reward their devotion!”[2]

2 July:

“Last evening word came that a company of Boxers had come from Xiaoyi and were soon to attack us. Our Christians remained with us as long as there was anything they could do, but late in the evening left except one or two. We considered all over and prepared for the worst. At the request of the ladies it was decided that we do not use any means of defence, and the guns were put away.”[3]

29 July:

“Yesterday evening word was brought to us that we are to be escorted to the coast, by order of the emperor. We have very little faith in it. It may be but a blind to put us off our guard. The proclamation issued the day before yesterday said, ‘destroy the foreigners and kill the devils’. Nothing can be plainer, and shows the governor’s wishes. It will be well with us to be careful how we fall in with a plan to escort us to the coast, which may only be a plan to get us to the capital to kill us.”[4]

Eva Price seems to have accepted her imminent death long before it finally took place. On June 30th she wrote her last letter to her family:

“If we are to be murdered, one can but pray that it may come quickly and end our terrible suspense. Our friends at home will have suspense, but not such as ours, when the heart refuses to act properly, and knees and legs shake in spite of all efforts to be brave and quiet, trusting alone in God. We do trust in Him. That is our witness. No matter what comes, we are trusting Him, believing firmly that all this tumult and alarm and real danger, rumours of wars and terrible evil, are only working out His infinite purpose for good to come to China. Each day we live we feel it a deeper truth that man proposes and God disposes…. Fear not, it is all right. God is watching and waiting…. If we die, we die in peace.”[5]

The weeks went by, and it seemed that perhaps the missionaries in Fenyang would escape the wrath of the Boxers. Then the Prefect of the town died on July 27th. His successor, who arrived two weeks later, was appointed specifically by Yu Xian (the wicked governor of Shanxi) for the express purpose of exterminating the Christians. The following day the new Prefect visited the magistrate of Fenyang and reviled him for not carrying out the murderous orders that had been given to him earlier. The magistrate replied, “The foreigners here are all good men. In all the years they have lived here they have been at peace with the people, and have never caused a disturbance.”[6]

At noon on August 14th the new Prefect sent a message to the mission compound notifying the occupants that an armed escort would be sent the next day to transport them to the coast. The Prefect warned them that if they did not willingly leave the mission compound, he would force them out of the town with whips! A trusted Chinese Christian, Fei Qihao, was given last letters from the missionaries to their loved-ones and told to flee for his life. He later said, “Before I went out of the gate, I saw Mrs. Price holding her little daughter to her heart, kissing her through her tears, and heard her say, ‘If the Boxers come to-day, I want my little Florence to go before I do.’”[7]

On the morning of August 15, 1900, the seven missionaries and their three children left the gates of their mission. Thousands of people crowded the streets and even climbed onto the roofs of their homes to catch a glimpse of the foreigners who had been the talk of the town for months. Despite the threat of death, the group felt refreshed to be outside the town on that beautiful morning. Fei explained:

“We had been imprisoned within walls for two or three months, and our hearts had all the time been burdened and anxious. Now suddenly we were outside the city in the pure, bracing air, in the midst of flowers and trees, luxuriant in summer beauty, riding through fields ripe for the harvest. It was all so beautiful and peaceful and strength-giving. So as soon as we were out in the country air our spirits rose and fresh life and joy came to us.”[8]

Ernest Atwater sat at the front of one of the two carts, with his Irish wife Elizabeth and Elsa Lundgren immediately behind. Fei Qihao sat in the back with the two little girls. Twenty armed soldiers walked both in front and behind the cart. When the noonday sun beat down, Elsa Lundgren unselfishly offered her umbrella to a soldier to shield him from the heat. The children laughed and played with Fei, before falling asleep from the rocking of the cart. The missionaries rejoiced at the protection of the soldiers, thinking if they would happen to come across any Boxers they would be protected.

Fei Qihao and other young Christian men.

After several hours Fei sensed from the mood of the soldiers that something was wrong. He asked one man to tell him what the matter was, and he replied, “You ought to escape at once, for only a short distance ahead we are to kill the foreigners.”[9] Remembering that his friends had pleaded with him to tell their story if any harm would befall them, and to deliver the letters entrusted to him, Fei jumped down from his cart. The soldiers robbed Fei of his money and shoes, and he ran off down a side path. He heard a single rifle shot moments later, and in a bewildered state he staggered on. The next day he heard locals talking about the massacre of foreigners. One said, “There were three men killed, four women, and three little devils.” Another added that 20 soldiers had waited in a village, and that

“‘When the foreigners with their soldier escort arrived a gun was fired for a signal, and all the soldiers set to work at once.’ Then one after another added gruesome details, how the cruel swords had slashed, how the baggage had been stolen, how the very clothing had been stripped from the poor bodies, and how they had then been flung into a wayside pit.”[10]

Weeks later, the faithful Fei Qihao made it to Tianjin, where he reported all of what had occurred to the missionaries and handed over the letters that he had been lovingly entrusted to carry. Fei survived the Boxer Rebellion and ended up attending university in America before returning to China as a key church leader of his generation.

© This article is an extract from Paul Hattaway's epic 656-page China’s Book of Martyrs, which profiles more than 1,000 Christian martyrs in China since AD 845, accompanied by over 500 photos. You can order this or many other China books and e-books here.

1. Miner, China’s Book of Martyrs, 118.
2. Edwards, Fire and Sword in Shansi, 274-275.
3. Edwards, Fire and Sword in Shansi, 278.
4. Edwards, Fire and Sword in Shansi, 289.
5. Edwards, Fire and Sword in Shansi, 291-292.
6. Miner, Two Heroes of Cathay, 103.
7. Miner, China’s Book of Martyrs, 122.
8. Miner, Two Heroes of Cathay, 115.
9. Miner, China’s Book of Martyrs, 127.
10. Miner, Two Heroes of Cathay, 125-126.

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