1900 - Ernest & Lizzie Atwater and Children

August 15, 1900

Kaizha, Shanxi

Ernest and Lizzie Atwater.

Ernest Atwater was an American Congregationalist missionary and a scholar. His father had been the president of two Christian colleges. Ernest graduated from Oberlin College in Ohio with flying colours, topping the class of 1887 as valedictorian. He felt the need for some extra training, and entered the Oberlin Theological Seminary,[1] graduating five years later.

During his time at seminary, Ernest met and married Jennie Pond, a pretty 22-year-old preacher’s daughter. They married in 1888, and by the time they were ready to leave for China they already had two daughters. Two more daughters were born in China—a total of four girls under the age of seven. The last birth had been a very difficult one for Jennie, and on November 25, 1896, she died after developing a fever of 104°F (40°C). Her grieving and devoted husband wrote:

“As the last breath passed her lips, I almost saw her soul pass away, it left so marked a change in the body, her tabernacle, once so full of life. I stood face to face with that last great transaction, and I will say to the glory of God that I was not afraid. I felt that I was prepared in heart to lie down also and entrust my soul to the Father. I seemed to see that she had entered into a higher and better life, and that is ours to wait our turn.”[2]

Ernest Atwater now found himself in the interior of China with four motherless daughters. The following April the four were split up, with the two youngest—Bertha and Celia—going to live with the Atwood family; while the two eldest—Ernestine and Mary—were sent to live with the William Hall family. Hall was a missionary doctor living at Li Man village near Taigu. Because of this kind arrangement, Atwater was able to continue serving in China as a missionary while still seeing his daughters regularly.

The teacher at Li Man village was 27-year-old Elizabeth Graham. Known as Lizzy to her friends and colleagues, she was a native of County Down in Ireland. Lizzie soon developed a deep love for Mary and Ernestine, and comforted them through the loss of their mother. Ernest Atwater was attracted to the young Irish lass and then all of a sudden, in March 1897, he dropped a bombshell on the mission community by announcing that he intended to marry her. Several of the other missionaries criticized Atwater for his first wife had only been laid in the grave four months previously.

The worst slander came from Francis Davis, who refused to have anything to do with Atwater. He even compared Atwater to a fictional Chinaman called Ah Sin, who was renowned for his sly and devious ways and who played cards with 24 packs of cards concealed up his sleeves! Taken back by the intense opposition, Ernest and Lizzie delayed their engagement until the fervor died down. The wedding finally took place on July 8, 1898, in the CIM chapel at Taiyuan. The newlyweds decided it would be best if the two older girls went to a boarding school run by the Pigott family at Shouyang.

Friends and co-workers at the controversial wedding of Ernest and Lizzie in 1898.

In June and July, 1900, the Boxers began targeting the missionaries. The Atwaters were in the town of Fenyang at the time, holed up with a group of missionaries including the Price and Lundgren families, and Annie Eldred. Lizzie was in the ninth month of her pregnancy and was so distraught she couldn’t sleep. She wrote:

“I could do nothing but cry to God. It seemed as if I could bear no more in present condition. No one talked at meals. We seemed to be waiting for the end, and I for my part longed that it might come speedily…. There will be a joyful welcome for all of us above. I am fixing my thoughts more and more upon the glorious hereafter and it gives me wonderful peace.”[3]

The beloved Chinese Christian Fei Qihao later recalled:

“Every day at sunset I played with Florence Price and Celia and Bertha Atwater. Ever since I had come to Fenyang I had played an hour with Florence…. When Mr. Atwater moved to the same place his two little girls were very fond of romping with me too. I often carried the children on my shoulder, and they loved me very much. At seven o’clock, when their mothers called them to go to bed, all three would kiss me, saying: ‘Good-night, Mr. Fei, good-night. Pleasant dreams, pleasant dreams.’ So it was until the day when they left the earth.”[4]

The Atwater girls—four innocent martyrs. Left to right: Mary, Bertha, Ernestine, Celia.

The Fenyang missionaries were mercilessly slaughtered on August 15, 1900. Ernest and the pregnant Lizzie Atwater, and their two daughters Bertha and Celia, were hacked to pieces by Boxer swords. The two eldest daughters, Ernestine and Mary, were also killed by the Boxers at Shouyang. In her last letter to her family, dated August 3rd, an emotional Lizzie Atwater wrote:

“Dear ones, I long for a sight of your dear faces, but I fear we shall not meet on earth…. I am preparing for the end very quietly and calmly. The Lord is wonderfully near, and He will not fail me. I was always restless and excited while there seemed a chance of life, but God has taken away that feeling, and now I just pray for grace to meet the terrible end bravely. The pain will soon be over, and oh the sweetness of the welcome above!

My little baby will go with me. I think God will give it to me in Heaven, and my dear mother will be so glad to see us. I cannot imagine the Saviour’s welcome. Oh, that will compensate for all of these days of suspense. Dear ones, live near to God and cling less closely to earth. There is no other way by which we can receive that peace from God which passeth understanding…. I must keep calm and still these hours. I do not regret coming to China, but am sorry I have done so little. My married life, two precious years, has been so very full of happiness. We will die together, my dear husband and I.

I used to dread separation. If we escape now it will be a miracle. I sent my love to you all, and the dear friends who remember me.”[5]

1. For a summary of Oberlin College, which provided a number of China’s martyrs, see Ellsworth C. Carlson, Oberlin in Asia: The First Hundred Years, 1882-1982 (Oberlin, Oh.: Oberlin Shansi Memorial Association, 1982); Ray F. Downs, “Oberlin in China, 1880-1900,” (Thesis, Oberlin College, 1954); and Mary Tarpley Campfield, “Oberlin in China, 1881-1951,” (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Virginia, 1974).
2. Brandt, Massacre in Shansi, 104-106.
3. Oberlin News (December 25, 1900).
4. Miner, Two Heroes of Cathay, 102.
5. Hefley, By Their Blood, 19-20.