1900 - Etta Manchester

July 23, 1900

Quzhou, Zhejiang

Etta Manchester.

M. Etta Manchester was born in Edmeston, New York, on November 11, 1871. She was raised in a God-fearing family, but the process of knowing Christ was a gradual one for Etta. It wasn’t until she was 19 that she definitely knew she had passed from death to life.

The only truly worthwhile career Etta could think of was one spent preaching the gospel among people who had never heard it before. She applied to the China Inland Mission, and was sent for training at their mission home in Toronto, Canada. After two years she was accepted and sailed for China in 1895.

After two years at Changshan, Etta transferred to the town of Quzhou. In the spring of 1900 she received a letter telling of her father’s failing health. Etta was making plans to return to America when the Boxer attacks commenced.

The homes of Etta Manchester and Edith Sherwood were located in the north of Quzhou. At about noon on July 21st a mob came rushing into their home and began plundering whatever they could lay their hands on. The women tried to escape but were discovered and severely wounded. Etta and Edith somehow managed to pull themselves up and hid in a neighbours’ house for the next two days. The pressure was so great that the neighbours finally decided they could not give their own lives to protect the missionaries, and they handed them over on July 23rd. The mob “rushed upon them from all quarters, pushed and dragged them till they arrived near to the Roman Catholic chapel, where they were stabbed to death, and their dead bodies dragged up and flung into the chapel itself.”[1]

Etta Manchester was the type of person who made friends easily. One of those friends upon hearing of her death, wrote, “She loved the people, and, having got on well with the language, constantly spent weeks itinerating from village to village. Many women had been brought to Christ, and there were many inquirers…baptisms, and great encouragement in the work all around.”[2]