Eleanor Chesnut Explained

Eleanor Chesnut (January 8, 1868 — October 29, 1905), sometimes written as Eleanor Chestnut, was an American Christian medical missionary and translator who worked in China from 1894 until her murder in 1905.^[1]

Early life

Eleanor "Nell" E. Chesnut was born in Waterloo, Iowa.^[2] She was a twin, and her mother died soon after her birth; she was raised by neighbors named Merwin, and later by relatives in Hatton, Missouri.^[3] She attended Park College, a Presbyterian school in Missouri.^[4] She graduated from the college in 1888, and attended Women's Medical College, the Illinois Training School for Nurses, and Moody Bible Institute, in her preparation for becoming a medical missionary.^{[5] [6]}

Mission work in China

Eleanor Chesnut worked briefly as a physician at the women's reformatory in Framingham, Massachusetts. She sailed from San Francisco for China as a missionary in 1894.^[7] She worked in Lianzhou,^[8] where she ran a women's hospital, traveled by horseback to hold clinics in small villages,^[9] and trained local women as nurses.^{[2] [10]} She advocated for the building of schools and public health measures. She also translated books into the Lianzhou dialect, including the Gospel of Matthew and a nursing textbook.^[11] In a letter, she wrote, "I don't think we are in any danger, but if we are, we might as well die suddenly in God's work as by some long-drawn-out illness at home."^[5] During a furlough in the United States from 1902 to 1903,^[12] Chesnut gave lectures^[13] and raised funds for her work. "I do not feel that I am spiritual enough to be a missionary," she told a friend during this visit.^[14] In October 1905, she and three other Americans, and one child, were killed by a mob stirred to violence by her removal of a ceremonial structure.^{[15] [16] [17]}

Memorials

In 1907, a brass plaque naming Chesnut as one of the five "Missionary Martyrs" was installed at the Presbyterian Foreign Mission Board headquarters in New York City.^[18] Her story was presented (and continues to be presented)^{[19] [20]} as an example of Christian sacrifice in church educational materials.^[21]

External links

• "Letters concerning Eleanor Chestnut, 1905-1908" from the Robert Elliot Speer Manuscript Collection; Series II: Correspondence; Box 24, File 24:1. Digitized manuscript letters to author Robert Speer.
• Arthur Judson Brown, The Lien-Chou martyrdom : the cross is still upheld at Lien-Chou (Presbyterian Church U. S. A., Board of Foreign Missions 1906).

Notes and References

1. Book: Guangqiu Xu. American Doctors in Canton: Modernization in China, 1835-1935. 2017. Taylor & Francis. 32. 9781351532778.
2. James Stuart Dickson, "Where Our Graduates Go" The Assembly Herald (April 1906): 204-205.
3. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/25559417/eleanor_chesnut_1900/ "Iowa Girl in China"
4. "The Roll Call of the Martyrs" New York Observer and Chronicle (November 9, 1905): 605. via ProQuest
5. Robert Elliott Speer, Servants of the King (Board of Foreign Missions 1909): 91-113.
6. John F. Piper, Robert E. Speer: Prophet of the American Church (Geneva Press 2000): 231-232.
7. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/25560598/eleanor_chesnut_1905/ "Chicago Woman Slain in China"
8. Guangqiu Xu, American Doctors in Canton: Modernization in China, 1835-1935 (Routledge 2017).
9. G. Thompson Brown, "Eleanor Chestnut" Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Christianity (online edition).
10. Roxann Prazniak, Of Camel Kings and Other Things: Rural Rebels Against Modernity in Late Imperial China (Rowman & Littlefield 1999): 181.
11. Nina D. Gage, "Stages of Nursing in China" American Journal of Nursing (November 1919): 119.
12. https://books.google.com/books?id=wRHPAAAAMAAJ&dq=Eleanor+Chesnut+Woman%27s+Work&pg=PA39 "Back after First Furlough"
13. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/25560520/eleanor_chesnut_1902/ "A Coming Lecture"
14. E. S. Strong, "Our Martyred Dead" The Institute Tie (April 1906): 257-258.
15. Book: Guangqiu Xu. American Doctors in Canton: Modernization in China, 1835-1935. 2017. Taylor & Francis. 32. 9781351532778.
16. Arthur J. Brown, "The Story of Lien-chou Martyrdom" The Missionary Review of the World (February 1906): 87-94.
17. 晚清與教案：從晚清廣東省連州教案探究清教案發生原因. 張璐. Education University of Hong Kong. 2021.
18. https://books.google.com/books?id=WwvPAAAAMAAJ&dq=Missionary+Martyrs+Lien-chou&pg=PA175 "A memorial to the Martyrs of Lien-Chou, China"
19. Susan Verstraete, "'With Skilled Kind Fingers that Did Not Tremble': The Story of Dr. Eleanor Chesnut" Bulletin Inserts (Christian Communicators Worldwide 2012).
20. G. Scott Cady and Christopher L. Webber, A Year with American Saints (Church Publishing Inc. 2006): 32-34.
21. Helen Barrett Montgomery, Western Women in Eastern Lands: An Outline Study of Fifty Years of Woman's Work in Foreign Missions (Macmillan 1910): 196-200.