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looking for any relations or info. on the following :
Annie Allender Gould was born in Bethel, Maine, among her mothers kindred, but lived in
Portland during her girlhood. Her education began in the public schools of Portland. In 1887
she entered Mt. Holyoke Seminary ( which was changed to a college while she was there.),
& in 1892, after having been there five years, she graduated with the valedictory honor.
On August 7, 1893, she left home for the city of Pao Ting Fu, North China, Providence of Chihli,
going as a missionary of the American Board. She was faithfully working for the good of the
women & children under her charge, when in May, 1900, the "BOXER" , or anti-foreign storm
broke over that land. It was then too late to escape; or, in the language of her sister
missionary ( Miss Mary S. Morrill), " We cannot go if we would, and we would not if we could".
All foreigners in that Province were massacred about a month later, & also all native
Christians, excepting those who contrived to hide or escape.
Miss Gould came of good New England stock. She inherited her desire & delight in missionary
work from her mother (Amelia J. Twitchell), who as a missionary to the freedmen, had spent
two years in South Carolina, during war & reconstuction times. It is, perhaps, more interesting
today, to this assembly, to say that a very strong point of her character was inherited from
her Grandmother Gould ( born Althea Chase), & is thus expressed by Annie herself in a quiet
word to her aunt:" When I see a thing to be done I do it." She would have been altogether
another person had it not been for this faculty of ready discernment of the needs of others &
her unselfish desire to remedy the evil or right the wrong with prompt &vigorous action. As a
little girl, though quiet & somewhat bashful in the presence of strangers, she had the rare
good quality of carrying a fearless & level head in a moment of trial or danger. She started off
alone for Mt. Holyoke, in perfect confidence of her ability to attend to all matters of business &
steer clear of all dangers from man or fate. With much joyfulness she again said good-bye to
all her friends of '93.
Her work in China was first to battle with the language: there she was most successful.
Within a fortnight of her arrival, she had committed to memory several hymns & the Lords
Prayer, & was able to take part in the religious services as wellas to lead in the singing.
Another pleasing incident was in keeping with her Chase-like charater, to which we have just
referred. After she had been in China about eight months, she was sent up to Tung Chow
(near Pekin) to the annual meeting to hear & see what she could & to get acquainted. Finding
no one there but herself to answer when the call came for Pao Ting Fu to report, she quickly
jumped up & did what she could. Her speech must have been very much like baby talk, but it
was recieved by both native & foreinger with great delight 7 satisfaction. Before she had
been a year in China, a small party that wished to travel to the Great Wall needed an
interpeter. As noone else could be found, Miss Gould accepted the difficult task & got on well.
The native Christians of the mission took great interest in this somewhat phenomenal
development, & one was heard to ask the Lord in prayer that the new lady might quickly learn
to twist her tongue, & so be able the sooner to help Miss Morrill.
As fast as she aquired a knowledge of the language her sphere of usefulness enlarged & her
duties increased. Her daily life at last was filled with many burdens & sorrows. Miss Morrill
broke down completely & was sent home- it was not known whether to recuperate or to die.
Miss Gould was left two years as the only single lady of the mission. Her letter, or rather the
lack of them, showed plainly that the added duties were telling hard upon her , but there was
no complaint. Her last year was spent in teaching the native Christians to become teachers.
Durning Miss Morrills absence Miss Gould took the task of touring, that is , of visiting tha
people in the country towns outside the city, but one cannot judge from the letters whether
or not she liked this better than other work. She took hold of it, as in everything else, with a
conscientious determination to do her best.
The single lady teachers had the physical as well as the moral & religious well being of the
pupils in their hands; considerable medical treatment & nursing were left to them, as well as
the clothing & cleansing of the pupils. Nearly all the children who came from heathen homes
required an overhauling from which such a woman of less nerve would shrink. Miss Gould's
letters reveal a satisfaction at her sucess in transforming these young heathen into at least a
set of clean looking & well clothed children.
As the Boxer movement gained headway, touring was necessarily abandoned; despite this &
the threats made, first to the native Christians & later to the foreigners, the ladies kept on
with school, chapel, & city duties. The work was constantly increasing until the spring of 1900,
when the Boxers, without rebuke from the Governor, began drilling in the streets. After this
many of the natives kept away, & others feared to be even at work for the foreingers, or to
show a friendliness they had been accustomed to before; but if the ladies or any of the
missionaries were frightened their letters do not show it. Not until late in May, when the
Boxers had killed several Chinese officials who tried to put them down, & had terrified the
whole population, is there a note of alarm. Then came the terrible news- the letter which was
our last- of the destruction of the railway, cutting of wires & killing of the Belgian employees
on the line between Pekin & Pao Ting Fu.
What happen after this has been learned little by little & after long waiting & suspence. Every
truth has been hidden in much exaggeration & wilful lying, so that even now it is not safe to
go far into details. We know however that when Admiral Seymour's marines were repulsed in
their efforts to reach Pekin, the Government was overturned & Prince Tuan, or if you please,
the Empress Dowager, issued an edict to slay every foreigner in China. This was obeyed only
in a few of the northern provinces,Chihli being one. It was not until June 30th that an actual
massacre of inoffensive missionaries was attempted in Pao Ting Fu. On that day, the
Presbyterian Mission was burned, all perishing in the flames. This awful fate was immediately
made known to the little handful remaining at the American Board compound, & their last
night was one of unspeakble dread & suspence. We have learned that our people spent the
night in prayer, in writing good-bye letters, & in sending off the few servents & helpers who
remained, excepting 8 to 10 who preferred to die with them. Some of these letters were
hidden, while others were sent off by trusted messengers, but all were found by the Boxers,
none ever having reach a friendly eye. No last messages have come to us, save those written
the last of May before noted. On Sunday July 1st, the mob of roughs broke down the slender
barrier at the American Board compound, killed Mr. Pitkin, the only white man left, & carried
our two ladies inside the city. While being lead across the fields, Miss gould fainted & became
unconscious. Her feet were thereupon tied & a pole run between them & through her long
hair & thus slung after the manner in which pigs are there carried to market, while Miss Morrill
walked along side; she herself was born inside a heathen temple. Here they were soon
joined by the people of the China Inland Mission. All were knocked about during the day, &
jeered at by the mob. Some sort of trial was held, but no one has yet been found who can tell
what happened in those awful hours. About sundown all were lead outside the wall, a great
crowd following, & there they were beheaded & their bodies thrown into a common pit.
(Exerpt taken from the Second Annual Reunion of Chase/Chace Family Association,Thursday,
September 5, 1901 at Providence, R.I.)(Found at NH State Library, in Concord,NH)
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