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Note: Please click
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Elihu & Eleanor Doty RCA Missionaries
to China--1844-1864
Mr. Elwood, Geiger, descendant of Elihu Doty, kindly provided
the Doty photos, and permission to use Mary Doty's story.
Ms. Jean Watson, Secretary, New Jersey Postal History Society, and author
of "Doty's
Garden", providing the copy of Mary Augusta Doty Smith's fascinating
80-page account of her first eight years of life on Amoy: "The
China Story--Recollections...
Click link below to read!
A
Little Girl's Life in Amoy(1851-1859)
Elihu
Doty was missionary, architect, acting U.S. Consul, linguist, compiler
of first Amoy dictionary, etc. Doty's
2nd wife, Eleanor (who had Amoy's first piano!) died
in February, 1858, and in 1860 Elihu Doty left his chilren in the care
of his wife's family in the U.S. while he returned to Amoy. Four
years later, when returning to his children, he died within 4 days of
reaching port.
THE DOTY-DOTEN FAMILY: THE FAMILY OF EDWARD DOTY
from The Doty-Doten Family in America. Desc. of Edward Doty, An Emigrant
by the Mayflower, 1620. By Ethan Alien Doty. 1035pp. 1897 reprinted 1984
[Provided by Ms. Jean Walton]
367. ELIHU DOTY, son Stephen Holmes Doty and Phebe Nelson, b.
Berne, N. Y., Sept. 20,1809; m., 1st, New York City, May 18, 1836, Clarissa
Dolly Ackley, b. Washington, Ct., Dec. 7, 1806, dau. Hezekiah Ackley and
Jemima, his wife. She d. Borneo. East Indies, Oct. 5, 1845. He m., 2d,
Parsippany. N. J., Feb. 17, 1847, Eleanor Augusta Smith, b. Troy, N. J..
July 27, 1823, dau. Hiram Smith and Mary Alien Osborne. She d. Amoy, China,
Feb. 28, 1858.
The following sketch of his life is from the pen of one of his accomplished
daughters:
Early in life he felt it to be his mission to preach the Gospel to the
heathen, and studied for the ministry with that aim In view, being prepared
in his studies at Rutgers's College and New Brunswick Theological Seminary.
An historical pamphlet of the Sabbath school of the Reformed Church at
Berne, N. Y., says: "On November 3, 1832, Elihu Doty, one of our
scholars, entered into full communion with this church on confession of
faith. In April, 1833, he was recommended as a fit person for the ministry.
He graduated from Rutgers's College, 1835, and from the Theological Seminary
at New Brunswick, N. J., in 1836."
Quoting from a "Manual of the Reformer Church in America:" "
His first aspirations after missionary life were formed in the Sabbath
school. In his studies he was known for his faithful application and excellent
[p. 109] scholarship¡ªnot showy, but solid¡ªdeveloping excellent judgment
and great balance of mind, and winning respect and confidence by his earnest
and decided piety. He was somewhat advanced in age when be began his preparation
for the ministry, and by the advice of others overleaped two years of
his college course.
"His integrity, intellectual and moral, was complete, and no one
ever dreamed of questioning his conscientiousness. His missionary ardor
was increased by the magnetic presence and contagious enthusiasm of David
Abeel." He graduated from the seminary in 1836, being licensed to
preach by the Classis of Schoharie. N. Y., in the same year, and in June
he sailed for Java, in company with Elbert Nevius, William Youngblood
and Jacob Ennis, under the care of the Board of Foreign Missions of the
Reformed Church, which believed the Dutch Government established there
would show some interest in the missions of a church whose fathers had
come from Holland. But, on arriving at Batavia in September, they found
no friendly welcome or protection, so finally Borneo was assigned as their
location, and they reached Sambas, Borneo, June 19, 1839, after three
years of disheartening labor and delay in Batavia and Singapore, only
to meet further disappointments, for, in a few months, Mr. Nevius was
obliged to leave on account of his wife's broken health, and Mr. Ennis
proved himself a very unfit man. Notwithstanding his mental endowments,
he was dismissed and finally deposed from the ministry, thus leaving the
work so newly established to be carried
forward by Mr. Youngblood and Mr. Doty.
Messrs. Pohlman and Thompson soon joined them, when the former and Mr.
Doty devoted themselves to the Chinese who came to Borneo for purposes
of trade; but after a few years' residence in Sambas and Pontianak, it
became evident they could do more efficient work among the Chinese, if
in their own land; accordingly they went to Amoy, China, in 1844, reaching
this seaport town in Southern China at the close of June.
Shortly before leaving this country in 1836, Mr. Doty married Clarissa
D. Ackley of Washington, Ct., a lady highly spoken of and esteemed. Upon
their arrival In China, when their little family must have been knit together
closely and peculiarly, among a strange people, these two were shown there
were other ties to break than leaving home, lands and friends tried and
true, for, after three weeks, they laid away their only son, six years
of age, and memory recalls, even now, the peculiar tenderness with which
that father would speak, in years long after, of this child, who went
out from them then, and in the October following, 1845, Mrs. Doty died,
leaving two little girls whom their father brought to this country, together
with the motherless children of Mr. Pohlman, in March, 1846. These having
been left with kind friends, he married Eleanor A. Smith of Troy, N J.,
in 1847, and returned to Amoy in August of that same year.
Although so discouraged in the outset of their work, the missionaries
felt greatly encouraged
in China, those who embraced Christianity in most cases showing by the
fruit of their lives the genuineness of their conversion, and through
the course of Mr. Doty's life from this date his was the work [p. 110]
of building up that for which he, with his associates in the earlier days,
laid the foundation; also the widening of the field and work back into
the country. His experiences were much the same that all laborers in foreign
fields have felt: there were the discouragements of blind prejudice and
Ignorance, and of the naturally wicked heart in these heathen, as in all
others of humanity; there were the outbreaks and the riots instigated
by the priests against the Christians, both foreign and native, and the
civil wars imperiled life at times, as in 1853, when it raged through
that part of the Empire, and the City of Amoy was besieged, and all the
horrors of war among a half-civilized people were perpetrated on its streets,
and in its harbor filled with war junks, during the cannonading of which
many balls and bullets lodged in Mr. Doty's house, one of which just escaped
hitting Mrs. Doty and an infant in her lap.
Mr. Doty was very much engaged during the later years of his life in translations
into the Chinese language of such works as were deemed suitable. The "Manual,"
quoted from before, says: "He was admirably fitted for this department,
by his habits of accuracy, his candor, judgment, and freedom from caprice
and prejudice. He was a laborious man; there was no romance In his character.
A stern, determined worker, he sturdily pressed on. He met difficulties
with a quiet heroism, but turned not aside. He never spared himself until
his friends compelled him."
His publications were : Anglo-Chinese Manual of the Amoy Dialect, Translation
and Revision Into Amoy Dialect of Milner's Thirteen Village Sermons, including
Milner's Tract on the' Straight Gate," Some Thoughts on the Proper
Term for " God" in the Chinese, Narrative of a Tour in Borneo,
Translation of Sacramental and Marriage Forms of Reformed Protestant Dutch
Church into Amoy Colloquial.
It was during 1858 that Mr. Doty acted as American Consul during the absence
of the appointed Consul, Mr. Hyatt, and his judgment was so clear and
just that throughout his life he was constantly sought for advice and
counsel. The necessities of a missionary's life tend to develop one's
genius in every channel, and in the absence of a dentist Mr. Doty often
rendered assistance In that line, and by performing slight surgical operations,
while his knowledge of Natural Philosophy often aided others and himself
in securing comforts and helps which seemed little short of witchery to
the simple natives. His publications were also bound under his supervision
and direct aid, the press being In his study. At certain seasons of the
year
he was a great sufferer from asthma, many times being unable to lie down
or rest in any position, while at all times he was never robust. Death
entered this fold also, taking the oldest and the then only son, again
and later the babe for whom the mother gave her life for, in February,
1858, Mrs. Doty died, leaving the tender mother-father the solicitude
of four other little ones whom he brought to the care, so kindly and generously
offered, of his wife's parents and sister, in 1860.
After spending one year in this country, recruiting in health and starting
his children in their education, he again turned his face to the work
to which he gave himself for life, and continued in arduous [p. Ill] labors,
through different vicissitudes, national and ecclesiastical, until his
gradual but certainly failing physical powers told him his work was done.
Then with mingled feelings he embarked on the "N. B. Palmer"
for the United States, on November 30th, 1864, and as he stood on her
deck, bade farewell to the home of his adoption, the land where be had
lived into nearly the whole of his life experiences, where most of his
associations were formed, and where he had passed through the deeper passions
that stir one's soul, the joys too deep for utterance and the sorrows
in which "the heart knoweth its own bitterness;" but within
four days of his destination the worn-out body could no longer hold the
fettered spirit, and breaking its bonds he was with his God, and at rest,
March 18th, 1865. The funeral services were held at the Middle Dutch Church,
Lafayette Place, New York City, and also in the church in Parsippany N.
J., and his precious remains lie in the cemetery in that place.
Children by Elihu Doty's first wife:
752. i. FERRIS HOLMES, b. Singapore, India, July 10, 1838; d. Amoy, China,
July 19, 1844.
753. ii. CLARISSA ELIZA, b. Pontianak, Borneo, Jan. 14, 1843.
754. iii. AMELIA CAROLINE, b. Amoy, China, Jan. 21, 1845; was adopted
by Rev. John Dubois, and is known by his name; lives Wurtsboro, N. Y.
And by his second wife, b. Amoy, China :
755. iv. EDWARD SMITH, b. Dec. 11,1847; d. July 14, 1848.
756. v. CHARLES WINCHESTER, b. Nov. 1, 1849.
757. vi. MARY AUGUSTA, b. Sept. 16, 1851.
758. vii. SAMUEL HOLMES, b. Oct 18, 1853.
759. viii. ELLEN MARCIA, b. Oct. 12, 1855; not m.; lives Summit, N. J.
760. ix, ELMIRA LOUISA, b. Feb. 10, 1858; d. July 2, 1858.
[OCR version Aug 2007 - some transcription errors may still be present.]
Doty Genealogical information from The Doty-Doten Family in America. Desc.
of Edward Doty, An Emigrant by the Mayflower, 1620. By Ethan Alien Doty.
1035pp. 1897 reprinted 1984
Note from Jean Walton: I have included these pages because
the information here conflicts with some in the DeJong history of the
China Mission. [I have never seen the whole book - was sent selected pages.]
Bill's note: perhaps
another minor error in DeJong: he wrote that Dr. John Otte's son, Frank
Otte, was a Colonel, but Frank's daughter, Joanne Finley, M.D., has insisted
to me that he was a Major.
Note
from Mr. Elwood Geiger, a Doty descendant: A well-known historian
claims Commodore Perry never visited Amoy--but Mary remembers his visit,
and even monogrammed a handkerchief for him!
Please
Help the "The Amoy Mission Project!" Please
share any relevant biographical material and photos for the website and
upcoming book, or consider helping with the costs of the site and research
materials.
All text and photos will remain your property, and photos will be imprinted
to prevent unauthorized use. Thanks!
Dr.
Bill Xiamen University MBA Center
E-mail: amoybill@gmail.com
Snail Mail: Dr. William Brown
Box 1288 Xiamen University, Xiamen, Fujian
PRC 361005
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