1. People
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Virgil C. Hart
Virgil Hart grew up on a farm in upstate New York in the 1840-50's. The people of the area would
gather at times to hear the words being spoken by traveling preachers. As a boy on a cold Winter's
night, he felt a calling to serve the Lord. No one there would have guessed that his "awakening" would
have in store.
In college, he rented a one acre plot of land to raise vegetables, which he sold to a grocer. He chopped
180 cords of wood to pay for tuition, and attend divinity school. After completing his studies, a friend
asked him where he planned to go. "To China" he said, what better a place to help the needy and spread
the word of God.
Before leaving, he proposed to Adeline Gilliland, who a few months earlier had her fortune told, that
she would travel to exotic places and have four boys and a girl. Virgil had told his bride to be, "That if
she didn't want to go to China serving God, not to accept his offer.

2. They took the clipper ship N.B. Palmer from New York in 1865, that rounded South Africa and landed
in Hong Kong after six months at sea. They then sailed on to Fuchow, China. The trip alone would take
a book to write, but one thing worth mentioning is one male passenger who was taking sea-sick
medicine. Virgil harped, that it was better to be ill, than babel away like a drunken fool.
After spending one year learning Chinese, Dr. Hart and Adeline were told that in November, 1867, they
would go to KiuKiang (Jiujiang), where a hospital was to be built. He was also to relieve a Scottish
preacher who was drunk more than he was sober. After living in Jiujiang for a year and the hospital
finished, Adeline, gave birth to Edgerton Hart 1867, the first of four boys. She was to fulfill the fortune
teller's words of traveling to distant lands and having 4 boys and one girl.
Virgil Hart was not a shy man and being a foreigner, when entering a village after many Chinese would
gather around. He would start to preach to them and distribute Bibles. Though they were written in
Chinese, most people were illiterate, but enjoyed the gift from the foreigner. Some Chinese would take
offense to the foreigner, and there were many times that he was run out of a town with mobs in hot
pursuit. This would not intimidate Virgil, he would later return with letters from the local Chinese
administrate, sanctioning his visits. These were obtained through mostly gifts being showered with
many words of praise of how good the magistrate managed his area.
When Virgil Hart was heading down the Yangtze River to Shanghai, as the would round the bend in
the river, the boat would pass by the high bluff of Ichi San (Phesant Hill) before the city of Wuhu. He
said to himself how that spot would make a good hospital location. After some difficulty in finding out
who owned the land, he was able to purchase it. The Chinese did not want to have foreigners owning
property, and they were cursed by many due to the English addicting so many people to opium. It was
fortunate that Dr. Hart was able to buy the property when he did, for the British Navy was also wanting
to buy Ichi San hill. For it had the highest commanding view for this particular section of the Yangtze
River.
In the thirty-six years that Virgil Hart was a missionary in China, he help to build hospitals in Jiujiang
in 1866, 1888 in Wuhu 1885 in Nanjing, 1881 in Nanchang, Hankou, 1882 in Chongqing, and 1892
in Chengdu on Pearly Street. After receiving compensation from the Chinese government for the
damage caused by the riots in Chongqing in 1887, he took some of the proceeds to buy a two printing
presses and loaded them onto a boat. These presses, was the first printing machines west of Hankou for
their time. At Kaiting(Leshan) They were printing over one million pages of religious material in 30
different dialects of Chinese per year.
Virgil Hart mode of transport was by horse, or coolie chair on land and ferry steamer on the Yangtze,
and he felt this limited his reach. He had heard that a Englishman had lost a small sailboat in a card
game in Shanghai, and was able to buy it from the winner who was a friend of his. He named the boat
the Stella, named after his daughter Estella.

3. Virgil Hart Missionary Statesman can be found and downloaded at www.archive.org
Western China by Virgil Hart was reproduced in 2005 and can be bought in paperback from e-
bay or Amazon.com
Edgerton Hart
Herbert Hart’s father. He died during the boxer rebellion. His younger sister was Estille. His father
was VC Hart. Edgerton Hart was born in Kiu-Kiang on Oct. 26 1868 Heres some more inf on Dr.
Edgerton Hart. He was the diplomatic ambassador for the port of Wuhu. Head of the local Red Cross
Chapter. Because Dr. Hart was born in and could talk and read Chinese was requested constantly to
mediate conflicts between locals.The last operation preformed was the removal of an 60 pound tumor
off the back of a young Chinese woman. After the operation she weighed just 90pounds. He died of
Typhus Fever and was buried in the foreign cemetery above the hospital grounds. During WW II the
Japanese Army dug-up the cemetery remains and threw them in the river to use the grounds as a
vegetable garden. The hospital and home are still standing on Ichisan overlooking the Yangtze River.
It is the largest hospital complex in Anhui Province.
Edgerton Hart was born in Kiukiang (Jiujiang) in 1867. He was the oldest of five children and spent his
whole life in China, minus four years to learn medicine from the New York City School of Medicine.
He was married to =+=+=+ and they had three boys Edgerton Jr. and Robert. and two girls, Dorathea,
and Rose.with his first wife. After she died he was remarried to Caroline Maddock, who was the head
nurse at the Wuhu General Hospital. They had three additional children Carolyn, Helen, and Herbert.
Edgerton Hart had a sailboat built similar to the one his father owned, and named it the Stella II.
He became director of the Wuhu General Hospital in 1892, where he worked until his death from
Typhus fever in 1915. So revered was Edgerton Hart by the natives, that he was called many times to
far off villages to help those that couldn't make it to the hospital. He once received a telegram to come
to Jiujiang and perform an autopsy on a victim, whose death was of a suspicious nature, and the locals
didn't trust the residing western physician. His last operation was to remove a tumor from the back of a
young Chinese woman named Shoh Huan.
EH last patient Shoh Huan
Two Chinese women were talking together in a village hut. The younger one was lying on a straw bed,
while her mother was seated by her side on a bamboo stool.
"Shoh Huan," said her mother, "our neighbor came back to the village today from his trip down river to
Wuhu. He was telling our men a wonderful story. A great foreign doctor lives in a big white house a
week's ride down the river. The neighbor says the white man's house is always full of sick folks. The
doctor makes them well. He makes lame men to walk and he makes blind men to see. When the wicked
Yangtze flooded our villages, so many sick people came to the foreign doctor that there were not
enough beds for them all, even in the big house. So they spread blankets on the floor for them, and
even then there was not enough room for all. good villagers living nearby took some of the sick into
their own houses. Every morning the kind doctor came to see them all.

4. The daughter, Shoh Huan, tried to turn slowly on her side upon the hard straw bed. It was very painful
for her even to move, because of a great lump of flesh that had grown from her shoulder, and hung
down her back! Many times they had taken their little string of cash and gone to the Chinese doctor for
help! But he had only caused her more suffering when he pierced the lump with his cruel needles or
red-hot irons upon her back! And all this agony she endured only to find that the lump grew larger and
became more painful. Could anyone take this awful burden from her back?
"Probably, mother," the daughter said, "the foreign doctor cures only men."
"Ah, Shoh Huan, that is the most wonderful part of our neighbor's story. He said the great foreign
doctor had been called to the capitol to see the Governor and that many, many times, great men-even as
high as the Viceroy-had come to him to be healed. But he said the foreign doctor was just as good to
the poor sick beggars when they came as he was to the great rich officials. But the best of all was that
the doctor kept a special room for women."
"Mother, let us go down the river to this foreign doctor," said Shoh Huan.
The long journey to Wuhu was hard and painful for Shoh Huan. But at last they came in sight of the
hill with its large buildings. Over the roof of one floated a white flag with a red cross painted on it.
"They say," said the mother, "that wherever in the world that a red cross flies they do deeds of mercy."
"If only we had a card to send in to the foreign doctor or a few cash to give the gateman!" said Shoh
Huan as they came to the gate of the hospital wall. "We may not be allowed to enter, after all."
But the gate was opened to them. They were conducted to the main building and were shown a place in
the waiting-room. There they sat wondering and half afraid.
Soon the foreign doctor came. At once the mother threw herself on the floor, striking her forehead on
the boards. "Have mercy! have mercy!" she said. "Lay up mercy for yourself! Save my daughter's life!
She is about to die. Use your skill and save her life!"
But the doctor touched her shoulder and motioned her to rise.
"Do not kotow to me," he said "Just tell me all about your daughter's illness and how long ago it
began."
So with many interruptions from Shoh Huan, the mother told how in a year's time a little lump had
grown to this great one, now weighing about sixty pounds: how the Chinese doctors had run their red-
hot irons into it-all to no purpose.
"But we are very poor, and not a cash to give. We do not dare hope the great doctor has time for such
people as we are."
"Call Tu Simuh," Dr. Hart said to a coolie standing near. Soon the sweetest-faced Chinese woman they
had ever seen entered the room. Gently Tu Simuh helped the poor woman to bathe and dress in clean
clothing. Then she led her to the women's ward. To the poor village woman, this clean, bright room,
with its row of pretty white beds, seemed like fairy-land.

5. "Such peace! such peace!" Shoh Huan murmured, as she lay like one in a dream. She watched the
doctor enter the room and pass down the long rows of patients, giving medicine and directions to the
nurses.
The great doctor has so many to care for!" she said to her mother. "He is kind to help me."
After a long time the doctor came to her bedside and looked carefully at the heavy, painful bag on her
back.
"Shoh Huan," he said with a kind smile, "this lump on your back we call a tumor. Some day I want to
put you to sleep and while you are asleep and cannot feel the pain, I will cut that tumor off your back.
But you will have to wait a while."
After he had past on, Tu Simuh said to Shoh Huan. "The doctor's arm has been paining him for three
weeks. He has to carry it in a sling. But as soon as it is better, he will try to help you."
Each day a Bible woman came to Shoh Huan's bedside for a friendly chat. One morning the sick
woman asked, "Why does the foreign doctor let so many sick folks come to his big house? Why does
he tire himself out making us well, when even our own people leave us alone to die?"
"Oh Shoh Huan," she replied, "don't you understand? It's all because of this Jesus you heard the man
talk about downstairs in the chapel this morning. This Jesus taught the foreigner that there are no evil
spirits who make us sick. There is but one God who created us all. He never hated even the meanest of
us. He loves us all, and sent his son, Jesus to live in the world to show us how very much he loves us,
and how much he wants us to live."
"Oh, I want you to tell me more about this God and Jesus," said Shoh Huan.
For two weeks Shoh Huan waited in the hospital, Each day she heard a new story about Jesus. Still the
doctor's arm was only a little better, and the poor woman was given no relief.
"Edgerton," said his wife one morning, "you ought not to try to cut off Shoh Huan's tumor today. I am
afraid you too will be sick if you do."
"Wife," the doctor answered, "I must. The poor woman has suffered long enough. I must perform the
operation today."
So that day they took Shoh Huan to the operating room. She was laid on the strong, clean operating
table, and Dr. Chung, the kind Chinese doctor, put her to sleep. Her old mother stood back in one
corner waiting and watching.
Before the doctor began his work she knelt on the floor before him and begged: "Use your skill today,
great doctor. Save my daughter's life. We are unworthy. We have no great gifts to make, but show
mercy, and save life."
For almost five long hours, Dr. Hart worked to save the life of poor Shoh Huan. He was careful and
skillful as if the poor woman had been the greatest official in China.

6. "Surely it is the love of God that makes you so kind," murmured the old mother as she watched.
At last the doctor finished his work, and told the old mother that Shoh Huan would soon be quite well.
Then he went to rest. The operation was only one of many hard tasks that filled Dr. Hart's days. He
tried to help all who came, and there were enough patients to keep two doctors busy.
It seemed too wonderful to be true when Shoh Huan wakened and the tumor was gone. She was a new
woman. She was new in her body. She was new, also, in her heart. She would have wonderful stories to
tell her village friends when she was well enough to go back, stories of the great Dr. Hart of Wuhu, and
of Jesus, the merciful Saviour who loved her.
One morning only a week after the great weight had been taken from her back, and while Shoh Huan
was still waiting in the hospital, Tu Simuh came into the woman's ward and said, "We eat bitterness
today for Dr. Hart is sick."
The next morning while the sick women were waiting anxiously for better news, the nurse with a
sadder face than before said, "Dr. Hart is worse. He has typhus fever."
It was hard for anyone in the hospital to be cheerful, for all the Chinese knew what a dreadful sickness
typhus fever is. Yet day by day they hoped and prayed for the great foreign doctor. He had made
wonderful cures for others: could not someone heal him? But day by day he slipped further from all
help. After nine days of anxious waiting, the sad news had to be brought: "The foreign doctor is dead."
Poor Shoh Huan was heart-broken. Perhaps what he had done for her made him sick.
"He died to make me well," she said, "me, a poor village woman. How could it be? Surely he loved like
Jesus."
"Yes, Shoh Huan," said the Bible woman as she tried to comfort her. "Dr. Hart did love like Jesus.
There are hundreds and hundreds of other men and women and children living in villages and cities all
about Wuhu who have come to his hospital and who feel just as you do. Dr Hart died for us all, Shoh
Huan, for he loved liked Jesus."
Hart Estate
After the death of Edgerton, Caroline thought it best to return to the states so her children could further
their education. She entrusted a family friend, Edward Little with managing the property that her
husband had bought, consisting of some coal mines around Wuhu, the Summer home in Lushan, and
some property on Pu dong and Shelter Island across from Shanghai. After the Chinese Revolution,
when the government was willing to compensate foreigners for their losses, the Hart Estate was a day
late in filing the paperwork, which had an estimated value of 3 million dollars in 1969. After coming to
China in 2004, I later found out from the Lushan property office, that Edward Little had sold the
properties and pocketed the money, neglecting to inform Caroline what he had done with the money.

7. Coal Properties: North Saddle Island Development Land Properties: Fan Shan Hsien-
Challsien-Nanling-Ching Hsien-KwanTah Chow
Yangtse Mining Co. Kuling-Lot #55 1/3 interest
Wuhu Coal Mines
Caroline Maddock Hart
Caroline Maddock Hart 'Old China Hand'
Journal/Courier article Wednesday, December 24, 1947 Elisabeth Yager
If there were a contest in Jacksonville to name the person who has lived the most adventurous life, my
entry would be a small, serene, white haired woman who was 74 last week.
Because she seldom talks about herself-though always interested to talk about China-few people here
know that Mrs Caroline Hart of 651 S. Prairie St., is mentioned in every standard textbook on the
history of nursing.
Shocked Conservative Family
Born Caroline Maddock, in Guelph, Ontario Province Canada, as a young woman she shocked her
family by her determination to become a graduate nurse. After completing her training at Presbyterian
and the county hospitals in Chicago, she further broke with her family's conservative traditions by
going out to China to become superintendent of nursing at Wuhu General Hospital in Wuhu, Ahnwei
Province.
Wuhu is an industrial city, about 250 miles inland from Shanghai and the coast, on the Yangste Kiang.
By intensive study-five and a half hours a day during her first year-the young graduate learned to
understand the local dialect and to give her nurses and other staff members their training and directions
in adequate Mandarin Chinese.
Married Noted Doctor

8. Three years after her arrival in Wuhu, she married Dr. Edgerton H.Hart, one of the most distinguished
American medical missionaries in China, the son of pioneer missionary who went out to China in 1865.
Dr. Hart's first wife had died leaving five young children.
For their wedding trip, they took a houseboat, manned by a crew of four, on a one-thousand mile trip
propelled by sail through the lakes and rivers to Nanchang.
Sailed into Typhoon
On their way north again from Nanchang, where they had picked up a friend as passenger, the 50-foot
sail launch was struck by one of the sudden and terrible typhoons for which Lake Poyang is famous.
For two nights the bride was hurled from one side to the other of the black cabin as the boat pitched
and her husband, the passenger and crew fought to free the dragging anchor and master the tiller. Again
and again through the 36 hours of storm, rain and peril she heard their passenger cry out: "Hart, are you
still aboard?" and her husband's answering hail.
Suddenly about four a.m. of the second night the wind died away. Dawn showed them the wrecks of
many junks much larger than their own boat which had been overturned with great loss of life.
A Life of Emergencies
After her marriage, Mrs. Hart continued to superintend the 100-bed hospital with its staff of trained
Chinese men nurses, practicle women nurses and domestic employees, and to supervise her own home,
with its staff of eight servents. Her three children, like four of her five step-children were all born in
China.
The greatest dread of the hospital staff was the killer, cholera, which was likely to become epidemic
each summer. Mrs. Hart can remember days when on a morning trip from the hospital to the nearby
city, as many as twenty bodies might be counted of Chinese stricken with cholera who had died where
they fell the previous night.
At all times there were pirates on the river, who preyed on passengers. Many nights Dr. Hart was
summoned by messenger to come to the aid of parties who had been attacked and badly wounded by
pirates-and would set out with revolver, rifle and medical kit. For her own protection Mrs. Hart
practiced with rifle and revolver and it was widely known that she was an excellent shot.

9. Revolution in China
In 1911 the Harts returned to the United States to put the older children in school and college, and so
missed the great revolution, though they had already been through periods of civil disorder.
On their return in 1912 they found that there were 5,000 revolutionary soldiers in Wuhu who had not
been mustered out-or paid. these men broke into stores and homes, slaughtering anyone who stood in
their way.
Prepared for Flight
Mrs. hart recently came upon a memento of that night of terror-a note written hastily to her husband by
the British consul at Wuhu to say the soldiers might come to the hospital, a mile and a half from the
city, to attack the "foreigners," and if they saw his warning flares, they must flee overland as all the
transport on the river was in the hands of the mutinying troops.
Mrs. Hart dressed her two little girls, aged four and two, in their warmest clothing-she was then
expecting her third child and the older Hart children were all away at school. She packed necessities
which she and her husband could carry besides a child and a rifle apiece. Then all night they watched
for the signal flares.
When daylight came there arrived at the hospital a long procession of the terribly injured residents from
the city. The munity had been quelled; doctor and nurse put down their rifles and went to work in the
hospital surgery.
Returned to U.S.
Dr. Hart died of typhus in April, 1913. Mrs Hart then brought the children back to this country,
expecting to return to China when their education was completed. She has never yet been back, though
she has continued to feel a deep affection for her adopted country and its people.
After three years as head of the junior house at Drew Seminary while Dr. C.P. McClelland was
president of Drew, Mrs. hart came to Jacksonville to live because Dr. McClelland suggested that it
would be a good place for her children to grow up and go to college.

10. Children Educated Here
Carolyn Hart, now Mrs. Lawrence Crawford of Jacksonville, Helen Hart, now Mrs. Stanley Reynolds
of Redlands, California, and Herbert Hart all graduated from Jacksonville High School. The two girls
graduated also from MacMurray and Herbert Hart spent one year at Illinois College before going to a
California college. His home is now in Chicago.
Mrs. Hart became head of one of the senior houses at MacMurray College, then house mother at Jane
Hall, and for several years was in charge of the college infirmary until she retired. While she was
employed at the college she completed her own college credits and received a A.B. degree from
MacMurray in 1931.
Old China Hand
Since her retirement in 1942 Mrs Hart has rebuilt a small house on South Prairie and made her home in
Jacksonville. She is pictured here in her living room furnished with rugs, furniture and ornaments most
of which she brought with her from China.
Her friends know that she is one of the number who can rightly and proudly call themselves "Old
China Hands." Only her most intimate friends have known-until now-that she has already found an
honored place in professional history as one of the five organizers and the first president of the Nurses
Association of China.
After completing Nursing School in Chicago 1905, she felt her calling was to go to China and see Dr.
Mary Stone, a Chinese woman who she had heard about from her friend Dr. Danforth in Chicago.
After arriving in Jiujiang, she spent the night in the western primary school house. A few days later,
she was requested to return to the U.S. with Mrs. Edgerton Hart, who had separated her kidney, while
trying to move a upright piano in the Summer home at Lushan.

11. She left the next morning with + += Hart, on a 2 day steamer to Shanghai. Where they boarded
another to San Francisco. They then took the train to Chicago, where =+= Hart died six months later.
She returned to Wuhu where she was a nurse, and two years later married Dr. Edgerton Hart on
October, 26th 1907 in Nanking(Nanjing), at Dr.Stewart's home. He was the 1st president of the
University of Nanking.
Some of my earliest memories, are going to see my great grandmother Caroline Maddock Hart, on
south Prairie St.. She lived in a one story bungalow with green shrubs obscuring the front porch.
Entering the home I can picture the living room with many old things on the walls and a big stuffy
couch and arm chair. On the tea table by a window was the telephone and a jar or orange slices. These
were a treat that she had developed while working as a nurse at the Wuhu General Hospital.
A Day in Kiukiang (Jiujiang) 1905
Written CMH 6/22-23 1905
Kiukiang situated on the Yangtze River, five hundred miles from Shanghai is a place towards which I
have turned my thoughts ever since I decided to go to China. So when my boat turned in that direction,
I eagerly anticipated my stay there. We sailed up the Yangtze with waters so broad, that at times we
could scarcely see the opposite shore.
As we reached Kiukiang late at night, we decided to stay at the Coenpradoies rest house and look up
two friends in the morning. I was with Ms. Ester Butler, head of the Quaker Mission to China who I
had met on the S.S. Korea coming to China. She had come out as a nurse years before, but finding no
hospital ready for her profession had been shifted from one duty to another in a busy mission. In our
long talks on the Korea, she would say how easy it would be to be this diverted and urged us to be
fierce in trying to follow our profession. Her humorous, wise, devoted experience made her one of my
most cherished friends. In later years I often turned to her for advice. Though her I met many outside
my +=+ Mission.
We had just settled to rest when a vigorous knocking on the door announced the arrival of Dr. Mary
Stone and Mrs. Deavitt. They had heard we were at the rest house and came visiting. I must go over to
the methodist compound tonight. I had heard so much of Dr. Mary Stone, who at last, I met her, a
daunty girlish figure heart fully +=+ with rave poise, wonderful executive ability and professional skill.
Years later she told me that Ms. Howe had saved her and Dr. Ida Kahn that as they were the first girls
to be left with unbound feet in all the teeming millions of central China, that they must compensate for

12. this incoation by being most meticulous in their dress and particularity in their foot wear. As they had
to change shoes every two or three weeks, because they were hand made and hand embroidered on silk
or satin. It had taken many hours of their time to keep shoes looking well. A wise counsel and
foresight on Ms. Howe's part, for so often reformers make reforms unpopular by unattentive dress or ...
Dr. Stone insisted I take her chair while she walked. So we proceeded, I for the first time in a sedan
chair carried by coolies, with lantern bearers before and after, and Dr. Stone and Mrs. Deavitt on foot.
We followed a Reg bearer from the Treasury waiting to unlock the city gate for Dr. Stone reputation
was so great a request of hers was always granted for exit or entrance.
It is a peculiar feeling to enter a walled city at night. In some cities they still locked the gates at night
and when we had to enter, you would be pulled up over the wall in a basket. But this required special
permission from the official. We passed through narrow streets lined by shops selling all descriptions
of goods seemingly as busy and crowded as if in day time. Our party caused +=+ and many lifted their
lanterns to throw light on our faces. As they recognized Dr. Stone, they said welcome to Shih E San
"their beloved doctor". In some open doors we passed the families had gone to rest in their mud floored
houses, sharing the one room with their Water Buffalo, pigs and chickens and the shaggy wolf like
dogs. The memory of these first expeditions into Chinese sections can never be forgotten.
By the treaty signed between Prussia and China in 1861, Kiukiang had been made a treaty port and as
such had a foreign concession on the river-bank outside the city walls. The school properties were
inside the walls. We followed our way to the Girls School headed by Ms. White and the high school
headed by Ms. Mcrielland I resumed our sleep.
In the morning, school having dismissed for the year, the girls came in groups to say good-bye. Many
of them to go from the wooden school to their houses of mud walls and thatched roofs. Presently there
was quite an uproar after the arrival of a party with a coarse looking over her face. They had come
introducing to claim the +=+ betrothed . The students all knew the poor young girl did not want to be
married. Since her engagement years before her parents had become Christian and she had found
happiness in school that she hoped she would never be forced to keep this marriage contract to a man
she had never seen.
Fortunately the woman and her son could not identify her except by name. The old mother in law
searched the school corridors but failing to find her they presented themselves to the teachers. Ms.

13. White took the girls part assuring her they would let her go only with her own mother who had brought
her there, after they found the child hiding and crying in a corner . But in this twentieth century that a
little girl would scarcely dare to leave her home for the fear of being carried off.
Indeed years later Dr. Houghton told me of seeking to persuade a highly educated young Chinese
woman doctor who was teaching in an American medical collage to go out to teach at the Rockefeller
School in Peking, only to find that one of these child betrothals made it unsafe to go back to China. A
contract is a contract, we say. Scarcely had the tumalt over this see sided where the house sea-walls
raised the cry of "Thief" and dragged in a man who had been caught carrying off a bundle of one of the
students.
The culprit cringed knocking his head on the floor and crying for mercy. it was a hard question to
decide. At times arrivals are most cruelly treated in prisons tortured beyond their deserts wit the idea
the official can extort money from the prisoners family. The stocks and rack are still used. It is a
delicate situation for a foreigner to obstruct justice as the Chinese administer it. So he was finally
handed over to the official, who was asked to place a large wooden collar locked about his neck and
have him walked up and down in front of the mission compound as an object lesson.
When the +=+ examinetor revealed that he was an old offender, the action of handing him over to the
authorities caused less regret. It is a constant thing to guard against a foreign country not to let out ideas
of fair play obstruct their course of law.
These episodes delayed our start for Dr. Stone's where we were received in a real Chinese guest room.
As we sat at the table the coolie waved a priest Rah above our heads. We were told preel Rah pulling
was considered a sincere by the Chinese when a really expert performer could tie the rope to his toe
and even sleep while keeping it in motion.
As we were having tea, a wife of a high official arrived in a sedan chair. Dr. Stone hurried out to greet
her. These visits are always anticipated in China, as the bearer of the card case always arrives ahead of
the guest. We were all introduced to her and finally after protest sank into a place suitable for her rank.

14. Servants passed dishes of everything over the table to her and she accepted everything but ate nothing.
She did take a few sips of tea and the watchful servant kept filling her tea cup to the top, for it is
discourteous to allow a guest's tea cup to be empty.
The lady's cheeks, forehead and chin had patches of an odd red and her eyebrows and lashes darkened.
She was expensively dressed in a brocaded sewn over silks. Presently she put out one foot and let all
the ladies see she had unbound feet. Upon exclamations of delight surprise and approval she explained,
"My husband has issued a proclamation and has had it posted, that no more children's feet may be
bound in his district under penalty of severe punishment.
It had been a very painful thing for a woman to unbind her feet. Bound since childhood and all present
spoke their admiration and praise.
After the Tai Tai left, Dr. Stone showed us her hospital called the Elizabeth Skelton Danforth Hospital
after the mother of my old friend Dr. William Danforth of Chicago.
Dr.Stone wanted to keep the institution entirely native, so the doctors nurses and helpers were all
Chinese. The nursing was a high standard, and the place clean and orderly.
Dr. Stone's family is an old scholarly family. Outside in the district North of Kiukiang lies their
ancestral house place to which the family hold deeds nearly 2,000 years old. The whole province is
proud of her. I have never known anyone with more intelligence and charm.
We slept that night in comfortable foreign beds and were off the next morning by sedan chair for
Kuling under the skillful direction of my good Quaker friend Esther Butler.
Of our stop that night at the half way house just beyond Shih Li Puh I have written elsewhere it was my
introduction to the night habits of lizards, when thousands of them scurried about the walls and ceilings
of our hut and I lay terrified weather a mosquito net to protect me and not at all comforted by the
assurances of Ms. Butler that they would not fall from the ceiling and they were harmless even if they
did.
Jiujiang has always been a port city for the north of Jiangxi, Province. In 973, there was a naval battle
involving over 1500 ships between Zu Hu and =+=, Three Kingdom Period. It is here where the rice of
northern Jiangxi is loaded and shipped down the Yangtze, destined for port cities of Northern China.

15. Jiujiang became an open port city and the Russian's were the first western colony in 1861, outside the
city walls.
Is is where one would get off a boat and head by coolie chair for a two day ride to Kuling. The city
used to be bounded by the southern bank of the Yangtze, and a series of hills South of the former city,
that are now being flattened, and the excess being pushed into the ravines, and made level for the ever
growing city population.
As one would head away from Jiujiang, they would have to pass over Shi Li Pu (bridge), where there
used to be a Buddhist temple nearby that was destroyed during the Cultural Revolution.
After several kilometers and mounting the next hill, you would slowly descend its backside and around
a left bend you come upon Dong Ling Si, with Sing Li Si just behind it. These are Tang Dynasty
Buddhist temples with over 1,200 years of worship being practiced there. The latter is now constructing
the largest standing Buddha in the world. Its chief monk was indited for stealing funds from the project
in 2006.
Caroline Maddock Hart Postcards
Sue Hart writes- CMH sent me these postcards for my collection. It is her handwriting and I
have typed it in the event you can’t read it
Dear Susan: I was so glad to have your letter telling me about your school work. Good marks in
school follow you all your life for when you want to do things, people always ask to see your report
cards. I was over 50 years old when I finished college, but they asked for my school records.[1]
“Bud”[2] took his examination on a scale of 150. Most persons pass about 100, but Bud received 139
which they say is very good.
Ask Karen and Peter to write me too. I love to hear from you. Cathie[3] takes swimming lessons from
9 to 10 for six weeks at the Park Pool. She goes to her own school afternoons for vacation handicraft
work.
I think you know Bud has gone to Camp Bliss in Texas for 16 weeks. It will be hot down there.
My love to you dear.
/s/ Grandmother
Postcards: the numbers start at #5 through 11. There are two narratives for each postcard. The first
will be the handwritten notes on the lined paper and then I will translate from each postcard. [I guess
you can cut and paste to put it together].
#5 Card: “Kreigsdschunken” is German for Gun-boats. These are the kind of gunboats the Chinese had
50 years ago. Notice the sails furled of bamboo slats like your porch curtains.[4]
#6-7: In 1910 Chinese thought it was time to have an International Exhibition at Nanking so these are
some of the buildings.

16. #8: This is the Passenger station where the ferry carries passengers across the Yangste River, 2 miles
wide, to get the train on the other side to go north. Notice how crowded they stand. I once saw a ferry
boat like this with 48 passengers capsize, and only 6 persons were saved.
#9: Look up Giles in Dorset County England. Notice the chalk cliffs. Your Great-great-great
grandfather and Mother Goodeve came from Wiltshire just north of Dorsetshire.
#10: Meissen is a town in Germany. “Schloss” means castle; “Dom” means church. Notice postmark
“Wuhu” and the Chinese characters read from Wu hu. Note characters for Shanghai [mark not
available on computer] (above) hai (sea).
#10: [3rd side] Do you know where Naples is? A friend of mine was traveling on the North German
Lloyd (Nord-deutscher Lloyd) S.S. “Zieten”. I crossed from Nagasaki to Shaanghai on the “Zeiten” in
1904. The sheets were heavy white linen damask like table cloths. The top sheet was folded on foot of
bunk and was made like a pillow-case with a draw-string. You climbed into it and drew the string
about your neck, so that the fleas would not bit you in the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean—lots of fun!
Fleas do not bite your face.
#11: Be sure to look at the ?iron screens in windows. They are very pretty. They were likely made at
Wuhu as that was the place they made the prettiest window grills. Each pattern would have a separate
name like the “first breath of spring”, or “the spider waits” Notice too the little windbells[5] at each
corner of the roof. I think I saw a little glass one on your porch.
Postcards
[not numbered] Pacific Mail Steamship Co. S.S. Mongolia. This was a sister ship of the S.S. Dakota
—very much bigger 27,000 tons than the “Korea” 18,000 tons on which I crossed 3 times. The Dakota,
in a fog off Japan ran into rocks and sank. Most of the people were saved. Japan is Volcanic so it has
sharp rocks off-shore.
[not numbered] front says: July 23, 1922. Pei tai ho N. China summer resort [notice x on card. This a
card to Helen] Dear Helen: This gives you a view of the tennis courts and Lotus Hills. Yesterday all
the ?conference had a picnic where the “____” is. From it you have a wonderful view of the ocean.
Not so many people here as in Kuling, but oh the sea-bathing! How did you come out in the high
jump? I may teach 7th grade this year. Saw some Chinese deer in the park. Lovingly Rose[6]
#5: With my best wishes for Christmas and New Year to the whole family. I am sincerely [can’t read
the name]
#6: Nanyang Industrial Exposition Liberal Arts Building. Dear Virgil: Don’t you wish you were
down here? We had a fine time riding around in a horse and carriage. The day before yesterday I saw
Abram and Katy. The Cory’s dog has 2 or 3 puppies. Lovingly Dorothea.[7]
#7: Nanyang Industrial Exposition, The Opening Day No. 1.
#8: Nanking Passagier-Station. Thurs. 19. Dear Dr. Hart. Patients all doing nicely normal temps for
Li tai tui[?] for which we are grateful. Daily dressing. Will let Mrs. M. tell her own story. I am much
enjoying her stay. Sincerely, [?]

17. #9: Lulworth Cove [can’t read the handwriting]
#10: Norddeutscher Lloyd Bremen. May 6th 1907. Naples. Miss Maddock[8], Wuhu China. All
well.
#11: This is a building at Nanking China—likely a hotel. Notice the line of square windows. Take a
magnifying glass and notice that the iron grills in each window is different. There is likely a lovely
garden inside the walls. The boats are pleasure boats for short trips.
[1] [CMH graduated from McMurray College in Jacksonville, IL and it was at the same time as either
one of her daughters: Helen H Reynolds or Carolyn H Crawford]
[2] Bud is Aunt Carolyn’s son, Lawrence Crawford, Jr.
[3] Cathy is Aunt Carolyn’s younger daughter, Cathy Crawford Green
[4] She is referring to HG and BC Hart’s enclosed, unheated porch in their house in Kensington, MD.
Instead of cloth shades or blinds, they had rolled bamboo shades.
[5] I think she is referring to what we call windchimes.
[6] This is a card to Helen Hart [Reynolds] from her half sister Rose who taught school in China.
[7] This is a card to Virgil Hart from Dorothea—half brother and sister to HGH
[8] This is Grandmother Hart, before she married Edgerton.
Estille Hart
She would be your great aunt, Dr. Edgerton Harts younger sister. She was born in Canada after Virgil
Hart's wife (can't recall her name right now) had to return to Canada for health reasons. I also want to
know if you have read Estilla Hart's book Virgil Hart Missionary-Statesman? There are 15 copies
available at various books stores across Canada and the U.S.. On the net if you go to out of print books
and click on Aldin Books, input the title and author you will get the book stores that have it available.
Most are for sale between $15.00-30.00 bills, somewhat worn on the covers. There is one brand new
copy for $172.00!
Carolyn Hart Crawford
Daughter of Edgerton. I have made copies of photographs that has in her possession of China.
Carolyn Hart was born in December, 11th, 1911 in Wuhu China. After the death of Dr. Edgerton Hart,
her mother moved back to the U.s., first in Chicago, than eventually Jacksonville. She graduated from

18. Jacksonville High School and attended MacMurray College where she was May Queen, 1931 and
graduated.
I remember at my grandmothers home on her bureau, was a black and white photograph of the Endless
Walkway at the Summer Palace near Beijing. The sun casting a ray of light under the eves along the
raised path, with every beam above you painted in a different theme and season. I told myself that one
day I would see this in person.
The interior of the house was decorated with many items of furniture that she had inherited from her
mother Caroline, along with pieces that were bought on a vacation trip to San Francisco in 1972.
Surrounding the house was a garden on its south and east sides where following the raised stones you
passed a small pagoda between a Japanese Elm and Ginko tree. You would then turn to your left, go
down a set of steps and pass underneath a Weeping Willow. Nearby was a reflecting pool with a raised
stone that had a trickle of water cascade down its side, making a subtle splashing sound as the water
fell into the pool.
Behind the garage was another garden with a white pine and dawn redwood reached to the sky and a
=+= vine rose over a trelace and at one end stood a moon gate. It was round in appearance made of
wood and stained deep brown with bronze handles in the shape of dragons.
Helen Hart Reynolds
Daughter of Edgerton. Talking with Helen Hart Reynolds the other night, she told me that she has alot
of material on China too. Might be a worth while to arrange a visit with her.
My great aunt was always a much fun to be around, and hear her stories of travels with her husband
who was a scientist. They lived in California, on the high desert in Ridgecrest, which is a navel
weapons military base, with many sensitive projects being tested there. She would entertain me with
stories of how she just wanted to play like all the other boys, but was scolded whenever her ahma
(nanny) caught her doing so as a child.
After I returned to the U.S. from my first visit to China in 2000, and showing the pictures I took from
the railing overlooking the Yangtze River, Helen told me that when she was a little girl, she
remembered watching a caterpillar inch its way across the top rail.

19. Herbert Hart
Son of Edgerton, and Caroline Hart. Born in China in 1913.