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Collection 051 Papers of Katharine H. Schoerner

 Collection
Identifier: CN 051

Scope and Contents

Oral history interview with Katherine Hastings Dodd Schoerner for the Missionary Sources Collection at the BGC Archives, in which she describes her experiences as a missionary with China Inland Mission from 1931-1951. Also included the collection are five letters written during her ministry in China describing her life there.

Katharine Schoerner was interviewed by Wheaton College student Gary Ziccardi on October 20, 1978 at her home in Evergreen Park. Topics covered in the interview include: missionary service in China with China Inland Mission, indigenous Chinese religions and Christianity, and comparisons of Chinese and American cultures. The time period covered by the interviews is 1908 to 1978.

Also in this collection are a series of five letters written by Mrs. Schoerner during her years in China. Written to family, friends, and supporters, the letters describe her everyday activities, the background of the children she worked with, and the family's harrowing evacuation experience to Kansu Province in 1944. The two letters from 1944 are copies of ones written by Mrs. Schoerner to her mother, and the last letter, written from Lanchow in Kansu Province contains a handwritten note added on by Mrs. Schoerner's mother as she passed the letter on to another of her daughters.

Dates

  • Created: 1978

Conditions Governing Access

There are no restrictions on the use of this collection.

Biographical or Historical Information

Katharine Dodd was the first of four children born to Albert B. and Mabel Minnie Dodd, missionaries working in Shantung Province, China. As a senior in high school, she came to the United States for her higher education. After two years at Park College in Parkville, Missouri, she transferred to Wheaton College, Wheaton, Illinois, from which she graduated in 1930 with a degree in zoology. She then attended two terms at Moody Bible Institute where she met her future husband, Otto Schoerner. In 1932, she returned to China as a missionary of the China Inland Mission. She served her term working with Chinese women and children as a Bible teacher in the province of Anhwei. In 1939, at the end of her term, she traveled to Shanghai to be married. She served with her husband through two more terms, finally leaving China in 1951. The Schoerners and their five children settled in Chicago upon their return to America. Upon their retirement, they moved to Windsor Park in Carol Stream, Illinois. Katharine died September 16, 2000.

Extent

0.10 Cubic Feet

1 Folder, Audio Tape

Language of Materials

English

Accruals and Additions

Oral history interview with Katharine Schoerner was recorded on October 20, 1978 by Wheaton College student Gary Ziccardi and given to the Billy Graham Center Archives.

Accession number: None

December 19, 1978

Robert Shuster

M. Shimmels

G. Ziccardi

Revised and retyped

March 30, 1993

M. L. Wohlschlegel

J. Archer

Revised, June 17, 1993

M. L. Larson

Title
Collection 051 Papers of Katharine H. Schoerner
Author
Bob Shuster
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
Undetermined
Script of description
Code for undetermined script
Language of description note
English

Repository Details

Part of the Evangelism & Missions Archives Repository

Contact:
501 College Avenue
Wheaton IL 60187 US
630-752-5910