Marie Adams
DePauw University, Class of 1914
DC 471

Archives of DePauw University
and Indiana United Methodism

Marie Adams Papers
1890 -
Class of 1914

Size: 0.40 lf
Restrictions: none
Accession: unknown
Provenance: donor
Processed by: Eleanore Cammack, March 17, 1967

Biographical Sketch
Marie Adams was born in Anderson, Indiana, May 18, 1890. During her last two years in high school and a year between high school and college, she served on the Muncie District Epworth League cabinet. In 1914, Marie graduated from DePauw University. She was on the Y.W.C.A. cabinet three years, serving as president her senior year - at that time the highest honor for a girl in DePauw. In the fall of 1915, Miss Adams went to China. Her first ten years were spent in Taianfu, Shantung, where she was principal of the Edna Terry Woman's Training School. 1939-1942, Miss Adams did a set of six books for the National Christian Council, which could be used either in senior high school Sunday School classes, or in colleges for Bible study. At Pearl Harbor time, Miss Adams was in Peiping and automatically, along with all other "Army nationals" became a prisoner of the Japanese Military. After six months in a concentration camp Miss Adams was one of the 1500 Americans repatricated on the second trip of the Gripsholm, arriving in New York just before Christmas 1943. When it was evident that missionaries could not return to China, Miss Adams asked to be sent to Japan, where she spent five happy years in Tokyo Woman's Christian College (1950-1955). Miss Adams left Japan in October 1955, returning by Suez and Europe for the second time, she retired the following year.

Collection Statement
Collection consists mainly of clippings, correspondence and autobiographical sketch. Also in this collection are six paper books written by Miss Adams and an audiotape of an interview on WISH-TV.

Adams, Marie, Class of 1914

DC 471

Folder 1. Autobiographical sketch

• Clippings
• Correspondence

The Charm of Old Peking n.d.

5 booklets bound in Chinese fashion in colored brocade.

Typed manuscript with many photographs.

Chinese Cave Temples, 1934

Typed manuscript with many photographs.

"The pictures are of the earliest portrayals of the life of Buddha in

China and as such are very important."

The caves were in Ta Tung Shansi, China.

Bound in yellow brocade

Leaves from a war prisoner's devotional diary. Entries cover the period 1941-1943; excerpts typed from original and photocopied. 109 pg.

6 paper backs written by Miss Adams "for a course of teaching on the Bible,"

translated into the Chinese language by Lu Lueh Shan.

The titles are as follows: The Early Church

Early Hebrew Stories

The Hebrew Kingdom

Jesus, the Interpreter of God

The Makers of Judaism

The Building of the Hebrew Nation

See Also: Grose file - DC 176 for letters "A" miscellaneous.

* Book by Marie Adams, The Jumping-Off Place

BV3427.A32 Arch.

(Privately printed, 1979)

* Audio Tape #475, An interview on WISH-TV

Marie Adams, daughter of Henry and Marietta Adams, was born in Anderson, Indiana, May 18, 1890. When not quite seven, Marie became a Christian and joined the Methodist Church in Frankfort, Indiana, taking her family with her. At the same time she announced her intention of becoming a missionary to China. That purpose never wavered in spite of family opposition and efforts on the part of friends and teachers to change her mind.

In 1914, Marie graduated from DePauw University. Although she did not accept the offered membership in sororities, she was very active on the campus. She was on the Y.W.C.A. cabinet three years, serving as president her senior year - at that time the highest honor for a girl in DePauw. She was the first girl to serve as president with out sorority pin. In January, 1914 she was one of DePauw's eight delegates to the International Volunteer Convention at Kansas City, Missouri. President Grose accompanied the delegation.

After college, the Woman's Foreign Missionary society of the Methodist Church considered Miss Adams too young for the mission field. She and Dr. North, her major professor, planned for her to take her Masters at Chicago University. However, she bowed to the request of the Society and went to Chicago Training School, where she did two years in one and graduated.

In the fall of 1915, Miss Adams went to China. Her first ten years were spent in Taianfu, Shantug, where she was principal of the Edna Terry Bible Woman's Training School. During her first furlough Miss Adams raised money for a new building. Upon her return to China the building became a reality.

In 1925, only two years after the new building made the work of the school so much more interesting, Bishop Grose was sent to the North China Conference. Knowing that all of Miss Adams' training had been for youth work, Bishop Grose moved her to Peiping. There she took the department of Religious Education in the Mary Porter Gamewell Girl's High School, the oldest girl's School in North China, as well as heading up Methodist Student Work in the city, and on the side giving short units of Religious Education in the School of Religion of Yenching University and the Methodist Theological School in Peiping.

Miss Adams always found time for community interests. At different times in Peiping she serves as Treasurer, Vice-President and President of the American Association of University Women. One year she was president of the Peking International Women's Club of six hundred members.

In 1922, while on furlough, Miss Adams was ordained Local Deacon as "an act of appreciation" (without examination) by her conference, North Indiana. As she was in Boston University (School of Religious Education and School of Theology) at the time, the New England Conference ordained he in the name of the North Indiana Conference. In 1931 the North China Conference completed her ordination as Local Elder. The word "local" simply designated at that time that the person was not a member of a conference. The Methodist Church did not give women the right to belong to a conference until 1956, even though it had ordained women for many years.

At Pearl Harbor time, Miss Adams was in Peiping and automatically, along with all other "enemy nationals" became a prisoner of the Japanese Military. For fifteen months all prisoners lived in their own homes under restrictions. After that all were put in concentration camps. After six months of the latter, Miss Adams was one of the 1500 Americans repatriated on the second trip of the Griphsholm, arriving in New York just before Christmas 1943.

During three furloughs Miss Adams did college speaking for the Women's Board. Each furlough she begged for a full year of study in order to get her Masters, but each time the Board seemed to think that speaking was more important. So, with over three years of graduate credit in Chicago Training School (at that time good in almost any college or university) Boston University, Chicago University, Columbia University and Union Seminary, she has no Masters.

The return of Miss Adams to China in 1947 (delayed by college speaking) was only for thirteen months. The Communists were to arrive in Peiping before Christmas of 1948.

Bishop Kuang, felt he could do a better job for the church, if the missionaries were not there. He asked all North China missionaries to go south, until things in the north were settled, and then he would recall them. But at Tientsin, the American Consul high-pressured the group and most of them returned to the United States.

When it was evident that missionaries could not return to china, Miss Adams asked to be sent to Japan. There she spent five happy years in Tokyo Woman's Christian College (1950-1955) where she came to love Japanese girls as she had Chinese girls.

In 1954 the Council for Christian Literature for Overseas Chinese in Hongkong, sponsored by the National Christian Council of U.S., asked to republish the set of six books which Miss Adams had done for the China Christian Council 1939-42. During her last year in Tokyo Woman's Christian College, she revised the six books. They are now going into their fourth edition. The British School system in Hongkong is using these books for their required Bible courses.

Miss Adams left Japan in October 1955, returning by Suez and Europe for the second time. She landed in New York in early January, and was retired the following year. She had intended to take a church upon retirement, but when conference time came she was dated for speaking for a solid year in several states. After a second conference-time found her in the same situation, the idea of a church had to be given up. She will have been home eight years in January and retired seven, but speaking and teaching keeps her on the road most of the time. The past seven years she has taught in twenty-eight Woman's Society Schools of Missions in ten states and four jurisdictions. Her last one this summer brought special pleasure, for it was held at DePauw University.

Fortville, Indiana

October 31, 1964

* In 1985 Marie Adams lived in the U.N.M.H., P.O. Box 326, Warren, IN 46792