Mount, Bessie Jane (1893–1989)

Bessie Mount was a teacher, author, editor, and administrator who served as a missionary in China for 31 years.¹ Her Chinese name was 贝茜.芒特 (pinyin: Bèi qiàn. Máng tè). She was a prisoner of war during World War II. During her final decades of service she was a trusted staff member of the Ellen G. White Estate.

Early Life

Bessie Jane Mount was born on September 2, 1893, in Sinking Spring, Ohio, to Edwin Keyes (1867-1927) and Ruth Chaney Mount (1871-1954).² Her parents were originally Campbellites—a term used for adherents of the Disciples of Christ and Churches of Christ that arose from the restorationist preaching of Thomas and Alexander Campbell.³ Just before she was born, her parents accepted the Adventist message from Lovell Iles (1868-1898).⁴

After canvassing in Kentucky and Ohio in order to earn money for school, Bessie enrolled at the Southern Training School (forerunner of Southern Adventist University), Graysville, Tennessee, in the fall of 1913. She completed the Advanced Normal Course (education) in 1915, then taught for a year at a church school in Ford, Kentucky. Over the next two summers she attended Washington Missionary College (WMC) in Takoma Park, Maryland, while she continued teaching church school in Springfield, Ohio. Then, after a year of full-time study at WMC, Mount graduated with a bachelor of arts degree.⁵ She participated in a Foreign Mission Band at the college, something she later credited as contributing to her interest in foreign missions. After graduation, she led the Sabbath School, Young People’s, and Education departments for the Chesapeake Conference.⁶

Missionary to China

Accepting a call to mission service in China, Mount began Chinese language studies in Nanking in December 1920. She also taught an English class at the local Y.M.C.A. By January 1922, she arrived at Shanghai Missionary College ready to work as preceptress (dean of women).⁷ She was noted for her fluency in Chinese and served as an editor and writer in addition to her regular work.

On July 14, 1923, Mount returned to the United States to regain her health.⁸ Initially, she stayed at a small tuberculosis institution in Colorado, after which she visited her family in Ohio.⁹ The General Conference Committee advised her to teach for a year or two in America before returning to China,¹⁰ but then in September 1924 called her to “connect with” the Missionary Volunteer Department at the General Conference, then headed by Milton E. Kern. Finally, on June 15, 1925, church leaders reviewed a favorable medical report that cleared her as fit to return to mission service.¹¹

Upon her return to China in October 1925, Mount worked in the Educational and Young People’s departments at the Far Eastern Division office in Shanghai.¹² Her responsibilities included serving as associate editor of the China Christian Educator, a monthly periodical in Chinese. Another was contributing to “Our Counsel Corner”—a regular feature of the Youth’s Instructor in which she and other Young People’s departmental leaders responded to questions about Adventist lifestyle. In one instance, for example, Mount advised that Adventist young ladies should not wear flowers on their hats; in another, she gave a whole-hearted endorsement to visiting museums as an appropriate activity for youth.¹³

Her father’s passing in 1927 hit Bessie particularly hard, as she realized that she “would never see him again in this life” yet that in turn “made the hope of the future life even more precious.”¹⁴ Illness struck again in 1929, causing her to seek treatment at the Shanghai Sanitarium.¹⁵ Her health was also one factor in her departure on July 27, 1929, for furlough in the United States.¹⁶ While back in the homeland she attended the 1930 Spring Council and served as a delegate from the Far Eastern Division at the 1930 General Conference session.¹⁷

On August 2, 1930, Mount returned to China.¹⁸ She now served as Sabbath School Department secretary (director) for the newly formed China Division.¹⁹ She also continued supporting Missionary Volunteer efforts across China. Mount’s new role including providing translations of the Sabbath School lessons, editing the Sabbath School Helper, preparing materials for “Rally Day and Investment” programs, creating simplified lessons for those learning to read, developing Vacation Bible School material, preparing and printing memory verse cards, and keeping track of various reports.²⁰ Mount reported the addition of 31 Sabbath Schools in 1930 and another 111 in 1931 despite the devastating floods that year. She shared a story about how the floods washed away a church building and the members with it. The dispersed believers formed three groups and by the time they were located, each established a new Sabbath School where they landed.²¹ The Japanese invasion of 1932 made life increasingly difficult, and at times, Mount with others at the division compound had to be ready to flee at a moment’s notice.²²

In 1936 she was again a delegate to the General Conference session in San Francisco.²³ In the information that she supplied for the report given by GC Sabbath School Department Secretary L. Flora Plummer, Mount indicated that the China Division had 689 Sabbath Schools with a membership of 20,298.²⁴ After the session, Mount spent several weeks at the Review and Herald in Washington, D.C., helping to prepare for publication of the book China’s Borderlands and Beyond by C. C. Crisler, the China Division secretary who passed away in March 1936 while visiting a remote mission station in China.²⁵ Afterwards, while she was on a visit to Ohio, Bessie and her family escaped from a terrible flood along the Ohio River in a small rowboat.²⁶

Returning to China once again in April 1937, Mount reflected that by this time “China had become a second home to me.”²⁷ She resumed promoting Sabbath School work across the China Division, despite increased fighting. On August 13, 1937, personnel at division headquarters narrowly escaped harm when Japanese bomb shells burst into the mission compound. They evacuated to Hong Kong where they set up temporary offices until December 1938, when they were allowed to return to Shanghai. Mount’s office was ransacked with significant destruction of property, yet she was able to continue work under Japanese occupation. In August 1939 she noted the “impossibility of securing accurate reports from certain sections of the field at present, together with our anxiety for the welfare of hundreds of believers scattered by war or floods.” Yet she optimistically pointed out that 95.5% of members were still participating in Sabbath Schools and attendance had even grown, showing the “loyalty” of believers “under adverse conditions.”²⁸

Prisoner of War

In October 1940, with World War II underway, the U. S. Consulate advised American women and children to return to America. A large group of missionaries left for America on November 20. In early 1941 General Conference leaders urged that any remaining missionaries leave for Manila, Philippines. Mount, however, was granted permission to stay because, in her words, “the Sabbath school work was so closely tied in with the publishing house, I could see no way to carry on efficiently from Manila.”²⁹ Her friend Minnie Crisler, widow of C. C. Crisler, also remained behind, along with a Danish nurse, Thora Thomsen (1905-1965), who escaped from the hospital in Mukden despite great difficulty.

After the American marines withdrew on December 12, 1941, Mount left on the last boat from Shanghai, a French ship, arriving in Manila the day before Clark Airfield (a major American military base in the Philippines) was bombed. The missionaries fled immediately to the denomination’s headquarters in the mountaintop town of Baguio. Over the next three weeks they experienced nightly blackouts, daily air raid alarms, and “rushing to the woods or to makeshift shelters for safety.”³⁰ On December 28, 1942, Bessie Mount, along with about 50 other Adventist missionaries, was formally taken captive by the Japanese. Along with other missionaries and expatriates, they were part of a group of about 600 captives.

On October 30, 1943, the denomination held a day of “special prayer” for Adventist missionaries interred as prisoners of war. Mount was included on the list that totaled 89 adults and 27 children.³¹ Although communication was sparse, church leaders were able to ascertain that she was part of a larger group of missionaries located in Camp Holmes near Baguio.³² One rare cryptic message from Mount dated April 23, 1944, stated:

My health is good. Your August (1943) letter came yesterday. None from mother. Please write her. Comfortable. Keeping cheerful. Camp kitchen, school, hospital, library, religious services (all groups) supply needs. Love.³³

Mount was interned for 1,135 days.³⁴ Three years to the day from being taken captive, she was taken with other missionary prisoners to the hospital quarters of Bilibid Prison in Manila.³⁵ While she never left any significant memoir of her prisoner-of-war experience, she did note that during her time she learned what “real hunger and thirst” were like and compared it to the “deep longing” we should have for “spiritual food.”³⁶ Five weeks and two days later, on February 4, 1945, she was rescued by American troops. A letter to her nephew published in the Review described her experience:

It will be a week tomorrow since “the boys” [American troops] arrived, and it has been a hectic week but a most thrilling one. The battle of [censored] is still going on, and we are near enough to hear the constant shelling, bombing, etc. The joy of being “free” offsets the strains of the constant detonations, but we hope quiet will soon be restored. Though “free” and under the Stars and Stripes, we are remaining within [censored] walls for the present.³⁷

Mount also described her great joy at being able to eat “good food” from Army supplies to help her regain lost weight. “We had a cooked cereal this morning—I couldn’t recognize it—applesauce, bread and butter, and plenty of milk. The best breakfast I’ve had for three years.”³⁸ While she was waiting for transportation back to the United States, Mount contracted dengue fever, which was “a painful memory” that she barely survived.³⁹ During this time she also greatly appreciated meeting five Adventist young men who had been part of the Medical Cadet Corps:

It has been thrilling to see any of our [American] boys, but it is a special treat to see our own S.D.A.’s, and I think they are all as delighted as we are that they can see Americans, women and children, again. It’s a joy to see them with the children! The boys seem to feel that liberating American internees and prisoners of war repays them for the long wearisome months at such places as Bougainville, Guadalcanal, and New Georgia. But, oh, how many have paid the supreme price!⁴⁰

On May 2, 1945, she arrived in Los Angeles, California, with 57 other Adventist missionaries who had been detained during the war.⁴¹ This now “silver-haired” missionary had survived these “dark years” without “enough food, water or medicine.”⁴² Her initial weight had dropped 41 pounds to a mere 88 and “hope for survival was dim indeed.”⁴³

Renewed Mission

As she regained her health, Mount studied at the SDA Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C., for the 1945-1946 school year.⁴⁴ On December 15, 1946, she boarded the “Marine Lynx,” a converted troopship, with hundreds of other missionaries returning to Asia, including a number of former fellow internees, and 33 Adventist missionaries. They arrived on December 31, 1946, to meet their Chinese brothers and sisters, who “at great personal sacrifice and risk” carried on the work despite “almost overwhelming odds.”⁴⁵

Mount now served as associate secretary of the division Sabbath School Department under the leadership of her former assistant, Chen Ming, and as editor of the China Division Reporter.⁴⁶ Restarting the denomination’s work after the war was extremely difficult. Much of the metal, including the furnace, had been removed from the office headquarters. Office equipment, supplies, and even the shelves had been taken away. Despite the seemingly endless difficulties, they did the best they could to carry on their work. A significant memory, from this time, was a visit in 1947 to northwest China where she stopped by to see the grave of Elder Crisler. Here she “dedicated my life anew to the cause this man of God so loved and for which he gave his life.”⁴⁷

By December 1947, though, civil war between the Communists and Nationalists brought renewed peril and instability. As Mount put it, she and her co-workers barely kept “a couple of jumps ahead of the Chinese Communist armies.”⁴⁸ Nevertheless, a major evangelistic campaign proceeded in 1948 with Fordyce W. Detamore (1908-1980) conducting meetings, including broadcasts by radio, along with concurrent meetings in Chinese conducted by David Lin (1917-2011). Mount participated in this wide-ranging campaign by giving Bible studies while still maintaining her regular responsibilities.

On November 26, 1948, with the Nationalist government losing ground, China Division leaders voted to evacuate. In her diary, Mount, recorded her feelings about having to evacuate for the third time in 11 years: “With deep emotion on the part of all, an action was taken to move the division headquarters to the south—perhaps to Hong Kong—for a time, because of the present situation. Few, if any, dry eyes.”⁴⁹

Mount, again in the last group to leave, departed on December 24, 1948, for Hong Kong where she served as editor of the Chinese Voice of Prophecy News. She also assisted with refugee work at Diao Djing Ling (Rennie’s Mill Camp) in Hong Kong, guiding Adventist students on how to solicit participation in the Voice of Prophecy Bible Correspondence Course.⁵⁰ After the Communist victory in 1949, the division committee, in consultation with General Conference representatives, concluded in January 1950 that “nothing was to be gained by maintaining a division administrative staff in Hong Kong” and leadership was turned over to “Chinese provisional officers.”⁵¹ The expatriate leadership left for America in February but Mount requested to stay on assisting with the Voice of Prophecy Bible Correspondence School. She remained nearly a year until word came in January 1951 that the General Conference could no longer send funds to maintain the work in China and division president, David Lin, informed expatriate workers that the dangerous circumstances necessitated that they suspend all communication with Chinese Adventists.

“The curtain had fallen on China!,” Mount wrote. Soon “accusation meetings” and forced “confessions” made it clear that it was time to leave. She spent the spring of 1951 helping with evangelistic meetings in Taiwan and remained there until her departure on October 17 for an extended trip that eventually brought her to New York City on December 14, 1951.⁵²

Work at the White Estate

In June 1952 Mount entered “a new and extremely rewarding period of service” working at the Ellen G. White Estate, housed at General Conference headquarters in Washington, D.C.⁵³ She deeply admired White Estate director Arthur L. White (1907-1991), whom she first met on a visit he made to Hong Kong four years earlier.

As an assistant, and then associate director, Mount’s responsibilities included the “processing of some of Ellen White’s handwritten letters, diaries, and journal material for the typewritten files.”⁵⁴ She prepared a set of Ellen G. White quotations that would be included as a supplement with the Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary (1954-1957).⁵⁵ She also participated in developing several compilations of Ellen White’s writing. Soon after her arrival she assisted with completion of Colporteur Ministry (1953).⁵⁶ Additionally, she compiled four “morning watch books”—The Faith I Live By (1958), Our High Calling (1961), That I May Know Him (1964), and In Heavenly Places (1967)—and also contributed to development of a fifth, God’s Amazing Grace (1973).⁵⁷ And, she prepared a set of 8,000 chronological cards with important biographical facts—information that Arthur L. White would later use in his six-volume biography of Ellen G. White.⁵⁸

Mount retired from full-time employment in 1966 but continued for an additional six years as a full-time volunteer, followed by ten more years of part-time volunteer work. On November 21, 1967, Mount gave a worship talk at the General Conference that resulted in a three-part series in the Review and Herald about Ellen White as a “real person.⁵⁹

In 1982, Mount retired fulltime to St. Helena, California, where she lived with her friend Minnie Crisler. “Everyone was her friend and loved her deeply,” reflected another missionary friend, Florence Nagel-Longway (1910-2008).⁶⁰ Mount died on June 1, 1989, in St. Helena, California, and is buried in Barker Cemetery, Pricetown, Ohio.⁶¹

Legacy

Bessie Mount is an example of a strong, independent woman who exerted leadership and demonstrated expertise as an overseas missionary. Despite repeated illnesses, evacuations, and three years as a prisoner of war, she persisted in devoting herself to Adventist mission in China. After more than three decades of overseas service, she utilized her editorial skills to make a substantial contribution to the work of the White Estate in making the writings of Ellen G. White more widely accessible and promoting greater understanding and appreciation of them.

Sources

Autobiographical Information Form, ca. 1978. Center for Adventist Research, Andrews University (CAR).

“Bessie Mount.” Find a Grave. Memorial 110683855, May 17, 2013. Accessed March 13, 2022. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/110683855/bessie-mount.

“Bessie Mount.” FamilySearch. Accessed April 12, 2022. https://www.familysearch.org/tree/pedigree/landscape/LZ2M-NLB.

“Bessie Mount.” Keynote, October 1959.

“Bessie Mount obituary.” Napa Valley Register, June 2, 1989.

Dick, E. D. “Day of Intercession for Interned Missionaries: October 30,” ARH, October 14, 1943, 3-5.

General Conference Committee Minutes. General Conference Online Archives. https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Minutes/Forms/AllFolders.aspx.

“Missionary Sees Hope for China.” Cincinnati Post, January 19, 1952.

Mount, Bessie. “Autobiographical Notes and Memories,” March 20, 1978. Unpublished manuscript (CAR).

Mount, Bessie. “The Ellen G. White I Found in Her Diaries and Letters.” ARH, July 11, 18, and 25, 1968.

Mount, Bessie. “Formosa—Beautiful Island.” Youth’s Instructor, August 12, 1952.

[Mount, Bessie.] “From Miss Mount to Her Nephew C. R. Swan, of California.” ARH, March 29, 1945.

Mount, Bessie. “In War-Torn China.” ARH, June 2, 1938.

Mount, Bessie. “Missionary Volunteer Investment.” ARH, March 27, 1930.

Mount, Bessie. “North China Missionary Volunteer Institute.” China Division Reporter, February 1931.

Mount, Bessie. “’That Little Book.’” Australasian Record, June 17, 1974.

Mount, Bessie. “Refugees Redeemed.” Youth’s Instructor, May 1, 1951.

Mount, Bessie. “We Are Thankful.” Youth’s Instructor, July 17, 1951.

Mount, Bessie. “With our Sabbath Schools.” China Division Reporter, August 15, 1939, 3.

Nagel, Florence. “Bessie Mount (1893-1989).” Chinese SDA History. Accessed March 13, 2022. https://www.chinesesdahistory.org/bessie-mount.

“Our Counsel Corner.” Youth’s Instructor, April 17, 1928, 14; and May 13, 1930.

Notes

1. See Ethel Young, “The Gateway to Service,” Ministry, August 1961, 15.↩

2. “Bessie Mount,” FamilySearch, accessed April 12, 2022, https://www.familysearch.org/tree/pedigree/landscape/LZ2M-NLB.↩

3. Bessie Mount, “Autobiographical Notes and Memories,” March 20, 1978, unpublished manuscript, CAR, 1.↩

4. W.J. Keith, “Edwin Curtis Mount obituary,” Columbia Union Visitor, July 1, 1965, 15; George O. States, “W.L. Iles obituary,” ARH, June 21, 1898, 404.↩

5. Mount, “Autobiographical Notes and Memories,” 2.↩

6. “A Word from China,” Columbia Union Visitor, May 19, 1921, 2; “Chesapeake Conference,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook for 1920, 40, General Conference Online Archives, https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Yearbooks/YB1920.pdf.↩

7. S. L. Frost, “Shanghai Missionary College, 1921-22,” Asiatic Division Outlook, July 1922, 2.↩

8. See note in Asiatic Division Outlook, July 15, 1923, 12.↩

9. Mount, “Autobiographical Notes and Memories,” 3.↩

10. General Conference Committee Minutes, May 19, 1924, 656; and September 15, 1924, 709.↩

11. General Conference Committee Minutes, June 15, 1925, 927.↩

12. “B. C. Notes,” Western Canadian Tidings, September 29, 1925, 6; “Arrivals,” Far Eastern Division Outlook, November 1925, 8.↩

13. “Our Counsel Corner,” Youth’s Instructor, April 17, 1928, 14; and May 13, 1930, 14.↩

14. Mount, “Autobiographical Notes and Memories,” 4.↩

15. “With the Sick at the Sanitarium,” Far Eastern Division Outlook, August-September 1929, 12.↩

16. “Departures,” Far Eastern Division Outlook, July 1929, 16.↩

17. “Proceedings of the General Conference,” ARH, May 30, 1930, 9.↩

18. “Returning from Conference,” Far Eastern Division Outlook, July 1930, 20; “Arrivals,” Far Eastern Division Outlook, September 1930, 12; “Missionary Sailings,” ARH, August 21, 1930, 32.↩

19. “Partial Report of the Nominating Committee,” ARH, June 10, 1930, 176.↩

20. Mount, “Autobiographical Notes and Memories,” 4-5.↩

21. W. A. Spicer, “It Is the Lord’s Doing,” ARH, June 2, 1932, 24.↩

22. Mount, “Autobiographical Notes and Memories,” 6.↩

23. “Delegates to the General Conference,” ARH, May 28, 1936, 5.↩

24. L. Flora Plummer, “The Sabbath School Department,” ARH, June 4, 1936, 153.↩

25. Mount, “Autobiographical Notes and Memories,” 6.↩

26. Ibid.↩

27. E.D. Dick, “Missionary Sailings,” ARH, April 29, 1937, 24; Mount, “Autobiographical Notes and Memories,” 6.↩

28. Bessie Mount, “With Our Sabbath Schools,” China Division Reporter, August 15, 1939, 3.↩

29. Mount, “Autobiographical Notes and Memories,” 8.↩

30. Ibid, 9.↩

31. E.D. Dick, “Day of Intercession for Interned Missionaries: October 30,” ARH, October 14, 1943, 3-5.↩

32. E.D. Dick, “The ‘Gripsholm’ Arrives: News Concerning Missionaries Yet in Far East,” ARH, December 30, 1943, 3-4.↩

33. “On the Western Front,” ARH, February 8, 1945, 24.↩

34. “Bessie Mount,” Keynote, October 1959, 4.↩

35. W. P. Bradley, “Philippine Missionaries Safe,” Far Eastern Division, April 1945, 2.↩

36. Mount, “Autobiographical Notes and Memories,” 9.↩

37. “From Miss Mount to Her Nephew C. R. Swan, of California,” ARH, March 29, 1945, 11.↩

38. Ibid.↩

39. Mount, “Autobiographical Notes and Memories,” 9.↩

40. Bessie Mount, “Meeting Soldier Brethren in the Philippines,” ARH, April 26, 1945, 14.↩

41. Roger Altman, “Missionaries Arrive from the Philippines,” ARH, May 17, 1945, 24; see also “Missionaries Returned from the Philippines,” Pacific Union Recorder, May 16, 1945, 8.↩

42. “Missionary Sees Hope for China,” Cincinnati Post, January 19, 1952, 3.↩

43. Mount, “Autobiographical Notes and Memories,” 9; “Missionary Sees Hope for China.”↩

44. Autobiographical Information Blank, ca. 1978, CAR.↩

45. W.H. Branson, “Missionaries Sail for China,” ARH, December 26, 1946, 16; Mount, “Autobiographical Notes and Memories,” 10.↩

46. Mount, “Autobiographical Notes and Memories,” 10.↩

47. Ibid, 11.↩

48. “Missionary Sees Hope for China.”↩

49. Mount, “Autobiographical Notes and Memories,” 12.↩

50. Bessie Mount, “Bible in Hong Kong Refugee Camp,” ARH, February 15, 1951, 24.↩

51. Mount, “Autobiographical Notes and Memories,” 13, 14.↩

52. Ibid, 15.↩

53. Ibid.↩

54. Ibid, 16.↩

55. Florence Nagel, “Bessie Mount (1893-1989),” Chinese SDA History, accessed March 13, 2022, https://www.chinesesdahistory.org/bessie-mount.↩

56. Mount, “Autobiographical Notes and Memories,” 16.↩

57. Arthur L. White, “A Visit to the White Estate,” ARH, February 9, 1967, 2-3; Tim Poirier, White Estate Vice-Director and Archivist, e-mail to the author, March 22, 2022.↩

58. Arthur L. White, “How I Wrote the Ellen G. White Biography,” Spectrum 16, No. 3 (August 1985), 16.↩

59. Bessie Mount, “The Ellen G. White I Found in Her Diaries and Letters,” ARH, July 11, 1968, 7-8; July 18, 1968, 7-8; July 25, 1968, 7-9.↩

60. Nagel, “Bessie Mount (1893-1989).”↩

61. “Bessie Mount,” Find a Grave, Memorial 110683855, May 17, 2013, accessed March 13, 2022, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/110683855/bessie-mount.↩