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Francis Eugene Stafford and Ellen Marie “Nellie” Jessen Stafford were Seventh-day Adventist missionaries to China. Francis served as a printer, and later as a pastor and administrator; Nellie worked as a book binder. Together they were among the earliest Adventist missionaries to serve in Shanghai, China. Francis’ Chinese name is 施塔福 (pinyin Shī Tǎfú).
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Walter Ernest Strickland (史覺倫, pinyin Shǐ Juélún)’s full-time ministry began in South Carolina and Georgia prior to mission service in China for 22 years. He returned to the United States and served another 13 years in the Kentucky-Tennessee Conference, eight of those years as president of the conference.
Hubert Oscar Swartout (蘇清心pinyin Sū Qīngxīn) served as a schoolteacher in Michigan, followed by a decade of teaching and editing in China. When he returned to America, he became a physician, an author of medical books, and an administrator as County Health officer in Los Angeles.
The Szechwan Mission (四川区会; Sichuan Mission) was officially formed in 1917 as a subdivision of the West China Mission. Merritt C. Warren served as director throughout its short history.
Little was known about Timothy or Timotheus Tay (surname pinyin Zheng, name in Chinese 鄭提摩太, and Hokkianese Romanization Teh Hong Siang). But he had made significant contributions to the early days of the Adventist message in China, Singapore, and Malaysia.
American missionary to China from 1902 to 1931, Ida Thompson opened the first Adventist school in China – Bethel Girls School in Canton (Guangzhou). That school became what is now Hong Kong Adventist College.
While the conversion and early missionary efforts of Tidbury are not as well known in Adventist historiography, he was an early self-supporting educator who contributed in a significant way to the early founding of Adventist missionary work in Hong Kong and Canton, China. Such efforts were often collaborative, self-supporting, and worked under the aegis of the first official missionaries.
Toishan Hospital and Dispensary, better known by the pinyin of its Chinese name as Taishan Christos Hospital, was one of the short-lived, yet important Adventist health institutions in southern China that emerged after World War II but was soon taken over by the government due to political changes in China.
Martin Vinkel and his wife Sarah pioneered Changchun Dispensary and Mukden Sanitarium in Manchuria and, later, the Northwest China Sanitarium and Hospital, Lanchow, Gansu Province, and a medical mission outpost at Tachienlu, Sichuan Province, for the benefit of Tibetans.
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Ernest Wagner was a medical director and surgeon at St Helena Sanitarium and Hospital, White Memorial Hospital, Canton Sanitarium and Hospital, Shanghai Medical Center, Paradise Valley Sanitarium and Hospital, and Sonora Community Hospital. He was also a volunteer relief surgeon in Africa and the Orient.
Alonzo and Julia Wearner were missionary nurses to China; Alonzo also served as an administrator, pastor, chaplain, author, and religion teacher.
The West Kweichou Mission 贵(黔)西区会 originated in 1927 when a reorganization of territory took place involving the Kweichow 贵州 (later Guizhou) Province.
The West Szechwan Mission (川西区会; West Sichuan Mission) started in 1919 as a subdivision of the West China Union Mission. The provincial capital of Chengtu (成都Chengdu), a Buddhist stronghold, became the headquarters for mission activities.
John Westrup ministered to Scandinavian communities in America prior to mission service in Henan Province, China, 1905 through 1914.
Nurses Dallas Robert and Vera (born Mosebar) White pioneered in the late 1920’s in Southwest China where they worked with Claude B. and Victoria (Martin) Miller to establish the first Seventh-day Adventist mission in Yunnan. Vera was tragically murdered in 1931 in the fifth year of their mission service in China. Dallas married Florence Grace Numbers in 1932 and served as a nurse, administrator, and ordained minister until evacuation in 1940, completing a total of 14 years of mission service in China. After returning to the U.S., he served an additional 14 years in the medical field in southern California hospitals.
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Herbert and Anna White were Adventist missionaries to China.
James Henry and Margaret White were Adventist missionaries to China.
Julius White had experience as a businessman before he accepted the position of president of the New England Sanitarium. He then served four years as a missionary in China, 1916-1920. On his return to America he ministered in northern California followed by a return to work with the New England Sanitarium and finally a role with Madison College, Tennessee.
Seabert White served as a missionary in China for seven years and then returned to his home country, Canada, to minister in the provinces of British Columbia, Ontario, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Manitoba and Saskatchewan.
Edwin Wilbur was trained as an educator, printer, nurse, and minister. Susan was a nurse, educator, and colporteur. Together the couple would go as pioneer missionaries to China serving as the denomination’s first official missionaries in mainland China. Edwin’s name in Chinese was: 邬尔布 (Pinyin Wūěrbù) and Susan’s Chinese name was: 邬秀珊 (Pinyin Wūxiùshān).
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