Jesse Coulter Mitchel was an American missionary with the Reformed Presbyterian Church, who served in South China with his wife in the early 20th century, and showed outstanding qualities in WWII.
Born in 1888, hе attended Kansas State Agricultural College, graduating in December 1911, with a major in animal husbandry, which was to prove very useful in his later life. While teaching school, he decided to become a minister. He entered the Reformed Presbyterian Seminary in 1913, was licensed to preach and finished his seminary course in 1916.
He studied one year at White's Bible School, New York. He was ordained for mission work in China in June 1917.
On June 20, 1917, he was married to Miss Alice Sherbon of Pittsburgh.
China
They sailed from Vancouver, B. C. August 1917, and arrived in Hong Kong in early October. They initially went to Canton to study Chinese in the Canton Union Language School, before going to Tak Hing, (Deqin County) Kwangtung. Rev Mitchel was put in charge of evangelistic work in the Tak Hing area, which included itinerant mission.
His interest in agriculture came to the fore, and he involved himself in bringing modern American practice into the Chinese experience. Wheat, sweet potatoes and peanuts were sown with good outcomes. In the boys’ and girls’ schools, pupils were encouraged to cultivate the ground in return for board and schooling. The learning went both ways – the area was a big producer of silk from silk farms, so the Americans took that on board.
In 1933 Rev and Mrs Mitchel were both in poor health and were advised by the medical staff to return to America, which they did, reluctantly.
In 1936, Rev. Mitchel was installed pastor of the Hebron, Kansas, church, and served there until 1941, when he returned to China, leaving his wife and two children in America.
The story of the next five years of World War II was a saga of faith and courage and tireless physical stamina. Mrs. Mitchel had long, anxious years while her husband was in China, during which he was unable to communicate with her on account of the secrecy of his work.
The War Years
In June 1941, Rev Mitchel went to Lo Ting to relieve a colleague there. After the Japanese initiation of war with the USA and Britain in December, life in China became dangerous for missionaries, with Japanese forces already present there.
Tak Hing had to be evacuated, and Mitchel had to move west. He hitched rides on lorries under contract to haul American goods, making their way through hordes of refugees also trying to escape.
By Christmas Mitchel had reached Kunming in Yunnan Province. Here there was an American Consul. The Consul wanted Mitchel to take off for America at once by way of India. Mitchel wanted to stay in China to support Chinese workers with relief and funds. There was only one way he might be allowed to stay in China, and that was by helping the military in some way.
When he couldn't secure a permanent chaplain role and was advised to return home, the British Army Aid Group enlisted him to operate behind enemy lines in Western Kwangtung. His main tasks were rescuing Allied airmen stranded near enemy territory, helping refugees escape, and gathering useful intelligence. Due to security, he couldn't write home or share details of his mission. Working closely with both the British Aid Group and Secret Service, he facilitated communication between them, successfully returning eleven U.S. airmen and aiding eighteen U.S. Army personnel who entered his area.
When the war ended, Mitchel stayed on in the Tak Hing area to organise the huge amount of relief work, made necessary by the Japanese devastations and population movements. Writing from Lo Ting in March 1946, he appealed to the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration for help.
The United States government and various mission boards, including the Reformed Presbyterians, called for volunteers to undertake relief and rehabilitation work in China.
In August 1946, Rev Mitchel was delighted to welcome back Dr and Mrs Kempf along with 1800 others who arrived in Hong Kong on the USS Gordon.
With the return of the other missionaries to the field, Rev Jesse Mitchel went on furlough in November 1946. The war had brought out some noble qualities in him. He had endured a long trek to Western China, a return through enemy lines; he had provided very risky Secret Service to British and American governments during the war and made heroic efforts at relief after the war ended.
Post War
In 1947, Rev Mitchel was honoured with the degree of Doctor of Divinity by Geneva College, and in 1948 he was elected Moderator of the Reformed Presbyterian Synod, the second-highest serving post in his denomination.
He planned to return to China in 1948, taking Mrs Mitchel with him, but developments in China made it unwise to proceed further.
Dr. Mitchel finally served very modestly as pastor of a congregation in Denver, Colorado, until 1958 when he retired and with his wife went to live in Sterling, Kansas.
He died in 1963 aged 75.
Cheung Chau
In the 1938 list of European owners of properties on Cheung Chau the name Mr J C Mitchell appears as owner of House 14 at the top of Fa Peng. This may be the individual mentioned above, but with a typo. I have found no specific mention of Cheung Chau in the source material on Jesse Mitchel, but there is a lot of material (see below) and much I haven’t read. In addition, Dr Mitchel and his family were in the States in 1938.
Dr Mitchel certainly had colleagues with properties on Cheung Chau, fellow members of the Reformed Presbyterian Church Mission, qv. Two of them, Julius Kempf and Ernest Mitchell are also on the 1938 list.
Source: Reformed Presbyterian Mission in South China.
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