Showing 4 results

People and organizations
Churchill, Ruth, 1900-1993
Person · 1900-1993

Urina Ruth Churchill was a United Church missionary and deaconess. She was born on April 6, 1900 in Petrolia, Ontario to David and Agnes Churchill. She graduated from the London Normal School in 1919 and taught in rural elementary schools around Petrolia until 1929.

Churchill left teaching to attend the United Church Training School in Toronto, from which she graduated in 1930. Following this, she began a career as a missionary of the United Church's Women's Missionary Society which included commissions in Ontario and Quebec: Church of All Nations (Montreal), 1930-1936, 1956-1959; All People's Church (Sault Ste. Marie), 1937-1940; All People's Church (Kirkland Lake), 1940-1943; St. Columba House (Montreal), 1944-1949; and the Montreal City Mission, 1960-1963.

Churchill received further training and education, completing a second year at the United Church Training School in 1936, and attending the Hartford School of Religious Education, from which she graduated with a Bachelor of Religious Education in 1944. She returned to teaching elementary school between 1949 and 1956, when she was living in Petrolia to care for her mother. In 1960 she took a refresher course at Scarritt College for Christian Workers in Nashville, Tennessee.

On June 7, 1962, Churchill was set apart as a deaconess by the Montreal-Ottawa Conference. Under the authority of the Board of Home Missions, she was transferred from Montreal to Winnipeg, where she was a hospital and nursing home visitor from 1963-1967. She moved to Hamilton to work with the Binkley United Church, and formally retired in 1969.

Ruth Churchill died on April 5, 1993 in Beamsville, Ontario at the age of 93.

Hambley, Laura H., 1877-1951
Person · 1877-1951

Laura Hannah Hambley (1877-1951) was a Methodist and United Church of Canada missionary to West China, 1904-1943. Hambley was born on March 16, 1877 in Port Perry, Ontario. She graduated from the Toronto Normal School in 1896, and later attended the Methodist National Training School from 1903-1904. She had teaching experience in both Ontario and New York City before she was appointed by the Women's Missionary Society to Chengtu, West China in 1904. After Chinese language instruction, she taught at a middle school. Following that assignment she was relocated to a school in Jenshow (1908-1910). While on furlough in 1911, she travelled across Canada on a speaking tour promoting WMS work. Upon her return to China in 1912, she oversaw the planning and construction of the Tzeliutsing Girls' Middle School, where she taught until 1942. Illness caused her to return to Canada in 1943. She retired to Winnipeg, but continued to travel the country for speaking engagements. She died December 4, 1951.

Person · 1881-1959

Ethel Susan McEachran was a Presbyterian, and later United Church, missionary and educator. She was born on September 13, 1881 in York County to Colin and Martha (née Proctor) McEachran. She attended the London Normal School and taught for nine years. While the exact dates are unknown, records indicate McEachran also attended the Ontario College of Education and the Presbyterian Missionary and Deaconess Training Home.

In 1913, McEachran was appointed by the Presbyterian Church in Canada's Foreign Mission Committee, Western Section to Korea. From 1913-1915 she was stationed in Sŏngjin (now Kimch'aek) to learn Korean and probably to teach at the local girls' school. In 1915 she founded the Young Saing Girls' School in Hamhŭng, becoming its first principal. She took a leave of absence and returned to Canada in order to attend Queen's University in Kingston, from which she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1922. She remained principal until 1941 when the wartime exodus of missionaries forced McEachran to return to Canada.

She continued her missionary work in a domestic setting, being stationed as superintendent of St. Columba House in Montreal between 1941 and 1943, then at Settlement House, Regina between 1945 and 1947, and finally to carry out community work in Saskatoon. McEachran retired to Toronto in 1951, but continued teaching English classes for immigrant communities.

McEachran died on October 27, 1959 at the age of 78, and is buried in Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Toronto.

Peters, Eunice, 1898-1991
Person · 1898-1991

Eunice Peters was a Methodist and United Church of Canada missionary to West China, 1923-1948. Peters was born on September 10, 1898 in Fredericton, New Brunswick. She was educated at the Provincial Normal School and taught in New Brunswick before attending the Methodist National Training School in Toronto. In 1923 she was appointed by the Women's Missionary Society of the Methodist Church to West China. She received language instruction at Fowchow and taught at the missionary school there until 1926. Records indicated that she was assigned to teach at schools in several different cities during her time in China: Kiating (1926-1928); Fowchow (1929-1930); Chungking (1930-1932); Junghsien (1932-1936); Chungking (1938-1941), where she also carried out urban social work; Chengtu (1941-1947), and finally Kiating (1948) where she was responsible for evangelistic work. Between 1944 and 1946 she studied at the Hartford Theological Seminary in Hartford, Connecticut, where she received a Bachelor of Religious Education. In 1948 she returned to Canada, where she was eventually posted to the Chinese United Church Mission in Victoria, British Columbia from 1952 to 1962. She formally retired to Victoria in 1964. Eunice Peters died on February 5, 1991 at the age of 92.