Brief Description of This Collection
Title Page and Restrictions
Biography of Mary Goforth Moynan
An Essay on the Contents of the Collection (Scope and Content)
1 box, Audio Tapes, Slides (.262 cubic feet)
Restrictions
There are no restrictions on the use of this collection.
COMP LETE TRANSCRIPTS TO ALL THE INTERVIEWS IN THIS COLLECTION ARE AVAILABLE.
Brief
Description
Miscellaneous
personal papers, an autobiography, oral history interviews and color slides
which deal with Moynan's memories of the personalities and work of her parents,
Jonathan and Rosalind Goforth; evangelistic work in China before World War II;
her own career in Christian work; and her trips in 1979 to Taiwan and in 1980
to the People's Republic of China. Interviews were recorded on 10/19/81 and
10/20/81 and in March 1980. For more information, please see guide.
| Biogrpahy | ||
Full name |
Mary Kathleen (Goforth) Moynan |
|
Birth |
July 20, 1903 in Peitaiho (Romanization: Beidaihe), North China |
|
Death |
July 17, 1994 |
|
Family |
||
|
Parents |
Jonathan and Rosalind (Bell-Smith) Goforth, missionaries to China |
Siblings |
The tenth of the eleven children: Gertrude Madeline, Donald, Paul, Florence, Gracie, Ruth, William Wallace, Constance, Helen, and J. Frederick. Gertrude, Donald, Florence, Gracie, and Constance all died as very young children. |
|
Marital Status |
Married Robert McNairn Moynan in 1923. They remained married until Robert’s death on June 9, 1972. |
|
Children |
Arthur (was born with Downs Syndrome and died at nine months), Robert Jonathan Goforth, Frederick Moffat, Bruce Roger, Donald Marshall, Rolland Wallace. (The Moynans also has 14 grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.) |
|
Conversion |
At the age of 12 |
|
Education |
||
|
|
Home schooled |
|
Attended the China Inland Mission boarding school at Chefoo, China |
|
1920-1923 |
Graduated Toronto Bible College, Canada |
|
Career |
||
|
1926-1927 |
The Moynans were missionaries in China with the Christian and Missionary Alliance, but because of the unsettled condition of the country and chaotic warfare being waged by many competing warlords, they returned to North America |
1927-1961? |
The Moynans lived in several cities where Robert had pastorates, including Hamilton, Ontario (New Westminister Church); Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan; Homestead, Pennsylvania; Toledo, Ohio (Collingwood Presbyterian Church). He also served for some years during World War II as a chaplain in the Canadian Air Force in the European theater. |
|
1961-1964 |
The Moynans founded the English-speaking Presbyterian church at Campinas, Brazil. |
|
1964-1972 |
The Moynans returned to the United states, where Robert held retirement pastorates in Pacific Beach, California; Oakland Tacoma, Washington; and Lacey Washington (Community Church) |
|
1972-1990 |
Mary began and active career of speaking on mission and Christian topics and supervising the work of Goforth Ministries, which distributed her parents’ books and supported small missionary projects around the world. |
|
1980 |
Mary visited China for the first time since 1927, visiting Siping, where her parents had worked, and Beidaihe, where she was born. |
|
1990-1994 |
Mary moved to the Parkview Home for the Aged in Stouffville, Ontario, Canada, where she continued to be involved in Goforth Ministries and wrote her autobiography, God Brought Us Through!, which was published in 1994. |
|
Other significant information |
||
|
|
While Mary was growing up, she traveled with her parents on evangelistic tours until she was old enough to go to boarding school. |
Series:
Paper Records
Arrangement:
Alphabetical by title (title supplied by archivist)
Date
Range: 1933-1994
Volume:
.25 cubic feet
Boxes:
1
Geographic
coverage: Canada, China, Taiwan, United States
Type
of documents: Sermon and speech notes, correspondence, newspaper and
magazine clippings, genealogical records, a book, a report
Subjects:
Missions to China, life and ministry of Mary and Robert Goforth, life and ministry
of Jonathan and Rosalind Goforth, history of the Goforth family
Notes:
The papers in this collection are a miscellaneous assortment of material belonging
to Mrs. Moynan which were arranged by the archivist.
Folder 1-1 contains a copy of Mrs. Moynan’s autobiography, which consists largely of anecdotes about her own life and that of her parents and their ministry in China.
Folder 1-2 contains magazine and newspaper clippings about Mary Moynan’s life
Folder 1-3 contains a few items of her correspondence, including a letter she wrote to friends from Scotland the day that her husband died there during a vacation trip and postcards home from her 1980 trip to China.
Folder 1-4 has handwritten listing of Goforth family members from the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, as well as the program from an exhibit of the paintings of Frederic Marlett Bell-Smith, Mrs. Moynan’s uncle. The folder also has a couple of items about Goforth Ministries.
Folder 1-5 contains a number of hand written notes of poems, speeches and sermons. Some of these are by Mrs. Moynan, other seem to be from other people. Some of them are for talks about missions and her parents’ works on China. Other relate to the home front in Canada during World War II. There is also a typed transcript of a Mother’s Day talk, “A Challenge to Womanhood.”
Folder 1-6 contains a one page report by a G. W. Mackay on the situation for Western mission in Formosa (Taiwan) immediately after World War II.
*****
Series:
Audio-visual materials
Date Range: 1918
Volume: .012 cubic feet
Geographic coverage: Canada, China, United
States
Type of documents: Oral history interviews,
snapshots, slides
Subjects:
Missions to China, life and ministry of Mary and Robert Goforth, life and ministry
of Jonathan and Rosalind Goforth, history of the Goforth family
Notes:
The photos and slides are described in their location records below.
Mary Goforth Moynan
was interviewed by Robert Shuster on October 19 and 20, 1981 and the interviews
are on T1 and T2. T3 is an interview between Moynan and her nephew Robert Van
Gorder which was apparently recorded between March and June 1980. The original
of T3 was on a cassette but was transferred to a reel-to-reel. There is some
distortion on the beginning of the tape before the interview actually begins.
The events described in the interview cover the time period 1900-1991.
T1
(66 minutes). Start of
tape; introduction; first memories of father; family devotions; family relationships;
management of the home; Jonathan's loner characteristics; intensive evangelism;
relations with other missionaries; childhood playmates, the wolf boy; the experience
of missionaries' children; love for the Chinese people; criticism of the Chinese
people in Canada; home in Bei Dai He on Manchurian border; a summer resort;
its transformation by the Chinese communists; fame of Jonathan in China; VIP
treatment during 1980 trip to mainland China; Honan carts; preparation for evangelistic
tours; physical conditions of the tours; living conditions; the sanctified nose;
people who went on the tours; the misery of the people; church planting; Jonathan's
early language study; finding a place to live in a new town; the red demon;
the smallpox danger; first steps in evangelistic work in a new town; the church
in Honan province in the present day (1980); ways of gathering a crowd; Jonathan's
singlemindedness and bluntness; church planting; training evangelists; beginning
of revival meetings in the early 1900's; Jonathan's preaching; power of prayer;
influence of Charles Finney on Jonathan; emotionalism at revival meetings; invitations
to hold meetings; Jonathan's philosophy of giving; missionaries for Manchuria;
faith support; the Goforth Evangelistic Fund; content of Jonathan's preaching;
Jonathan's humor; reaction of other missionaries to Jonathan's work; contacts
with the China Inland Mission at Chefoo; the China Inland Mission boarding school;
curriculum; Rosalind's preaching to women; babies at meetings; Chinese love
for children
T2
(76 minutes).
Introduction; Mary's return to Canada for education; Toronto Bible College;
Robert Moynan; his humor; curriculum of Toronto Bible College; learning to write
sermons; reparation for returning to China as a missionary; how Mary met her
future husband; Oswald Smith and the People's Church; relations of Jonathan
with Roman Catholic missionaries; rice Christians; sheep stealing; effect of
denominationalism in China; favorable response of some Catholics to Rosalind's
books; Buddhism; the religious sense of the Chinese; Confucianism; Islam in
China; Jonathan's insistence on the primacy of evangelism over medical missions
and educational work; support from Robert LeTourneau; Chinese Bibles; showing
Chinese visitors through the missionaries' homes; ministry to the poor and the
intelligentsia; the power of the warlords; Marshal Feng Yu-hsiang; baptism of
soldiers; friendship between Jonathan and Marshal Feng; Feng's death; Mary's
sympathy toward Douglas MacArthur; Jonathan's need for an expense account; proclamation
of the Chinese Republic in 1911; fleeing to Tientsin; relations with Canadian
diplomats; Pearl Buck and the Empress Dowager; Rosalind's famine relief work
in China in the 1920's; a medal from the Chinese government; the return of the
Moynans to China in 1926 as Christian and Missionary Alliance missionaries;
Chequnsan; The danger of the approach of the Nationalist Army--1926; battle
of Nanking; Madame Chiang Kai-Shek; the murder of John and Elisabeth Stam; Mary's
return to China in 1980; traveling with a group of Toronto teachers; VIP treatment;
visiting sites of her parents' work; living conditions in Manchuria for Rosalind
and Jonathan in the late 1920's; meeting friends of her parents in 1980; the
daughter of pastor Su; the opening of churches in China; reputation of Jonathan
in China; view of the Chinese government toward foreign missionaries; meeting
J. Hudson Taylor III; house churches; needs of the church in China; attitude
of Canadian churches toward missions; the Goforth Papers; the Goforth Ministries.
T3
(81 minutes).
Introduction; brief biography of Jonathan Goforth; the work of Mary
Goforth Moynan (narrator unknown); Jonathan's sense of humor; lack of personal
anger and irritability; hardships of Rosalind; her temper; Jonathan and Rosalind's
relationship; their children; reactions to boarding school and education in
China; attention Paul and Fred Goforth received; first home in Changte; the
graves of the children; the Boxer stories; causes of the Boxer uprising; hardships
encountered fleeing from Boxers; the spiritual results of the Goforths' experience;
recuperating in Canada from Boxer experience; Jonathan's humiliation at Knox
College and its results; Mary's first memories of her father; Jonathan's seven
rules for Christ-like living; early travels with her mother and father; smallpox;
early death of five children; the mission work in Manchuria; Mary's intent to
return to China; beginning of second side of cassette tape; Jonathan's transmission
of funds to Manchuria; the importance of evangelism in mission work; the Goforth
Evangelistic Fund; Mary's trip to Taiwan in 1979; the effect of the previous
generation of missionaries on the present church; talking to an evangelistic
crusade; "Jesus Loves Me" in Chinese; more on the escape from the Boxers; Paul's
escape; the edict from the Empress Dowager against foreigners; the escape route;
Christmas in Pittsburgh in the mid 50's; meeting a medical student from Changtefu
Provenance
The
material in this collection was given to the Archives by Mrs. Moynan in October
1981 and by Robert Joyce in 1996.
Accession 81-115, 81-117
May 3, 1982
Robert Shuster
J. Nasgowitz
Updated, August 16,
2007
Acc. 96-77
Bob Shuster
The following items are located in the AUDIO TAPE FILE:
Item# - Reel or
cassette, speed, length, number of sides, contents (title of session, participants)
according to the program, date.
# |
R/C |
speed |
length |
Sides |
Contents |
Dates |
T1 |
R |
3 3/4 |
66 |
1 |
Oral history interview of Mary Goforth Moynan by Robert Shuster |
October 19, 1981 |
T2 |
R |
3 3/4 |
76 |
1 |
Oral history interview of Mary Goforth Moynan by Robert Shuster |
October 20, 1981 |
T3 |
R |
3 3/4 |
81 |
1 |
Oral history interview of Mary Goforth Moynan by Robert van Gorder, her nephew |
Between March and June, 1980 |
LOCATION
RECORD
Accession:
96-77
Type
of material: Photographs
The following items
are located in the PHOTO FILE; request
by folder title (in bold) at the beginning of each entry below.
MOYNAN,
MARY (GOFORTH): 2, color. Robert and Mary together in a formal pose,
snapshot of Mary in old age sitting in a chair. N.d.
BEIDAIHE,
CHINA: 12, b&w. Snapshots of a group at the seashore in Beidaihe
(the old Romanization on the photos is Peitaiho) Edwin McNeill Poteat and Sidney
Gamble (“of soap fame”) are among those identified. One photo labeled
“Student missionaries.” 1918-1919.
*****
LOCATION RECORD
Accession: 81-117
Type of material: Slides
The following items are located in the SLIDE FILE. All of the slides are in color, unless otherwise noted.
Slides apparently taken during her 1980 trip to China.
SLIDE FILE BOX 5:
S1- 1 - Unidentified (mountains in China?), ca. 1980.
S1- 2 - Buddhist priest, ca. 1980.
S1- 3 - Portraits of Hua Goofeng and Mao Zedung; ca. 1980.
S1- 4 - Large crowd of people giving the one way sign; ca. 1980.
S1- 5 - Westerners standing in front of the Great Wall of China; ca. 1980.
S1- 6 - Unidentified.
S1- 7 - Unidentified.
S1- 8 - Four men (1 westerner and 3 Chinese) standing in front of a Presbyterian mission; ca. 1980.
S1- 9 - A Chinese child.
S1-10 - A Chinese child.
S1-11 - Jack McAlister shaking hands with Chinese child, ca. 1980.
S1-12 - Jack McAlister talking to a crowd of young Chinese men; ca. 1980.
S1-13 - Jack McAlister, Mary Goforth Moynan, and an unidentified man standing in front of a map of China; ca. 1980.
Box |
Folder |
Folder Title |
Dates |
1 |
1 |
Book: He Brought Us Through! |
1994 |
2 |
Clippings |
1961-1994 |
|
3 |
Correspondence |
1945-1983 |
|
4 |
Genealogical materials |
1933-1977 |
|
5 |
Notes |
1940-1979; n.d. |
|
6 |
Report on Presbyterian Missions in North Formosa |
1946 |
|