Collection 468
[May 12, 2010]
Stough, Elizabeth Carolyn (Quackenbush); 1913-2009
Interviews; 1992-1993
Audio Tapes (.12 cubic feet)
Restrictions: None
Biography
Full name: Elizabeth Carolyn (Quackenbush) Stough
Birth date: March 13, 1913, in Cleveland, Ohio
Death date: September 23, 2009
Family:
Parents: Conrad John Quackenbush and Jennie Marie Carlson Quackenbush
Siblings: Edith Pollock (ca. 1910), Charles (ca. 1917), Robert (ca. 1921)
Marital Status: Married Paul Pinney Stough in Uganda in 1945
Children: Helen (1949); three step sons by Paul's previous marriage
Conversion: ca. 1935, after a serious auto accident
Education:
1930 Graduated Creston, Iowa high school
1930-32 Local junior college
1932-34 Parson's College, graduated magna cum laude
1936-39 Moody Bible Institute, Chicago
Career:
1934 Worked briefly as a cashier
1935-1936 Taught at a public school of combined grades in Farson, Iowa
1939 Accepted as missionary by Africa Inland Mission
1940 Sailed to Africa
1940-1944 Assigned to the station at Zemio, French Equatorial Africa, where she
taught reading, worked with the local women, did village evangelism
1944-1945 Taught at Rethy Academy in the Belgian Congo
1945-1948 Furlough in the United States
1948-1954? Blukwa mission station near Djugu, Belgian Congo, where she worked
with Christian women, teaching child care practices. She also translated
materials into the Kingwana language
1954 Furlough
1955-1964 Bunia, Belgian Congo, where she worked with Christian women and also
frequently served as hostess for visiting missionaries
1960 Briefly left the Congo during unrest following independence
1961 Left Congo briefly a second time during unrest
1964 Left Congo for third and final time during Simba rebellion
1964-1976 Managed AIM's Mayfield guest house in Nairobi, Kenya
1967 Furlough in the United States
1971 Furlough in the United States
1976 The Stoughs returned to the United States and Elizabeth began to work
part-time in the Development Department of Wheaton College, Wheaton,
Illinois
Other significant information:
Paul Stough died in Wheaton in 1992
Scope and Content
Series: Audio tapes
Date range: Elizabeth Carolyn Stough was interviewed by Robert Shuster on November 11,
1992, and January 7 and 20, 1993, at her home in Carol Stream. The events described in the
interview cover the time period 1913-1976.
Volume: 6 reels of audio tape
Geographic coverage: Midwest United States, French Equatorial Africa, Belgian Congo, Kenya
Type of documents: Oral history interviews
Notes:
T1 (66 minutes). Family background; childhood in Iowa; lack of spiritual interests as a young girl; memories of Parsons College; return home to work as a cashier; teaching in Farson, Iowa; auto accident resulted in her being led to Christ; joyful reaction to her salvation; taking a summer course at Moody Bible Institute; growing excitement over studying the Bible; going to Moody full time; memories of studying and working in Chicago; description of Wilbur Smith, Professors P. B. Fitzwater, Talmadge Bittikofer, and William Hockman as teachers; social life at Moody during the 1930s; beginning of an interest in missions; first contacts with Africa Inland Mission; "if you are open to the Lord's will, He will funnel you right into His will, if you let him; participation in evangelistic work around Chicago including street meetings; child evangelism classes; reactions of people to evangelism; great influence of MBI upon Elizabeth; call to be a missionary; her acceptance as a missionary by Africa Inland Mission; reactions of her parents to her becoming a missionary; raising support; the phenomenon of a local girl going on the mission field; loss of support upon her marriage; sailing to Africa in 1940; Ralph Davis; more memories of the voyage; contacts with African Americans; traveling to Zemio; Mother Propst [Clo A (Meyers) Propst]; an African bus ride
T2 (28 minutes). An African bus ride continued; arriving at Aba, Belgian Congo; activities at Aba; traveling with the Van Dusens and Lee Downing to Zemio; learning how the Africans lived; a Congolese worship service; "the clock was the white man's god;" reaching Zemio; studying the Zande language; teaching school: "a few boys under a tree;" gods of the Zande people; doing village work on bicycles with Gertrude Weber; itinerary of the trip (Obo to Jema) and mission stations in the region
T3 (65 minutes). Reasons for negative views of missionaries; misconceptions people in the United States had about Africa; sources of support for Elizabeth as a single woman and for the Stoughs as a couple; responsibilities at Zemio - teaching, village evangelism, visiting the leper camp, other jobs; weekly Bible studies with storygraphs and flannelgraphs that Elizabeth led among the Zande; description of life lead by Zande men and women; the congregation at the mission station; immorality among the Zande; Sukanzanga, a leader of the congregation; the development of Zande church; Daniele Gategbere; African preaching and speaking; more on Sukanzanga; Elizabeth's work at the leper colony; contacts with the French colonial government and settlers; difficulties of bicycle travel in the area; reason for her transfer to Rethy; descriptions of field councils every other year; effect of the world war on French Equatorial Africa; local foods; isolation at Zemio; description of Rethy in 1944; death of Rachael Windsor Stough; getting to know Paul Stough; marriage in Uganda; description of the school at Rethy; type of jobs given to women missionaries; return to America on their furlough in 1945; her illness in Cairo and treatment with penicillin; son Phil's struggle with polio; Wheaton in the late 1940s; travels around the United States; Alice Winsor; personality of Paul Stough; his ability to work with African church elders; the Roho movement; Paul as a field director and expository preacher; her work with the women at Blukwa; developing leaders among the Christian women
T4 (16 minutes). Further comments on the women's school at Blukwa; encouraging fathers to take care of their children; worship services; other missionaries at the station; harmonious relations between the missionaries; colonial settlers in the area; lessening of her work with women after Elizabeth had a baby; Blukwa as a vacation spot for missionaries; starting a work in Bunia in 1954; changing attitudes of Africans toward white people
T5 (71 minutes). Students at Rethy academy in 1944; memories of the station at Bunia; serving as a missionary guest house; Gospel Recording materials for evangelistic work; translation work in the Kingwana language; book on child training; the Plymouth Brethren printing press and inter-mission cooperation in publishing; the difficulty of placing their children in boarding schools; the highly developed infrastructure at Bunia before independence; tendency of people in rural areas to want to live in the town; comparison between work with women at Blukwa and Bunia; teaching Christian child rearing practices; translating English hymns into Kingwana; Austin Paul and his instrumental music; formation of the Africa Inland Church and its early leaders; Kornelio Balonge; Zefania Kasali; Yoane Akrudi; Dina; Belgians' granting Congolese independence in 1960; the military revolt and the beginning of the civil war; leaving the Congo in 1960; the assassination of Patrice Lumumba and the second evaluation in 1961; difficulty and danger in trying to leave the country with Carl Becker; description of Lumumba; attitudes in the country toward independence; Belgium colonial practices; return a second time to Bunia; final departure from the Congo during the Simba rebellion in 1964; suffering and murder of missionaries during the rebellion; taking care of the mission's Mayfield guest house in Nairobi; Paul's visit back to Congo (ca. 1965); arrangements for the return of missionaries to Congo
T6 (23 minutes). Missionaries return to the Congo, including Carl Becker; reasons why the Stoughs stayed in Kenya; management of the guesthouse; teaching Bible in a Kenyan girl's school; Erik Barnett's leadership qualities; his friendship with Daniel Arap Moi; Ed Schuit; Peter Stam; place of women missionaries in AIM; negative attitude of African men toward women in leadership; changes in attitudes between different generations of missionaries; increase in crime in Kenya; return to the United States and working at Wheaton College; reflections on her years as a missionary and Jesus' care for her
Related collections:
81 Records of Africa inland Mission
89 Papers of Paul Pinney Stough
330 Records of Moody Memorial Church
Provenance
The materials in this collection were given to the Archives of the Billy Graham Center by Mrs. Stough in November 1992 and January 1993.
Accession: 92-138, 93-1, 93-16
April 29, 1999
Robert D. Shuster
LOCATION RECORD
Accession: 92-138, 93-1, 92-16
Type of Material: Audio Tapes
The following items are located in the AUDIO TAPE FILE: