This is a complete and accurate transcript of the tape of the oral history interview of Margaret Rice Elliott Crossett (CN 287, T2) in the Archives of the Billy Graham Center. No spoken words have been omitted, except for any non-English phrases which could not be understood by the transcribers. Place names in non-Western alphabets are spelled in the transcript in the old or new transliteration form according to how the speaker pronounced them. Thus, Peking might be used instead of Beijing, because that is how the speaker pronounced it. Foreign terms not commonly understood appear in italics. Some sections of the tape was inaudible and words were too unclear to be distinguished. If the transcriber was not completely sure of having gotten what the speaker said, "[?]" or {unclear] or [inaudible] was inserted. Grunts and verbal hesitations such as "ah" or "um" were usually omitted. The transcribers have not attempted to phonetically replicate English dialects but have instead entered the standard English word the speaker was expressing. Readers should remember that this is a transcript of spoken English, which follows a different rhythm and rule than written English.
... Three dots indicate an interruption or break in the train of thought within the sentence on the part of the speaker.
.... Four dots indicate what the transcriber believes the end of an incomplete sentence.
() Words in parentheses are asides made by the speaker.
[] Words in brackets are comments by the transcriber.
This transcription was made Timothy Harder and Janyce H. Nasgowitz and was completed in February 1996.
Collection 287, T2. Interview of Margaret Rice Elliott Crossett by Paul A. Ericksen, November 16, 1984.
ERICKSEN: Your sister...going...you referred to it earlier. Your sister talked about this particular Christmas with Santa and I guess you said it was a Yale teacher that came over dressed up like Santa. How did missionaries handle celebrations like Christmas and Easter or...or, I guess, more, Halloween, with like Santa or...?
CROSSETT: I don't remember ever celebrating Halloween, but Christmas we did have Santa Claus [clears throat] which.... I always thought my father was Santa Claus and, when I found out he wasn't, I wept 'cause I thought my father had deceived me and I didn't like that. So later I told our girls there wasn't any Santa. When we were out in west China in Shucheng, the Chinese put on a party and they had a Santa Claus. And afterward Margaret said, "Mother, you told me there wasn't any Santa Claus." [laughs] And now there was one, but....
ERICKSEN: Who had been...who was the Santa Claus? Was it always the Yale students?
CROSSETT: No, different [not audible] missionaries [not audible].
ERICKSEN: [not audible]
CROSSETT: [not audible]
ERICKSEN: Can you tell me a little about that?
CROSSETT: It's a correspondence...well, not exactly correspondence course...course. They send out the lessons from...I think it's from Baltimore, and then they give instruction how to teach[?]. Many missionaries in many countries use the course. It still exists and I think some people still use it. And it's an excellent course for teaching and it takes you right up through college...to college, I mean. But we just had it until we went to the Kuling school.
ERICKSEN: And when...when did you go to Kuling for school? Was it your last year?
CROSSETT: About 1916, it was the first year the school was opened.
ERICKSEN: And who was operating the school?
CROSSETT: It was different missions got together and started the school [clears throat]. On the...is Amer...it was an American school. American missionaries started it.
ERICKSEN: Looking back, was it...was it good to get into a more formal school kind of situation or did you like the home school arrangement?
CROSSETT: Well, Aunt Rose headed a formal school. She was a professional teacher [clears throat] and it wasn't much different. But she had fewer students. Some of the other missionary children came to the school, too, though.
ERICKSEN: Now, with the school being in Kuling, and you say your mother was...?
CROSSETT: She was with us.
ERICKSEN: In Kuling.
CROSSETT: Dad was down in Changsha.
ERICKSEN: How did they arrive at that arrangement?
CROSSETT: Well, they felt that we children needed the mother and Dad had to keep on with his work, so he kept...he stayed down in Changsha.
ERICKSEN: Did he keep the same big house?
CROSSETT: As far as I know. I...I guess so because we never went back. We went home from Kuling.
ERICKSEN: Looking back at your education in China, having done education work here at Wheaton, how would you evaluate the education you got?
CROSSETT: I would say it was very good. Very good background.
ERICKSEN: Were you ready to be integrated into the American school system quite well?
CROSSETT: Uh-huh. No difficulty.
ERICKSEN: What...did you have any favorite classes? Things you liked to study when you were growing up?
CROSSETT: I don't know. I liked everything. I liked to study, but I don't know of any favorite.
ERICKSEN: What...was there any class you didn't like?
CROSSETT: Don't remember that either. Don't remember that there was.
ERICKSEN: All right. Could you tell me a little bit about your return to the United States?
CROSSETT: Well, we came back during World War I, in 1917. [loud microphone noises]
ERICKSEN: Well, let me try again. Can you tell me about your...your trip back to this country from....
CROSSETT: We came on a Japanese ship from China and it was during World War I. And I was told that German submarines followed us across the ocean, but we weren't bothered. We had a good trip. We had a lot of fun on the ship, I remember.
ERICKSEN: Anything in particular?
CROSSETT: There were other...other missionary children on the ship...on board and we had a lot of fun playing together, but that wasn't anything special. An ocean trip, which we enjoyed.
ERICKSEN: Were there a lot of missionaries on the...on the ship?
CROSSETT: There were some missionaries and some business people.
ERICKSEN: And why was it that your family left China?
CROSSETT: Furlough time, we came back. I don't know [unclear]
ERICKSEN: At that...at that point, was your father...were you planning to go back to China?
CROSSETT: I think my folks were, yes, but then he...he left the Bible Society while we were home and....
ERICKSEN: Why was that?
CROSSETT: I don't know. There was some mix-up there. And then he went to...into the YMCA, went to France, worked with the Chinese laborers there.
ERICKSEN: And, of course, you didn't go back with him, with...with your parents?
CROSSETT: No, we stayed in California.
ERICKSEN: Yeah. So that was the first time that you had been to the United...you had come to the United States.
CROSSETT: No, when I was a year old my folks came, and that was when Ruth and Francis were over here. And then we went back in 19 [pauses]...1910 we went back to China.
ERICKSEN: [pauses] What were your impressions of...of the United States when you were at [unclear].... I suspect you remembered little [train noise].
CROSSETT: It was all new to me [chuckles].
ERICKSEN: Anything that struck you...?
CROSSETT: Well, as I said, people didn't follow me, like...they didn't stare at me [clears throat]. And we lived in Claremont, California, which at that time was just a small town. They had Pomona College there, but it hadn't expanded like it is now [clears throat]. And we didn't have a fence or wall around us and that sort of surprised me. And we could come and go without anybody observing us. In China, we were always watched [clears throat]. I don't know what else.
ERICKSEN: Did you...did your folks get a car when they were in California?
CROSSETT: No, very few people had cars in those days and [clears throat]....
ERICKSEN: And what was your home like in California?
CROSSETT: Well, it was a home that was built for missionaries on furlough. It was...it was quite a large house. It was very nice. I think it was furnished house. Far as I know, it was furnished. We stayed there for about three years.
ERICKSEN: And where did you...where did you go to school?
CROSSETT: [clears throat] In the public school.
ERICKSEN: In Claremont?
CROSSETT: [clears throat] Yeah.
ERICKSEN: Did you ever feel a little out of...out of place being an MK [missionary kid]?
CROSSETT: Most of the children didn't know it [unclear]. They used to tease my brother Nathan. They asked...they asked him when he first got there what the Chinese word for...for dog was. And he said goat, so he said they called him goat, from after that he was always goat [laughs].
ERICKSEN: Your...your sister mentioned in her interview that when you came back you were put in fifth grade and she was put in fifth grade.
CROSSETT: No, she was put in fourth and she...[they] put her up to fifth.
ERICKSEN: Remember how you felt about that?
CROSSETT: Well, I wasn't too happy. But then they....
ERICKSEN: [while Crossett is speaking] Because you wanted to be further along or...?
CROSSETT: Well, I should have been, but the trouble was in the American School in China they didn't have a...a fifth grade. They put me in fourth. And so I should have skipped up to sixth grade when we came home, but because I did...was in fourth they put me in fifth. But the next year they skipped me to seventh. So Ruth was in sixth and I was in seventh. But Ruth was very bright.
ERICKSEN: What about high school? Where did you...where did you go to high school?
CROSSETT: I went to junior high in Pomona, California. I went to ninth grade there. And then we moved to Long Beach and I went to Long Beach Poly High there.
ERICKSEN: Were there any classes there that you liked more than others? Any preferences that you had for different areas of study?
CROSSETT: I don't remember, especially.
ERICKSEN: I guess not.
CROSSETT: [unclear].
ERICKSEN: What about other activities at school? Were you involved in any...?
CROSSETT: I wasn't involved especially because I had a lot of work to do at home. My parents had gone back to China and Aunt Rose was looking after us [clears throat], and she depended on me a lot for the housework, cooking [unclear]. She did a lot of it, too, but I usually went home right after school. So I didn't take part in any activities. Then we...later on, when I was a senior in high school, Aunt Rose left and I was in charge of the family, so I didn't have time for extra activities.
ERICKSEN: Yeah. [pauses] How...how did things work out, living with your Aunt Rose. It sounds like she was kind of busy because you were doing lots of...a lot of the things at home.
CROSSETT: Well, she was busy, too.
ERICKSEN: Was she teaching?
CROSSETT: No. She was just at home looking after us. But there was a lot of work to do [unclear] with the five of us there. Curtis was away at school but the rest of us were there. And after all, when you don't have any modern conveniences, running water and that's about it. Oh, we had gas for a stove. They were washing by hand and lots of things you have to do that you don't have to do now days [chuckles].
ERICKSEN: Ruth mentioned something about your aunt being influenced by Pentecostal...Pentecostals. Can you tell me a little about that?
CROSSETT: Well, she got mixed up with a Pentecostal group with very strange teachings and they got stranger as the years went by.
ERICKSEN: How so?
CROSSETT: [clears throat] Well, they not only believed in speaking in tongues, but they believed that any prophecies that they got from the interpretation of tongues was like the word of God and some of it was very strange. You had to keep the food laws of the Old Testament. If you kept the food laws, you wouldn't get sick. And another was that they were the chosen people, they were the bride of Christ, this little group. And [clears throat] because they kept the laws and because they obeyed God and because they were the chosen people, they would never die. And then they believed they were the bride of Christ and that Christ was coming to the Mount of Olives, so they had to get to the Mount of Olives. And it started out with [unclear] trucks. They didn't have any money. They got as far as Austin, Texas, and they ran out of money, and they parked there in tents. And Aunt Rose was the only one that was educated, who really knew anything, and she was [unclear] stenographer, so she got a job. And she supported the whole gang.
ERICKSEN: Gee.
CROSSETT: And then she got sick. She got a tumor, and she was ver...quite ill. She wouldn't get a doctor. She was con[vinced] she wouldn't die 'cause [unclear]. And then my uncle went down to see her and he saw her condition and he called a doctor. The doctor came and examined her and he said that [with] just a slight operation she would be all right. She wouldn't consent and she died. And after she died the whole group broke up. That's why I...when I was a senior in high school, she left and I took over.
ERICKSEN: It was because of what had...the changes.
CROSSETT: Because of that, yeah.
ERICKSEN: Did you let your parents know?
CROSSETT: Oh, they knew, they knew.
ERICKSEN: Did they know before they left?
CROSSETT: They knew that she was involved somewhat, but it got worse. So when....
ERICKSEN: So how was it decided that she wasn't going to be living with you any more?
CROSSETT: Well, my father wrote and asked her to leave. But he didn't make any other arrangements, so I thought it was up to me to look after the family.
ERICKSEN: How did you feel about that?
CROSSETT: Well, I took the responsibility, but I felt like an old woman [chuckles].
ERICKSEN: [pauses] I wonder if you could...so we've talked about your life in China and...and your time bac...once back in the United States. Where in all of that did your conversion take place? Was it a process kind of thing or did it happen...?
CROSSETT: I don't remember when I was saved. I always believed. Just grew in Christ. But I don't remember when I ever made a decision.
ERICKSEN: Okay. What would you say were the strongest influences on your spiritual growth as you were growing up?
CROSSETT: Well, the church. When we were in Long Beach, we were right across from the Brethren church and we belonged there, and that had a lot to do with it. But mostly it my own private Bible study and prayer. And then, when I was in high school. we started a Euodia [?] Club that was run by BIOLA and I was very active in that. That was my one activity in high school. We didn't meet on the school grounds 'cause it was against the law, but we met across the street. And I used to invite girls to come to the Euodia Club after school. I was very active in inviting people, but not too many girls came because I invited them until...until I was about a senior. And then girls started flocking in and the teacher would ask them, "Now, who...who got...who asked you to come?" And they'd say, "So-and-so brought me, but Margaret asked me." Well, by the time I was a senior, I think there were ninety girls that came to the Euodia Club and they had to break up into more than one club. And it grew after that, after I left.
ERICKSEN: Now, was the Euodia Club...was that part of a larger network?
CROSSETT: Yes. Yeah. They had a lot of Euodia Clubs down southern California.
ERICKSEN: And what would you do at a club meeting?
CROSSETT: Well, it was mostly Bible study and prayer. And then they had camps and...and other activities at times. I wasn't able [to go to ?] any more than one camp, but.... Oh, they had rallies and [unclear], Euodia rallies [unclear].
ERICKSEN: When did you...when was the habit of having regular...you mentioned your Bible reading and prayer time. When was that...when did that become a habit for you? That's something that your folks sort of coordinated, not something you were doing on your own?
CROSSETT: No. It's something I start...started. I did that, I suppose, when I was about thirteen, fourteen. [pauses] After school, I used to...when I...I was in high school...after school and I came home I'd get Edwards and we'd memorize Scripture together. Frances often joined us, too. Drilled Edwards in the Scripture and he became a.... He knew his Bible and when he became a pastor you couldn't catch him up on anything. And he had a...he never read the Bible from the pulpit. He always recited it. The people in the...in the congregation couldn't believe it. They thought he was reading it, but he'd repeat whole chapters. He had a tremendous memory. But I think I first started him out [laughs].
ERICKSEN: Were there any periods when you were growing up when you sort of wondered...wondered about being a Christian, wondered what it meant to be a Christian, even though you'd grown up with...with that? Were there times of doubt, or...?
CROSSETT: I never doubted.
ERICKSEN: Did you ever hit any periods of doubt later?
CROSSETT: I don't remember.
ERICKSEN: You don't have to....
CROSSETT: I don't believe...I came to Wheaton College. I went to BIOLA and then Wheaton College. I didn't....
ERICKSEN: So you went to BIOLA, too.
CROSSETT: Yes.
ERICKSEN: What did you...what course did you take there?
CROSSETT: I took the...I think it was the general course. I've forgot. I think I would take the general course.
ERICKSEN: And that would have been between...?
CROSSETT: It was '24 to '26, 1924 to '26. I graduated from high school in 1924. By the way, I graduated with honors [chuckles], in spite of all my responsibility. I thought that was the Lord's grace. It wasn't first honors, but [unclear] honors.
ERICKSEN: What was involved in the general course at BIOLA?
CROSSETT: Bible courses, philosophy...different kinds of Bible courses and some Christian ed.
ERICKSEN: And when did you start thinking about Wheaton?
CROSSETT: Well, I'd always thought of Wheaton because my father came to Wheaton, and all we'd heard all our lives was Wheaton [chuckles]. We went to...we all want...at least, I wanted to go to Wheaton. When I was at BIOLA, Jonathan Blanchard came to BIOLA and I was introduced to him. He said, "Why aren't you at Wheaton?" [chuckles] Well, I applied that year and I was told that the last letter of acceptance that Jonathan Blanchard wrote was to me.
ERICKSEN: Now, was it Jonathan or Charles?
CROSSETT: Charles, I mean. Not Jonathan. Charles Blanchard. Jonathan wasn't.... And Charles died soon after that.
ERICKSEN: So when you first arrived, Dr. Edman was just beginning, is that...?
CROSSETT: Dr. Buswell.
ERICKSEN: Or Dr. Buswell, rather. That was his first...
CROSSETT: First year.
ERICKSEN: ...first year. Do you remember anything about Dr. Buswell?
CROSSETT: Oh, yes. He was here all the time I was at Wheaton. He was a young, active man. We all liked him.
ERICKSEN: Did you ever see him around campus? Did he get together with students?
CROSSETT: Oh, yes. He had a lot of...lot of activities with students and then he had Campus Day. I don't know if you still have Campus Day or not, but we used to get out and clean up the campus and he was always there working and raking leaves and everything, too.
ERICKSEN: When you...when you came to Wheaton, did you know what you wanted to do with your life?
CROSSETT: Yeah. I had decided that when I was twelve.
ERICKSEN: To be a missionary?
CROSSETT: Uh-huh.
ERICKSEN: So you were just getting the training that you knew you needed to do that?
CROSSETT: Uh-huh.
ERICKSEN: Did you find it hard getting into Wheaton?
CROSSETT: No [unclear].
ERICKSEN: I guess with graduating with honors would [ Crossett chuckles] help. Oh, maybe before we go on with any more on Wheaton College, we should stop. It's been an hour-and-a-half, so this maybe is a good time to...to rest. Thanks very much.
CROSSETT: Okay. Thank you. I was hoping we could finish but I guess seventy-eight years is too long to cover [laughs].
END OF TAPE