Published September 29, 2019
By Sean Eling
In 1917, James
Lee Lewis stepped off a boat onto strange soil, farther away from home than he
had ever been before. This was the start
of a twenty-year long adventure that would forever change the young man’s life
and bring the citizens of Quincy, Illinois a story that never ceased to fascinate
them.
Lewis
was born on June 20th, 1889 to Ella Smith Lewis in Quincy. The family was a well-respected part of the
community and was quite active in various organizations, particularly the
Central Baptist Church. As the young boy
grew up, he also became involved in the Church.
Through the graces of his grandfather, local tycoon Ceylon Smith, he
received the best possible education, going through high school and a full four
year college, but knowledge alone could not satisfy the young man. He had grown in his faith and felt that he
should evangelize to those around him. He
decided that he would become a minister and, with the full blessing of his
family, moved off to Newton Theological Seminary in Connecticut.
Lewis
made great progress throughout his seminary days, fully demonstrating his
impressive intellect. By 1916 he was
ready to be ordained, which he insisted should occur in his home church in Quincy. After a ceremony surrounded by his friends,
family, and former mentors, the newly anointed minister was told that, like all
new Baptist reverends of the day, he would be sent on a foreign mission for a
minimum of one year. He said his
goodbyes to his home and returned to Connecticut where he married his
sweetheart Mineola Mabey. The new couple then waited for a letter that would
send them overseas. They knew they would be traveling, but they could not
imagine how far from home they would go. They were told to board a ship and
sail across the Pacific ocean. They were headed to Burma.
Several
months later, Reverend J. Lee Lewis stepped off a boat into an entirely new
world. He barely spoke the Burmese
language, the food turned his stomach, and the climate made him ill. The house he and his family stayed in was
unlike anything he knew. Fearing that his new life in missionary work may have
been a mistake, he soon felt the need to talk to friends and family.
Though he
couldn’t make the eight-thousand-mile trip home to visit, he did have plenty of
paper. Soon after arriving he started
writing letters to his mother, asking her to publish some of them in the newspaper
so that the rest of his hometown could see a glimpse of the very different world
he lived in, as well as the good work he was doing.
His earliest
letters describe his surroundings in detail. Lewis was bewildered by the
people, plants, and animals of the area and explained what he saw, such as poisonous
snakes, saying “One bite and you fall dead nearly.” He marveled at the primitive culture and
eventually felt he could change it for the better.
As his ministry
progressed, the young man finally settled into his position and, with the
assistance of fellow missionaries, he quickly mastered the language of the
locals, learning to read their unique alphabet as well. His letters home became less about how
strange Burma was and more about the work he did. Lee decided to extend his missionary work
after his mandatory period had ended, keeping both himself and his family in
the country for years to come.
Even as he
decided to stay, his wife Mineola began to fall ill. The local doctor speculated that the harsh
environment was troubling her lungs and told Reverend Lewis to send his wife
away, back to the United States. He
reluctantly agreed, but the solution never came to pass. Whatever illness Minneola had contracted
progressed quickly, and she died on the voyage home.
Lewis was
severely disheartened by the news, but was encouraged through his faith
community. He wrote many stories about
Minneola, including her experiences with teaching the young children of Burma
and stories of how she inspired faith in others. He later remarried a fellow missionary,
Betty, with whom he shared the rest of his life. As his time in the mission went on, he began rising
in the ranks of the mission, eventually becoming head of the religious school
established in the capital city of Rangoon.
He became the administrator of several different committees regarding
reforms being made to the mission, and also became a well-known through his
preaching and his newspaper articles.
During the entire
period of his mission Lewis took very few breaks to return home. When he did,
he earned his master’s degree from the University of Chicago and preached at many
churches and charity events regarding the Burma mission and his experiences
there, raising both funds and awareness throughout the area. During this entire time he continued to
provide a record of his ministry by means of letters back home, letters which
were often published in local newspapers.
With few
exceptions, Lee stayed in Burma for the next twenty years, ministering to the
local population and educating them from his position at the University of Rangoon. He knew that it was his destiny to continue
with this mission.
Reverend Lewis
would likely have stayed in Burma for the remainder of his life, as he had
built his entire career there, but the Baptists began evacuating Burma in the
late 1930s due to threats from imperial Japan.
Without access to the place where he had spent nearly half his life, he
was forced to return to his roots. He
returned to the Midwest and became the pastor of a church near Minneapolis.
Lewis often spoke
and held services at various churches regarding his experiences, but never
returned to missionary work. His time
abroad was done and his story told, but those who heard him and read about him would
never forget the tales of a young man from Quincy in a completely different
world.
Sources
“Burman Buddhists.” James Lee Lewis to Ella Smith Lewis.
December 4, 1921. Karen High School, Tharawaddy, Burma.
“Lee Lewis to Be Ordained Tonight.”
The Quincy
Daily Herald
, June 20, 1916.
Lewis, James Lee. “Mrs. Minneola Mabey Lewis.”
The
News
(Rangoon, Burma), February 1919, Vol. 10, No. 2.
Lewis, James Lee. “The American Baptist Mission.”
Central
Baptist Church
Vol. 3, No. 39 (July 20, 1919): 3-4.
“On Tour in Yen Daihudaung Village.” James Lee Lewis to
Harold Lewis. 1917. Tharawaddy, Burma.
Purser, W. B. C. “Work for the Blind in Burma.”
The
Rangoon Gazette
(Rangoon, Burma), July 17, 1926.
“Trip Down Irrawaddy.” James Lee Lewis to Ella Smith Lewis.
1924. Thako-dan, Burma.
