This is a complete transcript of the oral history interview with Doris Embery (CN 208, T1) for the Billy Graham Center Archives. No spoken words which were recorded are omitted. In a very few cases, the transcribers could not understand what was said, in which case [unclear] was inserted. Also, grunts and verbal hesitations such as “ah” or “um” are usually omitted. Readers of this transcript should remember that this is a transcript of spoken English, which follows a different rhythm and even rule than written English. Three dots indicate an interruption or break in the train of thought within the sentence of the speaker. Four dots indicate what the transcriber believes to be the end of an incomplete sentence. ( ) Word in parentheses are asides made by the speaker. [ ] Words in brackets are comments made by the transcriber. This transcript was created by Janyce H. Nasgowitz and W. Gregory Thompson and was completed in June 1994. Please note: This oral history interview expresses the personal memories and opinions of the interviewee and does not necessarily represent the views or policies of the Billy Graham Center Archives or Wheaton College. © 2017. The Billy Graham Center Archives. All rights reserved. This transcript may be reused with the following publication credit: Used by permission of the Billy Graham Center Archives, Wheaton College, Wheaton, IL. BGC Archives CN 208, T1 Transcript - Page 2 Collection 208, Tape 1. Oral history interview with Doris Embery by Robert Shuster on April 20, 1982. SHUSTER: One, two, three. This is an interview with Miss Doris Embery... EMBERY: Embrey. SHUSTER: ...Embrey by Robert Shuster for the Missionary Sources Collection of Wheaton College. This interview took place at the Billy Graham Center on April 20, 1982, at 8:30. Miss Embery, you were born in England, that...is that correct? EMBERY: Yes. SHUSTER: But grew up in China? EMBERY: That's right. I was born during my parents’ first furlough [1912-1913] SHUSTER: And... EMBERY: My father's old home in the West Country, in Devon. SHUSTER: And what were your parents’ names? EMBERY: My father was William James Embery, and my mother was Ethel Anne-Marie Potter from Australia. They met on the mission field. SHUSTER: And they were... EMBERY: Married...they were married in...in Yunnan [Province or Yunan, Guangdong Province, China]. Officially they had to go out into Burma to the nearest British consul for their official marriage and they were married in Bhamo, in Burma. SHUSTER: Bhamo...How is that spelled? EMBERY: B-H-A-M-O. SHUSTER: And what...what mission station...what missionary...what mission were they with? EMBERY: They were with the China Inland Mission, and at that time they working in a city called Tengyueh [Tengchong, Yunnan Province?][see CN 215-1-12, p. 22 of January 1914 directory]. SHUSTER: Tengyueh. And that was near the Burma border? EMBERY: Well, it was over on the west side of the Yunnan Province, yes. They worked there, and they also worked in Dali [Yunnan Province, China] where later we had a hospital. And my brothers...my brother and two sisters were all born in China, in Yunnan. © 2017. The Billy Graham Center Archives. All rights reserved. This transcript may be reused with the following publication credit: Used by permission of the Billy Graham Center Archives, Wheaton College, Wheaton, IL. BGC Archives CN 208, T1 Transcript - Page 3 SHUSTER: So there were four children [unclear]. EMBERY: There were four of us. SHUSTER: What were your parents’ assignments? What were their duties? EMBERY: Well, they were doing evangelistic work. My mother was a nurse and she did have a...she did open a small clinic, which brought her in touch, of course, with a lot of the women. And my sister, my older sister was the first white baby born in that area and she later went back as a missionary in the CIM and went back to work in the place where she was born. And it was interesting that word got around that the white baby had come back, and so she really made contact with some people who had been influenced by my mother years before. But in those days it took three months to travel from Shanghai up to Yunnan, up the Yangtse and then over...over land. SHUSTER: How did...how did you travel [unclear]? EMBERY: Well, I think they traveled probably partly by boat up the gorges...through the gorges and up to Chungking and then overland, I suppose by mule cart in those days. I can remember as youngsters, we used to travel in these little...what we used to call senjas [?] that were sort of a...a stretcher carried between two men with a little over... SHUSTER: Like an awning or.... EMBERY: ...over [a] sort of roof...[unclear] sort of roof, and we used to sit in that. Sometimes it was between two mules, and sometimes, in some other places, were it was steeper, it was between two men. But otherwise, I know Mother and Dad walked a lot and we were carried. J. O. Fraser, a well-known missionary, came to my mother and father as a junior missionary. And, in fact, he's mentioned in Beyond the Ranges: [Fraser of Lisuland, Southwest China], a book by Mrs. Howard Taylor. And he used to go trekking with us, with my father and in the very early days, when it was only just one, he used to carry...he had often carried my older sister on his back when they were trekking. But my memory of those days really is only very, very slight, just one or two memories. One I do remember about, listening to J. O. Fraser on my little baby organ. He could make it sound like a pipe organ. He was a brilliant mus...musician. SHUSTER: Were your parents the only CIM missionaries in that area, or was there a...? EMBERY: Well, they...for a while, they were the only people in that city, and.... SHUSTER: So, they were pioneers there, they were open.... EMBERY: They were...they...they were...they were...they...they were some of the earliest ones in that area, yes. I don't know that they were the first in the city, but they certainly were one of the very earliest. My father went out in 1901, he should have gone out in 1900, but was held back because of the Boxers' riots. So, they were there together from 1904 on. So they were pretty well up in the early ones for that area. © 2017. The Billy Graham Center Archives. All rights reserved. This transcript may be reused with the following publication credit: Used by permission of the Billy Graham Center Archives, Wheaton College, Wheaton, IL. BGC Archives CN 208, T1 Transcript - Page 4 SHUSTER: Were...do you know what caused your father to become a missionary? Was it the tradition of his family, or was he the first one? EMBERY: No. My father came from a Christian family. So did my mother. Dad was...[unclear] local preacher in the west country. I...I...I...I can't honestly say that I know just why Dad went out to the mission field. [Pauses.] He was always a very good Bible teacher, and people today often, who remember him, say to me they haven't forgotten Daddy's messages. He must have been a good teacher of some sort. He was a...a legal man by profession. SHUSTER: A lawyer? EMBERY: Well I don't know that he finished it. I think he was called to the mission field before he really finished. SHUSTER: And do you recall, or have you heard by the members of your family, his method of evangelizing in China? EMBERY: He was just...I know he was always a very keen preacher out...out...he would go out. SHUSTER: So he would just.... EMBERY: I think their method in those days...I mean, really, they didn't have a...they had to start a church, really. It was real pioneer work. SHUSTER: So he would... EMBERY: Teaching, preaching and teaching. SHUSTER: Did he stay in one city, did he stay in one spot, or...? EMBERY: Well, he...as far as I remember, they were mainly in those two cities, Dali and Tengyueh. SHUSTER: And began church [unclear]? EMBERY: But they were, they were only there until about 1916...1916, 1917, maybe it was...maybe it was at the end of the war, or during the latter part of the second [first] World War. They came down to the coast, mainly to bring my sis...elder sister and my brother to school. And they went to school up in North China and [Shuster says something unclear] Mother and Dad went up to Shansi [Yuwuchen, Shansi; see CN 215-1-12, January 1919 directory] for a very short time and then Tienchen [?] and then Dad was asked to go to Shanghai [see CN 215-1-2, July 1919 directory] to administration. And for the rest of his missionary career, he was treasurer of the mission. Well, at first he was assistant treasurer to Mr. Broomhall [A. H.], and then he finally took over in Shanghai. He was treasurer there for many years, right up until 1940. And I went to school just before I turned six, up to Chefoo. SHUSTER: So, from about 1920 'til 1940, your father was in Shanghai? © 2017. The Billy Graham Center Archives. All rights reserved. This transcript may be reused with the following publication credit: Used by permission of the Billy Graham Center Archives, Wheaton College, Wheaton, IL.