Harriet Newell Noyes

Harriet Newell Noyes
Born	5 March, 1844 Guilford Township
Died	16 January, 1924
Nationality	American
Employer	Presbyterian Church of the United States
Known for	American missionary who founded a school
Religion	Presbyterian

Harriet Newell Noyes (Chinese: 那夏理) （born March 5, 1844, Guilford, Ohio; died January 16, 1924） was an American Presbyterian educator, writer and a missionary for fifty years. She founded the True Light Middle School, the first girls' school in Guangdong Province, China. She is credited with establishing the first generation of leading women of that province.^[1]

Biography

Noyes was born on March 5, 1844 in Guilford, Ohio. Her father, Varnum Noyes (1804 - 1888) was a Presbyterian minister. She was her parents sixth child^[2] and one of three of the children who were Chinese missionaries. She was named for Harriet Newell who was a famous missionary.^[3]

In January 1868, the Presbyterian Church of the United States (PCUSA) sent her as a missionary to Fati, Guangzhou, China (广州市芳村区) where she learned to speak fluent Cantonese. On June 16, 1872, she founded the first school for girls in Guangdong Province - the True Light Academy in Shakee.^[2] She had spent two years preparing to open the school and she used $1000 she had collected. Noyes was surprised to find the resistance there was to the education of girls in the area. She had sufficient resources to supply free education to thirty females and ten of these would be married. Actually when the school first opened there was only six students and three of these were married.^[1] The school that she started was a primary school, but it grew from offering three years of education to offering nine despite having an early disastrous fire. The school broke the 100 student barrier in 1887 and in 1894 it had 200 students. In 1917 a middle or secondary school was opened and this became the (Kowloon) True Light Middle School.^[1]

In 1919, Noyes published A Light in the Land of Sinim: Forty-Five Years in the True Light Seminary, 1872-1917.^[4]

Noyes returned to the United States in May 1923 when she received a letter from the secretary to Sun Yat-sen thanking for helping with 6,000 pupils education at the "True Light" Seminary.^[5]

Legacy

She is credited with establishing a generation of leading women of that province. Women who were educated during her 50 years at the school went on to become 286 teachers, 114 doctors and more than 30 nurses.^[1] Her posthumous book was titled History of the South China Mission of the American Presbyterian Church, 1845-1920 was published in 1927.^[6]

In 1949 the revolution in China led the headmistress of Noyes' school to move Noyes' school to Hong Kong. The school became the Kowloon True Light Middle School.^[2] The "True Light" schools also include the Hong Kong True Light College, True Light Girls' College and the True Light Middle School of Hong Kong.

And the school that is left in Bai He Dong, was taken by the China's Communist Party which is the chief party of the modern China now and renamed the school as The Number 22 Middle School during the Cultural Revolution period, after the reopening of China, the school's real name was back to be Guangzhou True Light Middle School, which is now having all gender students.

Dictums

Noyes is noted for saying:

Actions speak louder than words, but when one speaks whilst withholding actions, then surely it would have been better not to speak at all.^[1]

Sources