DR. JESSE L. RUSSELL
Office Building
North-West Corner Square
Phone 108
								ADAIRVILLE, KY
									April 29, 1925

	Having been asked by the Board of Missions of the M. E. Church, South to write a sketch of the life of Wallace Boyd Russell, I will first tell something of the family origin, and the why and from whence the spirit and determination that he possessed.  

	On the paternal side of his family tree he came of the good old sturdy English stock that settled in Virginia in the colonial days.  One of these frontiersmen located in South Logan County, Kentucky, in 1804, this being his great-grand father.

	On the maternal side, one of his great-grand fathers and five brothers came over as stowaways on merchant ships from Ireland at different times and settled in the vicinity of Nashville, Tennessee.

	The other branch on the maternal side came from cool, calculating Scotch-Irish of great independence of spirit.  As an illustration I will recite an instance in this great-grand father’s life.  At the age of 13 he had the misfortune to loose an arm.  Some of the family told him he could never do anything and would be dependent upon them for support the rest of his life.

*	This was too much for his pride and he struck out for himself at this young age, and would work all day for some planter and study by the fire light at night in order to get the best education he could obtain.  He became what was then “well to do” and owned many slaves and a large plantation in Williamson County, Tennessee.

	Our father and mother started out almost penniless after the terrible war between the States.  They being married soon after his return from his service with the Stars and Bars.

	Wallace was the eighth of a family of ten children.  Prosperity was always conspicuous by its absence in the home.  He early showed the will to do and was never satisfied with a day’s work on the farm or elsewhere. 

* (In Martha’s handwriting) Martha was given one of his specially made shirts by her Aunt Ruth Russell Baety.  Martha’s Grandfather Russell lived his last days with Aunt Ruth and Uncle Albert, near Oakville, KY. 

	He was self-willed and determined, and his brother John two years his senior was of like tendencies.  So their opinions were often at variance, during their childhood days.  Each one being equally determined to have his way.  These two wills and determinations let the boys to frequent encounters, and the never failing consequence was a brisk reprimand by the old father with a peach tree limb.

	Our pious old father could never see anything good in two boys so given to fisticuffs, and could not see that these energies and wills only needed to be turned in the right direction.  He often became so worried with them that I have many times heard him say, “You boys are sure to land in the Penitentiary”.

	Thank God the old father was wrong and could not see the good in this youthful exuberance of energy and will.  John is a highly respected and prosperous automobile man of Los Angeles, California, and Wallace gave his life on the mission field.

	The old father is still here to see what energy properly directed will accomplish.

	We received our early education in the one roomed country school house close to home.  Wallace never wasted a moment of his time, at school or at work.  Saturday with us meant a time to work and not loaf.  Many mornings during the school term we have gotten up and plowed two hours before the hands would come to take our place, and then get to school on time.

	After attending the country school, at the age of eighteen, he attended a private Normal School at Russellville, Kentucky.  After completing this course he was issued a certificate to teach in the Public Schools of Logan County.  He rode horseback seven miles from home and taught one term at Miller’s Schoolhouse, and received the sum of $25.00 or perhaps $35.00 per month for his salary.  Many of these old pupils of his at this school came to see me and express their condolence at his untimely death and to show their appreciation for his services to them.

	This of course didn’t satisfy his ambition and he entered Bethel College, Russellville, Kentucky the following school term.  Again he went from home a distance of seven miles for this first term in Bethel College.  The remaining years he did the chores around the home of a good old couple, Mr. and Mrs. John Walsh, for his board.

	And here I must pay a tribute to this good woman.  Wallace owed much to her for his future success.  Her council was ever good and she looked upon him as her boy.  When she died, as I remember it, she requested that he come from Nashville, Tennessee to be one of the pall-bearers at her funeral.  When the final call has come to us all and the work done in China by Wallace is balanced up, one woman, Mrs. John Walsh, will be given a star for her crown of which there are none brighter.  

	During all his school life he did anything he could get to do to help along, and as soon as the school term was over he would return to the farm with as much zeal as ever before.

	He graduated from Bethel College, and was salutatorian of his class.  Some people hold and seem to approve the idea that young people must “sow their wild oats”.  But I must say that Wallace Russell didn’t sow any.  And if the sowing of wild oats is necessary for one’s future development and success, his life was ended incomplete.

	One might say that I am making him to be faultless.  This he was not, for his ever present faults were being high tempered, self-willed and determined.

	One thing that had much to do with fashioning his future life was his attendance at Red Oak Church and Sunday School.  For several years he was Secretary of this Sunday School.  This one spot on earth seemed to always remain very near and dear to him.  Often in his letter he would ask “How are they getting along at the old Church?”

	After graduating at Bethel College he was offered the Principalship of a graded school, and some other attractive propositions, but he felt that Medicine was his calling, and accordingly entered the Medical Department of the University of Tennessee the following Fall.

	Here as before he had to “cut every edge” to be able to get along.  During his vacations he worked for the Southwestern Publishing Co. at Nashville, Tennessee, and thus helped to secure enough money to get through school.

	During the vacation before his senior year in the University of Tennessee his mother became ill, and took her bed for the last time.  He quit his work and came home and nursed her.  For many days before her death we felt the end was very near, and during one of these attacks of awful agony, she asked for someone to pray.  I can imagine the satisfaction of this dying old mother when this boy, Wallace, fell upon his knees and in fervent prayer asked the help of the Almighty in this hour of need.

	After receiving the degree of Doctor of Medicine he was appointed interne in a Hospital in Evansville, Indiana.
	During the summer of the same year he attended the Southern Students Convention at Chattanooga, Tennessee and after hearing an appeal of the need of medical men in the foreign field, he definitely decided upon this as his life’s work, and thereupon offered himself for such service.

	At the same convention he met Miss Elizabeth Hutchison, of Dyer, Tennessee, who had previously felt the call of the Master to the work in the foreign field.  Being of like tendencies their friendship culminated in marriage on December 24, 1908, at Dyer, Tennessee.

	After his definite decision to take up mission work he resigned his interneship at Evansville, Indiana, and went to Chicago where he took work at the different Post-Graduate Hospitals and Northwestern University to fit him for his future life’s work.

**	Upon completion of this work in Chicago he and his wife bid farewell to native shores and sailed for Shanghai, China in August 1909.  After arriving in China Dr. Russell was assigned to work in Soochow General Hospital at Soochow, China.  He remained at this assignment until his wife’s health necessitated a return to the States.

	During his stay in the United States he practiced at Jackson, Tennessee where he operated a private infirmary.

***	In 1914 he again returned to China to take up his work.  This time he established a new Hospital in Changchow, China, a city of 160,000 population, at which place for many months, he was the only white person.  Later his family and Christian teachers and nurses and other doctors joined him.	

	Wallace Russell was never a slacker on any occasion.  When we were thrown into the maelstrom of the world war he volunteered his services to the Medical Corps of the U. S. Army, and wrote to me telling of his offer.  I well remember my reply as follows:  “You are doing too great a work over there, and there are too many over here not needed nearly so badly as you.  So you stay right where you are and continue your work, if there is to be any going by our family I will do it myself.”  As soon as he received this reply and knew I was going he was content to continue his work.

** (In Martha’s handwriting) No.  He was borrowed by the Northern Methodists and sent to Nanking, and first child Martha was born in 1910.)

***  (In Martha’s handwriting) “Soochow” (before China, first sentence) and “in 1918” (before he established a new Hospital)
	He returned to the States in 1920 on a furlough of one year.  Upon completion of this furlough again he returned to Changchow, and remained Superintendent and Chief Surgeon of the Hospital which he founded until the time of his tragic death, February 24, 1925.

	Upon his return to America on this year’s furlough he was made a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, meeting at Montreal, Canada.  He also took work during this year at Northwestern University.

	Dr. Russell was twice decorated for “Meritorious Service” by the Government of China.  Once for service to the famine stricken people in northern China, and once for services during a cholera epidemic.

	He, many times, during his service as a missionary faced great danger and often even death, at the hands of the people whom he was sent to serve.  Once while making a journey on mule back at night in the famine stricken area, he was attacked by bandits, but succeeded in routing them single-handed.

	Upon another occasion when called to attend a woman in dystocia 72 hours only attended by ignorant and superstitious Chinese women, and after the case terminated fatally, the Chinese attempted to mob him.  He again stood the mob off alone until the arrival of the police.

	This sketch would be incomplete if I did not acknowledge that the writer has many times been inspired by the life and work of his brother, Wallace Boyd Russell.

	Many many who may read or hear read this sketch be likewise inspired to do greater things while privileged to remain on this earth.

								Signed, JESSE L. RUSSELL, M.D.

Typed by Priscilla Bussert Fanning, granddaughter of Wallace Boyd Russell.  I have tried to be true in spelling and grammar to the copy I have which I believe was typed by my mother, Martha Russell Bussert, daughter of Wallace Boyd Russell.  February 6, 2004.