1928-1943
The Charles Alexander Leonard Missionary Correspondence, part of the International Mission Board, SBC, Missionary Correspondence Files Collection, are located at the Southern Baptist Historical Library and Archives. The collection consists of approximately 572 letters by Charles Alexander Leonard written to staff of the Southern Baptist Convention Foreign Mission Board during Leonard’s service as a Southern Baptist missionary in northern China in the Shantung Province and Manchuria. Most of the letters are typed but some are handwritten. The letters cover the time period from December, 1928, to April, 1943, with the majority of the letters from 1933-1940. The letters describe Leonard’s preaching and activities on the mission field, needs of the Chinese people, and requests for assistance from the Board for various missions endeavors. Leonard served northern China during times of both evangelistic revival and social and political hardships and his correspondence reflect both the opportunities and challenges of his missionary experiences. The collection is arranged in chronological order. The material is any word searchable.
Charles Alexander Leonard was born June 26, 1882, in Statesville, North Carolina, to Joseph Sylvester and Janie (Best) Leonard. He received his B.A. degree form Wake Forest College in North Carolina, in 1907. He completed his Th.G. degree and one year of selected post-graduate work under Dr. William Owen Carver at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1910. He later received an honorary D.D. degree from Wake Forest College. He served as pastor of the Elkhorn Baptist Church near Lexington, Kentucky, from 1908-1910. Leonard married Evelyn Corbitt of Shreveport, Louisiana, in 1910; she had been a student at the Carver School of Missions and Social Work in Louisville, Kentucky, during the time of Charles’ studies at Southern Seminary. Charles and Evelyn were appointed missionaries to North China by the Foreign Mission Board, SBC, in 1910. The Leonards worked primarily in the Manchuria region of North China, and also in Hawaii beginning in the mid-1940s. During World War I, Leonard served as Y.M.C.A. secretary to Chinese labor battalions in France. During the Second World War, he served as a famine relief worker in back of the Japanese lines, from 1942 to 1944. Leonard retired from the SBC Foreign Mission Board in 1949. From 1949-1952, he served as an association missionary for the Wilmington (North Carolina) Baptist Association, and from 1952-1953, as pastor of Cherry Point Marine Base Church in Havelock, North Carolina. He died March 18, 1971, at the age of 88.
