1904-1937
The James Edgar Davis 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 682 letters by J. Edgar Davis written to staff of the Southern Baptist Convention Foreign Mission Board during Davis’s service as a Southern Baptist missionary in Mexico. Most of the letters are typed but some are handwritten. The letters cover the time period from August, 1904, to December, 1937. There are no letters for the years1926, or 1928-1930. The letters describe Davis’s activities on the mission field including his work and ministry with the Baptist Spanish Publishing House, which Davis and his wife Mary started in the kitchen of their home shortly after their arrival in Toluca, Mexico, in December, 1904. The publishing house issued Sunday School literature and tracts for Spanish people in all countries. The Davises served in Mexico during times of both evangelistic revival and social and political hardships. Correspondence in this collection reflect both the opportunities and challenges of J. Edgar and Mary Davis’s missionary experiences. The collection is arranged in chronological order. The material is any word searchable.
James Edgar Davis was born March 22, 1873, in Jackson County, Missouri. He graduated from William Jewell College in 1899. Davis married Mary Gamble, originally from Tazwell, Virginia, in 1894. J. Edgar and Mary Davis were appointed missionaries to Mexico by the Foreign Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention on July 5, 1904. The Davises were instrumental in the beginnings of the Baptist Spanish Publishing House, which was located in Mexico for the first decade of its operations.
