1891-1899
The Wesley Willingham Lawton, Sr. Papers are located at the Southern Baptist Historical Library and Archives. The collection consists of primarily a collection of personal diaries beginning when Lawton was a student at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary awaiting appointment to the foreign mission field and culminating in early 1943, just before his death. Lawton’s sensitive, accurate, and sometimes tedious descriptions from the field reveal firsthand the sacrificial life of a foreign missionary and the often volatile nature of China during this period. The diaries contain daily happenings, notes on scenery, travel, customs of the country, his readings, and observations of the times.
Wesley Willingham Lawton was born October 31, 1869, in Allendale, South Carolina, the son of Thomas Oregon and Mary Phoebe (Willingham) Lawton. Lawton attended Allendale and Cawtonville schools and Patrick Military Institute. He graduated from Furman University and the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1894. On February 23, 1894, the Foreign Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention appointed Lawton to work in China. He arrived in China December 2, 1894, and immediately began work in Soochow. His activities centered on Chenkiang in central China and Kaifeng in interior China. In association with W. Eugene Sallee, he started the Southern Baptist Interior China Mission. On October 14, 1897, he married Ida Carey Deaver, a native of Pennsylvania and a Methodist foreign missionary serving in China. Four of their children: Mary Elizabeth, Olive Allene, Wesley Willingham Jr., and Deaver Monroe Lawton served the Southern Baptist Convention as foreign missionaries in China. Reverend Lawton retired January 1, 1936, and eventually moved to North Carolina. He died at his home in Ridgecrest March 3, 1943. Mrs. Lawton died in 1954.
