It's Woman's History Month so let's celebrate a woman who saw other women desperately needed help, and made a way for them to get it. Cornelia Leavenworth Bonnell's Door of Hope in China was clearly an amazing place.
This comes from former editor Charles E. Bunnell (Charlie to his friends) recently compiled Bonnells & Bunnells of Note (And a few Burnells & Burrells for Good Measure). The complete work is available on Internet Archive at this link: Charlie Bunnell's Bonnells & Bunnells of Note
Cornelia Leavenworth Bonnell was born 24 June 1874 in Waverly, Tioga County, New York, the daughter of Benjamin and Frances (Leavenworth) Bonnell. She had a brother Guy, born about 1872, and a sister Nancy, born 1882. Cornelia is a descendant of the immigrant Thomas Bonnell as follows: Thomas1, James2, Isaac3, Jonathan4, Benjamin5, Cornelia6. Cornelia is 004933 in Claude Bunnell’s database. 1, 2
She was evidently a bright young woman as she was admitted to Vassar College in 1889 at about the age of 153 and she was one of nine honor graduates out of 53 class members.4 One article states that she was the youngest student ever admitted to that college.5 Several articles attest to her poor health and indicated that she was seriously ill. After graduation she wanted to pursue missionary work, but no doctor would certify her healthy enough to satisfy the Missionary Board.5, 6 She worked for a short time as the assistant secretary of the Baptist Women’s Missionary Board, in Boston, MA. She spent the winter of 1896-97 in the Missionary Home in Newton Centre, MA.5 At some point she had become convinced that God wanted her to work in China.
Because of the Board’s refusal to certify her, she took a private position as a teacher in “Miss Jewell’s Private School in Shanghai.” in 1899, teaching the children of American and British residents.5, 6 However, the 1900 U.S. Census shows her residing with her parents and sister in Waverly, New York and her occupation is “missionary, China.”
While teaching, she spent time learning the ways of the city of Shanghai and learned of the buying and selling of young girls. Many of the referenced articles provide different descriptions of the practice, but essentially very young girls were paraded through the streets of one section of Shanghai and sold as concubines or prostitutes. In November 1901, without the support of any missionary board, she opened the “Door of Hope” to rescue and care for these young girls and other children.6, 7, 8 The articles imply that she opened a separate “Receiving Home” in the heart of the prostitution district on Foochow Road, 9 though from the way the articles are written I can’t be sure if there was one facility or two. At least part of the means of supporting the mission was through the sale of goods made by the young girls. This also taught the girls a trade by teaching them sewing skills and dressmaking. Stuffed dolls, which are very collectible today, were made by the girls and dressed to “represent various types of Chinese characters, ages and stations.”7
Evidently Cornelia traveled and returned to the United States periodically, possibly for fund raising purposes or to visit family and friends. As stated earlier she was with her family in 1900 for that federal census; however the basis of the trip may have been fund raising. The Baptist Missionary community appears to have provided some degree of support to her Door of Hope as she and her endeavors are written about in several Baptist Missionary publications. At least one of her leaflets, “The Spirit of the Poppy,” is mentioned as being on sale by The Baptist Missionary Magazine.10 In 1911, a Baptist Church in Waverly (assumedly New York) held an exposition where representatives from various Far East missions set up booths, “illustrating life in many lands.” In one booth “… are seen rare curios, including the collection of Miss Cornelia Bonnell, one of our members engaged in rescue work in Shanghai.”11 “For the first four decades of the Door of Hope in Shanghai, the largest donations came from abroad, from Bible schools, women’s groups, church congregations, and individuals.”12
On the 20th of June 1912, while living in Shanghai, she applied through the Consulate for a passport. Her stated purpose was to “travel via Russian Dominions.”13 On the 19th of December that year, she departed Liverpool, England aboard the SS Celtic and arrived in New York City on the 28th of December. Her address in the U.S. was to be: 1024 Hudson St, Hoboken, New Jersey.14 It appears to be an apartment building; looking at the 1910 census for Hoboken Ward 2, District 50, that address has 7 families living there. Other buildings in that same area are also multi-family buildings.
Cornelia died 12 October 1916.3 Her passing was noted in the 1917 Woman’s Federation Bulletin, published as part of The Missionary Review of the World. The article stated, “Those who read in The Review recently the most interesting account of the “Door of Hope” in Shanghai will grieve to hear of the death of the founder of this work, Miss Cornelia Bonnell. …” 15 She apparently died in Shanghai and most likely was buried there. The Door of Hope operated in Shanghai until 1951, at which time it relocated to Taipei. Her work resulted “at least” 5000 women being cared for at the Shanghai Door of Hope by the time it closed.15
There were also a number of similar missions using the name “Door of Hope” started in New York City in 1875 by Emma Mott Whittemore and her husband Sydney. By 1931 there ninety-seven homes in that system called, collectively, the Door of Hope Union.16 I could find no apparent relationship between Cornelia’s home and those started by Mrs. Whittemore.
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1 Claude Bunnell’s database (www.WilliamBunnellfamily.org). Specifically his references are Cornelia’s father’s pension record and the 1900 U.S. Census.
2 William Louis Cuddeback, Caudebec in America, a Record of the Descendants of Jacques Caudebec 1700 to 1920, (Tobias A. Wright, 1919), cited in
www.cuddebackfamily.org/genealogy/descendants/cfig107.htm#5353.
3 E-mail, 3 Jan 2008 from Jackie Hoffman, Information Services Specialist, Alumnae and Alumni of Vassar College, stated that, according to college records, Cornelia was a member of the class of 1893. This was a 4 year institution indicating that Cornelia entered college in 1889. An entry in her personal records provides her death date.
4 “Honor Girls at Vassar,” The New York Times, 8 March 1893.
5 “Cornelia Leavenworth Bonnell,” an article from an unknown source, page 215, provided courtesy of the Alumnae and Alumni of Vassar College. It is a short bio stressing the religious nature of Cornelia and is possibly from a Baptist Missionary book or magazine. It was evidently written after her death in 1916.
6 Margaret E. Burton, Women Workers of The Orient, (The Central Committee on the United Study of Foreign Missions, 1918), 165.
7 www.noramcneil.com/gpage.html4.html; Nora’s Antique Dolls and Collectibles. (Blog editor's note: This web page is no longer available. Charlie's transcription will be in the next post.)
8 “Woman’s Federation Bulletin,” in The Missionary Review of the World, ed. Delavan L. Pierson (Missionary Review Publishing Company, Inc, 1917), 141.
9 Helen Barrett Montgomery, The King’s Highway; A Study of Present Conditions on the Foreign Field, (West Medford, Mass, The Central Committee on the United Study of Foreign Missions, 1915), 160-161.
10 “Personal and Other Notes,” The Baptist Missionary Magazine, Volume LXXXVII, (Boston Missionary Rooms, 1907), 426.
11 Mrs. James E. Angell, “The Orient in Waverly,” Missions: American Baptist International Magazine, (American Baptist Foreign Mission Society, 1911), 683-684.
12 Women in the New Taiwan, ed Catherine Farris, Anru Lee, and Murray Rubinstein (J.E. Sharpe, 2004), 66.
13 Passport Application, 20 June 1912 signed by Cornelia Bonnell; Her description is: age 38 years; stature: 5 feet 7inches; blue Eyes, Straight nose, brown hair and fair complexion; Obtained from www.ancestry.com.
14 Passenger List for the S.S. Celtic, sailing from Liverpool 19th of Dec, 1912. Arriving at Port of New York 29 Dec 1912. Cornelia is listed, citing her birthplace as Waverly, NY and birth date as 23 June 1874; Obtained from www.ancestry.com, Immigration Records, New York Passenger Lists 1820 to 1957.
15 Women in the New Taiwan, 68.
16 Randall Herbert Balmer, The Encyclopedia of Evangelicalism, (Westminster John Knox Press, 2002), 620.
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