Fife family

The collection comprises the papers of two families, joined in the marriage of Sidney R. Sheldon and Eunice M. Fife, in 1916.

Sheldon was an engineer, a graduate of the University of Wisconsin, who taught at Nanyang University (known by several other names as well) in Shanghai, China, from 1910 to 1927. In addition to his teaching work, he made many consultation trips into the interior of China to inspect various installations.

His wife, Eunice Fife Sheldon, was the daughter of Elmer E. and Mary Theaker Fife, Presbyterian missionaries to India. The Fifes first arrived in India in 1889, to serve with the Punjab Mission. Elmer Fife founded what was later to be known as Gordon Christian College in Rawal-Pindi in 1893. He and his family then returned to the United States, where he served as pastor of churches in Lincoln, Nebraska and Boise, Idaho, before returning to India in 1904. Elmer Fife served as principal of several Christian schools in Dehra Dun, Mussoorie and Ludhiana during his missionary career.

In addition to the individuals already mentioned, two people who appear prominently in the collection are Mary Elizabeth Fife ("Bessie"), sister to Eunice and daughter to Elmer and Mary Fife, who later married Fred Collins and died in childbirth in 1923, and Elizabeth M. Hutchins Theaker, mother to Mary Theaker Fife.