Ballou, Earle H. (Earle Hoit), 1892-1987

The Ballous were American missionaries in North China, serving under the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions.

From the description of Earle and Thelma Ballou papers, 1911-1948 (inclusive), 1916-1940 (bulk). (Yale University). WorldCat record id: 702163645

Earle Ballou was born in Saxton's River, Vermont on May 17, 1892. After graduation from Yale College in 1912 he served as Academic Secretary of Dwight Hall, the Yale YMCA for one year and then attended Hartford Theological Seminary. Earle married his hometown friend, Thelma Havens, in March, 1916. Thelma Havens Ballou was born in Chester, Vermont on December 8, 1890. For two years after her graduation from Middlebury College she taught English, history, biology, and German at Springfield High School, Springfield, Vermont, and then attended the Kennedy School of Missions in Hartford for one year.

Earle was ordained as a Congregational minister in June, 1916. The Ballous left for North China in July 1916, where they served under the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. Earle and Thelma were stationed in Tientsin (Tianjin) and Peking. Their first son, Hubbard, was born in 1917 and he was later joined by three brothers.

While in China Earle worked closely with the Chinese churches both in Tientsin and as Secretary of the North China Kung Li Hui and the National Christian Council of China. During the Second World War he was detained by the Japanese in Manila until September 1943 when he was repatriated on the Gripsholm . After three years as Executive Secretary for the United Board for Christian Colleges in China, he returned to China, only to be recalled in 1948 to be Acting Secretary for China for the American Board. From 1950 to 1959 he was Executive Secretary of the Congregational Christian Service Committee. He then was called upon by Church World Service to be interim director of a project in Hong Kong for five months and served the National Council of Churches in New York until his retirement in 1961, when the Ballous returned to their hometown, Chester, Vermont.

Earle Ballou died in 1987 and Thelma in 1988. Additional information about their lives and work is available in Thelma Ballou: From the Green Mountains to the Middle Kingdom, a biography published by the Ballou's daughter-in-law Patricia K. Ballou in 1997.

From the guide to the Earle and Thelma Ballou Papers, 1911-1997, (Yale University Divinity School Library)