Source/Author: By Mary Hoover

Mary Hoover’s Journey in Sarawak

After the Boxer Rebellion in China, a Christian Chinese gentleman conceived the idea of taking poor, persecuted Chinese Christians to a new country, where they could worship God in peace, and earn a living more easily than in their own land. Accordingly Mr. Wong, for that was the gentleman’s name, visited the South Seas, as the Chinese call the lands south of China. While in Singapore, he heard of the unique kingdom of Sarawak, ably and beneficently ruled by the white Rajah Brooke. Mr. Wong visited the Rajah who received him graciously. Not only was the Rajah willing to have a colony of agriculturists enter his country, but he even loaned the money to get them there.

A few months later, a thousand Foochow Chinese men, women and children, nearly all Christians, left their homeland and started for the South Seas. On the way over, the non-Christians were persuaded to throw their idols overboard, and there has never been an idol in the colony. While they were in Hongkong waiting for their boat, Bishop Warne of the Methodist Church was also in Hongkong on his way to the Philippines. When he heard of the Christian colony bound for Borneo, he cancelled his passage to the Philippines and went with them. One or two of the number understood and could speak some English;through them Bishop Warne was able to communicate with the people, and found that the great majority were members of the Methodist Church. He then organized a Quarterly Conference which included men who had been members of the Foochow Annual Conference. When Bishop Warne returned to Singapore he told the Methodists there about the Christian colony, and suggested that a missionary be sent to help them.

In those days, Sarawak was very much off the beaten track. From all accounts it was very evident that the missionary who went to Sibu would have to be willing and able to “rough it” for quite a while, and the Mission authorities were reluctant to appoint anyone to such a place. Moreover Malaya was understaffed, so Sibu went without a missionary for the time being.

There was at this time a young missionary by the name of James M. Hoover, teaching in the Anglo-Chinese School, Penang (I was teaching in the same school). He had been on the field three and a half years and was unmarried. When Mr. Hoover heard of the need for a missionary for Sibu, he volunteered and was accepted.

When he arrived there in 1903, he found less than half the colony left. The people had met with all the difficulties encountered by any colony in a new country. They had died of various diseases, or drowned in the rivers, or got lost in the jungle. Those who were left were very dissatisfied and refused to work, saying that all they made was taken by the proprietor. This came to the ears of Rajah Brooke who arranged for the proprietor to leave the colony and the people were told that whatever they planted was their very own, absolutely taxfree. This put new life into them and they went to work with a will. Later the Rajah appointed Mr. Hoover Officer-in-Charge of Foochows.

The first year in Borneo was a busy one, but it was hard and lonely too; so after the Annual Conference in Singapore the next year, Mr. Hoover came on to Penang, where we were married in March 1904. I was then 21, and he was ten years older.

Our first home consisted of two rooms, each eleven feet square, in one end of a building with thatched roof and sides, that was used on week-days for a school, and on Sundays as a Church. The ground floor was a dormitory for 30 Chinese boys. Our bathroom was a little hut, built on two logs floating on the stream that flowed in front of the house. A hole was cut in the floor, and we dipped the water up and poured it over us. The water was beautifully clear and cool, but it was the color of strong tea. This was because it flowed down through the jungle over dead leaves and other vegetation. When put through a filter it lost the brown color, and was always boiled before we drank it.

We lived in one of the Chinese settlements four miles from the town of Sibu. We seldom saw bread, so ate rice instead. Our food was all out of cans. The only fresh meat obtainable was chicken. Travel was all by water. At first we travelled in a rowboat, rowed by two men. Going with the tide was not too bad, but sometimes the tide would turn before we reached our destination.

The Foochow people were then living in five settlements, each having its own Church and school. Every week-end we would start out for one of these places, visit all the homes, and attend the Sunday morning service. During the week we both taught school at the settlement in which we lived.

Mr. Hoover used to devote much time attending to the material as well as the spiritual needs of the people, getting them new grants of land, and helping them in their dealings with the Government. He often said, “There are other ways of preaching the Gospel than with your mouth.” During the years, friends in America presented us with a rice-mill, motor-launch, ice-machine and saw-mill. Machinery was Mr. Hoover’s hobby and he, with the aid of a Chinese mechanic set up these various machines.

The year before Mr. Hoover died, the Rajah presented him with a long service medal, in recognition of his services in representing the Foochow people to the Government.

We spent 32 years in Borneo, and during that time we had four furloughs. Each time we were away the work was left in the hands of the Chinese preachers and teachers who carried on faithfully and well.

The following is an extract from my husband’s last report to Conference in 1935:-

“To sum up. From that small band of 500 which was much reduced before it increased, there are now more than 10,000. The small clearing in the jungle is now more than 200,000 acres of cultivated land.

Five little chapels have developed into 46 appoinments. A church membership of 300, is now over 3,000, with 900 adherents and more than 1,500 baptized children under twelve years of age. The school of 30 boys has grown into 38 schools with over 1,800 children of whom about 1,600 are Christians, and from a staff of two teachers, we now have 91, all of whom are Christians. Borneo’s story is yet to be told, and we are glad to have had the privilege of writing a paragraph in the preface.”

By Mary Hoover
The Malaysia Message
March 1948

Pioneering in Borneo

The other day they left Sarawak, not to return, one of those outstanding people who from time to time appear for some years and then leave us the poorer for their loss.

In February, 1935, the Reverend J.M. Hoover, “Jim” Hoover in this part of the world, died. The newspapers wrote fully of his life in Sarawak, stressing not only his piety but the practical side of his teaching. He was in Sarawak “worthy” and in all his work he was supported and encouraged by his wife.

Mary Hoover came to Sarawak as a bride in 1904 and went to live with her husband at the little leaf attap-roofed Mission near Sungei Merah at Sibu. Jim Hoover had arrived in March of the previous year, and now between them they started the activities of their Mission.

The progress of that Methodist Mission is now Sarawak history. Its churches, chapels and schools spread from Kapit to Sarikei, and members of that sect are to be found in all parts of the Third Division.

To Mary Hoover fell mostly the education of the girls, and it is true to say that now up and down the Rejang there are hundreds of Chinese women who remember with gratitude her loving teaching and kindness. To have attended her school in Sibu was a mark of distinction, and it was said that the ambition of many a young Chinese lad was to get one of her “old girls” as bride.

Mrs. Hoover was well qualified to be a mentor. She spoke Chinese fluently and I have never heard a European woman talk better Malay. She surprised us by her knowledge of Tamil and she could converse easily with any strolling Dayak. She was a strict disciplinarian but behind her sometimes formidable manner one could detect kindness and sympathy for all who turned to her for help or advice.

It is surprising that she was not better known in other parts of the country, but her work was all done in or about Sibu and she was not a woman to court publicity. Jim Hoover himself was an Honorary Doctor of his University long before by chance we heard of it, and he was the only non-Government man who has had the Sarawak Long Service Decoration conferred upon him. Mary Hoover’s reward is the affection of the people among whom she worked so long.

On the death of her husband in 1935 she left for Malaya where she did Missionary work. In 1946, however, in spite of her age she volunteered to come back to Sibu for a year in order to get matters going again after the war. It was evident that if anyone could do it she was that person. She has now completed her task and leaves us for good.

Mary Hoover deserves well of Sarawak. She is one of that sisterhood of noble women who put the welfare and interests of the women of Sarawak first in their earthly lives. Some of them come to my mind: Mother Helen, Miss Olger and Miss Cubitt who are dead; Miss Andrews, Mother Clare and Mother Bernadine who still continue their work.

From: Sarawak Gazatte, September 1, 1947