Noss family.
Noss Family Papers,
1912-1924.
Manuscript Collection: MS 0624
1
box
Agency History/Biographical note:
Christopher Noss was born on Sept. 23, 1869 in Huntington, Indiana.
He attended Franklin and Marshall Academy, and received his theology
degree from Lancaster Theological Seminary. He worked as a
missionary in Japan ca. 1893-1934. He married his first wife, Lura
Boyer, on Oct. 22, 1895. They had six children before her death in
1907. Noss married Carol (Carolyn) Day, a 1905 graduate of Mount
Holyoke College, on July 14, 1909. They remained in Japan and had
six more children. Christopher died on Dec. 31, 1934.
Fredrick Boyer Noss was born in Japan on June 3, 1901.
He came to the United States in 1916 to attend Mercersburg Academy in
Pennsylvania, graduating in 1919. He graduated from Princeton
University in 1923. He worked as a teacher at Massanutten Academy in
Woodstock, Virginia 1923-1924. He then attended Harvard and
graduated from its Divinity School in 1935. He married Emily Letitia
Miller, had two daughters, and was a minister of the South Church in
Andover, Mass.
Anna Isabel Noss, or Annabelle as she is referred to in the
letters, was born in Japan on December 4, 1899. She graduated from
Northfield Seminary in Northfield, Mass. in 1917 and from Mount
Holyoke College in 1921. She was an English teacher at Ilion High
School (Ilion, N.Y.) 1921-1923, then went to the Oberlin College
Kindergarten Training School 1923-1924 to prepare for work as a
missionary in Japan. She did not go to Japan, however, and in 1925
was an assistant teacher at the Carter School in Princton, N.J. She
married Ivan R. Welty in 1926, enrolled in the Oberlin College School
of Theology and received her M.A. there in 1928. The Welty's had
four children.
Scope and Content:
The Noss family Papers consist primarily of letters written by
members of the family of Christopher Noss between 1912 and 1924. The
principal correspondent is Noss's son Frederick. In letters to his
parents and siblings Frederick describes his experiences as a student
at Mercersburg Academy in in Pennsylvania (1916-1919) and at
Princeton University (1919-1923). His letters discuss his schedule,
employment, studies and work on the Academy's literary magazine as
well as the 1918 influenza epidemic and the possibility of service in
the World War. Several letters from 1923-1924 describe his work as a
teacher at the Massanutten Academy in Woodstock, Va. Letters to him
by his sister Annabelle (Anna Isbabel, later Annabelle Noss Welty)
were written when she was a student at Northfield Seminary in 1916
and at Mount Holyoke College 1917-1919. They mention her course
work, social activities and events relating to World War I, including
the influenza epidemic and the Armistice Day parade in Holyoke, Mass.
Most of the other letters in the collection were written to
Frederick by his father, his stepmother Carol Day Noss, his brothers
John, George, Theodore, and Henry Noss, his grandfather John George
Noss, and his aunt Emma N. Burkholder. The letters chiefly concern
family news with occasional references to Christopher Noss' work as a
missionary in Japan. The collection also includes transcripts of all
but two of the letters, compiled by Frederick's daughter Letitia Noss
Mutter, and genealogical and biographical information about the
family.
Cite as: Noss Family Papers, Mount Holyoke College,
Archives and Special Collections, South Hadley,
Massachusetts
Access Restrictions: Unrestricted
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