MS 257
Title: John
Reuling and Eleanor Reuling Personal Papers
Quantity: 3 archival boxes
Acknowledgements: Gift of Edna
Wade, daughter of John Adam and Eleanor Reuling, Port Huron, Michigan, 2003.
DESCRIPTION: This collection of personal
and family papers focuses on Adams College in South Africa, with an East Lansing/Michigan State University connection
to the family. Materials include personal papers (chiefly correspondence from
South Africa to relatives in East Lansing), pamphlets, publications, and
unpublished papers and other personal documents, including photographs. Also included is material
on Nobel Peace Prize winner Albert Luthuli (who taught at Adams College in the
1920s and early 1930 and John Reuling attended the presentation of the Nobel
Prize). Part of the collection is a copy of correspondence, the originals of
which were deposited together with related official papers at Yale University,
Divinity Library Special Collections in 2002 and which are described in detail
in Guide to the John and Eleanor Reuling Papers (Record Group 120)
Compiled by Martha Lund Smalley, Yale University Library, 1997, 2003: http://webtext.library.yale.edu/xml2html/divinity.120.con.html).
The collection of papers in MSU Library therefore both complements and
duplicates the Yale collection of papers.
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
John Reuling was born in 1906 in Osceola, Nebraska. He
graduated from Michigan State College and later received the M.A. from Cornell
University. He was a missionary teacher of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign
Missions (ABCFM) at Adams College, Natal, South Africa (1927-1941),
where he was director of teacher
training. He also was farm manager and Vice-Principal of Adams College
and District Commissioner for the African Boy Scouts. John Reuling He was Africa Secretary for the ABCFM and then an administrator for its successor, the United
Church of
Christ's Board for World Ministries (UCBWM), serving as regional secretary for Africa (1946-1962)
and then General Secretary for
Mission (1962- 1972). In this capacity he traveled to Africa, including Angola,
Rhodesia, Togo, Ghana and South Africa (he
returned briefly to South Africa in the mid-1950s when Adams College was being
absorbed under the apartheid regime).
Between 1942
and 1945, he was President of Northland College, Ashland, Wisconsin, where he
was awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Laws in 1945. He also served as
President of Carleton College, Minnesota. He
retired in 1971. John Reuling died in Port Huron in 1990.
Eleanor Swanson Reuling was born in 1903 and graduated from
Michigan State College. She married John Reuling in 1926 and in 1927 was
appointed an ABCFM missionary to South Africa. She was an educational
missionary in South Africa, taught at Adams College and tutored students. She published First Saint to the Zulus, a short biography of missionary James C.
Bryant
in 1960. Her M.A. entitled “A Graded Program of Outside Reading for American
Children Being Educated Abroad” was awarded at MAC in 1934. Eleanor Reuling died in 1983.
The Reulings may have been the first
married couple at MAC.
(For further biographical notes see: Guide to the
John and Eleanor Reuling Papers Compiled by Martha Lund Smalley, Yale
University Library, Divinity Library Special Collections, 1997, 2003: http://webtext.library.yale.edu/xml2html/divinity.120.con.html
)
The donation was inventoried by Peter Limb, Africana
Bibliographer, with the assistance of Tibebe Ashete.
ARRANGEMENT
1. CORRESPONDENCE
I.
Photocopies
of letters from the Reulings to family in U.S. (19 files)
Originals form part of a
deposit at Yale University Library, Divinity Library Special Collections. Included are a small number
of programs from Adams College pageants or other ephemeral materials, including
photocopies of press clippings, chiefly from the Natal press. A few letters are
written on board ship, and a few are written from inside the U.S.
Box 1
1.
Photocopies
of letters to family, 1927 Jun-Aug
2.
Photocopies
of letters to family, 1927 Sept.-Dec.
3.
Photocopies
of letters to family, 1928 Jan.-June
4.
Photocopies
of letters to family, 1928 July-Dec.
5.
Photocopies
of letters to family, 1929 Jan.-June
6.
Photocopies
of letters to family, 1929 July-Dec.
7.
Photocopies
of letters to family, 1930
8.
Photocopies
of letters to family, 1931 Jan.-July 7.
9.
Photocopies
of letters to family, 1931 July 8.-Dec.
Box 2 [also
includes interfiled letters by siblings, chiefly from 1939-40]
10.
Photocopies
of letters to family, 1932
11.
Photocopies
of letters to family, 1933
12.
Photocopies
of letters to family, 1934
13.
Photocopies
of letters to family, 1935
14.
Photocopies
of letters to family, 1936
15.
Photocopies
of letters to family, 1937
16.
Photocopies
of letters to family, 1938
17.
Photocopies
of letters to family, 1939
18.
Photocopies
of letters to family, 1940
19.
Photocopies
of letters to family, 1941
II.
Family
letter of John Reuling, from Mt. Silinda, Southern Rhodesia to friends, May
1960. Ts. 5 p.
Family letter of John Reuling, from Rome enroute
Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia to family and friends, December 1961. 7 p. Ts.
Deals chiefly with A. Luthuli.
Photocopy of letter of
Eleanor Reuling to Nellie January 1941.
Photocopy of letter of S.S. Ndhlovu to Eleanor
Reuling, Inanda Seminary, April 1961, in appreciation of her book. 1 p
Photocopy of letter of Rev. Paul Dickey to Mr.
Stowe, May 1975, with original handwritten note to John Reuling. 1 p
III.
“John
and Eleanor Reuling Golden Wedding”
Originals of letters and cards from friends for 50th
wedding anniversary in 1976. Many contain reminiscences of South African years
(Adams College, Inanda, Umzumbe, Mapumulo, Umsunduzi, McCord’s Hospital,
Ifafa); also Rhodesia, Angola. Some letters have photographs attached. Includes
telegrams and press clippings (The Barre Gazette October 8, 1975 on
McCord Hospital; on Samkange, 1976). Correspondents include Samkange family,
Frieda Matthews (wife of Z.K. Matthews, Gaborone), Bill and Zilpha Booth, Mary
Beals, [Edgar?] Brookes, Charles Brookes (Australia), Rosemary Brookes Rittman
(Cape Town), David Brookes (Kloof, Natal), Arthur Brooks (England), Anna
Brueckner Ludlow (Johannesburg), Frieda Brueckner Hough (Alice), Michael Hough
(Auburndale, Mass.), Clifford Ellis (Kloof, Natal), Tracy and Mac Major
(Gwanda, Rhodesia), Donald Mtimkulu (Canada), Edith and M.B. Yengwa (card,
annotated in Zulu), Kathryn Avery Tucker (Kitwe, Zambia), and many others. Also
includes some replies by John Reuling.
IV.
Christmas
and greeting cards, some annotated, chiefly to or from Africa (Zimbabwe,
Zambia, and Lesotho). Correspondents include Ndabaningi Sithole. Some cards
feature McCord Hospital, Durban. Identifiable dates include 1966 and 1979.
2.
PUBLICATIONS OF ELEANOR REULING
Eleanor Reuling. First Saint to the Zulus.
(Boston: American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, 1960). Biography
of James C. Bryant. Signed.
3. MANUSCRIPT OF ELEANOR REULING
Original typescript ms. of the book “Springtime in
Africa,” by Eleanor Reuling about her experiences in Africa, n.d., [iii], 202,
[ii] p. Ts.
4.
BIOGRAPHICAL DOCUMENTATION
I.
Photographs.
1927 Board of Appointees. Includes inserted leaf:
“Identification of the American Board’s 1927 Appointees. November 2, 1962” (the
Reulings and other appointees to South Africa, Angola, Rhodesia, India, etc.)
1926, December wedding photo
1935 during furlough, either 1933 or 1935
1935, Eleanor and children (Edna, John, Anna Lois,
Walter) dressed as
voortrekkers, for Great Trek pageant in South Africa
1977 50th anniversary picture of 1927 MSC
graduates.
NOTE: some photographs also attached to back of
letters in 1(III)
II.
Missions/Miscellaneous.
Newspaper clipping: wedding, December 18, 1926,
Lansing, Michigan. Photocopy.
Commission Service, ABCFM, for the appointment of
Eleanor Reuling as a missionary, 26 April 1927. Photocopy.
1933 address of a radio message by J. Reuling on
Adams College, Reuling family, Native Law, and South African Scouting. Ts.
Annotated. 8 p.
Certificate from UCBWM presented to J. Reuling, 1967. Original, signed.
III. Academic Degrees
1945, Doctor of Laws, honoris causa,
Northland College, Ashland, Wisconsin.
1971, Doctor of Humanities, Northland College,
Ashland, Wisconsin.
IV. Miscellaneous
Passports, 1945, 1953, 1957, 1961, 1966, 1971
Driver’s licence, Southern Rhodesia, 1946
Titulo de Residencia, Angola, 1946
V. Press clippings, Obituaries, and
Memorials
“Obituaries, Articles, News Releases.” [photocopies]
News clippings about the Reulings. Newspapers
include Boston Globe, 1961-2 (on Albert Luthuli), Christian Science
Monitor 1957 (on John Reuling’s trip to Ghana), 1960-1, and the Natal press
of 1932.
Briefing notes on John Reuling, from the Office of
Communication, United Church of Christ, New York, January 1972
Briefing notes on John Reuling, from the Office of
Communication, United Church of Christ, New York, n.d. (2 copies)
Obituary of Eleanor Reuling, Bergen Record,
May 1, 1983.
Eulogy for Eleanor Reuling by David M. Stowe,
memorial service, May 1, 1983. 3 p.
[Eulogy for] Eleanor Swanson Reuling. 2 p.
Memorial service, for John A. Reuling, UCBWM, by
David M. Stowe, February 26, 1990. 5 p. (2 copies)
Obituary of John Reuling, New York Times
February 1990
Obituary of John Reuling, Boston Herald
February 1990
Letter from MSU (1990) concerning the use of the
remains of J. Reuling for science. 2 p.
Photocopy of article on Luthuli with handwritten
note that J. Reuling died “as the African National Congress is liberated”,
1990. 1 p.
Obituaries, John and Eleanor Reuling [originals]
Obituary of Eleanor Reuling, Bergen Record,
May 1, 1983.
Printed program of memorial service, May 1, 1983. 3
p.
Eulogy for Eleanor Reuling by David M. Stowe,
memorial service, May 1, 1983. 3 p.
Letter from William R. Booth to Edna, March 6, 1990,
attached to “Something from the Garden,” by William R. Booth on John Reuling
and Adams College. 3 p.
Letter from Agnes A. Wood to Edna, December 7, 1990,
attached to “Memories of Language Study 1929-1930,” by Agnes A. Wood on John
Reuling. 4 p.
Pathfinders (South Africa) Praise Names of Reuling.
1 p.
5. MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTATION ON SOUTH AFRICA
I. “Missions South Africa”
“Adams Escapade,” n.d. Annotated; roneod program. 1
leaf.
A Century of Progress in Medical Work Among the
Zulus, 1835-1935: The Evolution of the McCord Hospital [1935], 12 p.
Greetings from Your Friends of the South Africa
Mission of the American Board [ca.
1939?], 1 folded brochure.
James B. McCord, Some Sidelights on the House
that Jim Built (Durban: ca. 1939?). 24 p. Illustrated.
The Healing Ministry of the American Board in
Africa, 1943.
(Boston: American Board of
Commissioners for Foreign Missions [1943?]). 23 p.
Inanda Seminary, Phoenix, Natal. (s.l.: 193-?]) [4] p. Illustrated brochure. Separate illustration
inserted.