United Brethren Historical Center

Missionary Staff

Missionaries in Sierra Leone during this time typically received $300.00 per person as an annual salary. Their residences and furniture were provided by the home church. Despite rumors that food supplies were included with the fixed salary, most missionaries provided their own food. Often, when two missionaries were staying in the same house, they shared the cost of provisions equally.  

Missionaries were allowed to grow fruits and vegetables as well as raise chickens, which supplied both eggs and meat. New missionaries learned that the word “fowl” was used interchangeably between chicken, duck, or wild game. Similarly, all other kinds of meat were known simply as “beef.” For example, there was cow-beef, pig-beef, and even monkey-beef.  

There was always fresh fruit available. Depending on the season, the Danville Mission grew mangoes, oranges, bananas, guavas, pineapples, limes, and papayas. Both missionaries and school children enjoyed these fruits.  

Between 1910 and 1920, ten missionaries were sent out by the home board. Only one of these missionaries, Rev. J.B. Woodard, had previous experience in Sierra Leone. Rev. Woodard had initially gone to Sierra Leone to help with construction projects without any financial compensation. He returned to the mission field with his wife, Lulu, as a regularly appointed missionary.  

The other eight missionaries who were sent out during this decade were L.F. Clark, Miss Jennie Martin, George and Daisy Fleming, Vernon and Audrey Kopp, Miss Bernice Snell, and Abbie Swales. Miss Martin was only able to serve twenty months before she had to return home to care for her widowed mother. Audrey Kopp was forced to leave the field because of illness, and she left her daughter, Ruth, in the care of Miss Lena Winkel. The other six missionaries were able to remain on the mission field for their full terms.  

Rev. Clark requested to return home when he learned that his wife could not join him in Sierra Leone. His term lasted four months. Miss Snell, after sixteen months on the field, became ill and was advised to return home. She lamented about her forced departure, believing that she had not fully fulfilled her call to foreign missionary service. 

When the Woodards arrived in January 1913, the first item of business was to decide which of three major construction projects would take priority. The Linker Rest House in Bonthe was in major need of repairs as termites had wreaked havoc on the studding, joists, and rafters. A new home in Danville needed to be completed before the arrival of Rev. and Mrs. Kopp. And a separate dormitory for girls needed to be constructed at Danville, as the girls were housed upstairs in the mission house. 

Mr. Woodard began first with the construction project in Bonthe, with plans to remodel and add a veranda to the rest house. Meanwhile, Mrs. Woodard had taken nine girls under her care to train in household duties. The girls could live in the mission house, but they had to attend a school of a sister denomination to receive an education. The mission desperately needed facilities to provide primary and elementary education for the boarding pupils. 

The basement and front section of the Linker House was converted into a dormitory. Bunk beds and wardrobes were provided for the fifteen girls Mrs. Woodard now had under her care. The back of the ground floor became the schoolroom. Twenty-six desks were set up in case of future expansion. Black paint was used to create a blackboard behind the desk and chair built for the teacher. In August 1913, the day school was opened at Bonthe for both boarding and day pupils. Mary Brown, a former Danville student, was the teacher.  

Mr. Woodard, after having completed these projects, moved on to laying the foundation for the new missionary's quarters. One of the members of the builder’s staff was Captain Braima, who had been a faithful servant of the Wilberforce family at Shengeh before they moved to the Gbangbaia district. Both Braima and another worker, Madeira, had moved with the family in 1812. They served continuously in varying capacities for the next forty-five years. Braima was an official boat captain and knew the rivers well, which proved useful to Mr. Woodard.  

Braima and his helpers made and stockpiled several hundred blocks in preparation for construction, including dampening blocks that had been laid out in the afternoon. Mr. Woodward and his crew laid out and completed the foundation. He worked alongside his men throughout the day, which soon sapped his strength. Later, he suffered a breakdown from the tole of his energetic work.