(14 Oct. 1854-31 Oct. 1943), missionary. (Janet McKillican, Janet C. McKillican, Jennie McKillican) Born at Breadalbane, GC. Parents: William McKillican (1812-1906), son of the Rev. William McKillican and brother of Daniel McKillican), and his wife Mary McDermid (1819-1897), of Martintown. Janet McKillican trained as a nurse in Detroit. She was appointed a missionary by the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, and arrived in China as a missionary in the fall of 1888. “Her entire service was spent in the North China Mission, in the station fields of Peiping, Paoting [sp thus] and Shunteh.” (“Memorial Minute”) At least twice she returned to Canada on periods of leave. Her work was partly in nursing, but much of her attention seems to have been given to providing religious instruction for Chinese women. She was one of the foreigners who were in the International Legation Compound in Peking during its celebrated seige by the Chinese insurgents during the Boxer rebellion of 1900. A false report reached North America that she had been killed in the rebellion. She nursed the sick and wounded in the International Hospital, Peking, at this time.
On 31 Oct. 1926 she retired from her long period of work in the North China Mission. Having remained in China till April 1927, she then returned to Canada, where in retirement she lived at Vankleek Hill with her brother and sisters. Janet McKillican died at Vankleek Hill, and is buried in the Breadalbane Cemetery. She never married. See the entry for C. G. McKillican, this dictionary, for her family relationships.
She was described in 1912 as writing “frequently” for the Montreal Witness. It has been stated, incorrectly, in a standard history of Canadian literature that she wrote a novel called The Tragedy of Paotingfu, published in 1902. However, she was one of the “score or more of missionaries” who contributed material to Isaac C. Ketler’s non-fiction The Tragedy of Paotingfu (1902). Her entry in Morgan’s biog. dict. of 1912 hints at dissatisfaction, by whomever felt, not necessarily herself, about her being given insufficient credit for her contribution to Ketler’s book. She appears in a large, fine group portrait of the American and British missionaries, described as being taken before they returned “to their posts after the siege,” which was included in the coverage of the Boxer uprising in a 1966 Life magazine series on China.
A large collection of her letters during her missionary years has been transcribed onto disk by Robert McKillican. She seems from these letters a pleasant person, determined to be interesting to her readers and determined to keep herself busy and happy. At least in her earlier years, and however hard she tried to be sympathetic, she found many aspects of China, and in particular what she saw as lack of cleanliness, distressing. She enjoyed missionary society, evidently China less so. Hard working and dutiful, she was humble rather than self-assertive. Historically, the letters are a valuable record of the old pre-Communist China.
Janet McKillican’s sister, Sarah Maria McKillican (b. 1858 or 1859), who trained as a nurse, was married to Dr William R. Lee of Springfield, Ohio, and she and her husband served as missionaries in Siam (now Thailand), on appointment by the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America. In later years, back in North America, she drifted out of contact with her Canadian relatives, and her date of death is unknown.
Mackilligin 59-62 * Campbell (1986), 272, 324-325 * Morgan (1912) 778 * obituary and tribute (“Memorial Minute,” dated 15 Nov. 1943), from the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, of 156 Fifth Ave., New York (two-page typescript, present author’s files) * private information * novel, 1902: see Bibliography of Glengarry 24; Morgan as cited; Ketler’s book 9-10 (QF) * Susanna Hoe, Women at the Siege, Peking (2000), minor refs. * Life 23 Sept. 1966 pp. 66-67; the caption omits the names of the missionaries, but a letter from Life editorial office 27 Oct. 1966 to C. Herbert McKillican (copy in present author’s files) confirms that the woman at the right end of the second to last row was Janet McKillican * leaves for China, Cornwall Freeholder 14 Sept. 1888: cited 20 Years Ago column & DTL, CF 11 Sept. 1908 and Standard Freeholder 17 Sept. 1949 resp. * “Home from China”: report on interview with her on her return (temporary, and for reasons of health) from China (with line portrait), undated clipping, probably Witness c. 1894 * revisits home at Vankleek Hill on furlough, Glengarry News 23 Oct. 1903 * speaks at Martintown, GN 13 Nov. 1903 * returns to China, VKHR 27 Jan. 1905, GN 3 Feb. 1905 * to return to Canada, GN 29 April 1927