In 1884, at a time when Japanese girls were not allowed to be educated, and were completely ruled by men, a female missionary and Thorold native named Martha Cartmell helped change their lives.
With the help of the Methodist Church in Hamilton, she founded an elite Christian girls' school in Japan. Now named Toyo Eiwa Jogakuin, 12 alumni of the school, which has been growing steadily ever since, made the trek from Japan to see their heroine's birthplace last Friday.
At Lakeview Cemetery, they stopped to see the 60 cherry trees the alumni association had donated in Cartmell’s honour in 2013, near her former family homestead.
“Martha would have been born less than a kilometer from here,” Marsha Young told ThoroldNews. “Her dad worked in the quarry,” added Young, a great-great niece of Cartmell. “They owned the quarry. I can remember going to the Cartmells’ as a child and it was in ruins, but at one time, the house was spectacular.”
It was Marsha’s husband, Bill Young, who discovered the connection between the Thorold Cartmell family and the Japanese private school, while researching genealogy about Hamilton’s Centenary United Church.
Thorold resident Cathy Ker (nee Cartmell) is another descendant, who has bonded closely with the Japanese alumni association.
According to her husband, Ron Ker, “Bill (Young) tipped Cathy off and she went to the Centenary Church and met Rev. Ariga in 2014, and they were looking for someone to honour, so we got picked. The alumni association flew us out there (to Japan) first-class, rented a van for us and paid everything and gave us spending money.”
After Martha Cartmell’s mom died, Ker continued, “Martha went to Hamilton and the boys stayed here and worked in the quarry. The school is like Ridley (College in St. Catharines), times 100. If you graduate from there, it’s like graduating from Harvard.”
At Trinity United Church, the alumni association joined Cartmell family members for lunch. One member brought artificial cherry blossoms to decorate the tables, while the principal of Toyo Eiwa Primary School, Kaori Yamamoto, told Martha’s descendants, “Miss Cartmell’s portrait hangs with honour in the school. We now have 4,000 students ranging from Kindergarten to University. One hundred and forty missionaries were sent from the Methodist Church in Canada. We always remember this and thank you for all your support and cooperation. Our school is filled with love, just as it was with Miss Cartmell, who taught us the love of God. We will continue to provide excellent education, and we sincerely thank you for your love, prayers, and support for years to come.”
She read a letter from the school’s fifth-grade students, saying, “We sincerely respect her because she established our school in a foreign country 135 years ago, which was not easy at the time. Thank you for all your kindness, Class of 2020.”
The principal then presented Mayor Terry Ugulini with a generous contribution toward maintaining the 60 trees that line both sides of the road between the Old and New Lakeview Cemeteries, now renamed Cartmell Way.
“I cannot thank you enough for the love and honour you have given to us and Miss Cartmell,” said the mayor. “What really impresses me is not only the donation, but the level of respect you have.”
Cathy Ker told ThoroldNews when the alumni association offered trees to the City of Thorold, "I expected a few trees. Next thing I know, 60 cherry trees were planted. I just thought it was cool they still honour her after 100 years.”
After lunch, Ker thanked the visitors for their “wonderful gift to Thorold.”
“Martha’s parents came here in 1842 and there have been Cartmells here ever since,” she told them, adding, “and the trees get more beautiful every year.”
She pointed out “There are lots of cousins here,” each of whom was given a stunning scarf from the alumni, made in Japan.
A more detailed description of Martha Cartmell's life follows, from her biography, found on Methodist Church websites:
In 1872, when Martha was 27 years of age, she was captivated by a powerful missionary address in the church, urging that Canadian Methodism have a foreign mission, preferably in Japan, which was just emerging from national seclusion.
Canadian Methodism was just emerging itself, undergoing a union of the various actions, the British and the American wings, because of the confederation of Canada. And the need for missionaries was being raised, including women–Martha later saying that she felt ‘called of God then’, but kept it a secret in her heart for several years.
In 1873, the first male Methodist missionaries made their way to Japan from Canada; a Dr. MacDonald, and a Dr. Cochrane.
During this period, it was the leaders of the revolution and their successors who ruled Japan, not the emperor, utilizing the slogan “Enriching the Nation and Strengthening the Military” as their guiding policy.
By enriching Japan, the new leaders believed they would enable the nation to compete with the Western powers. And thus the environment was set for the changes to come, not the least of which being the education of women.
The previous norm had been expressed this way: “It is better for women that they should not be educated because their lot throughout life must be in perfect obedience to first a father, next a husband, and third, a son. What is the use of developing the mind of a woman, or training her powers of judgement, when her life is to be guided at every step by a male?”
That norm was about to change, thanks to Martha Cartmell. The male Canadian Methodist missionaries, arriving at the beginning of this new political era, soon discovered that there was evangelistic work among the women of Japan that only a woman could do.
The homes of the Japanese people were inaccessible to foreign men, where the wives of the Japanese men at home were training their children according to the old precepts. For the first time, a role for women in ministry and in missionary work began to make sense within the church.
In 1880, 33 women from Hamilton gathered in Centenary Church to constitute the first organizational meeting of the Methodist Woman’s Missionary Society. Their organizational efforts caused other auxiliaries to quickly form, embracing the whole of Canada, Newfoundland, and Bermuda. Less than a year later, at a general meeting of the Wesleyan Ladies College, in Hamilton, a resolution to form a local branch of the Woman’s Missionary Society was moved by Martha Cartmell, followed immediately by a resolution “to support a lady missionary in Japan.”
In 1882, Martha Cartmell was appointed to be that first woman missionary. Later that same fall she sailed for Japan, from San Francisco, as the C.P.R. rail line through the Canadian Rockies had yet three years to go before completion. She was assigned a tiny top bunk in a cabin of three high, and spent most of the voyage in her bunk, seasick.
Cartmell had been teaching in the Central School in Hamilton for several years, and seemed particularly suited to the task of teaching children and training the Japanese women to work among their own people. However, at her farewell gathering, she was honoured, and all the while, not allowed to speak. Only the men spoke, it seems, in those days, at Canadian Methodist Church meetings.
A list of the parting gifts she received before departing showed the ‘purse’ from “Ladies of the W.M..S.,” a pair of photo frames from her uncle William Robinson, a shell match box from her younger brother, George, a bracelet and pin set from her sister, Mary, gold bracelets from her school class, and a book of photos of Hamilton.
Upon arrival in Japan, Martha was met by Dr. MacDonald and two other missionaries. She was taken to his home, where she remained for three months.
At first, Cartmell worked alone in Japan, learning the language, and laying plans for her school. Finding that no Japanese women were allowed to be educated, she persisted in advocating the importance of education for girls, believing women would play an important role in the society in the years to come.
She petitioned the Imperial Court for permission to found her girls' school. Six months after her arrival, she was invited to attend a meeting of the General Board on the occasion of their decision to purchase a site for a boys’ school. When it was revealed that an adjacent site could be purchased for $1,000, the question arose, ‘Would it be wanted for a girls’ school?’ Cartmell, who had not been allowed to speak at her own farewell gathering, immediately spoke up.
The school opened with two pupils, in 1884, in a small house; but the numbers increased rapidly. Dr. MacDonald helped her, as did three Japanese pastors. It was called The Oriental Anglo‐Japanese Girls’ School. New buildings were erected, and Miss Cartmell, as first principal, also undertook more work outside the school. In 1885 a second teacher arrived to help–a Miss Spencer, followed by a third.
By 1887, there were 227 pupils enrolled, 127 boarders and 100 day pupils. Records show that by 1888, 120 of the students had been baptized. Soon, a Normal Training course was started to provide for the students who wanted to become teachers themselves, and to train female leaders.
Meanwhile, a group of a dozen young Japanese men, eager to learn English, had approached Cartmell to ask her to teach them the language. With Dr. MacDonald's assistance, a class of young men met weekly, participation conditional on their attendance at Christian service on Sundays, and at an additional evening of reading the Bible in English. Most of these Japanese men became Christian, and several were ordained into the ministry.
From the beginning, the school had found favour with the upper classes. Two young daughters of Marquis Ito, Prime Minister of Japan, had enrolled, along with the daughters of counts, viscounts, and military officers, and girls from upper class homes.
Almost from the first, the fees paid for the students’ board, but there were some students for whom their fees were paid by Cartmell herself, in exchange for their giving of two years of service as teachers, interpreters, or ‘Bible women’.
Many graduates of the school later became the wives of leading officials and members of the Court circles. The mother of Emperor Hirohito was a pupil in the school, as was the mother of Commander Midzumo, who accompanied Crown Prince Akihito and his wife on their visit to the United States in the late 60s, and who related that his mother and an aunt had been among the first student‐teachers engaged at the school.
In 1887, five years after arriving, Cartmell was forced to resign because of ill health. She went back to Canada, and recovered sufficiently to return to Tokyo. Retiring again in 1896, at age 51, she returned to Canada, working for two years with the Japanese in Victoria, B.C. until ill health brought her permanent retirement.
She then came home to Hamilton to live with her cousins, Elizabeth Strachan, and Mrs. W.E. Ross, on Markland Street. When Elizabeth died in 1931, Martha moved to Toronto to live with a niece, Mrs. W.E. Pescott. In these later years, Cartmell travelled the length and breadth of Canada stimulating interest in the Tokyo school.
Her last address was given when she was 88, in Zion United Church in Hamilton, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the founding of the W.M.S., and she was said to have spoken with ”a clearly thought out message, easily heard to the back of the church.”
Martha Cartmell lived into her 100th year, still of sound mind, although afflicted with deafness and poor eyesight. She died on March 20, 1945.
