Guide to the Roy F. Cleveland and LeNoir Ramsey Cleveland Correspondence
Open for research.
Roy F. and LeNoir Ramsey Cleveland were Presbyterian missionaries in the Congo from 1913 to 1956. Roy Cleveland was born in 1883 in Brownwood, Texas. He graduated from Austin College in 1911, and then attended Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary for two years. He was licensed and ordained by the Presbytery of Western Texas in 1913. LeNoir Amilia Ramsey, daughter of Thomas Isaac Ramsey and Jane Cunningham Boyd, was born in 1890 in San Antonio, Texas. In 1913, LeNoir Ramsey and Roy Cleveland married and shortly thereafter, sailed for the Congo, where they served as missionaries for the Presbyterian Church in the U.S. Roy Cleveland engaged in business and financial work for the mission as well as teaching and evangelizing. LeNoir Cleveland worked in the Educational and Women’s Work Department, teaching in the day school at the Luebo mission station and conducting women’s bible study classes. The couple retired from missionary work and returned to the United States in 1956. Roy Cleveland died in 1962.
This collection consists of correspondence written by Roy F. and LeNoir Ramsey Cleveland between 1914 and 1956, when they served as missionaries in the Congo. The letters, mostly addressed to family members, were sent from mission stations at Luebo, Lubondai, Mutoto, and Lusambo. There are also letters between Roy and LeNoir Cleveland as well as letters written by the couple during furloughs and in transit to and from the field. The letters provide detailed descriptions of the daily life and work of the mission, visits of other missionaries, the development of the mission stations, evangelizing trips made to various locations in the Congo, and the activities of the Clevelands’ four children.
Summary of Box Contents
Box 1: Correspondence, 1914-1922
Box 2: Correspondence, 1923-1933
Box 3: Correspondence, 1934-1956
Received from Anne Boyd Crane in 1999.
This collection is minimally processed: materials may not have been ordered beyond their original condition. Guide revised in 2009 by Jennifer Barr, Archives Intern.
Roy F. Cleveland and LeNoir Ramsey Cleveland Correspondence, RG 462, Presbyterian Historical Society, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.