Guide to the Millican Family Papers

The Free Methodist Church appointed Frank R. Millican (1883-1961) and his wife Aimee Boddy Millican (1884-1974) to its China mission in 1907. The Millicans served as evangelists in the province of Hunan until 1915; the following year they requested and were granted a transfer to the PCUSA's China Mission, arriving at Ningpo in September of 1917. Until 1929, Frank Millican served as Principal of the Presbyterian Boys' High School and later as Vice-President of the Union Middle School, while Aimee Millican engaged in evan-gelistic work with Chinese women. In 1930, they were assigned to the Christian Literature Society in Shanghai, where Frank Millican translated, edited and supervised the distribution of Christian literature and Aimee Millican was instrumental in starting a Christian broadcasting station. 1940 found the Millicans in the United States on furlough; due to increasing political tensions in China, Rev. Millican returned alone to Shanghai in 1941. He was interned by the Japanese until 1945. After the end of the war, the Millicans returned to Shanghai, but as a result of the Communist takeover, they were transferred to the Philippine Mission in 1950. During their three years of service there, Rev. Millican taught at Union Theological Seminary in Manila and at Silliman University in Dumaguete City, while his wife continued her radio work. The Millicans retired from missionary service in 1953.

Edith Frances Millican, their daughter, was born in Hunan in 1914. She earned her MD degree from the Women's Medical College of Philadelphia, and in 1941 she was appointed to the PCUSA's China Council. When war conditions delayed her sailing, she temporarily joined the staff of the Embudo Presbyterian Hospital in Embudo, New Mexico. She arrived in China in 1943, and became physician to the 14th Air Force Fighter Squadron for eleven months. Afterwards she worked with war victims and refugees in Hengyang, Kweiyang, Pichieh and Kweichow. In 1946 she was put in charge of the Chenhsien Hospital in Hunan.

During her 1948 furlough, Dr. Millican returned to Embudo, expecting to resume her work in China the following year. When conditions in China prevented her from returning, she began a two and one-half year residency at the Women's Medical College. She returned to Embudo in 1951 and spent the next five years there. In 1956 she accepted a one-year residency at St. Luke's Hospital in Spokane, Washington before assuming the duties of resident physician at the Board of National Missions' Mora Valley Medical Unit in Cleveland, New Mexico. She resigned from the Board in 1964, moved to Las Vegas, New Mexico, and started a private practice. She died in her sleep on February 14, 1985.