A SKETCH

REV. JAMES MURDOCK SYKES
ANNA KARLIE McGINNIS

By Tom Mayfield, December 9, 2009


Rev. James Murdock Sykes was born April 16, 1861 in Columbus, Mississippi to Dr. William Edmonds Sykes and Elizabeth A Murdock. His father, Dr. Sykes was born January 18, 1835 on the family plantation near Decatur, Alabama. He married his wife on June 21, 1860.

Dr. Sykes was killed in the Civil War on October 26, 1864. James spent his youth in Aberdeen and Columbus Mississippi. In 1884 he unrolled in Southwestern Presbyterian University, in Clarksville, Tennessee. He graduated in June of 1888 with a degree from the school of Ancient Languages (Latin Language & Literature). Apparently he continued to study in the Theological curriculum during 1888 to 1890 covering Greek, Hebrew, New Testament Greek, Theology and Ecclesiastical History. While at the university he met and married Anna Karlie McGinnis on August 13, 1890 in Clarksville. Anna was born Nov. 6, 1863 in Oakland Tennessee to John McGinnis and Mary McGinnis. Her father was a planter as a young man and all the family was active in the local Presbyterian Church. Most members of the family talked about becoming missionaries to China.

On April 19, 1890, James was licensed and ordained as a foreign missionary for the Presbyterian Church U. S. A. In 1890, he was also listed as a foreign evangelist with plans to go to Shanghai, China. In 1891, James and Anna were sent to Meridian, Mississippi where James would be a supply minister to the Second Presbyterian Church. On August 27, 1892, James and Anna and their new baby, little Anna, were taking the train to Columbus, Mississippi to see family before they were to leave for Shanghai Mission in China from San Francisco on September 26, 1892. On the way to Columbus, the train was involved in a terrible wreck near Statesville, North Carolina and James and several other passengers were killed; but Anna and her young child were not hurt in the wreck.

Anna lived in Columbus with little Anna and James' mother for a year and a half after James death; by this time other members of the McGinnis family had also answered the call to the mission field in China and in 1893 Anna and her brother the Rev. James McGinnis and their mother Mary, Mother McGinnis as she was affectionately, called left for China by ship arriving in Shanghai later in the year. They then went up river to the Jiangyin Mission Station. Anna's daughter remained in the U.S. to complete her education and missionary training. Anna Sykes was a missionary to China from 1893 to 1928 when she retired in China where in later years she would reside at Jiangyin from September to June each year and then be in Kuling for July and August.

The Boxer Rebellion of 1900 (June -October) killed more than 130 Christian missionaries, including Presbyterians (men, woman and children) at the Baoding Station. Apparently in May 1900, Anna Sykes went on furlough, residing in Columbus, Mississippi with her daughter by late June.

Little Anna was born July 29, 1891 in Clarksville, Tennessee and spent most of her youth with family in Columbus while her mother was in China. Anna may have taken one trip to China with her mother in her youth for a two-year period. Anna joined the Presbyterian Church when she was eleven years old in Columbus, Mississippi. Anna moved to Atlanta when she was eighteen years old where her uncle was pastor of Central Presbyterian Church and enrolled in Agnes Scott Academy and completed her studies in 1910. Anna then enrolled in Agnes Scott College in 1911 and graduated with her B S. degree in 1916. While attending Agnes Scott College she applied with The Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. to be a missionary to China to join her mother and brother and grandmother at their mission station.

But as fate would have it, after she was at her new post with her family in China for less than two years, she found herself writing to Dr. White at the Foreign Mission Board in New York City on January 14th 1919. Anna asked to be transferred to the Shanghai Station because she had meet and fallen in love with a new missionary stationed in Shanghai, Rev. James Bryars, who was from Ireland. Anna's request was approved and she married Rev. James Bryars at the South Gate Station in Shanghai on March 17th, 1919. There they continued their missionary work together and later were joined in Shanghai by Anna's mother, Mrs. Anna Sykes and by Mrs. Sykes mother, Mary.

The Chinese civil war and the Japanese invasion of China made the Bryars' mission work very difficult for the remainder of their stay in China. Their lives were often in danger as were the lives of the Chinese children who attended the school that they ran in the city. In the compound that was the Shanghai Station, they offered other services to the Chinese Christian community. One of the services was the medical clinic run by a Dr. Peters and his staff. It was at this small clinic in the middle of civil wars that Anna Bryars gave birth to the Bryars, child Jean Elizabeth Bryars on March 2nd 1927.

The Bryars continued to serve the Chinese Christian community in Shanghai until the Bryars family resigned Feb 15, 1932 and returned to the U.S along with Anna's mother, Anna Sykes, ending this chapter of their lives. But the Bryars were later to return to China though on their own to continue their China mission work until the civil war in China made it impossible for any missionaries to remain.

After their return to the U.S., James and Anna minister pastored churches in the mid-west then lived their retirement years in Pasadena, California at a Presbyterian retirement center. There on Nov 11, 1971 Rev. James Bryars died and Anna died April, 1978 at the same retirement center in California.

Anna Sykes died Feb 18, 1933 at the age of seventy in Balwin County Alabama, near Mobile. Jean Bryars married Kenneth Leroy Loewen June 16, 1957 in California where he was a college professor and she a school teacher. They later moved to Norman, Oklahoma, where he was a Professor at the University of Oklahoma. The Loewen's had four children: David born in 1958, Janice born in 1963, Juanita born in 1962 and Grace born in 1959. Jean died in Norman on May 29, 1976 and Kenneth died July 1, 1986, also in Norman. After Jean died, Kenneth married Gloria Juanita Buckholder on May 2, 1979, in Norman. Gloria was still living in Norman at the writing of this book in 2009.

By Tom Mayfield, December 9, 2009