William Henry Tipton was born in Talbott, Tennessee on December 22, 1875.  He graduated from Carson-Newman College in 1900 and after being ordained in 1901 by Mt. Olive Baptist Church, he entered the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and graduated in 1903. Tipton received an Honorary Doctor of Divinity degree in 1934 from Carson-Newman College.

Tipton married Nelle Gray Roberts of Talbott, Tenn. on October 4, 1900. Tipton was pastor at First Baptist Church, Elizabethton, Tenn. in 1903. Tipton left for China in 1904 to be a missionary through the Southern Baptist Foreign Mission Board, taking his wife and two children.  The Tipton’s studied Chinese in Canton, China for six months before transferring to Wuchow.  

The Tipton’s had four children: Pauline Roberts (1901-1961), Mary Ruth (1904-1992), William Roswell (1906-1949), and Mildred Louise (    - 1907).  Nelle Tipton and daughter Mildred died in China in 1907.  W.H. Tipton brought the remaining children back to the U.S. to stay in the Margaret Home in Greenville, S.C., opened in 1905 by the Woman’s Missionary Union (WMU) for children of missionaries who were overseas. In 1909, Tipton came back to the U.S. and married his second wife, Mary Greenlee Bryson of Bryson, N.C. The Tipton family returned to China that year. [Henry] Bryson Tipton was born in 1911.

Mary Bryson Tipton taught the Bible in English in a boys’ high school and in 1918 became, in addition, principal of the Wang To Girls’ School. She also worked as a teacher and evangelist to women. In addition to his mission work, W.H. Tipton began working for the China Baptist Publication Society in 1914 publishing Sunday School literature.

W.H. changed from field evangelism work in 1920 to devote his full time to writing and publishing, and after becoming editor, the Tipton’s transferred in 1922 to Canton, the headquarters of the China Baptist Publication Society.  Mrs. Tipton taught at Pooi To Academy, edited the Women’s Missionary Union (WMU) literature, and was WMU secretary for South China.

In 1926, the Society’s publishing plant—and, consequently, the Tipton’s—were compelled to move to Shanghai due to communist influence in South China. The Japanese took over control of Shanghai in 1937. Mrs. Tipton continued helping her husband with the publication work, editing Kind Words for five years and translating Beginner, Primary, and Junior Sunday School lessons. She also taught part-time in the North Gate and Shung Tak girls’ schools.

When the U.S. government issued a call for repatriation of all women, children and non-essential men from China in 1940, Mrs. Tipton chose to stay in the field and was evacuated to Manila in February 1941. Tipton returned to China and became a prisoner of war under the Japanese in Shanghai after the outbreak of hostilities between Japan and the U.S. Although he was first allowed to stay in his home, Tipton was later placed in a Japanese concentration camp in Shanghai in February 1943. In September 1943 the Japanese agreed to send Tipton home along with thousands of other civilian prisoners and they arrived in the U.S. on December 1, 1943.  

In 1944 the Tipton’s moved to Nashville, Tenn. to work with the Foreign Mission Board’s Schools of Missions program in the States.  In 1945 they began work among the Chinese through First Baptist Church, Houston, Texas. The Tipton’s retired to Black Mountain, N.C. in 1946.

W.H. Tipton died in 1950 and Mary Tipton died in 1963.  

Bryson Tipton married Mary Alice Hoeing in 1938. They lived in Greenville, S.C., operated the Pen Shop in Greenville and were members of First Baptist Church of Greenville. After her husband’s death in 1982, Mary Alice Tipton continued to live in Greenville. She traveled to China, Hong Kong and Japan in 1988. Mary Alice died on January 31, 2004.

Sources:

• The Commission. Richmond, Va: Foreign Mission Board, Southern Baptist Convention, May 1963, p. 24
• Bulletin of Carson-Newman College Alumni Issue, July 1950, page 14