With a year and half between them in age, John and Dorothy must have been in the same school room at the church school in Takoma Park, Maryland, during the first years of the 20th century. John’s interests led him to study medicine, first at the College of Medical Evangelists (now Loma Linda University) and then transferred to George Washington University in Washington, DC. Dorothy completed the nursing course at the Washington Sanitarium in Takoma Park. During these years their friendship deepened until in 1915 they decided to marry. In those days it evidently was generally not acceptable to marry while still in school. For these adventurous young people this was not going to stop them. One April afternoon they dropped Dorothy’s mother at a band concert in Washington telling her they would pick her up later. John and Dorothy drove to Baltimore, about 50 miles away and found a minister who agreed to marry them. They returned to Washington, picked up mother, and told her the news, swearing her to secrecy until later. A few weeks later, Dorothy’s younger sister had a graduation party, but it was really a wedding reception for John and Dorothy.
John graduated from medical school, successfully completed the medical board exam, and left for China, all within a few weeks of marriage. The Adventist Church sent out a large number of missionaries to China in 1916. John and Dorothy were a part of the large group. They were in Chungking for a time before making the difficult and dangerous trip up the Yangtze River to the borders of Tibet. They settled in Tatsienlu, Szechwan, which is now modern Kanding in Sichuan Province. John built a nice house and over time added additional buildings to their mission compound. When they left in the late 1920s there was a medical clinic, print shop, the main house, and a couple of other buildings. The compound was by the river. John rigged up a water wheel device to provide electricity, probably one of the few houses in town to have that luxury.
John’s school grade report.
Dorothy’s school grade report.
John Nevins Andrews (1891-1980).
Dorothy Josephine Spicer (1892-1979).