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(1927) Margaret & Roy Jewett Married

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At some point Margaret met this young man LeRoy Roberts Jewett. He had been one of her patients. A romance blossomed and they decided to get married.

Their wedding announcement read [center justify]:

Rev. and Mrs. J.A. Rinell
announce the marriage of their daughter
Margaret
to
Mr. Le Roy Roberts Jewett
on Monday the twenty first of February
nineteen hundred and twenty-seven
Tokyo Japan

Margaret at twenty-eight years and Roy at thirty-two years old , were married on February 21, at the American Consular Service in Tokyo, Japan at the Kojimachi Ward Office by the American Consul, J. W. Ballantine. Johan Alfred Rinell and a Demaree Bess [don't know who she is] acted as witnesses. On the marriage certificate, which cost one dollar and was issued in triplicate, Roy is listed as residing in Peking and Margaret in Shanghai. We don't know why Roy and Margaret were in Japan at the time.

Margaret's passport was issued the same day by 'Swedish Majesty's Minister to Japan'. In Her passport [very large passport, give measurements, and scan] stated that she was on her way to China. Her passport seems to be the first Swedish passport issued that year because the passport number was No 1/1927. Roy and Margaret returned to China after their marriage in Japan. The subsequent dates on Margaret's passport provide her travel route until October 1930.

On February 26, 1927 Margaret received a visa to China from the Chinese Consulate General, Yokohama, Japan. On April 2, 1927 she received a transit visa [to travel in occupied Japan?] issued by the 'Imperial Japanese Legation Peking'. [Some text, apparently in Chinese, to be translated].

In September 1927 Roy received a letter from the American Consulate General in Tientsin, China stating that their office had received authorization from U.S. Department of State to issue to Margaret Jewett a non-quote immigration visa. The letters continues that the visa could be issued at any time, and was valid for only four months. Before applying for the visa, she should be examined by a reputable physician, and obtain a certificate concerning her health. She was also to bring two passport size photographs, a valid passport and evidence of her marriage to him. The fee for the visa was \(10 US dollars or the equivelent in local currency, which was Yuan\)24.00.15 Letter from Robert B. Streeper, American Vice Counsul, American Consulate General, Tientsin, China to LeRoy R. Jewett, 40 North Compound, Peking Union Medical College, Peking, September 15, 1927. [Don't know if this was 24 Yuan per dollar or what]. Though Margaret was now married to an American, she would need to apply for citizenship later, which was and is quite normal. Margaret was already in Europe, so Roy asked the American Consulate in Tientsin to forward Margaret's papers to the American Consulate in Paris, which they did. On December 9, 1929 Margaret presented herself at the American Consulate in Zurich, Switzerland for a visa for her journey via Cherbourg to New York. Apparently, she did not have to travel to Paris to receive a visa despite the fact her papers were at that Consulate. Her visa type is a 'temporary visitor'. Though she received her visa in Zurich, she did travel to Paris, France where she bought her passenger ticket for her travel to the USA.

Margaret was in Cherbourg [France] by December 15, 1929. A sea port in Normandy Cherborg was the first territory conquered by the Vikings, and also the first stop of RMS Titanic after it left Southampton, England on its first fateful. voyage seventeen years earlier [verify] in 1912. In 1944 the allied forces capture Cherbourg following the Normandy invasion. [In a letter Roy states that Margaret left from Le Havre - is this the port of the city of Cherbourg?]

By Christmas Eve, December 24, 1929, Margaret was in New York though a letter written by Roy Jewett says that Margaret arrived in the United States on January 1, 1930. Perhaps the ship arrived on December 24, but it took several days to process the visitors and allow them entry to the USA.16 Letter from Roy Jewett to American Consulate, Mexicali, Mexico on February 17, 1930. From a letter from the US Department of Labor, Immigration Service we know that Margaret was in Pasadena, California at least by June 23, 1930. The letter granted Margaret a tempory extension of her visa until August 24, 1930. The letter also instructed her about needing a new visa if she should leave the USA and re-enter. This was what she was intending to do, apparently, but not immediately. Margaret received another letter from the same office dated September 2, granting her another extension of her visa until October 24, 1930. On the both letters are rubber-stamps showing that she departed for Calexico, Mexico on October 17, probably by steamship. Margaret needed to the United States so that she could re-enter the United States and so be able to file for United States citizenship. Albert Einstein in [year] did the same thing though he traveled to [destination] and returned. A stamp in Margaret's passport shows she arrived in Calexico, a U.S. - Mexico boarding crossing, on October 17, 1930. In Calexico she presented herself at the Immigration Office 'for the formalities of checking out to Mexico', and brought a receipt of her head tax, which cost eight dollars as instructed before crossing to Mexicali a town a short distance away.32 Letter from the American Consulate Service, Mexicali, B.C., Mexico to L.R. Jewett, 303 Haas Building, Los Angeles, California, April 8, 1930. On the same day she was in Mexicali where she was examined by immigration officers and paid an eight dollar 'head tax or showed the receipt of the head tax if already paid.' 33 Letters from the Consulate is unclear as to whether the head tax would be paid in Mexicali or Calexico.

NOTE: At some point Roy was in the USA. In a letter to the American Consulate he states: 31 Letter to American Consulate, Mexicali, Mexico from Roy Jewett at 303 Haas Building, February 17, 1930.

In the meantime, I expected to leave immediately for China but due to the serious illness of my Father who has since passed away, I cabled for my wife to come at once. Believing that she could not become an American citizen without residing in this country for a period of one year and thereforenot wanting to use the above visa, she obtained a six months temorary visa.

My plans are now changed and I do not expect to return to China for several years. My wife is here at the present time and in view of the above circumstances, she desires to re-enter this country and the proper steps taken to become an American citizen.

The mail was fast in those days. The next day the American Consulate Service in Mexicali, Mexico answered Roy's letter asking that the 'non-quote petition' that had been forwarded from China to Paris, be forwarded to their office in Mexico. Also Margaret should appear in person at their office:

. . . and present her birth and good conduct certificates in duplicate, your marriage certificate as well as any previous marriage documents of your wife, and a valid passport or similar document of identity and nationality. Four unmounted full front view passport photographs printed on thin paper with light background, are also required for the visa. The fee is ten dollars, eight dollars head tax being likewise collected. [put in source info here].

On February 28, 1931 Margaret filled out an 'Application for a Certificate of Arrival and Preliminary Form for Petition for Citizenship'. 29 Margaret up to this time had an Immigrant Identification Card, number 523253. In the petition she lists Peking, China as her last foreign residence, present address as 560 North Kingley Drive, Los Angles, California, and hrer occupation as housewife. Apparently, Margaret was not working as a nurse at this time. She was possible because she did not have the working permit to do so. A few of the questions asked are: are you willing to take up arms in defense of this country, are you a believer in the practice of polygamy, are you a believer in anarchy, have you ever been an inmate in an insane asylum? Margaret was willing to take up arms, she did not believe in polygamy nor anarchy and had not been in inmate in an insane asylum. Of course she also agreed that she believe in the form of the United States government, and was will to take the following oath at some future date:

I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutley and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state or sovereignty, and particulary to Sweden [written in by Margaret, of whom (which) I have heretofore been a subject (citizen) ; that I will support and defend the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to same; and that I take this obligation without any mental reservation or purpose or evasion:So Help Me God.

Some years later Margaret would have a chance to defend America against all enemies, not by bearing arms, but in her role as a nurse during the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

Letters of Margaret & Roy Jewett

Margaret became a citizen of the United States in 1935 in San Franscisco.

Burning of a Village

In the fall of 1927 soldier bandits brutally burned a local village southwest of the city. The Mandarin of the city asked Johan Alfred's help to oversee the distribution of food and money to the victims because "Then I know it will be done fairly."

Raid on the Russian Embassy

On April 6, 1927 Oscar saw Chang Tso-lin's troops raid the Russian Embassy in Peking.

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Footnotes

1. Rinell, Oscar. My father was a missionary. Translation by Margareta Jonell, page 7.

2. See Oscar's document "I Experience the Tragedy of the Bamboo Curtain, page 5.

CHAPTER

Foreign Devils: A Swedish Family in China 1894 to 1951
© 2012-14 Lennart Holmquist
Lorum • Ipsum• Dolor • Sic Amet • Consectetur

Updated: 10-Feb-2017

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