Mary Manassa Eager, b. Aug. 17, 1861, hi Clinton, Hinds County, Miss. Education: In the early years in the country these two sisters Mary and Susie, had a capable and devoted Teacher in their Father. He used the Old Blue Back Speller, and for a Reader, The New Testament and the Peep of Day Series of Bible Stories. The family was near Oakland College, Rodney, Miss., where the oldest son, George, was in school. A Professor in the College was on a visit in the home one day, and the father had the two little girls read to him, in unison, the first fourteen verses of the first chapter of John. The praise of the Professor was never forgotten by either. Then the family settled in Clinton, Miss., again, and the Father took the two little girls, seven and nine, to Central Female Institute. In introducing them he said he wanted them prepared for teachers: another lasting impression. 

Here in Clinton, Mary was "born again" in May 1871, and baptized with many others by Dr. W. S. Webb, pastor of the local Baptist Church there, and President of Mississippi College. Her Father moved to Brookhaven, Miss., hi 1872, as pastor of the Baptist Church there. Both girls entered Whitworth College, the great Methodist College there, where they graduated, M.E.L. in 1876 and 1877. After this Mary had experience as Governess in two fine homes in Meadville and Fayett, Miss. 

In 1880 she came back to Clinton, Miss., to enter Central Female Institute again, where she graduated in 1882, A.B. Degree. She then taught two years in Brownsville Female College, Brownsville, Tenn., where her brother, P. H. Eager, was President, and where she is lovingly remembered even today-1951. 

She was married Oct. 16, 1884, in the First Baptist Church, Brownsville, Tenn., her father officiating, to James Monroe Joiner, b. Jan. 10, 1849, in DeKalb Co., Alabama. He was the son of Gibson Washington Joiner, Baptist Minister and Teacher, whose children were: Barbara, Daniel Webster, Ellen, Victoria, George, James Monroe, Seaborne, Adoniram Judson, Warren and Charlotte. James Monroe Joiner graduated at Mississippi College, Clinton, Miss., 1876-81. In 1880 he felt the call to go to China, and asked Mary Eager to go with him as his wife. That summer while holding a meeting in the mountains of Kentucky, he received her answer. On a little visiting card, no comments, Ruth 1:16, 17. It was interesting to hear him tell how he made those mountains ring with praise. He graduated from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, Ky., 1881-1884, where he was a young ministerial student to go as a missionary to China. 

In the fall of 1884 they went to Louisville, Ky., where farewell services were held for several outgoing missionaries. They left at once for China, reaching their home in Tung Chow, China, Dec. 16, 1884. Their first home in China was a modest one on the Lottie Moon Compound, where their first child, Webb Broadus Joiner, was born Aug. 13, 1885. 

During that year E. E. Devault and wife and J. M. Joiner and family were asked to open the new field in Hwang Hsien, China, which they did. Their second child, James Patrick Joiner, was born June 5, 1887, in the home of Dr. G. W. Pruitt in Tung Chow, China, there being no doctor in Hwang Hien. It seems the climate of China and the strain of learning a difficult language, are death to some temperaments. J. M. Joiner had nervous prostration, lying at death's door; and the doctors advised his return to America, in spite of the breaking up of all their life plans. So they returned to America in Oct. 1887. 

After six months rest and care in America, he accepted a mission church in Chattanooga, Tenn. Next he was pastor in Fort Payne, Ala., where Mary Eager Joiner was born Feb. 6, 1891. In May 1S9J, they moved to Kentucky, where he was a pastor for thirteen years; at Salem, Christian Co.; Mount Zion, Trenton and Elkton, Todd Co. To get a milder climate, they moved to Texas in 1904, where they served at Hamilton, Cisco, Baird and Hamilton again. 

His eyes failed, and they went to El Paso to their son, Webb B., for rest and change; where he was stricken with paralysis for some months. But in 1913 he accepted a call to Holland, Texas. The last week in June 1914, they went to Palacios, Texas, for rest and the Encampment. There, July 21, 1914, he died suddenly; hemorrhage of the brain. He was buried, July 23, 1914, in Oakland Cemetery in Dallas, Texas; Rev. J. H. Moore of Dallas conducting the simple service at the grave. She then made her home with her son, Webb B., in Dallas, Texas. In July 1916. Dr. E. B. Atwood, Mission Secty. of New Mexico, offered her the position of Secty. and Field Worker of the Woman's Missionary Union of New Mexico, which she accepted, serving from July 1, 1916, to May 1, 1919; when she became the first Mother of the New Mexican Baptist Orphans Home, at Portales, N. Mex., where she did a far reaching work. The serious sickness of her son, Webb B., caused her to give up outside work, and make her home with him. She is living with him now, 1952, at Joinerdale Farm, seven miles south of Arlington, Texas. Authority: Bible and Family Records of the J. M. Joiner Family. 

Mary Manassa Eager Joiner died July 30, 1953. She was buried next to her husband in Oakland Cemetery in Dallas, Texas next to James Monroe Joiner.

Copyright © March, 1998
by Elreeta Crain Weathers, B.A., M.Ed.,  
(also Mrs.,  Mom, and Ph. T.)

A Work In Progress