This is a photograph take "the day of Father Peter Thong's first Mass. He was ordained by Bishop Ford in Kaying [now Meixien] on March 25th. Father Thong is sitting in the center. His mother and nephew is at his right and his grandmother on his left. Father Charles Murphy, our pastor wears the black glasses. Father Maynard Murphy, pastor of Pet teou tsai is behind Father Thong. The others from right to left are Frs. Welsh, Eckstein, a Chinese officer who came for the celebration, Father Chai and two seminarians." Born in Brooklyn, New York, Bishop Ford was the first student to enter the Catholic Foreign Mission Society of America. He was ordained to the priesthood on December 5, 1917 and the following year he accompanied Fathers Price, Meyer and James E. Walsh to China. They began working in Yeungkong and the Kongmoon territory of South China. In 1925, Fr. Ford was assigned to the Kaying diocese. Ten years later, in 1935, Bishop James Anthony Walsh, founder of Maryknoll, consecrated Msgr. Francis Ford as the first Bishop of Kaying. He remained in China throughout World War II. In 1950 Bishop Ford was placed under arrest with his secretary Sr. Joan Marie, MM, placed on trial and sentenced to prison. After a year in prison, Bishop Ford died on February 21, 1952. Sr. Joan Marie confirmed his death when she was released the following September. -- Rev. Murphy was born in Montreal, Canada. He joined Maryknoll in 1919 and was ordained in 1927. He was assigned first to Kaying, returning to the U.S. for decennial leaves in 1937 and 1947. Like many others he was forced to leave China in 1951, later working in Taiwan.
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