The Rev. Randall Thomas Capen, son of the Rev. Edward Augustus Capen, arrived in Swatow, China in 1904 as a missionary with the American Baptist Foreign Mission Society to head the Kak Kwang Academy of its South China Mission across the bay in Kakchieh. He was joined by his wife, Henrietta Abby (Mayo) Capen whom he married in Japan in 1906. Their daughter, Helen Richmond Capen was born in Kakchieh in 1908 and their son, Carl Mayo Capen in 1911.

The Rev. Carl Mayo Capen was ordained in 1935 and with his wife, Anna Louise (Newland), the daughter of Southern Presbyterian missionaries to Korea, they were sent as missionaries of the American Baptist Foreign Mission Society to its South China Mission in Swatow/Kakchieh. They studied Mandarin in Peking (Beijing) before arriving in Swatow for further language instruction in Tiechieu.

The younger Capens were assigned to Chaoyang, a small town upriver from Swatow from 1936 to 1941 where Carl did evangelistic work in villages all over the region. Their daughters, Keith Mayo Capen and Constance Richmond Capen were born in Kakchieh in 1938 and 1940, respectively.

The senior Capens served in Kakchieh from 1904 to 1941 when they retired and returned to America with Louise and the little girls. Carl followed in November 1941 and arrived in San Francisco a week before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

After retirement in Indianapolis, Randall and Henrietta remained in close touch with their former Christian colleagues in Swatow and graduates of the Kak Kwang Academy. Randall spoke in American Baptist churches and Christian groups throughout America until his death in 1948. Henrietta continued contact with former Kak Kwang students and Chinese Christian leaders until her death in 1961.

Carl returned to China in 1943 and in 1946 was reunited in Swatow with Louise and their daughters. He served as the South China Mission secretary-treasurer until leaving in May 1950 with the family, including Craig who was born in 1948. Their daughter, Graal, was born in Georgia in July 1950.

From 1950 to 1952, Carl worked in the American Baptist Foreign Mission Society headquarters in Manhattan. [n August, Carl and Louise with the children departed the U.S. for Bangkok to reopen the American Baptist mission in Thailand among the Swatow Chinese, then Karens and other minority groups in northern Thailand. Again, Carl served as secretary-treasurer.

The Capens were reassigned to Penang in 1965 to serve among Swatow Chinese American Baptist churches. In 1966 they moved to Singapore where Carl became the pastor of the Thomson Road Baptist Church's English-speaking congregation and served for nine years.

The Capens were called to work among the Swatow-speaking churches in Hong Kong during 1975-1977, followed by a final year in Bangkok before retiring to Black Mountain, North Carolina in 1978.

During their years in Singapore and Hong Kong, Carl met Christians formerly of Swatow who remembered his parents with great affection and respect. Some recalled Carl baptizing them in rural village churches or as a child in Kakchieu.

Back in the States, the Capens spoke in churches, at state conventions and served as missionaries-in-residence. They visited Swatow Baptist churches in north Malaysia, Singapore, Bangkok, Hong Kong and Taipei in 1983 and to the former South China mission churches and church leaders in Swatow, Kakchieh, Chaoyang and Kityang in 1985.

During the early 1980's, the Black Mountain Presbyterian Church sponsored two refugee Cambodian families of Swatow Chinese descent. This was fitting coda to Carl and Louise's 43 years of Christian ministry to Swatow Chinese throughout South East Asia.

Carl died in 1986 and Louise in 2000.

Biography written by donor Keith Allen.