# The Part Taken by Women in American History/Women in the Missionary Field

Women in the Missionary Field.
Many of these entered upon their work before the modern woman's societies were inaugurated, and had not the inspiration of associates, but were upheld solely by their Christian faith which led them to undertake the work in far distant and heathen lands. Patiently they endured the toil, danger, and loneliness with fortitude and Christian forbearance, dwelling almost universally in unhealthy climates, and frequently in contact with all forms of debasing heathenism.
MRS. ANNE H. JUDSON.
Was born in Bradford, Massachusetts, December 7, 1789, and educated at the Bradford Academy. In her early youth, she was full of pleasure and was of a restless and roving disposition, but the impression made upon her by Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress" brought to her the resolution to follow Christian's example, and try to lead a Christian life, and at the age of sixteen an entire change came over her, and she from that time devoted her life to Christian work. She first took up teaching in Salem, Haverhill, and Newberry. At a meeting of one of the associations of the American Board of Foreign Missions in 1810, at Bradford, she met for the first time the young missionary Judson. This resulted in their marriage and their going into the foreign missionary field. They sailed for India the nineteenth of February, 181 2, arriving in Calcutta, June 16. Trouble ensuing between the English government and the English missionaries, both Judson and Newall were ordered to return to America. They went to the Isle of ​ France, and here labored until June 1st, when they left for Madras, where they found ample opportunity for their work among the Burmese. At Ringon, their son was born, the first white child ever seen by the Burmese. Mr. Judson translated a portion of the Bible and other religious books into the Burmese language. In 1819, Mrs. Judson removed to Bengal, without any decided improvement in her condition, finally being forced to return to England, and ultimately to America, arriving in New York, September, 1822. Here she aroused great interest in the missionary work among her friends in the various cities which she visited. Her health improving, she returned to Rangoon, December 3, 1823. Mrs. Judson was taken prisoner, owing to the feeling incited against foreigners, but ultimately her husband was released, after she had passed through the great hardships, a scourge of smallpox and the direst privations, the family were reunited. Mr. Judson was later rearrested, but the English officers found him such a valuable assistant that they did everything they could for his comfort, and when peace was concluded Mr. Judson's property was restored to him, and the mission placed under the British protection. On October 24, 1826, Mrs. Judson died, beloved and lamented by both the English and natives of that country.
HARRIET NEWELL.
MARTIA L. DAVIS
Mrs. Berry was born in Portland, Michigan, the 22nd of January, 1844. Her father being of Irish and Italian descent, was naturally a firm believer in human rights and her mother was an ardent anti-slavery woman and strong prohibitionist. Her mother was a woman of great advancement and of thought decidedly above the women of her day. After her marriage, Mrs. Berry removed to Kansas and here she organized the first Woman's Foreign Missionary Society west of the Missouri River and was the originator of the woman's club. Was elected to the office of state treasurer of the Kansas Equal Suffrage Association and also placed at the head of the Sixth District of the Kansas Woman's Temperance Union.
ANN LEE.
Founder in America of the sect known as the Shaking Quakers. Was born in Manchester, England, about 1736. Her father was a blacksmith and she was taught the trade of cutting fur for hatters. She was married when quite young and four children were born to her, but all died in infancy. When but twenty-two years of age she was converted to the doctrine of James Wardley, a Quaker who preached against marriage and whose followers, because of the great agitation of their bodies when wrought with religious excitement v/ere called Shakers. She became a teacher of the faith, but in 1770 was imprisoned as a fanatic. While in prison she claimed to have a revelation and declared that in her dwelt the "word" and her followers say, "The man who was called Jesus and the woman who was called Ann are verily two great pillars of the church," and she was acknowledged as a spiritual mother in Israel and is known among her followers as Mother Ann. In 1774 she came to New York with a few of her followers and in the spring of 1776 they settled in Muskayuna, now Watervliet, opposite Troy, where the sect flourishes. With the superstition of those times of course Ann Lee was charged with witchcraft and the Whigs accused her of secret correspondence with the British, her countrymen, because she preached against war. The charge of high treason was preferred against her and in 1776 she was imprisoned in Albany, and later sent to Poughkeepsie with the intention of placing her within the British lines in New York, but she remained a prisoner in Poughkeepsie until 1777, when she was released by Governor Clinton. She returned to her home and the greatest sympathy was awakened for her, which greatly increased her followers. Such a movement of revival followed that the converts came into the sect by thousands. She declared that she judged the dead and no favor could be found except through confession of their sins to her, in fact she became a second Pope Joan; those coming under her spell threw aside all worldly things, pouring their jewels, money and valuables into her hands. She declared she would not die but would be translated into Heaven like Enoch and Elijah, but contrary to this announcement, on the 8th of September, 1784, she did die, but many believed it was not real death.
BARBARA HECK.
The family of Barbara Rukle were driven from their homes on the Rhine by Louis XIV, and sought refuge in Ireland, and there Barbara Rukle ​ was born. When but a young girl of eighteen, she joined the Methodist "Society" which had been established by John Wesley on one of his religious tours some years before. Barbara Rukle was early recognized among her associates as a woman of deep religious thought, a good counsellor, and her greatest treasure was her old German Bible, which she clung to all through her long eventful life. In 1760 she married Paul Heck and they emigrated to the new world and settled in New York. At the house of Philip Embury, a cousin of Barbara, she gathered a few religious people and begged that Philip Embury should preach to them, and this was the germ of the Methodist Episcopal Church in America. Embury proved to be a very devout man and earnest preacher. As the congregation increased Barbara Heck began to entertain the idea of building a church. Captain Webb, a military officer, was one of Wesley's local preachers and had aroused the people by his zeal. Barbara succeeded in interesting him in her project and in 1770 the site for a church on John Street was purchased and the subscription started, Captain Webb subscribing thirty pounds. This list bears the names of the Livingstons, Duanes, Delancys, Leights, Stuyvesants, Lispenards, and the clergy of the day, Auchmuty, Ogilvie, and Englis, and this is supposed to be the first church of the Methodist denomination in America. Embury worked with his own hands on the building and Barbara Heck helped to whitewash the walls. Within a year there were a thousand members in this congregation. During the Revolutionary War, the Heck family emigrated to lower Canada, where they lived near Montreal, finally removing to Augusta, upper Canada, where Barbara Heck died at the age of seventy. She was found sitting in her chair dead with her much-loved Bible in her lap.
ANN ELIOT.
One of the women who took her part in the missionary field was Mrs. Ann Eliot, the wife of Rev. John Eliot who was surnamed "the apostle." His work was among the Indian tribes of New England in the early days of the colonies. Mrs. Eliot not only was an able assistant to her husband in his religious work but she worked as a humanitarian among these savage people. Her skill and experience as a doctor brought her great reputation among these people. She dispensed large charity and salutary medicines. To her is ascribed no small share of her husband's success.
JEMIMA BINGHAM.
Another woman who deserves mention in the missionary work among the Indians during the colonial period was Jemima Bingham, the niece of Eleazar Wheelock, D.D., an eminent missionary among the Indians. In 1769 she married the Rev. Samuel Kirkland who had taken up the missionary work among the Oneida Indians in that section of country where Rome, New York, is now situated. She taught the women and children and by her example and patient work brought about a changed condition among these people. In 1787 the Ohio Company was organized in Boston and built a stockade fort at Marietta, Ohio, called Campus ​ Martius, and Rev. Daniel Story was sent out as a chaplain. He was probably the first Protestant minister to go into the vast wilderness west of the Ohio River. In this garrison at Marietta was formed one of the first Sunday schools in the United States and its first superintendent and teacher was Mrs. Andrew Lake
SARAH L. SMITH.
Another name worthy of mention is Sarah L. Smith, whose maiden name was Huntingdon. She was born in 1802, and married the Reverend Eli Smith, in July, 1833, going with him to Palestine where her work as a foreign missionary was undertaken. Later she entered the home missionary field and worked among the Mohegan Indians. Through her correspondence with Lewis Cass, secretary of war, she secured the aid of that department in 1832, and a grant of nine hundred dollars was made from the fund appropriated to the Indian department. Five hundred was given for the erection of missionary buildings and before her labors were closed in this field she had the pleasure of seeing a chapel, parsonage, and schoolhouse stand on what she had found a barren waste of land.
The Moravian Missions are well known. The character of the Moravian women seemed peculiarly fitted for missionary work. The enthusiasm of the Slavs was blended with the steadfastness, energy, and patience of the Germans. It was before the middle of the last century that these pious women commenced their work among the North American Indians. The first field of their labors was in Pennsylvania, Bethlehem and Nazareth being the seats of their missionary homes. From here they worked all through Pennsylvania. It is said that the Moravians in their various settlements were surrounded literally with circles of blood and flame, and in November, 1755, the Indians fell upon these poor missionaries and almost entirely destroyed them. Some splendid work was done by the missionaries in Oregon. In 1834 this part of our country was a vast wilderness and here roamed more than thirty different Indian tribes, the only settlements being a few scattered posts of the Hudson Bay Company. Dr. Marcus Whitman and his wife, and Mr. and Mrs. Spaulding were among the first to go into this wilderness and take up the missionary work among them. Mrs. Whitman and Mrs. Spaulding were the first white women to cross the Rocky Mountains. They were followed by Mr. and Mrs. Grey, Mr. and Mrs. Clark, Mr. and Mrs. Littlejohn, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Mr. and Mrs. Griffin, and Mr. and Mrs. Munger. Those to go later were Mrs. White, Mrs. Beers, Miss Downing, Miss Johnson, and Mrs. Pittman. Dr. and Mrs. White offered their services to the Board of Missions when a call was made in 1836 for volunteers to go into this new field, and they reached their destination from Boston via the Sandwich Islands. They established mission schools for the children and taught them the domestic arts. Later they were joined by others until their party was sixty, all zealously working in this field.
MARY LYON.
Born in Buckland, Franklin County, Massachusetts, February 28, 1797, and died March 5, 1849. She grew up as a simple country girl of that time, learning ​ the household arts of spinning, weaving, netting and embroidery, her school advantages being the most limited, but at the age of twenty she entered Sanderson Academy, at Ashfield, as a pupil. Being imbued with a deep religious spirit, she worked among the pupils for their conversion. Her work spread among the people of Ashfield, Buckland and Derry. Ipswich was the scene of her earliest labors. Until 1700 girls were not admitted to the public schools of Boston, and from 1790 to 1792 they were allowed to attend only in the summer months. There were more than one hundred colleges for young men in the state of Massachusetts, when in 1836 she was granted the first charter for "a school for the systematic higher education of women," Mount Holyoke Seminary. She raised the thirty thousand dollars deemed requisite to obtain this charter. Her purpose was as philanthropic as her impulses were religious, and she sought to increase the usefulness of women as well as to bring them to Christ. During the first six years of her presidency of the seminary, not a graduate or a pupil left the school without a deep religious faith.
Her intense consecration to the spiritual work made her essentially a missionary, and it was her desire to spread the words of Christ through the far distant lands. She organized the first missionary society in Buckland in her early years. She never would consent to receive any salary as president of the seminary, but consecrated all the moneys received, except two hundred and fifty dollars a year, to the missionary work. Hardly a class went out of the seminary which did not have among its number one or two, or even more, missionaries ready for the field. Her monument stands to-day in the grounds of the Mount Holyoke Seminary, and her works live after her. She stands as one of the earliest pioneers for the higher education for women.
MRS. T. C. DOREMUS.
Born in New York, but her parents moved to Elizabeth, New Jersey. She spent her early childhood in that city; in 1821 married a merchant of the city of New York, and returned there to live. Though a communicant of the Reformed Dutch Church, she was a woman of broad religious ideas, and of strong and independent mind. She became an enthusiastic worker in the missionary field. Organizations were formed and had their meetings in her house. In those days there were no facilities for procuring ready-made things to be sent out to the missionary fields, so she organized societies for making garments to be sent to those in the far ends of the earth. She did a great deal of work among the Greeks and Turks, also taking an interest in the missions on the frontier in Canada. In 1859, the Woman's Union Missionary Society was formed, embracing all denominations of Christian women, and working independently of all boards, its direct object being an agency to send out teachers and missionaries to redeem the women of Persia and the East from the degradation in which our missionaries had found them. She worked with untiring energy, giving her time, money and interest to the work, but though devoting her thought and time to this work, she never for one moment neglected her family. She did not allow her work to interfere with her duty to her family of nine children, to whom she was all that a mother could ​ be. Her death in January, 1877, caused widespread sorrow, not only to friends in this land, but to the missionary fields all over the world. Her name has been perpetuated by the Woman's Union Missionary Society in Calcutta, India, by calling their home the Doremus Home.
FIDELIA FISKE.
Born in Shelbourne, Massachusetts, in 1816. She was a graduate of Mount Holyoke Seminary, and a missionary to Persia. She was the first unmarried woman to enter that field. Her work in Oroomia, where the women were fearfully degraded (and it was considered a disgrace for a woman to learn to read) was most earnest and valuable. The poverty and intense prejudice of the people made her task a trying one, but her efforts were crowned with great success. Her work spread in the smaller places of the mountains, and the school which has been established there is a monument to her energy and fearless Christian faith. She returned to America in 1847, and was president of Mount Holyoke Seminary for a brief time, but her health failing, she died July 26, 1864, in her forty-eighth year.
MRS. R. B. LYTH.
She we*nt with her husband, Rev. R. B. Lyth, M. D., to the South Sea missions in 1836, living among the cannibals of the Fiji and Polynesian Islands, and suffering the most frightful experiences and sickening sights among the cannibal tribes of these islands. Nothing but a deep sense of duty and a strong determination to perform it, added to her religious faith, could have made a woman of refinement endure the experiences she was called upon to witness. The incident is told of how she saved the lives of six women out of thirteen, who were killed for a feast of one of these tribes. Braving every danger, she appeared before this cannibal king to beg for mercy and he listened to her pleadings and spared their lives. She lived to see a great work accomplished, the islands Christianized, the Sabbath observed. On September 18, 1890, Mrs. Lyth died.
ANNE WILKINS.
Her work as a missionary was among the people of Liberia, Africa. She was born in 1806 in New York State, of Methodist parents. She sailed for Liberia, June 15, 1837, the first time. She made many trips back and forth on account of her health, dying November, 1857.
MELINDA RANKIN.
Her work among the Mexicans forms a thrilling missionary story. Born in 1811, dying at her home in Bloomington, Illinois, December 7, 1888, she had great faith in the power and ability of women. In 1840 a call came for missionary teachers to go to the Mississippi valley, foreign immigration having brought in a great many Roman Catholics to that portion of the country. Miss Rankin responded ​ to that call, and went to that country, established schools, and gradually pushed her way up the Mississippi. At the close of the Mexican War, through officers and soldiers returning home, she learned a great deal of the condition in Mexico. Her sympathies became so aroused, that she tried to awaken an interest among the people by writing articles on the subject, but gaining no response, she determined to go herself to Mexico and see if she could not do something to help these poor ignorant people. She opened a school for Mexican girls at Brownsville, Texas, on the American side of the Rio Grande, opposite Matamoras, Mexico, there being a large Mexican population in this town. As she was successful she found opportunities for sending hundreds of Bibles and tracts into Mexico through her scholars and their friends. When the Civil War came, she was driven out of her home as she was not in sympathy with the people about her; thus she found shelter in Matamoras, and commenced her direct missionary labors for the Mexican people. Her work took her later to Monterey, one of the largest Catholic cities, and there she established a Protestant mission. As a result of her work, Protestant schools and churches were built, ultimately assuming such proportions that they required regularly ordained ministers. Her health failing in 1872, she returned home and died in 1888.
LYDIA MARY FAY.
She is most affectionately remembered for her work in China. Miss Fay was a native of Essex County, Virginia, but entered the missionary field from Albany, New York, sailing for China, November 8, 1850, the first single woman sent there by the missionary society. She was a remarkable woman, with a most sympathetic heart and well-trained mind, and had a peculiar fitness for the work in that country. She established in her own house in Shanghai a boarding school for boys, and from this she educated teachers and preachers to carry on the work. She taught in the school, attended to all the domestic course, provided the clothing, managed the finances, and at the same time devoted much of her time to the study of the Chinese language. At the close of her twenty-fifth year, she passed this school over to the Episcopal Board. Her efforts developed from this very small beginning into the Doane Hall and Theological School, with president, professors, ten Chinese teachers, and some of her pupils in the Christian ministry. She was always known as "Lady Fay" to her pupils, who were impressed by the purity and simplicity of her Christian life and devotion to their interests After twenty-eight years of hard work, her health failed, and she died October 5, 1878.
MARY BRISCOE BALDWIN.
Born in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, May 20, 1811, and died June 21, 1877. Her mother was the niece of James Madison, the fourth president of the United States. She received her education from private tutors. She was a disciple of Bishop Meade of the Protestant Episcopal Church, who greatly influenced her in her religious life. The death of her parents breaking up her home when but twenty years of age, she went to Stanton, Pennsylvania to live. Wearying of ​ fashionable life, she decided to engage in some Christian work. First she became a teacher in a young ladies' seminary, then the call came for her to enter the missionary field, through Mrs. Hill of Athens and the Protestant Episcopal Society. Being a friend of Mrs. Hill, she decided to accept this call, and went into the work in Greece. Dr. and Mrs. Hill were American missionaries who had established a school, and Miss Baldwin joined them as an assistant in this work. She took entire charge of the domestic department, teaching fine sewing and other useful arts. She became so beloved that she was known among her scholars and the people as "Good Lady Mary." Not only did she train these young Greek girls in the domestic arts, but she Christianized them and taught them to be good daughters, wives and mothers. In 1866 when the Christians of Crete revolted against the Turkish government, many impoverished and destitute Cretans fled to Athens. Among these poor people, Miss Baldwin labored with great success. She opened day schools and Sunday schools, feeding them and providing the women and girls with work. For forty-two years she labored among these people. She was buried on a bluff overlooking the Jordan Valley, and these loving people placed over her a tombstone of Greek marble.
MARY REED.
Born in Crooked Tree, Noble County, Ohio, at the age of sixteen years, she entered the missionary field, offering her service to the Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church. This was accepted, and she was sent to India by the Cincinnati Branch. On her arrival in India, she was sent to the work in Cawnpore. After four years of successful labor in this field, she was sent to the girls' boarding school in Gonda, but here her health completely broke down, and she was obliged to return home. While convalescing, she noticed a peculiar spot on her cheek, and insisted on having medical books brought to her wherein she could study up her case, and became convinced that she was a victim of leprosy. She insisted on returning to India, and that her mother should not be told of her fatal malady. She hastened to the mission among the lepers in India. At Chandag, she was put in charge of one of the leper asylums, and here she has worked diligently and faithfully among these outcasts, receiving treatment herself. The life she lives among these poor isolated creatures emphasizes the sweet faith she teaches.
EMMA V. DAY.
Mrs. Day was born June 10, 1853, m Philadelphia, and died August 10, 1804, near Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. Her mother died when she was quite an infant, and she was reared by an aunt. In 1874, she was married to Rev. D. A. Day of the Lutheran Mission of Africa for the Evangelical Lutheran Church. On the establishment of their home in Africa, she took upon herself, as her part of her husband's work, the training of the children, and in a short time many of these naked little heathens were transformed into civilized creatures able to take part in the household duties of a Christian home. Being of a peculiarly cheerful and happy disposition, Mrs. Day met with great success in her work among these little ​ people. Two of Mrs. Day's own children were born in this far away land. In 1894. Mrs. Day's health became so precarious she returned to America, and in August passed away.
ELIZA AGNEW.
Born in New York City, she did not enter the missionary field until she was over thirty years of age. Was then sent by the Board of Foreign Missions to Ceylon to work in the Oodooville Boarding School. Miss Agnew was the first unmarried missionary to arrive in Ceylon, and caused great consternation among the natives. She never returned to America, but gave her whole life to work among the people of India, and died an old lady in 1883.
MURILLA BAKER INGALLS.
Married at her home in Eastport, Wisconsin, in 1850, and sailed with her husband, a missionary, for Burma, July 10, 1851. Her husband lived only two years after they were married. After a visit to America to leave her husband's daughter to be educated, she returned to the work in Burma in 1859. She had a wonderful power and great influence among the Buddhist priests in spreading the truth of Christianity. She established Bible societies, distributing tracts in their own language to the French, English, Burmese, Shans, Hindus and Karens. She opened a library for the benefit of the employees of the railway, and established branch libraries on these lines. Her work was most valuable among the men who went out into these countries to work for the syndicates building railroads, and also among the native workers. She and her associates gave lectures, and in every way tried to better the conditions and life of these men. The various governments represented appreciated her work, and often assisted her.
BEULAH WOOLSTON.
Was born in Vincenttown, New Jersey, August 3, 1828, and died at Mount Holly, New Jersey, October 24, 1886. She was educated at the Wesleyan Female College in Wilmington, Delaware, where she was graduated with honor in both the English and classic departments. She taught for some years in this college, and while engaged in this occupation, she took up missionary work, going as a teacher to one of the Chinese missions. Her sister accompanied her to this field, and their work consisted in organizing and superintending a boarding school for Chinese girls under the Chinese Female Missionary Society of Baltimore. After twenty-five years of faithful work, she returned to this country in 1883 and died October 24, 1886.
JERUSHA BINGHAM KIRKLAND.
Jerusha Bingham, as a niece of the Rev. Doctor Wheelock, who was deeply interested in missionary work, had her attention early called to the needs of Christian teaching among the Indians. Later she married Doctor Kirkland, the well-known missionary, and she and her husband had the distinction of being recom​mended by the Continental Congress as adapted to labor among the Indians, and as alone able to preserve their neutrality toward the war. During the period when the early wars threatened the destruction of the new nation by the aboriginal inhabitants, she worked faithfully with her husband in that arduous and responsible work of pacification. She was the mother of John Thornton Kirkland, who was born at Little Falls, New York, August 17, 1790. When this son had achieved national prominence his biographer wrote, "It was from a mother of distinguished public spirit, energy, wisdom and devotedness that he received the rudiments of his high intellectual and manly resolutions."
MARY ELIZABETH WILLSON.
Born May 1, 1842, in Clearfield County, Pennsylvania. Her father Mr. Bliss, was a very religious man. Her mother Lydia Bliss, a Christian woman. Her only brother was the noted evangelist singer and hymn writer, P. P. Bliss. While Mary Bliss was quite young the family removed to Tioga County, Pennsylvania. When she was fifteen years of age she accompanied her brother into Bradford County, where her brother taught a select school. They made their home with a family named Young, who were very musical, and the daughter of this family gave P. P. Bliss his first lessons in singing, and eventually became his wife. In 1858 Mary Bliss began teaching, and taught until i860, when she married Clark Willson of Towanda, Pennsylvania. Her brother will be remembered not only through his evangelical work but as the author of "Hold the Fort." He and his wife lost their lives in the terrible railway wreck of Ashtabula Bridge on December 29, 1876. Mr. and Mrs. Willson were urged by a friend, Major Whittle, to assist him in his evangelistic work in Chicago and they accepted this call. Their work as Gospel singers was so successful that they made this their life work. In 1878 Francis Murphy, the apostle of temperance, invited them to aid him in what was known as the Red Ribbon Crusade. They visited the principal cities of the Northern and Southern states and everywhere met with great success. Mrs. Willson was known as the Jenny Lind of sacred melody. In 1882 Mr. and Mrs. Willson spent several months in Great Britain in the Gospel Temperance work and Mrs. Willson's voice was as much admired in England as in her home country. She has written several hymns and sacred songs. Among the most popular are: "Glad Tidings," "My Mother's Hands" and "Papa Come This Way." She was also the author of two volumes of Gospel Hymns and songs entitled "Great Joys" and "Sacred Gems." She contributed words and music to most of the Gospel song books for a number of years.
ALICE BLANCHARD MERRIAM COLEMAN.
Born in Boston, May 7, 1858. All Mrs. Coleman's life has been spent in the old South End ofBoston, where she still resides. She was graduated from the Everett Grammar School in 1873 and immediately went abroad with her parents for nine months, spending a large part of the time in London and Paris, and absorbing with great eagerness all that fitted on to the studies of the grammar ​ school, especially the history of England. In September, 1874, she entered Bradford Academy, in Bradford, Mass., the oldest academy in New England for young women, where she had the privilege of being trained by Miss Annie E. Johnson, one of the best-known educators of that time. The four years of boarding school life were marked by the awakening of the missionary spirit and by the resolve to herself to become a foreign missionary. She graduated in 1878, with the expectation of spending one year in the further study of Latin and Greek in order to fit herself for Smith College, but her eyes, already a source of trouble and anxiety, again gave out and all thought of further study or of any life work which would involve language study had to be abandoned.
In the fall of 1879, the Woman's Home Missionary Association (Congregational) was organized in Boston under the leadership of her former principal, Miss Annie E. Johnson. The purpose of the association was the prosecution of educational and missionary work among the women and children of our own land, especially among the alien races and religions. This opened the door for her entrance into the work of home missions which has from that day to this been the main work of her life. At the request of the directors of the association, she visited all its fields of work in 1884 in order to prepare herself to speak of the work among the churches. The trip covered the country as far west as Utah and as far south as Texas, including the work among the Negroes, Indians, Mormons, and pioneer settlements. The next year was spent in visiting the churches and marked the beginning of her platform work.
In 1886, she transferred her denominational relationship to a Baptist church, and at once became a member of the board of directors of the Woman's American Baptist Home Mission Society, thus continuing her activity in home mission work and as a speaker among the churches. Various lines of church work also claimed a considerable share of her time and strength.
On June 30, 1891, Miss Merriam was married to George W. Coleman of Boston. They have had no children and so she has continued in the lines of activity already referred to. In 1891 she became president of the Woman's American Baptist Home Mission Society and held that position until April, 1911, when by the consolidation of the Woman's American Baptist Home Mission Society, headquarters in Boston, and the Woman's Baptist Home Mission Society, headquarters in Chicago, a new national organization was formed having the name of the Boston organization but with headquarters in Chicago. Mrs. Coleman is now the first vice-president of the new organization and president of the New England Branch of the Woman's American Baptist Home Mission Society, the branch being a local organization whose purpose is the holding of inspirational meetings and otherwise fostering the work of the Woman's American Baptist Home Mission Society.
In December, 1006, the Interdenominational Committee of Women for Home Mission Conferences for the East was formed to provide for and to conduct a summer conference in Northfield, Mass. For the first three years, she served the committee as its president, and is still a member of the governing body.
As a result of the formation of similar committees in different parts of the country, the Council of Women for Home Missions was organized in November, 1908, and Mrs. Coleman has served as president of the council from its beginning. ​ The Home Mission work has brought Mrs. Coleman into a close relationship to the schools and colleges provided for the colored people of the South and she is a trustee of Hartshorn Memorial College, Richmond, Virginia, and of Spelman Seminary, Atlanta, Georgia.
Mrs. Coleman's activities during the last five years in connection with the Ford Hall meetings in Boston and the Sagamore Sociological Conference, which meets each summer at their summer home, have her warmest sympathy and support though she has no official connection with them. Mrs. Coleman has, however, been for several years one of the non-resident workers of the Denison House, a settlement house for women in a district largely populated by Syrians and Italians.
SARAH PLATT HAINES.
Among the names prominent in New York City is that of Sarah Piatt Haines, wife of Thomas C. Doremus, who for fifty years was called the "Mother of Missions." She stands as a representative of woman's efforts in missionary labors. She was born in August, 1842. Her father was Elias Haines, and her mother was Mary Ogden. Her grandparents, Robert Ogden and Sarah Piatt, had also devoted their lives to missions.
AMELIA ELMORE HUNTLEY.
Mrs. Amelia Elmore Huntley, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. R. T. Elmore, was born in Esopus New York, in February, 1844. Her mother died when she was nine years old. Her father, early in life, moved to Milwaukee, where he became an active member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, occupying many positions of trust including that of delegate to the general conference. He was a successful business man and gave his children every advantage of education, travel, etc.
Mrs. Huntley was educated in a Female College of Wisconsin and was graduated from a Woman's College, at Lima, N. Y. She was married to Rev. E. D. Huntley, in 1867, he being actively engaged in the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Mrs. Huntley has great genius for organization and is very successful with young people. Having lost her only child in infancy, her arms were empty to aid more fully other lambs of the fold.
​ She served as secretary of the Washington District Association, from which she was called to take the responsible position of the Baltimore branch as corresponding secretary of that society. When the saddest trial of her life came—the sudden death of her gifted husband—she bravely kept on with her work. She was sent a delegate to Edinburgh to the nternational Conference on Missions in May, 1910.
BELLE CALDWELL CULBERTSON.
Mrs. Belle Caldwell Culbertson, wife of Rev. John Newton Culbertson, of Washington, D. C, was born in 1857, in Wheeling, West Virginia, of Scotch-Irish and English Quaker descent. Her ancestor, James Caldwell, a Scotch Presbyterian, came to America from Ulster, Tyrone County, Ireland, in 1769. He was a defender of Fort Henry (now Wheeling), in which defense, out of 44 men in the fort, 24 were killed and 5 wounded.
She is also a descendant of Honorable Francis Yarnall who emigrated from Worcestershire, England, in 1684, settled in Chester County, Pennsylvania, and in 1711 represented Chester County in its Provincial legislature.
John Jolliff Yarnall, a relative of Mrs. Culbertson, was Perry's first lieutenant in the battle of Lake Erie, and for distinguished gallantry on that occasion he was voted a sword by the legislatures of Pennsylvania and Virginia.
Mrs. Culbertson was graduated from the State Normal School of West Virginia, in 1876. Was valedictorian of her class from the Wheeling Female College in 1877; sailed for Indo-China as a missionary of the Presbyterian Board in 1879, and for two years she was principal of the Harriet House School for Girls in Bangkok, Siam.
In January, 1880, Miss Caldwell married Rev. John Newton Culbertson of the same Board of Missions, and in 1881 returned to America. From 1881 to 1887 Rev. and Mrs. Culbertson served as home missionaries at their own charges in South Dakota, building up a flourishing church in that far western field. From 1887 to the present date Mrs. Culbertson has resided with her family in Washington, D. C, active in every good work for the betterment of humanity. From 1897 to 1905, Mrs. Culbertson served as the efficient president of the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society of the Presbytery of Washington City. She personally organized many societies throughout the large field and under her leadership the society raised an extra gift of $5,000.00 for "The Washington City Memorial Hall," Tokyo, Japan.
In 1906 Mrs. Culbertson was chosen president of the Woman's Interdenominational Missionary Union of the District of Columbia, which honored position she now fills. Mrs. Culbertson has for two years been a correspondent for the religious press and a translator of German, her latest translation "Sunnyheart's Trial" was published December, 1910, in the Southern Observer.
Rev. and Mrs. Culbertson have three children living, a son and two daughters.
CARRIE FRANCES JUDD MONTGOMERY.
Church worker and poet. Was born April 8, 1858. in Buffalo, New York. Her father was Orvan Kellogg Judd, and her mother was Emily Sweetland. Her ​ first literary effort appeared in Demorest's, Young America and the Buffalo Courier. At eighteen she published a small volume of poems. She was imbued with a deep Christian faith and most of her writings are of a religious character. She established a Faith Rest and Home, where sick and weary ones may stay a brief time free of charge. This is sustained by voluntary contributions. She married George Simpson Montgomery, of San Francisco, California, and both she and her husband entered the Salvation Army in 1891.
LILLIE RESLER KEISTER.
Mrs. Lillie Resler Keister was born in May, 185 1, in Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania. Her father was the Rev. J. B. Resler. Her husband was the Rev. George Keister, Professor of Hebrew in the Union Biblical Seminary of Dayton, Ohio. An active worker in the Missionary Association of her church, the United Brethren in Christ. Is a woman of marked executive ability and has delivered lectures for the Women's Missionary Society. In 1880 she was one of the two delegates sent by the Woman's Missionary Association to the World's Missionary Conference in London, England.
MRS. ANGELA F. NEWMAN.
Born December 4, 1837, in Montpelier, Vermont. She taught school at the age of fourteen in the city of her birth. In 1856 she married Frank Kilgour, of Madison, who died within a year. Afterwards she became the wife of D. Newman, a merchant of Beaverdam, Wisconsin. In 1871 they removed to Lincoln, Nebraska. She has held the position of Western secretary of the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society, and lectured on missions throughout the West. In 1883, at the request of Bishop Wiley, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, her attention having been drawn to the condition of the Mormon women, she went to Cincinnati, Ohio, and presented the Mormon problem to the National Home Missionary Society, and a Mormon Bureau was created to push missionary work in Utah, of which she was made secretary. She acted also as chairman of a committee appointed to consider a plan for founding a home for Mormon women who wished to escape from polygamy, to be sustained by the society. The Gentiles of Utah formed a home association, and on Mrs. Newman's recovery from a serious accident she was sent as an unsalaried philanthropist to Washington to represent the interests of the Utah Gentiles in the Forty-ninth, Fiftieth and Fifty-first Congresses, and delivered an elaborate argument before the congressional committees. Two other arguments which she had prepared were introduced by Senator Edmonds in the United States Senate, and thousands of copies of these were issued. Mrs. Newman secured appropriations of $80,000 for this association, and a splendid structure in Salt Lake City was the result of her efforts. She has spoken from pulpits and platforms on temperance, Mormonism and social purity; has long been a contributor to the religious and secular journals; has been commissioned by several governors as delegate to the National Conference of Charities and Corrections. In 1888 she was elected a delegate to ​ the quadrennial General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, the first woman ever elected to a seat in that august body.
MRS. WILLIAM BUTLER.
Mrs. Butler, known as "The Mother of Missions," was the wife of Rev. William Butler, who was commissioned in 1856 to open the mission work for the Methodist Episcopal Church. After passing through the great Sepoy rebellion, in 1857, their headquarters were made at Bareilly, India. After eight years in India, Dr. Butler returned to the United States, and was then sent by his church to the missionary field in Mexico. Mrs. Butler has reached the advanced age of ninety years. She makes her home at Newton Center, Massachusetts.