The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-01-12
BACK TO KOREA
Mrs. Anna Adams Baird Writes
Letter to Topeka Friends.
Aboard Ship ON Her Return
Voyage to the Orient.
ILLNESS BROUGHT HER HERE
Now She Is Going Back to Her
Adopted Home
Where She Has Spent Past 20
Years Of Her Life.
ILLNESS BROUGHT HER HERE

Fatally i'll and with her three sons,
sisters and brothers and physicians
in this country fearful that she will
not survive the trip, Mrs. Anna Adams
Baird, a missionary and we'll known
Topeka woman, is on her way to
Korea to spend her last days with
her husband and the natives of Korea
for whom she has sacrificed so much.
Mrs Baird was one of the first Y. w.
/ c. A. secretaries in Topeka and for
twenty-five years has been a mission
airy to Korea, part of the time sup
ported by the ladies of the First Pres
byterian church of this city. Mrs.
Robert B. Steele, Seventeenth and Col
lege avenues, is a sister and p. H.
Adams, a brother.
In reply to dozens of letters writ
ten to her at San Francisco by Topeka
friends and read by Mrs. Baird on the
steamer bearing her to Korea she has
written a letter to DR.. stephen S.
Estey, of the First Presbyterian
church. 1t was written five days out
of San Francisco and is her last
! goodbye to the people of Topeka. DIR.
lIstey read the letter to his congrega-
ton Sunday morning 1t follows:
Her Last Letter.
Dr. Stephen S. Estey, Topeka. Kan.
My Dear DIR. Estey:
when I reached the steamer found
/ your kind letter waiting me and also
the church and last, but not least,
| a box of the most beautiful roses |
ever saw. | am not weeping sort of
woman but when l saw the letters so
full Of love and undeserved apprecia-
/ ton 1 could not keep the tears alto
If loving wishes could make it so
/ how quickly health would return to me
remains for me- o is tn oa tne p PtFl un
complaining in His hands" Please
give my love to everyone of my dear
oh rah -la hnx nj
been so affectionate and loyal to their
And now goodbye until we meet at
eJsus' feet" Yours very sincerely,
ANNA L. BAIRD.
Came Here for Relief.
Mrs Baird had been in poor health
for several years and came to this
country last August in a last effort to
seek relief. Expert physicians would
! give her no hope and she decided to
return to Korea.
Before doing so. Mrs. Baird came to
Topeka in the fall. spent two days
where two of her sons are in school.
A third son, the youngest. is attending
school at Mortified, Mass, and he
was summoned. Mrs. Baird rented a
home and until December che spent
/ every available hour of the day with
home to her and she was determined
to return.
Early in Decem Der, Mrs. Baird babe
her last farewell to her three sons and
/ left for San Francisco. A sister-in-
law in California and many friends ac-
companied her to the dock while the
ladies of the First Presbyterian church
wrote letters and sent flowers which
reached Mrs. Baird before she left. 1t
was a strange coincidence that Mrs.
Baird should leave San Francisco for
her last trip to Korea on December IS,
just twenty-five years to a day from
the time she left San Francisco for
a missionary.
A Sisters Tribute.
There was never a more devoted
mother than Mrs. Baird" said Mrs.
Steele this morning, land the courage
: and fortitude with which she bore her
suffering in mind and body before her
sons on leaving is a beautiful example
of strength afforded by the grace of
God. But she did not wish her children
I to witness her suffering"
A graduate of Washburn, and of
Western college at oxford, Ohio. Mrs.
| Baird entered into church work when
a young woman with earnestness and
ability. She was a teacher in the Sum
day school, a member of the Mission
airy society and the Christian En-
deavor, a charter member and state
I officer in the Young Women's Chris
/ tan association. In November, 1890,
Baird and on December IS, 1890, sail
ed for Korea. For the first five years
they were at Seoul, then were sent to
/ Yyeng Yang. where her husband is at
the head of the Presbyterian college.
New York public library in the first
six months of 1915 circulated 5,444,-
| 424 volumes.