.JAN 17 1947 ^ BV 2766 .M7 T6 1903 Tomkinson, Laura E., 1844- Twenty years' history of th^ Woman's home missionary 7^^. yr u^ JSc>4^^'^^^^Q.--^.yi^ PRESIDENT. OF THE WOMAN'S HOME MISSIONARY SOCIETY OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH 1880 = 1900 By MRS. T. L . T O M K I N S O N PUBLISHED BY THE WOMAN'S HOME MISSIONARY SOCIETY OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH CINCINNATI 1903 Copyright by The Woman's Home Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church 1903 Western Methodist Book Conceru Press ^0 tbe ©ooD Momen OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, WHO BY THEIR ZEAL, DEVOTION, AND FIDELITY, HAVE BEEN THE /IRahera of tbi9 1F3t0tor^, AND TO THEIR WORTHY SUCCESSORS, WHO IN THE YEARS TO COME SHALL EMULATE THEIR NOBLE EXAMPLE, TLbC6C Bnnala ARE DEDICATED BY THE AUTHOR INTRODUCTION J. M. BUCKI^EY, D. D. Not to introduce a Society known throughout the United States ; nor to indorse a movement which appeals to every philanthropic impulse ; nor yet to commend this volume did I accept the invitation to prefix a few paragraphs to this " Twenty Years' His- tory." But I complied primarily because it affords an opportunity to emphasize the increasing need of work similar to that which has heretofore been done by this Society. Before it was formally initiated, hearing reports of the deep distress in certain Territories of the Far West, of the dense ignorance existing among the whites in various sections of the South, being ac- quainted by personal observation with the childish simplicity and helplessness of the majority of the Afro-American populations, having become cogni- zant of the deterioration of domestic and social life, not alone under the shadow of Mormonism, but among foreign populations domiciled in this country, and of the awful suffering of many who " had seen vi Introduction better days," but who, through illness and misfor- tune, or the death of those on whom they had de- pended, have become impoverished, I had partici- pated in a conference called to consider how the women of Methodism might co-operate in a general scheme, whose benefits should be widely diffused. Gladly, then, did I receive the news of those prelimi- nary steps so graphically recounted in this volume, and later recognized the complete organization when it ofiBcially offered itself as a new instrument of serv- ice to the Church and to humanity. In reading the accounts of its early work and the rapid spread thereof; of its numerous Homes, Hos- pitals, and Schools, the reader will be astonished that so much has been accomplished in little more than two decades. On reflection he will see that the Society has been exceedingly fortunate in its leaders, and that they have been happy in their relations to the member- ship; that the spirit of the age is increasingly in sympathy with alleviating painful and distressing conditions at home as well as abroad. Foreign mis- sions and Home missions are so related that when either is neglected, of the Church it may justly be said, " These ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone." This Society has passed through an experience Introduction vH which has befallen every organized effort to reform and elevate mankind. It has found that the need which stirred it into being was but an outer layer, underneath which are illumined depths of moral degeneracy and wretchedness. Closely allied with these strata the Woman's Home Missionary Society has found physical weakness, poverty, and disease, in which youth sees nothing bright and age sets no worthy example. Bach generation newly come upon the scene includes successors of those who were helped and of those who died without having had an uplift; besides mau}^ well born who sink below their ancestral level, often through causes for which society and sometimes the Church is responsible. Hence the Deaconess Movement — a form of phil- anthropic effort known in the earliest century of Christianity, but new to this country and age — has been engrafted on the Woman's Home Missionary Society, and has already become one of its most fruitful branches. Among Protestant communions none so unmis- takably as the Methodist Episcopal Church needs such assistance as this Society affords. It is still the Church of the people in a larger degree than any other ; its members constantly flow into the cities; many of them migrate Westward and South- ward ; of those who leave the places of their nativity viii Introduction a certain proportion fail through sickness, poverty or misfortune, and in the second generation there is found but an indistinct memory of Methodism. To these the ministers on the circuit and in the small stations preach, and they and their people alike re- ceive aid from the beneficent work of this Society. These allusions to the conditions which the Wo- man's Home Missionary Society aims to remove or mitigate are chiefly designed to sharpen the appetite of the sympathetic reader for the comprehensive and inspiring account of the spirit, the methods, and the achievements of devoted women. Their beneficent work will never be finished while there remain in this country the unlearned in the ways of right liv- ing to be instructed, the poor to be fed and clothed, the bereaved to be comforted, the sick to be nursed, and the inadequately sustained bearer of the good tidings of the gospel of peace to be aided. Upon them and upon all those who encourage them in their holy task may Heaven's richest blessings de- scend ! Contents Hi CHAPTER I BEG I IN IN I INGS Germ Thought, i ; After the Civil War, 2 ; Government Aid to Freedmen, 2; Freedmen's Aid Society of the Meth- odist Episcopal Church, 3 ; Conditions Among Colored People, 4; Need for Home Culture, 5; Bishop Wiley, 9; Movement Begun to Introduce Women into Board of Freedmen's Aid Society, 11; Its Failure, 12. Mrs. HartzeIvIv's Work in New Ori^Eans, 15; Mrs. Rust in New Orleans, 18; Ku-Klux, 20; Missionaries and Teach- ers Employed, 23; Work Begun at Orangeburg, S. C, and Atlanta, Ga., Simultaneously with the Work in New Orleans, 25. Organization of the Woman's Home Missionary Society, 25; Mrs. Hartzell at General Conference in Cincinnati, 1880, 25 ; Meeting in Trinity Church, 27 ; Constitution Adopted, 29; Mrs. Hayes First President, 30; Officers Elected, 32; Mrs. Hartzell's Retirement, 32. ix X Contents CHAPTER II SOME OF THE FOUNDERS, AND THE FIRST FIVE YEARS OF THE SOCIETY Mrs. B. Iv. Rust, 34; Mrs. F. S. Hoyt, 36; Mrs. J. h. Whetstone, 37 ; Mrs. John Davis, 38 ; Mrs. A. R. Clark, 40 ; Mrs. James Dale, 40; Twelve "Resident Managers," 42; Promoting Organizations, 43 ; First Auxiliary, 45 ; First Conference Meeting, 45 ; First Conference Organized, 46 ; Mrs. Dun- ton's Work in South Carolina, 48 ; At Atlanta, Ga., 49 ; At Savannah, Ga., 50; In Utah, 51 ; First Annual Meeting of Board of Managers, 52 ; Seven Missionaries in the P'ield, 53 ; Second Annual Meeting, 54 ; Relation to the Church Missionary Society, 55 ; Third Annual Meeting, 56 ; Mak- ing Progress, 56 ; Bureaus, 57 ; General Organizer, 58 ; Property Secured in 1884, 59; Incorporation of the So- ciety, 59 ; Fourth Annual Meeting, 60 ; Distinguished People Present, 60 ; Responsibilities of Bureau Secre- taries, 66. CHAPTER III BRANCH I NG OUT Organ of the Society — When Authorized, 69; Editor and Publisher, 71; Surprises, 71; Mrs. McCabe, 74; Advance Movement, 75 ; Miss Evans, 76 ; Miss Van Marter, Editor, 76 ; Children's Home Missions, 77. Bureau for Suppi^ies, 78; Appeals From Frontier, 78; First Secretary, Mrs. Whetstone, 79 ; Mrs. Dale, 80. Bureau for Mormons, Secretaries, 81 ; Entry of the Method- ist Episcopal Church into Utah, 82 ; Schools, 82 ; Davis Hall, Salt Eake City, 82 ; Mrs. Angie F. Newman, Move- Contents xi ment for Rescue Home, 85 ; Lucy Hayes Schoolhouses, 87 ; Davis Hall Becomes Deaconess Home, 89 ; Purchased From the Parent Board, 90; Ten Stations in Utah in 1900, 90 ; Missionaries and Teachers and Ministers, 91. CHAPTER IV INDUSTRIAL HOMES OF THE SOCIETY IN THE SOUTH BuRKAU For Fast Southlc rn States, Secretaries, 93 ; First Model Home, Atlanta, Ga., Origin, Fisk Cottage, 93; Thayer Home, 97 ; Haven Home, Savannah, 100 ; Speed- ^vell Mission, 103; Palen Mission, 105; Boylan Home, Jacksonville, Fla., 105; Miss Emerson's Reminiscences, 106; A Primary Class, 109; Nurse-training, no; Emer- son Home, Ocala, Fla., no; Self-support and Economy, 112. Bureau for Middle Southern States, Subdivisions and Secretaries, 113; Simpson Home, Orangeburg, S. C, Mrs. Dunton and Fenn Cottage, 114 ; Simpson Home Enlarged in 1895, 117; Change of Plan of Work, 117; Browning Home, Camden, S. C, Mrs. Mather's Early Work, 118; Enlargement, 121 ; Gifts and Bequests, 121 ; Allen Home, Asheville, N. C, Dr. Pease and Wife, 123 ; First School, 124; :\Irs. Marriage Allen's Gift, 125; New Building Ded- icated, 126; Kent Home, Greensboro, N. C, Beginnings, 1884, 127; Mrs. Snow, New Jersey Home, Morristown, Tenn., 129; Freedmen's Aid School and Mrs. H. Stearns, 129; Miss Carrie Snider Sent, 131; New Jersey Home Opened, 1S92, 132. Bureau for West Southern States and Texas, Secre- taries, 134; Adeline Smith Home, Little Rock, Ark., xii Contents Erected 1883, 136; New Building, 137; Annex, 137; Eliz- abeth Iv. Rust Home, Holly Springs, Miss., First Work, 138 ; Old Sister's Home, 139 ; Peck Home, New Orleans, La., Dedicated, 140; Burned, 141; Mission for White Girls, 142 ; French and Italian Work, 142 ; King Home, Marshall, Tex. 143 ; At Harrisburg, Tex., 145. White Work in the; South, Ritter Home, Athens, Tenn., Opened. 146; Mrs. Chapman, 147; School Work and Ex- penses 148; Improvements and Valuation, 149; Mrs Williams, Chairman, Bennett Home. Clarkson Miss., begun by Gift of Mrs. Ziba Bennett, 150; Woodland Academy Transferred, 151 ; New Building Opened in 1900, 152 ; Emeline Hamlen Home, Kinsey, Ala., Begin- nings, 153; Ambitions of the People, 154. CHAPTER V WORK OF THE SOCIETY IIN THE WEST Bureau for Indians and Frontier, Secretary, Significance of " and Frontier," 155 ; Pawnee, Okla., First Mission, 156 ; Ponca, 158; Pawhuska, Incidents, 159; Stickney Home, 162 ; Mrs. Miller's Visit, 163 ; Yakimas, Father Wilbur, Progress, 165 ; Ukiah, 167. Bureau for Indians of New Mexico and Arizona, Secre- tary, 169; Apaches, Dulce, 169; Navajoes, Beginning, 172; Peculiarities of the Tribe, 173; Progress, 174. Bureau for New Mexico and Arizona, Spanish, Secre- taries, 176; Early History of the People, 176; Harwood Home, 179; Buildings, 181; Results of Work, 182; Las Vegas, 183; Las Cruces and El Paso, 185; Spanish Work in Southern California, 185. Contents xiii Bureau for Ai^aska, Secretaries, i86; Jesse Lee Home, Con- ditions in Alaska, 187 ; Opening of Work at Unalaska, 191 ; Change of Policy, 191 ; New Building Wrecked, 195 ; Visit of Mrs. Beiler, 195 ; Hospital Needed, 197 ; Unga, 198 ; Opposition of Russo-Greek Church, 199. Bureau for Orientals, Secretary, 200; Chinese Missions of the Church on the Pacific Coast, 201 ; Origin of " Woman's Missionary Society of the Pacific Coast," 202 ; Union with the Woman's Home Missionary Society, 203 ; Need for Mission Schools, 205 ; " Rescue Home " Building Erected, 208 ; Los Angeles, Work for Japanese Women, 208; Re- flex Influence, 211. Work in Hawaii, Present Status of Work, 211. CHAPTER VI WORK IN CITIES-THE DEACONESS BUREAU — YOUNG PEO- PLE'S WORK AND EDUCATIVE MOVEMENTS LoCAi, Work, Bureau Authorized, 214; Absorbed into Deacon- ess Bureau, 216; Deaconess Work in Early Times, and Its Introduction into Methodist Episcopal Church in America, 216. The Deaconess Bureau, Secretary and Assistants, 218; Miss Jane Bancroft in Europe, and Return to the United States, 219; Committee on Deaconess Work Appointed, 220; Made a Bureau, 221; How Constituted, 222; I'ield Secretary, Duties, 223; Number of Homes and Deacon- esses, 224 ; Beginnings of Deaconess Work in Washing- ton, D. C, 224; Lucy Webb Hayes National Training- school and Sibley Hospital, 226 ; Teachers, 228 ; Rust Hall, 230; San Francisco Training-school, 233; Fisk xiv Contents Training-school, 235 ; Training-school for Colored Girls, 236; Rest Homes, 237; Bancroft Rest Home, 237; Caro- line Rest Home, 239; Thompson Rest Home, 239; Lud- ington, 240. Bureau for Porto Rico, Secretary, 240; San Juan, 241. Some Outgrowths of the Locai, Bureau, Glenn Home, 244; Marcy Home, 245; Medical Mission, Boston, Mass., 248; Bohemian Building, Baltimore, Md., 250. Bureau for Immigrants, Secretaries, 250; Work in New York, 251; Castle Garden, 254; Ellis Island, 256; New "Immigrant Girls' Home," 259; Italian Work, 260; East Boston, 261 ; Philadelphia, 264. Bureau for Young Peopi^e's Work, 267. Young Peopi^e's Societies, 268 ; Mothers' Jewels Home, 269 ; Watts de Peyster Home, 272 ; Cunningham Deaconess Home and Orphanage, 275 ; Elizabeth Bradley Home, 276. Educative Movements, Home Missionary Reading Circle, 277; Systematic Beneficence, 279; Mite-boxes, 281; Thank-offering, 283; Day of Humiliation and Prayer, 284 ; Committee on Missionary Candidates, 286. CHAPTER VII CONCLUSION Conference Unions, 287; New Constitution, 293; Personal Fac- tors, 295. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS f FACE PAGE PRESIDENT, MRS. CLINTON B. FISK, Frontispiece. MRS. T. L. TOMKINSON, MRS. BISHOP IIARTZELL, . i6 FIRST OFFICERS, 64 Mrs. Lucy Webb Hayes, Mrs. Eliza Given Davis, Mrs. Elizabeth Lownes Rust, Mrs. James Dale, Mrs. A. R. Clark. PRESENT OFFICERS, 112 Mrs. Delia Lathrop Williams, Mrs. F. A. Aiken, Mrs. George H. Thompson. EARLY WORKERS, 160 Mrs. F. S. Hoyt, Mrs. Elizabeth E. Marcy, Mrs. C. V. Culver, Mrs. W. A. Ingham, Mrs. W. F. Thorne, Mrs. Richard Dymond, Mrs. H. E. Doud, Mrs. S. W. Thom- son, Miss Mary Belle Evans, Miss Flora Mitchell, Miss E. A. McIllmoyl, Mrs. J. W. Mendenhall. BOARD OF TRUSTEES, 208 Mrs. JA.NE Bancroft Robinson, Mrs. Wm, C. IIerron, Mrs. H. C. McCabe, Mrs. Bishop Walden, Mrs. Bishop Fowler, Mrs. W. F. Robertson, Mrs. J. W. Gosling, Mrs. W. A. Goodman, Jr., Mrs. Anna Kent, Mrs. J. L. Whetstone, Mrs. W. P. Thirkield, Mrs. E. L. Albright, Mrs. I. D. Jones, Mrs. M. T. MacGuffin, Mrs. Wm. M. Ampt, Miss Henrietfa A. Bancroft, Mrs. W. L. Ikxs- well. XV xvi List of Illustrations FACE ?AGE BUREAU SECRETARIES, 256 Mrs, E. W. Simpson, Mrs. M. B. Hagans, Mrs. B. S. Potter, Mrs. H. C. Hedges, Mrs. Lavanda G. Murphy, Mrs. L. p. Williams, Mrs. A. M.'Whitson, Mrs. Levi Gilbert, Mrs. Geo. E. Reed, Mrs. May Leonard Wood- ruff, Mrs. M. C. Alspaugh, Mrs. H. C. Jennings, Mrs. Jennie F. Willing. Twenty Years' History Hi CHAPTER I BEGINNINGS Every philanthropic movement has its birth in a great moral idea. Back of the organization is a po- tential thought. Older than twentieth-century civiliza- tion is the truth embodied in the proverb, ''The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world." In the homes of a people are the hidden springs of national char- acter, and a stream can not rise higher than its foun- tain-head. Herein lies the germ thought of the or- ganization which we call "The Woman's Home ]\lis- sionary vSociety of the Methodist Episcopal Church." The providential call to the women of Methodism to work for the elevation of the home in the home b'.id came first from the ignorant and neglected classes in the Southern States, and through the work of the Freedmen's Aid Society. In the gloomy days suc- 2 I 2 Twenty Years' History ceeding the Civil War the problem of Negro better- ment baffled statesmen and philanthropists alike. Four millions of freedmen with broken shackles lifted up helpless hands, and with half-blinded eyes confronted the light of a new dispensation. The clash of arms on the battlefield had ceased, but the war of prejudices and principles threatened to go on. The readjustment of relations between the two races in the South — the whites and the blacks — promised to be a difficult achievement. Citizenship had been thrust upon a peo- ple all unprepared to discharge its responsibilities. It was but natural and righteous, therefore, that the peo- ple of the North, who had been instrumental in the liberation of the slave, should assist him to a better understanding of his duties in his new and untried estate. Doubtless the United States Government did what it could. A "Freedmen's Bureau" was established. Funds were appropriated to provide schools and teach- ers, and during the first ten years after the close of the war three millions of dollars were expended in this way. Friends of the freedmen in the North and West were banded together in "Freedmen's Aid Com- missions." These were general and undenominational. Much of the Government relief and school funds passed through the treasuries of these commissions, and much more was gathered directly from the gen- Beginnings 3 erous contributions of the humane and philanthropic, and from the Churches. In due time the leading Christian sects, each ab- sorbing around a nucleus of its own the educational and evangelistic movements peculiar to itself, organ- ized denominational Freedmen's Aid Societies. This led to a dissolution of the general "Aid Commissions," and the responsibility of caring for the freed people came directly upon the Churches. The IMethodist Episcopal Church was not slow to perceive the duty of the hour. To Bishop Davis W. Clark, at the close of the war, was intrusted the task of establishing the missions of that Church among the loyal whites and the freedmen of the South. He found it impossible to do this without schools and teachers. The Mission- ary Society could send preachers, the Church Exten- sion Society might aid in the erection of church-build- ings, but neither was authorized to provide the means for education. Therefore, to meet this pressing need, at a Convention held pursuant to a call for a meeting of ministers and laymen in Trinity Church, Cincin- nati, Ohio, August 7 and 8, i866, the Freedmen's Aid Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church was called into being. Christian education was henceforth the watchword of this Society, and was constantly held before the Church as affording the highroad by which an igno- 4 Twenty Years' History rant and degraded people might be expected to march into a condition of enhghtened prosperity. The preacher and the teacher went hand in hand, and more frequently than otherwise were one and the same. Where there was a Methodist congregation, a common school was likely to follow, and at the end of the fourth year ten thousand pupils were reported as enrolled in the Society's schools. And everywhere these people were eager to learn. Under the old regime it had been a breach of statu- tory law to teach a slave to read. With the coming of emancipation the statute was nullified, and the axiom, "Knowledge is power," seemed at once to spring into place as the chief article in the freedmen's civic creed. The desire manifested for education was phenomenal and pathetic. Old and young flocked together into the schools. They came, bringing whatever books they chanced to possess — it might be ''an old almanac, a Bible, or a treatise on astronomy" — and from these they expected to be taught. Discouragements fol- lowed, and the ranks thinned, but abundant employ- ment remained for all those teachers who could be found willing to undertake the uninviting task. Among these teachers were accomplished young women from the North, who, constrained by the love of Christ, hastened to give themselves to this work. Ostracised by the whites, isolated among an ignorant Beginnings 5 people of a despised race, and sometimes flying for their lives, they tasted all the bitterness of a religious persecution. Truly they illustrated the statement made by a distinguished minister of the Methodist Epis- copal Church, South, when he said in an address: "Of all who go out under the Master's commission, no one takes up a heavier cross than the woman who, leaving a Northern home, goes into the Southland, there to sit down, by her degraded colored sister, to point her to Jesus." The history of these efforts, covering a period of many years, is written in the heart's blood of the workers. God alone knows the record. But some faint conception of this environment crept back into the communities whence they had come, and stirred the people to a new awakening. Besides these numerous primary schools, the neces- sity soon became apparent to provide institutions of a higher grade, in which young men could be prepared for the ministry, and young men and women be trained as teachers. At the end of ten years the Freedmen's Aid Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church had one or more of such institutions in operation in almost every Southern State. To these had come, as prin- cipals and instructors, some of the best and brightest men and women from Northern colleges and Churches. Here they found ample opportunity, which they were 6 Twenty Years' History not slow to improve, to observe and report on the social conditions prevailing among the freed people. Bishops and secretaries and prominent clergymen made frequent itineraries, giving closest attention to all available information, and studying the signs of the times. White men from the North were appointed as presiding elders over districts in colored Confer- ences, and, in some cases, as pastors of colored con- gregations. A bishop, Gilbert Haven, the lifelong champion of human freedom, was assigned to an epis- copal residence in Atlanta, Georgia. Chaplains in the Union army and Northern soldiers settled in the South, and became identified, in one way or another, with the welfare of the colored race. These, one and all, had somewhat to contribute to the general concensus of opinion concerning existing conditions and the out- look for the future. Perhaps more than by means of the public prints were these personal factors potent in creating sentiment in the Churches. Those who had given their lives to service for this people, those who had stood heart to heart and hand to hand with them in the struggle for a better life, were qualified, as were no others, to bear witness for and against them. These had gone among them, had looked down into the abyss, and had come back to tell what they had seen and heard. The fact began to be recognized that a tremendous Beginnings 7 conflict was on, and of a kind not counted upon in the premises. Education must not be minimized, but edu- cation such as had been provided had proved inade- quate. It was discouraging, l)ut true. Ten years, fif- teen years, of the work of the Freednien's Aid Society, work which had been wrought with subhme faith and ahnost unprecedented activity, while often accomphsh- ing wonderful results, had also startled the w^orkers by revelations of unsuspected difficulties. Abnormal de- velopments on every hand shattered all preconceived theories of wdiat might be expected to follow the ad- vent of freedom and the effort to educate and enlighten the freedmen. Something more, evidently, was needed to cope wdth the appalling social conditions existing than the teachings of the schools, or even the preach- ing of the gospel. The trying times of the seventies but intensified this condition of need. Yielding to the clamor of a few politicians concerning expense and consequent taxation, the Government had withdrawn its aid to Southern education. The Freedmen's Aid Society found itself compelled to resolve ''to only sus- tain so much of the school work as the contributions of the beneveolent should warrant," and many of the smaller schools, which had brought the teachers into close touch with life in the cabins, were suspended. Swarms of children could be seen on the streets in in every colored community, growing up in idleness 8 Twenty Years' History and enforced ignorjnce. To many students of the problem the "last state" of this people promised to be "worse than the first." ^lore money was needed, more helpers, and some different line of work should be adopted. A system must be introduced which should aim more directly at the redemption of the home. Then in the Xorth some broad-minded, great- souled women came forward to join hands with the toilers already in the field, and said : "We have some- thing to do in this matter; we must imite to lift up the women and children." The great thought which had long been germinating in the hearts of the mis- sionary workers burst forth. The purpose grew and took shape, and in time the organization of the Woman's Home ^Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church was a definite outcome. ^lany and various were the lines of influence which gradually led up to this achievement. Emerson says, "Civilization is simply the influence of good women." The latter half of the nineteenth century brought women to the front in manifold Chris- tian activities. In 1869 the women of the ^Methodist Episcopal Church were banded together for work for women in foreign lands, and other denominations were successfully demonstrating the wisdom of organizing "Women's Boards" for work in the home land as well as in the foreign field. To ^lethodist women the provi- Beginnings 9 dential call to form a second missionary organization came, as has been traced, through the work of the Freedmen's Aid Society. Dr. Richard S. Rust, who from the date of the adoption of that Society by the General Conference, served as its Corresponding Sec- retary, and hence was thoroughly familiar with the field, struck the keynote when he said: "The women of our Church can not be unmindful of their sable sisters in the South. Xo race can be elevated while its wives, mothers, and daughters are debased." Bishop Isaac W. Wiley, who had the "eye of a seer" in relation to all woman's work in the Church, was largely instrumental in opening the way for such an organization. "To him," says ]\Irs. Rust, "more than to any other, should' be attributed the honor of originating and, in its early history, guiding the \\'oman's Home Missionary Society." While fully ap- preciating the work of women in foreign lands — he had been himself a missionary to China — he was ready to exclaim : "To my mind, the work of Christian women for their needy sisters in their own country is as indispensable as for the foreign field." And again he said : "Unless the women of the North come to the help of the workers in the South, the efforts of the schools will be almost fruitless, because the teachings of the schools are being neutralized by the degrada- tion of the homes." Upon his return to Cincinnati lo Twenty Years' History after one of his extended Southern tours, he caused a call to be issued for a meeting in St. Paul Church, especially for women, that he might lay the case be- fore them. To the large evening audience there as- sembled he delivered an address in which he portrayed "Cabin Life among the Colored People," and ''urged the promotion of a society to enlist the women of the Church in that kind of mission work." This address and the bishop's continued advocacy of some form of organization for the benefit of freedwomen, created a profound and lasting impression in Cincinnati and else- where in the North. And to the Woman's Home ^lis- sionary Society, when the organization was afterward effected, this great and good man was ever ready to pay the loyal tribute of voice and pen and purse. A separate organization was not at first thought desirable. Various attempts were made to enlist the women of Methodism in behalf of the home field through existing agencies. At the meeting of the Gen- eral Executive Committee of the Wonian's Foreign Missionary Society held at Chicago, 1872, a plea for work for freedwomen in the United States was seriously considered. In 1873, at Cincinnati, Dr. Rust being invited to present the case before the same body, urged the propriety of dropping the word "Foreign" from the name of the Society, and making it the Woman's Missionary Society of the Methodist Epis- Beginnings ii copal Church. A similar appeal was made in New England by Bishop Wiley. In 1875, at Baltimore, at the Executive Committee meeting of the Woman's Foreign Missionary vSociety, notice w^as given of a pro- posed constitutional amendment which should leave the Society free to take up the home work. The following year, how^ever, the plan was dismissed as unadvisable. At a mass-meeting of women held I\Iay 12, 1875, at Baltimore, with Mrs. Bishop Clark in the chair, and Mrs. Jennie Fowder Willing, Secretary, it w^as resolved to petition the Freedmen's Aid Society, asking that its influence be used at the next General Conference to secure the election of ladies as members of its Board of Managers. INIrs. \Y. A. Ingham, ]\Irs. Mary T. Lathrop, and i\lrs. Willing were appointed a com- mittee to prepare the memorial, which was done in the following form : "Whereas, Our bishops and the Corresponding Secretary of the Freedmen's Aid Society have pressed upon our attention the necessity of prompt and efficient effort in behalf of the freedwomen, and as we recog- nize the fact that a solemn duty rests upon us to help those who, though neglected and degraded, are the mothers and teachers of millions who will become citi- zens of the Republic ; and "Whereas, We are awake to the fact that the Roman Catholic Church has laid her hands of power upon these freed people, giving them beautiful 12 Twenty Years' History churches, directing their worship, and educating their children, thus taking them hopelessly away from the influence of Protestant and American thought ; and "Whereas, V\^e believe that if women were more largely responsible for work among the freedmen, they w^ould not only specially interest in it the women of the Church, but they w^ould help to establish direct com- munication between teachers in the field and the Churches supporting them ; therefore, ''Resolved, That we respectfully memorialize the Board of Managers of the Freedmen's Aid Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church, asking that they use their influence with the General Conference, at its next session, to secure the election to said Board of Man- agers of one woman from each mission district of the Church." This was presented to the Executive Committee of the Freedmen's Aid Society, July i8, 1876, by IMrs. Bishop Clark, Mrs. William B. Davis, and Mrs. R. S. Rust. It was graciously considered, and Bishop Wiley, Dr. R. S. Rust, Judge M. B. Hagans, and Dr. J. M. Walden were made a Committee to confer with the ladies, October 13, 1876. The above Committee re- ported as follows : "Your Committee see no obstacle in the way of introducing women into the Board of Managers of the Freedmen's Aid Society as advisers. By the Act of Incorporation males only are eligible to the Board and Beginnings 13 entitled to vote ; but it is very (lesiral)le that the women of the Churchi shiOuld partiei])ate in our councils, and we unanimously recommend that they be cordially ad- mitted to participate in all our meetings as advisers and counselors." Actino- under the direction of the above Committtee of the Freedmen's Aid Society, a circular letter was sent out by Mrs. Rust to one hundred and fifty ladies prominently connected w4th the work of the Church, asking suggestions as to the form the movement should assume. Invitations were sent to these and others to meet at Cincinnati the first week of December. At this meeting it was "resolved to recommend a w^oman's department auxiliary to the Freedmen's Aid Society, under the direction of a lady as Assistant Correspond- ing Secretary." At this time the movement was being so earnestly considered that at the ninth Annual Meeting of the Freedmen's Aid Society, held at Pittsburg, December 10 and II, 1876, prominent ladies spoke upon the sub- ject from the pulpits on Sunday, and on Monday after- noon a woman's meeting was held in South Common Cliurch, addressed by Mrs. Jennie Fowler Willing, Mrs. Mary Sparkes Wheeler, and Mrs. Elizabeth Lownes Rust. But the legal obstructions to the project were insurmountable, and the Special Committee ap- 14 Twenty Years' History pointed by the Society reported, January 20, 1877, as follows : ''In view of the fact that the introduction of females into the Board of Managers by the laws of the State of Ohio under which the Society holds its charter would endanger its title to property, it is not prac- ticable to elect a lady as Assistant Corresponding Sec- retary ; and we tender the appointment of Agent of the Freedmen's Aid Society to Mrs. Jennie F. Willing, to be employed by and under the direction of the Corre- sponding Secretary, in publicly presenting the cause, collecting funds, and organizing Auxiliary Societies." As women could not be recognized in the Board of Managers of the Society, Mrs. Willing declined to accept the position, and the plan was not carried out. The statement, however, should be placed upon record that a considerable minority of the thinking women who were interested in this movement were op- posed to absorption into any existing organization, and stoutly maintained the capacity of the sex to con- duct and control an independent Society. Among these Mrs. Francis S. Hoyt, Mrs. James Dale, and ]\Irs. John L. Whetstone were the leaders. After the Freedmen's Aid Society's decision of Jan- uary, 1877, nothing seemed to be left to those whose sympathies had been enlisted but to urge the im- portance of the work through the press and by per- sonal appeals, and to carry on individual enterprises Beginnings 15 in a private way under the advice and direction of the Society. While the women in the North w^re thus being prepared for their part of the work, some faithful ones in the South were unconsciously paving the way for the coming organization, by actually doing the work without organization. Giving cups of cold water to the weary and thirsty **In the name of a disciple," tak- ing a step at a time when only a step of the path could be seen, they went forward, little guessing whereunto that path would lead. MRS. HARTZEIvL'S WORK IN NEW ORLEANS In this work, Mrs. Jennie C. Hartzell was clearly the pioneer. Her husband. Dr. Joseph C. Hartzell, afterwards elected Missionary Bishop of the Meth- odist Episcopal Church for Africa, was appointed to the pastorate of Ames Chapel (white), New Orleans, La., late in 1869, and arrived in that city with his family in February, 1870. Later he started, as a personal venture, the Southwestern Christian Advocate, and, upon its adoption as one of the Church periodicals, he was continued as editor, and with his family remained in New Orleans until 1883. Associated with them in similar aims were the professors in the Freedmen's Aid schools and rep- resentatives of other departments of the work of the j\Iethodist Episcopal Church, and also some kindred i6 Twenty Years' History spirits of other denominations. Among these may be recalled such men as J. P. Newman, afterwards bishop ; Lucius C. Matlack, whose early life had been shadowed by many years of ill-treatment because of his outspoken opposition to slavery; W. D. Godman, President of New Orleans University; M. C. Cole, Instructor; and many others whose names shine as stars through the blackness of those years. These, with their wives and personal friends, and an occasional winter tourist, formed a little colony of Northern men and women which made the vicinity of Camp and Race Streets, in the heart of the city where the university was located, the center of a religious movement characterized by the keenest solicitude for the future of the freed people. One can not but admire the faith and courage of this heroic few, standing alone in the midst of disorganiza- tion and calumny, and even personal danger, calmly planning to place in the great festering "lump" their one small measure of gospel "leaven." It was soon found that much of this endeavor must be hand-to-handwork. Regardless of the social obloquy sure to follow, "Mrs. Hartzell went much among the colored people during the early years of her residence in New Orleans. She was deeply interested in them, and they were responsive to sympathy." Without plan or object, save the consecrated purpose to follow in the footsteps of Him who "came, not to be ministered Mrs. T. L. To.mkinsox. Mrs. Uisiiop IIartzkll. Beginnings 17 unto, but to minister," she went about doing good. Writing of this time, eight years later, she said : "Strangely has the I^ord led me to work among the needy of our colored sisters in Louisiana. With poor health, a family of little ones, and the regular work of a minister's wife, it had not occurred to me that I could do more than feel for these distressed ones, and pray that our loving Father would speedily send to their help holy women wdio w^ould minister to them as he would direct." As indicating the manner of this leading, a friend in Cincinnati relates the following: ''Her first work was in response to a call to visit a dying girl in a disreputable house. A minister had been asked for, but none dared go. Dr. Hartzell was out of town, and she went alone ; went again and again for two weeks, and saw the girl happily converted, and willing to die. Once, on coming out of this place, the proprietress of another such house w^aited for her and asked her to come, the following Sabbath, and speak to her young w^omen as she had talked to this dying girl. She went, and had twenty of those poor women, whom no one seemed to care to save, intently listening to her w^ords, so hungry were the}' for help and com- fort. Not to the colored people alone, but to all classes of the poor and neglected, Mrs. Hartzell w^as a "min- istering angel." In 1872, Mrs. J. L. Whetstone, of Cincinnati, being in impaired health, went South, and met ]\Irs. Hartzell i8 Twenty Years' History in New Orleans. She became greatly interested in what she saw of the work being done for freed people, and *'did something to help that work." She visited the colored churches and schools, and the colored peo- ple in their homes, and witnessed the affectionate rever- ence with which those people were wont to regard Mrs. Hartzell, and heard them speak of her as their ''mother" and "best friend." Mrs. Whetstone subse- quently kept in touch with Mrs. Hartzell and her work, and was thus among the first in Cincinnati to advocate organization and activity in support of that work. In 1876, at the General Conference at Baltimore, Mrs. Hartzell and Dr. Hartzell met Dr. and Mrs. Rust. The latter was a bride, a beautiful and talented women, who, though born and bred a Quakeress, was fast becoming interested in the institutions of the Meth- odist Episcopal Church, and especially in the work made familiar to her by her husband's position as an officer in the Freedmen's Aid Society. ''Then and there," said Mrs. Hartzell, afterwards, "my husband and I conspired to get Dr. Rust to bring his wife with him that coming winter to New Orleans to the Louisiana Conference, that we might interest her in working with us for a home organization, with headquarters at Cincinnati, which should take up the work of elevat- ing the colored women of the South, and, to our Beginnings 19 great joy, when the Conference time arrived, January, 1877, Mrs. Rust came." In the fall of 1876, Mrs. M. A. Ryder, who was a member of the household of ]\Irs. W. D. Godman, being anxious to do something for the colored people, appealed to Mrs. Hartzell for assistance and direc- tion. Up to this time, Mrs. Hartzell had done only personal work, "giving a considerable portion of her time to visiting in the homes, attending IMothers' Meetings, working as an officer in La Teche Or- phanage, distributing literature where it could be read," and inspiring and encouraging the people in their schools and Churches. Yielding to Mrs. Ryder's importunities, Mrs. Hartzell arranged rooms for her, and she began her work as a house-to-house visitor late in the fall of 1876, making a weekly re- port to Mrs. Hartzell of what was done. Mrs. Hart- zell says, ''I kept no account of money expended in this way until a regular school was opened in 1877, in which were taught the primary branches, the Bible, the cate- chism, and also sewing and the cutting of garments." Mrs. J. S. Roberts, matron of the "Orphan's Home" at La Teche, deserves to be mentioned as "one of the noblest and wisest of workers for the good of the colored people of Louisiana" at this time. Dr. Newman (afterwards Bishop), and his wife, who was hand in 20 Twenty Years' History hand with him in these labors, had purchased seven- teen hundred acres of land, and, aided by his friends, had built on this plantation the "Orphanage," in which over one hundered children and youths were being cared for by Mrs. Roberts, ''like a mother, in body, mind, and soul !" Mrs. Hartzell, being a mem- ber of the Board of Management of the Home, was closely associated with Mrs. Roberts in the interests of this work. January 25, 1877, Mrs. Rust first entered New Orleans. She was with her husband, Dr. R. S. Rust, who was making a tour of the Conferences in the interest of his office, and Bishop Wiley, who was to preside at the Louisiana Conference, was also of the party. It was the darkest hour of the reconstruc- tion period, the time of Ku-Klux raids, and violent political agitation. The election of President Ruther- ford B. Hayes was still in dispute. Of this visit Mrs. Rust says: ''Great excitement prevailed, the city was full of armed men, and our friends warned us that we were in danger. The two Legislatures were in session, one black and the other white. Republican and Dem- ocratic, each claiming authority. One was held in the legislative hall, which happened to be within twenty feet of the veranda on which our room opened, and from which I could hear almost every word spoken. The other was in the hall of the St. Louis Beginnings 2i Hotel. The menibers were black, and did not leave the building lest they should be murdered. Dr. Rust communicated between President Grant at Washington and this colored Legislature, using all his influence to hold the latter to pacific measures, because the chance firing of a shot might have caused an uprising, and probably would have cost us our lives. "There were eight thousand colored refugees in the city who had fled from the Ku-Klux, many of them horribly mutilated, among them Eliza Pinxton. Ex- cept I had heard her story from her own lips, and seen the evidence in her terrible wounds, I could not have believed it. '*Dr. Rust and Bishop Wiley had long felt that it was desirable to have an organization of women who would intelligently co-operate in religious work for these poor people. The conditions prevailing were such that the teachers in the Freedmen's Aid schools could not visit the home of a pupil who was ill, nor could a clergyman attempt to administer religious consolation in such a case, without the vilest accusa- tions being heaped upon him." Dr. and Mrs. Rust remained three weeks in New Orleans in anxious consideration of the problems pre- sented. In company with some of the local workers, Mrs. Rust visited in the homes, and was deeply stirred by what she saw and heard. Emperor Wil- liams, **that truly great and good colored preacher," arranged for her to say a few words to the Confer- 22 Twenty Years' History ence in session ; she was presented, and responded briefly and graciously. The result of this visit was that the Bishop and Dr. Rust "approved of the woman's work that had been in- augurated by Mrs. Hartzell," and arranged that it should be, for the time being, reported through the Freedmen's Aid Society, and that Mrs. Rust went away fired with the resolve to work for the organiza- tion of a Society that should bring Northern women to see the desperate need of the poor black women and children of the Southland. She sent out there- after appeals through the Church press and by per- sonal efforts aided in securing funds for the promo- tion and support of the work. Of the work inaugurated by Mrs. Hartzell, and above referred to, she herself says : ''The first regular mission school started by me, and taught by white missionaries in my employ, was at Wesley Chapel in the winter of 1877 and 1878. It was taught by Mrs. Ryder, Mrs. Hathaway, and another lady. I became personally responsible for the regular salaries of the missionaries and for the rent and furnishings of their home." With every succeeding year the field widened, and the calls became more impressive. In the summer of 1878, while the pall of the yellow fever scourge was hanging over the South, and while Mrs. Hartzell Beginnings 23 was in the North, letters came to her from Louisiana, saying, "We are praying for you. Sister Hartzell, our old colored sisters are praying that you may be able to bring back with you missionaries and teachers who will take our daughters and save them." ''In the midst of death those mothers dreamed of a life of purity for their daughters, such as they had not known themselves !" Her heart replied, "I dare not refuse to be used of God in answering those mothers' prayers. Lord, do with me what seemeth good in thy sight." With much natural timidity, she went in fear and trembling before the people, visiting pastors and ladies and Churches, and appealing for help. The Lord wonderfully owned her labors. i\s a conse- quence, she secured, during that summer and fall, $700.70, with which the work for the winter was carried forward. Four white missionaries were employed this year, eight sewing schools kept in operation, and a head- quarters for the work was maintained. The homes were visited, and instruction given in matters pertaining to home life, personal habits, cleanliness, and propriety. "In this way, from one hundred to one hundred and fifty homes were reached weekly. Mothers' ^Meetings were largely attended, and frequently the schools were turned into jM'ayer-meetings, and every effort was made to lead the people to Christ. Thus during 24 Twenty Years' History the winter over five hundred girls and women were brought under the influence and care of the mission- aries, and many were converted." In the fall of 1879, ^^^^ work was continued and enlarged, and seven missionaries were at work. "In several of the Churches, where these schools were be- ing conducted, gracious revivals occurred, and, in one, over one hundred souls were saved." Among the white missionaries employed by Mrs. Hartzell were: Mrs. M. A. Ryder, Mrs. Hathaway, Miss Josephine Cowgill, Miss Kilgore, Miss Page, Mrs. Williams, Miss Emma Tracy, Mrs. Joan Bently, and Mrs. Dupre. One of these. Miss Josephine Cow- gill, was the first missionary employed here by the Woman's Home Missionary Society after its formal organization, and she rendered efficient service in this field for nine years, organizing and supervising mis- sion schools, and doing the work of an evangelist. Of the colored workers there were : Miss Josephine Hale, Miss Taylor, Mrs. Grant, Mr. Dale, and Mr. Henry Weber. Of this period Mrs. Rust writes : '^During the winter of 1879 ^^^ ^^^^ there were thirteen little mission schools taught by students of the university. They were partly self-supporting, but we found it necessary to give to the teachers from five to eight dollars per month to supplement what they Beginnings 25 received. Mrs. Hartzell visited these schools, and secured that they all should be reported to the Freed- men's Aid Society." During the winter of 1879 and 1880, at Orange- burg, S. C, under the care of ^Irs. L. M. Dunton, and in the spring of 1880, at Atlanta, Ga.,* under the inspiration of the Freedmen's Aid work there in the hands of Dr. E. O. Thayer and the teachers of Clark University, certain movements were inaugu- rated which prepared the way for the work of the Woman's Home Missionary Society in those sections. At both these points the Society, when afterwards organized, found its work waiting ready to hand, and these two missions were adopted almost simultane- ously with those which had been in operation for a longer time in New Orleans. ORGANIZATION OF THE WOMAN'S HOME MISSIONARY SOCIETY Under the strain of home duties, the care of missions and schools, and the raising of money with which to keep things moving, Mrs. Hartzell's friends realized that her health was failing, and that some way must be devised to place the work in other hands. With this hope in view, she and her husband went to ihe General Conference of ]\Iav, 1880, at Cincinnati, = See •' First Model Home," Chapter IV. 26 Twenty Years' History fully expecting that, under the inspiration of that great body, it would be easy to secure the long-looked- for ''home organization." Much to their disappoint- ment, in the rush of other interests, the matter was ignored. Some of those previously most optimistic were disposed to doubt the expediency of another So- ciety, and met Mrs. Hartzell's private appeals with such statements as : ''It can not be done." "People in Cincinnati are not interested in the Negro, and work for the freedmen is unpopular ;" and, "most of the prominent ladies are absorbed in the work of the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society." There was "no room in the inn." The General Conference came to a close, and nothing was done. Highly commend- atory notice of the work accomplished had been placed upon record, the brethren smiled approval, but provided no measures of relief. "The agony of that hour," says Mrs. Hartzell, "I can never forget. I was crushed. How could I go home to those colored mothers who were praying for me, and tell them that the Northern women were not interested in them !" The following Friday, Dr. A. B. Leonard, then Pre- siding Elder of Cincinnati District, called on Dr. and Mrs. Hartzell, and almost immediately asked : "How is your Home organization coming on?" She told Beginnings 27 him. "That," said Dr. ivconard, "is all a mistake. There are plenty of good women here who will take hold and lead if the subject is presented to them. You }Ourself should niake the address. They will listen to you gladly, for you and your husband have lived and worked among the freed people for years." And Rev. J. N. Irvin, coming in just then, said, ''And I will give the ladies the use of my church, Trinity, next Monday afternoon." And so it was arranged that ]\Irs. Rust should preside, and Mrs. Hartzell make the appeal, and, the following Sunday, notices were read in most of the churches of Cincinnati and suburbs, calling the women together for a meet- ing at Trinity Church at 2 P. M., Tuesday, June 8th. (The day had been changed from Monday to Tues- day.) Thus, by God's blessing, was victory snatched from imminent defeat. The meeting \yas held, and it was resolved "to form a Woman's Home Missionary Society, with rec- ommendation for special attention to the Southern field." It was not a large gathering, but composed of representative women, most of them eager for an organization. Mrs. Rust explained the object of the call, and Mrs. Hartzell set forth the imperative need of a Woman's Home Missionary Society. In an editorial in the Western Christian Advocate of the week 28 Twenty Years' History following may be found a passage copied from the Cincinnati Daily Gazette of June 9, 1880, which reads: "About fifty ladies, members of the Methodist Episcopal Church in this city, met in the lecture- room of Trinity Church yesterday afternoon to con- fer together concerning the organization of a Society having for its purpose the amelioration of the con- dition of the freedwomen of the South. . . . Mrs. R. S. Rust presided at the meeting, and the needs of the work and the methods proposed were set forth by Mrs. J. C. Hartzell, who is at the head of the local movement in New Orleans. . . . The ladies mani- fested a willingness to organize for similar work, but Mrs. J. L. Whetstone, who had recently returned from an extended visit in the South, urged the importance of extending it to the white popula- tion as well. A Committee was appointed, viz : Mrs. R. S. Rust, Mrs. Bishop Wiley, Mrs. John Davis, Mrs. A. R. Clark, and Mrs. James Dale, to consult with the Freedmen's Aid Society as to the form of organization." Other meetings followed, continued for weeks, sometimes two in a week, until July, by which time there was somewhat of an organization, weak and trembling, but determined. Mrs. R. S. Rust, Mrs. Francis S. Hoyt, and Mrs. J. L. Whetstone had been appointed a Committee to frame a constitution. Many hours of earnest thought and consultation were given to this work by these Beginnings 29 ladies, and, at a meeting held July 6th at Trinity Church, they presented a report, which was adopted. The instrument then and there approved, and which has remained, in all its principal features, un- changed for twenty years, had not its counterpart elsewhere in the Church. The Woman's Foreign ]\Iis- sionary Society, then eleven years old, was composed of seven (active) co-ordinate branches without gen- eral officers. The new Society proposed a central headquarters, with a connectional Board of Officers, consisting of a President, five Vice-Presidents, a Cor- responding and a Recording Secretary, a Treasurer, and twelve resident managers. It was provided that these twenty-one members should constitute the Gen- eral Executive Board (later known as the Board of Trustees), which should be competent to transact busi- ness in the interim of the Annual Meetings of the So- ciety. Thorough organization of the Conferences was provided for, and in the highest executive body, the General Board of Managers, which should convene annually, each organized Conference was to be repre- sented. "Our greatest difficulty," says one of the founders, "was to secure a President." Mrs. Hoyt was elected, but declined. Many were willing to work, but all shrank from assuming official responsibility. For an entire month the question was weighed and de- 30 Twenty Years' History bated. The Committee on Nominations, consisting of Mrs. Bishop Wiley, Mrs. Rust, Mrs. A. R. Clark, and Mrs. Comegys, were instructed to make final re- port to an adjourned meeting to be held July loth, at four o'clock, in Trinity Church. Up to the night before, no one had been found available ; they spent the evening in anxious, prayerful conference. Dr. Rust, too, was deeply concerned. There was much prayer for divine direction. In the small hours of the morning, Mrs. Rust was awakened by her hus- band with the words, "Elizabeth, I have found your President, Mrs. Rutherford B. Hayes." The answer had come. The next day the report of the Com- mittee was received, first with surprise and question- ing, then with hopeful enthusiasm. Would she ac- cept it? Would their action occasion invidious com- ment and criticism? Would their motives be mis- construed? Trusting in God and believing in his guidance, they decided to forward their request to Airs. Hayes through Mrs. Rust, and abide by her decision. Mrs. Hayes was at this time in the White House, and preoccupied with her duties as wife of the Presi- dent, but, as a devout Christian and loyal Meth- odist, she cheerfully accepted, though with her native humility, the profifered responsibility. Subsequent events proved the wisdom of the choice. Honored B ginnings 31 everywhere as not only the "first lady of the land," but as a woman of rare strength and beauty of char- acter, her influence was of inestimable value to the Society. Intensely patriotic, she who had followed her soldier husband through the vicissitudes of the war for the Union, knew how vital to her country's welfare was the elevation of the race so long enslaved. It was supremely fitting that one who had made her own home famous as a model for temperance, purity, and piety, and so had "stood bravel}' for the sake of every home in the land," should become the first President of the Woman's Home Missionary Society of her own Church. She was not a figurehead, chosen, as some have imagined, merely foi her high station. She was a woman of fine capacity, broad culture, and beautiful self-poise, profoundly im- pressed with a sense of her personal responsibility to God and his work. "She was God's gift to us," said Mrs. Dale, many years later. "He surely sent Dr. Rust that thought in the night season." Her worth to the vSociety is evidenced by the efforts she made to be preserit at its business meetings in Cincinnati, by the wisdom of her counsels and her zeal for the success of its enterprises, not less than by the inspir- ing addresses, to which every year large audiences listened at the opening sessions of the Annual Meet- 32 Twenty Years' History ings. For nearly nine years she honored the position, and then she 'Svas not, for God took her," and now — " She walks transfigured in the light That crowns the hills of God." The full list of general officers elected at this time, stands as follows : President, I\Irs. Rutherford B. Hayes ; Vice-Presidents, Mrs. Bishop Wiley, Mrs. F. S. Hoyt, Mrs. Bishop Clark, Mrs. Amos Shinkle, Mrs. J. M. Walden ; Corresponding Secretary, ]\Irs. R. S. Rust; Recording Secretary, Mrs. James Dale ; Treasurer, Mrs. A. R. Clark. The name of Mrs. John Davis was shortly afterward substituted for that of Mrs. Bishop Wiley as First Vice-President, and Mrs. Wiley's name was placed first on the list of the twelve Resident Managers. One of the conditions of Mrs. Hayes's acceptance of the Presidency had been that Mrs. Davis should be her first assistant. With the organization of the Woman's Home Missionary Society, the pressiu'e of responsibility upon Mrs. Hartzell was relieved, and she retired into the privacy of her home life. She should be held in grateful remembrance as one of the first to stir the heart of the Church in behalf of freedwomen. To her tender solicitude for these lowly ones, to her fine insight into the possibilities of a system of or- ganized work among them, to her strenuous exer- tions in the North in the collection of funds for the Beginnings 33 support of these enterprises, and to her final cour- ageous efforts at the close of the General Confer- ence of 1880, must be traced in no small degree the "beginnings" of this great organization. Recog- nition of her valuable services appears in the early "Reports" of Mrs. Rust as Corresponding Secretary, and in other printed documents of the time. "These missions, inaugurated by Mrs. Hartzell, indicated the coming Society as the foothills do the mountains." 4 CHAPTER II SOME OF THE FOUNDERS, AND THE FIRST FIVE YEARS OF THE SOCIETY It was the day of small things, but the few that were identified with the new movement were tre- mendously in earnest, and God was with them. "Too much praise can hardly be given to those first officers, so timid and yet so courageous," said a contemporary observor. Mrs. Hayes was in Washington, and, while her name was a tower of strength to the So- ciety, it was on the little band of women at Cincin- nat that the burden of care and anxiety rested. Upon Mrs. Richard S. Rust, the honored first Corresponding Secretary of the Woman's Home Mis- sionary Society, now devolved the duty of creating interest, fostering sentiment, and promoting organ- ization. Henceforth more conspicuously than any other was she "in the public eye." To the superior natural endowments of this eminent woman were added a high degree of culture and consecrated zeal, while close contact with the work of the Freedmen's 34 Some of the Founders 35 Aid Society, and intimate knowledge of existing conditions among the freed people, completed the equipment which marked her as God's chosen agent for just this emergency in her day and generation. No small part of the service thus given was doubtless rendered in the unsettled time before the formal or- ganization of the Society in June, 1880. Providen- tially was she being prepared for the great work awaiting her. In June, 1876, she had organized an educational movement of value to the colored peo- ple of Cincinnati, known as the "Lincoln Lyceum and Industrial School." This was continued for some years, and included courses of lectures by eminent speakers, and industrial training for women and girls. Although the freed people had first enlisted her sympathies, her altruistic thought speedily took in a wider range of vision, and included in the pro- spective w^ork of the Woman's Home ^Missionary So- ciety other fields, as witness this eloquent extract from an early address: *'From cabins in the South, and Indian wigwams, and adobe houses, and Mormon harems, and Chinese quarters, hands are reaching out to us for help ; wistful, yearning faces are turned to- ward us, pleading wdth mute eloquence for wisdom and guidance." Her distinguishing trait was her extreme opti- mism. An unbounded enthusiasm, shall we not rather 36 Twenty Years' History say a sublime faith, carried her over difficuhies other- wise insurmountable. She had the God-given in- stinct of leadership, and her sisters made no mistake when they called her to this most responsible office in the gift of the Society. When, eighteen years later, the Woman's Home Missionary Society, a stricken sisterhood, came to lay the flowers of memory upon her new-made grave, there was uttered no truer senti- ment than this : ''Wliat a prophetess she was ! Always in the lead, always a step ahead of the rank and file." Standing shoulder to shoulder with Mrs. Rust, as pillars at the portals of the new organization, were other brave women ; Mrs. Hoyt, noted for her strong convictions and judicial turn of mind, and Mrs. Whet- stone, just returned from a sojourn in the South, and from a contact with the work and with the friends of Bishop Gilbert Haven, which had filled her with a burning zeal for the cause he had loved. These three women had shared together the labors and the re- sponsibilities belonging to the ''Committee on Con- stitution." There was scarcely a phase of the work for at least a period of three or four years with which Mrs. Hoyt was not identified. Her husband was editor of the Western Christian Advocate. She moved in the inner circle of Methodist ecclesiastical influence, and thus thoroughly understood the relations of the various Some of the Founders 37 departments of the Church work. Her words carried great weight in the early councils of the Society. ]\Irs. Davis leaned upon her judgment, and called her "the balance wdieel of the Board." She was for many years Auditor and Chairman of the Publication Com- mittee, and Secretary of the Bureau for Middle Southern States. In 1900, by authority of the Board of Trustees, Mrs. Hoyt, conjointly with Mrs. D. L. Williams, prepared and published a work of much merit, entitled "Souvenir Exhibit of the Homes of the Woman's Home Missionary Society." It is a volume of one hundred and forty illustrations, with valuable data accompanying each. Mrs. Whetstone also was one of the few whose deliverances were considered indispensable upon most matters of importance. Being frequently in ill-health, she was not always present at the business sessions of the Board. Then the Board went to her, and, by her bedside, tangled skeins were straightened out, and questions of momentous import w^re solved wath the help of her sweet, motherly spirit and her large liberality. From the days of the seventies, when Mrs. Hartzell went to her for advice and comfort, even pressing her way into the sick chamber when Mrs. Whetstone "could only look and listen" to her earnest plea, through all these twenty years she has held her place as "one of the leaders." Seldom attending an 38 Twenty Years' History Annual Meeting, she has conserved her energies for other forms of service. A prominent leader in the practical direction of the affairs of the Society from the time of her elec- tion as First Vice-President vv^as Mrs. John Davis, of Cincinnati. Years of activity in other lines of charitable work, the Women's Christian Association, the x\ssociated Charities, orphan asylums, and the like, had prepared her for successful achievement in this the crowning interest of her life. To the Board of Trustees, composed of the general officers and twelve resident managers, is committed the admin- istration of the affairs of the Society in the interim between the Annual Meetings of the General Board of Managers. The chairmanship of this body is no sinecure, and to this responsible position was Mrs. Davis at once called, and, in the discharge of its arduous and difficult duties, she remained until, upon the death of Mrs. Hayes nearly nine years later, she became the second President of the Woman's Home Missionary Society. Indeed, from the date of the first Annual Meeting, in the fall of 1882, she shared, with Mrs. Hayes, the public duties contingent upon the office, and became generally known as the "Act- ing President." This was due to a slight deafness which troubled Mrs. Hayes for some years, and made her unwilling to attempt to conduct the business of large assemblies. An intimacy, beginning in girl- Some of the Founders 39 hood, between Airs. Hayes and Mrs. Davis, and cemented into a life-long attachment, made them true yoke-fellows in Christian service, and Mrs. Davis the ever ready substitute of her honored friend. Cheerfully accepting the burdens incident to the routine work of the position, Mrs. Davis had this compensation, that she was brought into close rela- tions with individual members of the Society, and rarely failed to win their love and admiration. Her intercourse with her sisters w^as characterized by that ''universal responsiveness," which made her one with the rank and file, a kindly sympathy which gave a help- ing hand to the most humble and timid among them. When, in October, 1889, the delegates from all over the land assembled in Annual Meeting at Indian- apolis, and looked with sorrowing hearts upon the black-draped chair made vacant by the death of Airs. Hayes, there w-as not a question as to who should fill it. Mrs. Davis had earned the honor by years of actual service, and her loyal co-workers elected her without a dissenting vote. Three years and a half later, February 10, 1893, she passed from labor to reward. She was an acknowledged queen by brilliancy of intellect and social prestige, but a womanly woman, a working leader, a strong soul made gentle by the tenderness of Christ. A factor of power in the success of those earl\- 40 Twenty Years' History years was Mrs. A. R. Clark, the General Treasurer. Her work was trying, because new and unsystema- tized, and there was no established precedent to be followed. But, for a time at least, the financial side was the smallest part of her service. She was an all- round worker. Almost never absent from a meeting, and frequently called into private conference with others of the Board, the wisdom of her counsel was seldom found wanting. Were knotty problems brought to her for solution, her strong, practical, common sense saw straight into the root of the diffi- culty. Few questions were considered settled until they had passed the test of her decision. For twelve years she gave nearly all her time to the work of the Society ; she filled a place in her day which there was no other woman to fill. Among the noble company of the founders of the Woman's Home Missionary Society no name should be held in more grateful remembrance than that of Mrs. A. R. Clark. Welcome financial aid was many times given by her husband, as well as by Dr. Rust. "When we had no money and no credit," says one of the charter mem- bers, "Dr. R. S. Rust and Mr. A. R. Clark often went on our paper, and tided us over the shoals." From June, 1880, to November, 1883, Mrs. James Dale was the Recording Secretary. She was much more than that. She had early been moved by Bishop Some of the Founders 41 Wiley's appeals and 1j\ Mrs. Hartzell's self-sacri- ficing work, and had helped to foster sentiment in her own city in favor of woman's work in the home land. Among- the first to welcome the new organization, she was also among its most faithful and laborious ad- herents. Whether in the administration of its busi- ness affairs or in winning friends to its support, she was instant in season and out of season in its service. The summer vacations which took her to the lakes and the mountains brought no forgetfulness of her self-im- posed task ; for, year after year, she came back bring- ing gifts and singing doxologies of praise. When in November, 1883, her husband was stricken down in a moment during the session of the second Annual Meeting, the Secretary's pen fell from her hand, and for a time all the waves and billow^s went over her. But again she came back and took up the work of the Society with single eye and full consecration of pur- pose. The last nine years of her life were given to the work of the Supply Bureau, which department will be considered at length in its proper relation. Besides these general officers and the five Vice- Presidents previously mentioned, the remaining mem- bers of the Board of Trustees were designated accord- ing to the Constitution as the ''twelve Resident INIan- agers.'' The names placed upon the minutes of the Board at time of organization were: Mrs. I. W. Wilev, 42 Twenty Years' History Mrs. Richard Dymond, Mrs. J. L. Whetstone, Mrs. C. G. Comegys, Mrs. J. Bowman, Mrs. W. F. Thorne, Mrs. A. Wessel, Mrs. E. House, Mrs. John Simpkin- son, Mrs. N. W. Harris, Mrs. H. B. Ridgaway, and Mrs. Ada Wiley Jones. During the succeeding two years Mrs. Bowman, Mrs. Jones, Mrs. Harris, and Mrs. Ridgaway removed from the city, and their places in the Board wxre filled by others. Through these changes the first Annual Report gives the following list of ladies as the resi- dent managers : Mrs. I. W. Wiley, Mrs. Richard Dymond, Mrs. J. L. Whetstone, Mrs. C. G. Comegys, Mrs. J. H. BayHss, Mrs. W. F. Thorne, Mrs. Charles Coffin, Mrs. A. Wessel, Mrs. E. House, Mrs. W. M. Ampt, Mrs. John Simpkinson, and Mrs. Mary Haven Thirkield. What a cluster of glorious names fragrant of good deeds and known throughout the length and breadth of the Church, then and for many years, as the found- ers of the Society and the staunch supporters of its interests in all the days while it was still on probation ! Said Airs. Rust in 1897: ''W^e have great cause to be grateful to God that so many of the strong and good women who were with us at the first are still with us in heart and service." Thus equipped, with Mrs. R. B. Hayes as Presi- dent, Mrs. R. S. Rust as Corresponding Secretary, Some of the Founders 43 Mrs. John Davis as Chairman of the Board of Trus- tees, and a score or more of others equally zealous and capable, the Woman's Home Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church stepped into the arena of the century decked with some of the brightest jewels of its womanhood. These women found no light task awaiting them. Upon the one hand lay the field — "the greatest mis- sion field in the world" — the home mission field, with its thousands of their sisters enslaved by vice and igno- rance and superstition. The cry of these darkened souls had gone up into the ear of God, and upon the members of this new Society had been rolled the bur- den of travail for their redemption. On the other hand stood the Church, with its eighty-eight Conferences and one million women mem- bers, awaiting organization and enlistment in this new wing of the missionary army. And, trusting in the Lord of hosts, the little company of consecrated women stepped boldly into the breach. They marshaled their forces, crystallized their plans, and sent forth their heralds through the land to tell the story. To this duty, that of presenting the new Society to the Conferences and promoting organization, the General Corresponding Secretary, IMrs. Rust, now addressed herself. Accompanying her hus1:»and, the General Secretary of the Freedmen's Aid Society, she 44 Twenty Years' History visited thirteen of the fall Conferences in 1880, and many others in the spring and autumn of the fol- lowing year. In March, 1882, Mrs. Rust, Mrs. John Davis, and Mrs. D. L. Williams visited Nevv^ England and held meetings in a number of the churches in Boston and neighboring cities, and went before the Boston Preachers' Meeting with a plea for recognition and co-operation. ''Twenty-eight spring and fall Con- ferences were visited in 1883 by Mrs. Rust and Mrs. Dunton, and five others by Mrs. Rust alone, making thirty-three in all visited by Mrs. Rust within that year." These long and trying itineraries, which were fraught with labor and anxiety, were carried out at the personal expense of the ladies, for which, in time, the Society made grateful acknowledgment. At the second Annual Meeting, 1883, it was stated that Mrs. Rust had expended over five hundred dollars in this way in the work of 1881 and 1882, and credit being given for the same, she was made an Honorary Patron. For similar reasons, Mrs. Davis was voted an Honor- ary Manager, and Mrs. Bayliss a Life Member. The fruits of this laborious service were very soon apparent. A noticeable feature of the time was the frequency and heartiness with which the brethren, in Conference session assembled, volunteered resolutions of sym- pathy and appreciation, and cheered the infant Society Some of the Founders 45 with words of welcome. At the time of the first Annual Meeting in October, 1882, the enterprise had been ap- proved by formal action in forty-three Annual Con- ferences. Among the bishops, Wiley and Warren were its staunch friends and ever-ready advocates. In most of the Conferences visited, a competent woman had been secured to act as Corresponding Secretary, and Con- ference Societies had been established in at least eleven Conferences. The most efficient among these early Conference organizations were the Cincinnati, Erie, New England, Central Ohio, Ohio, and Rock River. The first local Auxiliary was organized at St. Paul's Church, Delaware, O., July 2'j, 1880, and the second at Reno, Pa., August ist, immediately following. The first public presentation of the cause was made September 4th, at Cincinnati Conference, held at Middletown, O. It was a memorable occasion. Ladies from Cincinnati were in attendance by appoint- ment of the Board, and others came because of their deep interest and anxiety. A preliminary meeting for women was held in the Presbyterian church during the forenoon, and a platform meeting in the Confer- ence room in the afternoon was well attended. Mrs. Davis acted as Chairman, Dr. H. B. Ridgaway con- ducted the devotions, Mrs. Rust presented the need of Home Mission work with special reference to the Southern field, and Dr. C. H. Pavne and Dr. L. D. 46 Twenty Years' History McCabe each advocated prompt and aggressive action by the Society. The extreme caution of the ladies is evidenced by the fact that they went home without having effected an organization for the Cincinnati Conference, al- though greatly encouraged by the reception given them and by the gift of fifty dollars, which was handed to the Corresponding Secretary at its close by Mrs. Me- harry, this being the largest contribution yet received. September 25th of the same year, after a similiar service at the Erie Conference, held at Corry, Pa., Mrs, Rust organized the ''Erie Conference Woman's Home Missionary Society," which has, therefore, the honor of being the oldest Conference organization in the Church. And so on, from point to point, the indefatigable workers advanced, sometimes discouraged, sometimes jubilant. Often enthusiasm ran high. The conscience of the Church was aroused, and men and women were startled into conviction of the truth of the saying, ''The heathen are at our door." Africa as a mission field was eclipsed by the "Little Africa" below A^lason and Dixon's line. The action of the General Conference in approving of the work as reported through the Freedmen's Aid Society, the faith and courage of the women engaged in the work, the emphatic approval of dignitaries and statesmen who do not often con- Some of the Founders 47 corn themselves about "women's doings," but, most of all, the presentation of the tremendous moral issues involved, seemed for a time to promise a career of unparalleled success. But the biggest wave of popularity on the shore of a social or moral agitation has an undertow of op- position. Some were still found to deny the need of such a movement or to affirm that existing organiza- tions were sufficient to reach it, and many, preoccupied with other branches of Church work, hesitated to ad- mit another claimant upon their sympathies and bounty, and the brave sisters were often saddened by indifference or hostility where they had most hope- fully looked for co-operation. Help for freed people was not in all quarters a popular subject, and many, even among the workers, were slow to perceive that God's thought for the Church in this work was not to be limited to one race or one section of our country. In three different localities where the ground had providentially been prepared, the Society now simulta- n.eously adopted work already begun. That at New Orleans has been described at length. Miss Cowgill was formally adopted by the Board in the summer of 1880; also Miss Beeken and Airs. E. C. Williams. They continued the work as previously conducted under Mrs. Hartzell's direction. In South Carolina, in the territorv of the South 48 Twenty Years' History Carolina Conference, a unique line of mission work had been introduced by Mrs. L. M. Dunton. Dr. Dunton, of Syracuse, N. Y., a cultured, scholarly Christian minister, left his home in the North soon after the war in search of health, and found in the South, not only returning strength and vigor, but his life-work. Scattered upon a thousand hills he saw these poor black lambs of the flock without a shep- herd and a prey to all that was evil, and thenceforth he and his devoted wife consecrated their lives to the redemption of the Negro. For four years prior to 1882, at which time he became President of the Claflin University, at Orangeburg, S. C, Dr. Dunton served as Presiding Elder on Greenville District. His wife traveled with him over this large section of eighty charges, visiting the colored people in their cabins and giving the women instruction in the laws of health and the practical moralities of the Christian home. She organized Sunday-schools in nearly every charge with an average attendance of seventy-five. Juvenile Tem- perance Bands in almost every Sunday-school, and Woman's Christian Temperance Unions among the women. It was said of her in 1882 : ''Through her in- fluence eight thousand five hundred have signed the pledge on this district, and the Prohibtion ticket triumphed at the polls." The beginning of Mrs. Dun- ton's special work was under the advice and direction Some of the Founders 49 of Bishop H. W. Warren, who gave hberally of his means and collected funds for its support. When the Woman's Home Missionary Society came into being, this field was given immediate attention, and i\lrs. Dunton was requested to continue her labors, which she did with great success, thenceforward reporting to that Society. These experiences eminently fitted her to stand by Mrs. Rust's side in many a Northern Conference and in other assemblages wdiere they conjointly presented the work and enlisted hosts of sympathizers. In more than one of the strong Conference organizations of the North and East the women remember with gratitude the days when these able addresses inspired them to say, ''We will gladly help in such good work as this." The third in order of inception in its actual work was that at Atlanta, Ga. Miss Sibyl Abbott, of Bethel, Me., had come to Atlanta early in April, 1880, and was soon drawn into an effort for bettering the condition of the colored people. During that spring and summer she did much visiting among them, and, with the help of Mrs. C. C. Mitchell, matron in Clark University (Freedmen's Aid school), taught a day-school, a sew- ing-school, and, with the additional help of ]\Irs. Mitchell's daughters, supervised a Sunday-school. Bishop Gilbert Haven, who had but recently died, had been peculiarly identified with tlio interests of 50 Twenty Years' History the freedmen, and had held his episcopal residence in that city. A five-dollar gold piece sent to Mrs. Rust by the mother of the bishop, with the words, "For your work among freedwomen," was made the opportunity for an appeal, which was inserted in the Church papers, for money to sustain a missionary at Atlanta. Within three weeks Miss Abbott, being providentially on the ground, received and accepted a proposal to continue her work under the auspices of the Woman's Home Missionary Society. As (by a priority of only a few days) this w^as the first mission to be officially recognized by the Society after its organization, and Miss Abbott the first of the workers to be adopted and employed by it, Mrs. Haven's gift is technically spoken of as ''the first contribution," and Miss Abbott's name appears upon its records ''as the first missionary." At each of the three stations just quoted, the work developed later into ''model homes;" at Atlanta, Thayer Home; at Orangeburg, Simpson Home; and at New Orleans, Peck Home. These will be severally considered in order. In the winter of 1880-81, Mrs. M. C. Bristol, of Xenia, O., w^as sent to Altanta, and Miss James to Cliattanooga. In January, 1882, Mrs. Bristol was transferred to Savannah, Ga., to inaugurate work there with Mrs. S. M. Lewis, and two ladies went to labor in Nashville. Some of the Founders 51 Very soon great pressure was brought to bear upon the managers to open work in Utah. In view of the peril to our Christian institutions from Alor- monism, and the need for woman's work to supple- ment the efforts of the General Missionary Society in that territory, prompt action seemed imperative, and, in November, JMiss Smith began work at Ogden, and, in December, Miss Bardwell at Salt Lake City, where ]\liss Stevens joined her in January, 1881. The first hint of a 'Tlome," which is found upon the records of the Society — that word which was later to figure so frequently in its reports — is in a ref- erance to a "Home for our missionaries in Savannah," which, though small and insufficient, was found to be a comfort and a help. It was a rented house, fur- nished by friends in Cincinnati. ''Furnishings" were also provided for the missionaries at Nashville. By far the most significant undertaking of the time was the proposition to build at Salt Lake City, Utah, a ''boarding hall," or Home, for the students of Salt Lake Seminary, the mission-school of the General Missionary Board there. The Society appealed to the Church for five thousand dollars for this purpose, and the success of the project was assured when it was found at the first Annual Meeting that of this amount one thousand and twenty-four dollars had been se- cured, fourteen Conferences ha\ing contril)ute(l to 52 Twenty Years' History the fund. The following year showed a large in- crease^ and, in time, the enterprise was carried to completion. We see in this, that as in the South the Woman's Home Missionary Society had endeavored to supple- ment the work of the Freedmen's Aid Society, so in the West it proved itself the handmaiden of the Gen- eral Missionary Society. The first Annual Meeting of the Woman's Home Missionary Society was held in Cincinnati at St. Paul Church, October 30, 1882. The Board of Managers had not previously been called together since organiza- tion. ''We were too small and too weak," says the Re- cording Secretary. ''An anniversary," says Mrs. Rust, "had been held in Cincinnati in 1881, which was felt to be "the culmination of the year's work." Business of grave importance was being transacted by the Board of Trustees, and organization throughout the Church was being pushed forward as rapidly as prac- ticable. All-day meetings were held at camp-meet- ings and summer assemblies, notably at Lakeside, O., and at Chautauqua, N. Y. The latter, July 28, 1882, was especially significant. "Previous to that time Bishop Vincent had never introduced a lady on a public platform, but on this occasion he presented Mrs. Hayes, Mrs. Davis, and Mrs. Rust, with very gracious and complimentary speech. Dr. John M. Some of the Founders 53 Reid, Missionary Secretary of the parent Board, made the morning- address, which was printed and sent broadcast through the country, and Bishop Wiley spoke in the evening to a large audience. At the first An- nual Meeting, October 31, 1882, Dr. Isaac J. Lansing delivered the anniversary address, and, in the busi- ness session, a motion was carried to inaugurate a "model Home" at Atlanta. This first year was a time which sorely tested both the faith and the wisdom of the Board of Trus- tees. With so many workers in the field and organ- ization in the Churches but crudely established, the relation between supply and demand was irregular and uncertain. But enthusiasm and faith triumphed, and the advice of Dr. Rust, that good friend of the cause, *'Do something, and tell the people about it, and then they will help you," seemed to be accepted as one of the maxims of the Society. The ventures were made, but not every one knew that this same friend stand- ing back of the treasury, ready to help in every emer- gency, was often the secret of success and safety. Seven missionaries were in the field that first winter looking to the Society for financial support, and it is said ''the necessary checks were drawn once a month and Dr. Rust indorsed them all," trusting to the future of the Society for reimbursement. The divine leadership was never more clearly dem- 54 Twenty Years' History onstrated. They walked by faith, and not by sight. They planned without money and went forward, and, in time, the money came — God honored their faith. At the time of the first meeting of the General Board of Managers, October, 1882, four thousand four hun- dred dollars had been expended, with a deficit of nine hundred and ten dollars. The second Annual Meeting, which was also held in St. Paul Church, Cincinnati, convened November 20, 1883, and was in session for three days. The principal features of the meeting were the large number of interesting reports from missionaries and teachers in the field, the strong plea made for mis- sions in Utah, the erection of the "Home" in Salt Lake City reported as an accomplished fact, and the general hopefulness of the outlook in all quarters. The Treasurer's report showed a large increase in receipts over the previous year, and that the Society was free from debt. With a feeling of profound thank- fulness the Convention assumed for the coming year the enlarged appropriation of twenty thousand dollars. Courage and faith were fast banishing fear and timidity. The year 1882-83 was a crucial time in the history of the infant Society. In May of the follow- ing year the General Conference would be held, to which must be presented a quadrennial report, and a Some of the Founders 55 Constitution properly formulated for definite adop- tion. It was necessary that the relation of the So- ciety to other branches of Church work should be carefully defined. Its relation to the Freedmen's Aid Society had been settled. Its relations with the Gen- eral Missionary Society of the Church was still in doubt. It was desirable to obtain the co-operation of that Society in such a way as should best advance the interests of the work. The question arose, would that end be best promoted by becoming Auxiliary to the larger body, or by maintaining an independent organization. The desire of the parent Board was doubtless well voiced in the utterances of its Corre- sponding Secretary, Dr. J. M. Reid, when, at Chau- tauqua, he said : ''We want to pass over to you all our mission schools in Utah, in New Mexico, and in Arizona, and among the Indians." But the conditions offered, viz., that the General Missionary Society should act as trustee for the Woman's Home Mission- ary Socity, and that the Treasurer of the former should become the Treasurer of the latter,''' were not to be ac- cepted without question. The women were divided in sentiment, and the contest was close and covered a period of many months. Mrs. Hoyt and Airs. Dale, as before, and some others, stood staunchly for independ- *See Third Annual Report Woman's Home Missionary Society, pages 75 and 76. 56 Twenty Years' History ence, and carried the day. Co-operation with all existing branches of Church work, and loyal sub- mission to the jurisdiction of the Missionary Com- mittee in the field, were pledged by the Woman's Home Missionary Society in its revised Constitution, which was sent up to the General Conference of 1884 for approval. The third Annual Meeting, which was held at Cleveland, O., October, 1884, was the first to convene outside the city of Cincinnati. From the impressive address of Mrs. Hayes at the opening session, to the comprehensive resume of the four years' work by Mrs. Hoyt at the close, it had in it the ring of victory. New life and inspiration and energy permeated the body. The secret of this is found in the conclusive action of the General Conference of that year, by which the Society had been taken into ''full connection" with the Church. It was no longer on probation. A growing vine, after slowly pushing its way by patient delving of roots down into the subsoil, suddenly surprises us some fair day by throwing out right and left the numerous tendrils by which later it lifts itself far into the sunlight. So that period of the history of the Woman's Home Missionary Society, about the years 1884 and 1885, was characterized by un- expected expansion of plans and methods. Four Some of the Founders 57 years of slow growth had brought strength to the roots and fiber to the stalk. Some of these more prominent features were the formation of "lUireaus," the publication of a paper, the development of a Supply department, the appoint- ment of a General Organizer, the movement for a training-school in Chicago, and the origin of "Mothers' Jewels." Two classes only of those needing help had thus far received the direct attention of the Society, the freed people of the South and the Mormons of Utah, but already the increasing care of these missions was proving burdensome to the general officers. Just previous to the Annual Meeting of 1883, Airs. Davis had said, in a meeting of the Board of Trustees, "Why can not we have a division of labor something like the bureaus arranged by the United States Govern- ment?" Mrs. Hoyt took up the suggestion, and formulated a plan, which was brought in with rec- ommendations and nominations to the ensuing An- nual Meeting, 1883. These Bureaus were for infor- mation onl}-, and did not carry adniinistrative functions. Following this, we find upon the pages of the Annual Report of that year a list of seven Bureaus, with Secre- taries as follows : For Colored People, Mrs. E. L. Rust, Secretary ; Alormons, Mrs. A. F. Newman ; Indians, 58 Twenty Years' History Mrs. H. C. McCabe; Illiterate Whites, Mrs. A. C. Knight; New Mexico, Mrs. A. R. Clark; Chinese, Mrs. J. H. Bayliss ; and Western Frontier, Mrs. C. F. Springer. At the Annual Meeting, 1884, they were heard from in due order for the first time with their re- ports. Only the two first named, as already stated, could report actual mission work in progress, but that the territory of the others was not all on paper, is dem- onstrated by the rapid development made by most of them in the years just succeeding. The Bureau for Frontiers, under the care of Mrs. C. F. Springer, was Auxiliary to the Bureau of Supplies, Mrs. J. L. Whetstone, Superintendent, and the former very soon became absorbed into the latter. The necessity for providing helpers to the Corre- sponding Secretary in the work of organization was recognized in 1884 by the appointment of Mrs. Jennie Fowler Willing as General Organizer. She held the office by authority of the Board of Trustees as paid agent, and was the only salaried officer of the Society. Her reports were made to that Board, and not to the Board of Managers. A woman of brain and cul- ture, and a silver-tongued orator, Mrs. Willing did good work for the Society during the next two years, traveling hundreds of miles in its interest. She was one of the five Vice-Presidents from 1886 to 1893. Among other ladies who promoted organization Some of the Founders 59 in the Conferences might be named Mrs. Bishop Wiley, Mrs. Angie F. Newman, Mrs. E. E. Marcv, Mrs. John Davis, and Mrs. Colonel Springer. Abnndant evidence of the advance of the Society at this period may be seen by reference to the exten- sion of its work, the purchase and erection of new buildings, and the improvement of those already in use. A valuable property at Savannah, Ga., was secured through the efforts of Mrs. Whetstone. (Sec Haven Home.) A new building at Orangeburg, S. C, was a trib- ute of love from the ladies of Philadelphia. (See Simpson Home.) At Holly Springs, Miss., a beautiful property (see B. L. Rust Home) came into possession of the Society. A new building at Atlanta was projected (see Thayer Home), and Davis Hall (see Utah) was al- ready in operation. It is w^orthy of note that at the Annual Meeting, 1884, the Society felt warranted in making an appro- priation of thirty-six thousand and nine hundred dollars, being more than double the amount received the previous year, and the Treasurer's report of 1885 shows that thirty-five thousand and thirty-five dollars had been raised. In November, 1884, just following the close of the Cleveland meeting, steps were taken by the Board 6o Twenty Years' History of Trustees to secure the legal incorporation of the Society under the laws of the State of Ohio. This was consummated under date of November 24th. The fourth Annual Meeting, held at Arch Street Methodist Episcopal Church, Philadelphia, October 23-28, 1885, indicated a rising tide of public interest. The beautiful building, at the time of its erection one of the finest Church edifices in Methodism, was daily thronged with large and attentive audiences. Mrs. Hayes graced the platform at each session, and her opening address gave the keynote to the meeting. Doubtless, large numbers came out of curiosity to see this former ''First Lady of the Land," who had become famous not only through the pomp of cir- cumstance, but even more so because of her refusal to allow the use of wine in the White House during her rule as its mistress. But many of those who came to see, remained to hear, and went away and came again and again to work and give and pray for the cause. So the Father makes all the talents of his children, even those of secular place and power, to redound to his glory, if humbly and conscientiously devoted to his service. Thus was being demonstrated to the Society his leadership, in its choice of this royal woman as its first President. The session was also remarkable for the many distinguished speakers of both sexes, who, from time Some of the Founders 6i to time, contributed to "tiie feast of reason and flow of soul." The personnel of the body itself was, as al- ways, imposing. Besides the company of "founders," many notable women, not named among them, had now come to the front as active and acceptable workers. Mrs. Davis, the right hand of the President, stood by her side, acknowledging a debt of lifelong friendship by relieving her of the routine of busi- ness. Her address, as Chairman of the Board of Trustees, was full of practical suggestions and unify- ing sympathy. Mrs. Rust had come into the full stature of her office as Corresponding Secretary. Mrs. F. A. Aiken, who, since November, 1883, had filled the chair of the Recording Secretary, had al- ready proved her worth as a painstaking and effi- cient officer. Succeeding years of service have con- tinued to demonstrate her value, not only as an ac- curate scribe, but as an intelligent and prudent adviser. She had as her able assistants at this meeting Mrs. W. A. Ingham, Miss Martha Van Marter, and Miss Mary A. Lathbury, all well known in literary circles. Mrs. A. R. Clark, the laborious and faithful Treasurer; Mrs. J. F. Willing, the eloquent; :\[rs. II. C. McCabe, the rising editor, the friend of the Indian, and of every good cause, always a lovable personality ; j\Irs. S. W. Thomson, of Delaware, O., the capable publislier; Mrs. Henry W^ade Rogers, cultured and intellectual ; 62 Twenty Years' History Miss Jennie M. Bingham, jnst beginning to make her mark in current Uterature ; and Mrs. E. E. Marcy, the poet-scholar, were all prominent factors in the suc- cess of this meeting. There were also Mrs. Bishop Walden, the tried and true; Mrs. E. V. Culver, of Reno, Pa., one of the "charter members;" Mrs. J. I. Boswell, who made a beautiful ''response" to the ad- dress of welcome; Mrs. James Mather, who, by her gifts and a private enterprise at Camden, S. C, had won the right to be valued in a peculiar sense among the "pioneers" in work for freed people; and Mrs. N. C. Alger, Mrs. A. C. Morrow, Mrs. N. M. Browne, and Mrs. C. W. Smith, each a distinct and influ- ential personality. Among those who were later to make themselves potentially felt in the work of the Society, we find such names as Mrs. Anna Kent, Mrs. G. E. Palen, Mrs. A. DeGroot, Mrs. B. F. Ham, Mrs. E. W. Simpson, Mrs. C. W. Bickley, Mrs. S. T. Drake, Mrs. W. L. Boswell, and Mrs. H. C. Hedges. Two notable personages appeared upon the plat- form of this Convention, each making an impression of strength and individuality, and both destined to occupy places of great responsibility and honor in the future of the organization. Mrs. Delia Lathrop Williams, of Delaware, O., the strong, clear thinker, wise in counsel, impressive in speech, and always bear- ing the interests of the Society upon her heart, had al- Some of the Founders 63 ready come to fill a high place in the regard of her sisters. Growing with the years in influence and usefulness, she became, in 1896, at the call of the So- ciety, the honored guardian of its treasury ; and when, two years later, the portfolio of the General Corre- sponding Secretary fell from the hands of the lamented Mrs. E. L. Rust, no one was found so worthy to take it up as her friend and co-worker, Mrs. Williams. Among the great names which marked the roster of this exceptional gathering was that of Mrs. Clin- ton B. Fisk. Breezy and stinuilating, her very pres- ence inspired hope for the future of the Society, which she w^as one day to grace as its head. With her hon- ored husband, Mrs. Fisk early cast the weight of her cordial approval upon the side of the Woman's Home Missionary Society, and later her comrades recog- nized her loyalty by elevating her to the highest office in the gift of the organization. Of the missionaries present, i\Iiss Josephine Cow- gill, one of the first representatives of the Society at New Orleans, and Miss Ella J. Betts, the first at Orangeburg, spoke of the work in those Southern fields. Mrs. Isabella Spurlock, who had been for four years a missionary in Utah, saddened all hearts with the story of what her eyes had seen, and her ears had heard of the unspeakable horrors of Mormonism. Mrs. R. W. P. Gofi^, of Bryn Mawr, Philadelphia Some of the Founders 65 Association, eloquently protraycd the wrongs of the Indians. Mrs. Dunton, from twelve years of labor among freedwomen, came to tell of their needs, and the success and adaptability of the "model Home." And the matchless Frances E. Willard, with her as- sistant, Anna Gordon, brought greetings from the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, that great organization which stands side by side in aims and sympathy with the Woman's Home Missionary Society. The clergy were represented by Dr. A. Longacre, the pastor of the Church, who extended the right hand of fellowship in the name of the ministry of the city as well as of his parishioners; by Dr. (afterwards Bishop) J. H. Vincent, Dr. J. M. Buckley, Bishop Walden, Dr. A. J. Kynett, Dr. J. M. Reid, Dr. J. M. King, Dr. McCartney, Rev. P. A. Franklin, of Utah ; and Dr. A. G. Haygood, of Georgia, afterwards one of the bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church, vSouth. The enthusiastic "God be with you" of these dis- tinguished brethren was like "cold waters to a thirsty soul" to the tired toilers, and when they had looked into their faces and heard their words, they "thanked God and took courage," and went in the strength of that inspiration "many days." While the personnel of the fourth Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, 1885, was imposing, and the esprit de 66 Twenty Years' History corps sanguine, as is indicated by the many "fine speeches" left on record, there was much more in it than mere sentiment and enthusiasm. The reports for the year show a steady increase in the amount of work accompUshed, both in the mission fields and in the more thorough organization of the Society. Apropos of the latter, from fourteen Conferences organized in the first year, the number had increased to forty-one in this the fourth year, and delegates were present, at this meeting, from fourteen States and thirty-three Conferences. Everywhere like tiny root- lets the Auxiliaries had been spreading, all uniting to form one strong, symmetrical body ; this body in turn branching out into a multitude of directions, must wisely give out what it had thus received. The cor- relative adjustment of these branches demanded the wisest insight and forethought. Bureaus had been ordained to this end two years previous, "Bureaus of Information," each consisting of a Secretary and Assistant, who were supposed to collect information concerning their several fields, systematize it, and forward, with recommendations, to the Board of Trustees. "The theory," says Mrs. Davis in her annual address, "has fallen short of all we hoped." Further, she adds: "We now come to you asking that the original Bureaus be clothed with enlarged responsibilities, believing, as we do, that this Some of the Founders 67 is the most important subject that will come up for deliberation at this meeting." The territory of the field was divided into sections, a Bureau assigned to each, and a by-law adopted which read : ''Each Bureau shall have entire responsibility, in its own field, of exe- cuting all the plans and applying all the funds as or- dered by the Annual Meeting." The colored work was divided into four parts, the East Southern, West Southern, Middle Southern, and Texas Bureaus, each having from three to eight Homes either in operation or in prospect. The Bureau for Mormons and for Indians each reported encouraging progress, while others, as, for instance, the Bureaus for New Mexico, Alaska, and the Chinese, had been spying out the land, and brought back, not Eshcol grapes, but such appeals to the mother heart of the Church as led it to crv out, ''O Lord, how lonij shall such deeds be done in a Christian land ?" From the time of the fourth Annual Meeting the Bureaus have accepted heavy responsibilities, and the Secretaries have borne their full share of the burden and heat of the day. No position in the gift of the Society involves a larger outlay of power — physical, mental, and spirit- ual — than sometimes falls to the lot of these faithful servants of the Master. The supervision of building enterprises, the care of property, the adjustment of 68 Twenty Years' History unforeseen complications in the Homes, and the pre- sentation of the Bureau to the pubUc in such a way as to secure for it the needed financial support — these responsibilities call for qualifications of a very high order. And the Bureau Secretaries, cheerfully and without pecuniary compensation, have accepted the trust and carried the burden. Not without reward, for they "look, not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen." Emphasis was laid, too, upon the Constitutional provision by which Conference Societies were em- powered to undertake "special work" in the field, thus forming Committees which were to co-operate with the Bureaus covering the territory in which such special work was located. These Conference Committees on Special Homes were to be held subordinate to the Bureau with which they were allied. Some modifications of the earlier methods of such Committees were found advisable, so that later we find very few Conferences confining their gifts and their sympathies to any one special work, but rather, by taking a due proportion of shares in a great variety of departments, they cultivate a broad philanthropy embracing the whole Woman's Home Missionary Society. CHAPTER III BRANCHING OUT Having given the reader an outline of the preHm- inary movements leading up to the organization, an introduction to some of the more prominent workers, and a bird's-eye view of the first five years of the work of the Society, the historian will now endeavor to trace, in separate detail, the rise and progress of its individual enterprises. ORGAN OF THE SOCIETY Every organization whose work is done ''not in a corner" needs a herald to go before it, to report its doings and to announce its progress. One of the most important movements in the early history of the Woman's Home IMissionary Society was that which led to the publication of a paper. With the first year of the Society's existence capable women were appointed to furnish to the various Church papers frequent articles containing informa- tion as to its work. This was faithfully done, and much interesting home missionary intelligence thus 69 70 Twenty Years' History found its way into the public prints. But it was an inadequate provision. Like a child learning to talk, the youngster was bursting with an ambition to make itself heard — to be known by a language of its own. At the second Annual Meeting, after a suggestive ''Re- port on Official Organ," by Mrs. A. R. Clark, ''it was moved and carried that a monthly paper be published by the Society." The following day the action was reconsidered; the ghost of an empty treasury had risen in the night-time and thrown its warning shadow upon the struggling enterprise. The whole subject was referred to the "Committee on Finance and Mis- sion Fields," and later all unfinished business was left to the same Committee. A meeting was called for the next morning, Friday, November 23d. The place was a little classroom in St. Paul Church "where this child first saw the light." "After much earnest thought, long discussion, and many prayers for Divine guidance, it was finally de- cided to pubHsh a paper." "Then," to quote from an eyewitness, "what a hush fell upon us ! We seemed weighed down and speechless under this new responsi- bility when, in solemn, measured tones, Mrs. Whet- stone broke the silence with 'Name this child.' It was named for its mother — 'Woman s Home Mis- sions' — and then, with only that mother's blessing Branching Out 71 and a baptism of love such as mothers alone can give, it was started on its great mission of good." The motto, "Blessed are ye that sow beside all waters," was also selected. It was to be an eight-page monthly at a subscrip- tion price of twenty-five cents. Mrs. H. C. McCabe, of Delaware, O., was appointed editor, and Mrs. Emily J. Bugbee publisher, and six thousand copies of the first issue were to be printed. On the day following the Board of Trustees ratified the action of the Com- mittee, and a guarantee of money to the extent of six hundred subscribers was pledged by individual members. Mrs. Bugbee declined to serve, and Mrs. S. W. Thomson, of Delaware, O., was persuaded to act as publisher. "And then," says one of the Board, *1iow hard we worked for its success : planning, getting bids, and seek- ing advertisements and subscribers ! How anxiously we watched for and eagerly welcomed its coming !" So in January, 1884, the unpretentious ''little one" made its debut in the world of readers. "Two surprises," the publisher relates in her sprightly first report, "came to these two brave women in this first year of their trying undertaking — surprises disclosed by an extensive correspondence extending through the entire country." The first was "the wide- 72 Twenty Years' History spread ignorance everywhere prevailing in regard to the Home Mission field and the consequent indifference concerning it. While hearts were opening and treasure flowing out freely to stranger lands beyond the sea, the utter indifference to the heathen among us, making a part of our Republic and sheltered by our flag," was most appalling. And a year before, Mrs. Clark had said in her re- port : "A lady said to me recently, 'Through the read- ing of the Heathen Woman's Friend and the education I have received from that paper, I know more of India, China, and Japan than I know of our own new States and Territories — mission fields like New Mex- ico and Alaska.' " A worthy tribute this to the ex- cellence of the organ of the sister Society, and a most forceful argument for the existence and maintenance of a good Home Missionary paper. And mightily did these revelations strengthen in the minds of the editor and publisher a conviction of the need of the work they were doing, and inspire them with fresh courage to send forth, month after month, their little white- winged evangel of truth. ''Not only," said Mrs. Thomson, a year later, "is it the organ of your So- ciety, but doing double duty as a pioneer of intelligent information in the Churches, dispelling this marvelous ignorance that has somehow gathered and still prevails as to these heathen at home," Branching Out 73 The second surprise was in the warmth of the greeting the paper received and the large number of devoted friends raised up for its support. At the end of the second month one thousand two hunch'ed names were on its books ; at the end of the third, one thousand nine hundred ; at the end of the year, four thousand five hundred, with a balance to credit of one hundred and one dollars. And "lo, the time of the singing of birds had come !" Increasing interest in the Society and a demand that would not be denied for more space and more matter, together with an encouraging small balance in bank, led to an experimental enlargement of the paper, July, 1885, to sixteen pages. Four months later, at the Annual fleeting, came the crucial test of this venture. Everybody was pleased with the in- creased size ; but, with expenses nearly doubled, and the bottom of the treasury in sight, its continuance was a question of grave moment. "It is too much like asking a river to run up hill," said one astute member in discussion, "to try to make a paper like this for twenty-five cents." Nevertheless, no backward steps were taken, and it was done. Faith and works prevailed. Year after year the loyal women of the Society rallied to its support. The subscription-list came up to ten thousand in the third year ; then fell back ; then slowly crept up again and 74 Twenty Years' History beyond that point. A marvelous carefulness and thrift obtained in the publisher's office, friends remembered it with occasional contributions, a mailing-machine was donated, and the printing-house firm was notable for numerous small favors. Surely the little paper was, as Mrs. Thomson loved to name it, "the child of Providence," called to a special work, and immortal till that work was done. After four years of wise management, Mrs. Thom- son resigned the post she had so ably filled, and handed it over, with the tears and regret natural to a parting with a beloved child, to Miss Belle Evans, a capable young woman who had been associated with her in the office from the beginning. Miss Evans has proved herself an efficient, painstaking Vv^orker, discreet and careful, and remarkable for her unsparing devotion to the onerous details of her business. Mrs. Harriet Calista Clark McCabe came to the editorial chair of Woman's Home Missions without pre- vious experience except as an amateur. A reputation for literary ability of an exceptionally high order, how- ever, amply justified the call. And when, years before, Rev. E. D. McCabe, D. D., Professor of Philosophy in the Ohio Wesleyan University, captured the bright- eyed, rosy-cheeked ''preceptress" of Williamsport Seminary, in Pennsylvania, and bore her away to his Ohio home, it was not designed that she should bury Branching Out 75 her talents in oblivion. Years of culture and dis- cipline quickened her intellect and sweetened her spirit. Quietly settled in her home at Delaware, O., she had thought to do no more public work. In the midst of that solemn conclave that November morning, there came to Mrs. McCabe this unexpected summons to mount the tripod. Startled into silence, she was guided to a decision by the gentle hand of Mrs. Davis laid upon her in sweet command : ''Calista, it is of the Ivord; do not refuse." "Surely," says her zealous co- laborer, Mrs. Thomson, ''surely, when this brave edi- tor stepped out into this untried path, it must have been an act of simple and yet sublime faith ; faith in the Society, but stronger faith in the Divine Hand guiding it, and faith in that unfailing promise of 'all things' to them that believe." At the Annual Meeting of 1897, held in Baltimore, an advance movement was determined upon. The Standing Committee on Woman's Home Missions, in- spired with new courage by the pluck and persistence of the Chairman, Mrs. C. W. Gallagher, gave voice to the long-repressed wish of the people — a demand for a better dress with handsomer trimmings for the paper. The size was to be continued at twenty pages, with a tinted cover added, a serial history of the So- ciety, with cuts and illustrations, was to be introduced, and the price to be raised to thirty-five cents. 76 Twenty Years' History Mrs. T. L. Tomkinson, of Pennsylvania, was ap- pointed to write the serial. The venture was received with general approval, and the increased expense that year was met from the receipts, although there was a loss of fifteen hundred subscribers. Two years later a gain of one thousand subscribers was reported, showing a list of sixteen thousand four hundred. In December, 1899, the office of publication was removed from Delaware, O., to the ''Mission Rooms," 150 Fifth Avenue, New York City, with Miss Evans still in charge as publisher. At the Annual Meeting of 1901, at New York, Mrs. H. C. McCabe resigned her position as editor. Eighteen volumes of the paper, from January, 1884, to December, 1901, bore the imprint of her name and embodied to thousands of readers her devout spirit and loving personality. In her impressive farewell address she said: ''All is well that ends well. I turn over the leaf, and fold it down, but not sadly; for when we rise tip from a feast, we should be glad." Upon the floor of the Convention she asked the privilege of nominating her successor, Miss Martha Van Marter, who was unanimously elected as editor of Woman's Home Missions. Miss Van Marter had for six years been serving as editor of Children s Home Missions, and came to both positions with such qualifications as could only Branching Out 77 result from a long experience of exclusive devotion to literary labors and a heart fully in sympathy with the aims of the Woman's Home IMissionary Society. children's homh: missions The first number of the little paper, Children's Home Missions, a monthly publication of twelve pages, was issued in January, 1896. The close of the year showed a subscription-list of about six thousand. This had been made possible by the ''Guaranty Fund" led off by a pledge of twenty-five dollars from Mrs. Samuel Hazlett, of Washington, Pa., the earnest friend of the children. Other donors had added to this, and the work of the editor and publisher had been largely gratuitous. This "Guaranty Fund," collected from a variety of sources, was continued from year to year. The fourth year a small debt had accrued, upon which pledges were asked and received, and the sixth year it became necessary to make an appropriation of two hundred and seventy-five dollars from the general treasury. These seven years, if they have been lean years to the publisher, have presented a feast of fat things to the readers of the little paper. The child of their love to Miss Van Marter and Miss Evans, it has been made a beautiful sheet, calculated to do great good and worthy of better support. 78 Twenty Years' History BUREAU FOR SUPPLIES The Department of Supplies was one of the most promising offshoots in the early growth of the Woman's Home Missionary Society. No sooner was the Society organized than the frontier preachers on their hard circuits in the West began to be heard from, and pleading letters came pouring in upon the women at Cincinnati, begging that they be remembered in the large plans of their Eastern sisters. Ministers, laboring in these less favored sections under the aus- pices of the Parent Board, and necessarily receiv- ing the barest pittance upon which to support their families, caught eagerly at this ray of hope, and were not disappointed. Responses were prompt, and at the time of the first Annual Meeting, 1882, boxes of sup- plies amounting in value to one thousand five hundred and forty dollars had been sent to missions and schools. At th€ second Annual Meeting, in the following year, a plan was systematized by which those needing help could be put into correspondence with Churches and Auxiliaries willing to respond, and circulars were sent out and notices inserted in the Church papers explain- ing the plan. Presiding elders of destitute districts were interested and instructed to investigate cases of need, and large quantities of supplies were sent to various headquarters to be distributed by them. So Branching Out 79 by means of this Bureau was inaugurated a system which for tw^enty years has stood for the rehef of hundreds of noble men and women who have sacri- ficed their own ease that Christianity upon the frontier might keep pace with the development of the country. Through this same medium also many boys and girls and young men and young women have been enabled to remain in the schools and Homes because of the clothing in this way provided. And those who have helped have not been without their reward. What histories of love and sympathy and sacrifice have been packed into these self-same boxes and barrels between the layers of drygoods and groceries ! No wonder that one wrote in that early time, as hundreds have realized since : *'We are packing a box ; and, while doing it, our hearts are being packed with the love of God." Mrs. Whetstone, one of the founders of the So- ciety and among its most capable leaders, w^as the Sec- retary of this Bureau from its formation till 1886. ''She took charge of it," says one, ''at the beginning, and carried it till it was a great work in itself." In 1886 she reported goods distributed valued at twenty- five thousand dollars. This was enough to fill one woman's heart and hands, and as Airs. Whetstone was Secretary of the Bureau for East Southern States and Chairman of the Committee on Alissionarv Candidates, 8o Twenty Years' History she was relieved of the care of the Bureau for Sup- pHes, and Mrs. Mary T. Lodge, of Indianapohs, be- came her efficient successor. The work broadened in her hands, and in two years nearly doubled. Failures of crops from drought in the West turned the sym- pathies of the people in that direction, and hundreds of barrels and boxes went to help needy ministers who were ready to say in response, *'We could not stay in these hard fields were it not for this help." In the fall of 1 89 1, after five years' good service, Mrs. Lodge resigned the Bureau, and Mrs. May Leonard Wells (afterwards Mrs. Woodruff) filled the office for one year. In October, 1892, that rare motherly woman, Mrs. James Dale, was elected as Secretary of this Bureau. Thenceforward her life was devoted to its interests. It became the child of her love. The hundreds of min- isters on the frontiers who without the help of this department must see their families go into the long, hard winters ill-fed and poorly clothed, these she car- ried upon her heart as though they were her ''own." She visited the Mission Conferences many times, and on such occasions the grateful preachers gathered around her, happy to greet their sweet-faced bene- factress. In March, 1901, she wrote: 'T must stop and rest awhile ; then I may be able to go on ; if not, all well, work done — I trust well done ; but God knows. Branching Out 8i If I can not go on next fall, my chief anxiety will be these six hundred ministers and their families who for ten years have looked to me as a mother." When the autumn came, November 6, 1901, she fell asleep at her home in Cincinnati, while her co-workers of twenty years in the Woman's Home iNIissionary Society and in the Board of Trustees were attending the Annual Meeting of the General Board in New York City. In her last report of- the Bureau, that of 1900, the estimated value of supplies for the year was seventy-one thousand three hundred and twenty-eight dollars. Mrs. H. C. Jennings, of Cincinnati, was appointed her successor, and soon after entered upon her duties. BUREAU FOR MORMONS The Bureau for Mormons has been fortunate in its Secretaries. Mrs. Angie F. Newman, of Nebraska, was the first, having served from its formation till 1885, when she was succeeded by Mrs. S. W. Thom- son, of Delaware, O., whose fine literary productions graced the Reports for two years. Airs. R. W. P. Goft', of Philadelphia, Pa., did faithful service for the Bureau from 1888 to 1893. She visited the field at her own expense, and carried the work with practical abil- ity. Mrs. B. S. Potter, of Bloomington, 111., came into the oftlce in 1894. She brought to the work great 82 Twenty Years' History enthusiasm and rare gifts as a public speaker and ad- ministrator, and it has greatly prospered in her hands. She has been, since 1889, also one of the General Or- ganizers of the Society, and is well and widely known. UTAH — DAVIS HALIv Mormonism, as it exists in Utah and is being propa- gated throughout the country and the world, is surely the "bar sinister" upon the fair escutcheon of Amer- ican civilization, an anachronism in a century which stands for the highest type of progress, civil and re- ligious. The chief objective point of all missionary efifort in Utah naturally became the expulsion of the Mormon seraglio and the redemption of woman from the thraldom of polygamy. The work of the Church Missionary Societies soon developed exigencies which could only be met by the co-operation of Christian women. The General Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church opened work in Utah in 1870, twenty-three years after the Latter-day Saints had taken possession of the country. Rev. G. M. Pierce, the first Methodist missionary, arrived in Salt Lake City on the 8th of May of that year. Two days later an unfinished hayloft above a livery stable was rented for religious service. After six days, the first Meth- odist class was formed, and one month later the first Branching Out 83 vSunday-school met with three teachers and seventeen pupils. On May 20th twelve members were enrolled as communicants. Ten years after this entrance into the territory we find, standing upon the very ground where the mis- sionary first encamped, the first Methodist Episcopal church of Salt Lake City, a fine edifice costing sixty thousand dollars, and, connected with it, the Salt Lake Seminary, under the direction of the Parent Board. The establishment of free schools had been found to be a strategic point in the prosecution of this mis- sionary w^ork. Wherever such could be successfully carried on, the way was opened for Sunday-schools and other Church services. The children of the Gentiles, who had now come into the country in considerable numbers, of apostate Mormons, and not a few of the numerous offspring of the ''faithful" even, could thus be reached, because little was taught in the Mormon schools besides the tenets of their faith. Believing this educational work to be the surest avenue of approach to the citadel of sin entrenched behind these pernicious doctrines, the Woman's Home Missionary Society had willingly lent its aid for co-operation along these lines, beginning, in 1881 and 1882, by sharing in the ex- pense of teachers employed in the schools of the Clmrch Missionary Society. Following this, the obli- gation so bravely assumed by the infant Society as 84 Twenty Years' History early as 1881, acting under the advice of Bishop Wiley, the supervising bishop of Utah, to provide a Home and boarding department for Salt Lake Seminary, was carried to a successful issue in 1883. The building was contracted for in July of that year, and completed in December. The encouraging report of ''one thousand and twenty-four dollars in the special fund for Utah," at the Annual Meeting of the previous year, had so stimulated the workers that per- sistent agitation of the enterprise had been continued, and during the summer months, while the actual work of building was in progress in the far Western city, all over the Church in the East the faithful women were busy soliciting contributions ; and there was a ring of exultation in the doxology they sung at the second Annual Meeting, in 1883, when the announce- ment was made that the fund amounted to four thou- sand five hundred and seventy-three dollars. To this was added, for furnishing and equipment of the Home, the handsome gift of one thousand dollars, which was solicited and contributed by Mrs. Clinton B. Fisk, that elect lady whose name was destined later to adorn the history of the Society as its third President. The building was completed, and was named ''Davis Hall," in honor of Mrs. Dr. John Davis, of Cincinnati. One hundred and twelve day pupils were enrolled at this time, and the opening of the hall was a source Branching Out 8$ of great encouragement to the workers. The number of girls received into the Home as boarders never at any time equaled the anticipations of its projectors, and, after a time, this plan was abandoned; but the hall continued to serve a good purpose as the home and headquarters of all the missionary workers in the city, ''The six thousand dollars invested in it," says one of the early workers in Cincinnati, "paid a good percentage in the enthusiasm awakened in behalf of the Society by the effort made to secure it ; in the good- will of the General Missionary Society, and in its later use as a Deaconess Home under the direction of the Deaconess Bureau of the Woman's Home ^Missionary Society." At the second Annual Meeting, in 1883, tli€ most prominent topic of discussion was this Mormon prob- lem and the best means of propagating a pure gospel among this deluded people. Mrs. Angie F. Newman, who has given the best years of her life to effort for the overthrow of this monster evil, appeared for the first time as a member of the body, and thrilled all hearts with her eloquent recitals of the wrongs of Utah's degraded womanhood. Bishop Wiley added words of weighty counsel, and a series of strong resolutions was adopted calling upon the Government for a radical change of policy towards the Mormon hierarchy. A circular letter, setting forth 86 Twenty Years' History the abominations of this baleful system, and warning the innocent and unwary against its wiles, was ordered printed and distributed, both in our own country and through our American consuls abroad, especially in Wales and Scandinavia, where the Mormons were mak- ing many converts. A movement to establish in Salt Lake City an "Industrial Home" which should be an asylum for women wishing to renounce Mormonism, met with great favor at this Annual Meeting. Letters approv- ing such an enterprise were read from the Governor of Utah and the missionary authorities at Salt Lake, and Bishop Wiley made a stirring speech indorsing the plan. ' During two years of appeal and agitation this "Rescue Home" was kept before the Society and the Church, and in the meantime, through Mrs. New- man's energetic efforts at Washington, an appropria- tion was secured for the purpose. Says one who is familiar with this history: "Con- gress made three separate appropriations, amounting to ninety thousand dollars. The Committee at Salt Lake paid ten thousand dollars for lots, and sixty thousand dollars for buildings and furnishings. The Home was opened, and for five successive years four thousand dollars a year was appropriated by the Gov- ernment for the maintenance of the institution. Many and many a Mormon woman, sometimes with her chil- Branching Out 87 dren, was thus cared for in those years to the full extent of the money received." But, being supported by a Government appropria- tion, the management fell into the hands of. political schemers, and the Woman's Home Missionary Society, being powerless to direct, withdrew from co-operation with it. Nevertheless, the movement to provide such an asylum and the agitation attending it had immense influence throughout the Territory in intensifying an unrest in the minds of the women and in creating a sentiment against polygamy. It did much, too, towards leading members of Con- gress to vote for the Edmunds Law, because they saw in it a way to provide for the women and children after the disruption of families which the passage of that law might precipitate. The Woman's Home Missionary Society won for itself the gratitude of the non-Mormon people in thus making it possible for women to be cared for under the protection of the flag. It was one of the great fac- tors which combined to produce a better state of things in Utah. At the Annual Meeting of 1884 a new department was inaugurated in the Utah work, the "Lucy Hayes schoolhouses" being introduced at this time. Inex- pensive buildings were to be erected all through the Territory to be used for schools, mission-houses, and 88 Twenty Years' History religious meetings, and five thousand dollars were ap- propriated for the purpose. It was said that in more than two hundred towns, thriving centers of Mormon domination, these small Christian schools could be placed to advantage. Again, as in the past, the So- ciety followed the finger of Providence, stepped into an untried path, and went forward by faith. The re- sults justified the means. Fourteen Lucy Hayes schoolhouses were erected at as many different points, and supplied with consecrated teachers. Reviewing this history, Dr. Iliff said : ''That was a master stroke for Utah. Your small schoolhouses gave an impulse for public-school education such as nothing else did. They were the very thing for the time." There was a period of six or eight years when it was believed that the introduction of the public-school system into Utah had done away with the need for maintaining parochial schools, and the Woman's Home Missionary Society, following the lead of the Parent Board, withdrew its teachers, and sought to utilize other methods. Later this was considered a mistake, as public schools controlled by Mormons admitted only Mormon teachers and compelled the teaching of Mor- mon doctrines. But the house-to-house missionary and evangelist has been kept continuously in the field wherever practicable. Of this class, Mrs. Spurlock and Mrs. Saugstad were in the early times shining Branching Out 89 examples of zeal and devotion, and later the sister of the 'Svhite ties" has followed in the same line of work. In 1894- 1 895 the Davis Hall building was placed at the disposal of the Woman's Home Missionary So- ciety by the Parent Board for use as a Deaconess Home. This has since become an institution potential for Protestant Christianity in that important center. Mrs. M. E. Spence, a graduate of the Washington Training-school, w^as Superintendent from 1895 to 1 90 1, with three other deaconesses as associates. The city is districted, industrial schools are taught, and night-schools and evangelistic services conducted. ''Many a stranded girl, many a bereft mother and child, has found this Home a veritable haven of rest." An incident of the year 1900 is significant : "Letters of inquiry came from England regarding a poor English girl brought to Utah under false representa- tion. After diligent search, she was found, destitute and ill. She was brought to the Home and cared for. By the aid of friends and the assistance of the British consul at San Francisco, passage was secured for her to her home, and letters of gratitude were later re- ceived by Mrs. Spence from her friends." A Chinese night-school, taught in the basement of this Home, in which some of the citizens assist, is an interesting and promising feature of this work. A beautiful flag, sent from an Auxiliary Society 90 Twenty Years' History in Oakland, Cal., floats over this property in this city where not many years ago the Stars and Stripes were not allowed to be displayed. In 1899, through the efforts of the Bureau Sec- retary, Mrs. B. S. Potter, the ground on which Davis Home stands was purchased of the Parent Board for two thousand dollars, and the entire property, worth eighteen thousand dollars, came, by deed, into the pos- session of the Woman's Home Missionary Society. Ten stations of the Society were reported for Utah in 1900. In Salt Lake City, Davis Deaconess Home and Spencer Home, the latter founded in 1889 ^^ ^ memorial to Rev. Henry F. Spencer, of the Central New York Conference, and ''built by one who denied herself that the work of winning souls for Christ, so dear to one she loved, might be carried on when he had ceased his labors." This property, devoted, by the terms of its gift, to work for Scandinavian people, is not in use as a Home, but the house is rented, and the rent applied to the support of a deaconess who labors among those of that nationality. At Elsinore, in the south of the Territory, a work has been main- tained since 1886, when the "Columbus Home" was erected by the ladies of Columbus, O. ''The Phila- delphia Home," dedicated in 1889 as the gift of the Philadelphia Conference, and furnished by ladies of North Ohio Conference, a property worth three thou- Branching Out 91 sand dollars, is located at Logan, a strong Mormon center having a fine temple, a tabernacle, two colleges, and a State agricultural college, all controlled and mainly taught by Mormons. "The East Ohio Confer- ence Home," at Provo, was also opened in 1889. ]\Irs. Helen Kingsbury, the deaconess here (1885-1900) was reared a Mormon, and, being the daughter-in-law of one of the Presidents of the Mormon Church, has had a closer view of the nefarious system than has fallen to the portion of most teachers. Being thoroughly zealous for the true faith, she has peculiar fitness for the w^ork. At j\It. Pleasant the "Thomson Home" has re- ceived through the years the gifts of its patron saint, Mrs. S. W. Thomson, of Delaw^are, O., and at Maroni "Gurley Home," built by Mrs. L. B. Gurley, of the same city, also perpetuates the name of a loved one, while ''Leech Home," at Spring City, is a tribute from Troy Conference, through ]\Irs. William Carpenter, in honor of Rev. S. V. Leech. At Hyrum, Richfield, Ephraim, Ogden, Grants ville, and Spanish Fork work has been maintained during most of the period covered by 1890-1900, but little has been done by the Society in recent years at the three places last named. No property is owned by the Woman's Home Missionary Society at these points. Of the missionaries and teachers wdio have served 92 Twenty Years' History the Society in this field through these twenty years, some names, by reason of capacity and length of serv- ice, should be put upon record. After Mrs. Spurlock, Miss Smith, Mrs. Saugstad, and Mrs. Skewes, have come Miss Julia Iverson, Mrs. Jennie Hansen (for a term of twelve years), Miss Mary Iverson (later married to Rev. E. E. Mork), and INIiss Mary Hegel- son (afterwards Mrs. M. H. Passmore). At Davis Home the deaconesses have been Miss Melissa Briggs, Miss Laura O. Davis, Miss Kuhlenberg, and others. Miss Cordelia Robinson succeeded Mrs. Spence as Superintendent in the fall of 1901. Dr. T. C. Iliff, as Superintendent of the Utah Mis- sion, proved himself, through all his term of office, a brother indeed, and the pastors of the Churches throughout the mission have been true and faithful allies. Dr. J. L. Leilich, of the Central Pennsylvania Con- ference, who in 1900 succeeded Dr. Iliff as Superin- tendent of this mission, has been no less friendly. CHAPTER IV INDUSTRIAL HOMES OF THE SOCIETY IN THE SOUTH BUREAU FOR EAST SOUTHERN STATES (I^ater Subdivided.) The Bureau for East Southern States, as orginally defined, included work in Georgia and Florida. ^Irs. J. L. Whetstone was the Secretary in charge from its first allotment until 1897, when she was relieved of a part of the work, and Mrs. G. E. Palen, of Phila- delphia, was appointed Secretary of the ''Bureau for Georgia." Mrs. Palen has been one of the best friends the Woman's Home Missionary Society has known, and her generosity and devotion have been only equaled by her modesty and wisdom. ]\Irs. Whetstone was continued as Secretary for Florida. THE FIRST ''model home/' THAYER HOME, ATLANTA, GEORGIA Up to the time of the first Annual Meeting two forms of work only had claimed the attention of the Woman's Home Missionary Society in the South. First, house-to-house visitation. Recognizing the home as the unit of society, the multiplication of good homes 93 94 Twenty Years' History was made the object of the missionaries' efforts. Into the wretched cabins of the freedmen they went day after day, with their beautiful lessons of cleanliness, industry, and purity. Secondary to this, they opened small day-schools, composed of the neglected chil- dren of the street, and most frequently conducted in the church-buildings. The teachers were often chosen from the most competent of the colored people them- selves, the missionary acting the part of a Superin- tendent, and sometimes having as many as eight or ten schools under her care. As far as practicable, sew- ing classes were introduced into these schools, and religious instruction was always given. Some bene- ficiaries were also supported in schools of the Freed- men's Aid Society from funds raised for that purpose. But, planning for the best and most permanent re- sults, another thought took form and grew, and in time the ''Model Home" was evolved. The Freedmen's Aid Society, in its system of edu- cation by means of schools and colleges where young men were trained for the work of teaching and preach- ing, "had discovered that the chasm between the rude life of the old slave quarters and the order and com- fort of the college home must be bridged, lest the minister and the teacher might return to the old im- provident and disorderly methods of cabin life." As young colored women in increasing numbers were to Industrial Homes in the South 95 be found in these institutions of learning, a plan was conceived by which they might be housed in separate buildings, and, under the care of godly and judicious women, be instructed in the details of housekeeping and in the moralities and proprieties of a well-ordered home. The name ''Model Home" doubtless originated with Dr. E. O. Thayer, then connected with the Freedmen's Aid school at Greensboro, N. C. In 1879 he wrote a letter to Zion's Herald pleading for the establishment of such institutions in connection with the work of that Society. Other articles along similar lines and by the same writer appeared from time to time, notably in the issues of Zions Herald, March 14, 1883, and the New York Christian Advocate of May 3, 1883. Dr. Thayer continued to agitate the project in public and in private, and when, in 1881, he became President of Clark University, Atlanta, the plan met with uni- versal favor among the teachers there. He solicited funds from friends in the North, and proposed to name the first "Model Home" for the person who should be the donor of three hundred dollars. Mr. E. O. Fisk, of Boston, contributed five hundred dollars, and to him was awarded that honor. Two hundred dollars were given by Mr. Gayton Ballard, of Brooklyn, N. Y. The lady members of the Faculty were greatly interested, and aided in the enterprise. Among these. Miss Edith 96 Twenty Years' History Smith (afterward Mrs. Edith Smith Davis, of Apple- ton, Wis.) and Miss Sibyl Abbott were most active in soliciting funds during their vacations in the North. The building was begun in 1882, a neat cottage situated in a pleasant grove on the campus. The work was done by the young men of the carpentry school of the university, the boys being paid, in such cases, a small sum per hour when doing ''outside work." During its erection, Mrs. Rust was a visitor at Clark University. Recognizing the possibilities and importance of the work, and its relation to that of the Woman's Home Missionary Society, she proposed that the building be given to the Society, and offered, in return, to send a teacher, or matron, and provide for her support. At the first Annual Meeting, 1882, business was suspended to hear an appeal for this enterprise, and, at the same time, a letter of greeting was read from Miss Jane Bancroft, then Dean of the Woman's Col- lege, Northwestern University, Evanston, 111., in which she offered "to be one of forty to give five dollars each" to finish and furnish the cottage at Clark Uni- versity, and proposing the name ''Model Home." Six- teen persons responded, and eighty dollars were pledged on the spot. The building was ready for oc- cupancy in the fall of 1883, ^^^^^ Miss Edith Smith at- tended the second Annual Meeting at Cincinnati in Industrial Homes in the South 97 November of that year, and formally presented the ''Fisk Cottage" to the Woman's Home Missionary So- ciety. The gift was accepted, and ^liss Flora ]\litchell. of Boston, was sent as the first Superintendent. De- cember 18, 1883, the Home was formally dedicated, Dr. and Mrs. Rnst and Bishop Warren being present on that occasion. This cottage was the first property owned by the Woman's Home Missionary Society. It was used for four years, when the work became too large for its narrow bounds, and it was thought best to vacate the premises, because the new building of the Boys' In- dustrial Department had been located quite near it. The Freedmen's Aid Society paid the Woman's Home Missionary Society five hundred dollars for the cot- tage, and the latter proceeded to plan for a larger and more convenient building. Ground was secured on another part of the campus, two hundred by three hundred feet, by a perpetual lease from the Freedmen's Aid Society at a nominal rental of one dollar, and the contract was let in August, 1887, fo^ ^ building to cost four thousand dollars. The work, though delayed, was completed, and the new "Home" first occupied in February, 1889. It was formally dedicated during Commencement week. May, 1889, and named "Thayer Home," in honor of Dr. E. O. Thayer, who had been so largely instrumental 8 98 Twenty Years' History in the erection of '*Fisk Cottage," and whose abiding interest in the work of the Woman's Home Missionary Society was for so many years a constant encourage- ment to the workers. The cost of the finished building, inchiding heat- ing plant, was about six thousand dollars. Of this amount, New England Conference, "the home of the Thayers," contributed twenty-five hundred, and Rock River Conference twenty-five hundred dollars, five hundred dollars of the latter being the gift of that generous donor, Mrs. E. H. Gammon, of Batavia, 111. Six hundred dollars came from Maiden, Mass., largely through the influence of the beloved Miss Hannah B. Haven, sister of Bishop Haven. In 1899 the Home was enlarged at an expense, in- cluding furnishings, of eighteen hundred dollars, in order to provide better facilities for the Sewing De- partment, and in the following year that elect lady, Mrs. G. E. Palen, of Philadelphia, gave one hundred and fifty dollars as a twentieth-century thank-offering, to make other much-needed improvements. In the year 1900 the regular inmates of the Home numbered twenty-eight ; in grade cooking classes (girls from the university), fifty-two; in sewing, two hun- dred and twenty-eight ; and in dressmaking, twenty- one. The income from board of pupils and teachers Industrial Homes in the South 99 was eight hundred and thirty four dollars ; from grade classes, dressmaking, donations, etc., eleven hundred and twenty-three dollars ; and the expenses were two thousand and twenty-seven dollars. To Miss Flora Mitchell, for eighteen years Super- intendent of the Home at Atlanta, too high praise can not be given. She has been careful in finance, and persevering in soliciting and securing aid for her work, so that it has been, to a considerable extent, self-supporting. She has been a mother to the girls under her care, and, so closely has she kept in touch with them after they have left the home, that she has been able to say, from subsequent personal knowl- edge, "Of the hundreds of girls who have passed through the discipline and training of Thayer Home, only a few have gone astray." They have become teachers of their own race, wives of those young men, ministers and others, who have enjoyed the ad- vantages of the University, and almost, without ex- ception, factors of power in the social, intellectual, and religious uphft of their people. And as a testimony to the value of the hygienic teaching received, it is a known fact that "every girl who has been in Thayer Home for one continuous year is living to-day. Among a people so subject to con- sumption and early death, this counts for much." loo Twenty Years' History This phase of the work, the model Home, though not without opposition in its beginning, met with general approbation. Dr. A. G. Haygood, of the Church, South, afterwards Bishop Haygood, said of it, "The Woman's Home Missionary Society has solved the problem — what to do with the colored girl." And the national commissioner of education at that time wrote, *'You have struck the keynote for the uplifting of the Negro race." And another said, ''It is patent to all that the wives and mothers must be reached and trained and elevated, if the work done among the men is to be enduring." Of the spiritual results it may be said, ''Only a very small per cent of the girls who have been for a considerable length of time in these Homes have re- mained unconverted." The original plan of the model Home, presumably a family of ten or twelve in number, became, in time, somewhat modified, and the idea of the Industrial Home was made paramount. Being associated with the Church schools, it was found desirable to provide industrial training for much larger numbers, and buildings to accommodate from thirty to eighty became an economic necessity. HAVEN HOME, SAVANNAH, GEORGIA In January, 1882, Mrs. M. C. Bristol and Mrs. S. M. Lewis were sent to Savannah, Ga., to open Industrial Homes in the South loi work under the auspices of the Woman's Home Mis- sionary Society. The Httle Church, iVsbury Chapel, built for the colored people through the efforts of Bishop Gilbert Haven, was made the center around which the work was gathered. They found the build- ing dilapidated and in great disorder; divine serv- ices had been only irregularly observed and thinly attended, and a session of the Sabbath-school had not been held in it for a year. The Freedmen's Aid So- ciety had no school in this city, and the State had not yet realized its duty to provide adequate edu- cational facilities for colored children. The new workers had come to do ''missionary work," but, find- ing themselves surrounded by swarms of the ignorant, uncouth children of illiterate parents, with no hope of betterment from their homes, or help from the resident community, the obvious need seemed to be the establishment of a day-school. For this purpose the church was put in order, and used for three hours of each da}-, the remainder of the time being de- voted to house to house visitation. The small par- sonage was found to be resting under the ban of a mortgage, with foreclosure threatened. Airs. J. L. Whetstone, Secretary of the Bureau, rented the house as a home for the missionaries, and, securing that the rent be applied on the mortgage, thus saved it to the Church. Here mothers' meetings, temperance meetings, and industrial classes were held, regular I02 Twenty Years' History services were instituted in the Church, and the good missionaries soon became known among the colored people as veritable sisters of mercy. Mrs. Lewis taught the younger children in the kitchen, and it was so full that the little tots were crowded in everywhere, under the table, behind the stove, and everywhere they could get. In November, Miss Viola Baldwin was sent to their assistance, and Mrs. Lewis and Miss Baldwin, both invaluable workers, have continued to be iden- tified with this Savannah work through the twenty years of its subsequent history. How they longed, as the days went by, for a building in which to develop the "Industrial Home" as it was being exemplified at Atlanta ! The watch- ful eye of the Secretary, Mrs. Whetstone, discov- ered the God-given opportunity. A large and val- uable building in a desirable location was offered at a sacrifice, an appropriation for the purchase was asked in 1884, Mrs. Whetstone pledging the first thousand dollars, and the property was secured. The original cost of the building was seven thousand dollars. Put in good repair, and with neat furnishings, this Home was opened in the fall of 1885, with three teachers and ninety pupils. It was named "Haven Home" at Mrs. Whetstone's request, though there are those who still believe it should have borne her name, as she gave Industrial Homes in the South 103 towards it the largest contribution, and untold thought and labor. From this time on it has been a beacon light amid the darkness of the Negro population of Sa- vannah. Fire and earthquake, storm and cyclone have been as the emissaries of Satan to destroy it, but still it stands as a monument of God's purpose to redeem the degraded. Five hundred girls have been inmates of this Home since it was opened, and over four thousand have been pupils in the day-school. Who can estimate the wide sweep of influence thus set in motion? It has been truly a training-school for Christian workers, the older girls being most efficient assistants to the missionaries, not only in industrial and school work, but in soul-saving. One of the missionary ladies has always remained in charge during the summer vaca- tion that "the family" may be held together. In 1892, Miss A. E. Philo, of Watertown, N. Y., was sent to Haven Home as teacher and missionary, and for seven years labored faithfully, greatly endear- ing herself to all. In March, 1899, she went from labor to reward. Miss Delma Lamb, of Rockland, Pa., succeeded her. The Speedwell Mission (so named for Mrs. Joshua Speed, of Louisville, Ky.), at Sandfly, or Isle of Hope, a point six miles out from Savannah, has been an ex- I04 Twenty Years' History ample of the self-denying labors of these missionaries. A little church was built in the pine woods, and relig- ious services and industrial classes were maintained with constantly encouraging results from 1886 till 1893, without a dollar from the treasury. Then through the energy and liberality of Mrs. Palen, a small home, with one worker in charge, was established. It has room for six girls, and has been named the ''Mary Haven Home," for the wife of Bishop Haven. This, with the day-school in the chapel, continues to do good work "in a community that but for it would be destitute of every ennobling influence," there being about fifty pupils there for whom no other oppor- tunity of education has been provided. The fruits of the school are being manifest. In 1900 the first of the older girls went to Thayer Home, and, says Mrs. Palen : "When I saw her there, so quiet, obedient and attentive to every duty, I felt Miss Herron had just reason to rejoice in her work, for she had taught her the most that she knew. Those who have the first year with these girls make an impression on their character that never will be effaced. The gentle nature of their teacher is surely reproduced in the girls of the Speedwell Mission." Miss Baldwin inaugurated that work at Speed- well, and carried it until the little house was built and Miss Delia Herron placed in charge, after which Industrial Homes in the South 105 she went into the "Frogtovvn" skims of the city, and, aided by four of the older girls from Haven Home, started there the Palen Mission. BOYLAiX home:, JACKSONVILLE, FLA. The work at Jacksonville has been from the first under the supervision of the same Secretary, Mrs. J. L. Whetstone. Spending most of her winters in the South, she observed existing conditions, and was moved with pity for the colored women and chil- dren. In 1885, Miss Hattie E. Emerson was ap- pointed, with headquarters at Cookman Institute (Freedmen's Aid school). "This pioneer work," says Miss Emerson, 'Svas not play ; sewing bands were or- ganized among the children in the difiterent parts of the city, and, in the six classes formed, the first year three hundred children were enrolled." Then Miss Emerson's mother, of blessed memory, was sent to be her companion and house mother. "They lived for a time," says Mrs. Whetstone, "in two rooms, and did missionary work in various ways as best they could" until, in 1886, Mrs. Whetstone bought the neat, six-room cottage, in which they then were installed. She advanced the money for the purchase and the furnishing, and then appealed for aid to ]\Irs. Ann Boylan DeGroot, of Newark, N. J., "to whom," she says, "I went again and again, and never in vain." io6 Twenty Years' History Two thousand dollars were soon after paid upon the property by Mrs. DeGroot, thus giving her the right to name the Home, which she did, calling it "Boylan Home." During the dark days of slavery two large plantations had borne this, her family nam.e, and she wished to see it associated with the uplifting of the race so long degraded. She continued, through the years, her loving benefactions, until, with the various enlargements and improvements, her gifts amounted in the aggregate to over eleven thousand dollars. Well has she been called "Boylan's patron saint." In 1901, she went away to be with God, "I believe," said one of the Boylan Home workers, ''the joy of heaven will be sweeter to her, because she will greet a happy throng who have sought and found Jesus in this Home." Miss Emerson's reminiscences of the early history of this work are worth recording. She says : ''There were many obstacles in the way, — the apathy and indifference born of ignorance on missionary lines; the prevailing idea that idleness meant re- spectability and which made mothers anxious to have their children study books, but unwilling to have them learn to work, and the unrelenting prejudice of color caste. Then came the first little family of seven girls, during the hot summer months. How some of those girls struggled over the evening Bible verses, Industrial Homes in the South 107 and the daily problem of order and cleanliness ! One of them is a matron now, living not far away in a neat little home. 'That Home was all the mother I ever had,' she said, not long ago. **The earthquake frightened the 'sinner girls' so badly that some wanted revival meetings right away. We began the Friday afternoon prayer-meetings that year, and have held them ever since. October, 1887, the house was enlarged to accommodate twenty-four girls, and a teacher, I\Iiss Baker, of Joliet, 111., was sent to help carry on the work. When it was time for the house to open, in October, we had no furni- ture for the added rooms. ]\Irs. Dr. Carey, of Cin- cinnati, sent us a set for one room, which is still in use. Bands and Auxiliaries came to our relief; one suite of furniture came from New Hampshire ; and Miss Van Marter secured the donation of an organ and seventy-five folding-chairs, that have been of un- told value to us, and are still doing good service. Then came the year of yellow fever, 1888 — a long, sad experience. Mother and a little band of six girls were here all those months, and kept in perfect health. ''Our neighbor, who had built a fence twenty feet high and a hundred feet long on the dividing line of property, 'to keep out the sight of niggers with books,' was one of the first victims of the fever, but no breath of the pestilence swept over the frown- ing wall. School opened three months late that year, and Miss Morehouse came as teacher. Ten girls asked to come as day scholars, and the sitting- room, used for school, was quite filled. In the open- io8 Twenty Years' History ing summer-time, May, 1889, mother's busy hands were folded, and she went home. We laid her to rest beside my father, under the cedars at Fernan- dina. More room was needed, and another lot, with a small cottage^ was bought, and the older girls were made the cottage family. A schoolroom was the next great need, and personal gifts from many friends provided this room as a memorial offering. Then we worked for a laundry ; gave a concert, the ''Flag Festival," and an apron sale, and finally se- cured it. Year by year the work grew, another teacher came, and our first class graduated in 1891. They were five good girls, and are doing well to- day. Two are teaching, one is well married, and two earn a comfortable living at dressmaking. "At last the number reached one hundred and fifty in the day-school, and thirty in the family, and four teachers were assigned to the work. Other lines of work were forced upon us by the steady, persistent needs around us. Something more than clothing was needed for the poorly clad. They needed to be taught to sew and make clothing. Many of the hard working mothers could not make their chil- dren's clothes, and had not the time even when they knew how. ''The sewing bands were started, and soon en- rolled over one hundred boys and girls, who lived in the town and suburbs, and came every Friday for a sewing lesson, followed by a service of Bible study, singing and prayer. Some of these children walked four and five miles to attend the meetings, week in and week out." Industrial Homes in the South 109 A Boylan Home "primary class" is thus described : ''Five years and fifty-five are the ages represented. Mrs. B. has 'raised a family,' and never had an op- portunity of learning to read. Now her husband says, 'You go to school and learn to read if you want to.' She has learned to read quite well from the Gospel of John, but writing 'bothers her mightily.' " The property now extends the entire length of the block, three hundred feet on Duvall Street, by ninety-five feet, and contains three buildings, Boylan Home and Whetstone Cottage, which are connected, and contain dormitory-rooms for thirty-six girls and six teachers, with sitting-room, dining-room, kitchen, and workroom. The chapel building accommodates a school of two hundred and twenty-five. May 3, 1901, Boylan Home was saved, as by a miracle, from the flames which desolated Jacksonville. For many weeks it was a relief station to hundreds of homeless suffering ones. The missionaries at Boylan Home have been greatly helpful to the Churches of the colored people in the vicinity. Without this aid the Churches could scarcely be maintained, and their personal influence in keeping up a high standard of moralit}' has been incalculable. Miss Hattie E. Morehouse, for twelve years Miss Emerson's first assistant, has been, indeed, a model missionary. "Faith Cottage," a fine example of "settlement no Twenty Years' History work," has been conducted about one mile from Boy Ian Home by Miss Ada R. Ingraham. Her serv- ices have been given gratuitously, and the current ex- penses derived from voluntary gifts. An important movement made in 1901, in connec- tion with Boylan Home, was the inauguration of the "Brewster Memorial Training-school for Nurses," which had been made possible through the gift of two thousand dollars by Mrs. Matilda A. Brewster, of Danielson, Conn., in memory of her husband, the Rev. G. W. Brewster. The building, which was purchased and occupied for this purpose, was the identical prop- erty which was fenced ofif by the owner in 1888 to ''keep out the sight of niggers with books." Miss lona Benson opened the Nurse-training De- partment in the fall of 1901, with seven girls as stu- dents. EIMERSON HOME, OCALA, FLA. The good influence of Boylan Home was recognized in other quarters of the State, and from various points, from time to time, there came urgent requests for the establishment of similar institutions else- where. This led to the founding of Emerson Me- morial Home at Ocala, Fla. The area of Florida makes a trip from its north- ern to its southern limit an expensive affair, and a Industrial Homes in the South 1 1 1 school more centrally located was greatly desired by the colored people living- in Southern and Middle Florida. In 1890, some active steps were taken by Airs. Whetstone and Boylan Home workers to es- tablish a school in Alarion County, a hundred miles south of Jacksonville. A small house was rented in Belleview, and two Vermont ladies, Miss Ida L. Gil- man and Mrs. English, with a family of ten girls, began the work, which has grown into Emerson Home. The first location w^as not quite satisfactory, and the next year it was decided to move to Ocala, twelve miles distant, and a more central point, as to railroad lines, and with a larger colored population to draw from. Mrs. Ann Boylan DeGroot generously gave the first thousand dollars toward this Home, and named it in memory of Mrs. Cecilia Emerson, who died at Boylan Home, May, 1889, and Mrs. Whet- stone, with the co-operation of her good husband, gave both money and time to the careful planning of this work. Aliss Cozy Miller, of DuBois, Pa., assisted bv Miss Lena Jacobs, a Boylan Home graduate, opened this school and Home in a dilapidated and abandoned church building, "which was curtained ofif by sheets, dividing it into bedrooms, schoolroom, and kitchen." They enrolled one hundred and twenty-five pupils, and had six girls in the family. The next year, 1892, the Home was built, a neat commodious buildincf. 112 Twenty Years' History where Miss C. A. Buckbee and her teachers have done excellent work. Miss L. B. Welch was a valuable assistant from 1894 to 1900. It was an Emerson Home girl who said, ''I 'm go- ing home to work in the field to earn money to come next term, but I Ve got a star in my heart now." This work is in a farming community, where money is scarce, and privileges for colored young people are few. The Woman's Home Missionary Society has invested well in planting this Home, which is a light shining in a dark place, and many illumined lives may be counted in its results. In studying the history of these Homes, we note, with satisfaction, the indications everywhere apparent of a steadfast purpose, on the part of superintendents and teachers, to induce the pupils and beneficiaries to make strenuous efforts for self-help. The amount of money thus brought into these Homes and schools year by year by these poverty-stricken girls as an offset to the inevitable expense account, suggests volumes of pathos and privation. Thus, heroic pur- poses are being aroused in the recipients, and char- acter-building is going on for eternity. A not less remarkable feature in the prosecution of the work is discovered in the strict economy and frugality practiced in the routine management of the PRESENT OFFICERS. Mrs. Delia Latiirup Williams. Mrs. 1". A. Airkx. Mrs. Georcf. II. Thomtson. Industrial Homes in the South 113 Homes, such economy as verges close upon hard- ship and suffering. Indeed, these two factors, self- help, on the part of beneficiaries, and self-denial, on the part of the missionaries, can alone account for the phenomenal enlargement of the work. Surely God's angels are keeping record of the sacrifices of his saints, and, over there, those w^io were ahungered here, shall be compensated with the sweetest of the heavenly manna. BUREAU FOR MIDDLE SOUTHERN STATES (I^ater Subdivided.) All the territory included in the northern belt of the Southern States, and reaching from the Atlantic to the Mississippi, was set apart in 1885,, and put under the care of the "Bureau for Aliddle Southern States," and to Mrs. F. S. Hoyt was given the re- sponsible office of Bureau Secretary. This she carried with great ability, visiting and inspecting the Homes, by authority of the Board, in the summer of 1887. After three years she resigned, and was succeeded by Mrs. William Runyan, of Hillsboro, O. Mrs. Run- yan's name belongs among the early supporters of the Society, as she came into vital connection with its work during the first year of its existence. 114 Twenty Years' History By a later subdivision, two Bureaus were formed from the Middle Southern Bureau, viz., "East Central States," and ''West Central States." Of the former, Mrs. J. E. Gilbert, of Washington, D. C, was the first Secretary. She has filled many positions of trust in the Woman's Home Missionary Society, and al- ways with marked success. In 1894, ]\Irs. E. L. Al- bright, of Delaware, O., succeeded to the care of this Bureau. Here, as elsewhere, Mrs. Albright has dis- played remarkable capacity for ''bringing things to pass." Nothing that she has touched in the way of practical efifort for the Society has proved a failure. She has only been removed from one post of responsi- bility to fill another demanding more of executive energy. In the "West Central Bureau" Mrs. Mary Fisk Park has been, since 1893, the careful guardian of its interests. Her name with that of her mother, Mrs. Fisk, and their associate Mrs. Kent, has been a talis- man of power in the Homes of the Woman's Home Missionary Society at Greensboro and Morristown. SIMPSON MEMORIAL HOME;, ORANGEBURG, S. C. Soon after the "Fisk Cottage" was opened at At- lanta, a movement was inaugurated at Orangeburg, S. C, the seat of Claflin University (Freedmen's Aid school) having a similar end in view. ]\Irs. Dunton, Industrial Homes in the South 115 who had given a large part of her time for four years or more, first to a personal visitation of the colored people in their homes on the Greenville District, and later to a canvass of the Conferences in the North, in which she solicited financial aid for the Woman's Home Missionary Society, was immediately impressed with the plan of the ''Model Home" as put into practice at Atlanta. Dr. Dunton, President of the university, and other members of the Faculty coincided, and, to make the experiment, the use of one of the small buildings on the campus, "Fenn Cottage." was oitered to the Woman's Home Missionary Society at a nominal rental of one dollar per year. So interested were they that Mrs. Dunton gave of her own household furnishings to hasten the opening, which occurred November 12, 1883. Miss Ella J. Belts was put in charge with twelve girls in the Home. It succeeded so well that a plea was sent up to the Annual Meeting of 1884 asking for larger and better accommodations. In response, the ladies of the Phila- delphia Conference, headed by that noble leader, Mrs. R. W. P. Goff, pledged one thousand dollars for a new building to be named "Simpson Home" in honor of the beloved Bishop Matthew Simpson, but recently deceased. In the following year, ]\rrs. Dunton visited Philadelphia and spoke in many of the churches of ii6 Twenty Years' History that Conference, soliciting contributions and securing pledges. The house was built by the boys of the School of Carpentry, Dr. Dunton himself supervising its erection, and ''working on it many days with his own hands," thus saving some hundreds of dollars to the Woman's Home Missionary Society. It had dormitory room for nineteen girls, and was opened in 1886 with Miss Purdam in charge. She remained two years, until her marriage with Professor Webster. In October, 1889, Miss Eva Penfield became Super- intendent, and continued successfully at this responsible post until October, 1901, when she resigned to accept the position of Preceptress in the university. Miss Mary Tripp, Miss Elizabeth Swager, and Miss V. Ferrabee were, in succession, her assistants. The most cordial and helpful relations have been maintained between this Home and Claflin University. The young women of the senior class have spent their last year in Simpson Home taking its training and doing the housework, one of the provisions of the uni- versity curriculum being that no girl should be grad- uated without having had at least one year in the Home. Pupils in the school attended classes in plain sewing and dressmaking in the Plome. Many of these classes, for want of room, met in the university buildings, and Industrial Homes in the South 117 teachers in the latter assisted in the oversight of the work of these classes. Dr. Dunton's co-operation has been invaluable in advancing the interests of the Woman's Home Missionary Society. ''Almost v^ithout exception," says Miss Penfield, "our girls have gone out from us as earnest workers for Christ. Most of them have become teachers ; some have married; but the majority of them are teaching in the best colored schools of the State." In 1895, Simpson Home was enlarged, and in 1898 its available room was further increased by finishing the attic. It then accommodated twenty-seven girls, and was always filled to its utmost capacity. In 1899 the erection of a new ''Industrial Hall" was begun, the ladies of Binghampton, N. Y., leading off with a gift of three hundred dollars. About this time a change of base was determined upon which was believed to be an advance movement. Claflin University has more than one thousand students and numerous dormitories and buildings, and the most extensive Manual-training Department of any of the Freedmen's Aid schools. The general scope of the school and the special work for boys has attained such proportions that the "Model Home," as a provision for industrial training for girls, was no longer con- sidered adequate. It was then proposed to abandon the Boarding De- ii8 Twenty Years' History partment for girls in the Home, to take out the par- titions in order to provide enlarged space for sewing- classes, to finish the new ''Hall," and to furnish all with the necessary equipment for industrial training along advanced lines. Under Mrs. Albright's efficient management this has been accomplished, and three hundred girls of the university classes may receive, in this way, the best of instruction in scientific cooking, dressmaking, draughting of garments, millinery, and manual-training. No beneficiary money will be asked for, except five dollars per pupil, to cover expenses of materials used. The Managers of the Freedmen's Aid schools look upon this movement with unqualified approval. At the larger centers of learning elsewhere among the colored people this new departure may possibly be re- peated by the Woman's Home Missionary Society with profit. It marks an era of more hopeful social con- ditions. The work of twenty years has not been in vain. BROWNING HOME AND MATPIER ACADEMY, CAMDEN, SOUTH CAROLINA Beautifully and healthfully located among the pines of the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, in South Carolina, at Camden, is the ''Browning Industrial Industrial Homes in the South 119 Home/' with the "Txiather Academy" and 'Xucy Bab cock Chapel." Camden is an old, conservative Southern town, and noted for its historic associations. An important revo- lutionary battle was fought near here, and a monument to Baron de Kalb, wdio fell in the engagement, adorns the "Square." Sherman's army passed near by in its famous "march to the sea." Here, after the emancipation of the Negroes and before her marriage, Mrs. Sarah A. Mather purchased property and opened a school for colored children, her- self teaching and carrying all the expenses. After her marriage to Rev. James Mather, of the New England Southern Conference, she interested ladies of that Con- ference in the work she had been doing, and unitedly they undertook, in 1884, the erection of an "Industrial Home" at Camden. It w^as their purpose to secure the money needed for this object before proceeding to build. In 1887, October loth, the Home was opened in a rented house with an enrollment of twenty-six, and the new Home w^as ready for occupancy one year later. A bequest from a departed worker, Mrs. F. O. Browning, was a welcome help to the ladies of the Conference Society who had pledged themselves to the work, and wdio had "searched Jerusalem with candles" I20 Twenty Years' History (as Mrs. Mather puts it in one of her reports) in a heroic endeavor to complete it without encumbrance. In deference to Mrs. Mather's wish, the Home was named "Browning Home" in honor of her departed friend. As there are no Church schools within a long dis- tance, the school was continued in a rented house, one hundred and five pupils being enrolled in 1888. In 1890 the Society purchased, for seventeen hundred dol- lars, the property of Mrs. Mather in Camden, a lot of twenty-seven acres with a commodious, well-built house, Mrs. Mather donating three hundred dollars of this amount. In the years just succeeding sixteen hundred dollars were put upon it in repairs and im- provements. A Superintendent and three teachers were employed, with thirty-five in the Home, and one hun- dred and fifty in the school. ''Plantation Work" was early made a feature of the work here. The missionaries went out into the surrounding country and established, at as many as four points, schools, sewing classes, and evangelistic services. House-to-house visitation and deeds of charity kept them in labors abundant. The teachers brought with them their New England ideas of thrift and economy, and the work has been remarkable for the degree of self-support attained, considerable sums in excess of Industrial Homes in the South 121 current expenses being each year turned into the treas- ury of the Home. All the industries are taught, a spot- less cleanliness characterizes the place, and many con- versions have been reported. As the pressure for students and inmates increased, the large-hearted benefactress opened her purse still further, and, with the concurrence and assistance of her family, made frequent improvements and additions to the property. In 1897 two thousand dollars were invested ; in 1898 there was a bequest from Miss Wilkes of five hundred dollars, and a loan of six hun- dred dollars from Mrs. I\Iather, the latter to be repaid from the self-support fund. The year 1899 brought again a gift from Mrs. Mather of twelve hundred dollars for an additional building. The following year, as the demand seemed to be for a larger building, Mrs. Mather and her sister added two thousand dollars to the former gift, and the outcome was the erection, in 1900, of a very l)eau- tiful chapel bearing the name of Mrs. Mather's sister, Mrs. Lucy BabcoCk. It has a seating capacity of four hundred and fifty, with dormitory room above for thirty additional girls. The Rock River Conference furnished the chapel, and the music for worship is aided by a fine organ, the contribution of Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Hamilton, of Pittsburg, and a piano, the gift of Mrs. E. L. Albright. 122 Twenty Years' History As a memorial of Mrs. Marietta Case, of South Manchester, Conn,, the dining-room has been enlarged at an expense of five hundred dollars, so that it will accommodate one hundred. Mrs. A. A. Gordon was vSuperintendent of the Home from 1890 to November 12, 1900, when she "suddenly ceased to live and labor." She was buried, by her own request, in the colored people's cemetery at Camden, among the people for whom she had given so many years of service. The living keep her memory green and her grave bright with flowers. Miss Nellie Crouch served efficiently as teacher for the same length of time. Other assistants have been Misses Breed, Russell, and Sprague. Dr. J. W. Waugh and wife, formerly missionaries to India, have spent some time in "Browning Home," giving their help to the work. He has made himself invaluable in supervising the mechanical improvements and in directing spiritual efforts. The school course ranges from kindergarten to nor- mal, and girls are graduated acceptably from Brown- ing School to Claflin University. In 1900 the school, by request of Mrs. Mather, be- came "Mather Academy," as a memorial of her de- ceased husband. At this time she invested ten thou- sand dollars to be used for this institution when prin- cipal and interest shall become twenty-five thousand dollars. At her death. May 14, 1901, she left the half Industrial Homes in the South 123 of her estate to "Browning Home," to be available when it should amount to ten thousand dollars. Thus this fine property, three good buildings on a large campus, "Browning Home" and "Mather iVcademy" and "Lucy Babcock Chapel," constitutes the most com- plete plant with the fullest endowment of any in the Woman's Home Missionary Society. For this suc- cessful issue the Society is indebted not a little to the latest Bureau Secretary, Mrs. E. L. Albright. ALLEN LIOAIE, ASIIEVILLE, N. C. Rev. L. M. Pease and wife, who were the founders of the famous "Five Points Mission" in New York City, may properly be called the founders of the work of the Woman's Home Missionary Society at Asheville, N. C. Going to this beautiful mountain resort many years ago because of Dr. Pease's impaired health, they w^ere very soon impressed with the great need of help from without for the large colored population within reach from this point. Acting upon this benevolent impulse, in 1887 they proffered to the Society a large town lot, upon which was a two-story frame building already equipped for school purposes and a small dwelling-house, the whole worth five thousand dollars. The conditions of the gift entailed a departure from the usual lines of work adopted by the Society prior to that time, being the maintenance of a graded school in 124 Twenty Years' History which the common EngHsh branches, as well as the industrial arts, should be taught. Thus a valuable property was acquired free of cost to the Women's Home Missionary Society, and Rev. Newell S. Albright was appointed Organizer and Superintendent of the work. He was assisted by Miss Alsie B. Dole, who remains in charge of the educational work at this point at the present time. The number of pupils ranged from five on the first day to two hunderd and forty-three six months later, their ages varying from four to forty-five years. At one time twelve married women and two grand- mothers were in the school, all eager to benefit by ad- vantages which had earlier been denied them. A tui- tion fee of ten cents a week was charged, but so marked was the appreciation of the school, that even after the opening in 1892 of a graded, free school for colored children, we find one hundred and thirty pupils en- rolled, and one hundred and eighty-five in the sewing classes. The elevated moral tone of the surroundings and the religious awakening accompanying the faithful min- istrations of earnest Christian teachers, has told won- derfully upon the lives of all those who have been con- nected with the institution. The original school building, adjoining the Home, is still used; the lower part as a chapel, and is Industrial Homes in the South 125 the only Methodist Episcopal church for the colored people in Asheville. Pictures of John Wesley, Fred Douglass, Mrs. Hayes, and Frances Willard adorn its walls. Miss F. V. Russell was made Superintendent in 1888. Miss Elma Levering was added in 1889, and Miss Cozy Miller in 1892. The necessity for maintaining a school held back the Society for a number of years from attempting its preferred form of effort, the establishment of an Industrial Home. The nearest approach to this was a small house, which made a cozy home for the mis- sionaries, where they lived with from two to six capable girls of the school as assistants and bene- ficaries. In the sewing-classes, garments were made and sold, bringing in a fund from which they cheerfully put into the general treasury of the Woman's Home ]\Iissionary Society small sums from time to time, besides fifty dollars to name a room in the Mother's Jewels Home, and the same amount to place a me- morial room in the Home they hoped to see built for themselves. Mrs. F. S. Hoyt was the efficient Secretary during these years. In 1893, Mrs. Marriage Allen, of London, Eng- land, a tourist sojourner at the Sanitarium, who had previously signified her approval by liberal gifts, 126 Twenty Years' History donated one thousand dollars to found the "Allen In- dustrial Home." Mrs. E. L. Albright was made Secre- tary of the Bureau in 1894, an appropriation of five thousand dollars was made, and the work was pushed to completion in 1896. During 1896, 1897, and 1898, $8,800 was paid out, and the large beautiful building was dedicated February 7, 1897, almost free from debt. The donations from Mrs. Allen amounted in all to about two thousand dollars. The unceasing interest of Dr. Pease, who gave not only financial aid, but personal attention to details, ensured much larger realizations from the money expended than could have been otherwise attained. The property consists of the large new ''Home," eighty by forty-six feet, and a school building. The two cottages ad- joining were sold, and moved from the grounds. This work at Asheville commands the respect and sympathy of a large number of permanent resi- dents. The colored people who are drawn to this city, now recognized as the "Saratoga of the South," by exceptional opportunities for employment, belong to the more capable and intelligent class, and this institution is to them a constant inspiration to high and noble aims. Sixteen hundred pupils have in the past twelve years profited by its teachings, and are now seen filling all places in the city where the best service is required, gratefully attributing their pres- Industrial Homes in the South 127 cut prosperit}- to the help of this Mission. The pres- ent Home will accommodate sixty girls, and over it floats one of the beautiful United States flags, with which the President of the Society, ]\Irs. Clinton B. Fisk, has adorned so many mission buildings. Miss Kate Doughty is Superintendent of the Home, and jMiss Alsie B. Dole is still at the head of the school. KKNT HOMi:, GREENSBORO^ S. C. In 1884, the Troy Conference, under the lead of such workers as Mrs. E. W. Simpson, long the Corre- sponding Secretary of that Conference, j\Irs. Anna Kent, and Mrs. Sarah D. Snow, of Gloversville, N. Y., inaugurated at Greensboro, N. C, an effort for the establishment of a "Model" or Industrial Home there in connection with Bennett Acadeniy. Dr. Wilbur Steele, President of the x\cadeniy, who had taken his bride from one of the homes of this Conference, was instrumental in calling attention to the need of such an institution, and in arousing interest in the work of supplying that need. A site was purchased ad- jacent to the Academy, and, in 1886, a superior build- ing, containing seventeen rooms, and admirably adapted to its purpose, was completed free of debt. To Mrs. Kent whose timely gift of one thousand one hundred and fifty dollars made this result possible, was voted the privilege of naming the Home in 128 Twenty Years' History memory of her husband, Mr. James Kent, then re- cently deceased. Mrs. Isabella Ward, of Gloversville, left, by will about the same time, property which realized eight hundred and forty nine dollars to aid in the erection of the Home. Every room bore the name of some loving, generous friend, and the furnish- ings, bedding, linen, dishes, etc., were contributed by the Societies of Troy Conference. To complete their offering of love to this work, the Conference also found an ideal Superintendent in the person of Mrs. Sarah D. Snow, who opened the Home in 1886. May 2, 1887, at a time when a large Convention was held in the town, and many visitors were in attendance, it was dedicated with impressive ceremonies. Rev. J. S. Sawyer, of Troy, N. Y., made the address, and Mrs. Kent and Mr. and Mrs. E. W. Simpson were present. Twelve girls were in training this year, six of these were beneficiaries of Troy Conference. In 1888, Mrs. Snow's health having failed, she was relieved, and Miss C. jM. Buckbee succeeded her, with Mrs. Sara M. Daley as assistant and missionary. The Home had some peculiar trials this year. Rev. Thomas Joiner, who had suffered great persecutions at the hands of some Southern white people, because of his willingness to fraternize with his colored breth- ren in his efforts to uplift them, was cared for in Kent Home. But in spite of all difficulties, the new Industrial Homes in the South 129 Superintendent could write at the end of the year: "Our outlook for the coming year could hardly be brighter. Let me mention one encouraging example which has cheered us. A girl who came last year from a far country home that was almost heathenish, the youngest, the wildest, the blackest of our band, has become so changed that she is my right-hand girl in the Home — gentle, ladylike, and faithful." Besides the Superintendents and teachers named, there have been others — Mrs. M. S. Dunbar, Miss Mary Tripp, Airs. A. L. Clark, Miss Ida Lewis, and Miss S. E. Thornborough. Miss Lewis and Miss Thornborough had had deaconess training; Miss Lewis served tw^o years and Miss Thornborough four years. Following these w^ere Airs. M. K. Bruce and Miss Carrie L. Crowell. Mrs. Snow, after an absence of tw^o years, returned to her loved work at Kent Home in 1896. Of her Mrs. Kent wrote, ''More is due to Mrs. Snow than to any other woman for the success of that Home for colored girls." She died in peace July 21, 1899. Her last thoughts on earth were given to the work she loved. NEW^ JERSEY INDUSTRIAL HOME, MQRRISTGW^N^ TENN. This Home is allied with Morristown Seminary of the Freedmen's Aid Society, which is situated sev- enty miles northeast of Knoxvillc, Tenn., and in the 130 Twenty YearsV History center of a large colored population. It stands on the slope of a most picturesque hill that commands a magnificent view of the mountains, forests, and cultivated fields of the beautiful region of Eastern Tennessee. One of the first missionaries for the colored peo- ple of Morristown was Mrs. H. Stearns, of Elizabeth, N. J. Her husband, a soldier and a local preacher, after the battle of Port Royal, began work among the colored refugees, and died in the midst of his toil six months after. Mrs. Stearns, in her loneliness, felt called of God to undertake the work her hus- band had laid down, and was led to Morristown, Tenn., where she arrived with her little daughter in November, 1869. In 1881, the Freedmen's Aid So- ciety of the Methodist Episcopal Church began work in Morristown, with Rev. Judson Hill in charge. Mrs. Stearns's school was merged into his, and she taught steadily until she was seventy years old, liv- ing for more than twenty years in the humble dor- mitory of the colored students, and identified in many ways with their interests. The need for industrial instruction was so ap- parent that, in 1887, President Hill proposed that if the Woman's Home Missionary Society would send an industrial teacher there, he would arrange that Industrial Homes in the South 131 she should have her daily classes in sewing and in- dustry meet in the large dining-room of the board- ing hall. An appropriation was made, and the teacher, Miss Carrie Snider, was sent. She had over one hun- dred girls in her department from day to day, a grat- ifying feature of her work being that many mothers from the town came, and begged to be taught how to cut and fit and make plain garments for their families. To this industrial work, Miss Snider added Sun- day-school teaching, temperance meetings, Bible readings, and visits to the huts and cabins, so num- erous in that mission field. She became an angel of light in many humble homes. This work was early adopted as the protege of the New Jersey and Newark Conferences, and, while yet it was being conducted in rooms of the Sem- inary building, the ladies of those Conferences pro- vided the means by which it was sustained. Furni- ture, sewing-machines, charts, and other appliances were furnished and cared for for several years, with reference to use in the prospective Home, during which period funds were collected, and plans matured to make it materialize. Mrs. Anna Kent, having in the meantime removed within the bounds of the Con- ferences interested, became the leader in the enter- 132 Twenty Years' History prise, and, with her hberal-minded coadjutor, Mrs. Clinton B. Fisk, many times thereafter stood sponsor for it in seasons of financial straitness. In 1890, the Freedmen's Aid Society, having pur- chased a more desirable situation on the opposite side of the town, presented to the Woman's Home Mis- sionary Society a plot of ground a little more than an acre in extent, upon which to erect the desired building. Mrs. Fisk and Mrs. Kent visited the place, and held a service upon the site of the future Home. The contract was let, and the building pushed to completion in 1892, Mrs. Kent advancing a con- siderable part of the money to hasten the work. It was a tasteful and comfortable house, worth four thousand five hundred dollars, and capable of ac- commodating twenty girls, and was named "The New Jersey Industrial Home." It was opened in the autumn of 1892, with Miss Emma Ernsberger as Superintendent. In the summer of 1896, the Home was some- what enlarged, and one hundred and thirty girls were reported in the sewing-classes of the following year. October 5th was a red-letter day in the history of the institution, marked by the raising with appropriate ceremonies of a beautiful flag above the Home in the presence of Bishop Mallalieu and other distinguished visitors. The flag was the gift of Mrs. Fisk. Industrial Homes in the South 133 Mothers' meetings, wherever practical, have been held on the campus, attended by women who have hurried from their labors long distances to be pres- ent. One of these simple, earnest souls expressed the appreciation of the many when she said to the Superintendent : ''These meetin's is a feed to me. I Ve been like a new-greased wagon ever since the first one. I just run along easylike over every difficult." The girls cared for in the Home have been, with few exceptions, beneficiaries. They have come from poor families in Tennessee, Alabama, Virginia, and Georgia. Most of them have made good records as students in the Seminary. In 1898, one girl took first prize for an original hymn over all other South- ern colored schools. The prizes were awarded by "The Stewart jNIissionary Foundation of Atlanta, Ga. One of the graduates of 1898 married a pro- fessor in Nashville College, Tennessee. Aliranda Hep- ler and Rachel Jefferson, graduates, have been valued and capable assistants in the Home. Miss Emma Ernsberger, the first Superintendent, remained in this Home for two years, and was suc- ceeded, September 10, 1894, by Miss Anna Mosher, of Michigan, who still fills this responsible position. Miss Carrie Snider, the first missionary and indus- trial teacher, w^as married in July, 1893, and left the w^ork. In the year 1897, Mrs. S. D. Snow, pre- 134 Twenty Years' History viously of "Kent Home," was associated with the New Jersey Home. All these have been devoted and efficient workers, who have placed the stamp of their holy influence upon many undeveloped characters. Truly wrote the Secretary of this Bureau, Mrs. Mary Fisk Park, in 1900, "It pays to work with God in helping a life into harmony with himself, and giving to the world a useful woman." BUREAUS FOR WEST SOUTHERN STATES AND TEXAS The Bureau for West Southern States formerly included the work of the Woman's Home Mission- ary Society in the States of Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana. In the early history of these Homes they were cared for directly by the General Corre- sponding Secretary, Mrs. Rust. In 1887, Mrs. M. B. Hagans, of Cincinnati, was appointed Secretary of the Bureau, and, with the most painstaking fidelity, she carried it upon her heart for six years. Not one of the Homes, not one of the missionaries, not^ one of the girls even, but had a warm place in her sympathies. Her husband. Judge Hagans, was also greatly interested, and for many years gave to the Woman's Home Missionary Society valuable legal service without financial consideration. In 1894, Mrs. F. A. Arter, of Cleveland, O., a daughter Industrial Homes in the South 135 of the beloved Bishop Kingslcy, accepted the Bureau, and conducted it with efficiency for five years, when she passed it on in much improved condition into the hands of her successor, Mrs. J. H. Bayhss, of Evanston, 111. iVt the same time the Bureau for Mississippi was constituted with Mrs. H. C. Hedges, of Alansfield, O., as Secretary. Mrs. Hedges, a thoroughly efficient w^oman, had long been contribut- ing, both by her gifts and her service, to the Woman's Home Missionary Society, and Mrs. Bayliss ranks with *'the founders." Her name should stand with honor upon the portals at the gateway of the organization. She was succeeded, in 1901, by Mrs. K. V. Falley, of Evanston, 111. The Texas Bureau has been blessed with efficient Seretaries, who have served in the following order: Mrs. W. C. Herron, of Cincinnati, since 1886, a valued member of the Board of Trustees ; Mrs. J. W. Gosling, who has held a similar relation to the Board in Cincinnati, where her counsel is highly esteemed ; and Mrs. E. L. Albright, who has a record for effi- ciency hardly surpassed in the history of the organ- ization. Mrs. Albright stood at the head of this Bureau from 1889 to 1894. She was succeeded by ]\Irs. M. C. Hickman, who gave to the Bureau three years of zealous attention. In 1896, Mrs. Lavanda G. Murphy became Secretary of the Texas Bureau. She 136 Twenty Years' History brought to her work a breadth of view, a knowledge of affairs, and a persuasive eloquence which has made her, in every sense, a successful Secretary. ade:une: m. smith home:, little: rock^ ark. At Little Rock, Ark., is situated the college of the Freedmen's Aid Society bearing the name of Philander Smith, a name widely known through- out Methodism, and which is identified with many and significant forms of humanitarian beneficence. To co-operate with this institution and closely ad- jacent to it, there was erected, in 1883, the "Adeline Smith Industrial Home" for colored girls ; a neat cot- tage of eight rooms, costing, when completed and furnished, two thousand four hundred dollars. The entire cost of the enterprise was borne by that noble benefactress, Mrs. Philander Smith, of Oak Park, 111., and her daughter and son-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. William E. Blackstone, of the same place, the latter contributing the furnishings. It was dedicated, Feb- ruary 25, 1884, by Bishop Bowman, Bishop Wiley, and Dr. Rust, with Miss Elizabeth H. Macintosh as the first Superintendent. Built to accommodate a family of nine or ten girls, so great was the desire of the people to profit by its advantages, that four- teen were soon crowded into it. During 1886 and 1887 plans were made by the Industrial Homes in the South 137 Woman's Home Missionary Society, and a site pur- chased, a valuable piece of land worth two thousand five hundred dollars, upon which was erected a new building, which was completed and dedicated :\Iarch 7, 1887. As stipulated by Mrs. Smith, the original building was turned over to the college as a residence for the President, and the new building, worth four thousand dollars, was her free-will offering to the W^oman's Home Missionary Society. Of this new Home and its workers, it was written at the close of that year, "The pious example and teachings of the Superintendent and her assistants have resulted in the conversion of every girl in the Home." The order and system maintained, and the efficiency of the pupils was said to be such as to rival many North- ern schools in these particulars. With the beginning of the school year, 1896, IMrs. Hilda M. Nasmyth became Superintendent. She was born in Stockholm, Sweden, and at the age of sixteen went to Africa as a missionary. Her health failing there, she came to America, and was accepted by the Woman's Home Missionary Society upon the recommendation of Bishop Taylor and Bishop Mer- rill. She has proved herself a power for good to the people among whom she labors, a storage battery of spiritual energy and enthusiasm. In 1899, December 12th, ground was broken for 138 Twenty Years' History an annex; it consisted of a large industrial room, a storeroom, and dormitory accommodations for fifty additional students ; the old building was also re- paired and improved. During the year ending June, 1 90 1, one hundred and twenty-three girls were en- rolled. The people reached by this Home and school are mainly very poor, "the girls have planted and picked cotton, others washed and worked for white people to get the money to sustain them in the Home, and then wept for joy that the way had been opened." In 1895, Mrs. Adeline Smith passed to her heav- enly home, leaving the institution, which had been her care and joy, to become the ward of the Woman's Home Missionary Society, to which it must hence- forth look entirely for its support. "Many dark sisters have gone from this Home to scatter knowledge, religion, industry, and sunshine through the cabin homes of the communities from which they came, cherishing always, with grateful recollection, mem- ories of the kind donor, whose name to them will be ever 'blessed.' " E. I.. RUST home;, hoi^IvY springs, miss. The third Model Home to be put in operation for colored girls in the South was inaugurated at Holly Springs, Miss., in 1883, in connection with Rust Uni- Industrial Homes in the South 139 versity, and named for Airs. Elizabeth Lownes Rust. A property of fourteen acres, with three small houses, was purchased in 1883, and a good frame building, large enough to accommodate twenty-four girls, was erected in the autumn of 1884. Another building served for a laundry below and sewing department above, in wdiich not only the girls of the Home re- ceived instruction, but also one hundred or more pupils of the University. The Slater Fund con- tributed four thousand eight hundred dollars to the development of the industrial work in the Home. In addition to the usual domestic employments, E. L. Rust Home provides some rather unusual lines of practical training. Beekeeping has taught a re- munerative industry, and, at the same time, has proved a source of immediate income to the Home. The large grounds belonging to the place have been utilized in giving systematic instruction in fruit-rais- ing and gardening. Nurse-training has been, from the first, a successful department of this Home. A unique feature of its work has been "The Old Sisters' Home." One of the cottages was comfort- ably fitted up, in 1890, as a place of refuge for a few old women, relics of slavery, wdio otherwise would have suffered. The care of these has been a blessing to the girls, who have cheerfully done what they could to brighten their declining days. 140 Twenty Years' History Miss Sophia Johnson, who opened the Home in 1884, was continuously in its service for thirteen years. Few women have done more to build up any institution of the Woman's Home Missionary Society. Her wise management, and steadfast Christian char- acter, were a tower of strength to the work through all those years. She was succeeded, in 1897, by Miss Ora Silvey for one year, then by Miss Phinette Bris- tol for two years. In 1900, ]\Iiss Lou Johnson be- came Superintendent. Miss H. A. Lindsay, Miss Ida Gibson, Mrs. J. B. Speer, and Miss Grace Demp- ster have been successively capable instructors in in- dustrial training. In 1895, Miss Gibson wrote of the spiritual work: ''The conversion of every girl in the Home has made us very happy. It has rarely happened that a girl has remained with us a year without becoming a Christian." PE:CK home, new ORI.EANS, LA. At New Orleans, La., in 1887, ground was pur- chased at a cost of three thousand dollars as a site for a model Home. It consisted of an entire square of three acres, and was the gift of Mrs. Ziba Bennett, of Wilkesbarre, Pa. Upon this lot the Peck Home was erected in 1889, most of the funds for which were raised by the Central New York Conference, as Industrial Homes in the South 141 a loving tribute to the memory of Bishop Jesse T. Peck. ]\Irs. Judge M. B. Hagans, of Cincinnati, the Chairman of the Building Committee, and Secretary of this Bureau, gave to its erection her most care- ful personal attention. It was dedicated November 8, 1889, and was one of the largest and best ap- pointed buildings owned by the Society. It had ac- commodations for twenty-five girls. Mrs. H. 'M. Hageman was for a number of years its Superin- tendent. Being situated at a considerable distance from the University buildings (Freedmen's Aid So- ciety), it was somewhat hampered in educational work, but most effective instruction was given its beneficaries in the household economies until in Jan- uary, 1897, the house was destroyed by fire. The year preceding this disaster is recorded as one of the most successful in the history of the Home. Miss Char- lotte Hickman was in charge the last two years. In 1899, the lot upon which the Home had stood was sold by the Woman's Home Missionary So- ciety for nine thousand dollars cash. The follow- ing year the Freedmen's Aid Society offered the permanent lease of a site just in the rear of and across the street from the New Orleans University. It was decided to accept this proposition, and a conditional appropriation of eight thousand dollars was made for the rebuilding of the Home. 142 Twenty Years' History Other lines of home missionary effort, aside from that for colored girls and women, have been made continuously through the years by the Society in New Orleans. A mission for the white operatives in the factories was begun in 1888. Thousands of girls, some of very tender years, are to be found in the cotton mills, unhealthy, untaught, and unreached by religious influence. The hearts of the missionaries were drawn out to them, a reading-room was opened, a library provided, an organ donated, and earnest efforts made to lead their feet into paths of virtue and holy living. The large French and Italian population of the city also attracted the eft'orts of the Society, and evangelistic work has been carried on among them with success. Especially has this been true of the Italians. One missionary each year has been detailed for this department since 1889,' Miss Page, Miss Gib- son, and Miss Robertson having served in this ca- pacity. The night-school has been a special feature, numbering, at times, forty pupils. "Alone and un- protected, save by the 'all-seeing eye of God,' " says the Bureau Secretary, Mrs. F. A. Arter, "these women have lived in one of the worst sections of New Orleans," allowing no opportunity to pass un- improved for sowing the seed of the kingdom, and some of the harvest is already in sight. Industrial Homes in the South i fs While the work of the Society in New Orleans has not resulted in building- up any one imposing missionary center, its intluence for good has been widely pervasive and effective. Churches have been built up, Sunday-schools established, Epworth Leagues organized, and temperance and evangelistic efforts have been carried on in scores of places, reaching many and widely divergent communities. House-to- house visitation has been kept up, and fallen w^omen reclaimed. In this city, from wdiich Airs. Hartzell sent forth her first pleading message concerning the condition of Negro women, and where Bishop Wiley and Dr. Rust and Mrs. Rust, looking on the same degrada- tion, resolved, in the name of God and humanity, to "rise up and build" a Woman's Home Missionary Society, the seed-sowing of these years, we confi- dentially believe, has not been in vain. KING IIOME:^ MARSHALL^ TRX. The colored population of Texas numbers nine hundred thousand souls. ''King Industrial Home," located at ]\Iarshall, is in wdiat is known as the "Black Belt" of the State, where the ratio of the races, colored and white, is as twenty to one. Two hundred and fifty thousand of the former live within a radius of one hundred miles of Marshall. 144 Twenty Years' History iMoreover, three thousand persons of Negro blood are employed in the State as teachers in the public schools. With what meager equipment these go forth to instruct the rising generation, let the prevailing conditions of poverty, illiteracy, and superstition suggest. A beacon light of promise in this wide waste stands the Wiley University of the Freedmen's Aid Society, and by its side materialized, in 1890, the Industrial Home of the Woman's Home Mission- ary Society, named in honor of Mrs. Jane King, of Delaware, O., ''the dear saint who bequeathed one thousand five hundred dollars for this pur- pose." The addition of other gifts, and years of painstaking labors on the part of the Bureau Sec- retaries, provided this large and beautiful Home, in which thirty-eight girls could be housed, re- ceiving the most careful training in domestic econ- omy. That their religious culture was not being neglected is proven by the statement made in 1898, "Every girl but one is a Christian." One hundred and twenty-five students from the university shared with those in the Home the class-teaching in the house- keeping and industrial arts. It was during the incumbency of Mrs. Albright that this Home was erected. She supervised the build- ing and furnishing, installed the teachers, and started Industrial Homes in the South 145 it successfully on its blessed mission. ]\lrs. Hickman followed on similar lines. Both of these ladies visited and inspected the work at short range. In 1899, ]\Irs. Murphy also, by advice of the Board, paid a visit to King Home, and brought to the Annual ^Meeting of that year a most encouraging report. Heating ar- rangements had been provided, and the third story, so long unfurnished, had been made habitable, afford- ing room for twenty additional girls, and no debt had been incurred. She said : ''Every such school is a veritable lighthouse, and we dare not cease our efforts until the radiance of one reaches another and the whole land is full of light. Out of the fifty girls in the Home this year forty-eight are members of the Church." And year after year these go out among their own peo- ple as light-bearers, as teachers and home-makers, and, almost without exception, as examples of influential Christian womanhood. Miss Elizabeth O. Elliott, of this Home, has been called by those who know, "the model Superintendent." At Harrisburg, Tex., a point where work for col- ored girls could be profitably maintained, sixty acres of land has been deeded to the Woman's Home Mis- sionary Society by Rev. F. Carson INIoore, with a proviso that four thousand dollars in permanent im- provements must be put upon it before the deed is in force. 11 146 Twenty Years' History WHITE WORK IN THE SOUTH RITTER HOME, ATHENS, TENN. In 1886 the Woman's Home Missionary Society re- ceived a gift of one thousand dollars from Mrs. Eliz- abeth Ritter, of Napoleon, O., as a beginning of a work for white girls in the South. Christian women were be- coming aroused to the realization that while the moral degeneracy of the great Negro population of the South- land had called forth the interposition of the Church in the North, small efforts were being made in be- half of the whites who had been deprived of oppor- tunities for education, either by losses during the war, or by their remote location in the mountains. Al- though not so numerous a class, their condition was believed to be almost as desperate. Mrs. Ritter's dona- tion was added to from time to time by others, the Central Ohio Conference adopted it as its special work, and after four years of agitation and deliberation, a site was chosen and a deed secured for a beautiful lot on a corner of the campus of the Ulysses S. Grant University (Southern Educational Society, white work), at Athens, Tenn. This was the first effort made by the Woman's Home Missionary Society to provide industrial train- ing for the white girls of the South, and was entered upon with some trepidation. It was feared that in a Industrial Homes in the South 147 section of the country where manual labor was, so far as possible, relegated to the blacks, the young women of the "superior race" could not be induced to avail themselves of the advantages of such an institution. Cut the great need of two millions of mountain people living within reach of the educational advantages of Athens encouraged the projectors of the Home to be- lieve that, if wisely administered, it would, in time at least, be fully appreciated. The results have proved their judgment correct. The "Elizabeth Ritter Home" was opened in Sep- tember, 1 89 1, w^ith Mrs. F. V. Chapman, of Toledo, O., in charge, and formally dedicated November 3d, by Bishop Warren and Dr. C. H. Payne. Nearly one hundred persons, members of the university Faculty, visitors, and friends, w'ere entertained at luncheon in the Home by the citizens of Athens. Miss Anderson, of Dayton, O., began work as sewing teacher, but, being compelled to resign on account of illness, was succeeded by Miss Belle George, and later by Miss Elizabeth Wilson. "Never," says Mrs. Chapman, "shall I forget the feelings with which I w^aited for pupils, and welcomed the first group of three" who came straggling in in a dazed, uncertain fashion, as though drifting, as in- deed they were, into a w^orld of strange, unknown conditions. Then came one more, then two, and willi 148 Twenty Years' History seven the Home was opened. Twenty-five were ad- mitted the first year, and fifty-one the second, with an average attendance of thirty-six. The experiment from an early period proved an eminent success. The poverty of the people and their long and peculiar isolation from the rest of the world have not been sufficient to extinguish the latent am- bitions which are but the legitimate inheritance from their Scotch-Irish and Huguenot ancestors, who early settled the fastnesses of these mountains. Many are the plaintive appeals which come from faraway cabins from young men and women pleading for "a chance" for the education and training that will enable them to take their proper places in the world. Many of these have reached manhood and womanhood, never having had an opportunity to go to school. The school work, therefore, begins with the com- mon-school branches, and is largely confined to them, though sonie ambitious pupils pass on into the col- lege classes, and are always encouraged to do so. The industrial work is dignified by being graded and rated by such standards as obtain in the educational departments. The pupils pay seven dollars per month into the running expenses of the Home, and perform all the household duties themselves, under the care of teachers, as a part of their education. Coming often from humble homes in the mountain forests, they soon Industrial Homes in the South 149 take a pardonable pride in their large, beautiful Home, and become intensely interested in maintaining- its reputation for tasteful and orderly management. A single term sometimes so develops a girl as to send her home an inspiration to her whole neighborhood, and a two years' course of training usually turns out a dignified, self-respecting, self-poised woman. The expenses are kept so low that earnest girls are thereby encouraged to try to help themselves, and for those who find it impossible to do this the Lord has his chosen ones here and there in the Churches who love to lay up treasures in heaven by aiding these struggling girls, remembering the significance of the Word, "Thy daughters shall be as corner-stones polished after the similitude of a palace." In 1895 some storerooms in the Home were con- verted into bedrooms, so that it now accommodates seventy-five inmates; and other improvements, such as furnaces, sewerage, and furnishings, have been pro- vided from time to time. The institution is in fine con- dition, free from debt, and so highly esteemed by all friends of education in that part of Tennessee that the enlargement of the building promises to become a necessity. A recent estimate by reliable real estate men places the valuation of the property at fifteen thou- sand five hundred dollars ; furnishings, four thousand five hundred dollars ; total, twentv thousand dollars. 150 Twenty Years' History The name of Mrs. Delia L. Williams, as Chairman of the Committee of the Board of Trustees for the oversight of Ritter Home, has been inseparably asso- ciated with the work in all its phases. It has seemed to be her "favorite child," and right loyally has it reflected great credit upon this honored mother. "Dear Ritter Home !" she wrote after a visit in January, 1900, "as fresh as if it were all new, and as neat as if no matter were ever out of place. And such lovely girls ! Some want to be nurse deaconesses, some visit- ing deaconesses, some kindergartners, and all want to fill the place God has assigned them in life. Every minute in the Home was a benediction." Mrs. F. V. Chapman has served from the first as Superintendent. The Society has no more faithful or enthusiastic Home "mother" than she. Mrs. J. I. Boswell, after a brief sojourn in the Home, wrote: "The more we saw of Mrs. Chapman's work in the Home, the more we marveled at her cheerfulness and executive ability. Surely she was providentially led to accept this laborious position which she has so ad- mirably filled." be:nnett home, clarkson, miss. At Clarkson, Miss., similar conditions prevailed among the poorer whites. School and Church ad- vantages were limited, and of industrial training there was none, A school v^as started in 1890 by the South- Industrial Homes in the South 151 ern Educational Society, and a rude frame building erected in which the girls should be boarded, as the houses of the people were widely scattered. ^Ivs. Ziba Bennett, of Wilkesbarre, Pa., a munificent giver, came to their aid, and contributed eight hundred dollars for the completion of the building and the salary for one year of the Superintendent. This was followed by similar gifts from year to year from the same gen- erous source, and thus the work w^as carried with very small expense to the general treasury. Upper Iowa Conference also contributed by assuming for four years the salary of one of the teachers, and by supplies and other gifts. The cost of boarding per capita, including teachers, has been reduced to a minimum, having been at times only three dollars per month. During the year 1898, Woodland Academy, the school of the Southern Educational Society at this place, was transferred, with two hundred acres of land, to the Woman's Home Missionary Society, on a ninety- nine years' lease, at a nominal rental of one dollar per year. This, with the buildings of the Home, then be- came the 'Triscilla Lee Bennett Home and School for white boys and girls," named for its generous patron, and it is the only institution of its kind under the care of the Methodist Episcopal Church in all that section of country. Some repairs and improvements were then made, and a boys' dormitory provided. The need for a larger and better building for the 152 Twenty Years' History Girls' Industrial Home became so imperative that an appropriation of five thousand six hundred dollars was asked for at the Annual Meeting at Pittsburg, October, 1899, and conditionally granted. On the 26th of De- cember following, the Bureau Secretary, Mrs. H. C. Hedges, of Mansfield, O., was on the spot, and, with appropriate ceremonies conducted by the local pastor. Rev. Mr. Lott, had the pleasure of turning the first shovelful of earth for the laying of the corner-stone of the new building. In April, 1900, the work was begun and pushed forward by Mrs. Hedges with char- acteristic energy, so that at the succeeding Annual Meeting, held in Chicago, she reported it as an accom- plished fact. A beautiful new house, containing fifty- six rooms, forty-four of which were bedrooms, neatly furnished and supplied with all the appliances for a model Industrial Home, had gladdened the eyes of the faithful Secretary and the workers installed there to conduct this beneficent enterprise. The transfer from the old quarters to the new was made October 6, 1900. Mrs. Hedges, who spent three weeks in the village, gladly assisted with her own hands. Forty-four girls were at once enrolled. This institution bids fair to rank with Ritter in the fulfillment of the prophecy. "It will prove a bless- ing to thousands of homes, making each girl who comes under its influence, not onlv a bearer to her Industrial Homes in the South 153 people of the gospel of Christian living in the higher sense, but an exponent of Christian living in the lower sense, the gospel of wholesome bread and well-cooked meat, of clean beds, clean floors, and clean door- yards, of orderly and well-conducted homes." Miss Florence Jackman and Miss iVbby Putman were successively the Superintendents in the first Ben- nett Home, and Miss Carrie E. Bing took charge when the new building was opened, assisted by Miss Ella Becker and Miss Laura Ferrabee. This, it will be observed, is one of the few points in the Southern work where a school is maintained by the Woman's Home Missionary Society. Bennett Academy (formerly Woodland Academy), the school received by transfer from the Southern Educational Society, has had a history which amply justifies its existence. Under the direction of Professor William A. Davis it has done a good work in that locality. The boarding-house for boys is known as "Dickson Hall." em]<;i,ine; s. hamlen home, kinsey, ala. In 1898, Dr. George Hamlen, President of Malla- lieu Seminary, Kinsey, Ala., a school for the benefit of white people in Southeastern Alabama and Western Florida, petitioned the Woman's Home Missionary So- ciety for the establishment of an Industrial Home in connection with that work, ofifering to provide a l)uild- 154 Twenty Years' History ing and furnish it if the ladies would support a Superintendent. During the year 1898 and 1899 a suitable house was secured and put in order, and Mrs. Gunn, formerly Miss Jackman, of the Home at Clark- son, was sent to open the work. She remained in charge two years, and was succeeded by Miss Kate McMurray, of Pennsylvania. This, the third Industrial Home for white girls under the care of the Woman's Home Missionary So- ciety and the first work of the Society in the State of Alabama, is situated in a section where the white population is very poor and illiteracy prevails. The man who gave the land on which the seminary is built said : ''My father's house had clay for a floor, and until I was nine years old I lived on bread and water with the exception of an occasional Christmas, when he would buy us meat. When I came of age and went out into the world for myself, I had nothing, and was unable to read or write." Mothers with hands as hard as blacksmiths' from working in the fields gladly make sacrifices to put their children in this school. One woman said : "I would rather die in my tracks at this hard labor than have my children grow up in igno- rance as I had to do." Thus some aspirations for a better life are stirring within them, and this Home and school is putting the spring of hope into many forlorn and dejected souls. CHAPTER V WORK OF THE SOCIETY IN THE WEST BUREAU FOR INDIANS AND FRONTIER Mrs. Harriet C. AIcCabe, who has been intro- duced to the reader as the editor of Woman's Home Missions and one of the pioneers of the Society, was made Secretary of the ''Bureau for Indians and Fron- tier" at the time of its formation, and has been con- tinued from year to year. She has much of the spirit of the lamented Helen Hunt Jackson in her devotion to these "wards of the Nation." The words "and frontier" are significant as defining a peculiar con- dition of this work. All over the West the whites gather at the Indian agencies. Most are adventurers. Some not already vicious, rapidly imbibe the prevailing spirit. The missionary is here, both as a defense against the vices and greed of those who would wrong the Indian, and as a messenger of mercy to the de- graded whites as well. One missionary reported finding white children ten and twelve years old who had never seen a preacher or heard a prayer. "The dead are buried without 155 156 Twenty Years' History a prayer, for there is no one to pray." "Let it be re- membered that Indian missions possess the new coun- try for Christ." PAWNEE^ OKI.A. It was in the days when Henry Ward Beecher was at the height of his popularity, that, at a large and en- thusiastic meeting held in his Church, Brooklyn, N. Y., by the Woman's National Indian Association, the Paw- nee Mission of Oklahoma was founded. It was the method of this association to create a mission, then pass it over to the care of some evangelical Church. In this way the Pawnee Mission was transferred to the Woman's Home Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church. After much prayer and waiting, the Society sent to this point, in July, 1885, its first missionary to the Indians, Mrs. F. T. Caddis, of Newark, N. J., who, accompanied by her son, a youth of fourteen, entered upon the work at once. She was provided with a small house and barn and a pony, and began visiting the In- dians in their cabins and tepees. Of one of these first visits she tells us she "found one of the eleven chiefs sitting in the door of his tepee, clad in a suit of unbleached cotton, a sacque and a sort of overskirt trimmed with red, and wearing a soft felt hat adorned with a feather from a goose's wing." "No observance of the Sabbath and no divine worship was maintained bv either Indians or whites within a radius Work in the West 157 of forty miles." Two years later, September, 1887, we read of a Church organized at Pawnee with twenty- nine members, including a number of chiefs. Upon this occasion all partook of the Lord's Supper and gave intelligent testimonies in a love-feast. The bear dances, with which the Indians were wont to entertain the whites on the Sabbath, were discontinued. Much of this good work had been accomplished by the mission- ary through faithful visitation of the people in their wretched tepees, and her gentle ministration to the sick, and also by the ''foolishness of patchwork," she having had her house filled two afternoons in the week with women whom she taught to sevr. The garments thus made were often proudly displayed in public upon their persons in incongruous and amusing combina- tions. One hundred Church menibers were reported at this place, with a pastor from the Indian Mission, now Oklahoma Conference, when this station was trans- ferred to that mission. A regular minister was sent to them in 1887, wdiose coming enabled the mission- ary, Mrs. Gaddis, to give more of her time to visiting the wretched women and children, and made it prac- ticable for her to establish sewing-classes and to teach the women how to care for themselves. As a tribe they are inclined to be gentle and industrious, and early showed promise of a permanent Christian life. In recent years it has been the policy of the Indian 158 Twenty Years' History Bureau of the Woman's Home Missionary Society to co-operate with the Oklahoma Conference in the em- ployment of the workers at Pawnee and Ponca and Pawhuska. The Conference sends a minister, and the Woman's Home Missionary Society makes a small appropriation for the services of his wife, with the condition that the minister shall not be removed with- out the approval of the Woman's Board. This has worked well in most cases. At Pawnee, Rev. and Mrs. A. E. Murray have done good service for two years. Much long-suffering- and patience are required ; but the Indians, like other races, are no exception to the power of the gospel to subdue and redeem. March 28 (Easter), 1900, Mr. Murray baptized a number of the school children and took them into the Church. PONCA, WHITE KAGIvE;, OKIvA. The work at Ponca, begun in 1888 under the care of the Troy Conference, with Miss Emma Clark as missionary, was similar in conditions and success. Mrs. Davis and Mrs. Rust and Dr. Rust visited this mission, and also other stations in Oklahoma, in May, 1889, and were much impressed. Standing Bear, the distinguished Ponca chief, said : '*I do n't know much about your religion, but" — laying his hand on his heart — "I feel T want something here." How eloquent these simple words ! Work in the West 159 In 1890, Mrs. McCabe visited all the Oklahoma missions. Rev. Mr. Bundy and wife were then at this point, and the mission in good condition, with a Chris- tian agent. As the Government had a school here of tw^o hundred pupils, the work of the Society has been evangelistic. Rev. A. J. Simms and wife are the mis- sionaries since 1898. Mrs. Simms established a Chris- tian Endeavor Society of more than twenty, and the Sunday-school had a full supply of Methodist litera- ture, forty Sunday-school Advocates being taken. In 1900 the Secretary of the Bureau reported: ''Scores of couples who have been living together illegally have been married this last year with our beautiful ritual, and the burial service has in many instances given comfort to the bereaved and sorrowing." Hopeful conversions have occurred. PAWnCSKA, OKLA. At Pawhuska, the seat of the Government agency for the Osages, work was also begun in 1888, but under different conditions. These people are not poor. Government holds their funds, and they yearly receive a comfortable support. Here a school was desired, and through the efforts of Mrs. H. M. Teller, at Wash- ington, a contract from the Indian Office was secured providing for twenty-five pupils at one hundred and twenty-five dollars per capita per year. In the sum- i6o Twenty Years' History mer of 1889, fifty more pupils were added to the contract. A wide door seemed thus opened to the philanthropic workers. But it was required that the Society should put up and equip the necessary build- ings, and though the funds came in slowly, yet inside of two years two commodious cottages were purchased, and a plain school building was erected, and excellent work was being done. This was largely through the enterprise of the Upper Iowa Confer- ence, which, under the leadership of Mrs. Charles F. Springer, contributed one thousand one hundred dollars to this mission, afterwards known as the Adelaide Springer Mission. Although the Roman Catholics had had here the right-of-way for nearly fifty years, and had a large and handsome convent, the Methodist school had the confidence and esteem of the more intelligent Indians, and did not lack for patronage to the extent of its humble accomodations. A touching incident is related by the Secre- tary of this Bureau, who, when visiting in this sta- tion, in 1890, was sent for one evening by the ma- tron to ''come and see the children pray." Steal- ing quietly into the dormitory, she beheld about fifty little ones, neatly robed for the night, bowing their dark faces beside the white beds. After the "Our Father" and "Now I lay me," said in concert, they remained kneeling, silently praying for their EARLY WORKERS. 1. Mrs. F. S. Hovt. 2. Mrs. Elizabeth K. IMariv. 3. Mrs. C. V. Culver. 4. Mrs. W. a. Ingham. 5. Mrs. W. F. Thorne. 6. Mrs. Richard Dymond. 7. Mrs. II. E. Doun. 8. Mrs. S. \V. Thomson. 9. Miss Mary Belle Evans. 10. Miss Flora Mitchell. 11. Miss E. A. Mcli iM(ni,. 12. Mrs. J. \V. Ml.NDKMLM.L. Work in the West i6i own loved ones, some of them far away. A sight surely to make heaven glad ! The simple story of the gospel told to the chil- dren reached the hearts of fathers and mothers, and, as a consequence, a neat ^lethodist Church was erected here in 1890, which was crowded every Sab- bath, and has since been steadily maintained as an appointment of the Oklahoma Conference. A large Sabbath-school is also an encouraging feature of this work. By the action of the General Conference of 1892, the provision by which the mission schools had been allowed to receive Government aid was annulled, and thereafter the school at Pawhuska was trans- ferred to the Indian Bureau at Washington. The former Superintendent remained as teacher, and the missionary gave undivided attention to direct mis- sionary effort. Thirty Osage girls were baptized here at one time, in May, 1897. A school for whites and mixed races, enrolling over fifty was maintained for a time, but as the Methodist Episcopal Church is now well established at Pawhuska, and two other denominations besides the Catholics have entered there, the Board deemed it advisable to sell or rent the property, and adopt more needy work. A small appropriation was continued on the salary of the missionarv's wife. Sixteen conversions were re- i62 Twenty Years' History ported by this couple, Rev. and Mrs. W. T. Cummins, for 1900. STiCKNEY home:, lynden, wash. In the northwestern part of the State of Washing- ton, at Lynden, is situated the Stickney Home, for the benefit of the Nooksachk Indians. The building, largely the gift of Mrs. M. E. Stickney, formerly of Albany, N. Y., as a memorial of her deceased husband, was finished in 1891, and was at first opened as a contract school, the Government pledging the support of thirty pupils. Since 1893 beneficiary aid has been necessary, and the number has varied from fifteen to twenty-five. A school for Indians is needed at this point, as their children are not admitted into the schools of the whites. The Home, v/ith its industrial training and relig- ious teaching, is a valuable object-lesson to the Nook- sachks, who are represented to be an industrious and teachable people. Mr. and Mrs. J. B. Stark, with their two daugh- ters, composed the missionary force of this Home for many years. The building is located in a bend of the Nooksachk River, on a tract of twenty-five acres of land, the gift to the mission of "Lynden Jim," an Indian chief. That part which is cleared is fertile and productive, and affords remunerative exercise to the boys of the Home. Work in the West 163 Mrs. Dr. Emily C. jMillcr, missionary to the Yakimas, thus describes a visit to Stickney Home in 1900: ''The island is like a beautiful picnic-ground in summer, and the children are happy in the freedom of home. Although the oldest of the sixteen pupils is only twelve or thirteen years old, they help a great deal ; and as there is a family of nineteen, with only the two Stark sisters to do the work of the house, make clothes for the children, teach the school and all the industries, besides canning fruit, etc., for the winter, the help of the little ones is appreciated. "The boys help make the garden, where they raise enough vegetables to supply the Home, though one year the seed was washed out by freshets three times. It is estimated that one hundred dollars' worth of vegetables were raised last year. They make enough hay to keep three cows through the winter. The Woman's Home Alissionary Society owns one, Indian Chief Jim gives the use of another, and ]\Ir. Stark owns the third. The children have all the milk and cream they want [Indians seldom eat butter], and plenty of plain food, well cooked, and served three times a day. They arc bright and interesting, affec- tionate and well-behaved. I have never seen any bet- ter Indian children. ^lorning and evening they take part in family worship, sing hymns, and recite Scrip- ture, as though they delighted in it. I was pleased when Miss Mollie detailed two girls to do the chamber work, and left them to do as she had directed, while 164 Twenty Years' History she made a big panful of bread-dough. I afterward went to see how the twelve beds were made, and found that the girls must have been well trained previously, as they had done the work assigned well and with speed. Another girl cleared up the playroom, while others washed the breakfast dishes, and still others pared potatoes for dinner; all small children, and yet they were helpful. That afternoon school was kept till nearly supper-time. The children did well in arithmetic and spelling, and also in reading and writ- ing. The rule is two lessons per week in sewing, though the girls help all they can with mending. Both the young ladies who are employed by the Woman's Home Missionary Society are refined Christian ladies, but they do the work of common servants uncom- plainingly. Paid for nine months' work, both they and their father must do much extra work during vacation, as the property must be cared for, the garden, fruit, etc., as well, and the house-cleaning done." These worthy young women were both married soon after this time, and this necessitated the retire- ment of Mr. Stark from the Superintendency. Rev. Fred J. Brown and wife were appointed to the po- sition in 1 90 1. Mrs. h. H. Daggett, prominently connected with the early work in Alaska, felt a deep interest in Stick- ney Home, and for many years pleaded most earnestly for the maintenance of this mission among the Nook- sachk Indians. Work in the West 165 YAKIMA MISSION, FORT SIMCOE, WASH. Diagonally across the State to the southeast may be found the so-called Yakima Mission, though the missionary there asserts that other tribes and rem- nants of tribes, notably the Toppenish people, largely outnumber the Yakimas upon this reservation. The Indians number seventeen thousand, and the reserva- tion has an area about equal to the State of Rhode Island. A treaty was ratified in 1859 between the United States Government and the Indians here, and a Gov- ernment school established. Rev. J. H. Wilbur, of the jMethodist Episcopal Church, was put in charge of the school in 1861 ; in 1864 he was made Agent. He preached, in the schoolhouse, the first sermon ever preached in this region. For almost twenty years this good man was as a father to the Indians, and he is commonly known among them as ''Father Wilbur" to this day. He taught them how to build houses and to raise such crops as it was possible to grow along the streams. His iniluence still lingers among this people, and a few stalwart examples of Christian liv- ing are pointed out among the older Indians as monu- ments of his godly zeal. The church built by him in 1879 still remains, and a missionary of the Parent Board has been continuously kept at Fort Simcoe, the seat of the agency and headquarters of the mission. i66 Twenty Years' History When, in 1889, Dr. Daniel Dorchester, in his offi- cial capacity as Government Superintendent of the United States Indian Schools, visited this place, ac- companied by his wife as a Special Agent to inspect the work done for the girls, these Christian Indians urged them to find a woman missionary for the reservation. Mrs. Dorchester appealed to a friend, Mrs. Dr. Emily C. Miller, a lady physician of Boston, who, finding herself providentially led in a peculiar manner, acknowledged the voice of God in the call, and in 1891, April 8th, arrived at Fort Simcoe, and took up her abode in the little frame house near the parsonage, which the Indians had prepared for her. There she devoted herself exclusively to their welfare. In two years' time she had won the confidence of all, even the more timid women and children, becoming mother, physician, and friend, industrial teacher and spiritual adviser to old and young. In 1898, at her solicitation, forty acres of the one hundred and sixty allotment of Church lands was, by vote of the Columbia River Conference, assigned to the Woman's Home Missionary Society. Under her wise management it was fenced, cleared, irrigated, and put under cultivation, and a four-room cottage built, the returns from the ground paying for all improve- ments. This is at Toppenish, on the railroad, and twenty-five miles from Fort Simcoe. Here the In- Work in the West 167 dians, with their own hands and of their own means, had previously put up a httle church in which to wor- ship, and here souls have been gathered into the fold. Mrs. Dr. Miller has also been efficient in assisting the pastor, Rev. James Wilbur Helm, conducting services whenever he is absent, that the church be not closed. For four years this work was carried on under the direction of Mrs. Dorchester; but upon the death of the latter it was, in 1895, transferred to the Woman's Home Missionary Society, which has in all its fields no more capable and successful missionary nor a more promising mission. Of her experience in this work Dr. ]\Iiller has said : "To go three thousand miles alone to live among Indians, not knowing what was to follow, was not a matter to be entered upon lightly ; but believing that I saw the Father's hand in it, I followed its beckoning, and the dear Lord whom we all serve has been pleased to give great peace and joy to the soul of this lone missionary in ministering to a people of different lan- guage, wdio have had so little opportunity, but whom God loves even as he loves the most favored of us all." UKIAII, CAL. The wisdom of the policy of President Ulysses S. Grant, by which Churches were allowed to nominate Indian agents, was happily illustrated by the appoint- ment of Rev. J. L. Burchard to the agency of the i68 Twenty Years' History Digger Indians at Round Valley and Upper Lake, Cal. Though gentle and peaceable, these Indians, in the beginning, fled and hid themselves from the whites. After some time and much coaxing, a representative of the tribe appeared, his only article of clothing being a new and shining "stovepipe hat." Evidently this fine hat had exhausted the ingenuity of the tribe as a means of commending itself to civilization. Mr. Burchard became to these poor people a father, not only in the gospel, but in the guidance of their general interests. When he was unfortunately removed by political changes, the Indians did not wholly depart from his teachings. When, in 189 1, he was again sent to them, this time as the missionary of the Woman's Home Missionary Society, the Indians received him again as a father. Mr. Burchard maintained a stren- uous varfare against liquor-sellers with much success, and also against polygamy. His circuit embraced about sixty miles. Rev. E. W. Ewing succeeded him in October, 1900. A year later he said : "On looking over the field, I see the results of the work of my predecessor. Rev. J. L. Burchard. In co-operation with teachers employed in the Govern- ment schools, he has left a monument of his zeal which will endure. This mission should be maintained, be- cause it pays in the conversion and civilization of this Work in the West 169 people. The missionary must travel to distant camps, be lawyer, doctor, police officer, as well as preacher. He is obli![^cd to do mncli lliat does not come within the scope of his prescribed duties. "I have traveled, this year, by stage, on horse- back, and in buggy, through cold and heat, a distance of twenty-two hundred miles. To do this I have waded streams, stuck in the mud, and gone hungry to bed." BUREAU FOR INDIANS OF NEW MEXICO AND ARIZONA This Bureau is in charge of one of the most faith- ful and loyal of Secretaries, ]\lrs. E. W. Simpson, of Troy, N. Y. Years of familiarity with the Woman's Home Missionary Society has made her wise in select- ing its best methods of work. APACHES, DULCE, N. M. A Home and school at Dulce, N. M., has been doing excellent work for over thirteen years. Al- though this is called the "Apache" Mission, all classes, whites, Mexicans, and Indians, share in its benefits. Here, as elsewhere, the Indians had a great fear that the white teachers had come to entice away their chil- dren to Government schools ''to die," as they believed. Finding this not to be true, they became friendly and helpful, and have rallied around them with an in- telligent interest. 170 Twenty Years' History From 1887 to 1892 the missionaries, Miss Maria Clegg and Miss Sarah Moore, lived in a miserable hut of two rooms, so low that it could not be entered with- out bowing the head. In 1891 eighty acres of land were assigned the Woman's Home Missionary Society, and the urgent pleadings of the Bureau Secretary se- cured an appropriation, with which, in 1892, such additions and improvements were made as rendered it practicable to hold divine service at the mission. In May, 1892, Rev. Thomas Harwood, Superin- tendent of Missions, came and organized a Church class, and during the winter following many of the children and their parents were converted, the min- ister, who lived about thirty miles distant, coming, occasionally, to help the missionary ladies, who, in turn, went into his field to assist him. Quarterly- meetings were held — veritable feasts of ingathering — when both presiding elder and minister would be with them. In 1894 the membership numbered fifty whites and Mexicans, and fifty baptized Indians. In 1895 and 1896 a comfortable chapel and schoolroom was built, to which Miss Helen A. Dodge, of Lawrence, Mass., contributed largely, and great pressure began to be felt for enlarged accommodations in the Home and for support for the children who came to be taught. In 1897 fifty pupils were reported in the school, and Work in the West 171 fifteen inmates in the Home ; a few only received beneficiary aid. Among- the ''assets" of the mission this year we find recorded a sewing-machine, a set of tools, and a printing-press. The close of 1898 marked the most successful year in the history of this work. In 1898, Miss Clegg came East for the first time in seven years. She brought with her a promising young Mexican girl, Lasaida Ruybald (who afterward married a young Mexican minister), and a little In- dian girl, Henrietta. The Secretary says : "I was never so impressed with the good work being done as when I saw for myself the results as shown in these girls." This mission at Dulce is the central point for Protestantism in all that part of the country, and some remarkable conversions have occurred of individuals who have become strikingly useful in this and other communities, thus spreading abroad the leaven of the gospel. Both Miss Moore and Miss Clegg were singularly devoted missionaries. Miss Moore continues at Dulce as Superintendent, with assistants, but Miss Clegg has been promoted to her heavenly inheritance. After months of great suffering, she sweetly fell asleep, November 16, 1900. 172 Twenty Years' History NAVAJOES, JEWDTT, N. M. In the San Juan Valley, N. M., seventy miles from a railroad, two lone women, Mrs. Mary L. Eldridge and Miss Mary E. Raymond, one day in October, 1891, descended from the stage-coach, and literally pitched their tent in the wilderness. They had pre- viously had some experience in Indian Government schools, and they had come here to bring the gospel to the Navajo Indians. This was the beginning of the work of the Woman's Home Missionary Society for this people. For two years before this time the Church had been thrilled with the stories of this fine, intelligent, independent tribe of twenty thousand souls with not a single Protestant missionary among them. With no knowledge of God or Christ, without a writ- ten language, and with ages of heathenism back of them, this people offered no inviting field for niission- ary effort. They were prejudiced by the presence of bad whites, by traditions of a war which had cul- minated in their defeat and removal froni their old reservation, and by rumors of compulsory education for their children. Slow and toilsome was the progress of the heroic workers; but in the name of the Lord of hosts they had set up their banners, and they and their successors have nobly stood at their posts, drop- Work in the West 173 ping, dropping, dropping, month after month, and year after year, the seed of gospel truth into this black soil of heathenism. They began by visiting the sick in their miserable hogans, and giving them medicine, which so won their confidence that the mission soon became a dispensary. Then the missionaries brought the women to their own house, teaching them to cook and spin upon wheels brought from the East, and assisting them in weaving and in selling their rugs, the inimitable Navajo blankets which have made the tribe famous. The Indians built them a little house, and from time to time helped to enlarge it, the missionaries teaching them, as best they could, the use of tools and how to irrigate the arid soil of their reservation, which has been described as ''six millions of acres of sand." Rev. Howard B. Antes, of Colorado, who was much interested in the Navajoes, visited the work oc- casionally, and rendered it substantial service. Among these Indians the women of the family own all the sheep and goats. When the father's property is divided, this is the daughters' portion, so that the women are not slaves, as in other tribes. The hus- band is really somewhat dependent on the wife, who supplies the family with milk and. meat, and wool for blankets. This, probably, is one reason for the 174 Twenty Years' History prevalence of polygamy, and another is the belief that it is disreputable for a woman to live alone. When one is left a widow, she very soon offers herself to some man, usually a younger one, as the old men are supplied with wives, and it is not known that they are ever refused. Then the young men take young wives, visually more than one. The fall in the price of wool about the year 1893, by which their industries were made less remunerative, reduced these people to poverty; almost to starvation. Then they began in earnest to learn to work their lands. The missionaries maintain that a farm is needed at the mission upon which boys may be taught practical agriculture.''' May I, 1898, was an epoch in this mission. Rev. Thomas Harwood visited it, and baptized a class of interesting converts. The following year, 1899, was signalized by the erection of a school building and chapel combined, with dormitories above. The In- dians had so far changed in their attitude towards the missionaries since 1891, when they declared, ''We want no schools," that they now begged for a school to be opened. Twenty white children were in the day- school, and thirteen Navajoes, the latter remaining -In the summer of 1902 land was secured and the mission family removed to a point twenty-two miles from Jewett and tliree miles from Farmington. Work in the West 175 with the missionaries all the time, as the most effective means of civilizing and Christianizing them. The In- dian pupils were found to be bright, and to learn as readily as the whites. In 1893, Mrs. Eldridge was made Field Matron for this people, under Government direction, still making her home at the mission, and serving it more efficiently than ever. In August, 1894, Miss Raymond died, and w^as succeeded by Miss Mary Tripp, who still remains at this isolated post. Such has been the seed-sowing in this truly pagan soil. What of the harvest ? "First the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear." It follows in the Divine order. Only a few grains, perhaps, of the ''full corn," but the promise of a glad fruition by and by. Why do the reapers delay their coming? is the message that comes to the Christian Church from this long-neglected field, sent by teachers and taught alike. Miss Tripp, the faithful missionary, writes: "Strange that souls on this reservation are not as precious as those in foreign lands ! It is God's will that we go to the heathen ; but is it His will that we neglect our own heathen ?" Again, an old Indian, trembling on the verge of the grave, turns upon the teacher his sad eyes, voicing the question heard round the world in heathen lands, "Why didn't you send us this news before?" 176 Twenty Years' History BUREAU FOR NEW MEXICO AND ARIZONA, SPANISH The Woman's Home Missionary Society early en- deavored to enter this field. Mrs. J. F. Willing, the first Secretary of the Bureau, visited the Territory and investigated the conditions, and in 1887 arranged for the opening of v^ork in Albuquerque. Mrs. Anna Kent, of East Orange, N. J., succeeded Mrs. Willing in 1890 as Secretary of the Bureau for vSpanish Work in New Mexico. In 1891 she visited the field, and again in 1895, and a third time in 1900, and has continuously cared for the work at great per- sonal expense of time and money. Mrs. Kent early became interested in the general work of the Society, and was made a member of the Board of Trustees in 1892 as a tribute to her valuable services, being the second person having a residence outside of the State of Ohio to be elected a member of that body. (jNIrs. Goff, of Philadelphia, was the first.) "The Bureau for Spanish Work on the Pacific Coast," during its short existence, has been in charge of the capable and gifted Secretary, Mrs. A. M. Whitson, of Los Angeles. pe:opi.e: of new mexico It brings one up with a start to be reminded that the great American Republic has had within its bor- ders from the earliest times a large tract of country Work in the West 177 wholly given over to the vSpanish Mexicans, and where the language of Spain is spoken by almost every one except Government officials and Protestant mission- aries. This region has had a peculiar history. Away back in the ages of an unknown past it was inhabited by a mysterious race of an advanced civilization. Traces of this vanished people are still discoverable. In the decadence of their pow^r a new element appeared upon the scene. Over the great river from Mexico came the Spaniard, lured by rumors of wealthy king- doms and treasures to be had for the taking. In the w^onderful cliff-dwellings of the mountains they thought to find rooms full of gold and jewels, such as had been the fatal possessions of the Montezumas and the Incas of the Southland. It is not believed that they found wdiat they sought ; and having de- spoiled the simple natives of such as they had, most of the more ambitious pushed on over the mountains and through the caiions of the West, leaving the signs of their passage in the Spanish names which they dropped here and there on mountain and river, pueblo and harbor. The musical syllables, slipping so glibly froni the lips of the brusque American of modern times, Sierra, San Jacinto, Sacramento, Los Angeles, and the like, come to us as an echo of that vanished past. lUit from this migration a considerable residuum 13 / Twenty Years' History was left behind in the country now known as New Mexico, mingUng with the natives and falHng easily into their customs. The Spanish people, nevertheless, became the dominant element, giving, in time, their language and general impress to the whole region. This was so long ago that Santa Fe is claimed to be (with the possible exception of that other Spanish founded city, St. Augustine) the oldest permanent settlement in the United States. By this mongrel race, descended from the Span- iards and the aborigines, and denominated Mexican- Americans, the country is now largely populated. Such a beginning partially explains present-day conditions and throws light on the question, ''Why should New Mexico be regarded as missionary ground?" As these people have been dominated through all their history by the Romish priesthood, it goes without saying that ignorance and superstition go hand in hand. When, in 1846, the Territory was annexed to the United States, and General Kearney raised the flag at Sante Fe, but one school existed within the area now embraced in New Mexico. Not until 1872 was any school law adopted or appro- priation made. Since then much of the money set apart for education has passed into the hands of the Jesuits. Teachers are sometimes employed who can not read or write. The public schools teach little ex- Work in the West 179 cept the devotions of the Church. Of the resuhs of Romish methods among them, Dr. Thomas Harwood, who has been identified with mission work in that Territory for thirty years, writes : "In a pueblo of one thousand souls, which has been under Roman Catholic care for three hundred years, only two young men were found able to read and write." The spiritual need of this people has been little understood by the Church. Nominally Catholic, they are in reality pagan. Dr. J. M. Reid said of them in 1889, "They are far more needy and miserable than the people of old Mexico." HARW^OOD HOME, ALBUQUERQUE, N. M. In 1887, Mrs. Annie Norton and ]\Iiss Ida Brim- mer, under Airs. Willing's direction, began work in Albuquerque, establishing an industrial school in a rented house. Here they planned "to raise up native teachers who will repeat in the little villages their lessons on religion and the industries." Into their classes came "mothers, grandmothers, and daughters to learn English and sewing." In 1890, Miss Brimmer having gone to Las Vegas, Miss Emma Ernsberger became Mrs. Norton's assistant. In 1895 the Harwood Home was erected at a cost of seven thousand dollars, and dedicated March i, 1896. It is built of brick, and situated between Old i8o Twenty Years' History Town and New Town, and at a distance of four or five blocks from the Methodist church for the Spanish- speaking Mexicans in Old Town. A kindergarten is conducted, the domestic arts taught, and the students are given a liberal English course of study. Coming to this Home from their wretched, cheer- less abodes (the Mexican-Americans are almost all poor and indolent), the girls are introduced to a new Hfe. Already young women who have been students here are found in many a little Mexican town where they are lighting beacon-fires that show a better way of living. Their bright faces and intelligent activities impress all who see them with the wonderful results of their life at Harwood Home. In 1 90 1 the Superintendent writes : ''We have taken poor girls whose friends could do very little — only bring them to the Home with the most meager wardrobe. We have clothed them decently from our supplies, taught them useful ways, led them to Christ. They have gone back to their old homes so entirely changed as to become objects of interest among all their people. Twenty-five are here this year as pay pupils. Creeds have been for- gotten by fathers who had daughters for whom they desired the best teaching they could find. When warned that the Bible was a much-used Book and that the in- stitution was Protestant and Christian, they did not hesitate, but left them, saying, 'Do all you can for my Work in the West i8i child.' When such a one returns to her home a bright, happy child of God, knowing her sins are forgiven (as is usually the case), the leaven of the truth begins its work in that community, and souls are brought into the kingdom. "Harwood Home is truly a city set upon a hill." Sixty-three girls crowded the fine- large building the year of this report, filling the hands of the faith- ful teachers with labor and care, but making their hearts glad with the recompense of love. One of these, Miss Bartholemew, writes: "Perhaps there is no time of the day more delight- ful to me than the first period of each school session • when we have our Bible lesson. This morning when I looked over the bright, eager faces, and saw how those young minds literally drank in my words, there went up from my heart a song of tlianksgiving for the privilege of being the teacher of these girls. After all, the responsibility of it all rests heavily upon me, for I realize that they are getting the gospel as / see it, and / stand to them as an example of the Protestant religion, and they observe me as I live its truths. O how I long to be perfectly true to my trust !" A few of these girls are the daughters of Mexican Methodist preachers ; good people, but very poor, and without correct ideas of social and home life, without a knowledge of the industries, and beyond the reach of school privileges. To such liarwood Home is a boon. iSz Twenty Years' History Some of the girls trained in the Home have been married to young men entering the ministry, and some to Christian young men not ministers, and all these have formed homes of their own which are object lessons, to their people, of neatness and thrift. In 1 90 1 two young women went from the Home as helpers to missionaries of the Woman's Home Mis- sionary Society, one at El Paso, and one at Las Vegas. These were well qualified for their work. Knowing the language and being natives, they form a close link between the missionaries and the people. Miss Ellsworth Apperson succeeded Mrs. Norton in 1895 as Superintendent at Harwood Home, with Miss Annita Rodriguez as assistant. Upon Miss Rodriguez's marriage in 1898, Miss Emma Barthol- emew, of Sunbury, Pa., was called to share with Miss Apperson the responsibilities of the Home. In 1901 an industrial teacher, Miss Edith Nichols, was added. In this land of perpetual sunshine the climate is enervating, and the high latitude, five to six thousand feet, makes the strenuous life of the missionary ex- hausting. All honor is due to these noble women who labor on here year after year, sometimes remaining through the summer even, to keep the Home open. They have their reward when they see uncouth, super- stitious, almost uncivilized, children transformed into sweet-spirited, intelligent Christian young women. Work in the West 183 **If we can keep them two, three, and even four years," says one, "then we can see with our own eyes of the fruit of our labor." Albuquerque is a growing city, and of special in- terest to Methodists, because, by common consent of other denominations, this Church has the right of way. In 1890, Bishop Mallalieu, urging an advance, said, "It is of the utmost importance that you possess this field for Protestantism." And another said: "It is a profitable field, but of a kind that ripens slowly. The work will grow in dignity and importance when the people know it better." AT LAS VEGAS In September, 1888, Miss Ida Brimmer opened a mission school here for Mexican children. The work was initiative, and before results could be seen her health failed, and she left in June, 1889. ]\Iiss Nellie Snider took her place, and at once twenty-five pupils were enrolled. In June, 1890, Miss ]\Iary Tripp was sent to help ]\Iiss Snider. The following year Miss Tripp was transferred to the Navajo Mission. "The school at Las Vegas was in a rented dwelling-house; the large kitchen furnished a comfortable schoolroom, where pupils of all ages, from the grandmother down, met together. The teaching of a necessity had to be adopted to the slow-thinking minds of the pupils. 184 Twenty Years' History They came early, and remained until sent home ; were never in a hurry to go. Daily sewing-classes were well attended. Leaf Cluster pictures were used in the lessons, and were given to the pupils as rewards, and later were displayed as decorations in their homes. In 1895 the Church Missionary Society secured a building for a Methodist church, and in it accommo- dations for Miss Snider's school. The work seemed to take a fresh start. ''Weekly temperance lessons, vSunday-school, and young people's meetings, and visitation among the parents of the pupils kept the missionary busy." In 1900 a change was made in the work. A little cottage of four rooms was rented and two ladies added to the force. Miss Snider continued her special work among the Mexicans and kindergarten work. Miss Pearce aided her with the large ungraded classes, and Mrs. F. A. Hathaway acted as a missionary visitor to minister to the strangers who come from everywhere to seek relief in this ''health-giving climate," and who are often to be found in most distressing circum- stances, far from home and friends. Eternity alone will tell the results^of these ministrations. In the fall of 1 90 1, after a continuous service of twelve years. Miss Snider was relieved for a year of rest, and Miss Cora Buschman, of Troy, N. Y., was put in charge of the work at Las Vegas, with a Mexican girl from Work in the West 185 Harwood Home as her assistant. They conduct a kindergarten and do "outside missionary work." LAS CRUCOS AND ElL PASO From 1893 to 1898, Miss Margaret J. Tripp labored at Las Cruces with faithfuhiess and zeal, bringing some to the knowledge of the truth, and being a great help to the missionary who was stationed there among the Mexicans under the auspices of the General Mis- sionary Society. In September, 1898, she opened work at El Paso, Tex. Here she had a large and interesting school in connection with the church, did much per- sonal visiting among the people, and established an Epworth League and a Sabbath-school. Mrs. Arm- strong, formerly Miss Ida Brimmer, was a loyal helper here. In November, 1900, Miss Tripp left El Paso, Tex., for work in Southern California, and in the winter of 1 90 1, Miss E. O. Newnom, of Delaware, took charge at El Paso, having as her assistant a Mexican girl from Harwood Home. SPANISH WORK, SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA Fifty thousand Spanish-Americans are said to live in California. The Methodist Episcopal Church has been slow to provide for their spiritual needs. In 1898 the Woman's Home Missionary Society appropriated i86 Twenty Years' History four hundred dollars for work among girls and women of this class. In 1899 a like amount was promised, and in 1900 the appropriation was increased to thir- teen hundred dollars. At the end of this period two prosperous missions had been organized and passed over to the care of the Parent Board, and an Industrial Home and school had been started in Los Angeles. Mrs. F. M. DePauw generously provided a house for the Home, the Southern California Con- ference furnished it, and the General Board of the Woman's Home Missionary Society guaranteed its support. Miss Margaret J. Tripp was appointed Superintendent of the Home, and Miss Jennie Mathias teacher. Twenty-one girls were in the Home the first year. Y BUREAU FOR ALASKA In January, 1886, the Board of Trustees of the Woman's Home Missionary Society appointed Mrs. Lydia H. Daggett Secretary of the Bureau for Alaska, which had been formed at the preceding Annual Meet- ing. From that time until her retirement, in 1892, she gave herself with a passionate devotion to work for the redemption of these neglected heathen in that far-ofif corner of the home land. ''Her piety was of that uncompromising sort that made her indifferent to all the changing fashions in dress, and her tall, well-poised figure, with the strong face set in a plain Work in the West 187 'Methodist bonnet,' might well be taken as a type of the unbending righteousness of her character." She was, for eleven years previous to her association with the Woman's Home Missionary Society, the publisher of the Heathen IVoinan's Friend, the organ of the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society. After a linger- ing illness, she died in great peace at the home of her son in Wyoming, October 2, 1901. Mrs. H. M. Teller acted as Secretary of the Bureau in 1893, and was succeeded in 1894 by Mrs. S. L. Beiler, who has won the encomiums of the whole Church by the able manner in which she has dis- charged the duties of the office. She has borne the scars of service, having contracted a severe illness due to the exposures of her long and arduous journeying in Alaska, from the effects of which she has never re- covered. JESSE LEE HOME, UNALASKA, ALASKA In 1867 the Russian possessions in North America w^ere bought by the United States Government for seven million two hundred thousand, dollars. W^ith this purchase there came under our flag, not only five hundred and eighty thousand square miles of ice and snow and mountain and forest, with their unknown and unsuspected material wealth, but a population of some twenty-nine thousand souls in conditions of de- 1 88 Twenty Years' History vclopment varying from the wild tribes of the interior and the barbarous Esquimaux, Tinneh, ThHnget, Hydah, and Chilkat peoples, to the semi-civilized in- habitants of the southern coast and its outlying islands. Representing the highest stages of advancement as found in these more favored sections were the priests of the Russian (Greek) Church and those natives di- rectly controlled by them. What the moral status of this Church influence was and continues to be may be learned by even the most casual observation of the social conditions prevailing in those ports where it has had the best opportunity to demonstrate that influence. That the bulk of the population of Alaska might be classed as heathen, and some tribes of a very low grade at that; that witchcraft, fetichism, polygamy, and infanticide were common, and even human sacri- fices and cannibalism were known to be practiced, has been established by the painstaking reports of Govern- ment surveying parties, of the Educational Bureau, and of the missionaries of the various Churches. And yet ten years were allowed to pass after the Russian eagle gave place to the Stars and Stripes in 1867, before the first missionary from the States set foot in the Terri- tory. Then the Presbyterian Church, that great home missionary organization which has planted its stations like a continuous wall of defense all along our Western frontier, made an entrance, Dr. Sheldon Jackson lead- Work in the West 189 ing the little vanguard by opening at Fort Wrangell, August, 1877, "the first American mission station." By a fraternal agreement between the various Mission Boards \vliich Dr. Jackson was instrumental in secur- ing, the work of the Presbyterian Church was to be confined to the southeastern, or Sitka, region, the Bap- tist to Kadiak, the Protestant Episcopal to the valley of the Yukon, the Moravians to the Kuskokwim River region, and the Aleutian Division was assigned to the Methodist Episcopal Church. This was accepted by Dr. John M. Reid, Alissionary Secretary, acting in behalf of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and '*Unalaska was selected as the center of their Church operations in Alaska on January 20, 1883." General Clinton B. Fisk was Chairman of the first Committee for Methodist work in the Territory. What Christian missions have done for Alaska in these twenty years may be forcibly summarized by quoting the words of an experienced traveler and able lecturer. Dr. T. M. Johnson, of St. Louis: "It is a good thing to go to Alaska, if for no other purpose than to be taught an object-lesson in mis- sions, to observe with one's owai eyes the transforma- tion wrought in the Alaskan Indian by the power of the gospel. Where the missionary has not been he is filthy, depraved, brutal, dehumanized. Where the mis- sionary has been, holding up the cross of Christ, he is cleanly, cultured, Christlike." 190 Twenty Years' History At the fourth Annual Meeting of the Woman's Home Missionary Society, held in Philadelphia, 1885, almost in the infancy of the organization, the ladies, looking upon the indications as providential, ventured to create a "Bureau for Alaska." Mission work in this field, because of its remoteness and the difficulty of transporting supplies, must be correspondingly ex- pensive; therefore the most feasible plan was that obtaining in the Indian work, viz., the system of con- tract schools. The first grant from the Government for educa- tion in Alaska, twenty-five thousand dollars, was made m 1884. In 1885 there was no appropriation. For J 886 and 1887 fifteen thousand dollars, and for the year following twenty-five thousand dollars again. In April, 1885, Dr. Sheldon Jackson was appointed Com- missioner of Education for Alaska. This Christian gentleman who had for over ten years been deeply interested in the w^elfare of the people of this newly- acquired territory, very wisely sought to locate schools where the establishment of mission stations might make it possible to combine intellectual development with moral and industrial training. In February, 1886, he wrote the Secretary of the Alaskan Bureau, Mrs. Daggett: "If you will find a Methodist man (married) who will go to Unalaska, I will have him appointed teacher of the Government school." Work in the West 191 This place is the commercial center and most im- portant settlement in Western Alaska, the natural out- fitting station for all vessels passing between the Pacific and Arctic Oceans. The Parent Board had not yet thought best to enter this field, but the opening seemed to the women too good to be lost. Energetic meas- ures w^ere at once adopted to arouse interest and secure funds. Some progress w-as made in this direction, some gifts were received and others assured when the work should assume tangible shape ; but, owing to the distance and the difficulties preventing personal over- sight, the development of the work into a mission was painfully retarded. In the summer of 1889, ]Mr. John A. Tuck and wife were sent out by the Government to establish a school at Unalaska, wdiere they remained for seven years, laboring under great trials and discouragements, but devoting themselves in many ways to the moral uplift of the people. During these first years two thou- sand dollars were appropriated annually by the Bureau of Education to the expenses of this school, the So- ciety supplementing the support by donating from the ''Alaska Fund" amounts varying from two hundred and fifty dollars to one thousand five hundred dollars per annum. The beginning of a Home w^as thrust upon the teachers by the bringing of two orphan girls, waifs. 192 Twenty Years' History from the island of Attoo, one thousand miles west of Unalaska. Others, finding that two had been re- ceived, came, and refused to be driven away. Then the United States Treasury Agent of the Seal Islands, September, 1890, sent down six girls by Captain Healey, of the United States revenue cutter Bear, and soon after four more were added in the same way. Thus the little house, a story and a half cottage, half of which was used as a schoolroom, was soon filled to its utmost capacity. A small addition to this build- ing was made in the summer of 1891 by the Woman's Home ]\.Iissionary Society. In 1892 twenty-six girls enjoyed the privileges of this Home. Of this little mission at this period a traveler wrote : ''It is a Church in itself. Wherever w^e go in Western Alaska we hear of it. Its influence is felt in the ex- treme northwest." And another : ''For one thousand miles it is the only moral lighthouse, the only place of Protestant worship." Meanwhile, in the States efforts were being made to provide a larger building. Dr. Jackson, always the friend of this mission, advised that it should be made to accommodate not less than sixty inmates. Plans were drawn, contracts awarded, and even transporta- tion for material engaged ; nevertheless, year after year hopes were unfulfilled and plans frustrated. Then, in 1892, came the General Conference action prohibiting Work in the West 193 any Methodist Episcopal Church organization from re- ceiving Government aid. To this was added an incor- rect but influential report that the Aleutian Islands were not worth missionary effort, being ''only bare, infertile rocks without future promise, and almost no inhabit- ants," and for a time the very existence of the mission was threatened. That was a season of sadness for the friends of the struggling Jesse Lee Home. Should the girls who a few years ago had been ''rescued from holes in the ground," from neglect and starvation, or a slavery worse than death, and who had begun to develop beautiful Christian characters, be turned out again to become the victims of the "human vultures waiting to destroy them?" Should the holy aim of these devoted teachers, the establishment of Christian homes in this land by means of these girls, be aban- doned? In this time of perplexity devout souls looked unto the Lord, and he hearkened and heard, and the little taper which had been lighted amid the spiritual darkness of the Far Northwest was, by God's grace, kept steadily burning. The work was shifted to a new basis. No appro- priation could be made by the Board in 1892, and, as a matter of course, all building operations had been arrested. "But," says Mrs. Rust in the report of 1893, "a sufficient amount of supplies had been sent in the fall of the previous year to last the family which had 194 Twenty Years' History been under the care of the Society until July," 1893, and the Government appropriation to the school con- tinued, so that the friends of the cause were relieved of immediate anxiety. Most opportunely, about this time, Dr. J. M. Buckley, editor of the Christian Advo- cate, made a trip to Alaska. He was requested to in- vestigate this special field in Alaska as to its importance and future value. He reported Unalaska, which had been selected for the operations of the Church, as a promising mission field. He emphasized its present conditions and future prospects as coinciding with Dr. Reid's views and those of the Woman's Home Mis- sionary Society. Following this, the ladies again laid their plea before the General Missionary Committee, November, 1893, and were assured of the ''sympathy and moral support" of that body, and all objection was hereafter withdrawn to the further prosecution of the work so heroically begun by Mrs. Daggett. An appropriation was made by the Woman's Home Mis- sionary Society for beneficiary aid to care for the children already in the Home. The Bureau of Education now proposed to erect a large building apart from the mission, and the So- ciety, believing it held a grant of one hundred and sixty acres of land from the Government (this was never confirmed, but in 1896 a clear title to twenty acres was secured), began to plan again for a suitable Work in the West 195 house in which to shelter the growing family. This was pushed forward to the limit of the appropriation, and September, 1895, it stood ''seventy-two feet by thirty-six, two stories and a half high, and solidly built," it was thought. The news was brought back in the fall by the last returning steamer. But disaster again lay in wait for the struggling enterprise. Eight months later the Secretary of the Bureau received the discouraging report that the car- penters had barely put out to sea, in October, when a great storm had rendered the building unsafe, and it had stood useless the long winter through. The Government schoolhouse was in even a worse con- dition. In April, 1897, by order of the General Board of Trustees, Mrs. S. L. Beiler, Secretary of the Bureau, visited and inspected the work in Alaska. After six months, part of which time, she tells us, she literally ''dwelt in the tents of wickedness," she came back with increased enthusiasm for work for the redemption of that great land. Under her supervision the building had been completed, and at last the mission was com- fortably housed, with a beautiful flag, Mrs. Fisk's gift, floating over it, and not a dollar of indebtedness upon it. The chapel bears the name of "Eliza Jane Baker," being a memorial to the wife of Dr. Sheridan Baker, of East Ohio Conference, who gave to the 196 Twenty Years' History Home one thousand dollars. Six girls from the Jesse Lee Home were, at the time of Mrs. Beiler's return, sent to the Indian Training-school at Carlisle, Pa., to be fitted for greater usefulness among their people ; six others came a year later, and four more in 1901. They are all said to reflect great credit upon their previous training. In 1895, Miss Agnes L. Sowle was sent as Matron and Superintendent of the Home, the first missionary in the bona Ude employ of the Woman's Home Mis- sionary Society. At the same time Miss Elizabeth Mellor went to take Mr. Tuck's place as Superin- tendent of the Government school, with Miss Sarah J. Rinch as Miss Sowle's assistant, and, in 1897, Miss Ida Mellor superseded Miss Salmatoff in the school work. The teachers of the Government school boarded in the Home, and, being imbued with true missionary spirit, have rendered invaluable assistance in religious work. The later increase in numbers has led to a separation of the staff of school workers from those in the Home, but they continue to be helpful. In July, 1898, Miss Sowle was married to Dr. Albert Newhall, a Christian physician and local preacher, who was made principal of the Government school, succeeding Miss Mellor, who resigned after three years of excellent work, Mrs. Newhall continuing in charge of the Home. The next year Dr. Newhall Work in the West 197 gave all his time to mission work. The Bureau Sec- retary says : "Too much praise can not be given to him ; he is such stuff as heroes are made of." Mrs. New- hall's health having broken from overwork, they re- turned to the States in the summer of 1901, expecting to return after a year of rest. The workers who had taken their places were Miss Ella Darling, Miss Eliza- beth Schwab, and ^liss Harriett Barnett. One of these writes : "I feel that I am in a truly foreign field, and I believe it is God's work." The most pressing need of this Alaskan work, at the dawning of the twentieth century, has seemed to be the erection of a hospital at Unalaska. Great suf- fering has resulted in all the history of the mission from the lack of medical attendance and surgical treat- ment. The regime of Dr. Newhall has demonstrated, by his usefulness, the iniperative need of such help. The discovery, in 1899, of deposits of gold of unsus- pected extent and richness, brought thousands of miners and prospectors into the Territory, and as the lines of travel into the Cape Nome and Yukon gold fields pass through the strait at Unalaska, many sick and helpless white people are stranded there. At times the Jesse Lee Home has been of necessity turned into a hospital, and that without any adequate means of relief. For four years Mrs. Bciler has kept this need before the Society and the public, and in 1901 it was 198 Twenty Years' History decided to proceed with the building of a cottage hos- pital, additions to the same to be made as funds are secured. From her observation in the field and her consultations with the returned teachers, she is led to believe that those who are treated here will go out to be torch-bearers for the truth. Some of those taught in the Jesse Lee Home have died. They have given evidence of a change of heart and a hope of heaven. Says Mrs. Beiler: "They die well. It does pay." The Bureau for Alaska also maintains a maternal oversight upon the work at Unga, nine hundred miles north of Unalaska. Here Dr. Jackson had a school opened, October, 1886, with Rev. John H. Carr, a Methodist minister, in charge. Mrs. Carr soon suc- cumbed to the discomforts and privations of the climate, dying in 1887. A small house erected here as a me- morial of her, called the "Martha Ellen Stevens Cot- tage," is the property of the Society, and occupied by the Government teacher and his family. Bishop McCabe has added his voice to the pleadings of the Bureau Secretary for an extension of the work of the Woman's Home Missionary Society to other points in the Territory. At Chilkat and Kluckwan wide doors are opened awaiting its entrance, with promise of even better success than has been attained at Unalaska. Work in the West 199 The opposition of the Russian (Greek) Church to the operations of any other denomination in Alaska is pccuHar and bitter, and renders the task of the mis- sionary both ikVi ate and difficult. Sixty thousand dollars annually is sent from Russia for the support of its corrupt priesthood, and its hold upon the na- tives is absolute. Even the more intelligent among the Alaskans are more loyal to the foreign Church than to the United States Government. To the pub- lic schools and the missionary societies we must look for the only influence that can break this thraldom, and in time elevate the people into good citizenship. In this sketch we have given only a glimpse of the material conditions and vicissitudes of the work of the Woman's Home Missionary Society in Alaska. The story of the patient, plodding, persistent labors of these teachers year after year, of children plucked from the depths, of intellects quickened from dull- ness and stupidity, of souls awakened, of women brought to an apprehension of the meaning of virtue and chastity, of seafarers befriended and sick cared for, of the songs and prayers and admonitions which have made Jesse Lee Home a "house of hope" to multitudes, — these are not for mortal tongue or pen to tell; they will be found inscribed on the scroll of eternity. 200 Twenty Years' History BUREAU FOR ORIENTALS In 1893, at the Annual Meeting at Toledo, O., the door of the Woman's Home Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church was opened to admit a sister orjjanization, ''The Woman's Missionary Society of the Pacific Coast," and with the forma- tion of the Oriental Bureau "for the supervision of work among Asiatic people in the United States" a new department was added to the many already claim- ing the attention of the Woman's Home Missionary Society. Mrs. L. P. Williams, of San Francisco, who had come from the Golden Gate to this Annual Meet- ing bearing the official proffer of union, went back accredited as the first Secretary of the Oriental Bu- reau, a position she has filled with great devotion up to the present time. That this work was not at the time of its adop- tion an experiment even a casual study of its previous history will prove. Early in the sixties the need began to be felt among Christian people for some organized effort to reach the Chinese who were creating a heathen so- ciety, with its joss houses, opium dens, and slave girls, in more than one city of the United States. As the largest number of these people have settled Work in the West 201 on the Pacific Coast, and as no city in America con- tains so many as San Francisco, the principal work of evangeUzing- them must be wrought out there. In June, 1863, Bishop Edward Thomson appointed Rev. Otis Gibson, D. D., who had previously served ten years in the Foo Chow Mission, China, as mis- sionary to the Chinese in California. \\'ith never- tlinching faithfulness this good man discharged this trust, until in 1885 his health failed, and in 1889 ^"'c passed to his reward. So zealously was he identified with the interests of this people that the word "Geeb- son," trembling upon the halting tongue of some op- pressed and hunted victim of Chinatowm, has often been used to the police as a password to liberty. He was succeeded in 1885, ^s Superintendent of this mis- sion, by Dr. F. J. Masters, who died January 3, 1900. Of the latter it has been said : "He was missionary to tw^o hemispheres ;" ''hundreds of converts, won to Christ through his instrumentality and through the labors of his assistants on the Pacific slope, have re- turned to their own land, and there have become evangelists. Many letters from them have gladdened the workers in San Francisco with the assurance that the seed thus planted in Chinese soil was bringing forth abundant fruit." In 1870 a fine Chinese Alission House was erected 202 Twenty Years' History at 916 Washington Street, San Francisco, and this also was made headquarters for the woman's work, which developed speedily. It was in this year, 1870, that the Methodist women of that city banded themselves together for service in the cause of their Mongolian sisters. ''Almost be- fore we were aware of it," says one, "there were three thousand Chinese women in San Francisco, and three thousand more scattered over this Western Coast." More than half of these were believed to be slave- girls. "A disturbing thought would arise: These are all idolators, and have never heard of my Savior ; am I in any way responsible for their souls ?" In August of 1870 a meeting was called, and "The Woman's Missionary Society of the Pacific Coast" was or- ganized. Arrangements were soon made to open in the Chinese mission building a day-school for women and girls, and a large room on the second floor was as- signed for this purpose, while the whole of the third floor was furnished as a dormitory. This was the be- ginning of the present Rescue Home. It was nearly a year — in 1871 — before the first woman came. The police were informed that here was an asylum of refuge for those who wished to escape from the hands of cruel masters. Some were brought in in this way, others rescued from attempted suicide, and some Work in the West 203 forcibly delivered from unholy bondage by the hand of the law, invoked by the zealous missionaries. For nearly three years this was the only place of Chris- tian refuge for Chinese girls and women in San Fran- cisco. In September, 1874, a similar Home was in- augurated under the auspices of the ''Woman's Occi- dental Board of the Presbyterian Church ;" this is also doing good work. House-to-house visitation was undertaken by the Methodist women, and, though prosecuted under great and peculiar difficulties, was not without some signs of encouragement. The Woman's Missionary Society of the Pacific Coast was organized as auxiliary to the General Mis- sionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Funds raised for the work of the former were paid into the treasury of the latter, from which appropria- tions were made to carry on the operations under- taken by the Woman's Society. Soon after the organization of the latter an in- effectual effort was made to secure a union with the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society, this body de- ciding that it could not, without infringing its Con- stitution, enter upon any work in America, although among a heathen people. In 1882, when the Woman's Home Missionary Society was but two years old, the Western sister, although claiming seniorit\- by ten years, sought admission into its larger fold. This, 204 Twenty Years' History though beUevcd to be eminently desirable, was not then consummated, because of a lack of funds in the Woman's Home IMissionary Society to meet the im- mediate obligations of the Western work. It was therefore with no small degree of rejoicing that, after years of waiting, the nuptials were finally celebrated in 1893, at the Annual Meeting in St. Paul's Church, Toledo, Ohio. The order of work already established by the orig- inal Society was not changed under the new admin- istration. Some additional workers were employed, and the three lines of effort — Rescue work, children's school in the Mission Home, and daily visitation by the missionary, were carried on with more than pre- vious energy. The union with the Woman's Home Missionary Society had secured the attention of Aux- iliaries in remote Churches, and beneficiary aid has been provided from year to year by which an average of twenty-five children have been protected in the Home. These waifs, sometimes sad wrecks of in- fantile humanity, have almost each a history that would move a heart of stone, with no two histories alike, and each a type of a different class of abuses. Innocent children sold into domestic slavery, passed from master to master, and sooner or later found in the lowest resorts of vice ; girls of a marriageable age, imported from China and introduced into the country Work in the West 205 by stratagem, and consigned as so much merchandise to Hves of shame; helpless wives and children abused and deserted by worthless fathers — these are some of those to whom this Home holds out the hand of de- liverance. In the years of this work in San Fran- cisco four hundred and twenty-eight have been thus rescued, many have been sent back to their friends in China, an encouraging number have been clearly converted, some of these have become strong and active Christian workers, and over one hundred have married and made Christian homes. Of the need for the mission school, it is only neces- sary to be reminded of the large number of Chinese in California and the peculiar conditions existing there. At some periods during the last decade of the nineteenth century there were as many as sixty thou- sand in the State. In 1901 the number was thought to be reduced to forty-five thousand, twenty thousand of these in San Francisco. Two thousand Chinese chil- dren in that city — 'little urchins in yellow blouses grow- ing up under the Stars and Stripes," to be the voters of the future, for whom no adequate provision is made in the public schools ! The Legislature has forbidden Mongolian children to be admitted into white schools, and though separate schools have been ordered for such, they may be miles away from the home of the child; and for girls, the danger of being kidnaped 2o6 Twenty Years' History on the way renders them practically useless. In point of fact, there is but one building and a few classes for Chinese, composed mostly of boys. Remember- ing, too, that there are fifteen joss-houses in China- town, and that in every home regulated after the order of the foreign religion there is a shelf upon the wall, where before the image of the idol the boy is taught to place daily the votive offering of rice, what shall we look forward to for them but a pagan, rather than a Christian, civilization? Plainly, then, it be- comes imperative that missionary societies shall estab- lish schools where both secular and religious instruc- tion can be obtained by these Chinese children. Into the secluded tenements, from which the better class of women never come out, the missionary, ac- companied by her interpreter, finds her way, climb- ing up rickety stairs into sunless rooms, or down underground into the "chambers of silence," where dead men's bones await transportation to the Father- land, — for even here they have found sick girls left to perish. They have carried with them flowers and smiles, and kind words and loving ministrations, for the suffering and dying, until they have been rewarded by seeing the light of peace dawn on some stolid faces and the graces of the Spirit bud and blossom in the midst of heathen depravity. Of the missionaries who have by their brave and Work in the West 207 loving persistence won a welcome into many such homes, Mrs. Jane Walker, the first, was a faithful worker for eleven years, not only doing this house- to-house visitation, but serving as matron and teacher as well. I\Irs. Ida Hull also did efficient service from 1889 to 1896, when she was succeeded by that capable worker. Miss Marguerite Lake. Others in the thirty years of the existence of this mission have assisted for shorter periods. Rev. Chan Lok Shang gives three hours daily to teaching Chinese in the day-school, and the matron the same length of time to giving instruc- tion in English. Weekly Sunday-schools have been conducted by these missionaries in squalid tenements in the densely- populated Chinese quarter. In 1898 a comfortable hall was rented, under the direction of the Parent Board, in a convenient location, a forward step mak- ing glad the hearts of the workers. The union and interchange of service between the representatives of the two societies has been most intimate and helpful. In May, 1899, the Church Missionary Society, in view of the expansion of its work among the Chinese in San Francisco, informed the managers of the Oriental Bureau that it was no longer feasible to lend to the Woman's Home Missionary Society the rooms it had been occupying for a Rescue Home and Mission school. An appropriation of five thousand dollars was 2o8 Twenty Years' History asked for and granted at the eighteenth Annual Meet- ing, and about a year later a suitable property was se- cured — a lot forty by seventy-five feet, with a six- room brick house, situated at the corner of Washing- ton and Trenton Streets, just across from the mission building of the Parent Board, where the work had been carried on for thirty years. Plans were drawn for an addition twice the size of the original house, and work was begun January 20, 1901. It was dedi- cated with great rejoicing July 17, 1901. Consul General Ho Yow was present, and made an intelligent and sympathetic address in which he said, ''Such traffic in Chinese girls as is carried on here in Chris- tian America is punishable in China by decapitation." At the time of the National Epworth League Con- vention in San Francisco, during that summer it was estimated that fully one thousand persons looking in upon the new Rescue Home saw for the first time the little Orientals cared for there, and heard some of their sweet songs. The property is rated at twelve thousand dollars. In 1895 a like mission w^ork was begun in San Diego, Southern California, by Mrs. T. S. Turk, and January, 1896, Mrs. T. F. Davis opened a similar mis- sion in Los Angeles, from both of which come the same story of patient toil, confidence in God, and gratitude for some signs of promise. Mrs. Davis spent four Mrs. Jane Bancroft Rohin Mrs. Wm. C. Herron. Mrs. H. C. McCahe. Mrs. Bishop Walden. Mrs. Bishop Fowler. Mrs. W. F. Robertson. Mrs. J. W. C;osi.ing. 8 Mrs. \V. A. (jOodman, Jr. g. Mrs. Anna Keni. BOARD OF TRUSTEES, ID. Mrs. y. L. Whetstone. 11. Mrs. \V. p. Thirkield. 12. Mrs. E. L. Albright. 13. Mrs. I. D. Jones. 14. Mrs. M. T. MacCUffin. 15. Mrs. Wm. M. Ampt. 16. Miss Henrietta A. Bancroft. 17. Mrs. W. L. Boswell. Work in the West 209 years in China fitting herself for this service. Conse- quently she can go among the Chinese easily without an interpreter. Here, too, we hear of slave girls, some sold for two or three thousand dollars, and a baby a week old for one hundred and fifty. Many converted Chinese have gone back to China, and there stand fast in the faith of the gospel. JAPANESE HOME FOR WOMEN. There are said to be ten thousand Japanese in Cali- fornia, and twenty thousand upon the Pacific Coast. The Methodist Church and General Missionary Com- mittee included the Japanese in its California mission field, and they were cared for in connection with the Chinese until 1888. Then Dr. M. C. Harris, formerly with his gifted wife. Flora Best Harris, missionary in Japan, was appointed Superintendent of the Oriental work on the Pacific Coast. This mission has since been extended to embrace the Japanese work in Hawaii. The "little brown women" on our coasts were not to be overlooked by the Woman's Home Missionary Society, and in 1893, Miss Ella J. Hewitt, previously a successful missionary in Hakodate, Japan, took charge of the "Home for Japanese Women" in San Francisco, a rented house which had been secured near to the Japanese church. The methods employed with this people are similar to those found effective by the Immi- 1") 2IO Twenty Years' History grant Bureau in the East. The Oriental steamers are met, and advice and temporary assistance frequently given. Since the opening of the new Rescue Home Japan- ese girls and women, as well as Chinese, have been re- ceived there, and the separate Japanese Home has been discontinued. Most of those who come are working- girls, of whom there are said to be an average of about two hundred in the city. Such find in the Home, when seeking or awaiting employment, a welcome resort for protection and guidance. But many more are smuggled in under false pretenses, and become in- mates of dens of vice, and are practically beyond the reach of the missionary. About one hundred Japan- ese women in the city have been brought under Chris- tian influences. In August, 1895, Miss Yamada, a graduate of the Methodist Training-school in Yokohama, who had been for three years a Bible-woman under the direction of the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society in Japan, came to work among her Japanese sisters in San Fran- cisco. She proved to be an inestimable blessing to this mission, and her work abides. She married in 1898, and returned to Japan, and other good workers have succeeded her. Miss Lena B. Gray, a deaconess, was appointed in 1901 to do house-to-house visitation among the Japan- Work in the West 211 ese. She reports three hundred Japanese families in San Francisco, and has done good work among some of these, both in that city and in Oakland. "This neat little home of three rooms where Miss Gray lives," writes one of the interested workers on the coast, "has already become a beacon-light to Japanese women." Of the results of this mission work among the Orientals on the Pacific Coast we quote from a Report of 1898: ''We believe that ]\Iethodist missionary work for the Chinese in California has resulted in the re- demption of fully one thousand souls." And of its rellex influence on the benighted lands beyond the sea: "Both Japanese and Chinese return each year by twenties and thirties to their homes in the Orient, bearing the gospel to their kinsmen." And another says : "A converted Chinaman makes the very best missionary to his own people." And the Report of the Parent Board for 1901 says: "The evangelization of the sons of the Celestial Empire on our shores means a wonderful reflex influence upon the millions of China." WORK IN HAWAII In the Hawaiian Islands the Japanese population predominates, numbering sixty-seven thousand. In January, 1899, a Christian Japanese woman, ]\Irs. Takahashi, begun work among her own people in 212 Twenty Years' History Honolulu. In October, 1899, these islands were at- tached to the Oriental Bureau, and five hundred dol- lars were appropriated by the Board of Managers for work among the women and children there. In De- cember of the same year, Miss Sudo, an efficient native Bible woman, was brought over from Japan to minister to them in the gospel. In August, 1900, Miss Ella Hol- brook, a nurse deaconess, was temporarily loaned to this field by the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society. The work was promising, and these workers were gra- ciously rewarded by seeing a number of heathen women soundly converted in this first year. Miss Holbrook having been recalled by the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society, Miss Libbie J. Blois was secured, and sailed. May 11, 1901, from San Francisco for Honolulu. The work of this mission is clearly a message to the heathen. Dr. M. C. Harris, in his report to the Parent Board in 1901, says: "There are many thousands of people in Hawaii who have never heard the gospel." In October, 1900, the Oriental Bureau was relieved of the care of the missions in Hawaii, and a Special Committee was created to have charge of the work. It consisted of elect ladies representing the California, Southern California, Oregon, and Puget Sound Con- ferences, with Mrs. Bishop J. W. Hamilton as Chair- Work in the West 21 ? man, and Mrs. Jennie C. Winston, of Pacific Grove, Cal., Secretary. Mrs. Winston has represented the work of this committee at the Annual Meeting of the Board of Managers. The work in Hawaii has found in this Secretary an eloquent pleader for the redemption of this "Paradise of the Pacific." CHAPTER VI WORK IN CITIES— THE DEACONESS BU- REAU—YOUNG PEOPLE'S WORK AND EDUCATIVE MOVEMENTS LOCAL WORK The: local work of the Woman's Home Missionary Society, as it certainly antedated, also distinctly paved the way for the introduction of the deaconess into the Methodist Episcopal Church. At least three years be- fore the General Conference authorized the formal set- ting apart of the workers, large numbers of devout women, under the direction of the Society, were doing actual deaconess work, although not called by the name "deaconess." "Local work in cities and towns" had become one of the recognized fields of labor. In the Fourth Annual Report, 1885, we find men- tion of the increasing demand coming up from the Churches that some effort be made to both stimulate and systematize local missionary work by affiliating it with the Woman's Home Missionary Society. It was said that not only should we stretch out the hand of help to the needy in the home land in the South and 214 Work in Cities 215 on the frontier, but that not far away from our church- doors were those whom the gospel call would never reach without the compelling force of an aggressive purpose. "This plea," said J\Irs. Davis in her annual address, "has been so constantly urged that if we would w^e could not lose sight of it." At this Annual Meeting the "Bureau of Local Work" was authorized, Mrs. D. L. Williams appointed Secretary, and a series of by-laws adopted defining its jurisdiction and limitations. ]\Irs. Williams continued in this position until i8q6, when she was elected Gen- eral Treasurer of the Society, and was then succeeded in the Bureau by Mrs. E. B. Green, of Rochester, New York, who gave to it two years of excellent service. The duty of this Bureau was to encourage the em- ployment of city missionaries and to develop in the local Auxiliaries an active interest in personal, direct effort to reach the unchurched people nearest at hand. Money for the support of such work must be raised as a special fund, and never in any case be taken from the General Treasury, but might be reported to it by voucher, and credit received as for cash. The re- sponsibility as the years went by of defining the bound- aries of this Bureau, the large correspondence in- volved, the holding well in hand, as in a silken skein, the tangled threads of the many lines of work reported to it, and the impossibility of allowing all the claims 2i6 Twenty Years' History for recognition that were made upon it, rendered the work of the Secretary of the Local Bureau no en- viable task. But she had her reward in the gradual clearing up of sentiment on mooted questions and the crystallization of many sporadic and irregular enter- prises into well-defined city missions, industrial schools, and even Deaconess Homes. In the 'Xocal Work" and ''City Missions" of the Woman's Home Missionary Society the deaconess was being unconsciously evolved. In 1899 this Bureau was dissolved and its work absorbed into that of the Dea- coness Bureau. DEACONESS WORK At the General Conference of 1888 the Methodist Episcopal Church authorized the recognition of the Order of Deaconesses, outlined the duties of these lay workers and the conditions to be observed in admitting them to and continuing them in the office. From this time dates the beginning of legislation in the denomination upon this subject; and yet it was no new thing under the sun. Care- ful students will agree that the female diaconate as now approved is but a revival of a usage obtaining in the early Church, and continuing to the time of the twelfth century. From that period it fell gradually into disuse, until the quickening spirit of the nineteenth Work in Cities 217 century brought women into more active relations in the Church and the world. Bishop Thoburn, having observed this work abroad, is credited with having been the first to publicly urge its adoption in American Methodism. This was in August, 1886, at Belief ontaine, Ohio, in an address before the Central Ohio Conference. It was in this same year that Aliss Jane ^l. Ban- croft, a warm friend of all forms of Home Missionary effort, went abroad, and for nearly two years was brought into relation with and made a close study of the work of deaconesses in Europe. In Chicago, in the summer of 1887, the work was first practically begun, when eight women, under the leadership of Mrs. Lucy Rider ]\Ieyer, carried on sys- tematic visitation with Christian ministries among the poor and vicious of that great city. A memorial from the Rock River Conference to the General Conference of the following year, and one presented by Bishop Thoburn at the same time, urging the need for dea- conesses for India, resulted in the favorable legisla- tion above alluded to. Across the Atlantic, from Kaiserswerth and Mild- may, and other centers of religious effort, had come, year after year, convincing reports of the efficiency of deaconesses as there employed, and in our own land our German sisters were seen closely following these 2i8 Twenty Years' History examples. In commending this work to the thinking people of the Methodist episcopal Church in the United States the Woman's Home Missionary Society bore no insignificant part. THE DEACONESS BUREAU The Deaconess Bureau of the Woman's Home Mis- sionary Society comprises a work so great in extent and varied in character as to demand a volume, rather than a chapter. It will be impossible within the limits of this work to do more than sketch the outlines of its rise and progress. The Secretary of this Bureau, Mrs. Jane Bancroft Robinson, was the first to press the claims of organized deaconess work upon the attention of the Society, and has continued since 1888 to give herself unsparingly to the oversight of this department. Her name has been so closely associated with all the details of the history that frequent reference will be made to her work in following the growth of the movement. It may safely be said that she has personally founded a larger number of deaconess institutions in connection with American Methodism than has any other one person. Her sister, Miss Henrietta A. Bancroft, has been her able coadjutor, and the Assistant Secretary, Mrs. Amanda C. Minard, of Bufifalo, N. Y., has been in labors abundant. Work in Cities 219 In 1886, Miss Jane M. Bancroft, then dean of the Woman's College of the Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, went abroad for two years of study in the universities of Europe, and was providentially led to give attention to social ethics and the methods employed by various humanitarian and evangelistic societies for the uplift of the neglected classes. In Germany, England, Switzerland, and France she saw the deaconesses, the "Sisters of the People," individ- ually consecrated to lives of holy service, and united in communities suggesting the perfection of Christian organization. Moved by a desire to see her own land and her beloved Church profit by all that was best in the old world, she wrote, in the spring of 1887, from Zurich, Switzerland, to Mrs. R. S. Rust, asking what she might do to help the Woman's Home jNIis- sionary Society. The latter replied, "Study thor- oughly the deaconess movement as you see it abroad, and come back to lead the hosts of the Woman's Home Missionary Society along these lines." Upon her return to America in the fall of 1888, ^Irs. Rust immediately wrote her, urging her attendance at the Annual Meeting of the General Board of Managers, to be held at Boston in November following, made a place for her on the program, and introduced the sub- ect of ''Deaconess Work" at some length in her An- nual Report. Miss Bancroft addressed the Boston 220 Twenty Years' History Preachers' Meeting ; also large audiences in a num- ber of the churches and the Convention of the General Board of Managers, with fine effect. The first contribution for this special work under the auspices of the Society — a gift of one hundred dol- lars — was made by Captain Thomas, of Boston, at the close of her address before the Convention. When these nearly two hundred elect ladies, gath- ered at this meeting from all parts of the country, scattered to their homes, they may be said to have carried this good seed of a new and beneficent idea into as many communities and centers of religious thought. What was being done in Germany could be done in America. The Church had approved, and the Woman's Home Missionary Society gladly fell in line with the new movement. A "Committee on Deaconess Work" was appointed at the Boston Annual Meeting, November, 1888, with Miss Jane M. Bancroft as Chairman, and for two years thereafter she devoted her time and talents to this work, going from city to city, making addresses, collecting funds, and founding Deaconess Homes. The first Deaconess Convention was held at Ocean Grove in August, 1889. At this meeting, and those held for the two succeeding years at Chautauqua and Lakeside, the Independent Homes and those of the Woman's Home Missionary Society were alike repre- Work in Cities 221 sented by delegates. The Ocean Grove meeting, which has been of annual recurrence up to the present time, remains under the auspices of the Woman's Home Missionary Society, and more recently similar sum- mer assemblies are being held by it at Chautauqua and Mountain Lake I^ark. These are no longer dele- gated meetings, and by common consent no legislative action is attempted. In 1889, Miss Jane M. Bancroft made a valuable contribution to deaconess literature by the publication of her book, ''Deaconesses in Europe and their Les- sons for America." This is an exhaustive study of the subject, and gives a clear insight into the prac- ticability of the movement. At the Annual Meeting of the General Board of Managers, 1889, held at Indianapolis, the "Committee" was estabhshed as a "Bureau," with }vliss Jane M. Bancroft still in charge, and the famous resolution was adopted which declared the Society ready "to as- sume the care of Deaconess Homes wherever such Homes shall be intrusted to it, subject to the limita- tions of the Discipline and so far as financial consid- erations wall permit." At the end of this year, 1890, six Deaconess Homes — those at Detroit, Buffalo, Philadelphia, Washington, D. C. ; Pittsburg, and Syracuse — were allied with the Woman's Home Missionary Societv, 222 Twenty Years^ History largely as a result of Miss Bancroft's well-directed activities. When, in May, 1891, she was united in marriage with Mr. George O. Robinson, a lawyer and prominent citizen of Detroit, Tvlich., the Society gained rather than lost a friend. Well known and influential in Methodist circles throughout the country, Mr. Rob- inson is not only deeply interested in every good cause, but an enthusiastic supporter of the deaconess work of the Church as directed by the Woman's Home Mis- sionary Society. From year to year the Deaconess Bureau has grown in numbers and importance. In 1894 an Assistant Secretary was found necessary, and Mrs. A. C. Minard, of Buffalo, was appointed. These Secretaries, with the Field Secretary, an Executive Committee, an Advisory Council, and two members from the Board of Management of each Deaconess Home affiliated with the Society, comprise the Deaconess Bureau, a body of over fifty members, whose conferences and deliberations form no small side issue at the Annual Meeting of the General Board of Managers. Nor should this be a source of surprise, when we consider that nearly one-half of the work of the Society is em- braced in this Bureau, and that forty-five per cent of all the Deaconess Homes in English-speaking Meth- odism are directly under its supervision. Complete quarterly reports from the different Homes are for- Work in Cities 223 warded to the Secretary of the Bureau and kept on file. Financial reports are made at the end of each fiscal year, and connectional supervision is maintained by a system of transfers from Home to Home, and by the appointment of the graduates of the National Training-schools to the several Homes. In 1897, Miss Henrietta A. Bancroft, while Pro- fessor of English and Preceptress of Albion College in Michigan, was induced to accept the position of Field Secretary of the Deaconess Bureau. Both Aliss Bancroft and her sister, Mrs. Robinson, had the ex- perience and insight into the work of the Church that comes to the daughters of Methodist ministers, and both secured the only gift such parents can well be- stow — a liberal education. After devoting her ener- gies for many years to the cause of higher education. Miss H. A. Bancroft went to Europe for further study. While there, during the fall of 1892, she re- sponded to the request of the authorities of the ]Mild- may Deaconess Home, and gave its deaconesses a series of lectures upon methods of instruction for use in their night-school, living thus with them for two months in their Home. She has since traveled thou- sands of miles in this service, and spoken in scores of cities, from Boston to San Francisco, also visit- ing the frontier and Indian stations of the work. It becomes her duty to pass from one Home to another. 224 Twenty Years' History to study the situation in each, to recommend the best measures, and to supply a connectional bond of sym- pathy and union. Wherever she goes she kindles enthusiasm for the Woman's Home Missionary So- ciety. The Woman's Home Missionary Society has proved itself always loyal to the provisions of the Dis- cipline, and, being one of the great connectional So- cieties of the Church, provides the very best facilities for the introduction and maintenance of Deaconess Homes in any community. Thirty-six deaconess institutions, with a property value of over four hundred thousand dollars, are now allied with the Society. The number of deaconesses in connection with the Woman's Home Missionary So- ciety, including probationers, is at this date nearly four hundred. Besides the three ''National Training-schools" (those drawing support from the General Treasury and under the special direction of the Society), three of these Deaconess Homes have departments for dea- coness training, and are locally supported. These are at Des Moines, Iowa, where there is a large hospital in close affiliation with the school ; at Grand Rapids, Mich., where is situated the Aldrich Memorial Dea- coness Home ; and at Brooklyn, N. Y. The beginnings of deaconess work in Washington, Work in Cities 225 D. C, under tlie auspices of the Woman's Home ^iis- sionary Society were full of interest. In the winter of 1889 and 1890, Miss Jane M. Bancroft visited that city, and, by the presentation of the subject in the leading- Churches, so aroused public interest that the rental of a house on F Street, Northeast, was offered by Mrs. Susan J. Wheeler for the beginning- of the work. This Home was formally opened and dedi- cated May 15, 1890. Eight Christian women offered themselves for deaconess work during that year, and spent more or less time in the Home. During the year, Mr. Ephraim Nash, a devout layman and unostentatious helper of the poor, was moved to offer his residence in Washington to the W'oman's Home Missionary Society for the Train- ing-school that had already been decided upon as a memorial to Mrs. Hayes. It was a beautiful prop- erty, in a commanding location at the corner of Pierce and North Capitol Streets, worth fifteen thou- sand dollars, barring a mortgage of five thousand dollars, which the Society in accepting the gift agreed to pay. The Deaconess Home, already started, became a part of the National Training-school for Deaconesses and Missionaries, which has continued to be the head- quarters of deaconess work in Washington. The National Training-schools of the Woman's 16 226 Twenty Years' History Home Missionary Society are three in number, of which the oldest and largest is this LUCY WEBB HAyES national TRAINING-SCHOOL, At Washington, D. C, which perpetuates in its char- acter and labor of love the name of Mrs. Rutherford B. Hayes, the honored first President of the Society. In October, 1889, soon after her death, the General Board of Managers, in session at Indianapolis, re- solved to establish an institution for the training of young women for Christian work, to be maintained by the Society as a memorial of her worth. It was, on the recommendation of Miss Jane M. Bancroft, located at Washington, and gifts were con- tributed for this object from all parts of the country. The building given by Mr. Nash, enlarged and beau- tified, was formally opened, October, 1891, as a train- ing-school, many distinguished ministers and laymen from the Ecumenical Council, then in session at Wash- ington, being present and assisting. In October, 1894, the institution was further en- riched by the donation of a hospital building, the generous gift of Mr. W. J. Sibley, a noble layman of Washington, D. C, as a memorial to his deceased wife. In 1894 the institution was chartered, by act of Congress, and the various departments comprising it. Work in Cities 227 the Training-school, the Deaconess Home, and the Hospital, forming together one corporation, were unified under one administration. In 1900, Sibley Hospital was greatly enlarged, and facilities for car- rying forward its important mission were correspond- ingly increased. This Training-school has sent out many well-pre- pared Christian workers to all parts of the land, and there are few Homes of the Woman's Home Alis- sionary Society in which its students and graduates are not found. From the opening of the Training-school in 1891, until 1894, Rev. I. N. Dalby, M. D., of the Genesee Conference, New York, was the efficient President. During his incumbency he edited and published as an individual enterprise an attractive paper called The Deaconess at Work. In 1894 he was succeeded by Rev. Alfred H. Ames, D. D., of Washington, D. C, an honored member of the Baltimore Conference, who filled the office for six years, leaving the impress of his fatherly spirit upon the scores of young women who passed through the institution under his care. In 1901 the Rev. Charles W. Gallagher, D. D., a member of the New England Southern Conference, was elected as President of the Lucy Webb Hayes Training-school. Dr. Gallagher is well equipped by a wide and varied experience acquired as an executive 228 Twenty Years' History officer and President of well-known institutions of higher education in the Church. Under his vigorous leadership the outlook for the future is promising. The position of Preceptress was filled by Mrs. Christine B. Dickinson from 1894 to 1897, and by Miss Ida H. Rogers from 1897 to 1899. Under the care of these capable and consecrated instructors the home life of the institution was beautifully developed. Miss Martha M. Tomkinson, of Harrisburg, Pa., entered upon her duties as Preceptress, October, 1899, with her sister, Miss Ellen F. Tomkinson, as assistant. These ladies are experienced educators, and before assuming their duties at Washington, went abroad for a year's rest and study. They spent some time in London, making frequent visits to the work of the Wesleyan deaconesses and "The West London Mis- sion," and were especially favored by a sojourn at Mild- may, going out with the deaconesses to their work, thus securing the best information possible in regard to the development of this form of service among women. They, as do most of the members of the Training-school Faculty, give themselves to this work at the regular deaconess allowance. Miss Margaret S. Wilson, a capable teacher, served this work for two years. Miss Blanche Zehring, Ph. D., a young woman of broad scholarship, has been since 1899 a valuable member of the Faculty. Work in Cities 229 Besides other resident teachers who have nobly served the school, lectures have been gratuitously given by many eminent men and women, both in and out of Washington, the resident pastors contributing largely of their time and talents for the good of the institution. The medical instructors and practitioners in the hospital, who have given freely of their serv- ices for the relief of the suffering and the benefit of the students and nurses, have been among the most distinguished of their profession in Washington. Miss Charlotte A. Aikens, of Canada, was ap- pointed to the Hospital in 1898 as Director and head of the nurse-training department, and gave excellent service in both capacities for four years. She has been succeeded by Miss Carra Pew, a graduate of both the Hospital and Bible Departments of the Training- school. Mrs. D. B. Street, of Washington, as Chairman of the Board of Management of Sibley Hospital, has been prominently identified with the Training-school since the inauguration of this department. In the forefront of all work for the Woman's Home Missionary Society in Washington, Mrs. Clara L. Roach has long been an influential personality. Whether as Corresponding Secretary of the Baltimore Confer- ence, which position she has held since 1886, or as a General Organizer of the Society, or as an effective 230 Twenty Years' History factor in the work of the General Board of Managers, or as an active member of the Training-school Com- mittee, Mrs. Roach has been so efficient as to have few superiors. RUST PIALL Within three years from the time of the opening of the National Training-school the enlargement of its accommodations became an obvious necesssity. More candidates were applying for admission than could be received, and meanwhile the demand for deaconess workers all over the Church was constantly increasing as their value and usefulness became better understood. Rooms were rented in an adjoining build- ing, and the next year others were added, until in 1899 it was said that parts of six houses were being utilized. In 1897, at the seventeenth Annual Meeting at Baltimore, it was resolved to enlarge the Training- school plant by the erection of a new building, in the same block with the Lucy Webb Hayes Training- school, to be named *'Rust Hall,'' as a tribute to Mrs. E. L. Rust for her many years of service to the Woman's Home Missionary Society. Plans were set afoot at once, and prosecuted with vigor. Through the kindness of a warm friend of the Society, Mr. George O. Robinson, of Detroit, money was ad- vanced, first, to purchase land, and then, this hav- Work in Cities 231 ing been secured, to erect the edifice. A site was secured, and ground was formally broken Novem- ber 16, 1899. The building was begun in 1901, the first brick being placed November 6th, and the corner- stone laid with impressive ceremonies on the 14th. Slowdy and carefully the walls have risen, a noble and attractive edifice, one hundred and thirty feet long on North Capitol Street, and eighty feet deep on the M Street front. With heating and lighting plant in- stalled, and well-furnished, it is expected to be ready for occupancy in the fall of 1902. It will house one hundred and fifty inmates. Rust Hall not only commemorates the life and work of the good woman whose name it bears, but in the thought of those who inaugurated and carried forward the enterprise there has been the purpose to perpetuate in this way the name also of that tried and true friend of the Woman's Home Missionary Society, her honored husband. Rev. Richard S. Rust, D. D. Moreover, it stands as a tribute to Christian womanhood. Originated by women for women, it honors, not one woman alone, but it is also a me- morial building for many friends of other good women. A woman. Miss H. A. Bancroft, was Chairman of the Building Committee, and for it she planned in many and diverse ways. Men and women both served loy- ally on this committee, and to Dr. Gallagher a special 232 Twenty Years' History debt of gratitude is due for his efficient oversight of its construction. May a great host of those whom God is calling to missionary and deaconess service find inspiration within its walls, and going forth **in his name" bear the evangel of love and mercy to thou- sands of them who sit in darkness ! The Woman's Home Missionary Society is under great obligation to Mr. George O. Robinson for money advanced at a moderate rate of interest and in amounts as needed for the building of Rust Hall. Without this timely aid the w^ork could not have been accomplished for many years to come. No uninterested party would have loaned money without a property in sight with which to secure it. As in the early days of the Society Dr. Rust signed his name many times as its guarantee, so in this latest enterprise Mr. Robinson has proved himself a staunch friend of the cause, even at some personal inconvenience. The original building of the Lucy Webb Hayes Training-school will henceforth be known as ''Nash Hall," to distinguish it from other buildings of the institution. The first floor will be used as a Deaconess Home, and be occupied by the licensed deaconesses working in Washington who receive their support from the city Churches. The two upper stories will continue to furnish dormitory room for students and nurses. ¥/ork in Cities 233 Above this building tloats a beautiful United States flag, the gift of Mrs. M. R. Crawford, of Williams- port, Pa., who also left by will fifteen hundred dollars to the Woman's Home iMissionary Society. "The Annex," situated between Nash Hall and Rust Hall, is occupied as a residence by the President and his family. THE SAN FRANCISCO TRAINING-SCHOOIv This school dates from the winter of 1890 and 1891, when Miss Jane M. Bancroft visited San Fran- cisco and initiated deaconess work on the Pacific Coast. A Deaconess Home was opened and excellent service was done, when, in 1893, an epidemic of small- pox, causing the death of a self-sacrificing worker, closed the Home. In 1894 the Home was reopened, with ]\Irs. H. Ida Benson, a graduate of the Training- school at Washington, as Superintendent. i\Irs. Ben- son gave enlarged breadth to the work, and soon in- stituted the Bible Training-school, which in a modest way gathered about itself a coterie of choice Chris- tian women. A large building was rented, and the work of the students was felt in prison and jail meet- ings, ship and hospital work, rescue work and evan- gelistic services. In March, 1898, Mrs. Benson, the faithful and beloved Superintendent, was obliged to resign her work, on account of severe illness, and the 234 Twenty Years' History care of the school largely devolved upon the Rev. J. N. Beard, D. D., who had been Dean of the school that year. Mrs. Louise Carver was chosen as acting Superintendent, and was a loving house-mother to the deaconesses until her death in 1900. The growing work demanded larger and more special assistance on the part of the Woman's Home Missionary Society, the interests of which compelled the establishment of a thoroughly-equipped Training- school on the Pacific Coast. In the summer of 1901 the close and constant friend of the institution, Dr. J. N. Beard, was elected its President. As President of the ''University of the Pacific," and of other insti- tutions of the Church, his experience, supplemented by study of sociological questions in Europe, fitted him for this responsible place. Through his active efiforts, in September, 1901, a fine property was pur- chased and the school installed therein. Dr. Beard has had the co-operation of an unusual number of well-trained teachers. In truth, from the beginning this school has been served freely by noble men and women, among whom should be remembered the names of Mrs. A. IT. Spring and Miss Minnie Frickey, w^ho devoted themselves to its interests. In its methods and results it closely parallels the work of other training-schools ; but, situated as it is in the center of a population numbering half a million, and Work in Cities 235 consisting of people from almost every quarter of the dobe, there lies before its students a wide and inter- esting variety of work. Great emphasis is laid upon the practical work in which they are expected to en- gage. Those familiar with the conditions have high hopes for the future good to be accomplished by this institution. FISK TRAINING-SCHOOI. Kansas City, Kan., has possessed for some years its Bethany Hospital. The natural step in advance was to obtain a Deaconess Home. When Miss Henrietta A. Bancroft visited the city during the summer of 1898 the desire to establish such a Home was laid before her, with a request for the co-operation of the Woman's Home Missionary Society. It was rep- resented that there are a large number of self-reliant, able young w^omen in the Middle West unable to incur large expense in going to a distant school, and also that better opportunities for Bible-training should be provided for the nurses at Bethany Hospital. These considerations led to the opening of the institutions in a modest way in 1899, with Miss Mary S. Pegram as Superintendent. Her health became impaired, and she was able to remain but a few months. Miss Wini- fred Spaulding was then secured as her successor. She had had a record of unusual and varied experi- ence as active deaconess, deaconess superintendent, 236 Twenty Years' History and field worker, and thus well equipped she entered on her duties with enthusiasm. From the beginning, this school has been char- acterized by a deep, all-pervading spiritual life. Its first graduating class of 1900 numbered only two. Its second of 1902 numbered eleven. These are all now serving as deaconesses or are at Bethany Hospital pre- paring to become nurse deaconesses. Miss Spaulding has gathered to herself an efficient corps of resident and non-resident teachers, kindred spirits, under whose influence the students are obtaining an excellent prepa- ration for the noble calling that they have chosen. At the Annual Meeting of the Board of Managers in 1 90 1 ten thousand dollars was voted for the erec- tion of a building for the school, at the request of the local committee, who were to provide ground for the site. A question as to locality has postponed its erec- tion, but it is hoped that in the near future a structure will arise suitable for the housing of this excellent institution. TRAINING-SCHOOL FOR COLORED GIRLS A small beginning of what is believed to be a much-needed work is the provision made by a colored minister in Cincinnati, Ohio, Rev. W. H. Riley, for the training of young women of his own race who Work in Cities 237 wish to do deaconess work among their own people. Of his own volition, heartily seconded by his wife's efforts, and with little financial assistance, he made the venture, and has received indorsement and en- couragement from Bishop Thoburn, Mrs. I. D. Jones, and others in the city. In 190 1 a small appropria- tion to this infant enterprise was made by the Woman's Home IMissionary Society. Mr. Riley is a competent instructor, having been trained in Gammon Theological Seminary. He has made a strong effort to arouse in- terest and activity in the work of this training-school among the colored Churches of that vicinity. REST HOMES At the Annual Meeting of 1900, a^t Chicago, all Rest Homes were put, by action of the Board, under the supervision of Mrs. P. D. Perchment, of Pitts- burg. A better selection could not have been made. She is like that Lydia, "whose heart the Lord opened." BANCROFT REST HOME To provide a place of rest for weary missionaries and deaconesses, under the influence of spiritual asso- ciations and within reach of invigorating sea breezes, some noble women of Ocean Grove, N. J., led by Mrs. Anna Kent and Mrs. W. F. Day, opened there in the 238 Twenty Years' History summer of 1896, in a rented house, the first Rest Home of the Woman's Home Missionary Society. This was received with such grateful appreciation by the mis- sionaries and such favorable commendation by the public that at the close of the second season, 1897, a property was secured for a permanent Rest Home. Two lots, with a cottage which had been owned and occupied by the parents of Mrs. Robinson and Miss Bancroft, were bought, one thousand dollars of the purchase money being donated by these sisters as a memorial. It was named "Bancroft Rest Home," large additions and improvements were made, and it was dedicated with impressive ceremonies July 10, 1899. Dr. George Elliott said in his dedicatory ad- dress, "The religious feeling which offers such a place as this to God is deeper than that which builds a temple." The domestic service in this Home has been very satisfactorily provided by girls from Ritter Home and the New Jersey Home. In 1901 two lots adjoining were added to the prop- erty, thus securing a continued outlook upon the little park of pines near by. This large, beautiful, airy Home, which has been the summer Mecca of many a tired worker, was kept open for the first time in the winter of 1901 and 1902. Entertainment in this Home is furnished to dea- Work in Cities 239 conesses and missionaries at the lowest practicable rates, and Churches, Auxiliaries, and individuals are usually found willing to supply the needed funds for this purpose. THE CAROLINE REST HOME A small furnished cottage, beautifully located on the historic Round Lake Camp-ground, is also a me- morial of Caroline Orton Bancroft, the mother of Mrs. Jane Bancroft Robinson. It was presented to the Troy Conference, and serves a similar purpose at this resort as the Bancroft Rest provides at Ocean Grove. THE THOMPSON REST HOAIE Is situated at Mountain Lake Park, Aid., that wonder- ful health-giving spot on the top of the Alleghenies. In July, 1899, a committee of ladies decided to pur- chase the summer home of the sainted ''Father" John Thompson, and to dedicate it to the physical recupera- tion of tired-out missionaries and deaconesses. This provision has proved a blessing to many, and has been the special care of Mrs. S. W. Davis, of Wilkinsburg, Pa., whose mother, Mrs. E. C. Stone, of Wheeling, W. Va., has been one of its most active supporters. Mrs. Clara L. Roach and ladies of the Baltimore Con- ference have also taken sincere interest in Thompson Rest Home. 240 Twenty Years' History the: e:IvVira olney rest cottage, at ludington, michigan This Home is situated at Epworth Heights As- sembly-grounds, on the shores of Lake Michigan. It is a cozy cottage of eight rooms, comfortably fur- nished, and nestled in a grove of pine-trees, and is the result of the generous response of friends to an ap- peal made by Mrs. Robinson during the summer of 1901. It is under the special oversight of the officers of the Woman's Home Missionary Society of the Michigan Conference, and to it Mrs. Levi Master has given her fostering care. DISABLED AND SUPERANNUATED DEACONESSES The Woman's Home Missionary Society has been called upon to care for but a few of these ; but the deaconess who, on the basis of a bare support has trusted her future to its keeping, has a right to look to it for care and maintainance when she can no longer render active service. Certain propositions were approved by the General Board of Managers in 1901, looking towards the accumulation of a fund for this object. V BUREAU FOR PORTO RICO The Bureau for Porto Rico, formed at the Annual Meeting in 1901, is an offshoot of the Deaconess Bu- Work in Cities 241 reau, as up to that time the Porto Rican work (as was also the work in Hawaii) had been initiated and admin- istered as a Committee of that Bureau and had been served by deaconess workers. Mrs. May Leonard Woodruff was appointed Bureau Secretary. A daugh- ter of Dr. A. B. Leonard, the distinguished Mis- sionary Secretary of the Parent Board, she began her active missionary career as Superintendent of Glenn Home in Cincinnati. Upon the resignation of Mrs. Mary T. Lodge, in 1891, from the Bureau for Supplies, she accepted that trust, which she faithfully discharged until called away by the illness of her mother. Her services to the Woman's Home Mis- sionary Society have been so varied and general as to deserve special mention. Perhaps as General Organ- izer she has served it best, her voice having been heard in eloquent speech and melodious song in many States of the Union, including our new island pos- session, Porto Rico. In supervising this Bureau she has consecrated her energies to the work of sending a pure gospel to ''follow the flag" in this benighted land. SAN JUAN, PORTO RICO The island of Porto Rico came under the govern- ment of the United States as a result of the war of 1898 and 1899 between this country and Spain. ''It has a population of 953,243, of whom more than three- 17 242 Twenty Years' History fifths are white and two-fifths partly or entirely Negro. Of this number 792,984 persons are unable to read in any language." There are two hundred and sixty-four inhabitants to the square mile. Although the soil is among the most fertile on the globe, the natives are abjectly poor, and live in idleness, squalor, and filth. As indicating the low moral tone of the people, it is stated that 'Very few think it necessary to have the marriage ceremony performed," and "seventy-one per cent of the children born do not know the faces of their own fathers." The Woman's Home Missionary Society sent two deaconess workers to San Juan in 1900 to co-operate with Dr. C. W. Drees, the Superintendent of the Missions of the Methodist Episcopal Church there. These were Miss Sarah P. White, of the Pittsburg Deaconess Home, and Miss Isabel F. Horton, of Troy, N. Y., a graduate of the Washington Training-school. A year later. Miss Alice McKinney, a deaconess of Iowa, was sent to their assistance. Mrs. Woodruff visited this work as Secretary of the Bureau in March, 1902, and attended the first session of the Porto Rican Mission Confer- ence in San Juan, presided over by Bishop Wal- den. It consisted of eight ministers, with Dr. Drees as Superintendent. There were six hundred and seventy-four communicants, four central stations, and Work in Cities 243 fifteen preaching places. In San Juan there are two churches — one for Spanish and one for English speak- ing people. The deaconesses devote themselves mainly to Spanish work. The Deaconess Home, which was already occupied by them, was formally dedicated March 11, 1902, by Mrs. Woodruff, assisted by Mrs. Walden, and in the presence of about one hundred persons, members of all the Protestant missions in the city, who had been invited to attend. A sewing-school meets weekly in the Deaconess Home, and another in a suburb numbers sixty. A day-school, known as the ''McKinley Free School," con- ducted by Miss McKinney, the deaconess, is composed of children too poor to attend the public schools. A special fund is solicited for the support of this school, fifteen dollars per year being sufficient to keep a boy or girl under its tutelage. At Arecibo, fifty miles northwest of San Juan, there has been an orphanage cared for by a lady of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, whose health having failed she desired to transfer her charge to the Woman's Home Missionary Society. It was not thought best to accept the property, as the district proved unhealthy for the workers ; but six of these children have been received at San Juan, where an Industrial Home and Orphanage will be combined with the Deaconess Home. y- 244 Twenty Years' History SOME OUTGROWTHS OF THE LOCAL BUREAU There are certain centers of mission work which were begun under the ''Local Bureau" that have so outgrown their beginnings, and have taken on such distinctive and individual characteristics, that they may not be classed with any of the existing Bureaus of the Woman's Home Missionary Society, but must stand upon a footing of their own. Such Homes are in charge of "Standing Committees" and are reported annually by the chairman to the General Board of Managers. Among such may be named the Glenn Home, Cincinnati, O. ; Marcy Home, Chicago, 111. ; and the Medical Mission, North Boston, Mass. GLKNN HOME^ CINCINNATI, OHIO The Glenn Industrial Home was named in memory of William Glenn, a devout and honored layman of Cincinnati, who left a legacy of one thousand dollars as the foundation of this work. His daughter, Mrs. Richard Dymond, and other friends in Cincinnati, added to this by other gifts, and a handsome brown stone-front residence of fifteen rooms, with a large two-story brick building adjoining, was secured at the *'West End" at a price less than half the cost of the building. Here was inaugurated, April i, 1891, what has proved to be a model city mission; its object, the Work in Cities 245 promotion of a wise Christian charity, and of indus- trial, social, and religious instruction ''by all practical methods." The variety and value of the "methods" employed may be dimly guessed when we come to enumerate among its agencies : three separate Kindergartens, a Working Girls' Club, Young Men's Club, reading- room, visits made in parish canvassing averaging two thousand annually, evangelistic and temperance meet- ings, Mothers' Meetings, a poor closet, sewing-classes, cooking-classes, and the ''Glenn Auxiliary to the Woman's Home Missionary Society." "Our aim," says the Chairman, "is to save the people, that they may save others." Those housed in the Home are cared for after the plan adopted by the Young Women's Christian Asso- ciations, and which are known to be so successful in many of our cities. Mrs. I. D. Jones, who is the enthusiastic Chairman of the Committee on Glenn Home, has been for many years a valued member of the Board of Trustees, and a many-sided worker for Home Missions. MARCY HOME^ CHICAGO, ILL. "What are you doing for the heathen in your own city, Chicago," was the question which stirred the hearts of some women at the Desplaines Camp-meeting in the 246 Twenty Years' History fall of 1886 after listening to a rousing address on for- eign missions. Mrs. R. W. Salter, Mrs. W. Hudson, and Mrs. E. E. Marcy told their convictions one to another. "Praise the Lord!" said one of them, "and in His name let us take up work among the Bohemians, for forty thousand of them and twenty thousand Poles are praying to pictures on the streets." The outgrowth of this God-given seed was Marcy Home, which bears the name of one of the first and most valued workers in the Woman's Home Mission- ary Society, Mrs. Elizabeth E. Marcy, of Evanston, 111. Her early devotion to the Chicago Training-school, developed by Mrs. Lucy Rider Meyer, contributed largely towards its initial successes, and when later she transferred her most zealous endeavors to the in- terests of the Bohemians population, living compactly together in one quarter of the city, her zeal and energy were a guarantee that something substantial and beneficent would be the result. Seven years after the incipiency of this project we find a building, forty- eight by sixty-four feet, and three stories high, plain, well planned, convenient, and of "neat and inviting simplicity," the whole property worth twenty-six thou- sand dollars, upon which nineteen thousand dollars had been paid. "It was," says Mrs. Marcy, "the first attempt of our Society to establish a Home in the densely populated foreign quarters of a great city." Work in Cities 247 The field of every mission work offers its own dis- tinctive environment which must determine its plan of action. IMarcy Home was inaugurated in connec- tion wdth work in the Bohemian City Mission, but with children of all nationalities thronging the streets of the neighborhood, — "one hundred thousand children whose feet never cross the threshold of a Sunday- school," — distinctions of race and creed were soon for- gotten. Only the English language is used, however, in the work of the mission. The ''Home Bulletin," indicating the daily occupa- tions of the workers with the hours of service allotted to each for seven days in the week, covers a wide and comprehensive schedule of instruction. It embraces classes in basket-making, sloyd, cooking, dressmaking, embroidery, piano, singing, drawing, gymnastics, and kitchengarden. "We help these poor," says Mrs. ]\Iarcy, "not by what we give, but by the training we can furnish, the mental and moral stimulus, the dex- terity of hand, and the skill and strength of purpose that w^e impart." In 1899 more than twenty-one hun- dred of the children and youth of the Chicago slums passed through the classes — industrial, social and re- ligious — of this Home. The Marcy Home free dispensary is a landmark for the afflicted, while the ]\Iercy and Help Depart- ment carries physical comfort to the unfortunate and 248 Twenty Years' History needy. Religious services are held on the Sabbath and in the evenings of the week. The large Sunday- school, from being a few years ago "a tumultuous in- surgent band of untutored children," has come to be pronounced ''the most orderly Sunday-school in the city." Many of the "roughs" — boys and girls — who came under the influence of this mission at its begin- ning, are now active Church workers, engaged in res- cuing others. The property, as improved, is rated at forty thousand dollars. Miss Bertha Fowler, since March, 1898, Superin- tendent of this Home, with eight resident helpers, is a most efficient worker. Mrs. Marcy continued until 1898 as Chairman of Marcy Home, when she resigned because of failing health, and was succeeded by Mrs. O. H. Horton. MliDICAIv MISSION^ NORTH BOSTON^ MASS. The Medical Mission, situated in a densely-popu- lated district of North Boston, ministers to a large number of beneficiaries, mainly foreigners, Russian Jews, Italians, and Portuguese predominating. It was opened in connection with the Epworth League Settle- ment in Hull Street, October 19, 1894, by Miss Har- riette J. Cooke, formery Professor of History in Cor- nell College, Iowa, after three years spent abroad, prin- cipally at Mildmay, London, where she investigated Work in Cities 249 methods of work with special reference to medical mis- sions. In i8y5 the work was adopted by the Woman's Home Missionary Society, and was the first of its kind in the Society. The expense of its maintenance, how- ever, has been entirely carried by the New England Conference. Some of the best physicians in the city have cheer- fully given their services, and over seven thousand patients have been more than once recorded as the re- port of a year's work. From a state of bitter hostility at the first, the attitude of the people has been changed to that of grateful appreciation. A spirit of enlighten- ment has permeated the community, and the barriers between Jew and Gentile, Catholic and Protestant, are being broken down, as an evidence of which the Chair- man of the Executive Committee cites the fact that whereas "six years ago the parochial school building- was full to overflowing, it is now rented and used as a public school." At Miss Cooke's instigation a colored girl was sent from Boylan Home to rake nurse-training in this mis- sion. This was one of the initial steps which later led to the establishment of a Nurse-training Department at Boylan. A large new building on a valuable lot, a property worth twenty-five thousand dollars, has been erected for this Medical Mission as the Twentieth-centurv 250 Twenty Years' History offering of the generous people of New England Con- ference, and Miss Cooke, the noble founder, was con- tinued as the beloved and honored Superintendent. IN baIvTimore:^ md. At Mt. Tabor, a missionary district in this city, a remarkable example of local mission work materialized in 1900 in a beautiful "Industrial Building" of gray granite, costing fifteen thousand dollars, and devoted to numerous lines of Christian endeavor for the poor and neglected classes surrounding it. It accommodates various departments of mission work, including rooms for kindergarten, industrial training. Mothers' Meet- ings, and a hall for public worship. i\s Bohemians predominate in the neighborhood, a pastor of that nationality was installed in the neat parsonage adjoin- ing. "This is the largest building of the kind in Amer- ican Methodism, and the only one where the Settle- ment work is so housed." Mrs. Dr. John Neff, of Baltimore, was the prime mover in this enterprise. But for her it had not been. BUREAU FOR IMMIGRANTS The same year (1888) that marked the introduction of the "Deaconess Committee" into the machinery of the Woman's Home Missionary Society saw also the advent of the "Bureau for Immigrants." Work in Cities 251 This Bureau has been the successful charge of some of the most gifted and consecrated daughters of Meth- odism. Mrs. Kennard Chandler, of New York, the first Secretary, was followed by Mrs. Jennie F. Wil- ling, both of whom have also given many years of elo- quent speech to the Woman's Foreign Missionary So- ciety and other kindred forms of service. An interim was efficiently filled by Mrs. John D. Slayback, of New York, whose name has ever been a synonym for large and generous things. In 1894, Mrs. George Mansfield accepted the Bureau. Capable in administration, she was also strong and convincing in appeal and argu- ment. In the midst of her usefulness, December 5, 1899, she was called to lay down the cross of service to go up to be crowned, a conqueror at the right hand of her Lord. She was succeeded by Miss Mary W. Perry, of Maiden, Mass., who had been providentially prepared for the position by previous association with the work- ers of the Bureau. IMMIGRANT WORK IN NEW YORK Previous to the formation of the Bureau in 1888 work for immigrants had been begun in a small way at Castle Garden, New York City. Four hundred thousand immigrants were landed on our shores during that year, and since that time, according to the estimate of the 252 Twenty Years' History best statisticians, an average of half a million annually have been added to our population from the foreign born. These have come to us bringing with them their Old World superstition, idolatry, Sabbath-breaking, and anarchy, which so jeopardize our Christian civiliza- tion as to make the stoutest heart of statesman and philanthropist alike to quail. Pondering the Master's commission, "Go ye into all the world," we lift our eyes to see *'all the world" pouring its populations through our open gates. Bishop Vincent wrote some years ago, ''Our own coasts are crowded with the for- eign subjects we cross the sea to seek and save." And Bishop Taylor said, ''For every missionary sent abroad God has sent ten thousand heathen to our own land." Bishop Wiley, Bishop Thoburn, and Dr. Reid, Mission- ary Secretary, might each be quoted as sounding a note of warning to the Church to be on guard to stem the flood of evil thus threatening to engulf our country. But not all are vicious, and preventive philanthropy is better than rescue work. A moral lighthouse on the coast might help many a buffeted soul into a safe harbor. Bishop Hurst, in an earnest appeal, exclaimed, "Every beating wave that throbs upon our shores brings the immigrant girl !" In one year eighty thou- sand girls between the ages of twelve and twenty-five passed through Castle Garden, and this may be taken as a fair average. Of these it was then estimated that Work in Cities 253 one in every ten was lost in the maelstrom of the great city. Wicked men and women lie in wait for them as they come — ignorant, innocent, and unsuspecting — and too often they walk straight into the traps prepared for their unwary feet. The Christian women of New York were aroused, and began to cast about for a plan of action. In 1886, Miss jMartha Van Marter, then the Corresponding Secretary of the New York Conference, found Rev. James IMathews, pastor of the "Battery Park Mission," under the care of the New York City Church Exten- sion Society, and his wife, Airs. Helen A. Mathew^s, distributing tracts among the immigrants. With this as a germ of suggestion, a plan was developed. Mrs. Mathews, already intensely interested, was regularly employed by the ladies to devote herself entirely to this work. In January, 1888, an "Immigrant Girls' Lodg- ing-house" was opened on State Street, near Castle Garden, and at the Annual Meeting of the General Board of Managers at Boston in November of that year the Home was adopted and the formation of the Bureau authorized, as has been stated. The action of the Board specified that until further legislation the work of the Bureau should be confined to the Atlantic ports. As "nine-tenths of all the immigrants arriving in this country are landed at the port of New York," the 2^4 Twenty Years^ History interest of this Bureau largely centered at Castle Gar- den, where for many years the immigrants were re- ceived. It was realized that this was no mere local mission, and, although superintended by a local ''Board of Management," that all the Church must help to care for the Home there established. In the year ending October, 1890, three thousand girls and women were protected and helped through this agency. Says one of the Secretaries : "The field is not limited by square feet. Hundreds here may be helped to better and purer lives, who, if neglected, will be left to Satan's wiles. They pass this way but once." Food and shelter were temporarily provided, information given, and homes and employment found for the unfortunate and poor. Sometimes whole families have been helped out of desperate straits into which they had fallen through their utter ignorance of the conditions await- ing them in this New World, the El Dorado of their dreams. Some, imagining that Chicago, or Montana, or Denver, where they may have had a friend or rela- tive expecting them, was next door to New York City, have landed there without a dollar or an acquaintance to meet them. Most frequently those assisted have been helpless young women coming to seek work and a home, and many such have been snatched from the snares of sin when their feet had well-nigh slipped. A father wrote the Superintendent of the Home: "I Work in Cities 255 thank my God whom I serve that you found my daugh- ter when she was friendless and alone in that great city !" To such the Home has been for eleven years a beacon-light, a "Bethel to the soul, a harbor of refuge to the body, and a starting-point for a new and better Ufe." While alms to the penniless have not been denied, and the "cup of cold water" given in Christ's name has often been a good dinner and well-filled lunch- box, the wisdom of self-support has been inculcated, and a large majority of the meals and lodgings fur- nished the temporary sojourners have been paid for at a moderate rate. Of the missionaries who had charge of this de- partment at the beginning of the work, Mrs. Chandler says, "God has given us women who give evidence of being called to this special phase of work ;" and Mrs. Willing, in 1890, wrote, "All our workers have labored indefatigably and conscientiously." Mrs. Helen A. Mathews was the first incumbent, and remained at her post till 1 89 1, when failing health compelled her to resign, when she was succeeded by Mrs. Emeline Smith, who served for a short time. The position is no sinecure. On an average they meet two steamers a day, spending long hours at the barge office in the most disagreeable contacts and in situations requiring the exercise of unusual patience and discrimination. 256 Twenty Years' History Mrs. George W. Mansfield in 1896 added her meed of praise : "They are not behind the missionaries of other Churches in tact and bravery to defend the right." She also commended *'the keen and often adroit meas- ures by which they sift iniquity and help the deluded." Especially was this work laborious during the cholera quarantine of 1892, and when the fire at Ellis Island, in 1897, swept the Government buildings there out of existence. There were two hundred immigrants detained on the island at the latter time, to whom the devoted missionary, Miss Alma Mathews, strong and kind and tactful, was a sister of mercy, quelling panic and giving wise counsel. Miss Mathews was Matron of this Home in the early years of the work, and since 1 89 1 has been the missionary in charge, proving her- self the right woman in the right place. The Society, through the efforts of these wise women and others, has won for itself a creditable record in connection with this immigrant work. When the movement began many obstacles wxre laid in its way. The Government officials gave it scant welcome, and the Roman Catholics much less. Mr. Mathews, in reporting the work for his invalid wife in 1891, wrote of ''the Jesuitical rule and the obscenity and brutality practiced upon the immigrants when the Woman's Home Missionary Society began its work there," and speaks of "step after step being taken till BUREAU SECRETARIES. 1. Mrs. E. W. Simi-son. 8. Mrs. Levi Gilhert. 2. Mrs. M. B. Hag\ns. 9. Mrs. Geo. E. Reed. 3. Mrs. S. B. Potter. 10. Mrs. May Leonard Woodritf, 4. Mrs. H. C. Hedces. ii. Mrs. M. C. Alsi-aicii. 5. Mrs. Lavanda (i. Miki'iiv. 12. Mrs. H. C. Jennincs. 6. Mrs. L. P. Wii.iiams. 13. Mrs. Jknnie'F. Wii.lim;. 7. Mrs. a. M. Whitso.n. Work in Cities 257 the United States Government had been aroused to take the business into its own hands, and a grand revo- hition" had been effected. The missionaries steadily gained favor ; they were given the right of way within the hne at the landing-place, lockers were assigned them in which was kept for distribution a supply of Bibles and tracts in many languages, strangers were not permitted to take away girls without investigation, and the officials manifested a sincere purpose to assist the missionaries in their work of protection and relief. But the rented house in which the Home was lodged was lamentably inadequate to the needs of the enter- prise. It was limited to the third and fourth floors of the building at 2^ State Street, and the Committee de- sired to purchase the wdiole property. The Port Com- missioner echoed the wish of the missionaries when he said: "Your Society should have an entire house; your work is so important and far-reaching. You ought not to have to take the poor women up three flights of stairs. Surely the Society would build you a Home if they knew how much good you were doing." And another observer adds, "Instead of two mission- aries, you ought to have a hundred." In this build- ing, in 1890, they had "sixteen beds, with cots and extra bedding" for emergencies. It is pathetic to mark the appeals made through the Bureau year after year for a better building. The 18 258 Twenty Years' History old one was ''absolutely uninhabitable." It was neces- sary that they remain in the neighborhood of the Gov- ernment offices, but "rents at the Battery were so enor- mous as to be appalling, and prices for property al- most fabulous." Sixty thousand dollars were asked for, and a considerable sum was conditionally appro- priated for several years in succession without ap- preciable results. The burden of pleading became, "not a prayer for laborers, but for a harvest of gold, for a house to shelter the laborers" and their charges. The Lord's hand was not shortened ; but the purses of the Lord's stewards did not yield to the pressure. Apart from the consideration of the great expense involved in the purchase of property in this section of New York, there was some uncertainty as to the per- manent location of the Government buildings. Cus- tom-house, etc. In 1 89 1 the receiving office was re- moved to Ellis Island, and the barge office to the foot of State Street. Then it was deemed best to maintain the mission as in the past, without change of quarters, until something really desirable could be secured, one of the ladies continuing to superintend the Home, and the other going daily to the island to meet incoming ships. In 1896 the house at 2"] State Street was repaired and made more comfortable. In May, 1898, under the efficient leadership of Mrs. J. D. Slayback, who has long been the competent Work in Cities 259 Chairman of the Local Committee, the Home was re- moved to No. 9 State Street, opposite the barge office. This is a commodious five-story house, well adapted to the work, and with the enlarged accommodations there has been an increase of inmates. Miss Mathews, during the year ending October, 1900, met seven hun- dred and seventy-seven steamers, and the Home fur- nished meals to sixteen thousand one hundred and twelve, and lodgings to four thousand seven hundred and thirteen. Mrs. H. C. Waite, the Superintendent and Matron, having failed in health, w^as succeeded by Miss Josephine Corbin, the well-known deaconess. With the new setting, the Home has taken on a new lease of life and activity. Interest in the city in the work has greatly increased, and rooms have been furnished and named by individuals and Churches. The New York Conference Society has always made this enterprise "the child of its tenderest care." These noble W'Omen of New \"ork and vicinity do not seem to remember that the work of the Immigrant Bureau is national in its scope, and that the seed here sown may be borne away to yield its harvest in distant States and cities wherever the immigrant may seek her home, but they freely give themselves to this work with all the ardor due to a local institution. The Lord will re- ward them in the day "when he cometh to make up his jewels." 26o Twenty Years' History ITALIAN WORK A large proportion of the immigrants arriving at New York, the ''gateway of the Nation," are ItaUans, and "Little Italy" is a recognized factor in the perma- nent population of the city. A report of 1891 reads : "There are' from seventy-five thousand to one hundred thousand Italians in New York City, and eighty per cent of these can not read or write. There are but two Protestant Churches among them, and only two Protestant lady missionaries speaking the language." In January, 1890, a mission was opened among them by the New York Conference Woman's Home Missionary Society, with Miss A. C. Ruddy in charge ; and in October, 1891, by action of the General Board of Managers, this work was attached to the Immigrant Bureau. The parlor floor of a house in the Italian quarter was used for Sunday-school, prayer-meetings, sewing-school, etc. In another house the Home and Industrial School was carried on, and Miss Ruddy did house-to-house visitation and evangelistic work in the neighborhood. So active and aggressive were the measures employed that it was sometimes "at the peril of her life" she went abroad, while to those who knew and believed in her she was received as "an angel of mercy." Miss A. Johansen was her assistant. Many Work in Cities 261 conversions were reported in connection with this Itahan Mission. When, in 1894, the Watts de Peyster property was given to the Society, ''the Home, with twenty Itahan girls," was transferred to that beautiful institution at Tivoli on the Hudson, and the Italian ^Mission in New York was passed over to the City Church Extension Society. EAST BOSTON The conditions prevailing at the port of entry at Boston were similar to those existing at New York. Facing the wharves on Marginal Street, where the Cunard steamers • discharge their immigrant freight, are many saloons, some with signs reading, "House of the Stranger," "Pilgrim's Rest," and the like, to catch the eve of the newlv-arrived. Amons: these places wdiose portals marked the entrance to the way of death the Woman's Home Missionary Society planted its "house of hope." The work was begun in 1889 in a few rooms on Haines Street, hired from a Swedish family, and a little later it was removed to "a good house of twelve rooms" on Marginal Street. In the fall of that year, Mrs. Charles W. Pierce, of Boston, pledged five thou- sand dollars for the purchase of a building. "This," says the Secretary, "thrilled our hearts with its promise 262 Twenty Years' History and its prohpecy." The following year the work had assumed "magnificent proportions." A property was secured on Marginal Street next door to the rented house then occupied, consisting of a double house hav- ing two saloons on the first floor, with fourteen rooms above in each. As soon as the premises could be put in order, one-half the building was occupied by the Home, and the other half being rented, the income was utilized to pay interest on money borrowed and for other expenses. With the repairs which it had been necessary to make the cost of the property amounted to seventeen thousand three hundred and fifty dollars. Most of the fixtures and furnishings had been gener- ously donated. The ladies of the New England Conference admin- istered the affairs of this Home with characteristic zeal and energy and wise economy, and still continue their interest unabated. In 1892 they raised six thousand dollars on the debt, mostly through the "Bee-hive" mite-boxes. Mrs. W. E. Dwight distinguished herself in this work, and justly won the title of the "Queen Mother of the Busy Bees." Mrs. V. A. Cooper secured two thousand dollars, also, from Boston merchants and friends. As the General Board of Managers had the previous year promised the payment of "the last six thousand dollars" on the existing indebtedness, the other half of the building was now thoroughly repaired. Work in Cities 263 and neat and wholesome; the entire house of thirty- three rooms, inchiding chapel and temperance res- taurant was dedicated to this soul-saving mission. Thirty conversions were reported this year. Unlike the work at New York, of which it is said, ''It is wholly immigrant work; there are no side is- sues," the workers at the East Boston Home do a large and increasing amount of outside missionary work. The temperance restaurant is a notable feature, and much good temperance work has been done. Sabbath morning services are held in the chapel for the Swedes, of whom there are many in the city. They also hold social meetings in the Home during the week. A sewing-school is maintained, in which any who may be benefited are received; at one time seven nationalities were represented in it with forty pupils. The "home idea" is inculcated, and the girls at service in the city, or variously employed, who have had in the past the benefit of its influence, come back frequently to its re- ligious services or to spend a leisure hour on holidays or ''afternoons out." In trouble or affliction they re- sort to the Home "mother ;" and some have been buried from the chapel, and at least three have gone out from its portals with her blessing on their bridal vows. The work has grown in many directions. As many men, perhaps, are permanently benefited as women, and the large house is filled with every incoming 264 Twenty Years' History steamer. IMrs. A. C. Clark, who has been Superin- tendent of this Home since its inauguration, has ac- quitted herself with ability and success. The Immi- grant Commissioner not infrequently commits to her care cases requiring careful consideration and adjust- ment, and her judicious counsel and Christian ministra- tions to the "strangers within the gates" have been an inestimable blessing to many. Being a Swede by birth, she has easy access, through this language, to a large number of the immigrants. She is both Superin- tendent and missionary, and has had assistants who are consecrated and useful. PHILADELPHIA The Philadelphia Immigrant Home was opened July, 1889, I'l^^^ the docks, at 967 Otsego Street, within a block of the steamship landing and immigrant sta- tion. "It was," to quote Mrs. C. W. Bickley, when reporting its advent, "a small beginning of a great undertaking," and it was not without the usual oppo- sition and discouragement from officials. With diffi- culty could Mrs. Goff secure a pass for the missionary to visit the steamers, one declaring that it would "be impossible for women to work in such a place," and another gave the ladies just one month in which to verify his prediction of failure. But, watching their work, these officials became staunch friends. Miss Work in Cities 265 Margaret Boswell, a deaconess, was well adapted to this service, the distinguishing garb of her office prov- ing a sure passport to the hearts of the immigrant strangers. Accustomed to the peculiar costumes of the religious orders in foreign lands, they turn to the women of the "white ties" with instinctive confidence. In 1890, in a rented house in another part of Phila- delphia, a Deaconess Home was opened, which, receiv- ing, two years later, a gift from Colonel Bennett of a house, 611 Vine Street, worth ten thousand dollars, and an additional gift from the same source, in 1894, of the adjoining property, 609 Vine Street, soon be- came a stronghold of religious work. This gave to the Philadelphia Conference two fine centers of Christian missionary effort under the direction of the Woman's Home Missionary Society, wdiich were in time har- moniously blended into virtual union, one or more deaconesses being constantly detailed from the Deaconess Home for work at the docks and at the Immigrant Home at Otsego Street. In 1890 the reports were "most encouraging," a great variety of work was done — and well done. The Italian mission-rooms of the Society were located not far away, and the wretched homes in the courts and alleys of the Italian quarter shared in the kindly at- tentions of the missionaries. The capacity of the Home was doubled in 1892 by 266 Twenty Years' History renting the house next door, and changes were made by which a room in the building was set apart for a chapel and schoolroom. More than ever now it became a "home" for the poor foreigners in the city, who gladly came back to its services, drawn by the memory of the sweet spirit of love and kindness that had there first given them the helping hand in their hour of need. In 1896 the Home received its baptism of fire, when the besom of flame swept away all buildings surround- ing it, and ''yet was not a hair singed or the smell of fire passed upon" its interior. Thus providentially spared, it freely opened its doors to the suffering and unfortunate in the neighborhood. The year following (1897) was also signalized by some peculiar vicissitudes for the Home. The Superin- tendent, Mrs. L. Buck waiter, had been a missionary in Africa for seven years previous to her coming to the Home, and as the Parent Board in the summer of 1897 requested her return and that of her husband to this work, her resignation of the Superintendency fol- lowed. Contagious disease became epidemic in the neighborhood about this time, and the Home was closed, but with no thought of permanence. Although it has not since been reopened, no abatement in the interest of the work has been allowed ; but with the Deaconess Home as a base of operations and a Board Work in Cities 267 of larg^e-hearted women at the helm, the cause of the immii^rant has been zealously cared for. The Immigrant Homes of the Woman's Home Mis- sionary Society stand like moral lighthouses upon our shores. If these lamps are kept trimmed and burn- ing, many storm-tossed souls may follow their beacon- lights into the haven of peace. And blessed are they who when the Master comes shall hear him say, "I was a stranger, and ye took me in; naked, and ye clothed me ; an hungered, and ye gave me meat." BUREAU FOR YOUNG PEOPLE'S WORK ''On a January morning in 1886, in the drawing- room of Mrs. W. F. Thorne, Cincinnati, O., Airs. H. C. McCabe suggested the formation of a Bureau for Young People's \\'ork," is the record we read in an authentic document of the time. Mrs. Mary B. Ing- ham, of Cleveland, O., was made the first Secretary, and with energy and ability entered upon her work. At the succeeding Annual fleeting seventy organiza- tions were reported. Four years later the statement was made, *'The growth of the Bureau has been a marvel." ]\Irs. Ingham was retained as Secretary of this Bureau, except for an interim of two years, when yirs. M. E. Griffith, of Washington, D. C, served, until 268 Twenty Years' History 1896, when Mrs. Ingham resigned, and was succeeded by Mrs. Samuel Hazlett, of Washington, Pa. For four years Mrs. Hazlett devoted to this department much time and thought. To her efforts was largely due the inauguration of the little paper. Children's Home Missions, one of the most delightful juvenile publications of the day, published by the Society and edited by Miss Martha Van Marter. This was ordered at the fourteenth Annual Meeting, held at Columbus, O., 1895, Mrs. Hazlett making a handsome donation to the "Guaranty Fund." In October, 1900, Mrs. George Edward Reed, wife ot the President of Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pa., accepted the care of the Bureau, and took up the work with characteristic enthusiasm. The department was never better served than by Mrs. Reed. YOUNG PEOPLE'$ SOCIETIES Recalling Mordecai's words to the Persian queen, surely ''Thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this," the resourceful first Secretary of the Bureau made them the keynote of her message to the young women of the Church, and, as a consequence, "Queen Esther Circles," composed of young girls of sixteen years and over, were inaugurated all through the Society. Antedating this time many Children's Bands had been organized by individuals without the connecting bond of Work in Cities 269 a Bureau, prompted, doubtless, as the enthusiastic Sec- retary suggests, ''by the founder of our glorious order of Mothers' Jewels." This "founder" was none other than Mrs. H. C. McCabe, who, remembering "Cor- nelia and her jewels," had suggested, in the first issue of her paper, IVoman's Home Missions, January, 1884, that children under seven years of age be enrolled as Mothers' Jewels, paying ten cents a year into the treasury of the paper. The proposition met with im- mediate favor, and when a Home for children w^as proposed, it was manifest that the Children's Fund be- longed to that object above all others, and to that it was transferred. mothe:rs' jewkivS home: In July of 1886, the year of Mrs. Ingham's ap- pointment, the first dollar for a Children's Home came from a Massachusetts boy, with a letter asking that other boys and girls be requested to join in an efifort to "buy a farm and build a house" for homeless chil- dren. In 1888 one thousand dollars had been accumu- lated, and a farm of one hundred and sixty acres under good cultivation had been offered the Society by Dr. Armstrong, of Park Hill, Platte County, Neb. This venerable man had, out of the goodness of his heart, gathered into his home, from time to time, fourteen 270 Twenty Years' History homeless waifs, and now proposed to turn over his es- tablishment, with his seven boys, to the Mothers' Jewels Home. In 1889, Mrs. A. R. Clark and Mrs. F. A. Aiken, of the Board of Trustees, went to Nebraska to investi- gate. Their recommendations, confirmed by the Board of Managers at Indianapolis in October of that year, resulted in the sale of the Park Hill property, and the purchase of a fine farm with good buildings near York, Neb., the residents of that city making a liberal dona- tion of ten thousand dollars. In two months' time from the receipt of the deed, the Mothers' Jewels family, consisting of Dr. and Mrs. Armstrong, their boys, and a Matron and assistant, were comfortably domiciled in the pleasant farmhouse which has since been known as "The York Cottage." A small dormitory was added. In April, 1891, Mr. Burwell Spurlock and Mrs. Spur- lock were put in charge, and closed the year with a family of thirty children. They still serve the Home as its efficient Superintendents. As other homeless ones were constantly knocking at its doors, only to fail of admission for lack of room, the crying need of the work became the erection of the long-promised new building. In 1894 this was begun, and in 1895, though unfinished, was partly occupied. Though it is a ''beautful Home" in more senses than one, it still lacks many conveniences and Work in Cities 271 appliances which only money can supply. The incom- ing- of the twentieth century found the faithful Chair- man of the Committee on this Home, Mrs. Negus, pleading for funds with which to erect an additional west wing, which was needed. The industrial feature has been emphasized from the first, and in good seasons the farm contributes largely to the support of the Home family, the boys, varying in age from seven to seventeen, taking their full share of the labor. The girls are trained in all household industries, dressmaking, and typewriting. The older children attend the public school in York, and, as this is about one mile distant, a big wagon is brought into requisition, and Mr. Spurlock handles the lines over his spirited horses with fatherly pride in the precious load they carry. The number being so large in recent years, the first five grades are taught in the Home. The religious interests of this large home circle are zealously looked after. A Sunday-school and an Epworth League are conducted in the Home ; many of the young people are converted, and, being carefully instructed, are baptized and taken into the Church. The average Mothers' Jewels family for some years has numbered from forty-five to fifty-six, some coming in and others going out continually. A considerable number have been adopted into good Christian homes. 272 Twenty Years' History as many as forty having been placed in a single year, and some have gone out to earn a livelihood in lines for which their training in the Home had prepared them. Only three children have died, a remarkably small death-rate for a period of twelve years. Ninety- two has been the largest number enrolled at any one time. The management is believed to be both wise and humane, and the Superintendents and teachers earnest and consecrated workers. Mrs. A. R. Clark, the first Chairman of the Com- mittee on Mothers' Jewels Home, filled the position for a long time with great devotion. To make its work a success was one of her fondest dreams. One who was long associated with her in this work says, "In a sense, the Mothers' Jewels Home is Mrs. Clark's monu- ment." Mrs. J. P. Negus, of Iowa, became her successor in 1896. With her husband's loyal and generous help, she has been a great blessing to the Mothers' Jewels Home. Mrs. Anna Hobbs Woodcock, of Nebraska, a gifted speaker, has served the cause well as Assistant Chairman. WATTS DE PEYSTER HOME At Tivoli on the Hudson, ninety-nine miles north of New York City, is the Watts de Peyster School and Home of the Woman's Home Missionary Society. The Work in Cities 273 building" was originally intended for a boarding-school, and was bought by General John Watts de Peyster and presented to the Society to be used as an Industrial School and Home for homeless girls. Though an Episcopalian, he honored in this way his Methodist ancestry, making it a memorial of his mother and of her father, John Watts. It is a magnificent property, valued at sixty thousand dollars, with accommodations for one hundred and fifty inmates, and has attached to it a fruit-farm of nine acres. It is under the special care of the New York Conference. It was opened in June, 1894, with nine girls. Within a year the number had increased to forty. The children were mostly waifs from the great city. From the poorest and vilest surroundings they were trans- ported to this paradise of pure air and sunshine, of fruit and flowers ; to this comfortable and well-ordered Home with its atmosphere of love and its discipline of duty and service. The number has sometimes reached seventy-five. Boys are not admitted into Watts de Peyster Home. Changes and improvements have from time to time been made in the buildings and grounds, which, with the needed furnishings, have necessitated constant ex- pense; but God has raised up many friends for this institution, and has blessed it with prosperity. At the Annual Meeting of icjoo, at Chicago, the Chairman, J9 274 Twenty Years' History Mrs. Morgan, announced a bequest of fifteen thou- sand dollars left by Mr. William L. Hoge, of Montana. For some years before his death he had regularly sup- ported six girls in the Home, and the income of this bequest will maintain ten. This gift was made as a memorial of his excellent wife. Founder's-day, observed in June, is always cele- brated with enthusiasm, and at the Thanksgiving and Christmas festivals the beautiful ''Star-spangled Ban- ner" floats over no happier assembly than the Watts de Peyster family. General de Peyster, the founder, who is described as ''author, soldier, historian, military biographer, and critic," gives testimony to the work of the Home in these words: "Of all the good I have done, or attempted to do, at such large expenditure of money, I can truly say that it has always been a subject of rejoicing that I gave the property at Tivoli to the Woman's Home Missionary Society, which has done so much, indeed everything, to make it an honor to the locality in which it is situated, and a grand success in every sense of the word. Very respectfully, "J. Watts du Pkyster.'' Mr. E. F. George and wife, ucc Miss Johansen, of the Italian Mission in New York, were the first Superintendents. In March, 1898, Rev. and IMrs. E. Work in Cities 275 R. Ackerly succeeded them. Mrs. F. C. Morgan, of New York, has been the devoted Chairman of the Home Committee since 1898. Many destitute and homeless Httle ones rescued from evil lives and brought up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord will doubtless rise up "in that day" to bless her and her associate workers. CUNNINGHAM DF.ACONESS HOMr: AND ORPHANAGE In 1895, Judge J. O. Cunningham and wife, of Urbana, HI., presented to the Woman's Home Mission- ary Society of the Illinois Conference a beautiful resi- dence property, with ample grounds surrounding, to be used as a Deaconess Home and Orphanage. This valuable gift, worth fifteen thousand dollars, was for- mally dedicated in October of that year, Mrs. Fisk, the President of the Society, being present on the occasion, and making an effective address. Mrs. B. S. Potter, who had been largely instrumental in securing the do- nation and the necessary furnishings, "received the keys in behalf of the Society.'' The Home at once en- tered upon its beneficent career. Twenty-five children were sheltered the first year, thirty the second, and thirty-eight the third. A bequest of more than five thousand dollars came to the Cunningham Home, in 1898, from j\Iiss Hannah Johnson, an Episcopalian lady of Champaign, 111. In 276 Twenty Years' History 1900 two large additions were made to the building, and in the latter year eighty children were reported as inmates. Four deaconesses are usually employed in the Home, one conducting a kindergarten for the little ones. In other lines the instruction is similar to that in all such institutions, the children being sent out into permanent homes as frequently as desirable places can be secured for them. Mrs. A. W. Conklin, of Decatur, 111., is the ener- getic and efficient Chairman. KUZABETII A. BRADLKY HOME (Projected) At the eighteenth Annual Meeting, held in Christ Church, Pittsburg, Pa., October, 1899, a group of good women whose hearts God had touched, and who were allied by family relationship to ]\Irs. Elizabeth A. Brad- ley, deceased, pledged three thousand five hundred dol- lars for a Children's Home to bear her name and to be located at Allegheny, Pa. At the New York Meet- ing, November, 1901, Mrs. P. D. Perchment, daughter of Mrs. Bradley, sent up a pledge to the Treasurer for' three thousand dollars for the projected Home *'in honor of the dear mother's birthday." As the first piece of furnishing for Bradley Home, and an interesting link between the children of the East and the children of the far Northwest, a patch- Work in Cities 277 work quilt made by the girls in the Jesse Lee Home, Alaska, was presented by Mrs. Beiler, and, being pur- chased by the ladies of the Convention for fifty dollars (paid into the Alaskan Fund), it was donated to the prospective Elizabeth Bradley Memorial Home. EDUCATIVE MOVEMENTS Certain phases of the work of the Woman's Home Missionary Society, which have been happily char- acterized as its ''educational by-products," deserve ''honorable mention" in this history. Under this head may be classified "the Home ^lissionary Reading Circle" and the Department of "Systematic Benefi- cence," each of which has grown into the dignity of a Bureau of the Society, as also some minor accessories of this many-sided philanthropy, such as Mite-box Work, the annual Thank-offering, and the observance of a Day of Humiliation and Prayer. HOME MISSIONARY READING CIRCLE This department was inaugurated in 1887 as a national Circle somewhat after the Chautauqua plan. Mrs. H. E. Doud, of Norfolk, O., was the first Secre- tary, and probably the originator of the scheme. Cer- tainly its success for a number of years was largely due to her broad intelligence and enthusiasm and energy. Much of the expense of the preliminary work, 278 Twenty Years' History aside from the liberal concessions of the Western Book Concern, was defrayed from her own purse, with occa- sional assistance from generous friends. The object of the Bureau was ''to lay before its readers, in concise form, the condition and needs of our country in a sense not altogether confined to mis- sionary lines." Such books as ''Our Country," "A Century of Dishonor," "Alaska," "Modern Cities," "The Mormon Problem," "Deaconesses," "The New Era," "Our Island Empire," "The Foundation Rock," "Property Consecrated," and "Up from Slavery," have been in the lists of the "required readings." The first year the plan of reading was formulated, circular letters were sent out, arrangements were made with publishers by which readers could secure the books at reduced rates, and a system of badges was devised by means of which proper recognition could be given to those completing the course or any section of the course. A beautiful banner was donated, which is every year taken up to the Annual Meeting of the General Board of Managers and assigned to the Con- ference reporting the largest number of readers ; this is then held in trust by that Conference during the year. A prize of twenty-five dollars, and others of similar amounts, were ofifered for four years in suc- cession to the Auxiliaries leading in number of readers. Mrs. Doud resigned in 1891, and was succeeded Work in Cities 279 by Mrs. W. F. McDowell, who served one year, when the Bureau was passed over to Mrs. J. L. Trisler, of Hartwell, O., who for eight years was faithful to this trust. In the fall of 1900, Mrs. Levi Gilbert, of Madison- ville, O., was appointed Secretary of Reading Circles. Her administration of the office has been characterized by a s)'stematic attention to details which must ensure encouraging results. Aside from the Secretaries, probably the most not- able contributor to the success of this Bureau has been Mrs. T. P. Frost, wdio has made a distinguished record as Secretary of Conference and local Reading Circles. As many as three thousand readers have been re- ported in a given year as claiming membership in the Woman's Home ^lissionary Reading Circle. Surely this points to a higher intelligence, a better under- standing of the perils menacing our country, and loftier ideals concerning our duties as citizens and Christians. SYSTEMATIC BENEFICENCE The organ of the Society, Womans Home Mis- sions, very early was made the medium through which was presented to its readers the views of the editor, Mrs. H. C. McCabe, concerning the duty of observ- ing "Systematic Beneficence." She had long enter- 28o Twenty Years' History tained in some sacred chamber of her devout soul an exalted conception of the Christian's obligation to give the ''tenth unto God," a conviction which no cavils of opposing opinion v^as ever able to dislodge. Quietly and persistently holding on the even tenor of her teach- ing on this subject, gleaning arguments here and there from pulpit and press and individual testimony, and encouragement from Doctors of Divinity and mild- mannered Quakeresses alike, she began to see of the fruit of her labors when, in 1889, the General Board of Managers voted the appointment of a Standing Committee on Systematic Beneficence. For two years Mrs. E. L. Albright was chairman of this Committee. A ''Sacred Corner" was maintained in the paper, and tracts and circulars were distributed. From 1892 to 1897 Mrs. James Mather, as chairman, devoted much time and thought to the work of the Committee, and by earnest precept and consistent example contributed not a little to the general growth of sentiment and con- viction in favor of the "tithe." Since 1895 the Com- mittee has become a "Bureau," an annual report is given before the meeting of the General Board, and a register is kept in which all members of the Society practicing the payment of the "tenth" are invited to record their names. In 1897, Mrs. Samuel Hamilton, of Pittsburg, was appointed Secretary, and, until fail- ing health in 1901 compelled her to decline the service, Work in Cities 281 she was constant in her efforts to win friends for the system. Full of zeal for this "Bihle plan of religious finance," she heautifully illustrates in her personal ex- ample and experience the blessedness of "paying what we owe to God." To ]\Irs. ]\I. C. Alspaugh, of Iowa, was assigned the work of the Bureau after Mrs. Hamilton's resig- nation. That she was in sympathy with its aims may be inferred from the sentiment which, at the Pitts- burg Annual ]\Ieeting, she proposed as the watch- word of the Society for all future time; viz., "Let us lay our tithe beside our prayer, 'Thy kingdom come.' " MITE-BOXES If Mrs. Dwight has been named the "Queen Mother of the Busy Bees" in mite-box work for the limited area of New England, Mrs. W. M. Ampt, of Cincinnati, had long before, by her devotion to this department, established her claim to the larger dis- tinction of a maternal relation toward all the little mite- gatherers throughout the general Society. Succeed- ing Miss Minnie Bayliss in the office, she was ap- pointed to the chairmanship of the Committee by the Board of Trustees in February, 1885, and has faith- fully superintended the work until the present time. As the money collected by these gleaners is supposed to be sent through the same channels as other funds 282 Twenty Years' History to the General Treasurer, and only reports of the same forwarded to Mrs. Ampt (which has not always been done), no exact and complete account of any year's work has ever yet been tabulated ; but what has been put upon record has been most encouraging. And if the hidden page of many a heart history were re- vealed, the mite-box in the home, when truly conse- crated and faithfully used, would be discovered to be a perennial means of grace. The mite box is uncon- sciously the wise little handmaiden of the Bureau of Systematic Beneficence. As indicating the growth of this department, we may learn by selections from the Annual Reports the following: In 1888, Mrs. Ampt records two hundred and forty-seven dollars reported from the Conferences ; in 1889, one thousand dollars; in 1895, two thousand nine hundred dollars; and in 1900, eight thousand seven hundred and forty-six dollars. Since 1893 the chairman of the Committee has annually appointed ''Divisional Mite-box Secretaries," having supervision of large sections, each embracing a number of Conferences, and during the last five years she has been able to say with truth, "Very few Auxiliaries, Circles, and Bands are without a Mite-box Secretary." To this carefully-planned system must be attributed the fine results attained. In 1896-97 the Jewel Mite-boxes, designed for the Work in Cities 283 use of little children, were introduced, and under the care of Miss Van Alarter have given an additional impetus to this beautiful work. ]\Irs. Ampt, who was in the second year of the Society made one of the twelve Resident Managers, has also done it good service from year to }ear as Railroad Secretary, by securing reduced rates for those attending the Annual Meetings. THE THANK-OFFERING At the ninth Annual Meeting, at Buffalo, 1890, the Recording Secretary brought from the Board of Trustees a recommendation asking that ''a day in November be appointed as Thank-offering Day," which was accepted with enthusiasm, especially by those who had already observed such a day in local Auxiliaries with great profit. This action was in reality the culmination of some years of agitation on the subject by certain members of the Board. Later, the third Thursday in the month of our National Thanksgiving was recommended, but not made obli- gatory ; and the practice of most Societies has been to hold the thank-offering service at a time as near to that date as may be convenient. In 1893 a com- mittee, consisting of Mrs. E. L. Albright, Mrs. H. C. McCabe, and Mrs. D. L. Williams, was appointed to prepare a program for general use at these meetings. 284 Twenty Years' History Since 1896, and including that year, this has been done by Miss Van Marter as a part of the work of the Leaflet Committee, and in many AuxiUaries the celebration of the day, with its beautiful "Praise Serv- ice" and its ingathering of gifts to the Lord's treasury, has become the event of the year. It has been asserted that the Woman's Home Mis- sionary Society was ''the pioneer" in introducing thank-offering services into the Methodist Episcopal Church. However this may be, it is a custom that well becomes an organization which stands for the highest type of Christian patriotism, and should never be allowed to fall into disuse. DAY OF HUMIUATION AND PRAYEiR The name of Mrs. J. P. Negus stands intimately associated with the origin of the observance of a Day of Humiliation and Prayer in connection with the Woman's Home Missionary Society. In 1892 a num- ber of Auxiliaries in her Conference, the Northwest Iowa, reported such meetings as "very profitable oc- casions." In 1893 this same Conference sent a me- morial on the subject to the General Board of Man- agers, which was adopted, and Mrs. Negus, Mrs. J. I. Boswell, and Mrs. M. H. Davis were appointed a Committee to devise ways and means of increasing- interest in the observance of the day. The following Work in Cities 285 year, Mrs. Negus, as chairman of the Committee, re- ported in favor of a general call to the Home Mis- sionary Societies of all evangelical denominations for concert of action in fixing a day and arranging a suggestive order of exercises which might be adopted by all co-operating organizations. The last Thursday in February has been the day chosen. Through the efTorts of this Committee the Home Missionary Societies of the Baptist, Presbyterian, Con- gregational, United Brethren, Free Baptist, and Chris- tian Churches have, with more or less regularity, fallen into line with the movement. The Methodist Epis- copal Church, South, through Mrs. Bishop Hargrove, and the Friends through Mrs. Esther Pritchard, have given hearty assent and approval. In 1895 the "Order of Exercises" for the day was prepared by a com- mittee of the Presbyterian Church, in 1896 of the Bap- tist, and in successive years by representatives of other bodies. Union meetings of great solemnity and power have been held in many cities and towns, in which members of all the Churches have united upon the common plane of confession and humiliation, and have engaged in earnest prayer for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the Church and the Nation. Self- denial offerings are incidentally called for, but the special mission of the day is to emphasize the great need existing for the purification of our National and 286 Twenty Years' History social life, and for the descent of Pentecostal power upon the Churches. In the autumn of 1897, in consequence of ]\Irs. Negus's increasing responsibilities in connection with the chairmanship of the Mothers' Jewels Home Com- mittee, Mrs. M. C. Hickman succeeded her as chair- man of the Committee on Day of Humiliation and Prayer, a duty which she has most effectively dis- charged. committee: on missionary candidates One of the most responsible Committees of the Woman's Home Missionary Society, and one that does its important work out of the sight of the public, is the "Committee on Missionary Candidates." The painstaking chairman of this Committee for many years has been Mrs. William Christie Herron, of Cincinnati. She was made one of the "twelve resident managers" in 1886, and has been one of the five Vice-Presidents since 1896, holding first place in 1898. The work of her services to the Board in Cin- cinnati and to the Society at large has been recognized by her continued re-election and promotion in office. CHAPTER VII CONCLUSION The detailed consideration of the many depart- ments of the work of the Woman's Home Missionary Society comprehended under the heads of the various Bureaus has made it necessary in these ''chapters" to drop the thread of continuous history. After hav- ing given a brief account of the first few years of the Society's existence, no bird's-eye view of the whole work at any given period has been attempted. From the time when it began "Branching out" (Chapter III), we have endeavored to follow separately each dis- tinct line of missionary effort, showing its incipiency, its progress, and its present state of development. Some events of a general character which trans- pired during the second decade of the history of the Society should now be made matters of record. CONFERENCE UNIONS As has been stated in Chapter I, the constitution of the Woman's Home Missionary Society is without a counterpart elsewhere in Methodism. It was organ- 287 288 Twenty Years' History ized with a President, Treasurer, Corresponding and Recording Secretaries, five Vice-Presidents, and twelve Managers, constituting a General Board of Trustees, with headquarters at Cincinnati. Upon this Board devolved the burden of administering the affairs of the Society, except as advised and instructed by the Annual Meeting of the Board of Managers. As the work developed, the responsibilities of these ladies in- creased, and rumors began to be heard of a move- ment designed to relieve the congestion at headquarters and to distribute the responsibility of administration among the Conferences. As early as 1885, at the Philadelphia Annual Meeting, Mrs. Davis pleaded earnestly for ''measures of relief." At the eleventh Annual Meeting, at Grand Rapids, Mich., in October, 1892, a public session of the Board of Trustees was announced by the President, Mrs. Davis, to which all the Conference Corresponding Secretaries, delegates, and visitors were invited. This was an informal mass meeting, and was thrown open for full and free discussion. To this meeting was pre- sented a recommendation which had been adopted by the Board at Cincinnati, October 3d, which read as follows : ''Resolved, i. That we recommend the grouping of the Conference organizations of our Society in divisions similar to the districts of the General Mis- Conclusion 289 sionary Society, these groups to be made centers of interest, duty, and responsibility. "2. That these divisions be so organized as to enHst more fully the women in each division for the work." After discussion, a ''Special Committee on Division of the Work" was appointed, consisting of the four general officers and twenty-one ladies representing the field at large, which, after four days' deliberation, brought in a report in favor of adopting the original recommendation. The plan thus formulated proposed that these groups be called Conference Unions, and that each Union be organized with Constitution and By-laws modeled after those already in force in the Woman's Home Missionary Society. To each Con- ference Union was to be allotted the duty of promot- ing the work of the Woman's Home Missionary So- ciety within its bounds, increasing interest, multiply- ing organizations, and securing funds. Annual meet- ings were to be held, and full reports of the combined work of the Conferences comprised in the Union were to be forwarded to the general officers of the Society, instead of the detailed individual report from each Conference, as had previously been done. This, it was argued, would enlist a larger number of women throughout the Conferences, create new centers of in- terest, and lessen the labors of the general officers. 290 Twenty Years' History The rcpoi't of this Committee was adopted, not unanimously, then reconsidered, and an amendment at- tached ordering the report to be printed and sent down to the Conference Societies for consideration, and that final action be deferred till the next Annual Meeting. All conceded the wisdom of such an amendment, when so radical a measure, involving ultimately a change in Constitution, was under consideration. During the ensuing year the circular, signed by Mrs. Rust "in behalf of the Board," was so distrib- uted, and presumably conscientiously deliberated upon by the Conference Societies throughout the Church. At the next Annual Meeting, held at Toledo, Ohio, October, 1893, a paper, entitled ''Proposed Constitu- tion for Conference Unions," was presented, also com- ing from the Board of Trustees. In the order of business, it was moved ''that the consideration of the matter of Conference Unions be referred to the Fi- nance Committee." This was done, and the outcome of the prolonged discussions which took place in that body, sitting as a "Committee of the Whole," appears upon the Minutes in a resolution recommending the appointment of a Committee of nine ladies, "to report to the next Annual Meeting of the Board of Managers a plan for Conference Unions." The Committee so appointed was composed as follows : Mrs. Clinton B. Fisk, Mrs. E. L. Rust, Mrs. C. L. Roach, Mrs. T. L. Conclusion 291 Tomkinson, Mrs. E. B. Orccn, Mrs. J. P. Negus, Mrs. D. L. Brown, and Mrs. L. P. Williams. Later, when Mrs. Fisk had been elected President of the Society, she asked to be relieved, and Mrs. T. L. Tomkinson was appointed by the Board of Trustees chairman of the Committee, and Mrs. E. L. Albright was added to fill the vacancy. Thus a third time was the matter remanded to a Committee, which reported to the thirteenth Annual Meeting, at Williamsport, Pa., October, 1894. The debate upon the subject was of absorbing interest. Among tho^e favorable to the proposed change were Mrs. T. L. Tomkinson, the chairman of the Com- mittee; Mrs. H. C. McCabe, Mrs. B. S. Potter, and Mrs. J. P. Negus. Mrs. Clara L. Roach, of Wash- ington, D. C, brought in a minority report, and led a vigorous opposition. As the plan, if approved, would lead to a change in the Constitution, a two-thirds vote was required. The motion to adopt the majority re- port being put upon its passage, was lost by a vote of forty-five to twenty-one. Thus after two years of thorough agitation by members of the Society in all parts of the country, and having been at three Annual Meetings of the General Board of Managers, ''the most important subect under consideration," the pro- posed readjustment of the work by means of Confer- ence Unions was finally abandoned. 292 Twenty Years' History The impartial student of this episode in the history of the organization will doubtless arrive at conclusions something- like the following : The movement did not originate with a disaf- fected few, but twice came to the highest legislative body of the Society, the General Board of Managers, as a recommendation from the Board of Trustees. A considerable proportion of the membership of the So- ciety loyally responded to the impression thus received that some change was imminent and necessary. As time went on it became apparent that the Board of Trustees was not a unit in desiring the change, and that an increasing number in that body were disin- clined to welcome Conference Unions. Then an ap- prehension arose that this ''additional agency" inter- posed between the Conference Societies and the Board of Trustees, without the power to eliminate any of the existing machinery of the Society, might prove an unwarrantable incumbrance. There might be division of work ; there could be no considerable division of responsibility, for responsibility must rest where exec- utive functions reside. The time and thought given to the agitation and deliberation connected with this movement show ad- mirable caution and wisdom on the part of the women of the Society. Some good results may be traced in part to this Conclusion 293 agitation. There has been less concentration at head- quarters. Managers from dififerent sections of the country have been given a place in the Board of Trus- tees and the Advisory Board. The President, since 1893, has been a representative woman from the East, and not more than two of the four general officers have been at any time residents of Cincinnati. The Bureaus have been clothed with enlarged powers. Even before the special legislation in their favor, which was made possible by the permission of the General Conference of 1900 to revise the Constitution, they had become actual and potential factors in the admin- istration of the work. Since then they have been in- vested with an authority commensurate with their labors and responsibilities. And lastly, in some sec- tions of the country, the informal grouping of con- tiguous Conferences into Annual Conventions, for the dissemination of information and creation of interest, has proved a decided success and a power for good. NEW CONSTITUTION As the years went by a need became apparent for some changes in the Constitution. The swaddling clothes of the infant were not well adapted to the vigorous movements of the great and growing Society. Among the harrassing limitations of this earlv Con- stitution was its failure to assign to the Bureau Secre- 294 Twenty Years' History taries any constitutional rights in the General Board of Managers. They had by courtesy been granted a seat and a voice in its deliberations, but were not en- titled to a vote. The same was true of* the Associate Managers (an Advisory Board of seven members, whose assistance had been found invaluable to the Board of Trustees in Cincinnati), the General Organ- izers, the chairmen of Standing Committees, and the editors and publishers of the periodicals of the So- ciety. Among these persons were women holding positions of such trust and responsibility as entitled them, in the estimation of the rank and file, to stand upon a plane of privilege not lower than the highest. It was held that to these should be given the right not only to a seat and a voice in the General Board of Managers, but to a vote as well. Some minor amendments in Conference organiza- tion were also deemed desirable, and many verbal changes were needed in the instrument. At the Annual Meeting of 1895, at Columbus, O., a revised constitution was drafted, to be submitted to the ensuing General Conference of May, 1896. This was reported upon favorably by the General Confer- ence Committee, to which it was referred, but failed, by an oversight in the rush of business at the close, to be voted upon. Consequently it was laid over until the General Conference of 1900, when a resolution Conclusion 295 was adopted authorizing the Woman's Home i\lis- sionary Society "to revise its Constitution, with the exception of Article VII, 'relating to other branches of Church work.'" In New York, November, 1901, at the twentieth Annual Meeting, the desired action was consummated and the new Constitution approved. PERSONAL FACTORS While the purpose of the historian has been the recording of events, rather than the portrayal of char- acter, not a little of the interest of the narrative has doubtless been due to the glimpses incidentally af- forded of the noble women who have been the makers of the history. Only glimpses have been possible; many have been but casually mentioned in connection with their specific lines of work, some by reason of the very ubiquity of their usefulness, not being iden- tified with any particular enterprise, have not even been named ; a few who have filled responsible offices have been accorded a larger recognition, while per- haps none have received the full meed of praise their services have richly deserved. Their record is on high. What the Woman's Home Missionary Society is, these and such as they have made it. Of the honorable twenty-one who constituted the first General Executive Board (then so called, but later named, conformable to State law, the "Board of 296 Twenty Years' History Trustees "), only three names are to be found in the official director}^ of both 1881 and 1901, These are Mrs. F. S. Hoyt, Mrs. J. L. Whetstone, and Mrs. Bishop Walden. Although not a ''charter member," no name more justly deserves a place near the head of the list than that of Mrs. F. A. Aiken, who in November, 1883, was elected Recording Secretary, and who continues in the position at the date of this publication. At twenty successive Annual Meetings some temporarily appointed "Recording Secretary" has ''cast the ballot of the Convention" for Mrs. Aiken, and for nineteen years her care has been the records of the Society. While she has been an invaluable factor in the conduct of the meetings, most of her work has been done not in the public eye. Having her residence at Cincinnati, and convenient to Headquarters, she has been available all these years for countless services, which have been as freely given as they have been little understood by the outside membership. Patient, accurate, laborious, Mrs. Aiken has been a model Recording Secretary. Twice in the history of these twenty years has the highest seat in the gift of the organization been made vacant by death. On June 25, 1889, the hon- ored and well-beloved first President, Mrs. Ruther- ford B. Hayes, passed into the beyond, and a little Conclusion 297 more than three years later, February, 1893, her asso- ciate and worthy successor, Mrs. John Davis, laid down with her life her zealous labors for the cause she loved. Into the breach thus made stepped the First Vice-President, Mrs. F. S. Hoyt, and during the interim before the next Annual Meeting she dis- charged the duties of the President's office with such success as confirmed her previous reputation for su- perior intellectual force and executive ability. For twelve consecutive years, by the voluntary suffrages of her Sisters, her name had stood next to that of Mrs. Davis on the official roster. This was but a just tribute to her valuable services. She was truly "one of the founders" of the Society, one of the framers of the original Constitution, and one of those who held a strong and steady hand upon the helm in the days when the little craft was dashing about in the shallows of its early history. With the eye of a seer she had divined the place of the new Society in the connec- tional sisterhood, and when the Freedmen's Aid So- ciety and the General Missionary Society had each in turn seemed destined to absorb it into these already existing organizations, her obstinate resistance to what she clearly perceived to be a mistaken policy saved the day and rescued the Society from the thraldom which threatened it. 298 Twenty Years' History In the autumn of the same year after the death of Mrs. Davis, 1893, Mrs. CHnton B. Fisk was elected President. No name in American Methodism has been more highly honored or more universally beloved than that of the distinguished layman, General Clinton B. Fisk. Always "the friend of God's poor," he believed en- tirely in the mission of the Woman's Home Mis- sionary Society. Whether when called at times of perplexity into its inner councils, he gave of the strong meat of his ripened wisdom, or when before the public with his matchless eloquence and contagious enthu- siasm at its service, he was ever one of its best friends and ablest defenders. In 1890 the good General died. Almost his last public work, in company with his wife, was in behalf of the Woman's Home Missionary Society. His de- voted companion, though shaken as a reed by the wind, did not sink beneath her loss, but "strong in the strength which God supplies" went bravely forth to perpetuate his philanthropies and to do her share of his unfinished work. When, in October, 1893, at the Annual Meeting at Toledo, O., the Woman's Home Missionary Society found itself again without a head, it was Mrs. Clinton B. Fisk who was selected to be its standard-bearer. Surely the choice was guided by the unerring finger of a wise Providence. A repre- Conclusion 299 sentative woman of the East, as her predecessors had been of the Middle West, and widel}^ known in the Church, Mrs. Fisk has proved to be a tower of strength to the Society. Staunch and true, and characterized by marked individuahty, she is not a mere reflection of her distinguished husband. Her administration of the office to which she has been called, and the beauty of her personal character, lend additional luster to the name she bears. Abundant in resources, of ready wit, an indefatigable worker, and endowed with an in- domitable perseverance, and yet withal devout and tender, the Society has had no more acceptable and efficient President. The years of her incumbency have been years of increase. But no personality has been such a potential factor in the history of the Woman's Home Misionary So- ciety as that of Mrs. Elizabeth L. Rust. A wonderful life — it runs like a thread of gold through almost twenty years of the Society's existence. As it was her hand which largely guided in the plastic begin- nings of the organization, so her views continued to shape its policy, her voice to direct in its councils. She loved it as she loved her life. For three years she fought with grim disease, and held the fell de- stroyer at bay while she still wrought on with tire- less devotion to the cause she held so dear. Then the shadow descended which hid her from mortal eyes. 300 Twenty Years' History On October 3, 1899, the honored first Corresponding Secretary of the Woman's Home Missionary Society, Mrs. Elizabeth Lownes Rust, passed into the unseen Hfe. Her works do follow her. The royal proclamation, "The king is dead; long live the king!" condenses into an aphorism the na- tural sequence of human events. The workers die ; the work goes on. We fill the gaping grave with the fragrant flowers of memory, then turn to the living to weave fresh chaplets for the brow of the coming conqueror. The chariot that bears away our Elijah sweeps by, and some startled Elisha is already adjust- ing the mantle which the Hand of Destiny has flung upon his shoulders. It is God's plan. Let us rejoice that an Elisha is always provided for the hour of need. At the eighteenth Annual Meeting, held at Pitts- burg, Pa., October, 1899, two weeks after Mrs. Rust's departure, the vacant place was filled by the election of Mrs. Delia Lathrop Williams, of Delaware, O. On the same day, Mrs. George H. Thompson, of Cincin- nati, O., was chosen to succeed Mrs. Williams as General Treasurer. Both Mrs. Williams and Mrs. Thompson have been for many years active workers in the Society. The latter was made a member of the Board of Trustees in 1889, and has filled many offices of trust. Her work as General Treasurer has been beyond praise. Conclusion 301 Mrs. Williams, although not a charter member, may well be ranked among *'the founders." She it was who led the opening devotions of the first Annual Meeting. It was she who went with Mrs. Rust to visit distant Conferences in the early days when the audiences that greeted them often looked coldly on the new organization as an unwelcome innovation, and her clear reasoning and skillful putting of the case many times helped to win for it a favorable hear- ing. Through all these years her work for the So- ciety has been of incalculable value. A woman of brains and culture, of breadth and sweetness, progess- ive and yet careful, an all-round, symmetrical Chris- tian character, God has given to the Woman's Home Missionary Society in its second Corresponding Sec- retary one in every way worthy to wear the mantle of the lamented leader, Mrs. E. L. Rust. The historian finds a little rill among the far-away mountain ferns, follows it down through valley and plain, and sees it broaden into a great river. It cuts through barriers and sweeps away obstacles, and, gathering force and volume as it advances, behold ! it bears upon its bosom the freightage of the years — rich argosies of noble deeds and grand enterprises. Before it lies the dim ocean of futurity, and beyond, the infinite ages of God. 1 1012 01233 7749 DATE DUE — ^. iffln4--< JUJITJ- '^ h) '■> '1 ■? . ^ . CAYLORO rHINTCOINU.S.A. I I! iii! Ililli II 1 iiiillill iiiiliil -Hi! ^ilill! I! iii :iiiil Jllif iliiliili I