PAM. 
 i. AKER. 
 
 FRIENDS MISSION 
 
 ^ * - I ^ • 
 
 IN 
 
 MEXICO 
 
 State of Tamaulipas 
 
 ISSUED BY 
 
 AMERICAN FRIENDS BOARD OF FOREIGN MISSIONS 
 RICHMOND, INDIANA 
 1912 
 
HISTORIC SKETCH OF FRIENDS* MISSION WORK 
 IN MEXICO, STATE OF TAMAULIPAS 
 
 P>y Mahalah Jay 
 
 In 1870 or even earlier the Lord laid it on the heart of 
 one of his children, Samnel A. Purdie, of New York State, 
 a Friend from his birth, that some day he would be called 
 into the service of his Master among Spanish speaking peo¬ 
 ple. So thorough was this conviction that he began the 
 study of Spanish to prepare himself for this work while 
 pursuing his vocation of school teacher in North Carolina. 
 Allen Jay says: “Driving up to the school house at Back 
 Creek one day at the noon recess, I found him out in the 
 woods, sitting on an old log with a big Spanish miner sit¬ 
 ting by his side, engaged in studying the Spanish language. 
 When I came up he said: ‘Excuse me, for I must obtain a 
 knowledge of Spanish,’ and in a serious manner, added: 
 ‘Some day the Lord will open the way for me to use this 
 knowledge to his glory.’ ” He was married to Gulielma 
 ]M. Hoover, of North Carolina, then but a girl. She was 
 in sympathy with his thought and hearing of a foreign mis¬ 
 sionary organization among Friends of Indiana Yearly 
 IMeeting, they applied to it to be sent as missionaries to 
 IMexico. 
 
 This organization was a voluntary association of some 
 Friends of Indiana Yearly Meeting who joined together in 
 1868 with a two-fold object, stated thus: “First, to present 
 to those who may feel called upon to go abroad among 
 heathen nations in the love of the Gospel, an organization 
 that can aid, counsel and advise; second, to be a channel 
 for the gifts of the willing hearted in this direction and thus 
 provide means for the necessary expense of those men and 
 women who shall enter upon this service.” From the be¬ 
 ginning this organization had kept in touch by correspond¬ 
 ence with Louis and Sarah Street, American missionaries 
 
in Madagascar, sent out by Englisli Friends, and I)y this 
 same organization Elkanah and Irena Beard had been rec¬ 
 ommended in 1868 to English Friends for service in India. 
 Samuel A. and Gulielma M. Purdie were accepted and sent 
 out by the private organization to Matamoros, Mexico, 
 near the mouth of the Rio Grande, in November, 1871, the 
 first American missionaries sent to a foreign land by 
 Friends in America. 
 
 Mexico was then in its transition state, the government 
 unsettled and society in a state of frequent upheavals, torn 
 by contending political factions. In all the large State of 
 Tamaulipas, of which H. Matamoros was then the capital, 
 there were no missionaries located; in fact, Protestant mis¬ 
 sionaries had not gotten a foothold in many places any¬ 
 where in this semi-idolatrous priest-ridden country, our 
 neighbor adjoining us on the southwest. 
 
 Samuel A. Purdie, holding peace principles from con¬ 
 viction, and strengthened in them by what he had seen in 
 the Civil war, from which we had so lately emerged, and 
 seeing that Mexico so needed the Gospel of Jesus Christ, 
 the Gospel of peace, before going there had felt that the 
 publishing of a paper advocating peace principles was a part 
 of his work. He had even written down the name of his 
 paper, “El Ramo de Olivo,” The Olive Branch, while yet in 
 North Carolina. He made arrangements in such way as 
 he could for this and by the next September (1872) got out 
 on a hand press the first number of his paper, a monthly 
 which has continued to be published ever since, the oldest 
 missionary periodical of Protestants in Mexico. 
 
 They obtained help in the study of the language in part 
 by getting some little girls to come to their home, which 
 girls Gulielma Purdie taught in the elements of school¬ 
 learning as well as giving them Bible teaching. From this 
 small beginning a missionary girls’ school has been kept up 
 nearly continuously ever since, and Christian schools have 
 l)ecome a great factor in Friends’ missionary work. 
 
 2 
 
As the little school in his house advanced his attention 
 was an ested by the character of the school books, inferior 
 to those in nse in the United States, and teaching- in their 
 reading lessons the tenets of Roman Catholicism, the wor- 
 
 Samuel Purdie 
 
 ship of saints, etc. Me |)rc])ared tc.xt-books in Spanish for 
 schools, superior as school l)ooks to those in nse and con¬ 
 taining- paragra])hs and reading- lessons either taken from 
 llie Ibble or gi\'ing- correct moral aitd religious thonght from 
 
a Protestant standpoint. These lessons were quietly in¬ 
 serted and g'ave no offence and soon his books were in de¬ 
 mand in the city schools and some of them were made the 
 authorized school books for the State, a great point gained 
 in getting before the children in this unobtrusive way cor¬ 
 rect elementary Christian principles. While engaged in 
 this work Samuel A. Purdie was ever alert for opportuni¬ 
 ties to preach the Gospel, though it was necessary for some 
 time to do so through an interpreter. Even in spite of pro¬ 
 nounced Catholic opposition there were some interested 
 hearers who later accepted the teachings of Protestantism 
 and became regular attenders of the preaching services in 
 the mission home. 
 
 In 1873 Micajah M. P)inford, of Carthage, Tnd., and his 
 wife, Susie R., were sent to the assistance of Samuel and 
 Gulielma Purdie. They proved efficient workers and soon 
 he had acquired sufficient Spanish to take a part in religious 
 meetings and Bible work, but his wife’s health failing, 
 they returned home after a stay of about one and a half 
 years. While he was there, in the summer of 1874, S. A. 
 Purdie and he organized the first Friends’ church or meet¬ 
 ing, with 14 members. Their report the next year shows 
 29 church members. After three years of successful work 
 under this private organization, the Mission had become 
 so well established and the requirements f(M' its support so 
 great that its friends reported the work they had accom¬ 
 plished and offered it to the yearly meeting. The meeting 
 accepted it as its work and placed it under the care of a 
 committee, being the first association of an American yearly 
 meeting organized to carry on mission work in a foreign 
 country. 
 
 After the return north of the Binfords the Purdies 
 worked for years alone as to northern helpers, but native 
 church members were developing and coming forward in 
 the work. Early among these to evidence a gift in the min¬ 
 istry was a talented and educated young man of Indian 
 
 4 
 
descent, by name r.iiciaim IVrascofro. TTe assisted effi¬ 
 ciently in the preaching service and in making visits to other 
 villages and ranches. In 1878 he was recorded a minister of 
 the Gospel by the church there and by the missionary com¬ 
 mittee. d'hrough the 34 years since then he has been con¬ 
 nected with the mission work almost continuously, serving 
 in many capacities. At present he is in the mission at 
 Matchuala, serving as managing editor of “El Ramo de 
 Olivo,” the mission paper. 
 
 Among these early members was a young woman by 
 the name of Angelita Aguilas. She was a lovely character, 
 a devout Catholic when S. A. Purdie first got acquainted 
 with her, but when she heard the pure Gospel teaching she 
 was con^'inced, connected herself with the mission church, 
 and was just as conscientious and devout to her new¬ 
 found faith as she had been before to Roman Catholicism 
 She was afterward Luciano Mascorro’s first wife and died 
 early. S. A. Purdie later published in a book of 160 pages 
 the impressive story of her life. 
 
 Francisco Pena and Julio Gonzalez Gea, who from al¬ 
 most the first had been drawn to the Protestant teachings 
 and thoroughly converted, had so developed in the ministry 
 as to he recorded ministers in 1880. In 1878 a lot for a 
 meeting house in Matamoros was purchased and a substan¬ 
 tial brick building put ui)on it, which, after being completed 
 and furnished, was dedicated on May 16, 1880, about 350 
 ])ersons attending this open meeting. This house had been 
 finished with belfry, bell, lamps, seats and the lot about 
 it fenced, at a cost of $4,000, and all had been paid. One 
 peculiarity of this meeting house indicating the s]>irit of 
 the place in those early times, was that the windows were 
 covered outside with heavy iron grating for the protection 
 of those within. Catholic opposition was wont to manifest 
 itself in hurling bricks and stones through the windows at 
 those attending Protestant service, intimidating and at 
 times injuring tltetu. In August of this year occurred a 
 
 5 
 
terrible hurricane, the worst of five they had had. The 
 meeting- house sustained injury from this, but not serious. 
 For 32 years services have been held in this house and its 
 influence has been far reaching-. 
 
 In the seventh month of this year, 1880, William A. 
 Walls, a Friend from Canada, joined the mission. Flis ex¬ 
 penses were defrayed for a while by Ohio I'riends. In 1883 
 he took charge of the boys’ school at Matamoros. That 
 year the school numbered 36, there being room for no more. 
 This school continued successful for a number of years, 
 while his health permitted him to teach. For twelve years 
 he was a faithful assistant, often exposing himself to hard¬ 
 ships and dangers in the work, but having his reward in 
 being the instrument in turning many to the Lord. He 
 labored in several different out stations as the needs of the 
 mission demanded, especially in Escandon and Gomez 
 Farias, and taking S. A. Purdie’s place at Matamoros when 
 he was called away from the city. As a preacher, and espe¬ 
 cially as a teacher of boys’ schools in different places, he 
 was very useful and successful. He married a Mexican 
 woman and reared a family, but his health giving way till 
 he could no longer teach, he accepted employment as a 
 colporter for the American Bible Society in 1892, and has 
 since died in that service. 
 
 In the southern part of the State of Tamaulipas, some 230 
 miles south of Matamoros. an Indian village, by name Go¬ 
 mez Farias, had been visited by S. A. Purdie and other work¬ 
 ers and the people were deeply interested in their teaching. 
 This village is a single street on the top of a narrow ridge 
 of the Sierra Madre Mountains, the houses often having 
 their dirt floors sloping down the mountain side. No 
 wheeled vehicles can pass through the gates of the village 
 and when in 1885 mission carriage, with its visiting 
 party, made the tour of the stations, the natives ])roudly cut 
 a road through the unbroken thicket for it as far up the 
 mountain as it was possible to go, and then driving to one 
 
 6 
 
side. It was left in the opening and the party, inchiding (du- 
 lielma I’urdie and Alahalah Jay, mounted on horses or 
 burros, continued the ascent to the village on top, the first 
 American women to visit the village. Work was opened 
 up in this village in 1880 with Luciano and Angelita Agui- 
 larde Mascorro in charge and a meeting of 19 members or¬ 
 ganized there. Luciano Mascorro and his wife were sta¬ 
 tioned there for some time, but her health declining, they 
 moved away, and Encarnacion Gonzalez and his wife, San¬ 
 tos, were stationed there for years. They were good work¬ 
 ers—had been transferred to Friends from the Presbyteri¬ 
 ans. The church at Gomez Farias reached 40 members in 
 1881 and in 1882 a monthly meeting was organized. The 
 same year two Friends of Minneapolis, Minn., Richard J. 
 and Abbie G. Mendenhall, gave the money necessary to 
 build a chapel of native construction in this village, pro¬ 
 viding also a good bell, so necessary where there were few 
 or no time pieces. They afterwards gave money to build 
 a school house also. 
 
 Through the years since then this church has continued, 
 under the charge of native workers. For some years the 
 aged minister, Julio Gonzalez Gea, now over 80 years old, 
 has been in charge. A mission school has also been main¬ 
 tained most of the time. The year 1912 has brought to this 
 village much of trouble and persecution on account of the 
 revolution, many of the Friends having been imprisoned 
 and carried away because they did not join the revolu¬ 
 tionists. 
 
 In 1882 Louis Street visited the missionary stations 
 along with Luciano Mascorro. While at Gomez Farias they 
 were urged to visit Santa Barbara or Ocampo, but for lack 
 of time did not do so. In the winter of 1886 the travelling 
 mission party crossed the higher ridge beyond which 
 Ocampo was located, making the trip and return, 100 miles, 
 both men and women, on horse or burro back. In 1885 a 
 meeting had been begun here which had from 100 to 300 
 
 7 
 
attenders. For many years this Meeting' was kept up with, 
 varying success, but at present there is no regular preaching 
 or teaching there. 
 
 Two other native workers were recognized as ministers, 
 and three meetings and Bible schools opened south of Mata- 
 moros in i88i. Librado Ramirez, also coming from the 
 Presbyterians, attached himself as a worker to the mission 
 and was stationed, in 1883, at Soto La Marina, a seaport on 
 the gulf, 250 miles south of Matamoros. This station, 
 though at first thought very promising, did not prove so. 
 Owing to business failures and the turbulence of the people, 
 it was, after a few years, entirely abandoned. In 1885 meet¬ 
 ings were also begun in Neuvo Moreles, Antiguo Moreles, 
 Quintero and Escandon. A prominent station of the early 
 days was San Fernando, managed chiefly by native workers. 
 In 1884 New York Yearly Meeting was bearing the ex¬ 
 penses of this station. For many years it has been the 
 home of Gertrudis G. G. de Urestii, who has kept up a 
 day school and Sabbath school there, also serving as min¬ 
 ister. 
 
 In the meantime in 1880 Gulielma Purdie and infant 
 son, Joseph Moore, had left Matamoros for home, taking 
 with them a little Mexican girl to care for the baby. Later 
 in the year S. A. Purdie joined his wife, on the first fur¬ 
 lough they had had. On their return to Mexico in 1881 
 the Mexican girl, Juanita Garza, though then known as 
 Jennie E. Purdie, was left in the north for schooling. She 
 was a member of Mahalah Jay’s family for the greater part 
 of five years, finally returning to Matamoros as a mission 
 teacher. ' 
 
 In this year, 1883, our venerable friend, Isaac Sharp, 
 from England, visited the Mexican missions, much to the 
 strengthening and encouragement of the workers. 
 
 For the first 12 years S. A. Purdie and wife had been 
 almost the only northern missionaries and had held the 
 whole management of the various lines of work in their 
 
 8 
 
liancls. ljut as the mission Increased new workers cahle to 
 the field and the different departments of work became 
 more distinctly marked and we shall best discuss each un¬ 
 der its own head. 
 
 Administration 
 
 Matamoros was the capital of the State of Tamaulipas 
 when Friends’ missionary work was first established there. 
 Afterward the more central city of Victoria was made the 
 State capital. The decline of business at Matamoros 
 caused many removals from that city for purely business 
 reasons. Many members of the church moved elsewhere 
 and as it was no longer so desirable a place as it first was 
 for the headquarters of the mission, in 1887 Samuel A. 
 Purdie, the general superintendent, moved his family to 
 Victoria in the hope in part that that city would prove 
 more healthful for his wife. Its advantage as a center also 
 soon became apparent and in the years between 1890 and 
 1893 he removed the printing office and all its fixtures, as 
 well as his own office, to Victoria, which afterward con¬ 
 tinued to be the residence of the superintendent. Wm. Irv¬ 
 ing Kelsey and Anna T., his wife, lately graduated from 
 Earlham College, offered and were accepted for work in 
 Mexico and went to Victoria in 1893. It was understood 
 that Anna Kelsey would have care of the Victoria Girls’ 
 School of New York Friends. W. I. Kelsey assisted S. A. 
 Purdie, making himself acquainted with the whole field of 
 his work. In May, 1895, S. A. Purdie and family left Mex¬ 
 ico for rest and to visit their friends, from whom they had 
 been long separated. He placed all the details of his work 
 as superintendent in the care of W. I. Kelsey before leaving 
 Mexico, though not then anticipating that he was taking a 
 final leave, as afterwards proved. He had long desired to 
 visit and have some fruit in Central America, and, find- 
 ing opportunity for this, he was released by the Mexican 
 Mission Board from obligations to it, after being superin- 
 
 9 
 
tendent of Mexican mission work of Indiana Yearly Afeet- 
 ing for 24 years, lie went to San Sahador and again took 
 up his beloved missionary publishing. While in the act of 
 binding a book he slightly wounded his hand. This was 
 sufficient in that tropical country to induce tetanus (lock 
 jaw), from which he soon died, August 6, 1897. “Others 
 may have been just as devoted, may have done a greater 
 work, but none has been more loyal, none possessed a truer 
 missionary spirit.” W. I. Kelsey continued as superintend¬ 
 ent of the mission till 1900, when he took a vacation of three 
 years, wdiich he spent mostly in Chicago University. In 
 1903 he and his Avife again entered the work for a five 
 years’ term of service, but before their engagement was 
 quite out they asked release in order to look after the edu¬ 
 cation of their children. lie had then been the successful 
 superintendent of the many branches of work for 12 years, 
 including his furlough. Upon his final departure from Vic¬ 
 toria the superintendent’s work was divided betAveen George 
 C. Levering, as head of the evangelistic and church work, 
 and R. Solomon Tice as business manager, their other Avttrk 
 continuing as before. 
 
 Since Geo. C. Levering AvithdreAv from the mission Solo¬ 
 mon Tice has been the general manager of Victoria and the 
 southern field, Avhile Alatamoros, difficult of access from 
 Victoria, has been in charge of its resident missionaries, 
 who are directly responsible to the home board. 
 
 From the first Friends’ missions in Mexico have had 
 three well defined departments of work—the educational, 
 the publishing and the CA^angelistic departments. 
 
 Educational Department 
 
 The girls’ school in Alatamoros,. begun, as already men¬ 
 tioned, on a A^ery small scale, increased in attendance and 
 with some intermissions Avas taught, after Airs. Purdie 
 found herself fully occupied Avith other cares, by native 
 
 10 
 
I>Iai> of Eastern Mexico:— moxnitain ranges occiipy 
 souMiwestern Tamanli[)as and southern Nuevo Leon, extending from 
 between Monterey and Saltillo, nearly to Tampico; six, seven and 
 eight are in valleys between mountain ranges. The most important 
 cities are: 1 Matamoros; 3 Brownsville, Texas; 24 Laredo, Texas; 
 IR Monterep; 15 Saltillo; 17 Matehuala; 23 San Luis Potosi; 14 Tam¬ 
 pico; 5 Victoria; 7 Tula. Friends principal mission stations are; 
 l^Mataimros; 5 Victoria, and 17 Matehuala. Out-stations are: 3 Saai 
 Fernanilo; 4 Guamas; R Palmillas; 8 Oconipo; 1) Gomez Farias; 
 10 Llera; 12 Quintero; 13 Nuevo Morales; 18 Cedral; 20 Potrero; 
 20 Catorce; 22 La Pas. Otlau' points indicated are: 11 Xicotencal; 
 19 Vauegas June. 
 
teachers. One quite well educated and Protestant family 
 by the name of Flores was especially helpful to the mission. 
 Two of the daughters taught some part of their time in 
 the school and two others helped in the printing office. 
 Luisa Flores taught in the girls’ school for nine years, sup¬ 
 ported the latter part of the time by the Woman’s Foreign 
 Missionary Association of Indiana Yearly Meeting. She 
 was then married to the minister, Luciano Mascorro. As 
 his wife she engaged as Bible reader for the mission and 
 when his duties called him elsewhere she in each station 
 to which he was sent was his ever faithful helper till she 
 was removed by death. 
 
 In the home-land a new factor in foreign mission work 
 has sprung up, the WMmen’s Foreign Missionary Associa¬ 
 tions of the various yearly meetings. That of Indiana 
 Yearly Meeting, organized in 1883, had supported Luisa 
 h'lores during several of the last years of her teaching. In 
 1883 Julia L. Ballinger, of North Carolina, was sent to 
 Matamoros by the YTman’s Foreign Missionary Associa¬ 
 tion of Philadelphia Friends to be principal of the girls’ 
 school. Julia Ballinger proved to be a most thorough and 
 competent principal of this school, continuing in the service 
 of the mission nearly twelve years, including about two 
 years of absence on furloughs. In 1884 Ora Osborn and 
 Lillie A. Neiger, of Danville, Ind., wer esent to the Mata- 
 mc:>ros mission by the Yeoman’s Foreign Missionary Society 
 of WTstern Yearly Meeting to learn the language and the 
 methods of missionary work prior to being stationed else¬ 
 where. ddiey remained in Matamoros longer than at first 
 anticipated, teaching part of the time in the girls’ school 
 with Julia Ballinger. Mission woi'k was opened in the City 
 of Mexico by Western Yearly Meeting early in 188b, under 
 I'ranklin and Sarah j. King, and Ora Osborn and Lillie 
 Neiger were sent with them. 
 
Hussey Institute 
 
 The gift of $3,100 towards a building for a girls’ school 
 in Matamoros from Curtis G. Hussey, of Pittsburgh, Pa , 
 was a great encouragement to the cause of education in the 
 mission. This gift was supplemented later by his bequest 
 of $5,000, less the State inheritance tax of five per cent., 
 for the support of the school Avhich bears his name, Hussey 
 Institute. ( We may mention here that the mission at Mat- 
 huala was remembered in his will with an equal bequest.) 
 In 1885 the $3,100 given for the house was put into a sub¬ 
 stantial brick house of six rooms, which faces east upon a 
 public park or plaza, on the other side of which stands the 
 mission church. The two ells of Hussey Institute enclose 
 a “patio,” or open space, paved with brick around the large 
 cistern, for rain water is their best drinking water. These 
 ells have since been extended to provide more rooms. The 
 kitchen and dining room are in a frame building at the 
 other end of the lot. The girls’ school, of which Julia L. 
 Pallinger was principal, was moved into these quarters that 
 fall and the Woman’s Foreign Missionary Association of 
 Puliana Yearly Meeting became responsible for the sup¬ 
 port and management of the school. Mrs. Laura A. Win¬ 
 ston, of North Carolina, a widowed sister of Julia L. Pal¬ 
 linger, was engaged as first matron and Jualita E. Garza 
 (Jennie F. Ihirdie) returned to her native land to be a 
 teacher in this school. Here she remained eight years and 
 was a faithful and successful teacher, having both the Eng¬ 
 lish and S])anish languages at her command and understand¬ 
 ing the genius of her people. The last year she was prin¬ 
 cipal of the school. During these eight years she was al¬ 
 lowed a furlough of one year, which she si)ent in school at 
 .Ann Arbor, Mich., again in the home of Eli and Mahalah 
 Jay. At the close of the eight years she was married to an 
 American gentleman, Ralph S. Garwood, a graduate of 
 Michigan University, and then sui)erintendent of schools at 
 
Marshall, IMich. He now holds a government position as 
 one of the superintendents of schools in Porto Rico. 
 
 The boarding department of Ilnssey Institnte was duly 
 opened January 7, t886, making- a home at once for the 
 teachers and twelve girls, by far the larger part of the 
 more than 100 pupils being day scholars. This building, 
 with the additions made since, will now accommodate only 
 about 30 girls and the officers of the school, whereas the 
 enrollment of the school reaches some years 180 or more. 
 The lot adjoining Hussey Institute on the north was later 
 purchased by the Woman’s Foreign Missionary Association 
 and in 1892 they sent Eli and Mahalah Jay to build a school 
 house there and look into the needs of Tdussey Institute. 
 They found on the lot ])urchased a substantial brick ware¬ 
 house, without floors or closed windows. They decided that 
 better accommodations could be provided with the funds on 
 hand by remodeling this building than by tearing it down 
 and building anew. To the original building. 60 feet long, 
 15 feet were added, providing ample and good accommoda¬ 
 tions for the large school. The building was named Rich- 
 mond Hall. This left Hussey Institute entirely for a board¬ 
 ing and training home for girls. Much of the work of the 
 home is done bv the girls who are trained in all the branches 
 of domestic science. 8ome of the girls remain five or six- 
 years in the Institute but more for a shorter time and a few 
 for only one term. Though the roll has not been thor¬ 
 oughly kept, yet it is known that considerably more than 
 1,000 different pupils have entered this school in the 27 
 years since the building of Hussey Institute, of course not 
 all of them in the boarding de])artment. With a Rible les¬ 
 son taught in the school every day and a course of study 
 sufficient for all State recpurements of school-teachers, 
 many Mexican girls have here received their first taste of 
 a better life spiritually as well as in education, and have 
 been fitted for teachers and gone out into the schools of 
 the State; others, with their excellent domestic training. 
 
 14 
 
are prepared to elevate and Cliristianize the lionie life of 
 their people. Gen. O. C). Howard, that most i)hiIanthropic 
 of army officers, when on a visit to Alatamoros in 1892, 
 where he was received with military honors, passing by, 
 saw the buildings, inquired what they were, and on being 
 informed, asked the privilege of coming in to visit the 
 school. He was pleased and addressed the school children, 
 who heard him with polite attention and were evidently 
 moved by what he said. He remarked after leaving the 
 
 Friends Meeting House, Matamoros 
 
 mission, “That school is the most beautiful thing I have 
 seen in Matamoros. The Spirit was there.” Mexico’s coun¬ 
 try and village life in the states where these schools are 
 show quite an uplift in 27 years, due, no doubt, in a measure 
 to the influence of Christian education. 
 
 Quite a number of American teachers and officers—and 
 these are all missionaries—have been connected with this 
 school. Here, in 1889, Edith Caroline Ballinger, of North 
 Carolina, sister of Julia Ballinger, was employed as teacher. 
 
 15 
 
A gentle, sweet-spirited girl, she remained only about two 
 and a half years connected with the school. She died not 
 many years after. Upon the occasion of the deatli of her 
 mother, early in 1889, Laura A. Winston, matron at Hussey 
 Institute, returned home. She had successfully launched 
 the boarding department and the loss of her gentle and re¬ 
 fining influence was deeply felt. Nancy U. Lee, of New 
 Garden, North Carolina, was secured to succeed her as 
 matron and went to the field in April of that year. She 
 filled the place to good satisfaction for more than five years 
 and was released at her own request in June, 1894, leaving 
 behind her only memories of kindness, self-sacrifice for 
 others, motherliness among the girls she trained, and con¬ 
 scientious and faithful service in many lines in which by 
 the absence of others it fell to her to act. After a year’s 
 •rest she accepted the position of head of Friends’ New York 
 School for Girls in Victoria, Mexico, a place she has filled 
 ever since with rare fidelity and success. 
 
 In the fall of 1892 Jessie Johnson, of Tennessee, a grad¬ 
 uate of Guilford College, N. C., was sent to Matamoros as 
 teacher. She never acquired the Spanish language very 
 fully, but she was industrious and helpful in teaching the 
 English classes. The climate did not agree with her health 
 and she returned home in June, 1894. In 1893 Emma Phil¬ 
 lips, of Fairmount, Ind., entered Hussey Institute, taking 
 the principal’s place as soon as she could use the language 
 sufficiently. A teacher of experience in her home land, en¬ 
 ergetic and consecrated to the work, the school built up 
 under her administration and with the help of faithful 
 teachers the pupils excelled other schools of the city, as 
 also they had done on some prior occasions, in their public 
 examinations. These examinations are not conducted by 
 the teachers, but by public examiners appointed by the city. 
 Emma Phillips continued in the work of the mission till 
 the fall of 1900, when she entered mission work in Cuba. 
 She was from the beginning the head of Wilmington Yearly 
 
 16 
 
Meeting’s mission in Puerto Padre, Cuba. She was mar¬ 
 ried to Francisco Martinez, a Mexican, and since the close 
 of their service in Puerto Padre, Cuba, they have made 
 their home in Mexico. 
 
 In 1895 Lizzie M. Hare, of Carthage, Ind., was sent to 
 assist Emma Phillips, upon whom by the withdrawal of 
 other American missionaries, had devolved the duties of 
 both matron and principal. Miss Hare proved a compe¬ 
 tent matron, a faithful religious worker and a congenial 
 companion to Emma Phillips. And for several years the 
 work prospered under their united instruction and manage¬ 
 ment. Lizzie Llare retired from the field after five years’ 
 service and now lives near her former home and is known 
 as Mrs. Charles F. Binford. 
 
 In 1895, after about 12 years from its beginning, closed 
 the long and faithful service of Julia L. Ballinger. After 
 her absence of a year and a half following her father’s death 
 in 1892, she did not resume the principalship, but took the 
 ‘department of religious instructor in connection with the 
 school and of Bible reader and religious visitor among the 
 church members and in the city generally, for which a term 
 in the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago in 1893 had espe¬ 
 cially prepared her. 
 
 In 1899 Myrtle Davis, of Fairmount, Ind., was sent to 
 Matanioros to be matron of Hussey Institute in place of 
 Lizzie Hare. She was faithful and successful in her man¬ 
 agement, part of the time the double duties of matron and 
 principal were left on her hands. She retired from the field 
 in November, 1902. 
 
 That fall the Board secured the services of Lydia E. 
 Pike, of Fountain City, Ind., to fill the place Myrtle Davis 
 was about to leave. Miss Pike entered the field in Novem¬ 
 ber, 1902, bringing with her large experience as a teacher. 
 She served in the double capacity of matron and principal 
 much of her five years of service here, as others had done 
 before her. She proved an excellent matron, principal, re- 
 
 17 
 
ligioiis instructor and financial manag'd'. In 1903 Leona 
 Longstretli, of Kansas, was sent to Matamoros to assist 
 Miss Pike, who was left with too much on her hands. She 
 served till in June, the end of that school year, to good sat¬ 
 isfaction, but could not be, retained longer. She was mar¬ 
 ried the following' September. Florence O. Macy was sent 
 as matron to Hussey Institute in October, 1905, while Miss 
 Pike was there as principal. After five years of service Miss 
 Pike came home on furlough in 1907, spending much of this 
 year in visiting meetings and other gatherings, speaking in 
 the interest of the Mexican work. Again taking up her 
 long interrupted course at Earlham College, she took the A. 
 1 ). degree in 1908. She returned to Mexico, to Victoria, to 
 teach there in the place of some of the missionaries released 
 on furlough. She was called home by the serious illness of 
 her aged father and nursed him until his death. Her interest 
 remained in Mexico, however, and she had looked forward 
 to returning there when, the night before her father’s burial, 
 she was called peacefully and quietly to her eternal reward 
 and the two were laid away at the same time. She was sin¬ 
 cerely mourned by both the Americans and Mexicans, with 
 whom she had labored, and the mission lost a valuable 
 worker. After Miss Pike left Matamoros Florence Macy 
 discharged the double duties of matron and principal. In 
 1907 Emma Reeder, of Middletown, Inch, entered the work 
 at Matamoros to help Miss Macy. A teacher at home, she 
 was successful in the primary room of the school, but at 
 the end of her first year she was transferred to take a sim¬ 
 ilar ])lace in the new annex of Juarez Institute, Victoria, 
 h'lorence Macy returned home in 1909 after four years of 
 faithful, energetic service, and is living now at Carthage, 
 Ind., as Mrs. Murray Parker. Auretta Thomas, of Fountain 
 City, Inch, was sent to Hussey Institute in 1910 and is at 
 the present time matron of the school. From September, 
 1911, Sarah R. Lindley, on furlough from the school in 
 Matehuala, came to Matamoros and started the school in 
 
 18 
 
the absence of a principal. Lon F. Sclinltz was at Hussey 
 Institute from February, 1911, to the end of the present 
 school year. She will be at Victoria next year as Mrs. 
 Clyde Roberts. 
 
 Penn Institute 
 
 Similar to Hussey Institute in its religious instruction, 
 its domestic training and course of study is Penn Institute, 
 
 Entrance to Friends Meeting House—Penn 
 Institute to the right 
 
 a boarding; and day school for girls at Victoria started by 
 New York Friends in 1888, with Gertrudis G. G. de Uresti 
 and Margaretta M. Marriage in charge. A permanent home 
 was at length purchased for this school adjoining" the Mis¬ 
 sion Home property and under several native principals its 
 work progressed. We have noted that in 1895 Nancy L. 
 Lee, on returning from her furlough, became matron of this 
 school. Here she has been ever since except for furloughs. 
 
 19 
 
Associated with her has been Mary Pickett as principal, 
 from Annapolis, Inch, since This school this 
 
 year, 1911-12, has had about 30 boarders. It is provided 
 now with comfortable quarters for school and home and 
 boarding departments. They have put normal work prom¬ 
 inently forward, and with a satisfactory course of study, 
 have fitted quite a large number of girls for teaching. This 
 school has enrolled about from 70 to 100 pupils annually, 
 and tliis year had 26 boarders. Four Mexican all-day assist¬ 
 ants are employed in addition to some of the highest classes 
 being taught in connection with Juarez Institute. 
 
 Boys’ Schools 
 
 Much stress has been laid upon teaching the girls, but 
 it has long been noted that there is little chance of estab¬ 
 lishing Christian homes if the boys and young men are not 
 also educated in like manner. The Mexican mission has 
 endeavored to supply this need as far as is possible by day 
 schools in practically every station. The need of Christian 
 boarding schools for boys has been strongly urged for many 
 years by those on the ground. As has been men¬ 
 tioned, a boys’ day school was taught for years by Wm. A. 
 Walls and later by Santiago G. Gonzalez, among others, in 
 connection with the mission at Matamoros, supported in 
 part by women Friends of Philadelphia, one at San Fer¬ 
 nando and, in fact, two or three elsewhere, supported by 
 New York Friends; and one at Victoria by Baltimore 
 Friends. During the years from 1890 to 1900 the boys’ 
 school at Matamoros was less prosperous owing to a lack 
 of suitable teachers. In 1900 Francis and Rachel Hockett, 
 from Richmond, Ind., opened a boys’ school in their home 
 and continued it during their term of service. Flussey In¬ 
 stitute, in its primary department, received a number of 
 little boys, from 20 to 60 at a time, that it suited their par¬ 
 ents to send to that school with their sisters or for other 
 
 20 
 
reasons: hut as Hussey Institute was by no means in¬ 
 tended for a mixed school, when these hoys grew older they 
 could not attend there. This overflow of boys needed much 
 a good boys’ school into which to pass and the Hockett 
 school helped to supply this need. 
 
 Misses Lee and Pickett with Graduating Class of li)0i) 
 
 Juarez Institute 
 
 The hoys’ school at Victoria, started in 1887 in charge of 
 Santiago G. Gonzales, as a special work of Baltimore Yearly 
 Meeting, was continued for about fifteen years till in 1903 
 it was merged into Juarez Institute. Friends of Indiana 
 Yearly Meeting in 1901 decided to open a boarding school 
 for boys at Victoria and George C. Levering, of'Maryville, 
 Tenn., was chosen to take charge of it. This school, in¬ 
 tended to mate in advancement Hussey and Penn Institutes 
 for girls, was opened January i, 1903, under the name of 
 Juarez Institute. In addition to work through the grades 
 into high school, its course of instruction included a bib- 
 
 21 
 
lical department and it offered boarding' accommodations 
 for several. The first year its enrollment was 22, four tak¬ 
 ing work in the biblical department. The second year the 
 enrollment was 63, 14 of them boarders, and the numbers 
 have continued to increase up to the full extent of its ca¬ 
 pacity to receive. In 1905 R. Solomon Tice and his wife, 
 Amanda R. Tice, of Aliddletown, Ind., were sent to work 
 in Juarez Institute. Both were teachers of a good experi¬ 
 ence at home and their work has been good in their new 
 positions. Besides their teaching they have charge of the 
 boarding department and Mr. Tice introduced and directed 
 several lines of manual training among the boys, but as the 
 school work increased he was obliged to give up this work 
 largely. The demand for it, however, is great and plans 
 are being made to arrange for its continuance. Juarez In¬ 
 stitute has for its home a building in the same square as 
 Penn Institute but farther down the street and on the other 
 side. Its enrollment for 1911-12 was 70, with as many as 
 31 boarders at one time. Three all-day assistants are em¬ 
 ployed and two boys teach English classes. This year Ju¬ 
 arez Institute and Penn Institute have been legally recog¬ 
 nized by the State so that its graduates may teach in the 
 State schools or enter higher institutions without examina¬ 
 tions. 
 
 In 1907 Emma Reader, the sister of Mrs. Tice, was 
 transferred from the Primary Department at Hussey In¬ 
 stitute, to take charge of an annex at Juarez and Penn In¬ 
 stitutes, which is really a primary department for both boys 
 and girls. The enrollment in this school for the first and 
 second grades has been from 70 to 80. Two Mexican assist¬ 
 ants are employed and as many of the advanced methods 
 of primary work used in this country are introduced as pos¬ 
 sible. This school is housed in the property known as the 
 Mission Home, the former home of S. A. Purdie and W. I. 
 Kelsey, superintendents of the Mexican missions. 
 
 ddie third to sixth grades arc taught separately in Penn 
 
 22 
 
and Juarez Institutes, as the custom of the country requires, 
 but since the idea of co-education has stained sufficient 
 ground the five years of higli school work of the two schools 
 are taught together, with g(xKl results and economy of 
 teaching force. Following the coming away on furlough of 
 G. C. Levering and wife in 1909, Lydia F. Pike was sent to 
 teach in this joint work and since her death, the other mis¬ 
 sionaries have continued the same plan. The first gradu- 
 
 Jaurez Institute 
 
 ate of the biblical de])artmcnt, Genaro Ruiz, gave himself 
 as far as he had time, through his four years’ course, to 
 evangelistic work among the out stations of the mission and 
 now he is a recorded minister and married. I'or S(une time 
 he had charge of the out station of I’almillas, where he 
 ])reached and he and his wife both taught, he a boys’ school 
 and she a girls’ school. At present he has been called hack 
 to Victoria to hel]) in the teaching at Juarez Institute and 
 to ju'each on Saturdays and Sundays at some of the nearby 
 
stations. He is highly respected and his services esteemed, 
 a first fruits of what is hoped from Juarez Institute. 
 
 The educational work of the mission is only partly rep¬ 
 resented by its larger institutions. In nearly all of the many 
 out stations, schools have been organized and the children 
 gathered and taught in connection with the church work. 
 The schools in the out stations have been for boys as fre¬ 
 quently, perhaps, as for girls. 
 
 Publishing Department 
 
 d'he publishing department has been a great factor in 
 sowing gospel seed. It reaches further and touches more 
 people at less cost than any other missionary agency. As 
 was mentioned early in this sketch Samuel A. Purdie’s mind 
 had been turned to this line of work even before he knew 
 certainly there would be an opi)ortunity to go to Mexico and 
 the name of his paper had been chosen, “El Ramo de Olivo,” 
 The Olive Branch. In the summer of 1872 a small Quarto 
 Cottage hand press and seventy-five pounds of type were 
 given to S. .V. Purdie by Anna C. Tatum, of New York, 
 and her two sisters, the first ecpiipment of the Mission Pub¬ 
 lishing Mouse. “El Ramo de Olivo” was at once published 
 aud has continued during the forty years since. Besides its 
 distribution in Mexico, it was the joy of S. A. Purdie that 
 it went to subscribers in every Spanish speaking country 
 in the world, a big record for a Protestant denominational 
 paper. A\dule it has been published in three places, Mata- 
 moros, Victoria and IMatahuala in these years, it is interest¬ 
 ing to note that one of the earliest believers in Mexico, Eu- 
 ciando Mascorro, is at present actively connected with the 
 paper and has been a large ])art of the years. He is at pres¬ 
 ent associated with Raymond S. Molding, the resident 
 Priends’ missionar}' at Matahuala. Next to the issuing of 
 “hd Ramo de Olivo” S. A. Purdie turned his attention to 
 the school books he found in the hands of the children. In 
 regard to these he writes thus in 1885: 
 
"The want of suitable school books for our Mission 
 Schools was apparent so soon as they were established, 
 which was early in 1872. The School Books issued in Mex¬ 
 ico were intensely Catholic, those issued in New York by 
 business farms though less so, all had Catholic forms of 
 prayer, whilst those from Paris were more or less antagonis¬ 
 tic to all religion. 
 
 "We had to begin with A. B. C., although our first book 
 was better adapted to the word method than any book which 
 
 Teachers of Juarez Institute, Penn Institute and the Annex 
 
 Misses Lee and Pickett not in group 
 
 had preceded it. W’e only hoped to supply our own school, 
 and 144 copies were issued. This edition lasted over two 
 years and was mostly circulated gratuitously. Just as it 
 was exhausted, in 1874, Presbyterian and Methodist Mis¬ 
 sions were organized in all parts of the country, and our 
 h'irst Reader \yas called for. I^'rom that time to the present 
 it has gained favor, until about 1,000 co])ies are sold per 
 month in Mexico, Texas, and New Mexico. It has been 
 followed by a complete series of reading books, decidedly 
 evangelical in their teaching, and unexpectedly tc^ us they 
 
 25 
 
have gained favor in many public schools in all parts of 
 Mexico.” 
 
 The printing of these was done in small editions, on 
 hand presses, but all S. A. Pnrdie’s books and tracts were 
 stereotyped, and the orders, never very large at a time, were 
 printed when called for. 
 
 “As early as 1875 the Catholic papers declared our Juve¬ 
 nile Issues to be the most dangerous element they had to 
 encounter and unless they could be counteracted the coming 
 generation would entirely abandon Romanism.” 
 
 S. A. Ihirdie translated and printed many tracts and 
 small books, as an abridgment of the Life of Win. Penn, of 
 Elizabeth Fry, of Stephen Grellet Gurney’s Letter on Chris¬ 
 tianity, also he printed a life of Angelita Aguilar de Mas- 
 corro, prepared by himself. These tracts and books and 
 many others obtained from the American Tract Society 
 were widely distributed, some by mail, more by colporters 
 and by the missionaries and evangelists on their trips to 
 distant villages and ranches. We cannot here give even the 
 titles of all his publications. Purdie's detailed report for a 
 good man}^ years showed over one million pages printed 
 and circulated annually, including his paper. The output, 
 though not so large of late years, is still a large factor in 
 carrying on the work of the mission. Samuel Purdie was a 
 man of very versatile genius, but he was not a printer nor 
 publisher before gping to Mexico; he took up the business 
 because he found it needed. They never had a printer by 
 trade at the mission until in December, 1897, when John S. 
 Turner, of Indiana, and his wife, Luella Moon Turner, were 
 sent tf) the mission. He was a practical printer and was 
 employed especially to take charge of the printing office. 
 His knowledge of the business soon worked great improve¬ 
 ment in this department. His wife is the daughter of Mary 
 Moon Meredith, a minister widely known. Both were in¬ 
 terested in the mission work, but their services were enjoyed 
 by the mission for only a few years. He was engaged in 
 
 26 
 
missionary printing- in Mexico City several years and 
 has recentl}- died. 
 
 One of the more recent publications of Friends’ Afexican 
 Mission J’ress mi«ht be mentioned “The Friends' Discip¬ 
 line,” in Spanish. After Friends in America had mostly 
 ado])ted the uniform discii)line, the American Friends' Board 
 of Foreign Alissions in charge of Friends’ mission work in 
 Cuba and the Foreign Alission Boards of Indiana and \ATst- 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Tice and boys 
 
 ern A'early Aleetings, each having work in Alexico, united 
 to have it translated into Spanish and published. The first 
 draft of the translation was made by Joseph AI. Purdie, son 
 of Samuel A. Purdie. It was then very carefully revised, 
 \V. 1 . Kelsey, being familiar with the practices of the church 
 in the home land, giving special attention to whether the 
 Spanish translation really expressed the true meaning of 
 the English discipline and Luciano Alascan'ro, trained 
 scholar in his own language, looking out f(U- correctness of 
 
 27 
 
the .^i^anlsli expressloiie;. One thonsancl copies were print¬ 
 ed on the mission press at Victoria, which were afterwards 
 bound and circulated. The missionaries speak highly of 
 the benefit that this discipline has been in unifying tilie 
 mission churches in their organization and methods of 
 business and in giving them a uniform and definite state¬ 
 ment of Christian doctrine. 
 
 Evangelistic Department 
 
 Schools and publishing were recognized as but means 
 to the one great end of missionary effort, the bringing of 
 the gospel to the people and thereby bringing the people 
 to Christ. Accordingly great stress has been laid on the 
 preaching of the word and gathering those who would hear 
 into meetings or churches. It wOuld be tedious to mention 
 all the ranches and villages which have become preaching 
 stations. In some of these the work flourished for a time, 
 then from deaths or removals or scarcity of workers the 
 congregation dwindled and that station was bandoned and 
 the labor bestowed on a new place. During S. A. Purdie’s 
 administration six monthly meetings were organized in this 
 State; eight natives had been recognized and recorded as 
 ministers, and a larger number were itinerant evangelists 
 or devoted home workers. Of those earliest recorded min¬ 
 isters three have died in the triumphs of faith, after doing 
 a good and valiant work for their people. Most of the others 
 are still faithful gospel preachers. One of those whose gift 
 as a minister was publicly recognized by the church in 
 1885 was a woman, Gertrudis G. Gonzalez de Uresti, sister 
 of Santiago G. Gonzalez. Talented, educated, highly gifted, 
 eloquent and consecrated to her Master’s service, she has 
 collected meetings and served them as pastor, has gathered 
 schools and taught them in different places, where in the 
 years her husband’s business has taken them, or has fos¬ 
 tered work already established, as Bible reader or as re¬ 
 ligious visitor in Matamoros, as regular preacher in some of 
 
 538 
 
the oilt-stations, or has taken charge of schools where teach¬ 
 ers were lacking and in every way practicable helped to ad¬ 
 vance Christianity among her people. She still lives and 
 labors, having charge of th.e school and church at San Fer¬ 
 nando. In those often shifting communities no very careful 
 registry was kept of church members who moved from 
 place to place, but it was one of the joys of S. A. Purdie’s 
 heart that wherever he found them in after years they re¬ 
 tained their Christianity, working with other Protestant 
 churches where there were no Friends, and almost never 
 lapsing again into Romanism. Not long before he left the 
 field he estimated the church members in his superintend¬ 
 ency, then living, to be about 600, though not all of them 
 were living where they could attend Friends meetings. 
 Some had moved entirely away and no information about 
 them was at hand. Many had in these nearly twenty-five 
 years gone to their eternal home. The number of adher¬ 
 ents not enrolled in the meetings was as large, perhaps, as 
 the number of members. No authoritative statement of 
 the church membership can be given for the present time 
 owing to the continued shifting of residence. There are 
 now seven established meetings and three monthly meet¬ 
 ings in this same territory. 
 
 Pastors 
 
 After S. A. Purdie changed the headquarters of the mis¬ 
 sion to Victoria, Wm. A. Walls was for some time prac¬ 
 tically in charge of the church at Matamoros, together with 
 his work of teaching the boys’ school. Failing health com¬ 
 pelling him to leave Matamoros, several attempts were 
 made to supply the Matamoros meeting with a pastor. 
 When none was on the ground the officers of Hussey In¬ 
 stitute often, assisted by the members of the Christian En¬ 
 deavor Society and by the native Presbyterian minister, kept 
 up the Sabbath school and the church services. In 1894 
 Joseph W. Lamb, of And)oy, Ind., was sent to Matamoros 
 
 29 
 
as a helper, but after one year lie was transferred to Vic¬ 
 toria, where, as occasion demanded, he helped as an evange¬ 
 list, took the place of an absent superintendent, etc. In 
 1897 Geo. D. Weeks and his wife, Sarah, of Iowa Yearly 
 Meeting, were sent to Matamoros, that he might be pastor 
 of the meeting there. He beg'an service well; but before 
 ten months were passd they had to return North on account 
 of the wife’s failing health. In 1900 Francis and Rachel 
 Hockett, of Richmond, Ind., went to Matamoros to supply 
 the place of pastor and assist in other ways as they could. 
 They had to use an interpreter at first in Sabbath school, 
 church and pastoral visiting'. As has been before mentioned, 
 they held a successful boys’ school in their own home, in 
 addition to doing pastoral work. In 1905, after nearly five 
 years of service, they returned home, respected and be¬ 
 loved by those among whom they had labored. Everett E. 
 and Clara E. Morgan, who had been missionaries in Friends’ 
 mission at Matahuala for nine years, and who were at home 
 on furlough, were sent to Matamoros in 1909 to take charge 
 of the church. Their services were well appreciated alike 
 by the natives and their fellow workers. But mortal dis¬ 
 ease had fastened upon the wife, and after a heroic, but un¬ 
 successful struggle with it for more than a year, her spirit 
 passed on from Matamoros to its heavenly home, on the 
 19th of the ninth month, 1909, the first of Friends’ Mexican 
 missionaries—some children not counted—to yield up life 
 on the mission field. Everett Morgan remained in the work 
 until 1911. Since then he has lived in Brownsville, Texas, 
 and has married again. The present prospect is that he will 
 again become the pastor of the Matamoros meeting this 
 coming year. In the meantime Mary L. Ellis, formerly mis¬ 
 sionary to Cuba, was in charge of the church at Matamoros 
 for four months the past year, to its benefit. 
 
 At Victoria there has always been more ministerial help, 
 both of missionaries and of natives. When Samuel Purdie 
 removed to Victoria there w'erc but few Friends there, but 
 
 30 
 
he soon gathered a church around him. In 1893 I- 
 sey and wife were sent there, he to assist S. A. Purdie and 
 she to take charge of New York Yearly Meeting’s school 
 for girls, now Penn Institute. After S. A. Purdie returned 
 North, Mr. Kelsey was in charge of the church at Victoria, 
 and associated with him at different times w^ere Joseph W. 
 Lamb and Geo. C. Levering, and in 1905 R. Solomon Tice 
 was sent to Victoria, and is still there. Last year, Clyde 
 Roberts, of Nebraska, was sent to Victoria, to serve the 
 church as pastor. He preached at first through an inter¬ 
 preter, while learning the language, l)ut is beginning to feel 
 able to use the Spanish himself, lie and his wife (Miss 
 Shultz, wdid was at Matamoros last year) are to lie at Vic¬ 
 toria again this year. Besides the missionaries already men¬ 
 tioned, two of the most prominent and earliest native min¬ 
 isters, Luciano Mascorro and Santiago G. Gonzalez have 
 served that meeting as pastors a large part of the time. The 
 latter had his home in Victoria over tw^enty years and was 
 looked upon much of the time as the regular pastor, as well 
 as the teacher of Baltimore Friends Boys’ School. During 
 the Christmas season of 1910 he passed on to his heavenly 
 home, after a long life of faithful service in the effort to ad¬ 
 vance our Father’s kingdom among his people. He was by 
 nature an eloquent speaker and in his maturity his sermons 
 Avere very impressive. Active in the out-stations near Vic¬ 
 toria, and doing some evangelistic work among cue meeting.s. 
 farther south, should be mentioned Genaro Ruiz, recorded 
 a minister a few years ago, and who was educated 
 for four years in Juarez Institute. Also in the 
 far south at (lomez h'arias until this present re\'olution, 
 Julia Gonzalez (lea, a minister over 80 years of age. has 
 kept school and church together. 'Fhe sister of Santiago G. 
 Gonzalez. (lertrudis G. de Lresti. who keeps up the work 
 at San Fernando, has already been mentioned. It is well 
 to note that the mission churches are taught to help others 
 as well as tliemselves. A new church was needed, at Vic- 
 
loria, and the native church members contril)uted $530.35 
 of its total cost of $2,550.31. This cluirch was dedicated in 
 1903, its construction, as well as numerous changes in the 
 mission properties, having been supervised by Frank and 
 Phariba Stei)hens, of Richmond, I ml. For some time past 
 the Victoria Meeting has contributed $25.00 per month 
 that church services and day schools might be regularly 
 conducted at the out-station of Palmillas. 
 
 Little mention has been made of the Sabbath school 
 work, but it is the general feeling that in the Sabbath 
 schools lies the real hope of the church, and every effort is 
 made to make them successful. The Sabbath school at Vic¬ 
 toria the past year numbered, during the school year, 120, 
 with 14 teachers. 
 
 If one looks back to the minutes of Indiana Yearly Meet¬ 
 ing of 1874 he finds that Friends that year raised $2,693.00 
 for the Mexican work just undertaken. This amount kept 
 increasing until during the years 1880-1893, over $4,000 
 a year were spent on the Mexican mission. Most of the 
 American Warly Meeting's had contributed to this work in 
 some phase and even Friends of London Yearly Meeting 
 sent their donations to it. About this time a new spirit of 
 missions swejit American Friends and many yearly meet¬ 
 ings began missions of their own, often in other countries, 
 until by 1898 only one—P>altiim)re—was contributing to 
 the work under the management of Indiana Yearly Meeting. 
 This natural withdrawal of financial help had its detrimental 
 effect on the mission work. P.y 1898 the total contributed 
 to the Mexican work was less than that given in 1874, 
 when there was but one station. As a result there was a 
 scarcity of workers and a necessary contraction of the work. 
 .Since 1900, however, the tide has been turning again, untiT 
 for several years from $8,000 to $10,000 has been expended 
 in this field in Mexico. During the past year the American 
 Friends Board of Foreign Missions has been endeavoring 
 to raise a sum large enough to materially help three or four 
 
()f the missionary fields. In IVlexici) the hope is to he able 
 proi)erly to equip the ninety acres of land recently pur¬ 
 chased, outside of Victoria, so that industrial training, as 
 well as better accommodations, can be furnished the girls 
 and l)oys of Penn and Juarez Institutes. Already seventy 
 acres have been enclosed by barl)ed wire fence, sixty orange 
 trees planted, besides lemon, plum and grape fruit and a 
 large palm thatched barn built to house the four mules and 
 six cows. One thousand eucalyptus trees have also been 
 donated. This advance step will mean much to the mis¬ 
 sion in many lines. 
 
 At home, two important changes have been made in the 
 administration in the last years. In 1900 Indiana Yearly 
 Meeting ado])ted a “plan for consolidating the foreign mis¬ 
 sion work of the yearly meeting under the control of a single 
 board,” and the Women’s Foreign Mission Association, 
 which had been such a vital force in missions since 188^,, 
 gradually disappeared as an organization from the active 
 executive work of foreign missions and Hussey Institute, 
 under its control since 1886, passed to the now single Board, 
 this Board being practically the Foreign Mission Board of 
 the yearly meeting, with some changes in organization and 
 personnel. 
 
 'bhe American Friends Board of Foreign Missions ait- 
 thorized by the Conference of 1892, organized in 1894, and 
 adopted by the Five \T'ars Meeting in 1902, as its Board of 
 I'oreign Missions, has, through the years, been accpiiring 
 its recognition as a Central Board of all Friends, and in 1907 
 the management of the missions of Indiana Yearly Meeting 
 in the State of Tamaulipas, and of those of W'estern ^T'arly 
 .Meeting' in the State of San Luis Potosi, Mexico, was placed 
 in the hands of this Board, which directs them through a 
 h'ield Committee, composed of representatives from the two 
 yearly meetings. 
 
 For the past ten to twelve years there has been an an¬ 
 nual or yearly meeting of Friends in Mexico, to which each 
 
 ail 
 
of the monthly meetings in the states of Tamaulipas and 
 San Lnis Potosi apj)oint delegates. This organization was 
 authorized and approved by the Boards in charge and has 
 the fnnctions of both a cpnirterly and yearly meeting. 
 With a membership of more than i,ooo members, there is 
 a promising outlook for this JMexican Yearly jMeeting, and 
 the good resulting from this meeting and associating, has 
 been very marked. 
 
 Such are some of the facts in the history of this oldest 
 of mi.ssions belonging to American Friends. Much of fas¬ 
 cinating interest could be told of the dangers in the early 
 days, of the wonderful change of heart that led those men 
 and women to leave the Catholic church, which had been 
 their church for generations, a church in Mexico grafted 
 on to an idolatrous pagan stem and retaining many of the 
 characteristics of the parent stock. It took courage to brave 
 the persecution and stand firm, but one has only to look at 
 Don Julio Gonzalez Gea, one of the early converts, now over 
 eighty years old, and still active for the Alaster, and f^uciano 
 Mascorro and Gertrudis G. de Uresti, both elderly people 
 and still finding their chief joy in the service of the church, 
 to realize that the foundation was well laid and the faith 
 divinely blessed and courage given to “stand fast in the 
 Lord.” IMany interesting narratives could be told of pres¬ 
 ent day experiences that are just as real and will be as long 
 enduring. I’he \ ision of service that came to S. A. Purdie 
 more than forty years ago has been realized by him, and 
 many since, and still (iod calls his workers to the field, that 
 those in Mexico, hungry for the gospel, may be filled and 
 may ackuowdedge the love and care that God gives to each 
 of his children. Surely Mis blessing has rested on this 
 mission. 
 
 :54 
 
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