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 H IRineteen l^ear’s IReview. 
 
 THE WOMAN’S BOARD OF MISSIONS OF THE CUM¬ 
 BERLAND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, 1880-1899. 
 
 By Mrs. J. C. McClurkin, Ex-Corresponding Secretary. 
 
 “What a privilege to have lived during the revival of 
 1300,” a co-worker once said to me, as she reviewed the 
 history of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. “A far 
 greater privilege to have lived and labored eighty years 
 later,” was my answer. Our grandmothers, the mothers, 
 wives and daughters of those great men, who laid the 
 
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foundation of our denomination, did their part faithfully 
 and well, but to the women who have lived and served 
 since 1880 was given the greater privilege of actually carry¬ 
 ing the bread and water of life to those who have never 
 heard the sweet story of Christ’s love. 
 
 One year more of service will mark the close of our 
 second decade, and it is with thanksgiving that we glance 
 at the work of our Woman’s Board of Missions, noting some 
 of the results accomplished through its agency. 
 
 We are not forgetful of the fact that prior to the organi¬ 
 zation of this board, women in different places were con¬ 
 sidering these things, and that several local so- 
 1878-9. cieties had been formed, remitting funds 
 through the Assembly’s Board of Missions, or 
 perhaps in some instances through the American Board. 
 Many of us had friends, members of other denominations 
 who were laboring in the Orient, and when we met in our 
 
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various church gatherings we talked of the work they were 
 doing, and it was thought that what has been done can 
 be done, and that if our sister churches could support 
 representatives abroad, so could we. 
 
 But a plea coming from the Hails, our first missionaries 
 to Japan, for female helpers, was the beginning. Their 
 
 Openings earnest words aroused a deep interest in the 
 Abroad, hearts and consciences of those reading them. 
 The Spirit prompted action and it was with no small 
 degree of confidence and assurance of success that W. J. 
 Darby, D.D., and the ladies of the First Church of Evans¬ 
 ville, Ind., invited a meeting of the women of the entire 
 denomination to convene with the General Assembly in 
 that city in May, 1880, to confer regarding the organization 
 of a Woman’s Board of Foreign Missions, which at the 
 close of the first decade was changed to the Woman’s 
 Board of Missions, including work both home and foreign. 
 
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MISS ELLA GARDNER. 
 Japan. 
 
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 MISS SALLIE ALEXANDER. 
 Japan. 
 
Seventy-five women puesent! Of course their hearts’ 
 desire was accomplished, and those who had a part in the 
 
 services of ^those May days, will never 
 May 27, 1880. forget the precious hours; the inspiring 
 
 words of Mrs. Rhea and Mrs. Sturgis, 
 who having each labored on mission soil, spoke from rich 
 experience. Yes, the Woman’s Board of Foreign Missions 
 was organized, and Evansville, Ind,, decided upon as the 
 most suitable place for headquarters. It is interesting to 
 note that Mrs. A. M. Drennan, the third missionary adopted 
 by this board, was a member of the Committee on Per¬ 
 manent Organization. 
 
 Of the seven women chosen to serve as members of the 
 board, four are still living. One of these, Mrs. Darby, 
 Original has had the joy of continuous service since 
 Members, the organization. Three have heard the 
 Father’s “Well done,’’ and have entered into “the cloud of 
 
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 witnesses.” Later the members of the board were increased 
 to nine, and as our leaders have fallen other names have 
 been substituted, those who form the present board as 
 well as a number who served for a limited term. We would 
 be glad to mention all the faithful women identified with 
 this work at present, and especially those of early years, 
 when such service was not so popular even as it is now. 
 Some have gone to the front, some moved out of the 
 territory, while numbers have reached that better country. 
 Down through the nineteen years we come, and how we 
 would gladly linger in memory over many sacred ex¬ 
 periences, but a review limited to a few hundred words 
 forbids. On that 27th of May, 1880, Mrs. R. B. Ruston con¬ 
 sented to lead us, if the women of the 
 Presidents, church would give her their support; and 
 with faithfulness she served as President 
 for eleven years, resigning when obliged to leave Evans- 
 
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ville. She has since been known to us as President 
 Emeritus. Mrs. W. J. Darby was chosen to fill the vacancy 
 and during the nineteen years of her connection with the 
 work she has left her impress. Surely we hav© been 
 blessed when we recall the fact that our leaders have been 
 able to continue so long with us. 
 
 Mrs. N. A. Lyon, chosen Treasurer at the organization, 
 is now at work in Japan; yet it seems but yesterday since 
 we heard her present her second financial 
 Treasurer, statement at the annual meeting in Bowling 
 Green, Ky., with her characteristic earnest¬ 
 ness and enthusiasm, the total receipts being $2,894.52. 
 Since the close of the third year’s work, the one filling the 
 office of Corresponding Secretary has also acted as guardian 
 of our finances. , 
 
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MISS JENNIE FREELAND. 
 Japan. 
 
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The office of Recording Secretary has been held by five 
 different women, Mrs. A. M. Castlen, the present workman, 
 having continued longest in service. The 
 Secretaries, work of the Corresponding Secretary has 
 been looked after by four women, one hold¬ 
 ing the position two years, another ten; Mrs. Anna For¬ 
 sythe Farr working two years and Miss Hollingsworth, our 
 present Secretary, five years. It is to the reports presented 
 from year to year by these women that we who write 
 history in coming days must refer. How little the average 
 auxiliary member understands of the anxiety, and the labor 
 —physical and mental, which these women must endure. 
 At the close of the second year’s work, it seemed necessary 
 to make a division of labor so that the office of Foreign 
 Secretary was created. Mrs. D. S. Ragon, who by the way 
 was the first Corresponding Secretary, also became the first 
 Foreign Secretary. This position has been held by Mrs. 
 
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J. E. Williamson for the past eight years. To the daily 
 demands of varied and even extensive correspondence, 
 home and foreign, through all the years, these different 
 secretaries have responded with promptness and efficiency. 
 The life of each member of the board is so interwoven 
 with the work that they all form a part of it, and each 
 has had her place and part in lengthening the cords and 
 strengthening the stakes. 
 
 Mrs. Darby cared for our first editorial work as a few 
 pages had been kindly given us by the Assembly’s Board 
 Printers’ in the “Missionary Record.’’ After a few years 
 Ink. it seemed best to combine this with the work 
 of the Corresponding Secretary, which arrangement con¬ 
 tinued until about 1892, when the services of Mrs. A. G. 
 Bergen, of Mattoon, Ill., were secured. She is still in 
 charge of the Woman’s Department of the “Missionary 
 Record.” One of the brightest missionaries we ever sent 
 
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forth was the children’s paper, the “Missionary Banner.” 
 Its life was short but its influence is still felt. It was 
 edited by Mrs. D. M. Harris, who has ever been a staunch 
 friend and helper for woman’s work. The “Monthly Topic” 
 leaflet has had its place, while thousands of leaflets on 
 varied missionary subjects have been sent out since those 
 little messengers of our first year’s existence. 
 
 Auxiliaries, through 18 States. The synodical and pres- 
 Etc. byterial officers have had a large share in 
 the development of the work of this board, for without 
 them and those who bear the heat and burden of the day 
 in auxiliary societies, the sum total would be smaller. 
 
 In each annual report, since 1882, has appeared the name 
 of Miss Julia Leavitt, she and Miss Alice Orr, now Mrs. 
 First J. W. Laughlin, being oUr first repre- 
 
 Missionaries. sentatives to Japan. More than seventeen 
 years’ continuous service makes Miss Leavitt our oldest; 
 
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MISS JULIA LEAVITT. 
 Japan. 
 
 MRS. N. A. LYON. 
 Japan. 
 
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missionary, though other missionaries are older in years. 
 The societies now pledged to our work number 835, with 
 a total membership of 10,412. These are distributed 
 Dependent on our Woman’s Board are our missionaries 
 with their native teachers and Bible women. These con- 
 Home and secrated lives find their daily work among 
 Foreign, all classes in different climes, from the moun¬ 
 tain districts of our own land to our Mexican neighbors, 
 on to the red man’s wife and children, not passing unheeded 
 the Chinese of America as we cross the Pacific to Japan 
 and China. We have been identified with boarding and 
 day schools, Bible training classes, medical and kinder¬ 
 garten work, etc. During these nineteen years, twenty-five 
 different missionaries have been sent out, thirteen to Japan, 
 one to China, four to Mexico, five to the Mountains of 
 North Carolina, one to the Indian Territory, one employed 
 in Chinatown, San Francisco. 
 
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One second to review the work of almost two decades, 
 and to look back at the dollars and cents which have 
 passed through the Woman’s Board these 228 
 Receipts, months. The total receipts are $191,296.38. 
 
 The largest portion has been given by Aux¬ 
 iliary societies, still a large amount came from Young 
 Ladies’ societies. Mission bands, Christian Endeavor and 
 Junior Endeavor societies, with individual gifts. Yes, some 
 came from the mission fields, the missionaries themselves 
 giving of their allowance. 
 
 The list of life members numbers 212. Some are in the 
 harvest field to-day, while others have been called to 
 Life higher’ service. These women pledge their 
 Members, prayers and hearty support along all lines to 
 the Woman’s Board work. As I look back over a few 
 years of service as treasurer, I wish all might see as I 
 §ee, for to me these figures represent not simply paper, 
 
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silver and gold, but heart gifts. We recall loving letters 
 enclosing small amounts; sometimes a few pennies, left by 
 the little one whom the Father had taken to himself; 
 again the earnings of a seamstress. We still have in our 
 possession a little red box, which was found after the owner 
 was not, for Grod had taken her, marked for the Woman’s 
 Board and containing a single gold dollar. Often, very 
 often, it has been a long cherished keepsake. Yet many 
 women have given largely of their abundance, while others 
 have left legacies great and small—they being dead yet 
 speak. Had we thought of God’s great goodness unto us?‘ 
 During all these years not one of our representatives has 
 fallen. A wonderful record. A wonderful blessing! 
 
 Even before our first young ladies set foot on Japanese 
 soil, the wives of our missionaries were planning as our 
 Other helpers, and all along, the co-workers sent out 
 
 Helpers, by our Assembly’s Board have given ready 
 
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and no one excepting thoise who have experienced such 
 service can know of the varied duties to be performed. 
 This “line upon line” work has been greatly blessed and 
 results are not difficult to count. But in giving a “snap 
 shot” of “other helpers,” I cannot forbear mentioning one 
 whom we ought to name “everybody’s helper,” Miss Lula 
 Durham, the Board’s stenographer. As a sweet-spirited, ef¬ 
 ficient, faithful worker, she has few if any equals. The 
 name of Mr. S. B. Sansom, auditor for seventeen years, must 
 have a place in the history of this work, and though limited 
 space forbids the mention of his many excellent qualifica¬ 
 tions, we consider his fund of patience inexhaustible. The 
 fascinating story of the work accomplished on mission 
 fields has been given year after year by those fresh from the 
 front, who speak as eye and ear witnesses. And how de¬ 
 lightful to note the eagerness with which a missionary re¬ 
 turns to her field after a sojourn of a few months in Ameri- 
 
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ca! We heard of ohe Saying that “no queen ever went to 
 her coronation with more joy than I return to my work.” I 
 should overlook an important factor in the advantages of 
 this work, did I fail to mention its influence on the women 
 at home. How our hearts have been enlarged and our vis¬ 
 ion broadened. We have learned our neighbor’s needs, and 
 extended a helping hand. 
 
 Is it any wonder that a work so far-reaching in influence 
 should have enkindled enthusiasm in the hearts of women 
 and stirred into flame every gift of God within her? Think 
 of information diffused, church interests and loyalty quick¬ 
 ened, sympathies deepened, views broadened. They used 
 to fear we would be “very unsystematic” and perhaps 
 not “plan intelligently,” and as to “book-keeping,” well, 
 that was a question. Nevertheless we close these nineteen 
 years with a work as thoroughly organized and systematized 
 as any to be found within denominational walls; but 
 
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through it all, we have many times had to stop looking 
 backward and forward and look up to Him who has been 
 our guide and counselor from the first moment of our 
 ■existence. 
 
 The annual conventions have always been meetings of 
 great spiritual power, and as we look at our yesterdays we 
 thank God anew for this far-reaching work, stretching out 
 Its hands to all classes, leading from darkness to light, 
 and we realize that it is only when the “mists have rolled 
 away” that there will be revealed unto us the fullness of 
 the spiritual growth, the joys unspeakable, the hallelujahs 
 that have arisen to Christ, the world’s Savior, during these 
 years of service. 
 
 Such, briefiy told, are a few of the results of that organi¬ 
 zation which bears the name of the Woman’s Board of Mis¬ 
 sions of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. 
 
 Evansville, Ind. 
 
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