Miss AGNES MORGAN. 
 
 Miss Agnes Morgan was born at Watson, 
 Atchison county, Mo., April 26 , 1868 . Her 
 parents were, in a way, pioneers to the 
 new West, of which Missouri was then a 
 part, as Miss Morgan’s family came direct 
 from Tennessee to Northwest Missouri 
 when she was a little girl, and Mr. Mor¬ 
 gan’s family left Kentucky when he was a 
 t little boy, and went first to Illinois and 
 then to Missouri. 
 
 At the time of her birth, shortly after 
 the Civil war, the country was still new. 
 The year she was born the first railway, 
 the first hotel and church (Cumberland 
 Pres.) were built at what was afterward the 
 town of Watson. So she is a westerner, 
 with pioneer blood and spirit in her veins. 
 
 There had been no preachers or mis¬ 
 sionaries in either family, but most people 
 were religiously inclined those days and 
 all the children in her family were mem¬ 
 bers of the church at an early age. 
 
 A cousin of her mother’s became their 
 
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pastor when she was about eight years old 
 and his wife immediately organized a mis¬ 
 sion band for the children, where she and 
 her sister received their first knowledge 
 of mission work. 
 
 Insensibly the atmosphere this devoted 
 woman made for them, interested them in 
 world wide work for Christ, but Miss Mor¬ 
 gan’s older sister was perhaps conscious 
 very early of a personal interest in church 
 work, judging from her later attitude. As 
 for Miss Morgan, she says she doubts if 
 she ever would have thought of becoming a 
 missionary of her own accord. 
 
 At the ages of thirteen and fifteen, the 
 two sisters entered college at Lincoln Uni¬ 
 versity, Ill., the nearest church school, 
 and here their interest in church work 
 grew somewhat, though not very percep¬ 
 tibly along active lines. Miss Morgan 
 says: “In fact, we were so satisfied with 
 study and so preferred a life of simple 
 pleasures and fixed hours, that we did not 
 even approve of the Y. W. C. A., and could 
 not be induced to join it. Of course, we 
 were younger than most of the students.” 
 
 One of their Professors was Dr. D. M. 
 Harris, well known in the Cumberland 
 Pres, church, and his wife, also well known 
 later as “Cousin Carrie.” She got Miss 
 
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Morgan into primary S. S. work in her 
 second year in college, where as she ex¬ 
 presses it, she was “a babe teaching babes.” 
 
 How the thought of becoming a mis¬ 
 sionary first came to be talked of between 
 the sisters is hazy in Miss Morgan’s mind. 
 Her sister, being the older, had naturally 
 done most of the thinking for the two in 
 matters of importance, and she herself had 
 been content in doing what was planned 
 for her. They took it for granted also that 
 they would both be together, so when her 
 sister proposed that they should be mis¬ 
 sionaries, she never thought of objecting, 
 and in 1884, Mrs. D. M. Harris brought 
 their names before the Women’s Board 
 Convention, and from that time, they were 
 its v wards. 
 
 As the idea of being a missionary be¬ 
 came more and more fixed, and she under¬ 
 stood more of what it involved, she says 
 the 'prospect was not in the least alluring. 
 She liked study and reading, but did not 
 enjoy teaching, though she taught both in 
 public schools and private music pupils, 
 but she much preferred housework. 
 
 She was sorry for people who did not 
 know about the true God and Christ’s 
 teachings, but she was sure she could 
 never, never be a useful teacher, even if 
 
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she should ever learn to use her tongue in 
 a foreign language, which was doubtful, as, 
 like Moses, she had a heavy tongue in her 
 own! 
 
 But her sister wanted to go, and she 
 could teach all right, and if she went, 
 Miss Mprgan must go, too. She was, in 
 a way, an indispensable member of the 
 pair, as her sister was not very strong, so 
 she might be able to do some things that 
 did not require much talking. 
 
 At this point she says: “I was ashamed 
 to say that I really did not want to go, and 
 actually afraid to look at the subject 
 squarely and clearly for fear my courage 
 would fail but I honestly did want to do 
 whatever the Father willed.” Her own 
 prayer was that some hindrance be put in 
 the way of her going if she was not called 
 to the work. She had always felt that in 
 the end, she was sure to like whatever she 
 ought to do. 
 
 In the course of time, it was decided that 
 the sisters should go to Japan in the fall 
 of 1S89. They were young—only twenty- 
 one and twenty-three—and the world was 
 larger then than it is now—much larger! 
 
 Then came another trial. Their mother 
 was seriously ill that summer and the doc¬ 
 tors said she might live for years or might 
 
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be taken suddenly any time. There were 
 two young - brothers, eight and twelve, 
 ought they be left? The mother said noth¬ 
 ing to detain them. She had consented to 
 their going and though they knew it was 
 hard for her, they were a family of few 
 words, especially where their feelings were 
 strongest. Again she prayed to be hin¬ 
 dered if she ought not go. But no hin¬ 
 drance came and they left home in Nov., 
 1889, and reached Japan safely. 
 
 Mrs. Morgan is still alive and Miss Mor¬ 
 gan has been home twice to see her. Her 
 sister's health was not equal to the climate 
 and at the end of her fourth year, she went 
 home to stay, while Miss Morgan was left. 
 
 She, the one whose idea it was to go 
 and who entered into the work with all 
 hope and confidence, was not to continue, 
 and Miss Morgan, the passive, the willing 
 to be hindered, the fearful and doubtful, is 
 still there twenty years later. And she 
 says: “I enjoyed every part of my work 
 from the start, and never thought of giv¬ 
 ing up when my sister had to return, and 
 I firmly believe that I am safe in leaving 
 my path to God, as I did twenty years ago, 
 to lead me where He will, for He knows 
 the future.” 
 
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The Board today has no better mission¬ 
 ary on the field than is Miss Morgan. Her 
 influence, and that of the Wilmina Girls 
 School, of which she is the head, is felt 
 throughout the ‘‘Flowery Kingdom.” 
 
 \ 
 
 Published by the 
 
 WOMAN’S PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF FOREIGN 
 MISSIONS OF THE SOUTHWEST, 
 
 708 Odd Fellows’ Building, 
 
 St. Louis, Mo. 
 
 Price 5 cents per single Sketch. 
 Series of fourteen Sketches. 
 
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