To honor the example of a beloved cousin who had died in mission work in China, Anna Seward decided to travel there as a Presbyterian missionary and settled in Huang Xian, Shandong province in North China, where she met Cicero Washington Pruitt.
They married on February 16, 1888, and had five children: Ida (1888–1985), John (1890–1912), Ashley (1892–1898), Virginia (died in infancy, 1894), Robert (1897–1961), and Dudley McConnell "Mac" (1902–1967).
The death of Ashley and Virginia inspired Southern Baptists to send money to start a hospital in Huang Xian.
Ida Pruitt was one of the few Westerners that remained influential in Chinese aid and development throughout much of the century even after the communist take over.
retired in 1936, they returned to the United States and settled in Atlanta where he became the dean of the Baptist Foreign Missions of North America.