Catherine Bonney

Following her husband's death, she traveled to Peking under the Woman's Union Missionary Society and founded a second school; this trip marked the first time that women were sent to the mission field alone.

[citation needed] Source:[3] In August 1856, the Bonneys embarked on a journey to Canton under the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM).

The couple was affected by the turmoil of the Second Opium War shortly after their arrival in Canton, as Chinese antagonism toward foreigners was intense.

As she recounts in her text, Bonney's school accepted impoverished children and provided them with resources including food and clothing.

In January 1869, she decided to return to China and was involved in the opening of a boarding school for girls in Peking.

[11] In 1870, she also was responsible for spearheading the Eurasian School, which existed in other regions and was in demand in Shanghai; she gathered the necessary funds through donation and created an institution that supported "twelve boarders and twenty day scholars.

The first volume describes events from the Revolutionary War through the completion of the Erie Canal (1817) and includes various correspondences between members of the Van Rensselaer family and other influential political figures.