Sophronia Wilson Wagoner

Sophronia Zulema Wilson Wagoner (1834 – February 9, 1929) was a pioneer worker in the missionary field and leader in social work for more than 60 years.

Her first husband, Harry Epply, died soon after their marriage, and she accepted the offer of her brother-in-law and his wife to go live with them in Cincinnati.

She was one of the charter members of the first Auxiliary of the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society, organized west of the Mississippi River.

Many donations to Foreign Missions were made by and through her efforts, and memorials and scholarships in India and Japan bearing her name stood as a glowing tribute to her untiring energy in this field.

Wagoner found great satisfaction in the fact that she saw the Women's Foreign Missionary Society grow from the small organization which numbered about fifteen members to a circle that enlarged and reached every civilized country.

In 1912 more than $75,000 was collected to carry on the work in India, China, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Italy, Africa and other distant countries.

The Des Moines branch, comprising Iowa, Missouri and Arkansas, had forty-seven woman missionaries in various parts of the world, managing schools, colleges, hospitals, where many thousands of girls were educated in industrial and other lines of work, which tended to make them useful homekeepers, teachers and nurses.

There had been no meeting of any importance in this field of endeavor that Wagoner, by her earnest appeals, had not induced and influenced to give liberal support to the cause put before them.

The Central Mission was organized with Mrs. Wilbur Boyle as president; Sophronia Wilson Wagoner as vice-president; Mrs. Elmer Adams as treasurer; Miss Capen as secretary; Mrs. Sue Owens as missionary; Mrs. Andrew Sproule, Mrs. Hodgman, Mrs.

[3] She also acted as first president of the Women's Christian Temperance Union, which was organized in January, 1880, by Elizabeth Greenwood, of Baltimore, for years the national evangelist.

Wagoner was identified with the work of the Woman's Christian Home, located at Fifth and Poplar Streets, St. Louis, and was a member of the Board of Managers.

Their work was to hold evangelical meetings in the interest of temperance at the Bethel Mission and of supporting patients in a sanitarium on Cass Avenue, where persons were placed to be given treatment for the alcoholic habit.

At Gibson and Taylor Avenues, St. Louis, a Memorial Chapel was erected by Wagoner and her husband and fitted out complete as a donation to the Methodist Church.

This Home was a small house located on Garrison and Thomas Streets, St. Louis, and could accommodate twelve girls.

[1] In 1924, at 89 years old, she was asked about her activities, and her reply was "Just say that with any movement that was for the advancement of Christianity or opened doors of opportunity to women, I have been pleased to be identified.