Woman's Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South

The earliest authentic record indicates that the first effort to organize and project in the South any form of missionary work for women was undertaken in 1858 by Mrs. Margaret Lavinia Kelley.

The records show that a missionary society was organized and aid sent to Mary Isabella McClellan Lambuth[3] for the maintenance of a school she was conducting in Shanghai, China.

[4] In 1861, when the activities of the women were directed to the making of provisions for the comfort of the Confederate Army soldiers just entering into the American Civil War, Elizabeth Caroline Dowdell, of Alabama, a devoted Christian woman with Southern sentiment and ideals, wrote a letter to Bishop James Osgood Andrew in which she said: "I asked myself, Is it true that we Southern women love our country and her cause better than we love our God and his cause?

And thus while I mused the fire burned, and I looked and beheld a sight that filled my heart with exultation and joy in the Holy Ghost.

Four women came together on that day, the result of much personal effort by Mrs. Kelley and repeated notices from the pulpit by the pastor of McKendree Church.

[4] In April 1874, largely through the efforts of Mrs. Kelley, some of the Methodist women of Nashville, formed themselves into an organization known as a "Bible Mission," with two distinct objects: one to furnish aid and Bible instruction to the poor and destitute of the city, the other to collect and contribute pecuniary aid to foreign missionary fields.

The society had two distinct objects, namely, "To send pecuniary aid to the foreign mission fields and to employ efficiently the women at home in a systematic visitation and Bible instruction of the poor and destitute in their own midst."

Mrs. McGavock was so stirred by their messages concerning the needs of China that under a strict pledge of secrecy, she was moved to give to Mrs. Lambuth the diamonds which had pinned her wedding veil.

[4] Similar societies were about the same time or soon afterward organized at Warren, Arkansas, in the Broad Street Church in Richmond, Virginia, at Macon, Georgia, Glasgow, Missouri, Louisville, Kentucky, and Franklin, North Carolina.

But now the thought of sending a young woman to China to be supported by the women at home began to assume a shade of importance and a tone of probability.

A few weeks later Mrs. McGavock answered in the following words:—[4] "The Methodist Episcopal Church, South, seems to be waking up to the fact that women are both able and willing to render effective service in evangelizing the world.

They are willing, generous, and vitally spiritual; but they stand aloof from this duty, each waiting for the other to lead, to suggest and adopt plans that will advance this movement.

The heart-stirring letters from Bishop Marvin and Dr. Hendrix in the East have aroused the missionary pulse to healthy action.

Every circuit and station should have an auxiliary society, and every woman and child should give something annually and send their contributions to a given center; then reports should be sent and published that all might know the amounts, sources, and the direction given to the funds.

This gave renewed enthusiasm and another tangible reason for pushing the woman's missionary cause before the General Conference, which was to meet the following year in Atlanta, Georgia.

[4] At that meeting of the General Conference in Atlanta, Georgia, on May 14, 1878,[5] Dr. D. C. Kelley, then the Assistant Secretary of the Board of Missions, in report No.

The need of the field was so evident and the ability of the women to help meet it so apparent that, at last, the hold of conservatism were sufficiently loosened to make possible the unanimous adoption of the report.

D. C. Kelley stated the object of the meeting and the ends proposed by the society: the sending of female missionaries and teachers to heathen lands to work for women and children.

With this official authority, Mrs. Hayes, Mrs. McGavock, and Mrs. Whitworth secured a charter and began organizing auxiliaries and Conference societies.

[5] The first meeting of the General Executive Board of the Woman's Missionary Society was held in Broadway Church, Louisville, Kentucky, in May 1879.

[6][4] Miss Lochie Rankin, of Shanghai, China, six Bible women, and the Clopton School had that year received support.

[4] At the next annual meeting, in Nashville, Tennessee, delegates from 22 conference societies were present, representing 465 auxiliaries and 12,273 members.

The corresponding secretary of each conference, together with five officers and six managers, constituted the Woman's Board, which was the executive body of the Society.

Abroad, the force was represented (January 1891) by: Missionaries, 32, of whom 14 were in China; assistants, 27; native teachers, 27; boarding-schools, 10; day-schools, 24; pupils, 1,248; hospital, 1.

Late in September 1895, she called a meeting of the local Board to be held in her own chamber where she signed papers giving the power of attorney to the Secretary of Home Affairs, Mrs. S. C. Trueheart, saying: 'This is my last official act.

[1] Miss Lochie Rankin, of Tennessee, the first representative of the newly formed society, was sent to take charge of a school in Shanghai.

[1] Work at Kahding was opened by a woman of ten years' experience in China, who went, with Chinese assistants only, to make a beginning in that large, walled city.

The points occupied were Piracicaba, in the São Paulo Province, and Rio and Juiz de Fora, in the state of Minas Gerais.

The school for girls at Saltillo closed its first year in December 1888, having received $282.15 (Mexican) for tuition, which, aside from the missionary's salary, was sufficient to cover expenses.