View source for Woman's Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church

{{Infobox organization
| name                = Woman's Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church
| logo                =
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| image               = Founders of the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society. Mrs. Thomas Rich. Mrs. E. W. Parker. Mrs. Thomas Kingsbury. Mrs. William Merrill. Mrs. William Butler. Mrs. Lewis Flanders.png
| image_size          = 300px
| alt                 = <!-- see [[WP:ALT]] -->
| caption             = Founders: Mrs. Thomas Rich, Mrs. E. W. Parker, Mrs. Thomas Kingsbury, Mrs. William Merrill, Mrs. William Butler, Mrs. Lewis Flanders
| abbreviation        = WFMS of the MEC
| merged              = <!-- any other organization(s) which it was merged into -->
| successor           =
| formation           = March 1869
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| dissolved           = <!-- or |defunct = --><!-- use {{end date and age|YYYY|MM|DD}} -->
| merger              = <!-- other organizations (if any) merged with, to constitute the new organization -->
| type                = <!-- e.g., [[Nonprofit organization|Nonprofit]], [[Non-governmental organization|NGO]], etc. -->
| status              = incorporated under the laws of the State of New York in 1884
| purpose             = <!-- or |focus = --><!-- humanitarian, activism, peacekeeping, etc. -->
| professional_title  = <!-- for professional associations -->
| headquarters        = [[Boston]], [[Massachusetts]]
| location_country    = United States
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| origins             = [[Tremont Street Methodist Episcopal Church]]
| region_served       = <!-- or |area_served = or |region = -->
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| services            = women missionaries to foreign countries
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| main_organ          = ''[[The Heathen Woman's Friend]]''
| parent_organization = [[Methodist Episcopal Church]]
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| website             = <!-- {{URL|example.com}} -->
}}
'''Woman's Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church''' ([[acronym]] '''WFMS of the MEC''') was one of three [[Methodism|Methodist]] organizations in the United States focused on women's foreign missionary services; the two others were the WFMS of the [[Free Methodist Church|Free Methodist Church of North America]] and the WFMS of the [[Methodist Protestant Church]].<ref name="Foreign-1919">{{cite book |author1=Foreign Missions Conference of North America Committee of Reference and Counsel |title=Foreign Missions Year Book of North America ... |date=1919 |publisher=Committee of Reference and Counsel of the Foreign Missions Conference of North America, Incorporated |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mUFQAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA156 |pages=103–05, 156 |access-date=30 May 2022 |language=en}} {{Source-attribution}}</ref>
The WFMS of the MEC was founded in the [[Tremont Street Methodist Episcopal Church]], in [[Boston]], [[Massachusetts]], March 1869, and incorporated under the laws of the [[New York (state)|State of New York]] in 1884. Its fields of operation included: [[Europe]] (Bulgaria, Italy, France); [[Latin America]] (Mexico, Argentina, Peru, Uruguay); [[Asia]] (Malaysia, China, Korea, India, Japan, The Philippines); and [[Africa]] (Algeria, Angola, Portuguese East Africa, Rhodesia, Tunis).<ref name="Foreign-1919" />
==History==
WMFS was organized in March 1869 at the [[Tremont Street Methodist Episcopal Church]] in [[Boston]], by eight women who responded to a call sent to thirty churches.<ref name="HoweGraves1904">{{cite book|last1=Howe|first1=Julia Ward|last2=Graves|first2=Mary Hannah|title=Representative Women of New England|url=https://archive.org/details/representativew00elligoog|page=[https://archive.org/details/representativew00elligoog/page/n130 97-98]|edition=Public domain|year=1904|publisher=New England Historical Publishing Company}} {{Source-attribution}}</ref> The eight founders were, Mrs. Lewis Flanders; Mrs. Thomas Kingsbury; Mrs. William B. Merrill; Lois Lee Parker; Mrs. Thomas A. Rich; Mrs. H.J. Stoddard; Mrs. William Butler ([[Clementina Rowe Butler]]); and Mrs. P.T. Taylor.<ref name="Baker1898">{{cite book|last=Baker|first=Frances J.|title=The story of the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 1869-1895|url=https://archive.org/details/womansforeignmis00bakeuoft|page=[https://archive.org/details/womansforeignmis00bakeuoft/page/16 16]|edition=Public domain|year=1898|publisher=Curts & Jennings}} {{Source-attribution}}</ref> A window in the Tremont Street Church commemorates the event and preserves their names.<ref name="HoweGraves1904" />
The first public meeting of the society was held in the Bromfield Street MEC, May 26, 1869. The discussion was quickly followed by decisive action. At a business meeting held by the women at the close of the public occasion, it was voted to raise money to send as a missionary to [[India]], [[Isabella Thoburn]], sister of Bishop [[James Mills Thoburn]]. An appeal for a medical woman soon followed. As a result of prompt and efficient measures to procure funds, the services of Isabella Thoburn and of [[Clara Swain]], M.D., were secured.
These two women sailed from [[New York City]] for India, via England, on November 3, 1869, reaching their destination early in January, 1870. They were cordially received, and soon entered upon their work, Thoburn organizing schools and superintending the work of Bible readers, and Swain's medical ability gaining for her admission to many places that were closed to others. This society sent to India, China, Korea, and Japan the first woman medical missionary ever received in those countries.<ref name="HoweGraves1904" />
By 1903, its 34th year, it had 265 missionaries carrying on its work in India, China, Japan, Korea, Africa, Bulgaria, Italy, South America, Mexico, and the Philippines, by means of women's colleges, high schools, seminaries, hospitals, dispensaries, day schools, and "settlement work".<ref name="HoweGraves1904" />
Its receipts during the first year were {{USD|4546}}, and in the year 1903, {{USD|491091}}, with a total from the beginning of {{USD|6850853}}. Six branches were organized the first year. By 1903, there were eleven, the first being the New England, and the eleventh being the Columbia River Branch.<ref name="HoweGraves1904" />
==Publications==
[[File:Logo of the Heathen Woman's Friend.png|thumb|Logo of ''[[The Heathen Woman's Friend]]'', the society's periodical]]
The first number of the society's first periodical, ''[[The Heathen Woman's Friend]]'', appeared in June, 1869, with [[Harriet Merrick Warren]] as its editor for 24 years.<ref name="HoweGraves1904" />  Other publications were established later on.
==WFMS of other Methodist denominations==
Other Methodist denominations developed their own women's foreign missionary organizations.
The WFMS of the Methodist Protestant Church was established in 1879. Its office was in [[Catonsville, Maryland]]. Its focused on Asia, especially China and Japan. It issued the periodical, ''The Woman's Missionary Record''. Notable people included Mrs. E. C. Chandler, Mrs. Henry Hupfield, Mrs. D. S. Stephens, Mrs. L. K. East, and Mrs. J. F. McCulloch.<ref name="Foreign-1919" />
The WFMS of the Free Methodist Church of North America was established in 1882. Its office was in [[Oneida, New York]]. It issued the periodical, ''Missionary Tidings''. Notable people included Mary L. Coleman, Mrs. C. T. Bolles, and Lillian C. Jensen.<ref name="Foreign-1919" />
==Notable people==
{{div col|colwidth=20em}}
* [[Mary Osburn Adkinson]]
* [[Esther E. Baldwin]]
* [[Annie Maria Barnes]]
* [[Susan Hammond Barney]]
* [[Anna Fisher Beiler]]
* [[Anna Smeed Benjamin]]
* [[Martia L. Davis Berry]]
* [[Jennie M. Bingham]]
* [[Sophia Blackmore]]
* [[Ariel Serena Hedges Bowen]]
* [[Maria Kane Brown]]
* [[Adda Burch]]
* [[Louise L. Chase]]
* [[Lucilla Green Cheney]]
* [[Lucinda L. Combs]]
* [[Emily M. J. Cooley]]
* [[Mary Helen Peck Crane]]
* [[Allie Luse Dick]]
* [[Hü King Eng]]
* [[Mary Porter Gamewell]]
* [[Jennie Margaret Gheer]]
* [[Annie Ryder Gracey]]
* [[Lucinda Barbour Helm]]
* [[Maria Hyde Hibbard]]
* [[Louise Manning Hodgkins]]
* [[Gertrude Howe]]
* [[Julia Lore McGrew]]
* [[Caroline Elizabeth Merrick]]
* [[Mary A. Miller]]
* [[Nancie Monelle]]
* [[Cornelia Moore Chillson Moots]]
* [[Mary Clarke Nind]]
* [[Esther Pak]]
* [[Anna Campbell Palmer]]
* [[Rebecca Parrish]]
* [[Alice E. Heckler Peters]]
* [[Mary Q. Porter]]
* [[Mary Reed (missionary)|Mary Reed]]
* [[Jane Bancroft Robinson]]
* [[Elizabeth Russell (missionary)|Elizabeth Russell]]
* [[Mary F. Scranton]]
* [[Liang May Seen]]
* [[Cora E. Simpson]]
* [[Susan J. Swift Steele]]
* [[Ōyama Sutematsu]]
* [[Clara Swain]]
* [[Lucy Robbins Messer Switzer]]
* [[Isabella Thoburn]]
* [[Mary Sparkes Wheeler]]
* [[Charlotte Frances Wilder]]
* [[Zara A. Wilson]]
* [[Annie Turner Wittenmyer]]
{{div col end}}
==Gallery==
<gallery>
File:A glimpse of India - being a collection of extracts from the letters Dr. Clara A. Swain, first medical missionary to India of the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church (14743527986).jpg|Dr. [[Clara Swain]]
File:Mary Clarke Nind and her work - her childhood, girlhood, married life, religious experience and activity, together with the story of her labors in behalf of the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society of (14781075991).jpg|[[Mary Clarke Nind]]
File:Miss sigourney trask.jpg|[[Sigourney Trask]]
File:Nancie Monelle Mansell.png|[[Nancie Monelle Mansell]]
File:Anna Fisher Beiler (1895).png|[[Anna Fisher Beiler]]
File:Clementina Rowe Butler.png|[[Clementina Rowe Butler]]
File:GertrudeHowe1916.png|[[Gertrude Howe]]
</gallery>
==See also==
* [[Lessie Bates Davis Neighborhood House]]
* [[Lucy Webb Hayes National Training School]]
* [[Protestant missions in China]]
* [[Women's missionary societies]]
==References==
{{reflist}}
==Sources==
* {{cite book |ref=none|last=Gracey|first=Mrs. J. T.|title=Medical Work of the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society: Methodist Episcopal Church &#91;with Supplement&#93;|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7QMbAAAAYAAJ|edition=Public domain|year=1888|publisher=Woman's Foreign Missionary Society, Methodist Episcopal Church|isbn=9780837012193}}
* {{cite book |ref=none|author=Methodist Episcopal Church. Woman's Foreign Missionary Society. Northwestern Branch|title=Annual Report of the Northwestern Branch of the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ryFGAQAAMAAJ|edition=Public domain|year=1889|publisher=Northwestern Branch}}
* {{cite book |ref=none|author=Woman's Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church|title=Annual Report|url=https://archive.org/details/annualreportwom01socigoog|edition=Public domain|year=1886|publisher=Charles A. Coffin|pages=[https://archive.org/details/annualreportwom01socigoog/page/n29 4]–}}
{{authority control}}
[[Category:1869 establishments in Massachusetts]]
[[Category:Christian women's organizations]]
[[Category:History of Methodism in the United States]]
[[Category:Religious organizations based in Boston]]
[[Category:Woman's Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church]]
[[Category:Women's organizations based in the United States]]