Loading AI tools
American missionary From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Gertrude Howe (September 13, 1846 – December 29, 1928) was an American Methodist missionary educator and translator, based in China from 1872 until her death there in 1928.
Gertrude Howe | |
|---|---|
Gertrude Howe, from her 1916 passport application | |
| Born | September 13, 1846 Poughkeepsie, New York, U.S. |
| Died | December 29, 1928 (aged 82) Nanchang, China |
| Occupation | Methodist missionary educator in China |
| Relatives | Ida Kahn (adopted daughter) |
Howe was born in Poughkeepsie, New York, the daughter of Isaac Howe and Elizabeth Howe. Her family were Quakers and active in abolition work.[1] She attended the Michigan Agricultural College in 1870 and 1871, and the University of Michigan in 1871.[2] She graduated from Michigan State Normal School in 1872.[3]
In her teens, Howe taught school in Lansing, Michigan, and was appointed principal of a primary school when she was 20 years old. In 1872, Howe went to Kiukiang (Jiujiang) in China,[4] as a missionary under the auspices of the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church.[5] She and medical missionary Lucy H. Hoag founded a girls' high school in 1873, requiring students to have unbound feet to enroll.[6] She adopted and raised four Chinese daughters,[4][7] including Kang Cheng, known as Ida Kahn.[8][9] She taught her daughters English, and mentored several other Chinese students who continued their educations in the United States,[10][11] including Mary Stone,[12] Phebe Stone, and Ilien Tang.[13][14][15] She also assisted later women missionaries in China, including Welthy Honsinger Fisher.[16] "While she spared no pains in laying broad educational foundations," according to a biographical pamphlet for church use, "she never lost sight of character-making, to which she gave the prominent place."[4]
Howe moved to Chungking in 1883, and opened another girls' school; but her new school was destroyed within a few years, and she returned to Kiukiang. She translated a Methodist hymnal, and a history of the Reformation, for her students to use.[13] She spoke about her work in the United States during her visits, including in Detroit in 1893,[17] in Pittsburgh in 1909,[18] in Brookline in 1919,[19] and in Lansing in 1920.[20]
Howe's sister, Delia, joined her work in China from 1879 to 1882.[21] Delia Howe became a physician in Detroit.[22]
Howe lived in Nanchang with Ida Kahn in her later years. She died there in 1928, after years of declining health, at the age of 82.[23][24] Kahn wrote an English-language obituary of Howe, listing out her daughters Ida, Julia, Fannie, and Belle,[4] and grandchildren, and detailing the specifics of her funeral.[7]
Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.
Every time you click a link to Wikipedia, Wiktionary or Wikiquote in your browser's search results, it will show the modern Wikiwand interface.
Wikiwand extension is a five stars, simple, with minimum permission required to keep your browsing private, safe and transparent.
