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M ISSIONERS OF THE I GREGORY P RESBITERIAN OF THE UNITED STATES

OR I GREEK OF THE S UL - PCUS (1869-1900)

William Curdy Emerson

James Robinson Baird

George Nash Morton

Edward Lane

Arianna S. Henderson

William LeConte

John Rockwell Smith

John Boyle

John Watkins Dabney

Ballard Franklin Thompson

DeLacey Wardlaw

Charlotte Kemper

Investments

George William Butler

Joseph Henry Gauss

William Calvin Porter

George Wood Thompson

William Lucas Bedinger

Kate Eliza Bias Cowan

Frank A. Cowan

Samuel Rhea Gammon

Sallie H. Chambers Cooper

William McQuown Thompson

James Dick

James Joseph Harrell

David Gibson Armstrong

Eliza Moore Reed

Alexander Henry

George Adam Grillbortzer

George Edward Henderlite

Carlyle Ramsey Womeldorf

Charles Read Morton

Horace Selden Allyn

Reginald Price Baird

Alva Hardie

Ruth Bosworth See

​

​

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M ISSIONERS OF THE I GREGORY P RESBITERIAN OF THE UNITED STATES

OR I GREEK OF THE S UL - PCUS (1869-1900)

William Curdy Emerson

James Robinson Baird

George Nash Morton

Edward Lane

Arianna S. Henderson

William LeConte

John Rockwell Smith

John Boyle

John Watkins Dabney

Ballard Franklin Thompson

DeLacey Wardlaw

Charlotte Kemper

Investments

George William Butler

Joseph Henry Gauss

William Calvin Porter

George Wood Thompson

William Lucas Bedinger

Kate Eliza Bias Cowan

Frank A. Cowan

Samuel Rhea Gammon

Sallie H. Chambers Cooper

William McQuown Thompson

James Dick

James Joseph Harrell

David Gibson Armstrong

Eliza Moore Reed

Alexander Henry

George Adam Grillbortzer

George Edward Henderlite

Carlyle Ramsey Womeldorf

Charles Read Morton

Horace Selden Allyn

Reginald Price Baird

Alva Hardie

Ruth Bosworth See

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Rev. William Curdy Emerson

Pastor among the North American settlers in the interior of São Paulo

The Rev. William C. Emerson was not a missionary officially sent by the Church

Presbyterian of the United States or Southern Church (CPSU) to work in Brazil.

However, having been the first pastor of this denomination to reside and work in Brazil,

which in particular, deserves to be included in this record. First, however, it is necessary to

the context of his coming. After the American Civil War (1862-1865),

numerous Southerners emigrated to other countries, including Brazil. Here, some families

tried to settle in different points of the coast, such as the Ribeira Valley, but the only

colonies that prospered were those of the region of the present cities of Santa Bárbara D'Oeste and

American, in the then Province of São Paulo. The colony called "Field", where there were

a small rural cemetery, became the center of the religious activities of the north-

Americans. Presbyterian, Methodist, and Baptist settlers used a temple

community building, next to the cemetery.

The Southern Church was established in 1861, when the churches of the North gave their support to the

From the outset, the Southern Church had a

strong missionary concern, and an Executive Committee of Foreign Missions was created,

based in Nashville, Tennessee. Another important institution was the

Theological Union, founded in 1823, which initially functioned together with the College

Hampden-Sydney, in Farmville, Virginia, and in 1898 was transferred to Richmond. At

activities had been interrupted by the Civil War. Fourteen

the first group after the war, four chose the missionary work and

two of them came to Brazil in 1869 - George Nash Morton and Edward Lane. In the year

These workers founded the Presbyterian Church of Campinas. A few years earlier,

accompanying the North American settlers who settled in the interior of São Paulo,

came several pastors, some of them Presbyterians, such as William C. Emerson and James R.

Baird.

Rev. William Emerson was born in South Carolina on October 15, 1818. He was pastor

in Meridian, Mississippi, where he had a large farm, and moderator of the Presbytery of

East of Mississippi in 1866. He was a man of rare literary ability, a preacher

eloquent and dedicated Christian. With his enthusiastic and enterprising spirit,

next he sold his property for ten thousand dollars and came to Brazil. When we arrived,

was proposed that he publish a newspaper in English giving news of the immigrants, as well as

information and guidance for the new settlers who came. Minister Paula Souza said that

would help him for a while, but that the ten thousand dollars had to be

business. The Emigration Reporter newspaper has been published for about a year but has not

any profit. To make matters worse, the aforementioned government minister was replaced by another

who did not have the same ideas and did not respect the contract made by his predecessor. After

To settle the business, Emerson had enough money to take the family to Santa.

Barbara, where she bought a small plot of land that he himself tried to cultivate. Eventually,

this pastor adopted Brazilian nationality.

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On June 26, 1870, Rev. Emerson and his colleague James R. Baird organized

American immigrants to the Presbyterian Church of Santa Barbara, known as the

Hopewell Church, and shepherded it for four or five years. The three members

founders of the church were as follows: Rev. William C. Emerson and Mary E. Emerson,

Rev. James R. Baird and Elize Baird, the couple JB Grady and the daughters Sophia Grady and Martha H.

Grady, William P. McFadden, Sarah McFadden and daughter Sarah C. McFadden, and the couple

Frank Emerson. The organization took place in the farm São Luiz, in the house of William P.

McFadden, elected priest at the time. The Rev. Boanerges Ribeiro, citing a letter

published in the Evangelical Press (12-03-1887), informs that Emerson also initiated

a congregation in the rural town of Água Branca, between the Tietê and Tatuí rivers, in 1869

or 1871, which would have been organized in church in 1871.

Rev. Emerson spent the last years of his life afflicted by a respiratory disease,

coming to die on July 24, 1875. His last words, engraved on his tomb

in the Campo Cemetery, were: "I die full of happiness, full of glory, and full of hope

of heaven "(Hill full of happiness, full of glory and full of the hope of heaven). After

his death, Rev. Baird continued to lead the work for three years, until the Rev. Edward

Lane and other workers of the Campinas Mission assumed the pastorate of the church. With the

Emerson had three sons and three daughters. Frank, the eldest, soon

time returned to the United States; William died in a railroad accident, and

Charles did a great career on the Railroad and married a Brazilian. Two of the

daughters married Englishmen and the other, Mary, married a doctor, Dr. George

Barnsley.

Rev. Emerson's second wife was Mary E. Grady, who came to Brazil with her mother,

Brother Curtis and the sisters Sophia, Martha and Jane. Mary Emerson returned to

to educate their children. His sons Lucien, Joseph and Charles studied in the

International College (Catalog of 1877). Later, the family moved to São Paulo,

where Mary was an English teacher for many years. In 1885, he was "first aid

letters "at the American School. Provided many services to the 1st Presbyterian Church of São Paulo

and later to the Independent Seminary, where he also taught English. At its request, the

Rev. Vicente Temudo Lessa translated a sermon by Rev. Emerson - "What do you think

Christ? ", Published in The Presbyterian in March 1902. Dona Mary passed away at 70

years, on August 15, 1910, at the Evangelical Residence of the Presbyterian Church

Independently of São Paulo, to Rua Vitória, from whose direction it was commissioned for free.

It left a small legacy to constitute a fund for the evangelization of the natives.

His son Luciano (Lucien), a dental surgeon, was also a member of the 1st St.

Paul, having been enrolled in this church with his wife, Rosa, on November 4,

1892.

Bibliography:

• Lessa, Annaes , 75, 172, 258, 379, 509.

• Ferreira, History of IPB , I: 111s, 166-168.

• James E. Bear, Mission to Brazil (PCUS, Board of World Missions, 1961), 6s.

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• Judith Mac Knight Jones, Private Rest! A North American Epic under the

Heavens of Brazil (São Paulo: Brotherhood of American Descent, 1967), 189-191,

215, 241, 264.

• Ribeiro, Protestantism and Brazilian Culture , 319s

​

Rev. George Nash Morton

Presbyterian pioneer in Campinas and founder of the International College

During the first ten years of the Presbyterian work in Brazil (1859-1868), all

missionaries were sent by the Northern Presbyterian Church of the United States. Was

It was only in 1869 that the first workers of the Southern Church arrived: George N. Morton and

Edward Lane. The Southern Church (CPSU) was created just eight years earlier, in 1861. Its

Foreign Missions Committee was based in the city of Nashville, in the State of

Tennessee. After the civil war in the United States (1861-1865), many southern families

of that country emigrated to Brazil, most of them settled in the region of Santa

Bárbara, in the interior of São Paulo. This was the reason for the choice of Campinas, located

of 35 kilometers of the American colony, to be the first headquarters of the mission. The choice of Brazil

as a missionary field of the CPSU was due to a suggestion by the well-known theologian Dr.

Robert Lewis Dabney (1820-1898). The two pioneers mentioned above were part of the

first group of graduates of the Union Theological Seminary (attached to the Hampden-

Sydney, Virginia) after the Civil War.

George N. Morton was from an old aristocratic family of the State of Virginia,

of Charlotte County. He was born in Marshall County, Mississippi, on April 14

1841. He studied at the Hampden-Sydney College (1857-1860), where he received degrees

bachelor and master of arts. Shortly after, it enlisted in the confederate army with the post

of lieutenant. After the Civil War, he studied at Union Theological Seminary (1865-1868). Two

fourteen members of his class, four chose a missionary career and two of them

came to Brazil. Morton was licensed on May 1 and ordered August 15

of 1868 by the Roanoke Presbytery. In the same month, he came to recognize the

Brazil, returning to his country in November. He was responsible for the final choice

of Campinas as headquarters of the mission.

Morton married on May 11, 1869 with Mary Elizabeth Wilson Brown (born

on January 17, 1847). On June 22, the couple Morton and colleague Edward Lane

embarked in Baltimore for Brazil, arriving here on August 17. After a

brief stay in Rio de Janeiro, arrived in Campinas in early September. On 10 of

July 1870, the two workers founded the Presbyterian Church of that city. Right after the

his arrival, Morton became friends with George W. Chamberlain, the pastor of the

São Paulo, with whom he made several missionary trips and changed the pulpit many times.

Morton would baptize two sons of his colleague: Pierce (05-05-1872) and Helen (01-04-1877).

On January 13, 1872, Revs. Morton, Lane, James R. Baird, William C. Emerson

and two priests founded the old Presbytery of São Paulo, with two churches, Campinas

and Hopewell (Santa Barbara). Morton was elected moderator. An important fruit of your

work was the young Eduardo Carlos Pereira, the future minister, grammarian and founder of

Independent Presbyterian Church. As a teacher in Campinas, Eduardo heard several

preached by Morton and talked to him about religious issues. When moving to São

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Paul, was recommended by Morton to Chamberlain, who received it by profession of faith (07-

03-1875) and convinced him to embrace the ministry.

In addition to pastor and evangelist, Rev. Morton possessed great culture and was a notable

educator. In his first year in Campinas, he and Lane started a night school that

reached almost thirty students. The idea was to win converts through education. Soon,

the missionaries conceived a more ambitious project: a high-level educator, who

became known as the International College or Institute of Campinas. In 1871 Lane was

the United States and obtained approval and resources for the project. One journalist

Gazeta de Campinas a series of articles on the proposed college and on December 8

the missionaries presented their plan to a group of outstanding citizens,

big interest. The minutes of the meeting were published in full in the local newspaper and

The Missionary .

In 1872 a land was acquired and the college was formally initiated in 1873. From 1872 to

1874, four new workers came to collaborate: Nannie Henderson, Mary Videau Kirk,

William LeConte and John W. Dabney. Rev. Morton wanted to remain involved with the

evangelization, but ended up teaching and eventually took over the direction of the school. At the end of

1874, the Committee of Foreign Missions sent to Campinas the Dr. John Leighton Wilson,

who studied the situation and supported the project, despite the enormous

made. Enrollment grew continuously until 1878, when the number of

both sexes, Brazilians and Americans, reached almost 200. The academic level was of the

which attracted students from some of the most important families in the province.

So a series of adverse factors, especially economic and administrative,

produced a crisis that resulted in Morton's removal from school and mission.

On November 14, 1879, Morton published in the São Paulo

farewells of Campinas. On January 7, 1880, he opened a college in São Paulo

particular, the Morton College, located next to the Church of Consolation, for which

half of the faculty and student body of the International College. He dreamed of turning him

in a higher school of philosophy and letters. In a series of articles, the Province of

Rangel Pestana, exposed the public to the educator's grand plans. This college became

and young people who came to stand out in the society of

Júlio César Ferreira Mesquita (1862-1927), Carlos de Campos (1866-1927) and Manuel Lopes

de Oliveira Filho (1872-1938). Among others, Rev. Francis

JC Schneider and the future pastor João Ribeiro de Carvalho Braga. In a valuable article that

wrote in 1916, entitled "The International College and its Founders," Rev. Erasmus

Braga said that one of the most remote and vivid memories of his childhood was

a reception and worship to which he was present at Morton College around 1880 or

1881, when he was only three or four years old! He spoke of the pleasure he felt when his father

took him to the Consolation farm where the remarkable school had been beautifully installed.

Still in 1880 and in the same newspaper already mentioned, Morton fought a controversy with the Dr.

Luiz Pereira Barreto on positivism, a philosophical current that attracted many intellectuals

of the time. The articles of both authors were assembled in a booklet the same year,

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under the title Positivism and Theology . Though distant from missionary work, Morton never

he silenced about his religious principles. Although successful in appearance

educationally, he experienced financial losses with his college, getting quite

indebted With this, he had to close his school, returning definitively to the

United States in 1882. In the year that Morton ended his career in Brazil,

The Evangelical Press published an article from his collection: "The Jews: Their Sufferings

past and present "(Supplement of April, 1882). It is regrettable that due to the

problems, the evangelistic and educational work of this talented

ceased so prematurely.

In his homeland, Morton devoted himself to teaching and other activities in the cities of Passaic

Bridge (New Jersey) and Dobbs Ferry (New York) from 1886 to 1903. He was exonerated from

at his own request, uncensored, on April 14, 1904, by the Presbytery of

Roanoke. Mary Brown Morton died in New York at the age of 76 on August 17,

1923 and Professor Morton at age 84 on December 14, 1925. They had ten children,

almost all born in Brazil (Campinas and São Paulo): George Harman LeGrand (1870-

1944), Margaret Wilson (1871-1944), David Holmes (1875-1946), Susan Ann (1876-

1962), Emily LeGrand (1877-1957), William Stewart (1879-1935), Mary Brown (1881-

1964), John Carrington (1882-1883), Bell (1883-1907) and Samuel (1887-1932). Several of them

were baptized by colleague George W. Chamberlain.

In the article cited above, Erasmo Braga highlighted the extraordinary qualities of Morton

as an educator. When Morton passed away, the newspaper O Estado de São Paulo , owned by

of his former student Júlio Mesquita, hailed him as having been the prototype of the educator. J.

C. Alves de Lima, in his book Memories of Men and Things of My Time (1926),

also made a beautiful tribute to the great pedagogue. He notes that Morton helped

to form the generation that came to assume the leadership of the country in the republican regime. Was friend

of Prudente de Morais, Campos Sales, Francisco Glicério and other notable ones. When already

old man, Morton went to the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York for a dinner in honor of

to a Brazilian admiral. Alves de Lima says: "There was a silence for a moment

deep, but, as if listening to the voice of command, the officer in charge stood up and

with the greatest enthusiasm drank the health of the old friend of Brazil. "

Bibliography:

• Lessa, Annaes , 50, 73, 75, 93, 98, 133, 146, 180a (photo), 183-85.

• Ferreira, History of IPB , I: 109-111, 214.

• Erasmo Braga, "The International College and Its Founders: Early Education

North American in Brazil, " Journal of the Center of Sciences, Letters and Arts , Campinas

(30-09-1916), 42-47.

• GN Morton, Farewell from Campinas, Province of São Paulo (14-11-1879).

• GN Morton, articles on Morton College, Province of São Paulo (January 1880).

• GN Morton and LP Barreto, polemic on positivism, Province of São Paulo

(February 1880).

• Letter from Dr. JC Alves de Lima with information about Morton, Diario Popular (10-

07-1907).

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• JC Alves de Lima, Memories of Men and Things of My Time (Rio, 1926), 56-

59.

• The General Catalog of Trustees, Officers, Professors, and Alumni of Union

Theological Seminary in Virginia, 1807-1924 .

• Bear, Mission to Brazil , 10-17.

• McIntire, Portrait , 7 / 2-34.

• Ribeiro, Protestantism and Brazilian Culture , 199-221.

• Marcus Levy Albino Bencostta. Go for Every World: The Province of São Paulo as

Field of Presbyterian Mission, 1869-1892 . Campinas: Unicamp, 1996.

• "Descendants of W. Brown": [www.chesapeake.net/~stovy/Brown/fam00028.htm].

• "Morton Family Photo": [www.andmore.com/lara/gen/pics/mortbrn.htm]

​

Rev. Edward Lane

Presbyterian pioneer in Campinas and Mogiana

Unlike his colleague George Nash Morton, who had had an aristocratic background,

Edward Lane had a very humble background. He was born in Dublin, Ireland, between

1835 and 1837, orphaned as a child. He started to live with the family of a

supported by unknown people who each month sent money

for housing, food and clothing, as well as for the fees of a school run by the

local parish priest. He was a lively, robust boy, and had a relatively happy childhood in

contact with nature. A few years later, she was delivered to the care of a lady

who took him to Liverpool and from there to the United States. On the trip, there was a fire in the

ship and a few days later the boy was almost swallowed by the sea during a violent

storm.

As soon as they arrived in New York, the woman who had brought him died, and the

only nine or ten years left alone in the great city. However, thanks to his personal sympathy,

He was very easy to make friends. A German doctor took an interest in him and

refer you to study medicine. With the death of this surgeon, Edward, then with

about 13 years old, moved to live with the Allison family, who owned a farm in

Stony Point, near the Hudson River. This family cared for him, helped him in his studies and

led him to attend the Presbyterian Church of Haverstraw, where he made his profession of faith

around 1854. He influenced in his decision the reading of the book Graça Abundante , by the writer

Puritan John Bunyan (1628-1688).

At the age of seventeen, Edward had a strong desire to study - almost pleaded

West Point Military Academy, located nearby - but the father

adoptive wanted him to do business. Hearing that in the south conditions were

best, farewell to the friendly family and followed in the end of 1855 to Georgia. Has worked

as a teacher at a boys' school in Evansville. Between 1858 and 1861, he lived with

the family of a pastor in Athens, in the same state, and studied at the Ogglethorpe College.

During the Civil War (1861-1865), he worked as a surgeon's assistant in a

military camp in Richmond, Virginia. Feeling the desire to prepare for the

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ministry, the young man got in touch with Dr. Robert Lewis Dabney, noted preacher,

theologian and professor at the Union Seminary in Hampden-Sydney, who welcomed him to his home

for three years (1865-1868). When, after all, he finished his studies, came the

volunteers to found the first mission of the Southern Presbyterian Church in Brazil. He is the

Morton were among the fourteen members of the first

to be formed after the war. Edward was licensed on May 2 and ordered on 17

November 1868 by the West Hanover Presbytery in Virginia.

On June 22, 1869, Lane and the Morton couple boarded the Winifred

Baltimore, landing in Rio de Janeiro on August 17. The missionary trio

Campinas in September, staying at the boarding house of Mrs. Susan Porter, and went on to study

the language. On March 29, 1870, Lane began the first of his many journeys

Evangelism, going in the company of the Rev. Hugh Ware McKee to Sorocaba. The same

year, on July 10, Lane and Morton founded the Presbyterian Church of Campinas. The

First converts were a black bricklayer and his wife. The two missionaries also

began to preach in the church of the American colony in Santa Bárbara and planned to open

works in the neighboring cities of Itu, Limeira and Mogi-Mirim.

In 1871, Lane went to the United States and married on May 4 with Sarah McCorkle

Poague, born in Rockbridge County, Virginia, on February 10, 1837. Sarah

had been married to Samuel Lightner, a student of theology who died in the War

Civil. Another objective of Lane's trip was to secure financial support for the

a college and for the work as a whole, having spoken to the General Assembly of the Church of the South

meeting in Huntsville, Alabama. The couple Lane arrived in Campinas on October 30

of that year. After staying for a few months in a boarding house, they rented two rooms

in the city center (General Osório Street corner with Regente Feijó), where he lived with

the new missionary Arianna (Nannie) Henderson, who arrived in June of

to create a school for girls. Later the couple Lane moved to the

where his four children were born. On January 13, 1872, Revs. Lane,

Morton, James Baird, William Emerson, and the presbyters William P. McFadden and James

McFadden Gaston, organized in Campinas the Presbytery of São Paulo. The new

two churches, Santa Bárbara and Campinas, was

Synod of Virginia. Later the Church of Penha (Itapira) was inscribed. This presbytery was

extinct in 1877, resurfacing ten years later as the Presbytery of Campinas and West of

Mines.

The International College, formally started in 1873, was a great success for some

almost two hundred students, many of them from distinguished families in the region.

Lane was a great enthusiast of this institution, which he thought indispensable for the good

formation of evangelical youth, making use of friends to obtain the necessary resources.

He unfolded himself to improve the property, digging a well and setting up a pottery shop whose

bricks served for the construction of both the college and the temple. Other workers

came together: Mary Videau Kirk, William LeConte, John W. Dabney and John Boyle.

However, in 1879, in the midst of a series of financial crises, Morton left school and was

to São Paulo. The school continued for a few more years, now focused on evangelism

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and leadership training. Two new educators arrived in 1882 and 1883: Charlotte

Kemper and Mary Goodale. However, a new problem arose - yellow fever. Later

this required the change of the institution to Lavras, where it came to be called the Gammon Institute.

While the mission's educational project was struggling, Rev. Lane would devote himself,

to his great vocation - the evangelistic work. Other fields of the early times

were Penha (Itapira), whose church Lane and Morton organized on January 10, 1874, and

Mogi Mirim. After Rev. Emerson's death and Rev. Baird's return to the States

United, Lane and his colleagues gave assistance to the American immigrant church in Santa

Barbarian. Rev. Lane has also toured relentlessly many other cities and towns of

interior, such as Piracicaba, Water Choca (Monte-Mór), Capivari, Tietê, Água Branca, Itu,

Porto Feliz and Tatuí, arriving to Botucatu. Going east, he was in Itatiba,

Bragança, Amparo, Serra Negra, São João da Boa Vista, White House and São José do Rio

Brown. In several of his trips he was accompanied by German colportor Jacob Filipe

Wingerther. In 1876, on one of his visits to Itapira, Lane was accompanied by the young man

Júlio César Ribeiro, the future philologist and writer, who helped him in preaching.

On August 11, 1878, Lane had the satisfaction of inaugurating the Campinas

second Presbyterian temple of Brazil, built by him to Rua Lusitana. He contributed

for the coming to Brazil of several notable missionaries, such as the Rev. Samuel R. Gammon.

In addition to his work as an evangelist and founder of the college, Lane also

preparation of future pastors such as Álvaro Reis, Delfino dos Anjos Teixeira and Flamínio

Augusto Rodrigues. The Lane couple acquired a farmhouse near the town that became part of

of the current neighborhood of Jardim Guanabara. In it was the pottery that made the bricks for school,

the houses of the missionaries and the temple. The source of the money used to buy the

quite unusual. A wealthy bachelor in Mrs. Lane's church decided to donate about five thousand

dollars for each of the five most beautiful girls in the church. One of the

just the young Sarah Poague.

On April 14, 1887, Lane and companions John Boyle, John W. Dabney, George

Wood Thompson and Delfino Teixeira created the Presbytery of Campinas and Oeste de Minas,

five churches: Campinas, Santa Bárbara, Itapira, Mogi-Mirim and

Itatiba. Lane was elected the first moderator. On September 6, 1888, in Rio de

January, Rev. Lane participated in the creation of the Synod of the Presbyterian Church of Brazil, the

who was elected vice-moderator. He preached on the occasion the opening sermon, based on Luke

1.32-33. Soon after the meeting, he returned to Campinas and took the family to Staunton,

Virginia, on vacation. He spent a year visiting churches and seeking support for the work

missionary Leaving his family in the United States, he returned to Brazil in November

1889, accompanied by educators Mary Parker Dascomb and Charlotte Kemper, who

returned from their holidays, and the new workers Samuel Rhea Gammon and Frank A. Cowan.

At the end of the 1880s yellow fever outbreaks began in the region of Campinas,

which hampered the work of the school and the churches. On May 1, 1889, this illness

the life of Rev. George Wood Thompson and on March 9 of the year following his

colleague John W. Dabney. In April, Rev. Lane went to the United States to

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the five sons of Dabney. During your stay, Davidson College,

North, conferred upon him the title of Doctor in Divinity. Lane returned to Brazil at the end of

year, in the company of the presbyter Flamínio Rodrigues. One of the responsibilities that the

were waiting for the direction of the newspaper Pulpito Evangelico , which he founded in

1888. In addition to sermons, the periodical contained historical notes, sketches of sermons,

explanations of difficult texts and comments.

The Synod of 1891 had decided to install the Presbyterian Seminary in Campinas, in the

dependencies of the International College. Lane was elected chairman of the first

enthusiasm for the start of classes on April 1, 1892.

early that year the yellow fever reappeared in Santos and soon reached Campinas. Lane

he insisted that the other workers go elsewhere. However, he and Charlotte Kemper

they remained in the city to care for the sick and to comfort those who were dead. In

March 18, the missionary Kemper was affected by the fever; Rev. Lane gave him

until she recovered. Then, on the 22nd, he himself became ill,

died on March 26, 1892, at 1:30 p.m.

A small group of church members performed the burial. Like no shepherd

Missionary Charlotte Kemper, still convalescing, instructed the

gardener to recite Psalm 23 at the tomb. The simple marble column

in Cemetery of Saudade has the words of Acts 20:24 in English and Portuguese: "In nothing

I consider life precious to myself. " Dr. Horace Manley Lane, President of

Mackenzie College, went quickly to Campinas, but did not arrive in time to see the

alive friend He wrote to the Mission headquarters in Nashville giving a beautiful testimony about the

deceased worker. Dona Sarah M. Lane returned to Brazil the following year to discuss the

transfer of ownership of the mission. She would still live for twenty years, having died in

Christiansburg, Virginia, on May 15, 1913.

The Lane couple had four children in Campinas: Edward Epes Lane (born 03-02-1873),

Margaret Susan Lane (18-09-1874), Sallie McCorkle Lane (04-25-1876) and Wilson Poague

Lane (22-10-1878), who died a year and two months. Margaret stood out as

writer, using the pseudonym Mildred Welch. Edward Epes Lane studied at

The United States, pastored several churches and was chaplain in World War I. In

In 1919, he visited Campinas, his native land, and two years later he moved to Brazil with

his wife, Mary Abbott Cook Lane. He worked in São Sebastião do Paraíso and

Sponsorship, where he definitively consolidated the Biblical Institute that bears his name

(IBEL). In 1948 he moved to Campinas, where he did much for the Presbyterian Seminary,

whose new headquarters was built on land donated by the family. He was president of the

Missions and died on July 19, 1962. His son of the same name, Dr.

Eduardo Lane, born in São Sebastião do Paraíso on September 18, 1923, was the

known physician and elder who rendered many relevant services to the Presbyterian Church

of Brazil and died in Campinas on June 28, 2002. One of his sons, Rev.

William Lacy Lane (Billy), pastor and professor of theology in São Paulo and Paraná, is the

continuation of a long tradition of service to the cause of Christ in Brazil.

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Bibliography:

• Lessa, Annaes , 50, 73, 120, 180a (photo), 338, 413-15.

• Ferreira, History of IPB , 109-117, 151, 160-168, 189s, 214s, 218s, 245-47, 283, 285s,

327-330, 334, 341, 362-65; II: 280, 368s, 388s.

• Álvaro Reis, "Rev. Dr. Eduardo Lane, " Evangelical Pulpit (October 1895), 183-197.

• Braga, "The International College and its Founders", 42-47.

• A General Catalog of Union Theological Seminary in Virginia, 1807-1924 .

• Herculano de Gouvêa. Eduardo Lane . São Carlos: The Printer, 1931.

• Edward E. Lane. "A History of the West Brazil Mission". 1936. Manuscript no

published.

• Ministerial Directory, PCUS (1861-1950) , 371.

• Ferreira, Evangelical Gallery , 67-116.

• Mildred Welch. Edward Lane: 1837-1892. Nashville: Executive Committee of Foreign

Missions, CPSU.

• McIntire, Portrait , 7 / 2-38.

• Hahn, Protestant Cult in Brazil , 178-183.

• Fernandino Caldeira de Andrada, "Reverendo Eduardo Lane", Brazil Presbyterian

(Feb 1998), 20.

• Eduardo Lane III. "Footprints of Faith: Story of Edward Lane" [Campinas, 2000].

Unpublished manuscript

​

Arianna S. Henderson

Third Presbyterian educator working in Brazil

Arianna or Nannie Henderson, as she was best known, was the first missionary

educator sent to Brazil by the Southern Presbyterian Church of the United States and the third

presbyterian educator to come to Brazil, preceded only by Mary Parker Dascomb and

Harriet Greenman of the Northern Church, who arrived in 1869. Nannie was born on the 8th of

September 1839 near Charlestown, Jefferson County, West Virginia. It was

daughter of Richard Henderson, a descendant of Scots who settled in Maryland and

Virginia, and Elizabeth Beall English, whose ancestors were of English origin and included

several of the first pastors of the State of Maryland. Nannie received part of her

education in Georgetown, District of Columbia, at a women's

many years for his aunt, Lydia Scudder English, and later at the Thorndale

County of Carroll, Maryland, a school run by the Birnie sisters, Irish women

of deep piety and endowed with an ardent and intelligent Presbyterian faith that instilled

faithfully in her students.

The desire to be a missionary came from an early age and solidified

indelible when she witnessed, at around the age of seven, the consecration of the Rev. John

French, from Georgetown, as a missionary to China. Upon reaching adulthood, Nannie

registered the vow that if there was ever an opportunity to become a missionary,

this should be accepted as an indication of the will of God, despite objections to

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that a young woman from the south was raised in a sheltered home from this similar step. Problems of

and the difficulties resulting from the Civil War postponed the fulfillment of this purpose.

in 1870. At that time, after conversing with the Rev. AC Hopkins, pastor of the

Charlestown, Nannie began a correspondence with Dr. John Leighton Wilson of the

Nashville Missions Committee.

The chosen field was China or some other Asian country, but, not being prudent

sent to that region because of a recent massacre in China, and

The need for a teacher in Brazil, Dr. Wilson advised the trip to that country,

with the initial appointment being made in 1871. The departure was planned in the autumn of that year, in

company of Mary Brown Morton, wife of Rev. George Nash Morton, who was

returning to Campinas. Due to some setbacks, the final appointment occurred in 2

January 1872. Some time later missionary finally left New York,

arriving in Campinas in June. The remainder of the year was spent on the study of language

portuguese The previous year Rev. Lane had gone to the United States and combined

Nannie's appointment to come create a school for girls.

Nannie made a favorable impression on her colleagues. Soon after his arrival, the Rev.

Morton wrote to the United States expressing the joy of the missionaries for having

Campinas. Initially she taught in a school in the city to learn Portuguese; she

he stayed in a room of that school and on weekends he stayed with the missionaries.

Nannie started school for girls in January 1873, with only six

which rose to 21 in the second half of that year. At the same time,

an institution for boys, the International College, which by the end of the year had already

54 students. In 1874 Mary Videau Kirk arrived to assist Nannie and John W. Dabney,

to teach in high school. After a few years of great growth and prestige, the

International College experienced a serious financial crisis at the end of that decade, which

resulted in Rev. Morton's removal. The school continued in the 1880s, but its

emphasis was on evangelism and the preparation of Christian workers.

With her health agitated by an attack of pneumonia, Nannie went to the States

United in 1875 in search of treatment and rest. Two years later, he returned to

Brazil. Around 1880 he went back to his country to treat health, affected by the crisis

of the International College, and when returning to Campinas it helped for some time Charlotte

Kemper, the new educator who arrived at the college in 1882. Then, Nannie happened to

dedicate themselves to evangelistic work. In 1886, he went to work with women and girls in

small town of Itatiba. The consumption of Bibles, New Testaments and leaflets

evangelicals was great and the contributions were good. The missionary distributed the literature

"The journey of the pilgrim", "Come to Jesus", "The friend of sinners",

"The anxious researcher", "Salvo do mar", "Dairy of the milkman", etc.

In 1887, Nannie returned to work in the educational field, this time next to the Mission of New

York, of the Church of the North (PCUSA), residing initially in São Paulo. It continued under

jurisdiction of the Nashville Committee, only later transferred to the Board of the Church of the

North. In the same year, an anonymous person pledged to donate fifty thousand reis

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to provide services as a "Bible reader" by visiting a number of

families. The teacher can not accept the charge on a permanent basis, but stated that

would do the work voluntarily, without retribution, visiting about twelve families

per week. Once he gave up his salary to help support a new

Worker.

Later, Nannie also worked in Botucatu, where she directed the evangelical school

founded by Rev. George Landes, at the time when Rev. Carvalho Braga was

church of that city. She was assisted by Clara E. Hough, Salvina Ribeiro and Lídia de Morais,

ending their work there at the end of 1893. Over the years, mission journals

The Missionary and Brazilian Missions published many articles written by her speaking

on his activities and on missionary work in Brazil. Throughout his career,

dedicated a missionary exerted a strong influence on some young aspirants to the

such as Erasmo Braga and especially Franklin do Nascimento.

Nannie Henderson retired in 1894 and returned to his homeland. Lived in

Fredericksburg, Virginia, city where many ex-missionaries in Brazil or their spouses

the last years of life have passed. He died on April 16, 1910, shortly before the

the arrival of the Rev. Álvaro Reis, the moderator of the newly created General Assembly of the Church

Presbyterian of Brazil. Nannie had longed to hear him talk about Brazil before he died. Feeling

that death preceded the arrival of the one who would bring him news of his homeland of adoption,

took the penalty and filled out a $ 10 check for the Campinas Seminar, but

he did not write the letter that would accompany him. His last words were "blood

Jesus "(blood Jesus).

Bibliography:

• Lessa, Annaes , 183, 285s, 446, 469.

• Ferreira, History of IPB , I: 116, 211, 248; II: 127, 189.

• "Record of Missionaries of the Presbyterian Church in the United States (Southern)",

Board of World Missions, Presbyterian Historical Society (Montreat,

North), 38.

• Bear, Mission to Brazil , 14, 17, 22s.

• McIntire, Portrait , 7 / 21-24, 35

​

​

Rev. William LeConte

Missionary in Campinas and Recife

William LeConte was born in Savannah, Georgia, on February 17, 1846. He was the son

firstborn of Louis LeConte (Liberty County, Georgia) and Harriet Nisbet (from

Athens, in the same state). Having his father died in October 1852, the family moved

to Washington, DC, residing there until January 1858. On that occasion, Mrs. LeConte

took their children to Europe and for six years educated them in schools in Germany, Switzerland and

Belgium. William excelled greatly in his studies and in 1863 was baptized into the Church

Free from Brussels, in the pastorate of Rev. Annet. In the same year, his family returned to

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U.S. In early 1864, he obtained placement on a Confederate ship that

had been fitted out in England and headed for one of the southern ports of the United States.

The ship was detained for a long time in the vicinity of Bermuda, due to a

epidemic of yellow fever on board, but William was preserved from the dangerous disease. He

then attempted to join the Confederacy by land across Virginia, but when he did,

Richmond had fallen before the northern troops. Going to Augusta, Georgia, he worked

for a few years as a bank clerk and joined the First Presbyterian Church.

Devoting himself to studies in his spare time, LeConte prepared for a higher education.

He entered the University of South Carolina in 1868 and graduated the following year,

enrolled in the second semester at the Columbia Seminary, where he completed his studies

in May 1872. He volunteered for the foreign missionary work of the

Church of the South (CPSU) in 1871, being named on March 7. In April 1872 it was

licensed by the Athens Presbytery and worked that summer in churches in Clarksville and

Nacoochee. His ordination occurred in September, 1872, at the Church of Gainesville. It was the

first missionary Church of the South to come to Brazil after the pioneering couples Morton and

Lane and educator Arianna Henderson. Before going to Brazil, he attended the

Synod of Virginia, meeting in Baltimore. Declined an invitation to speak to that council

on mission, limiting himself to asking for prayers in favor of his work in the mission field

to which God had called him.

He left for Brazil on November 23, 1872 and arrived in December, arriving at

Campinas the following month. On September 14, 1872, Rev. Edward Lane had written

the Nashville Committee urging the sending of a

to teach, a good classical background, and to speak and write fluently in

French and German, widely used by the upper classes of Brazilian society.

LeConte was listed by the primitive Presbytery of St. Paul, affiliated with the Church of the South, on 17

June 1873, at a meeting held at the "Hopewell Church" in Santa Barbara.

He attended the inauguration of the temple of the Church of Rio de Janeiro, in late March and early

April 1874, preaching on one of the nights. Due to the strong desire to devote himself to the

preaching, I did not want to be a permanent teacher at the College.

International or Institute of Campinas. It therefore urged

transfer to the mission station in Pernambuco, where pioneer John Rockwell

Smith had been working alone since January 1873.

At the initiative of Dr. John Leighton Wilson, Secretary of the Nashville Committee, who

visited Campinas, LeConte went to Recife in February 1875, exchanging

place with Rev. John Boyle, who had not adapted to the climate. Collaborated with Rev.

Smith in the Salvation of Grace newspaper , the first evangelical newspaper in the north of Brazil, whose

number of debut came to light in October of 1875. The newspaper, out of which twelve numbers came out,

came to be suspended with the removal and death of the missionary. LeConte taught

various subjects, including theology, to the future pastor, João Batista de Lima. Regressed

He was seriously ill to the United States in July 1876, arriving in his country on 11

August. He died at his mother's house in Washington on November 4 of that year,

at 30 years of age.

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His contemporaries say that LeConte was a neat man, but he generally enjoyed

in good health. Very intelligent and cultured, he stood out in a special way in the linguistic area.

In addition to knowing French and German, he was a scholar of Greek and Hebrew. Although

had a reserved temperament, had a great passion for missionary work and was

inflexible in the sense of doing what he considered his duty. A former missionary in the

Brazil commented: "Except for his thin physique, no man came to Brazil with

greater promise to be useful. " Whether as a student of the Portuguese language, teacher,

religious articles or gospel preacher, the general opinion was that his work was

always very well done and that he was a true martyr, having given his life for the cause

of missions. His name was perpetuated in a missionary society of the Synod of the

Virginia.

Bibliography:

• Lessa, Annaes , 113.

• Ferreira, History of IPB , I: 167, 169s, 182, 214, 247.

• "Rev. William LeConte ", The Missionary (December 1876).

• "Rev. William LeConte, " Minutes of the Synod of Virginia (1877), 446s.

• Memorial Volume of the Semi-Centennial of the Theological Seminary at Columbia,

South Carolina (Columbia: Presbyterian Publishing House, 1884), 315-317.

• Bear, Mission to Brazil , 14s, 33-35.

• McIntire, Portrait , 7/22

​

Rev. John Rockwell Smith

First Presbyterian missionary in the Brazilian northeast and first teacher of the

Presbyterian Seminary

John Rockwell Smith, a member of the Southern Presbyterian Church, was born

in Lexington, Kentucky, on December 29, 1846. He studied at the University

of Virginia, in Charlottesville. After graduating in theology at the Union Seminary (1868-

1871), at Hampden-Sydney, in the State of Virginia, was licensed by the West Presbytery

Lexington in June 1871 and ordained on December 18, 1872. He worked as

licensed in Winchester, in his state, from October 1871 until April 1872. Since

1871, he was accepted, along with the couple John and Agnes Boyle, as volunteer for the new

missionary work to be started in northern Brazil. The opening of this work was

made possible by contributions from the Presbyterian Churches of New Orleans (Louisiana) and

Mobile (Alabama).

On January 15, 1873 Smith arrived in Pernambuco, where he made a remarkable

pioneer work as a missionary and educator. He began the services on August 10,

same year, with ten adults and some children as auditorium. Since I still did not drive

had to read his sermon on Luke 4: 16-22. On the 30th, he

small pocket calendar: "It's a fragile start." At that time, the only other work

Evangelical in Recife was that of the Congregational, led by Manoel José da Silva Viana,

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a deacon of the Rev. Robert R. Kalley's church in Rio de Janeiro and colporteur of the Society

Biblical British and Foreign.

According to the historian Vicente Temudo Lessa, Smith was the "Simonton of the North". Surrounded

of a select group of colporteur-evangelists who did important work

preparatory for missionaries like himself, DeLacey Wardlaw, George W. Butler,

Joseph H. Gauss and William M. Thompson. In October 1875, he created the periodical Salvation

of Grace , which had a short duration, with only twelve issues being published. It was printed on

Lisbon, because no typography in Recife wanted to get the service. In this effort,

important collaboration of the Rev. William LeConte, who, after a brief stay in Brazil,

died in the United States at the end of 1876.

Rev. Smith organized the Presbyterian Church of Recife on August 11, 1878,

accompanied by the Rev. Alexander L. Blackford, who then traveled to the service of the Society

American Bible. Among the twelve founding members were three young men who later

embraced the ministry: João Batista de Lima, José Francisco Primênio da Silva and Belmiro

by Araújo César. These young people were part of a small class for the study of Brief

Catechism. Wishing to prepare them for ministry, Smith hired them as colporteurs

or part-time evangelists, giving them practical experience and livelihood

during the studies. In addition to Recife, Smith was a pioneer in many

places. In the following years, he also organized the Churches of Goiana (21-11-1880),

Paraíba, present João Pessoa (21-12-1884), Pão de Açúcar (18-08-1887) and Maceió (11-09-

1887), always under strong opposition from opponents.

In 1879, the famous case of the "neophyte" occurred in Pernambuco. In one of Recife's newspapers,

a series of slanderous articles against Protestantism began to emerge. Next year,

such articles were collected in a booklet entitled "Respectful

sr. minister of the evangelical church in this province by a neophyte from the same church. "

supposed neophyte was in fact the Capuchin friar Celestino de Pedávoli, who promoted

intense campaign against evangelicals. Through the pamphlet "The Neophyte Denied," Rev.

Smith gave a concise and proper response to the would-be member of his flock.

For several years, Smith had to work practically alone because the few

colleagues who came to help him were transferred (couple Boyle) or died (LeConte,

Ballard F. Thompson). The arrival of the Wardlaw couple in 1880 allowed him to have the

much needed rest, going in 1881 to visit work in southern Brazil. While there

was, met Susan Carolina Porter (1857-1921), with whom she married. Susan was a daughter

of an Alabama couple who came to Brazil shortly after the American Civil War.

As soon as they arrived in Rio de Janeiro, the father, James D. Porter, died of a yellow fever. THE

widow, Susan Meggs Porter (1825-1890), then moved to Campinas, where she opened a

pension for Americans and English. Later, Mrs. Susan Porter and daughter Ella Virginia

Porter went to the capital, having been enrolled in the Church of St. Paul on March 4,

1887. The young Ella came to marry the Methodist missionary Rev. Edmund A. Tilly

(1860-1917). Another son of this family, William Calvin Porter, would also be a valiant

Presbyterian worker in Northeast Brazil.

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With the transfer of the Wardlaw couple to Fortaleza in October 1882, Smith was

again alone, but the arrival of Dr. George Butler in February 1883

that in November of that year the Smith couple had their "furlough" (holidays and

work) in the United States. It was Smith's first vacation in eleven years. Mrs.

Wardlaw and his sons went with them. When the Smiths returned to Brazil in

September 1884, brought the Rev. Joseph Henry Gauss and his wife with him. The same

year, another worker arrived to assist in the work of Recife: William C. Porter, brother-in-law

of Smith. On November 11, 1884, the first

Society of Ladies of the Presbyterian Church of Brazil.

Rev. Smith possessed vast theological culture, nourished by his rich library. Its long

sermons of at least fifty minutes were deeply doctrinal and

Calvinists. His career as a preparer for future ministers began in the Northeast. He

he taught all subjects, including Greek. On May 22, 1887, assisted by the

Revs. Blackford and Wardlaw, ordered his first class of three students, those already cited

João Batista de Lima, José Primênio and Belmiro César. They were also his students in the

northeast the Revs. William C. Porter, Juventino Marinho da Silva and Manoel Alfredo

Guimarães. On August 17, 1888, the missionaries Smith, Wardlaw and Butler, as well as

the newly ordained pastors Lima, Primênio and Belmiro, and the presbyter William C. Porter

organized the Presbytery of Pernambuco.

When organizing the Synod of the Presbyterian Church of Brazil in September 1888,

Smith was the commission's rapporteur who recommended the creation of the Presbyterian Seminary.

Rev. Smith and Rev. Blackford, who died in 1890, were elected professors.

1891, the Central University of Kentucky granted to Smith the title of Doctor in

Divinity (DD). At the end of 1892, Smith moved to Nova Friburgo, in the State of

Rio, where the seminar was inaugurated on November 15. The other teachers were the

Rev. John M. Kyle, pastor of the local Presbyterian church, and the Rev. João Gaspar Meyer, pastor

Lutheran. There were only four students: Franklin do Nascimento, Manoel Alfredo Guimarães,

Alberto Meyer and the future historian Vicente Temudo Lessa. In addition to theology, Rev.

Smith taught English, history, geography, arithmetic, and rudiments of Greek and Hebrew.

At the beginning of 1895, Rev. Smith, his family and students moved to Sao Paulo,

to which the seminary was transferred, joining the Theological Institute created two years before

by Rev. Eduardo Carlos Pereira. In addition to teaching, Rev. Smith collaborated with

Presbyterian Church, where he preached frequently. At the Synod of 1897, he presented the

controversial "Smith Motion," urging American mother churches to help

the Brazilian church in the work of evangelization by direct methods, applying its

resources in the preparation of ministers and in the support of schools for the children of believers, and

not in large colleges. Since 1878 Smith had acquired the conviction that

missionaries should not be involved in secular-oriented schools. In 1906,

this position would influence the division of the South Mission in East Mission, based in Lavras

(favorable to schools), and Missão Oeste, based in Campinas (contrary to them).

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With the crisis that resulted in the division of the church (1903), the Smith family began to attend

United Presbyterian Church of São Paulo. From 1903 to 1905, Dona Carolina was president of

Company of Ladies (SAS), which participated in the campaign for the purchase of

land of Helvetia Street and the construction of the temple (it was renamed SAF in 1936).

At the beginning of 1907 the seminary was transferred to Campinas, where Rev. Smith ended his

long career as a pastor and educator. In addition to directing the seminar, he

Greek, systematic theology, practical theology and ecclesiastical government. In 1910, it was

United States in health treatment. On his return, he continued to serve the church; Besides

working at the seminary, preached regularly at two places near the city. From 1904 to

1914, participated in the interdenominational commission which, under the direction of Dr. Hugh Clarence

Tucker (1857-1956), executive secretary of the American Bible Society, prepared a

a new translation of the Bible, the "Brazilian Translation," published in 1917.

Smith prepared more than fifty men for the ministry. Among his last students

Jorge Goulart, Galdino Moreira, Guilherme Kerr and José Carlos Nogueira. When

one of them told him that he needed to rest, Rev. Smith replied, "I will

eternity to rest. " Due to health problems, he retired

December 1917. A few days before his death, on April 9, 1918, he said on waking

who had dreamed of distributing leaflets in the interior of Brazil. His wife, Dona Carolina,

died on November 17, 1921. The couple's tomb in Cemetery of Saudade, in

Campinas, has the words: "They fought the good fight, they kept the faith. Who will separate us from

love of Christ? "

The Smith couple had four sons and two daughters. Of the children, three pursued their careers.

ministerial (James Porter, Robert Benjamin and William Kyle) and the other was a physician (Rockwell

Emerson). His daughter Sarah Warfield Smith married Rev. Gaston Boyle

(1882-1965). The eldest son, James Porter Smith, born in Recife on August 19,

1882, after studying at the Union Seminary in Richmond, he returned to Brazil in 1909. In

same year, married Sadie Miller Hall of American Village, and in 1910 was ordained

in Sorocaba. He pastored several churches of the São Paulo Presbytery and taught at the Seminary

of Campinas from 1918 to 1930, succeeding his father. He wrote the book An Open Door

in Brazil (An Open Door in Brazil, 1925), an account of the missionary work of the

South in Brazilian lands. Returning to the United States, he became professor of theology

at the Union Seminar. He was the last missionary of Mission West to leave the

Campinas. He died in Richmond on July 31, 1940.

His brother, Robert Benjamin Smith, born in Freiburg on August 24, 1893, studied

for the ministry in the United States and came to Pernambuco in 1923. He was pastor in

Sands and teacher at the Seminary of Recife. He returned to the United States in 1929. At

At least six grandchildren of the Rev. John R. Smith were also pastors. Rev. Dr. Morton H.

Smith, his 78-year-old nephew-grandson, teaches biblical and systematic

The Presbyterian Theological Seminary of Greenville, South Carolina. He was the first

executive secretary of the Presbyterian Church of America - PCA (1973-1988) and in 2000

elected moderator of the General Assembly of that church. He has authored many books and essays, and

occasionally visited Brazil.

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Bibliography:

• Lessa, Annaes , 112s, 180a (photo), 156s, 215s, 282s, 287-90, 318, 356, 474s, 479s, 591,

669.

• Ferreira, History of IPB , I: 154-160, 169, 181-83, 191s, 234-36, 285, 293, 300, 341,

369-71, 395-400, 420s, 577; II: 49, 132, 154, 191, 277, 284, 366s.

• The Foreign Missionary (October 1874), 140.

• Álvaro Reis, "Rev. Dr. John Rockwell Smith, " The Puritan (18-04-1918), 1.

• Herculano de Gouvêa Júnior, "Dr. John Rockwell Smith, " The Puritan (25.04.1918), 1 and

4.

• A General Catalog of Union Theological Seminary in Virginia, 1807-1924 .

• James Porter Smith. An Open Door in Brazil: being a brief survey of the mission work

carried on in Brazil since 1869 by the Presbyterian Church in the United States.

Richmond: Presbyterian Committee of Publication, 1925.

• Evangelical North (11-08-1928), 3, 12s.

• "Dr. James Porter Smith, " The Puritan (25-09-1940), 2.

• Guilherme Kerr, "Dr. John Rockwell Smith, " The Puritan (10-08-1952), 4; (25-08-

1952), 2.

• Bear, Mission to Brazil , 7s, 33-40, 45s, 154s, 158s.

• Mac Knight Jones, Resting Soldier , 217s.

• Presbyterian Church of Recife, Anais do Centenário (1978).

• "Rockwell and Belmiro," Ultimatum (August 1978), 16-18

​

Rev. John Boyle

First Presbyterian missionary in the Triângulo Mineiro and Goiás

John Boyle was born on March 1, 1845 in Spencer County, in the north of the

Kentucky. He was the son of William Boyle and Esther Glass Boyle. He studied at the Center

Kentucky and worked as a teacher, then joining the Theological Seminary

Union (1870) in Richmond, Virginia. It was ordered by the Transylvania Presbytery,

in his home state, on June 6, 1872. He and his wife Agnes Woodson Morton

Boyle, a native of Farmville (Virginia), left New York on March 23, 1873, and

arrived in Recife on April 15, exactly three months after the arrival of Rev. John

Rockwell Smith. They were sent to Brazil by the Missions Committee of Nashville, the

Presbyterian of the South (CPSU), who had appointed them as missionaries in 1871. Due to

difficulties, they moved in April 1875 to Campinas, where Boyle

assisted Rev. Edward Lane in evangelistic and educational work. He headed the

girls' college attached to the International College. It was inscribed by the old Presbytery of

São Paulo, affiliated to the CPSU, in 1877, the last year of that council's existence.

At the beginning of 1879, Boyle settled in Mogi-Mirim, from where he evangelized

the region bordering Minas Gerais. In that city was a believer

called Jacob Filipe Wingerther, who was a dedicated colporteur and evangelist of the

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Mission of Nashville. On August 22 of the same year, accompanied by Wingerther, Boyle

first time in Cape Verde, Minas Gerais, preaching about 60 people in the

room of Freemasonry, at the invitation of the farmer Antonio de Padua Dias, who had been reading the Bible

some time ago. The local church would be organized by Rev. Miguel Torres, on the site of Padua

Days, May 22, 1881. Another city Boyle visited was Cajuru, where the only person

to welcome him was the local Masonic chief, Miguel Rizzo, who came to convert with his

family. His son of the same name was the illustrious pastor of the United Church of São Paulo and the

"Prince of the Presbyterian pulpit". In his missionary work, Wingerther had

long trips to the Minas Gerais Triangle, bringing Boyle information about the

evangelistic opportunities in that vast region.

In 1881 and 1882, Boyle made his first reconnaissance trips in Central Brazil,

arriving to Uberaba. The following year, Wingerther went to Paracatu and again brought a

enthusiastic report on the receptivity of the people. By mid-1884, the two workers

visited, among other places, Araguari, Bagagem, Paracatu, Santa Luzia de Goiás and

Formosa. Among Araguari's first converts were Querubino dos Santos and

couple Tertuliano and Maria Otília Goulart, parents of the future Rev. Jorge Thompson Goulart. The

Tertullian and Cherubine cousins ​​had been influenced by the reading of the Bible and a

exemplary of the Evangelical Press , by which they learned that an American missionary,

John Boyle, offered to explain the gospel to anyone who sought it. They wrote for

Boyle in Mogi-Mirim. This was the Baggage from which the letter had been sent, but the

young men had transferred residence to Araguari. In Baggage, Boyle found a

blacksmith who had converted by reading the Bible and was ready to profess the faith, though

had never heard of evangelical churches. Following to Araguari, he found the

two young men, receiving them by profession of faith, along with several relatives, on Sunday day

July 13, 1884. These were the first Presbyterian believers of the entire Triangle

Miner. The return trip from Luziânia to Mogi-Mirim lasted four weeks and two days

of incessant cavalcade.

In 1885, Boyle went to the United States on vacation (residing in Danville, Kentucky)

and was granted permission to move to the interior of Brazil. He returned the following year,

bringing with him a new missionary, Rev. George Wood Thompson. From August to October

of the same year (1886), the two ministers visited the places where Boyle had preached

in 1884 and concluded that Baggage, a city of gold miners, in which Tertullian and

Cherubin were residing again, it must be the new base of operations. On 14 December

April 1887, Boyle participated in the creation of the Presbytery of Campinas and West of Minas,

successor of the old Presbytery of São Paulo, extinct ten years earlier. In July, the family

Boyle and Rev. Thompson moved to Bagagem, now called Estrela do Sul

(due to the famous diamond with that name found there), in the north of the Triângulo Mineiro.

The change was a true epic, narrated in detail in an account sent to the

The Missionary newspaper . As a result, the Mission of the Interior of the

Brazil.

The following year (1888), Boyle returned to visit the field of Goiás, making a trip of

more than 1500 km. Crossing the rivers Paranaíba and San Marcos, preached in Catalão, Caldas

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Novas, Morrinhos, Santa Luzia, Formosa, Jaraguá, Entre Rios and Curralinhos, arriving until

the old capital of the province, Goiás Velho. In a letter sent to the mission journal, he

expressed the desire to evangelize the Tocantins Valley and reach the Amazon. At the

same year, he participated in the creation of the Presbyterian Synod, being elected vice-moderator, and

became part of the new Presbytery of Mines. In January 1889, Boyle launched the

appreciated newspaper The Evangelist , later revived in Araguari by his disciple

Querubino dos Santos and Descalvado by Rev. Alva Hardie. In his "Letters to the Bishop"

of Goiás, "published in that period after 1891, responded to the accusations contained in the

antiprotestant pamphlet "The Neophyte", published in Recife in 1879.

While Boyle was traveling in Goias, Thompson, and Hugh C. Tucker, the Secretary of Society

From Paracatu to the São Francisco River, descended

coast and arrived in Pernambuco. Thompson returned to the Minas Gerais Triangle when he

that yellow fever had hit some colleagues in Campinas. He went to help them, it was over.

contracting the disease and died. At the end of 1889, he arrived in Brazil to replace

Rev. Frank A. Cowan and the following year he and Boyle made the circuit of Goiás again.

In 1891, Mrs. Boyle went to the United States with three children who needed to study,

leaving Boyle and the Cowan couple in Baggage. On September 1 of that year, Boyle

preached at the ordination ceremony of the graduates João Vieira Bizarro, Herculano Ernesto

de Gouvêa and Bento Ferraz, in Mogi-Mirim, in the company of Revs. Edward Lane and

Miguel Torres. Among others, Boyle referred in Christian life and studies to the

youth ministry, Delfino dos Anjos Teixeira and Álvaro E. Gonçalves dos Reis, and

received the latter by profession of faith in 1882, in Mogi-Mirim.

Boyle wasted no time. In one of his trips, he went through about 40 cities and towns and

just did not preach in two of them due to lack of place. Until 1890, when the Catholic Church left

of being the official religion, the evangelical manifestations in the open air were forbidden. On your

evangelistic trips, Boyle distributed Bibles and New Testaments, one of which was

late it was left in the hands of Mr. Davi de Melo. Already disappointed with the dissolute life of the one

priest of the region, David read the Bible on Sundays with a Protestant neighbor.

Eventually he, the wife Maria Isabel and the three daughters were received by profession of faith

Rev. Charles R. Morton. Some time later, his brother Manoel de Melo and his wife,

newlyweds, also professed the faith with Rev. Morton. They were the parents of Maria de

Melo Chaves, author of the book Bandeirantes da Fé . Over time, all the others

brothers Melo were converted.

In mid-1892, with the end of the Evangelical Press , Boyle was invited to

transfer to São Paulo and restart the publication of this pioneering periodical. However,

chose to continue to evangelize in the interior, his true vocation ("my heart is

in the wilderness, and in the wilderness shall I be "). He and Rev. Samuel Gammon went to Rio de Janeiro

to receive Dr. Matthew Hale Houston (1841-1905), secretary of the

Nashville from 1883 to 1893. Boyle also awaited the arrival of his wife Agnes, who after all

did not come. They went to Lavras to study the possibility of changing the College

For that city of Minas Gerais. At the beginning of September, the three workers

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participated in the meeting of the Presbytery of Mines in Cape Verde, where Boyle

had first preached thirteen years earlier.

Back in Baggage, the last leg of Boyle's voyage was a ride of twenty-four

hours, arriving home on September 10. Friends noticed that their

health was altered. His activity was feverish: in the newspaper, at the farm and at the Colegio Progresso

Brazilian, who had founded. The preparation of articles for publication in a book and a

fire on his property, which required effort from his and his friends until the evening, they took him

to the bed. In his last days he was afflicted with dyspnea and edema. Pray for the

and work, and sang hymns, sometimes in Portuguese ("In the

Sunday Jesus rested, " Evangelical Hymn No. 69), sometimes in English (" The Lord, how

many, many are my enemies. He suddenly passed away in the

October 4, 1892, victim of a heart attack, only 47 years old. Your

The tomb of simple appearance has the words of Revelation 14:13: "Blessed are the

dead who die from the Lord. " In that same distressing year for the

Brazilian presbyterianism, the Revs had already passed away. Edward Lane and Miguel Gonçalves

Torres. By the middle of the following year, Revs. Álvaro Reis and Caetano Nogueira Júnior

formally organized the four churches founded by Boyle in Central Brazil: Luggage,

Paracatu, Santa Luzia de Goiás and Araguari. Today they can still be seen in Estrela do Sul,

next to the river that cuts the small town, the ruins of the old house where the family lived

Boyle.

In addition to publishing The Evangelist , in which he revealed his flair as a polemicist, Boyle left

sermons in The Evangelical Pulpit and wrote the pamphlet India and Christianity . also

made an important contribution to evangelical hymnology. Produced the hymnal Gospel Hymns

and Sacred Songs , with 604 hymns and several doxologies, which cost him thirteen years of

selfless endeavors. Thirty-seven of the hymns are his own, among which "Homeland

my, for you I sigh, "" By faith we see beyond "and" Tribute, you redeemed. " The hymnal was

published in 1888 by the Laemmert Typography, in Rio de Janeiro. It proposed to

followed by the same collection with songs, but died before performing this attempt.

Nineteen of his productions figured in the early editions of Psalms and Hymns . The Hinário

Presbyterian New Song has two of his hymns, "My soul is stained" (no. 72)

and "On cloud, shining" (no. 295).

D. Agnes died on March 23, 1902 in Fredericksburg, Va., Where he was

director of a school and shelter for missionary orphans. His five children were Gaston,

Margaret Esther, Mary Venable, Woodson Morton and Lewis Holladay. Gaston Boyle,

born in Mogi-Mirim on October 31, 1882, was also a missionary in Brazil,

arriving in Campinas in 1908 to relearn the language. He married in 1909 with Sarah

Warfield Smith, daughter of pioneer John Rockwell Smith. He initially worked in

Bragança (1909-1918), from where it penetrated deep through the mountainous region of Cambui. As

his father, fought many polemics with the priests through newspapers and pamphlets. Then,

worked for several years in the difficult field of Itu, a Jesuit fortress, in which

many points of preaching. Gaston returned to the homeland of his parents in 1933,

many years later, on April 9, 1965.

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His eldest son, John Boyle (the same name as his grandfather), later came to serve the Mission

Leste (1938-1974). He arrived as a lay worker, initially residing in Lavras. Got married

in 1942 with the missionary May Shepard Schlich, studied at the Seminary of Campinas and was

ordered in 1950. The couple worked in Paraguaçu Paulista, Formiga, Bambuí, Sete

Lagoas and Ponta Porã. When they retired, they went to live in Ubatuba, on the coast of São Paulo.

His brother Lewis Venable Boyle, born in Itu on December 31, 1923, was pastor of

various churches in the United States.

Bibliography:

• Lessa, Annaes , 113, 300, 338, 419-22, 641.

• Ferreira, History of IPB , I: 158, 167, 192, 247, 248-54, 280, 285, 322s, 329, 334, 367s,

376-78, 488, 502-508; II: 132, 315, 367.

• Book of Acts of the Church of Cape Verde (1881-1904), Presbyterian Archive.

• Necrology of the Rev. John Boyle, The Evangelist (05-10-1892).

• A General Catalog of Union Theological Seminary in Virginia, 1807-1924 .

• James Porter Smith. An Open Door in Brazil: being a brief survey of the mission work

carried on in Brazil since 1869 by the Presbyterian Church in the United States.

Richmond: Presbyterian Committee of Publication, 1925.

• Chaves, Bandeirantes da Fé , 22-28.

• Bear, Mission to Brazil , 15, 17-22, 138, 154-58.

• Braga, Evangelical Sacred Music , 326.

• McIntire, Portrait , 7/35, 70-76.

• Ministerial Directory, PCUS (1861-1967) , 59.

• "Personalia", Ultimatum (August 1976), 7.

• Ribeiro, IPB: From Autonomy to Schism , 74-118.

• Hahn, Protestant Cult in Brazil , 254s, 265-268.

• Waldete Tilmann Ribeiro da Silva and Jonas Alves da Silva, Presbyterian Church of

Araguari: A Trajectory of One Hundred Years (1893-1993). Araguari, 1993.

• Wilson Castro Ferreira. Small History of the West Brazil Mission . Sponsorship:

CEIBEL, 1996.

​

Rev. John Watkins Dabney

Educator and evangelist in Campinas

John W. Dabney was born in Virginia on September 20, 1850. His father was Dr.'s brother.

Robert L. Dabney, theologian, professor and author of theological compendia. It was this leader who

suggested to the Southern Presbyterian Church of the United States (CPSU) the establishment of a

mission in Brazil. John was a teacher in Virginia for five years and graduated from Hampden-

Sydney College in 1874. He was appointed a missionary by the Executive Committee of the Church

Presbyterian of the South on June 9 of that year and left for Brazil on August 23,

arriving in Campinas in October. After teaching for two years at the International

Rev. Edward Lane in the Church of Campinas, returned to the United States in

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September 1876, partly for health reasons, but also to

theological studies at the Union Seminary. He took with him two Brazilian students, one of

the future Rev. Flamínio Augusto Rodrigues, who were going to study at Hampden-Sydney.

Dabney was licensed and ordained by the East Hanover Presbytery on April 28, 1878

and married Kate Nelson Gregory in Richmond on June 20. Your appointment was

renewed by the Nashville Committee on January 6, 1879. He and his wife boarded

on February 5, arriving in Campinas in March. Upon his arrival, the Rev. John

Boyle moved from Campinas to Mogi-Mirim. Dabney was shipped with instructions

the Executive Committee to take over the treasury of the International College and

to clarify the difficult financial situation that threatened the institution's existence. Months later,

when Rev. George Nash Morton moved to São Paulo, Dabney took the lead

from school. As nearly half of the teachers and students

moving to São Paulo, it was with great difficulty that the International

your job. Tuition reached its lowest point in 1882, when the school had

only fifty-one students. By then, there had been a change in philosophy

and the college had turned to Bible teaching and

workers. In 1882 missionary Charlotte Kemper arrived to assist in school to

girls. Flamínio Rodrigues, having graduated from Hampden-Sydney, took up

for boys in 1884, freeing Dabney for evangelistic work.

Since returning to Brazil in 1879, Dabney has been devoting himself to ministry. Helped the

Rev. Edward Lane in the pastorate of the Church of Campinas, replacing him in his absences

in assistance to the vast field. On August 18 of that year, he preached in Cape Verde,

Minas Gerais, and the next day in São Bartolomeu, being the pioneer of that region. O

colportor Jacob Filipe Wingerther accompanied him on this trip. On April 29, 1883,

organized the Church of Itatiba. In addition to Campinas, he pastored the Churches of Itapira (Penha),

Itatiba and Mogi-Mirim; visited Amparo, Bragança and Santa Bárbara, and resided for about

two years in Jundiaí. He was one of the speakers at the special work week that marked the

inauguration of the temple of the Presbyterian Church of São Paulo, in January 1884. Esteve

present in the creation of the Presbytery of Campinas and West of Minas Gerais on April 14, 1887,

but it was not filed until the following year, transferring from the West Hanover Presbytery. In

September 1888, participated in the organization of the Synod of the Presbyterian Church of Brazil.

In March of 1889, feeling exhausted and sick, he was visited by colleague George Wood

Thompson, a resident of Baggage, in the Minas Gerais Triangle, who came to assist him in his

activities. At the time there was an outbreak of yellow fever and Thompson died in the

May 1 at the age of 26. Dabney wrote about his friend saying that he

"Served beautifully and courageously." Less than a year later, Dabney would be another victim

of the same disease. On March 2, 1890, a Sunday, he preached in Itatiba. At the

following day, when returning to Campinas, was affected by the yellow fever, coming to die

on March 9 at the age of 39. He died quietly. In response to a question

of Rev. Lane, asking if he was ready to leave, replied, "Yes, I've been ready for years."

Shortly before expiring in the arms of the veteran colleague, he said: "From the beginning I asked God

to do what is best and I have no doubt that he is doing it. "

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Rev. Eduardo Carlos Pereira, who shortly afterwards wrote in the

National Missions Magazine a beautiful tribute to the deceased worker. Rev. Edward Lane,

who had just arrived from the United States, where he had left his family, had to go back there

taking the widow and his five children. His tombstone in Cemetery of Saudade contains the

passage from Revelation 14:13, in English. Kate Dabney remarried and lived for

years in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Bibliography:

• Lessa, Annaes , 173, 354s.

• Ferreira, History of IPB , I: 215, 247s, 285s, 327, 329.

• "Rev. John W. Dabney, " The Missionary (June 1890).

• A General Catalog of Union Theological Seminary in Virginia, 1807-1924 .

• Bear, Mission to Brazil , 14, 16, 24.

• McIntire, Portrait , 7 / 35s, 8/5.

• Bencostta, Go for Everybody , 102-106.

​

Rev. Ballard Franklin Thompson

Missionary in Recife

Ballard F. Thompson was born in Wilson County, Tennessee, on October 10,

1847. In 1875, he received a bachelor's degree from Stewart College, the Presbyterian

Southwest, in Clarksville, in the same state, and worked as a teacher. Did the studies

theological seminary at the Union Theological Seminary in Virginia, where he joined in 1876.

licensed by the Nashville Presbytery on April 23, 1879 and ordained in January of

1880. Appointed a missionary in 1879, he arrived in Recife on February 26, 1880 to

assistant to the Rev. John Rockwell Smith.

The Rev. William Calvin Porter, addressing the 50th anniversary of the Presbytery of

Pernambuco (August 15, 1938), said that Ballard was strong and well disposed. Learned

in a short time the Portuguese. One afternoon she went to the Madalena neighborhood to visit a family

believer and the house girls took him to the place. Although warned, he ate warmed guavas

by the afternoon sun. Said, "This does not hurt me." He died within a week, on the 27th of

April 1880, victim of a gastric fever. He had arrived in Brazil two months ago and

was only 33 years old. His death prompted seminar colleague and friend DeLacey Wardlaw

to take their place, coming to work for many years in

Fortress.

Bibliography:

• Lessa, Annaes , 188.

• Ferreira, History of IPB , I: 182s.

• A General Catalog of Union Theological Seminary in Virginia, 1807-1924 

​

Rev. DeLacey Wardlaw

Presbyterian pioneer in Ceará

DeLacey Wardlaw was born in Paris, Kentucky, where he was born on November 5,

1856. He was the son of T. DeLacey Wardlaw and Sarah Louise Fisher Wardlaw. Studied at

College of New Jersey at Princeton, and Union Seminary (1878-1880) in Virginia,

where she was classmate of Ballard F. Thompson. This arrived in Recife in February

1880 and died suddenly two months later. Wardlaw promptly offered to

take the place of the friend. After being ordained by the Nashville Presbytery in June of

1880, arrived in Recife on August 26, accompanied by his wife, Mary Swift Hoge

Wardlaw, a native of Virginia. They worked for some time with the pioneer Rev. John

Rockwell Smith. At the beginning of 1882, the couple felt the need to live in a place of

milder climate. After a brief trip to the United States, they

Ceará, arriving in Fortaleza on September 27, 1882. It was a Sunday and the

missionary held his first evening service in the Martyrs' Square where he was

Stayed there.

Rev. Wardlaw baptized the first thirteen members on July 8, 1883, the date of

organization of the Church of Fortaleza. At the time, there was controversy in the newspapers,

resulting in the publication of two leaflets. Wardlaw wrote one of them, The Cult of the Saints ,

in response to another of the same title written by Father Constantino Gomes de Mattos.

After one year, the Committee of Missions determined that he should spend some time in

São Luís do Maranhão, where he was from October 1883 until April 1884, traveling in

then to the United States. In July 1885, Wardlaw organized the Church of

Mossoró, in Rio Grande do Norte. On May 22, 1887, he participated in the ordination of

first Brazilian Presbyterian pastoralists of the Northeast: Belmiro de Araújo César, João

Batista de Lima and José Francisco Primênio da Silva. At that time,

in a theater rented in Natal, in one of which there were more than six hundred

people.

In addition to repeated visits to Mossoro, Wardlaw made trips through the interior of Ceará, visiting

Baturité and other points, in which he faced fearlessly many persecutions. In

of these journeys, was accompanied by the Rev. John R. Smith and by the then Presbyter William

Calvin Porter, having the three workers faced tremendous persecution in Conceição de

Baturité. In Fortaleza, Wardlaw published articles in the Liberator , a newspaper with a

three thousand copies distributed throughout the province. In the discussions with Father Constantino,

counted with the collaboration of José Damião de Souza Melo, the first Presbyterian believer

of Fortaleza, who was a journalist and poet. In 1888, he participated in the organization of the Presbytery

of Pernambuco, on August 17, and the Synod of the Presbyterian Church of Brazil, on 6

September. The Church of Fortaleza was formally organized, through the election of

first officers, on August 6, 1890.

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A few years later, Rev. Wardlaw had a disagreement with Dr. Matthew Hale

Houston, secretary of the Nashville Missions Committee, and was fired from his

missionary. Citing the high cost of living and the few fruits of work, Houston understood

that new missionaries should not be sent to the north of Brazil, but to China and the

Japan. In November 1893, Rev. William Calvin was sent to work in Ceará.

Porter, who stayed there until 1895. In the winter of 1894, Porter and Wardlaw made a trip

missionary to the cities of Quixadá and Uruburetama. When they returned, they almost lost their lives.

in the crossing of the Curu River, which was overflowing due to the rains; Wardlaw was taken

by the current more than a kilometer downstream. On a visit from Dr. Houston to Fortaleza,

Porter served as an instrument for the reconciliation of the two workers.

With the transfer of the couple Porter to Natal, Wardlaw and his wife were left alone for some

time, divided between Fortaleza and Baturité, in addition to other points. In 1896, it reached the

Ceará to assist Wardlaw Rev. Reginald P. Baird, son of Rev. James R. Baird, who

had worked in the American colony in Santa Bárbara, in the state of São Paulo. At the

the following year, because of difficulties in his pastorate, Rev. Wardlaw was

off from the Pernambuco Presbytery and the Mission. The cause of the difficulties would have been the

fact that he engages in commercial activities, setting up a bookstore. Lived in

Fortaleza for a few more years, dealing with his private affairs, and returned to

United States in the second half of 1901. Rev. Natanael Cortez recounts a case

picturesque. Wardlaw was once picked up by a group of boys on the streets of the capital

Ceará: "Father married! Father married! Look at the married priest! "The missionary, very well

dressed, distributed a few nickels among the boys and recommended: "Look boys,

to be continued! Call me married father. Non-denominated, non-denominational priest. "

Rev. Wardlaw died on January 20, 1934. His wife died the same year.

Despite difficulties in expressing himself in Portuguese, and although he had withdrawn

unpleasant circumstances, his courageous work became an inspiring page in the

history of Brazilian Presbyterianism. Mary Hoge Wardlaw wrote the book in English

titled Candida or By a Path she did not Know: A History of Ceará .

In 1941, Rev. Natanael Cortez found in Miami a daughter of the Wardlaw couple.

Bibliography:

• Lessa, Annaes , 188, 215, 535-37.

• Ferreira, History of IPB , I: 224-30, 297s, 452-54.

• A General Catalog of Union Theological Seminary in Virginia, 1807-1924 .

• Bear, Mission to Brazil , 35, 40, 43, 48.

• Natanael Cortez, Presbyterianism in Northern Brazil (Recife, 1957), 9-11.

• Mary Hoge Wardlaw. Candida; or, By a Way She Knew: A Story From Ceará .

Richmond, s / d.

• Fernandino Caldeira de Andrada, "Rev. De Lacey Wardlaw ", Brazil Presbyterian

(March 1998), 20.

​

Charlotte Kemper

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Great educator in Campinas and Lavras

Charlotte or Carlota Kemper was the third missionary educator sent to Brazil by

Presbyterian Church of the Southern United States (CPSU), after Arianna Henderson and

Mary Videau Kirk. He was born in Warrenton, in northern Virginia, not far from

Washington, on August 21, 1837, being the granddaughter of a colonel of the Prussian army

emigrated to the United States. His parents were called William Samuel Kemper and Sarah

Humphreys Kemper. Lotty, as he was known to the intimates, received solid education in

his home state, having studied in the cities of Charlottesville and Richmond. In 1847, his

father was appointed director of the University of Virginia, created by the great statesman Thomas

Jefferson. Of a somewhat introverted temperament, Charlotte was endowed with an intelligence

exceptional. He studied algebra, geometry, Latin and Greek language and literature, German, Italian,

French and later Hebrew, as well as piano, guitar and singing.

She experienced the horrors and humiliations of the Civil War. With the defeat of

confederates, all valuable assets of the family were confiscated. An officer from Elmira,

New York, sent in his presence to box his piano and sent it to his wife. We

years, she worked as a private teacher and taught in some schools, taking

taught for twelve years at the Augusta Women's Seminary (later Mary Baldwin

College) in Staunton, Virginia. He was strongly influenced by the Dabney family,

belonged the illustrious theologian and professor Robert L. Dabney (1820-1898) and his nephew

John W. Dabney (1850-1890), who was a missionary in Brazil.

In 1882, at the age of forty-five, while teaching at Staunton,

the dream of being an educating missionary. The Executive Committee of Missions hesitated

to accept a missionary at that age, but, in view of her excellent health,

preparation, knowledge of languages ​​and dedication to studies, decided to open a

exception. In response to an appeal from Rev. Edward Lane, Charlotte decided to come to Brazil with

he and his family to replace missionary Arianna (Nannie) Henderson, who was

sick. He arrived in Campinas in early February 1882. He led the girls' school

International College, in Campinas, was the purchasing superintendent of the

institution and taught a wide variety of subjects. It is stated that D. Pedro II, in

visited the college, expressed great admiration for his rare talent.

In December 1889, after a vacation in the United States, Charlotte returned

to Brazil with Rev. Lane and Mary Parker Dascomb, another notable educator who

in the country since 1869. The group also included two new missionaries, the Revs.

Frank A. Cowan and Samuel Rhea Gammon. Charlotte guided the latter in the study of

language, was a reviewer of his sermons and articles and since then has always been associated with him

in the educational work. At the beginning of 1892, the yellow fever reappeared in Campinas. Lane

he insisted that the other workers go elsewhere, but he and Charlotte

remained in the city to care for the sick and comfort the dying. On the 18th of

March, Charlotte was affected by the fever and almost perished. Rev. Lane gave her assistance

until she recovered, and then on the 22nd, she became ill, passing away on the day

March 26th. As no minister was available for the funeral, Charlotte, still

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convalescent, instructed the gardener to memorize Psalm 23 to recite it together

to the grave.

At the end of that year, because of the epidemic and the losses suffered, the International

was transferred to Lavras, in the south of Minas Gerais, becoming later the Institute

Gammon, which has been providing relevant services to the community. In Lavras, D.

Carlota spent the rest of her life. In addition to being the treasurer of the Southern Brazilian Mission

(later, Mission East) and run the new school, she spent a lot of time visiting

families and evangelistic work. It became known to mission staff as

"Aunt Lotty" (Aunt Carlota), such is his kindness and solicitude. The "old lady who walked

quickly "always had words of affection and encouragement for each one. It really came to be

known in school and in the city as "Miss Goodness." In 1895, after the Rev.

Gammon returned from the United States already married to his cousin Willie and set up his

own house, D. Carlota moved in with them, as if he were a member of the family, and

so he remained until the end of his life. It seems that it was on this occasion that she suffered a

crisis of paralysis that left in its face its permanent mark.

His affection for the candidates to the ministry was proverbial and there were many future

church leaders who passed through their hands, like the Revs. José Ozias Gonçalves (1874-

1922) and Pachoal Luiz Pitta (1889-1960). When Mary Baldwin passed away, patroness and

principal of the college in which she had taught in the United States, Charlotte received

inheritance of ten thousand dollars, which he spent on the construction of churches and the maintenance of young people

students. This little great woman collaborated decisively with the Gammon Institute,

more prominent in the region, and with the local Presbyterian church, often in

strong opposition. For twenty years, he was responsible for the preparation of Lessons

Sunday School Internships, which were used in Brazil, Portugal and other

places. He wrote the book "O Cego Bartimeu" and translated several texts used in the school

of Lavras. In 1908, in recognition of his efforts, the mission gave its name to the

school of girls (Colégio Carlota Kemper). The new building, inaugurated in 1927, was

by a donation received by her from the women's societies of the Presbyterian

Virginia.

D. Carlota was also known for his versatility and great culture. The guests

illustrious men who entered his house were far from supposing that this modest woman

she was there, and she listened to them silently, she would be able to give them lessons in matters

which they considered themselves masters. She knew in depth Latin, as well as Greek and

Hebrew. As a hobby, I enjoyed reading the Latin classics, solving

trigonometry and make calculations. They became famous some episodes in which she resolved

complicated mathematical problems that certain prepared men were having

difficulties to solve. Ancient and modern history was another of his specialties.

It was considered by many who knew her the most cultured woman in Brazil. Your biographer is

youngest colleague, Myrtle (Margarida) Sydenstricker, says that, despite its brilliance and

intellectual vigor, she was feminine in everything: she appreciated beauty and delicate things. THE

harshness or the softness of the silk pleased him. She was never dressed exaggeratedly, but

dressed well; with simplicity but with good quality material.

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When his old age grew accentuated and the ascent of the long street that led to the church became

fatiguing for her, Dr. Gammon ordered a car from the United States to come in order to

and other weak people to the worship and Sunday school, which

Mid day. It was with reluctance that he submitted to it, fearing to be misunderstood. In

fact, when a member of the church criticized the use of horses on Sunday, D. Carlota never

most used the car. She was known for her sense of humor, which made her mock the

his own physical appearance, and for being extremely methodical. It was imperturbable to take

program of activities: studying in quiet hours, teaching

schedules and, moreover, to live for others: instructing, consoling, evangelizing,

helping When the lack of sight began to prevent her from teaching, she began to spend

part of your time on visits.

Ten days before she became ill, D. Carlota walked the premises of the new

college that had his name. His comment was: "The new Kemper is ready; the old

Kemper can die. " During her final illness, she found herself surrounded by all who

loved both Brazilians and Americans. Your "nephews and nieces" of the Mission

Leste came to visit her, some several times. Mrs Rosa Mabel Maxwell was

treating her for five weeks. The consecrated missionary passed away at the age of 90,

Sunday, May 15, 1927. Dona Carlota, in her lifetime, was honored by many

ways. The City of Rio de Janeiro gave its name to one of the streets of that capital.

His major contribution was the beneficial influence he had on several generations of

young Brazilians, as well as their eloquent testimony, with words and with life,

about the power of the gospel.

Bibliography:

• Lessa, Annaes , 338.

• Ferreira, History of IPB , I: 212s, 329s, 363s, 489-98; II: 134-36, 262-65.

• Júlio C. Nogueira, "D. Carlota Kemper, " The Puritan (28-05-1927), 1.

• Daisy Sydenstricker. Carlota Kemper , trans. Jorge Goulart. São Paulo: Sao Paulo

Publisher, 1941.

• Clara Moore Gammon. Thus Shines the Light: The Life of Samuel Rhea Gammon , trad.

Jorge T. Goulart, 2nd ed. São Paulo: Editora Cultura Cristã, 2003 (1st ed., Lavras:

Press Gammon, 1959). Title of the original: So Shines the Light.

• Bear, Mission to Brazil , 22, 25, 107.

• Edward Lane III, "Footprints of Faith: Story of Edward Lane".

• "Professor Charlotte Kemper's biographical summary":

www.gammon.br/GamCarlota.htm

Rev. Flamínio Augusto Rodrigues

Director of the International College and pastor in the region of Mogiana

Although he was Brazilian, Flamínio Rodrigues should be included among the missionaries of the

Church of the South because it has always been linked to the Nashville Mission. Born in Limeira in the

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August 5, 1856, being a member of a family of the São Paulo elite who joined the cause

evangelical In 1870, he entered the famous Ipiranga College in Araraquara, where he also

studied Eduardo Carlos Pereira, that later would come to teach in this educandário. In

1874, accompanied by two younger brothers, Flamínio joined the College

Campinas and two years later went to the United States in

of the Rev. John W. Dabney, who was a professor at the International College and would return to Brazil

as ordained minister in 1879.

Flaminio studied at Hampden-Sydney College, Virginia, where he obtained the

a bachelor's degree in letters in 1880. Two years earlier, he had made his profession of faith. Coming back to

Brazil, spent the 1880s working as a teacher and director of the College

International. He initially assisted Rev. Dabney in the direction of the college. In 1881,

followed again to the United States, marrying Fredrika Venable in Virginia.

The two were appointed missionaries of the Southern Church (CPSU) the following year. From 1884 to

In 1890, Flaminio took over the leadership of the International and was the only

to perform this function during the existence of that college in Campinas.

Flaminius studied theology with Rev. Edward Lane at the International College. In 1887 it was

elected priest of the Church of Campinas and took part in the organization of the Presbytery of

Campinas and Oeste de Minas (April 14). In 1888, he participated in the organization of the Synod of

Presbyterian Church of Brazil and the Presbytery of Minas Gerais, from which he was later

permanent. He also studied theology at the Columbia Seminary (then Columbia,

South Carolina), for part of a year, and later at Union Theological Seminary in

Virginia. In 1889, during a yellow fever epidemic in Campinas, he lost his son

Fred.

He was licensed by the Presbytery of Minas Gerais on September 5, 1892 and ordered on 18

September 1893. He pastored the Churches of Campinas, Itatiba and Mogi-Mirim, as well as

congregations of Bragança Paulista, Jundiaí, Amparo, Descalvado and Monte-Mór. It was the

third Brazilian pastor prepared by the mission of Campinas, after Delfino dos Anjos

Teixeira and Álvaro Reis. He was very attached to the American missionaries,

position in the struggles of the 1890s. In 1896 and

protest against the Representation of the Presbyteries of São Paulo and Minas Gerais about the Seminar

and Mackenzie and was one of those who stood against the Smith Motion, on the priority

of evangelization on education.

In 1898, Rev. Flaminio had the painful experience of losing a teenage son. At the

April 2, Flamínio Kemper Rodrigues, 14, a student of the American School,

participated in an excursion with a group of students and threw himself on the Tietê river to save

a boy who had fallen there. Both perished. His tomb, in the Cemetery of the Protestants,

brings the following biblical words: "No one has greater love than this: to give one's life

by your friends. " His middle name was a tribute to missionary Charlotte Kemper.

Years before, another son of the couple had died of yellow fever in Campinas.

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At the time of the Presbyterian schism of 1903, Flaminio stayed for about a year

small group from Campinas that remained faithful to the Synod and met in a

of the rooms of the International College. Most of the church joined the movement

under the leadership of Rev. Bento Ferraz, conserving the temple through a

Judicial decision. This crisis left Rev. Flaminio dejected and bitter. He was a shepherd.

dedicated and a good preacher, but left only one sermon published, in the Pulpit

Evangelical (1893). He was a learned man, a scholar, a friend of books, but reserved and

modest. According to Temudo Lessa, he "was a humble worker, who silently

fulfilled the mission that was reserved for him. "

Flamínio Rodrigues had a ministry of only fourteen years. He passed away on August 13

1907 in the city of Fredericksburg, Virginia, to where he had gone on vacation on the

1905. Three years later (1910), Rev. Álvaro Reis, moderator of the newly created

General Assembly, and his wife, were received by D. Fredrika in Fredericksburg,

whose home also found Rev. Reginald Baird's widow. A single survivor of

family, Virginius, lived in the United States. The Rodrigues family home in Campinas

served for a long time as the residence of the Rev. John R. Smith, having been sold to the

seminar for half the value. An offer from Dona Fredrika allowed the creation of a

fund for the education of poor seminarians, which has helped many. This fund

remained in the hands of the West Mission, being judiciously administered.

Bibliography:

â–ª Lessa, Annals , 208, 402, 437s, 572s.

â–ª Ferreira, History of IPB , I: 285, 287, 411, 514s; II: 32s, 35s, 126s.

â–ª "Rev. Flamínio Augusto Rodrigues ", The Missionary (November 1907), 543s.

â–ª A General Catalog of Union Theological Seminary in Virginia, 1807-1924 .

â–ª Bear, Mission to Brazil , 16, 22, 28.

â–ª Bencostta, Go for Everybody , 102-106.

â–ª Silva e Silva, Presbyterian Church of Araguari, 58.

â–ª Ferreira, Little History of the West Mission , 36-38

​

Rev. Dr. George William Butler

The "beloved doctor" of Pernambuco

George W. Butler was born in Roswell, Georgia, on July 12, 1854. The son of a family

poor man, studied the first letters with the wife of the Presbyterian pastor of his community.

Bachelor's degree at Davidson College, North Carolina, and then moved to Nova

York, where he began to devote himself to the study of medicine. Given the difficulties,

moved to Baltimore, where, in 1880, he graduated from Johns Hopkins Medical School,

University of Maryland. He clinched in Roanoke, Virginia, from 1880 to 1882. Feeling the

vocation for missionary work, presented himself as a candidate on August 15, 1882.

He embarked for Brazil on January 31, 1883, arriving in Recife on February 22

in the dual capacity of teacher and doctor. Aided by Rev. John Rockwell Smith, logo

he learned the language and way of life of the people. The following year, she had to take a trip

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to the United States due to an eye problem. On that occasion, he was ordained by the

Maryland Presbytery. It was an exception, since he had no seminary course or

passed the regular degree. On April 27, 1884, he married Mary

Rena Humphrey, returning to Brazil only two days after the marriage liaison.

After an internship in Recife and the birth of their first child, they were transferred in 1885 to

São Luís do Maranhão, where they arrived on May 15. In this city, the first person

converted and baptized by Dr. Butler was a lady of the local society, D. Maria

Barbara Belfort Duarte, wife of a congressman and tribune of the empire. The second group,

composed of six people, was baptized by the missionary on June 6, 1886,

which is attributed to the initial organization of the Church of St. Louis, whose temple was inaugurated on 26

of July of the following year. Butler had good cooperators in São Luís, among whom the

consuls of England and Portugal; he also surrounded himself with good colporteurs and preachers

lay people. A consecrated worker and great evangelist, Rev. Butler's work

interior of Maranhão, mainly to the city of Caxias, which visited for the first time in

May, 1886, and Teresina, the capital of the neighboring state of Piauí, where he

same occasion. He made missionary trips through the Itapicuru and Mearim rivers and

medicine among the needy population. The definitive organization of the Church of St. Louis occurred

on April 5, 1892, when Butler closed his pastorate pioneer in that church.

Because of his first vacation, he went to the United States and returned on April 29 to

1893, settled in Recife, replacing him in São Luís Rev. Belmiro de Araújo

Caesar. Butler took over the pastorate in place of the Rev. John Rockwell Smith, who

followed to Nova Friburgo in order to teach at the Presbyterian Seminary. In Recife,

Butler began the construction of the new temple, whose works would continue in the pastorate of his

successor, Rev. Juventino Marinho. The following year, in response to appeals from Rev. Henry J.

McCall, the Butler couple went to reside in Garanhuns, where evangelical work had begun

recently, under violent persecution. On January 6, 1895, the missionary

baptized the first converts (fifteen people), among whom the future pastor Jerome

Gueiros (1880-1953). Eventually, many members of this important family would

to join the Presbyterian church. The persecutions continued: the house of Dr. Butler, where

performed the services, was constantly stoned. His wife had to put her children

under a table to protect them from the stones thrown on the roof. The big

was a Salesian friar, Brother Celestino de Pedávoli, whose

secretary, Constantius Omero Omegna (1877-1927), became and became great

pastor, educator and musician in the Presbyterian Church of Brazil.

At that time, there was an epidemic of yellow fever in Garanhuns that

more than 800 people. Butler unfolded in the care of the sick. When the

epidemic, the missionary had earned the esteem and respect of all the people. Your job

Evangelism produced many fruits throughout the region and Garanhuns became a center

of the evangelical faith. Butler built the local temple, founded a parochial school

(the origin of the College November 15) and contributed to the creation of a theological course that

later became the Northern Presbyterian Seminary. In this project,

collaboration of two valiant workers, the Revs. George E. Henderlite and Martin de

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Oliveira. In Garanhuns, Butler practiced medicine, but not to be accused of

charlatanism, leading the family, spent the year 1896 in Salvador. After a period of

studies, on December 17, 1896 defended thesis at the Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy

of Bahia to be able to practice in Brazil. The thesis focused on the use of chloroform in

medicine. A report of 1896 says that in the last year the missionary had done

nearly 7000 km by train, 500 km on horseback, and

1500 people.

After his return from Bahia, Butler spent a year in Garanhuns and then moved

to Canhotinho, distant about 25 km away, where he spent the rest of his life. In

February 1898, when he visited the city of São Bento do Una, he encountered strong opposition

clerical. On the 7th, when he and his companions left town, a postman tried

to kill him, but the dagger hit Mr. Manoel Correia Vilela (known as Né Vilela), who

died immediately. Years later, Dr. Butler transferred to the new

Canhotinho the remains of that friend who died to save him. To this day the churches

of the Northeast rely on members of this family, such as Rev. Maely Ferreira

Vilela, professor at the Recife Seminary. In the locality of Glicério (current Paquevira)

the families of Messrs. Lourenço Alves de Barros, Eusébio Leitão and Antônio da

Silva Romeu, from which many pastors came.

Lourenço de Barros (1859-1905) was ordained to the ministry in 1901 and pastored the Church

of Pão de Açúcar (Alagoas) and that of Manaus, organized by him on November 18,

1904, in the company of the Rev. William M. Thompson. He passed away on April 26 of the year

next, victimized by beriberi. He was the father of the Rev. João Alves de Barros (1887-1976),

born in Rio Formoso (PE), who in turn was the progenitor of the Rev. Dante Sarmento de

Barros. From the Leitão family, the brothers José Martins de Almeida

Leitão and Davi de Almeida Leitão, his nephews Boanerges, Natanael and Uriel de Almeida

And the cousin of these Milton de Almeida Leitão, who were shepherds in the east of Minas Gerais and

in São Paulo. All of them studied at the College November 15,

Rev. Thompson. The only survivor of the group is Rev. Natanael de Almeida Leitão,

born on December 1, 1922 and residing in Americana. Rev. Uriel is the father of

known journalist Miriam Leitão, of Rede Globo de Televisão. Antônio da Silva Romeu

was the progenitor of Rev. Cícero Siqueira (1894-1963), who had in Dr. Butler his great

mentor and advocate.

In January 1900, there was the organization of the two churches that the missionary had

founded in Pernambuco: on the 21st, Dr. Butler and Juventino Marinho organized the Church

of Canhotinho and on the 22nd, Juventino Marinho and William C. Porter organized the

Garanhuns. Butler's missionary and medical work continued to expand in both

decades. His fame as a great doctor and surgeon attracted people

whom he served on modest payment or free of charge, from 6 am

morning at 11 at night. Almost every day he made five to ten operations, usually very

successful. He served everyone, even some of his former pursuers. The priest

that had provoked the persecution in São Bento, which resulted in the death of Né Vilela, times

then he was obliged to look for Dr. Butler. The latter, with tears in his eyes, said that

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I would restore her health, but her illness was incurable. In such a

fame of the missionary doctor that even Father Cicero, of Juazeiro, sent him

treatment.

Butler was admired as an evangelist and preacher, and also as a man of prayer -

prayed before and during operations. Besides the great temple of Canhotinho,

inaugurated on July 20, 1915, he built a college and a hospital (he called them

Faith, Hope and Charity). He worked on the construction of the temple with his own hands,

as it had in São Luís. The building boasted two turrets on the facade, which by far

identified as a church, something forbidden at the time of the empire. There were flourishing

congregations in Glicério, Quipapá, Quebrangulo and Tupi. In all this, the missionary

his remarkable wife (the Rev. William M. Thompson said that D. Rena

by a crowd). Two other notable assistants were Cicero Siqueira and Cecília

Rodrigues, who married on February 2, 1917, six days after the ordination of

Cicero.

In August 1918, Rev. Butler left the hospital delivered to Humphrey, the medical son,

church to Cicero, an auxiliary pastor, and the evangelical college to Cecilia, and traveled with the family to

the United States. The missionary vocation, however, spoke louder, and eight months later he

returned alone to Brazil. His last sermons were very touching; on a

Hebrews 9: 27-28, showed profound scientific and

impressed the audience. She finished crying. Friday, May 23, went to the station

to say goodbye to Rev. Henderlite, who was transferring to Recife, and returned home sick. O

"Beloved doctor" died in Canhotinho at 3 o'clock in the afternoon of May 27, 1919, a

day in which it rained much in that region after a long drought. The next day, being

buried between the church and the college, all the commerce of the city closed the doors

spontaneously. This man of God has firmly established the evangelical faith in the

Agreste Pernambucano and established in Garanhuns the great irradiating center where

formed pastors throughout the North and Northeast of Brazil. The Butler couple had seven children:

George, Humphrey, Grace, Janet, Rena, Hilda and Helen. Dr. Humphrey Butler died in

1922.

Bibliography:

• Lessa, Annaes , 212, 278, 280, 568, 653.

• Ferreira, History of IPB , I: 231-34, 301-303, 445s, 460-68, 558s; II: 98, 184-89.

• Nathanael Cortez, North Evangelical (25-06-1919).

• "Jubilee of Presbyterianism in Northern Brazil", North Evangelical (11-08-1928).

• Natanael Cortez, Presbyterianism in Northern Brazil , 1957.

• Bear, Mission to Brazil , 40-42, 48s, 51-53, 59-61.

• Juracy Fialho Viana. Cecília [biography of Cecília Siqueira]. Recife:

Presbyterian Mission in Brazil, 1970.

• Presbyterian Church of Recife. Annals of the Centenary . 1978.

• Edijéce Martins Ferreira. The Bible and the Scalpel [biography of Rev. George Butler]. 2nd ed.

São Paulo: Casa Editora Presbiteriana, 1987.

• Ribeiro, Evangelical Church and Brazilian Republic , 82-91.

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• Domingos Borges de Padua. History of the Presbyterian Church of São Luís: 1886-1986 .

• Uriel de Almeida Leitão. Testimony of Faith . Belo Horizonte: Cuatiara, 1992.

• Maria Anecy Calland Marques Serra. Stories of the History of the Presbyterian

Caxias . São Luís: University Graphic, 1995.

• Caleb Soares. Januário dos Fees Formosos . Campinas: Light for the Way, 1996.

• Célio Siqueira. Ambassador and Outsider: Biography of Rev. Cícero Siqueira . Are

Paul: Christian Culture, 1996.

• Fernandino Caldeira de Andrada, "Rev. Dr. George W. Butler ", Brazil Presbyterian

(Jan 1996), 18.

• Silvandro Cordeiro Fonseca. Centennial of the IP of Garanhuns: 1900-2000

​

Rev. Joseph Henry Gauss

Missionary in Recife and Maceió

Joseph Gauss was born in Chariton County, Missouri, on August 30, 1855. He was grandson

of the German mathematician and astronomer Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777-1855). Studied at

Westminster College and worked as a merchant. He then studied theology in

Union Theological Seminary in the State of Virginia, graduating in 1883. He was

by the Missouri Presbytery on April 7, 1882, and ordered by the Presbytery of La

Fayette on May 10, 1883. He pastored the churches of Brownsville and Prairie in the same

presbytery. On October 23, 1882, she married Annie McEldemy Gill in Saint

Louis.

Gauss arrived in Recife with his wife on September 13, 1884. They came in company

the Rev. John Rockwell Smith and his family, who had come to the United States in

vacation. It seems that a new missionary from the Northern Church, the Rev.

John Benjamin Kolb. After spending some time in Recife, Gauss accompanied the Rev.

Smith on a visit to Maceio in January 1885. There was no opposition and a small group

asked that the missionary go to live there. Some time later, Gauss and his

family settled in the capital of Alagoas, where on May 2, 1885 he passed the

publish the newspaper The Evangelist , later revived by Rev. John Boyle. However,

and after a brief stay in Maceió he returned to Recife. At the

autumn of 1886, returned to the United States, partly for health reasons and partly

to make an appeal for more aid to the mission field.

After his return, he pastored the churches of Odessa in La Fayette (1887-1889) and

Carondelet, in Saint Louis (1889-1912). He was superintendent of Brookes Bible Institute,

in Saint Louis, beginning in 1912. He wrote the book The Authority of the Bible Supported by

Bible History and the booklets "Evolution and Revelation," "What Some Scientists Have Said

About Evolution "and" The Inspired Bible Autographs - The Original Writings of

Prophets and Apostles - Do We Need Them? "Westminster College conferred upon him the degree

of Doctor in Divinity in 1903. The Gauss couple had five children: Esther (1883), Henry

(1885), Frank (1887), Paul (1889) and Annie (1891).

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Bibliography:

• Lessa, Annaes , 236s.

• Ferreira, History of IPB , I: 234.

• A General Catalog of Union Theological Seminary in Virginia, 1807-1924 .

• Bear, Mission to Brazil , 40s

​

Rev. William Calvin Porter

Dedicated pastor in several Northeastern states

William C. Porter was born in Tuskegee, Alabama, on June 6, 1855, in the midst of a

family that came to experience the harrowing days of the Civil War (1861-1865). James

Porter, his father, visited Brazil and decided to bring the family here, once the

war. They were not part of any of the immigrant caravans of the day. James

and had resources, but died of yellow fever as soon as he arrived in Rio de

January. A patrician "looked after" his business and left the widow helpless. Advice

of compatriots, D. Susan Meggs Porter (1825-1890) went with her children to Campinas,

where he opened a pension for Americans and Englishmen. Contact with the missionaries of the College

International did well to the family. Daughter Susan Carolina studied there and married the

Rev. John Rockwell Smith, the Northeastern Presbyterian pioneer. In 1872, his son William

("Willy") professed the faith with Rev. George N. Morton. Studied with the Revs. Morton and

Edward Lane at the International College and also lectured at this institution, along with

sisters Susan Carolina and Ella Virginia, who were "attached teachers" of the school to

girls (Catalog of the Institute of Campinas, 1877). William assisted Rev. Morton in his

college in São Paulo, and also provided Portuguese and English exams in the attached course

of the Faculty of Law of Largo de São Francisco.

In 1884, he went to Recife to help his brother-in-law, John R. Smith, in the

evangelization. He preached as a missionary helper at all points of penetration of the

Northeast. Visited Goiana, Paraíba (João Pessoa), São Lourenço da Mata and other places,

experiencing persecution. A young man still haired, he became known as "the

missionary of white hairs ". Having arrived in Brazil as a child, he spoke Portuguese

without an accent. He studied for ministry with Rev. Smith. On 20 May

1887, was ordained priest of the Church of Recife. In this condition, he was one of the founders

of the Presbytery of Pernambuco, on August 17, 1888, being elected temporary secretary.

The following month he took part in the organization meeting of the Presbyterian Synod. In this

was already a candidate for the ministry. William Porter was ordained to the ministry on the 26th

of September 1889, in Paraíba, with his colleague Juventino Marinho da Silva. After

ordination, took over the Church of Recife in the absence of Smith, and continued to visit

many points inland.

In 1890, he went to the United States (arrived on October 28), coming to marry

Katherine Ives Hall, a native of Georgia, whom he had met as a

Campinas and then returned to his country to study music and religious education. She

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also belonged to an American family who had emigrated to Brazil,

establish themselves in Santa Bárbara. The marriage took place on August 18, 1891 in

Amherst, Massachusetts. During his stay in the United States, William wrote

articles for the Brazilian Missions . Back in Brazil, the couple worked

initially in Recife, whose church was pastored by Rev. Porter until January 1893. Kate

contracted impaludismo and had to go to the United States, where the husband went to look for it

after it has been restored. Upon returning, he found the situation changed: he should go to the

Ceará and the Rev. George Butler had been removed from Maranhão to Recife. On October 15

of 1893, Porter and Juventino Marinho organized the Presbyterian Church of Areias in

Recife. In the same year, accompanied by his colleague Juventino, Porter was in Natal for

first time. For eight days, they held services with the help of two local believers, not

experiencing any opposition.

On November 18, 1893, the Porter couple landed in Fortaleza,

by Rev. DeLacey Wardlaw. The two missionaries visited the towns of Baturité,

Uruburetama and Quixadá, facing a great flood in the Curu River and some

persecution. Wardlaw had been dismissed as a missionary for a breakup

with Dr. Matthew Hale Houston, secretary of the Southern Church Missions Committee.

During a visit from Houston to Fortaleza, Porter was instrumental in reconciling

two workers. Porter's situation improved when Houston was replaced at the secretary's office.

executive committee of the Nashville Committee by Dr. SH Chester. This enabled the missionary to

if he transferred from Fortaleza to Natal.

In January 1895 the couple accepted an invitation to visit Natal, where Porter had been

for the first time in 1893. Due to the interest shown by the people, the visit ended

extending for four months. Despite an epidemic of smallpox in which they died

daily from ten to fifteen people, the sermons were very busy, with auditoriums

of up to 400 people, and several prominent elements, such as a lawyer,

colonel and a major. On April 8th there were the first receptions to the church: 33 adults and 18

children. The following month (11-05-1895), Mr. Alexandre James O'Grady donated a plot of land

to the temple and the first issue of the Presbyterian newspaper The Century came to light . Rev.

Porter was his editor for many years, signing an editorial column titled

"Reflections" under the pseudonym "Senex". Later, the newspaper became the organ of the

Presbytery of Pernambuco, serving as editor of Rev. Jerônimo Gueiros. On the 1st of

February 1909 was published in Garanhuns, the name changed to North

Evangelical . The couple Porter would end up staying nineteen years in Natal, except for two periods

United States (1902-1903, 1909-1910) and a one-year stay in

Campinas (1907-1908).

The official organization of the Church of Natal, with the presence of Rev. George E. Henderlite and

Minervino Lins, from Paraíba, occurred on February 3,

153 members. Unfortunately, Professor Joaquim Lourival Soares da Câmara, one of the

founders of the church, separated with nine members. He accused the Rev.

Porter of idolatry because he had seen in his house pictures that seemed to him like saints. In fact,

however, of studies by Katherine, who was a painter. The temple was inaugurated in 1898.

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In the same year, João Fernandes Café and his wife Florência Amélia became

the future federal deputy and president of the republic João Café Filho. Over the years,

Porter also developed intense activity within the state, initiating congregations

in Angicos, Arês, Assu, Baixio, Brejinho do Soter, Caiada, Caicó, Canguaretama, Ceará-

Mirim, Currais Novos, Curumatau, Flores, Goianinha, Macaíba, Mossoró, New Cross,

Penhas and São Miguel. In several of these places there was intense opposition to work

evangelical. On January 22, 1900, Porter accompanied the Rev. Juventino Marinho in the

act of organization of the Presbyterian Church of Garanhuns.

In the year that the couple Porter moved to Rio Grande do Norte, Katherine founded,

request of believing parents, the American College of Christmas, one of the first schools

evangelicals in the north of Brazil. Rev. Porter himself made the kindergarten tables,

banks and blackboards, providing the school with the necessary supplies. The official foundation

occurred on January 11, 1897. The first two directors were the missionaries

Rebecca Morrisette, who came to marry an elder of the Church of Natal and had to

leaving school, and Eliza Moore Reed, later founder of the Evangelical School of Recife.

Kate Eugenia Hall, Katherine's cousin and

future wife of Rev. Alva Hardie. The school became famous for the excellence of its

teaching and came to have seventy students, among them the boy João Café Filho. His soul was the

tireless Katherine, who, nevertheless, faced a growing series of difficulties:

clerical opposition, lack of resources and health problems. Without the support of the mission

the school closed its activities in 1907.

After the brief pastorate of the Rev. João Francisco da Cruz (1901-1902), he assumed the Church

of Christmas, on January 30, 1903, the Rev. Jerônimo Gueiros, recently ordained.

The following year he created the Externato Natalense, designed to welcome students who

completed their primary studies at the American College. In the first half of 1903,

returning from his vacation at home, the Porter couple were welcomed into the port by a large

group of believers and friends, followed by a splendid banquet described in detail in the

pages of The Missionary . Rev. Porter was still in full swing,

helping the church in the capital, publishing The Century and evangelizing the interior widely.

In 1907, for reasons of health, the couple moved to the south of Brazil, leaving the

Christmas under the care of Jerônimo Gueiros.

In the south, Rev. Porter was a member of the West Mission for a year, until his return to Natal

in 1908. Later he worked in Pernambuco, in the capital and in the interior. In Recife,

cooperated in the church and at the Evangelical College. In 1917, the couple went to Paraíba,

is located in João Pessoa. Katherine, very sick with arteriosclerosis, could almost do nothing.

Porter surrendered himself to the evangelization of the interior, repeating what he had done in Rio Grande do Sul.

North. Only in April 1917 did he preach fifty times (his sermons were profuse

illustrations). Visited Cabedelo, Junco, Barra de Santa Rosa, Sape, Mumbuca and other places.

The couple had an adopted daughter, Lila, who was educated in Brazil and the United

he always knew how to honor his parents by watching them in sickness. They retired in 1929.

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Rev. Porter spent the last years of his life in the capital of Paraíba. He was sad for

to see that the Mission and the Presbytery were not paying any attention to the work that had begun. The vicar of

Caicó, who had fought against him, became his friend and visited him in the last days. In 1938, for

occasion of the Jubilee of the Pernambuco Presbytery, the old missionary read a review

historical movement. Deaf and sick, over eighty, said he could still pray

by the evangelical people of Brazil. He died on 31 January 1939 and his wife on 21

July 1941. Over the years, they gathered historical documents on missionary work

in Brazil, the valuable "Calvin Porter Collection", kept in the Presbyterian Archive, in São

Paulo. Ms. Aglaia de Amorim Garcia Ximenes wrote a rich history of this

a valiant missionary, entitled "WC Porter: The White-haired Missionary."

Bibliography:

• Lessa, Annaes , 314, 316, 321, 335, 356, 474.

• Ferreira, History of IPB , I: 285, 296-98, 301, 421, 449-52, 548-54, 555-57; II: 42, 100-

103, 210, 329, 360s.

• "A Brazilian Dinner", The Missionary (June 1903), 264s.

• "Rev. William Carver [sic] Porter, " The Puritan (25-02-1939), 2.

• Jones, Soldier Rest , 217s.

• Bear, Mission to Brazil , 41-55.

• Ximenes, "The White-haired Missionary."

​

Rev. George Wood Thompson

Selfless pioneer in Central Brazil

George Thompson was born in Bolivar, Tennessee, on February 13, 1863. He was the son of

D. Lucy C. Thompson and the Rev. Philip Thompson, who was pastor in Louisville, Kentucky,

and died in 1871. George professed the faith at the age of only thirteen. Studied at the university

Southwest Presbyterian in Clarksville, Tennessee, where he graduated in June

1882. He then attended the Columbia Theological Seminary in South Carolina, where he

formed in May 1885, having been licensed by the Nashville Presbytery in 1884 and

ordained in April 1885. He worked for a year in Waverly, Tennessee. Departed from

Newport News (Virginia) on June 8, 1886, arriving in Rio de Janeiro on 4

accompanied by Rev. John Boyle, who had been on vacation in the United States with the

family and had obtained permission to reside in Central Brazil. In the same year, the two

missionaries visited the points of the Minas Gerais Triangle in which Boyle had preached in

1884 and decided that Baggage (current Southern Star) should be the new base of operations.

Thompson left a detailed description of that trip. Said to have accompanied Boyle

to taste their future work and to see if they would agree

cities to be chosen as new mission centers. They left Mogi-Mirim on the day

August 11, 1886, by train to White House. There, Antônio Rangel, colporteur and

accompanying troop guide, provided saddle and cargo animals. They took a

week to the Rio Grande, staying overnight at the troupe's landings, and another week

Baggage. They stayed for a week in the house of Mr. Tertuliano Goulart, who had been baptized

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with Rev. Boyle's family in 1884. They then went to Santa Luzia de Goiás, where

stayed another week, staying with Mr. José Inácio, the father of a large family.

Eleven people were received by profession of faith, children were baptized and the

Supper of the Lord. On the way back they passed through Paracatu ("the whole city vibrated with

messages of eternal life ") and again by Luggage. They took the train at Batatais,

returning to Mogi-Mirim after ten weeks of travel.

In the following months, Thompson collaborated with Boyle in Mogi-Mirim, Campinas, Itatiba

and other locations. He was a founding member of the Presbytery of Campinas and Oeste de Minas,

organized on April 14, 1887, with his presbytery colleagues Revs. Edward

Lane, John Boyle, John W. Dabney and Delfino dos Anjos Teixeira. Boyle and Thompson were

appointed to consult the General Assembly of the Southern Church if the newly formed

presbyterate should join an American synod or accept the

Presbytery of Rio de Janeiro to form a synod in Brazil. In June 1887,

Thompson and the Boyle family made the long shift trip to Baggage. They took

the train to Franca and then traveled for three weeks in wagons and ox cars to his

destiny. The two missionaries visited several points of the Triângulo Mineiro and Goiás.

Thompson continued to study Portuguese and to preach as far as the knowledge of the language

allowed.

One of the sites visited by Thompson in the eastern Triângulo Mineiro was Lagoa Formosa

of Patos, where he was hosted by Saint-Clair Justiniano Ribeiro, paternal great-grandfather of the Rev.

Boanerges Ribeiro (1919-2003). The whole family came to be converted, initiating a

Presbyterian Church. The same occurred in São Francisco das Chagas do Campo Grande,

Rio Paranaíba, near the source of this important river, where Thompson preached in the

farm of Cristiano da Rocha, one of the local patriarchs, maternal great-grandfather of Rev.

Boanerges. Thompson reported that he was preceded in this region by the Bible and

copies of the newspaper O Evangelista , received by members of this family and read by them

accepted. The Ribeiro family, from which some outstanding pastors (besides

Boanerges Ribeiro, his father Adiron Justiniano Ribeiro Sobrinho and his brother, Americo

Justiniano Ribeiro), has given important contributions to the Presbyterian Church of Brazil.

The following year, Thompson made a historic trip through the Black, Paracatu and São

Francisco to the sea, arriving in Pernambuco. This trip was described by his

Rev. Hugh Clarence Tucker (1857-1956), a Methodist missionary and

agent of the American Bible Society in Brazil since 1877, in The Bible in Brazil

(The Bible in Brazil, 1902). Tucker had made a great script through the interior,

Baggage, where he observed the work of the Presbyterian missionaries and preached at their request

to large auditoriums. Thompson accompanied him to Paracatu, where he was

festively and preached hundreds of people on the streets. Then the trip along the river

San Francisco. Thompson even contracted malaria, but recovered fully. In

Recife, went down to Rio de Janeiro, where he participated in the organization of the Synod of the Church

Presbyterian of Brazil, in September 1888. Soon after, he returned to Bagagem enjoying

in good health.

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In March of the following year, he went back to exhaustion with the companions of the Mission in

Campinas and especially assist the Rev. John W. Dabney, exhausted by the excess of

job. There was an epidemic of yellow fever in the city, and Thompson

assistance to the sick and in the usual work of the mission. By then I was already preaching

Very well in Portuguese. How Charlotte Kemper should go to the United States and

was very sick and very weak to travel alone, she took her to Rio de Janeiro, where

at that time also the yellow fever. Upon returning to Campinas on April 13,

found all the sick missionaries except the newcomer Kate Eliza Bias, who was recovering.

One of the children of the then presbyter Flamínio Augusto Rodrigues died at that time.

After giving assistance to many people, including Dabney, Thompson himself was

the fever on the 20th. Despite the assistance of Dr. Horace Manley Lane, coming from

São Paulo, and other physicians, as well as Rev. Tucker, who had come from Rio de Janeiro,

Thompson died at dawn on May 1, 1889, at the age of 26.

It seems that only Tucker and the presbyter Rodrigues accompanied the coffin. Pressing

the end, Thompson said he felt dying only because of his mother in the United States,

but God would comfort her. He was thus the first of the Campinas missionaries to be taken

by yellow fever. The missionaries have engraved in their tomb a verse that

expressed his dedication in favor of his colleagues: "No one has more love than this:

give one's own life to one's friends. "

Dr. Horace Lane testified about the courage and self-denial of Thompson, who,

even knowing of the risks he ran, did not escape his Christian duty. In July 1889, the

Evangelical Pulpit published a sermon by the late missionary about the Prodigal Son ("The

love of God for sinners "). To replace him in the "Mission of the Interior", he was sent

same year the Rev. Frank A. Cowan, who, having poor health, can do little. Little

time after the death of Thompson, was born in Araguari a boy who received his name

and came to be a well-known Presbyterian pastor and professor of the Seminary of Campinas:

Jorge Thompson Goulart (1889-1967).

Bibliography:

• Lessa, Annaes, 269, 313, 315, 342.

• Ferreira, History of IPB , I: 248, 250-53, 285, 322s, 381.

• "Rev. GW Thompson, " The Missionary (July 1889), 251.

• The Missionary (1886), 101; (1889), 25, 37; (08-1895), photo.

• Brazilian Missions (09-1888), 70; (06-1889), 41; (07-1889), 52; (01-1890), 3.

• Hugh C. Tucker. The Bible in Brazil . New York: Fleming H. Revell, 1902.

• Bear, Mission to Brazil , 20s.

• McIntire, Portrait , 7 / 73-75.

• Boanerges Ribeiro. Be a Pastor in Brazil . São Paulo, 1999.

• Ferreira, Little History of the West Mission , 39s

​

Rev. William Lucas Bedinger

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Missionary among the American settlers of Santa Bárbara d'Oeste

William Bedinger was born in Boone County, State of Kentucky, on July 16,

1856. He studied at Hampden-Sydney College, Virginia, and at the Central University of

Kentucky. He joined the Union Theological Seminary in 1880 and graduated in 1883. He

licensed by the Louisville Presbytery in December of the same year and ordained

January 1885. As a graduate student, he worked in Carrollton, Kentucky. After the ordination,

he was pastor in the Churches of Beulah, Cordyon and Ridgewood in his home state. Was

appointed missionary on July 5, 1887.

He arrived in Brazil in September 1887 and performed most of his work among

American settlers of Santa Bárbara d'Oeste, in São Paulo. He was inclined to agriculture.

He rode on horseback through the counties of the area, as did his colleagues Edward

Lane, John Dabney and Samuel Gammon. In September 1888, he participated in the

of the Synod of the Presbyterian Church of Brazil, in Rio de Janeiro. He joined, alongside the Revs.

Eduardo Carlos Pereira, Belmiro de Araújo César, Donald C. McLaren, Antônio Bandeira

Trajano, and the presbyters Flamínio Augusto Rodrigues and Manoel da Costa, the first

Standing Committee of the National Missions Plan. On January 31, 1889,

participated, along with Rev. Delfino Teixeira, of the organization of the Presbyterian Church of São

João da Boa Vista, in the interior of São Paulo. He returned to the United States in 1895. The Pulpit

Evangelical published a sermon of his in April of 1889.

Bedinger pastored many churches in his country: Woodlawn and East Lake, Alabama, for

three months (1895); McHenry and Rockport, Kentucky (1895-1898); La Fayette, New

Harmony and Lebanon, Alabama, and West Point, Virginia (1898-1899); Appomattox,

Walker's, Union, Evergreen and Stonewall, Virginia (1901-1903); Frankford and Lacy, in

West Virginia (1903-1912); Pratt City, Springville and Atalla (1912-1915) in Alabama.

From 1916, he was a district missionary in Huntsville, Alabama, and served several

of the Northern Presbytery of Alabama, to the extent that precarious health permitted it.

He wrote the book Soul Food ("Food for the soul"). He died in his residence in

Huntsville on December 18, 1932. He left his wife Mary M. Bedinger, four

brothers, a sister and other relatives.

Bibliography:

• Lessa, Annaes , 292, 469.

• Ferreira, History of IPB , I: 293, 329, 337.

• A General Catalog of Union Theological Seminary in Virginia, 1807-1924 .

• Minutes of the Synod of Alabama (1933), 1102

​

Kate Eliza Bias Cowan

Valorous missionary educator in the west, south and east of Minas Gerais

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Kate E. Bias was born in Red Sweet Springs, Alleghany County, Va., On 19

July 1857. She was the third daughter of Mary Kate Gatewood and Cesario Bias. Between 1863 and

1865, his father sold his estate and moved successively to Fincastle,

Charlotte and Richmond, where he owned "Valentine House" until his death in

June 1866. Shortly thereafter, the widow moved with her five children (Warwick, Margaret,

Kate, James and Florence) to their home in the mountains, "Belle Vue" in Bath County,

Virginia. She died in March 1874. A few months later, in June of that year,

Kate made her profession of faith in the Church of Windy Cove, pastored by Rev. George L.

Brown. After leaving Richmond, her education continued in the mother's house

through private teachers, with the exception of three years spent in a school

particularly linked to the family of his uncle James W. Warwick (Warm Springs, Bath County)

and a semester at the Montgomery Women's College (Christiansburg, Virginia). For some

time, Kate taught at several private schools in the states of Virginia, Tennessee and

Ohio.

Since she was little, Kate was interested in foreign missions, especially in China. In

September 1888, the great change in his life occurred. Traveling to Ohio in order to

teaching, while waiting for a late train at Millboro Depot met Dr. Robert

L. Dabney and his wife, who were waiting for the same train. In the course of the conversation,

Dabney exclaimed, "You're exactly the person we're looking to help Miss

Kemper in Brazil ". They told him about Brazil's great needs and told the

story of Dr. Edward Lane's life. Kate carried in her purse the latest issue of

magazine The Missionary , where he read a letter from the Rev. John Dabney. They traveled together until

Clifton Forge, where Kate spent the night in a hotel. Throughout his life, no subject

he had made her so excited. A few years later, she stated, "Before I

I had dedicated my life to Brazil and since then I have never regretted my

decision".

Kate traveled all day to Lynchburg without thinking of anything else, afraid that,

because of her smiling face, people thought she was out of balance. Their

friends and relatives thought it was a romantic idea, but she immediately

wrote to his pastor for guidance and a letter of recommendation. You then requested

his appointment to the Committee on Foreign Missions, visited the pastor of the First Church of

Lynchburg and accompanied by him visited a doctor to get reference on his

Cheers. In response to her request, she was appointed a missionary few weeks later, in 12

of October of 1888, and should leave soon. The hardest thing was to say goodbye to the

old grandmother, but she gladly dismissed her.

On December 22, he embarked for Brazil in Newport News, on the ship Finance,

accompanied by missionary Elmira Kuhl of the Church of the North. Arrived in Santos on the 22nd

January 1889 and Campinas on the 23rd, in the company of the Rev. John Dabney. Assisted the

educator Charlotte Kemper at the girls' school attached to the International College in

Campinas, until 1891. He lived through the distressing days of the yellow fever epidemics that

some of her colleagues and she herself was affected by this illness in the same year of her arrival.

He lamented the death of the little Fred Rodrigues (son of Rev. Flamínio Augusto Rodrigues)

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and Revs. George Thompson, John Dabney, Edward Lane and John Boyle. In

"Reminiscences" that he wrote, left information concerning the death of the young

Rev. Thompson, which occurred on May 1, 1889: "I was (convalescent) in my

bedroom. Mr. T. (Thompson), in Miss Kemper's old room, across the room. In

I heard sounds, as if they were drawn tables, and I understood what had happened, but

no one came to see me. I put on my socks and silently opened the door; I saw it stretched out in a

table. I went back to my bed, crying because of the great loss that we had just

suffer, and by your good mother so far. Weakened as I was, I seemed to see it

taken to heaven ... "

On February 4, 1892, Kate married the missionary Frank A. Cowan, who had

arrived in Brazil at the end of 1889 and was working in Baggage, in the Triangle

Miner. The ceremony, held at the home of Rev. Flamínio Rodrigues, was officiated by the

Revs. Edward Lane and Samuel Gammon. After Cowan's death on May 2, 1894, in

Lavras, Kate continued the work of her husband. He went to Araguari, where

collaborated with a new missionary, Rev. Charles Read Morton. It opened in 1895 a

school, where the student Jorge Thompson Goulart, the future pastor and

professor of the Seminary of Campinas, son of the pioneer believer Tertullian (Tula) Goulart,

companion of the Rev. John Boyle. In 1896, writing to the mission journal of his

church, The Missionary , Kate commented that there was no other evangelical school in a radius

of 600 km. She had twenty-two students, three girls, daughters of Believers

rural, lived with the missionary.

Kate traveled hundreds of miles on horseback in the Minas Triangle, teaching and

evangelizing In 1900, he moved to Santa Luzia de Goiás (Luziânia), where he also

started a school. In a letter to The Missionary in 1903, in which he narrated a

Paracatu, said she could be called the equestrian missionary of Brazil. Since 1890, he had

traveled more than 2500 km on horseback, initially in the company of Boyle, Cowan or Morton,

but now only with Brazilian friends. In 1907, after returning from his holidays in

United States, transferred to the newly created East Mission, in Lavras, with which

worked until 1928. He collaborated effectively with Rev. Aníbal Nora (1877-1971) in Alto

Jequitiba and, after a brief internship in Lavras, went to Piumhi, where he was pastor Rev.

Paschoal Luiz Pitta. There the brave worker wrote her final page of consecration to the

Brazil (1915-1928), completing forty years of missionary service.

Although he was a very sociable person and enjoyed the company of friends and colleagues,

she decided to work in isolated places, very distant from the other stations of the Mission, and

spent years in order not to hear his native language or to see another missionary. Where there was

pastor to keep the flock together, where a pastor or missionary rarely came, she

kept small groups of Christians, led women and children in faithful service to

Christ, encouraged men to imitate their own example and filled many lives

of love and joy. He left great friendships in these remote places, being remembered with

gratitude for many years. After his retirement, he continued to correspond with the

her Brazilian friends, who loved her as if she were her own mother. One of them

wrote on learning of the missionary's death: "Everything I look at reminds me of her. Exist

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an emptiness in my heart that no one else can fill. I feel that I will never have

joy again ".

Having retired in September of 1928, to the 71 years of age and 40 of service in Brazil,

Kate returned to the United States. He spent most of his time with a sister in

Lynchburg. I would like to attend the conferences held at the summer camp of the

Church of the South and kept informed about the life of her church. Suffered an accident

automobile in late 1938, when he was going to a prayer meeting on Wednesday, the

which contributed to the decline of their health. He died in Lynchburg, Virginia, on the 14th

of December of 1939, to the 82 years and three months of age, and was buried in Warm Springs,

the city of his childhood. No other missionary has done such a constant work on her own.

She was always a resident missionary, integrated with the Brazilians,

educator and evangelist.

Bibliography:

• Lessa, Annaes , 468.

• Ferreira, History of IPB , 329, 505s; II: 77, 203, 364.

• "Record of Missionaries of the Presbyterian Church in the United States (Southern)",

Presbyterian Historical Society (Montreat, North Carolina), 135.

• Kate B. Cowan, "A Trip to Paracatu," The Missionary (April 1903), 164-66.

• Kate B. Cowan, "Reminiscences, 1888-1909", Presbyterian Archive (see Ribeiro,

Protestantism and Brazilian Culture , 126).

• "Mrs. Kate Bias Cowan, " Christian Observer (17-01-1940), 22.

• Clara GM Gammon, "Mrs. Kate Bias Cowan, "Memorial Sketches (Vol.

Executive Committee of Foreign Missions / Board of World Missions, PCUS.

• "D. Catherine B. Cowan, " The Puritan (10-03-1940), 3.

• Bear, Mission to Brazil , 23, 26, 28, 106

​

Rev. Frank A. Cowan

Shepherd in the Triângulo Mineiro

Frank Cowan was from Georgia. He studied at the Southwest Presbyterian University,

in Clarksville, Tennessee, from 1882 to 1885. He was licensed on May 12, 1887, and

ordained on April 22, 1889, by the Atlanta Presbytery. During the degree,

worked in Jonesboro, Georgia. He arrived in Brazil on the ship Advance on 24

December 1889, accompanied by Rev. Samuel R. Gammon and veterans Edward

Lane, Charlotte Kemper and Mary P. Dascomb, who were returning from their vacation. Rev. John

Boyle went to pick him up in Campinas, taking him to know his country. Cowan came

Rev. George Wood Thompson, who had died on May 1 of the same

year. He and his colleague Gammon were drafted by the Presbytery of Minas, meeting in Rio

Of course, on August 28, 1890. It was designated the field of the Triângulo Mineiro and

Goiás, as companion of the Rev. Boyle, establishing residence in Paracatu.

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In 1891, due to his health problems, Cowan went to the United States, but

the following January he was already in Campinas, where he married Professor Kate Eliza Bias

February 4, 1892. Some time later, the couple

Mining Triangle. Kate Bias had arrived in Brazil in 1888, having worked

initially in Campinas, as Charlotte Kemper's assistant at the girls' school attached

to the International College.

With the sudden death of Rev. Boyle on October 4, 1892, Cowan

in front of the vast missionary camp, despite its precarious health. On April 25, 1893,

announced the disappearance of the newspaper The Evangelist , which had been founded by Rev.

Boyle just over four years ago. Between June and August of the same year (1893), Revs.

Álvaro Reis and Caetano Nogueira Júnior organized four pioneer churches in this field:

Luggage (18-06), Paracatu (02-07), Santa Luzia de Goiás (16-07) and Araguari (05-08).

Aggravating Rev. Cowan's tuberculosis, Gammon went to Baggage and took him to

Campinas and then to Lavras, an extremely painful trip for a sick

weakened During the absence of Gammon, who had gone to the United States in

March 14, Rev. Cowan died in Lavras on May 2, 1894. For many years,

Kemper College students laid flowers on her grave on the Day of the Dead. Cowan

left a sermon in the Evangelical Pulpit of September 1892.

Bibliography:

• Lessa, Annaes , 338, 342, 350, 449, 468.

• Ferreira, History of IPB , I: 323, 328s, 378, 492s, 502, 505s.

• Brazilian Missions (July 1890), 84.

• The Missionary (1896), 313.

• Clara Gammon, Thus Shines the Light , 31, 44, 63s.

• Bear, Mission to Brazil , 21s, 26.

​

​

Rev. Samuel Rhea Gammon

Great evangelist and educator in Lavras, Minas Gerais

Samuel Gammon was born on March 30, 1865 in Bristol, in the Appalachian

southwest of Virginia ("one of the most charming places on earth"), on the border with

State of Tennessee. That year ended the Civil War and the family, which, like many

others had lost their assets, faced the difficulties of the reconstruction period. O

Samuel, the third of five siblings, took the vegetables from his parents'

neighboring market. His parents, Audley Anderson Gammon and Mary Faris Gammon were

Presbyterians descended from the Scots-Irish who colonized that region. Still

Sam, as he was called, joined the League of Hope, a

promotion of temperance. When he was six years old, the family moved to a locality

next, Montgomery, where the father opened a small trade. The boy started to

to attend a small rural school, revealing himself to be a studious student and

teachers. Created in a deeply religious home environment, he professed faith

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twelve years in a small church in Maple Grove. From the noble Trunk of Gammon, Rhea and

Anderson came no less than thirty pastors and nine missionaries.

At the age of sixteen (1881), Samuel enrolled at King College, Bristol, Tennessee,

where he had to work part of the time to provide his livelihood. In the last years,

was able to improve his budget by teaching arithmetic and algebra to the classes

lower. With good performance, he was chosen to be a speaker in the class and received

medals as best student of philosophy and letters. Her graduation speech was based on the

Goethe's words at his death: "I want light!" At the end of the course, he opted for a

Ministerial Conference, joining the Hampden-Sydney Seminary in Virginia, attached to the

same name, a Presbyterian institution founded in 1776, the year of independence

American. Two factors propelled the young Gammon to missionary work.

First, the advent of the Student Volunteer Movement, which came under the auspices of

evangelist Dwight L. Moody in 1886 and arrived at Hampden-Sydney in 1888. In 1889,

year of the graduation of Gammon, a great wave of interest by missions swept the States

United. That was when Rev. Edward Lane, a pioneer missionary in Campinas, visited

seminar and told students about the great opportunity for missionary work

in Brazil allied to the educational work.

Gammon was ordained by the Abingdon Presbytery on May 10, 1889, at the Church of

Rock Spring in southwestern Virginia. Maintained by the 2nd Presbyterian Church of Alexandria,

who was herded by her cousin Jim Vance, boarded the Advance ship on 23

November. He arrived in Rio de Janeiro on December 24 and Campinas on the 27th,

accompanied by colleague Frank A. Cowan and veterans Edward Lane, Mary Parker

Dascomb and Charlotte Kemper, who were returning from their holidays. He spent Christmas at his friend's home.

John W. Dabney, who died two and a half months later. In Campinas, Gammon was

director of the International College and temporarily assumed the direction of the mission. Stayed

housed in the college building where Charlotte Kemper, director of the girls resided,

assisted by Kate Eliza Bias. Charlotte was her mentor in language study,

his articles and sermons, and has always been attached to him in the educational work. The school work

did not prevent him from beginning to preach, first in English, to the patricians of the colony

of Santa Bárbara, and later in Portuguese, like the Revs. Lane, Dabney and William L.

Bedinger, who traveled on horseback through neighboring counties.

His first class, on January 27, 1890, was for seven boys. Less than three weeks

then the rumors of yellow fever began. As doctors

Gammon left with Rev. Álvaro Reis for an excursion

evangelistic Three days later he received the news of Dabney's death. Taking advantage of the visit

the Rev. John Boyle to Campinas, the missionaries of the International College discussed

school due to the threat of the epidemic. On vacation at the end

of 1891, Lane, Gammon and the new workman David G. Armstrong visited Boyle Field

with headquarters in Bagagem, in the Triângulo Mineiro, but judged that the region was not

advisable for your educational work. Back in Campinas, Gammon took over

of the newspaper Evangelical Pulpit .

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In 1892, the fever returned. Four weeks after school opened, it was necessary to close

the boarding school and warn parents to come and get their children. Several missionaries

were to other places, staying in the city only Gammon, Lane and Charlotte Kemper.

Gammon urged Dr. Lane to withdraw and leave him in Campinas. The Doctor.

Lane objected to this and recommended that he take the opportunity to choose one

place in the south of Minas Gerais where the school could be transferred. Gammon followed, then,

to that region, accompanied by the Rev. George W. Chamberlain, concluding that the old

city ​​of Lavras do Funil, in the Serra da Mantiqueira, seemed to meet all the requirements. O

Rev. Lane died of the fever on March 26. A few months later, Gammon

was again in Lavras accompanied by Rev. Boyle and Dr. Matthew H. Houston, the

executive secretary of the Nashville Committee, and the three participated in the meeting of the

Presbytery of Mines in Cape Verde. In September, Gammon went to the States

United States in order to deal with widow Lane's transfer of school property, which

was in the name of the deceased worker. In addition, he sought to awaken more vocations

mission to Brazil in Hampden-Sydney, raised funds for

ventures and became engaged to his cousin Willie Brown Humphreys.

In his absence, the Armstrong couple, teachers Charlotte Kemper, Sallie Chambers and

Eliza Moore Reed, and four students transferred to Lavras, where Rev. Gammon

he would spend most of the remaining 35 years of his life. The headquarters of the work was

a farm that Gammon had bought at the edge of the city,

Dr. Houston. As soon as he arrived in Lavras on July 8, 1893, Gammon dedicated himself to

evangelistic work both in the city (his first sermon was on 1 Corinthians 2: 2)

as in the localities of Cana Verde and São João Nepomuceno. One of the first students was

the future pastor José Ozias Gonçalves. Another collaborator was Francisco Augusto Deslandes,

the only professed believer the missionaries found in Lavras, having become

in Ouro Preto. He became an efficient auxiliary of the Mission as a colporteur and evangelist.

Gammon made his trips mounted on "Souza", the faithful horse that transported him

for about twenty years. His travel companion for many years was Guilherme,

a former converted slave.

In the first two years in Lavras, Gammon maintained close contact with the work of

Campinas, despite the distance. He took care of the properties, gave pastoral assistance to

Barbara and visited preaching points. In Lavras, when the rainy season does not

time, preaching, visiting and reading church history books, and

of controversy in order to prepare for the inevitable clashes with Catholicism.

During one of the trips to Campinas, he went to Bagagem to attend to the interests of the Boyle

led Rev. Frank A. Cowan to Lavras, who was seriously ill. In Lavras, it was

purchased a townhouse in the center of the city, whose land would house the buildings of the

great college that came.

Summoned by the Mission to deal with matters relating to Campinas and Lavras, Gammon

he returned to the United States on March 14, 1894. When he landed from the

Coleridge ship in New York took place a picturesque fact, as the authorities

confused, due to the similarity of the name, with Admiral Saldanha da Gama, who had

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headed the revolt of the navy. He has been in many places, visiting friends and

interests of the cause (properties of Campinas, finances, new workers). Kept

fruitful contacts with the Nashville Committee and the Southern Church General Assembly.

On June 27, 1894, he married his cousin Willie in Newberne,

honey to visit relatives and friends. The couple came to Brazil at the end of September, bringing

in his company the volunteer Blanche Dunlap. During the trip, Gammon taught

Portuguese to the two novices. Two years have elapsed since the mission

Lavras, Gammon had passed in the city, until the beginning of 1895, only ninety days.

In the rainy season, he was also writing. He produced a Catechism for

Conversos , which reached eight editions, as well as commentaries on various epistles of the

New Testament (Peter, Judas, and James) and articles and sermons for the Evangelical Pulpit . At the

college, taught psychology, logic, history of philosophy, Greek and biblical matters.

He also taught pedagogy in the Normal Course. Gammon caught the attention of people

by their appearance, chivalry, culture and sympathy. He had a physical constitution

impressive, not having lost the posture and the elegance until the end of the life. Stood out

also for his deep spirituality and great capacity of work. I would like to

build and reform. He acquired fame as an architect, so that many people

friends, especially from Nepomuken, made him

houses. When built, they made him the first guest. Gammon had

always full of activities: long trips, council meetings,

canvassing, literature orders, catechism classes and much more.

The work of Lavras faced much opposition from the clerical elements. In 1896, the brothers

inflated a crowd that almost attacked the evangelicals; also tried to destroy the

school and prevent people from going to church. The local priest sought to alienate his faithful and the

students against the missionaries. Despite this, the school prospered and the work

conquered the sympathy of many people of the city. With the visit of the new secretary

executive committee of the Nashville Committee, Dr. SH Chester, a policy of greater

attention to the needs of mission fields. After a grace period of

workers, began to arrive auxiliary in greater number: Horace and Emma Allyn,

Margaret Youell, Alva Hardie and Ruth B. See. Later came the couple Augustus F. Shaw,

Genevieve Marchant, Benjamin Hunnicutt, Charles C. Knight, Martha Glenn, the

couple John M. Sydenstricker, the couple Augustus L. Davis, teachers Hattie G. Tannehill

and Rosa Mabel Davis, and others.

A special moment occurred on July 9, 1899, when the Presbyterian

Lavras was consecrated during the meeting of the Presbytery of Rio de Janeiro in that city.

Gammon had been the architect, builder, and fund-raiser. On the 13th of May

1900, accompanied by Rev. Álvaro Reis, Gammon organized the Piumhi Church, that

who became his "church of Philippi", for the great joys he gave him. One of

first believers of that place was D. Maria França, sister of the Rev. Miguel Torres. In July,

the missionary was elected moderator of the Synod of the Presbyterian Church of Brazil. Assumed in

mid-1901 the direction of the Presbyterian Seminary, in São Paulo, in the absence of the Rev.

John R. Smith, who was on vacation in the United States, moving with the family to

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the capital of São Paulo. He was replaced in the Lavras field by Rev. José Ozias Gonçalves,

White House. Gammon made improvements to the seminar building and cooperated

to restore the good relations of the institution with Mackenzie. When withdrawing from the direction of the

seminar, was replaced by the young professor Erasmo Braga.

On May 13, 1902, Gammon traveled on vacation to the United States and received

King College the title of "Doctor Honoris Causa" in theology. In 1926, this institution

would grant him the title of Doctor Honoris Causa in law. In 1903, back to Lavras,

purchase of the hut, hitherto rented, where the

Gammon. In the same year, he presented at the Synod meeting the famous proposal or

substitutive on the Masonic question, whose approval resulted in the removal of the Rev.

Eduardo Carlos Pereira and his supporters, the founders of the Presbyterian Church

Independent.

Besides the evangelistic work, Gammon and his companions were dedicated to education. THE

school for girls was opened in 1893, when the mission to Lavras was changed.

Initially denominated Evangelical Institute, later received the name of Carlota

Kemper. In 1904, with the authorization of the American church, the school was inaugurated

for boys, with several professional courses. Dona Willie Gammon founded in

1905 the "Covenanters" Society, an association in which candidates for the

exercised their talents. In 1908, with the arrival of Dr. Benjamin Hunnicutt,

created the School of Agriculture and in 1910 the Normal School, which provoked a

great Catholic reaction, throwing stumbling blocks to official recognition. Divergences regarding

to the place of education in missionary work, led the Southern Mission to be divided into the year of

1906 in Mission East (with headquarters in Lavras) and Mission West (with headquarters in Campinas).

Gammon traveled restlessly throughout the West of Minas, preaching the gospel.

At times he was accompanied by young people who became effective pastors,

such as José Ozias Gonçalves and Paschoal Luiz Pitta. Also studied in Lavras

future ministers Jorge Thompson Goulart, Teodomiro Emerique, Américo Cardoso de

Menezes, Galdino Moreira and Guilherme Kerr. Another student from the past who still today

serves the church with efficiency is the Rev. Oswaldo Soeiro Emrich (born 07-12-1917 and

ordained in 1940), pastor emeritus of the Presbyterian Church of Curitiba, whose parents, Oswaldo

Terrich Emrich (1888-1977) and Eraydes Soeiro Emrich (1896-1974), worked in the

School of Agriculture and performed other functions in the institute and in the church. Dr. Oswaldo

(father), brother of Rev. Teodomiro Emerique, was the first student of the Agricultural School

got scholarship to study in the United States.

Gammon was on the Oeste de Minas Railroad to Pitangui and then on horseback for several

to the headwaters of the São Francisco River. In addition to Cana Verde and Nepomuceno,

visited many other places, such as Congonhal, Carrancas, Três Pontas, Perdões, Campo

Belo, Candeias, Formiga, Arcos, Porto Real, Pains, Pimenta, Piumhi and Bambuí, arriving

until the Serra da Canastra and Mata da Corda. It was known everywhere in that vast region.

In some places, he found traces of the passage not only of Eduardo Carlos Pereira, but of

Miguel Torres, as in Piumhi, where Dona Gersoni França, from Caldas, had taken the seed

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of the gospel. Miguel Torres's pamphlet, "The Evangelical Religion Before the Public," was the

instrument of the first conversions.

Among the many collaborators of Rev. Gammon was Colonel José Custódio da Veiga,

patriarch of one of the most prominent Presbyterian families of the south, west and center of Minas Gerais

General. Born in Nepomuceno on December 22, 1861, he was converted in 1883 to

district of Cana Verde, municipality of Campo Belo, listening to the young preacher Rev. Eduardo

Carlos Pereira, coming from Campaign. José Custódio was the instrument for the conversion

of his father, Francisco Custódio da Veiga (who professed faith with Rev. Gammon in 1898,

in Lavras), as well as of all his family and related families - Garcia, Correia and

Ribeiro, among others. He was a great farmer and councilor in Lavras, representing the then

district of São João Nepomuceno. Contributed to the creation and officialization of the Gymnasium of

Lavras and accompanied the missionaries on evangelistic trips throughout the region. Was

priest for many years and a founding member of the South Presbytery of Minas, in Lavras, in

March 12, 1910. He died at the age of 92 on February 11, 1954. Rev. Arnaldo

de Oliveira Veiga, his great-grandson, is the current pastor of the Presbyterian Church of Nepomuceno.

On June 17, 1908, Gammon's first wife, Willie, known to Brazilians

like Guilhermina, passed away in Rural Retreat, Virginia. Two and a half years later, in

February 28, 1911, he married a new missionary, Clara Gennet Moore, who

she would later write an inspiring biography of her husband, Thus Shines the Light . For your

Instead, Rev. Gammon wrote The Evangelical Invasion of Brazil; or, Half

Century of Evangelical Missions in the Land of the Southern Cross (The Evangelical Invasion

of Brazil or the Half Century of Evangelical Missions on the Earth of Cruzeiro do Sul), published

in 1910. In the same year, Gammon was chosen to preside over the Commission of Missions

Foreigners of the national church, whose first meeting was held on December 16.

On October 14, 1911, the Presbyterian Church of Lavras was finally organized.

The decade of 1910 was marked by a great growth of educational institutions

Presbyterians in Lavras, which cost a lot of work and a strong physical

Gammon. Over the years, through their appeals, many new workers joined

to the East Mission, occupying a large number of fields throughout the region (Piumhi,

Nepomuceno, São João Del Rei, Caxambu, Varginha and other places). In 1916, Gammon

participated with Erasmo Braga, Álvaro Reis and Eduardo C. Pereira, of the Congress of the Work

Christian in Latin America, in Panama. It was a great incentive for the cooperative movement

of the Brazilian evangelical churches, led by Rev. Erasmus, especially in what

respect to the United Seminary and to the Evangelical University Federation, of which he was president.

In 1918, during the outbreak of Spanish flu, opened an emergency hospital in high school

to attend to the victims, having as nurses the missionaries who lived in Lavras,

including his wife. He was passing through the city in his car, picking up sick and

transporting them for proper treatment.

In 1928, after learning that he had cancer, Gammon had the opportunity to hear the

great missionary of India, Dr. Stanley Jones, in Rio de Janeiro, played by Erasmo

Braga. Wishing to return to Lavras, Dr. Lisânias de Cerqueira Leite, pastor and

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engineer, director of the Central Railroad of Brazil, put at his disposal the car

and obtained the same favor from the Oeste de Minas Railroad. At dawn on day 4

of July 1928, American Independence Day, Rev. Gammon passed away in a detour

of the railroad in Barra Mansa, in the State of Rio de Janeiro.

holiday in Lavras and a good part of the population was waiting for the arrival of the body at the station

railway. In that year, the board of evangelical schools of Lavras had decided

change the name of the institution to the Gammon Institute, which greatly sensitized the

honored. In 1933, his bust was opened in a town square.

Dr. Gammon had six children. From the first marriage was born Mary Elizabeth, who came to

to marry the Rev. Augustus Lee Davis, coming to Brazil as missionaries in 1919.

Of the second marriage, five children were born: Alice Gennet, Audley Anderson, Willie

Humphreys (Billy), Joseph Moore and Richard Rhea. With the exception of Audley, all

were born in Lavras. Alice and Billy also worked as missionaries,

respectively in the years 1934-1940 and 1940-1963. Joseph and Richard were pastors in the

U.S.

Billy Gammon, born on July 1, 1916, after taking the primary and

secondary school at the Carlota Kemper School and at the Gammon Institute, studied in the United States.

Bachelor's degree at Flora MacDonald College and in 1940 she earned a master's degree in

education at Drew University in Madison, New Jersey, with the thesis "Contribution of

evangelical colleges for the development of education in Brazil ". Returning to the country

in which she was born, was assigned by the Mission East to be the secretary general of the youth of IPB,

position he held from 1946, becoming the great leader of the Presbyterian youth of the

Brazil. In 1958, she began working as the executive secretary of the

youth of the Evangelical Confederation of Brazil. She was a speaker at several conferences in

Brazil and abroad and published articles in Mocidade , Cruz de Malta , Revista da Mocidade and

Presbyterian Brazil , in addition to programs for youth

periodically.

In the tumultuous 1960s, she became an English language teacher and English

American University in the University Center of Brasília, current University of Brasilia. In 1971,

earned a master's degree in American literature from the University of Virginia. Besides

working in the student milieu carried out a self-sacrificing social work among the poor

satellite city of Ceilandia. Victimized by a run over, she died at the hospital on day 2

of September 1974, after days of internment and hopes for all. Arrived at

talking on the phone with friends from Rio, after surgery, to say that he was recovering,

which was fine. She was buried in Lavras, her hometown, on September 24. With the

the presence of her brothers Alice Gammon Coriolano and Audley Gammon, were

posthumous tributes in Lavras (24-09), in Brasilia (03-10) and in Rio (01-12),

places where he resided for a long time, leaving many friends.

Bibliography:

â–ª Lessa, Annaes , 338, 622, 666s.

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â–ª Ferreira, History of IPB , I: 328-330, 411, 488-502, 575; II: 48s, 79-81, 85, 132s, 217,

223, 240, 243, 265-68, 291, 316s, 405.

â–ª Samuel R. Gammon. The Evangelical Invasion of Brazil; or, A Half Century of

Evangelical Missions in the Land of the Southern Cross. Richmond: Presbyterian

Committee of Publication, 1910.

â–ª A General Catalog of Union Theological Seminary in Virginia, 1807-1924 .

â–ª "Dr. Samuel Gammon, " The Standard (26-07-1928), 13s.

â–ª Edward E. Lane, "A History of the West Brazil Mission," 1936.

â–ª Margarida Sydenstricker, Carlota Kemper .

â–ª Clara Moore Gammon. Thus Shines the Light: The Life of Samuel Rhea Gammon . Trad.

Jorge T. Goulart. 2nd ed. São Paulo: Christian Culture, 2003 (1st ed., Lavras: Press

Gammon, 1959). Title of the original: So Shines the Light.

â–ª Maria de Melo Chaves. Bandeirantes of the Faith . Belo Horizonte, 1947.

â–ª Bear, Mission to Brazil , 23, 25-28, 30s, 104-112, 213-215.

â–ª Ministerial Directory, PCUS (1861-1967) , 193.

â–ª Abdênago Lisboa, History of the Presbyterian Church of Belo Horizonte (Belo Horizonte:

Canaan Publishing House, 1974), 159-167.

â–ª "Billy Gammon", CEI, Paper 59 (November 1974), Special Edition.

â–ª Eudaldo Lima, Romeiros do Meu Caminho (Brasília, 1981), 241-248.

â–ª Fernandino Caldeira de Andrada, "Rev. Dr. Samuel Rhea Gammon ", Brazil

Presbyterian (Jan 1998), 20.

â–ª Fernandino Caldeira de Andrada, "Billy", Brazil Presbyterian (April 2000), 21.

â–ª "Biographical Synthesis of Rev. Dr. Samuel Rhea Gammon":

www.gammon.br/GamSRG.htm

​

Sallie H. Chambers Cooper

Missionary in Fortaleza, Campinas, Lavras, Bahia and São Paulo

Sallie (Sarah) H. Chambers was born in Dover, Massachusetts, in 1866, moving more

late to Lexington, Missouri. She graduated from the Elizabeth Aull Seminary in Lexington,

1883, and taught mathematics at Staff College. As a young man, he joined the Presbyterian Church.

She arrived in Brazil in July, 1890, as a missionary of the Southern Church (CPSU), acting

initially as a teacher in Fortaleza. Worked for a few months next to another

young missionary, Carrie M. Cunningham, who died in a

epidemic of smallpox in April 1891.

Due to health problems, in the same year Sallie was transferred to Campinas in order to

teaching at the International College. At the end of 1892, when, due to the yellow fever, the

school had to move to Lavras, in the south of Minas Gerais, accompanied the

couple David and Harriette Armstrong and missionaries Charlotte Kemper and Eliza M. Reed. At the

The following year he suffered a scam and had to go to the United States. In Lavras, it was

director of the primary and normal course, and boarding school for girls, the future College Carlota

Kemper. He left the mission in 1897, the year he met the young Carl William

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Cooper, whom he married the following year. They lived for some time in New York and

came to Brazil in 1902.

In December 1903, the Cooper settled in Wagner, 13 km from New Bridge,

in Bahia, where Carl (Carlos) worked as an evangelist. In May of the following year

organized by Rev. Woodward Finley to Wagner Church, with members

Church of Orobó (current Rui Barbosa). The Cooper couple retired in 1906,

church to disappear. It was in Wagner that the Cooper, childless, adopted a girl whose

Mother had gone mad. The idea of ​​creating an orphanage came into the minds of the couple in

1907, shortly before going to rest briefly at home. Moving to São Paulo,

founded in 1909 the "Blossom Home" orphanage,

Numbers 17.8), which was later transferred to the city of Suzano, in the

Big Sao Paulo.

As the Cooper were affiliated to the Evangelical Mission of South America and then to the Union

Evangelical Organization (UESA), the orphanage has been linked for some time to these

until it became independent. From the beginning, it was a "mission of faith",

depending on voluntary donations from countries other than Brazil (United States,

Canada, England, etc.). One of the regular contributors was the United Church of São Paulo,

whose members made occasional walks to the orphanage. In 1913 the journal of

disclosure Echoes from the Blossom Home for Orphans (Home Echoes of flowers to

Orphans). In the hands of the self-sacrificing couple, about 400 children, including the future

missionary Lóide Bonfim Andrade, who worked for many years in the Evangelical Mission

Caiuá, in Dourados, Mato Grosso do Sul, with her husband, Rev. Orlando Andrade.

The brothers of D. Loide (Juliet, Chester, Franklin and Daniel) were also under the

care of the Cooper couple and one of them was adopted as a child.

Because of her work, Sallie or Sarah, as she was known, was called "Mother"

(mother) and Carlos of "Daddy" (daddy). In 1937, the Cooper couple delivered their orphanage

Salvation Army, which Carlos Cooper had belonged to in his youth. They founded two

churches in Suzano and Jundiapeba. The church of Suzano was the precursor of the

United Presbyterian Church of that city, pastored by Rev. Heber Carlos de Campos

Junior. Dona Sarah Cooper died in Suzano on May 31, 1950 and Mr. Carlos

99 years in 1969. The "Home of Flowers" exists until today, with the adjacent

known by that name.

D. Loide Bonfim became known in Brazil and abroad for his tireless work in

for the indigenous people of Mato Grosso. He was born in Caetité, Bahia, on December 24,

1917. He went to São Paulo with his parents, Alexandre S. Bonfim and Rita Angélica Teixeira

Bonfim, who died shortly thereafter (1927). The orphans were warmly welcomed by the

couple Cooper, in Suzano. Loide had attended the third grade on the farm, in his state

Christmas. Going to the Home of the Flowers, did the fourth grade and then the high school and high school in the School

Anglo-Brazilian, in São Paulo. In Suzano, he met several missionaries who

worked among the Indians of Mato Grosso. As a teenager, he went to work as a

teacher among the Terenos Indians and later attended the Eduardo Lane Bible Institute in

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Sponsorship. In 1938, he began working with the Caiuá Evangelical Mission, founded in 1928

missionaries Albert Sydney Maxwell and Rosa Mabel Davis Maxwell (from the

Leste), with several Brazilian employees of different denominations. In 1942, Loide

studied English and did nursing studies in Anápolis, Goiás.

year, she married Rev. Orlando Andrade, a native of Lavras, who had studied

JMC Institute, in Jandira, and in the Seminary of Campinas. He met Loide when

participated in evangelistic works in Suzano.

The Andrade couple went to the Caiuá Mission, where they replaced the Maxwells at the

mission, working there for 43 years (1942-1985). Endowed with great dynamism, Loide was

to Texas in 1954 (June-December) and made a very successful campaign in favor of

Mission. In 1963 the Hospital and Maternity Door of Hope was inaugurated. In the years

70, Loide graduated in law from Faculdades ABC Paulista and Uberaba. Worked How

English teacher, lawyer, nursing technician, researcher of indigenous culture and

coordinator of several projects in the health area. As deputy field director of the Mission,

visited the villages, evangelized, assisted the sick Indians, and administered the work. Per

the Presbyterian Mission in Brazil at conferences in the United States.

United States, having visited sixteen states and spoken to large audiences. At the end of your

career, the Filipe Landes Biblical Institute for the formation of evangelists was inaugurated.

indigenous peoples. The Summer Institute of Linguistics concluded the translation of the New Testament

language would fall in 1985. D. Loide died in Dourados on September 28, 1990. It is

patroness of a chair of the Academia Douradense de Letras and its name was given to a

municipal school of that city. The Andrade couple left three daughters: Sara, Mary Slessor and

Myrtes.

Another orphan welcomed by the Cooper couple was Reinaldo Iapequino, whose

Italy. Reinaldo spent most of his childhood and adolescence in the Home of Flowers.

As an agricultural technician, he went to work at the Caiuá Mission, at the invitation of Rev. Orlando

Andrade, staying there for many years. He married Zéria Soares Branquinho, with

who had a son to whom he gave the name of his benefactor. This is Rev. Carlos Cooper

Iapequino, born in 1953, presbyterian pastor in Guarapari (ES). When did you go to

At the seminar, Carlos received from his parents a letter from Mr. Cooper, written at the

birth, consecrating it to the work of God as its future substitute. Last time

that the old worker was in Dourados, told the boy Carlos that he felt "a

very large of the sky ".

Bibliography:

• Lessa, Annaes , 350.

• Ferreira, History of IPB , I: 302, 489, 498.

• Bear, Mission to Brazil , 23, 26, 46s.

• Basilio Castro, "Historical Note of the Gospel in Ponte Nova and Adjacencies", North

Evangelical (August 11, 1928), 35.

• "Orphanage Blossom Home", The Banner (01-12-1934), 5.

• "Sarah Chambers Cooper", The Standard (31-07-1950), 14.

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• Echoes from the Blossom Home for Orphans , Gospel Newspapers, Vol. 9, Collection

I fear Lessa.

• Gammon, Thus Shines the Light , 54s.

• Ruth Tucker, "To the Ends of the Earth": A Biographical History of the Missions

Christians (São Paulo: Vida Nova, 1996), 521-524.

• "Loide Bonfim Andrade", Brazil Presbyterian (October 1990).

• Lori Alice Gressler, Memory of Dourados: Public Streets, Buildings and Public Landmarks

(Dourados: City Hall, 1996), 205s.

​

Rev. William McQuown Thompson

Missionary in Maranhão, Amazônia and Garanhuns

William M. Thompson was born on December 4, 1864 in Riverside,

Rockbridge, Virginia. He was the son of John McQuown Thompson and Agnes Hamilton

Thompson. His childhood passed in the difficult years after the Civil War and he had

of working hard in the field since childhood, especially after the death of his father,

when he was only eight years old. Desiring to study, after caring for the animals and

was walking 12 km to the nearest school. He had two brothers, Charles and John, who

were lifelong believers, having been presbyters and superintendents of the schools

their respective churches. He studied at Washington and Lee University, in

Lexington, and at Union Theological Seminary (1887-1890), in the same state. Was ordered

by the Lexington Presbytery on May 10, 1890.

Accompanied by his wife, Kate Bridgefort Guthrie, with whom he married on June 12,

1890, embarked for Brazil in Newport News, in his native state, when he saw the sea

for the first time. He arrived in Maranhão on November 21, 1890 to help and

later replace the Rev. Dr. George W. Butler, who, after a period of rest in the

was transferred to Pernambuco in 1893. The two missionaries planned the

construction of a boat for the evangelistic trips in the rivers of Maranhão and Piauí,

but did not use it. Experience has shown that it was preferable to pay

transport on career boats. Rev. Thompson resided in São Luís for several years in the

missionary, the local church being, since the end of 1893, under the care of the

Rev. Belmiro de Araújo César. In São Luís were born their first children: Prentice (03-

05-1891), who died in France during World War I, and Lily, born on 22

January of 1895.

The arrival of a new missionary, Carlyle R. Womeldorf, in July 1895,

that Thompson would turn more to the interior of the state. In the same year, he traveled to

Caxias accompanied by a colportor, with whom he distributed literature on the rise

of the Itapicuru River. There was such persecution in Caxias that the missionary, instead of

to go to Teresina, as he intended, remained there for the defense of the believers. O

colportor was probably Francisco Filadelfo de Souza Pontes, who had already preached in

Caxias in March 1894. Accompanied by Rev. Belmiro César, Thompson organized the

Church of Caxias on September 22, 1895. By the middle of the following year,

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residence in that city, at the time the second of Maranhão, where it remained until 1905.

He made missionary trips to Piauí and the center of Maranhão, going to Barra do Corda.

He sent a colportor through the Rio Parnaíba to Amarante and São Francisco, cities

two states. In January 1902, he baptized the first Piaui believers in Teresina. In

Caxias, the Thompson couple had their third son, Franklin, born in 1900.

Thompson assisted the Rev. Womeldorf in organizing the Presbyterian Church of Bethlehem in

November 9, 1904 and the Rev. Lourenço de Barros in the organization of the

Manaus on November 18 of the same year. In Manaus, forty-three

and baptized several children, as well as two elders and

a deacon. When Rev. Womeldorf left Bethlehem and returned to the United States,

Thompson lived in the capital for a few years (1905-1908). His field went from

Manaus, 1600 km from Belém by the Amazon River, to Teresina, 1000 km in another

direction. Once he climbed the Solimões River up to 600 km above Manaus. In 1908, he followed

on vacation to the United States, conducting post-graduate studies at the Seminar

Theological Union in Richmond. Returning to Brazil, he continued his work

in Belém and Manaus.

In 1910, Thompson was transferred to Garanhuns, where he resided for many years. Was

professor of mathematics at the mission school, the College November 15, 1910-1913

(Kate or Catarina taught English), and director of it until 1921, when it was replaced

Rev. Dr. George W. Taylor. In 1919, the college had 140 students enrolled and

had the collaboration of Professor Eliza M. Reed. Thompson returned to occupy the

direction after the death of Rev. Taylor, which occurred on January 1, 1936. In addition to the classes,

he took care of the administration and welcomed the students home, with his wife Kate a

his immense family of students, many of whom came in hours of need.

He excelled as a teacher of living and dead languages. Although his only teacher of

Portuguese was Dr. Butler, he came to be a great connoisseur of the language

teaching Brazilians. It revealed a perfect identification with Brazil.

Thompson was characterized by his dedication to work, being very austere in

obedience to the laws and respect for the authorities. His honesty and probity were

and his punctuality became proverbial in Garanhuns. Got to the point

some people who lived in the vicinity of their residence

the days when he passed towards the college, always at three-thirty to eight. Others,

residents of the traditional Rua do Recife (now Dr. José Mariano), said: "It's four o'clock

pm. Dr. Thompson is already moving to the post office. " This he did daily to

pick up your mail at PO Box 15 and send letters to the many friends,

relatives and authorities of his mission in the United States. He never stopped responding to

a letter, from whoever it was. D. Kate was an educator by training and

some people for their great frankness. However, the students were unanimous in affirming

which was extremely charitable.

From 1911, Thompson was in charge of the mission graph and the newspaper North

Evangelical , replacing Rev. Jerônimo Gueiros. A report from that year said that

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he was a born publisher and there was nothing that did not do well, whether it was teaching,

preach or run a newspaper. It was also the founder and editor of the Expositor , similar

to the Evangelical Pulpit , facing the church and the Sunday school (1914). From

1915, he began to write Sunday school lessons for adults, which he did for many

years. He also taught at the Seminary alongside Rev. George Henderlite and

Church of Garanhuns. At the age of sixty, he taught Sunday school at church and preached

twice a month. He ran the college with his hundreds of students and directed the

same. He also directed the publishing house "North Evangelical", wrote for this

periodicals, for the Exhibitor and other publications, and was the treasurer of the

Pernambuco. He had the respect and affection of the whole city of Garanhuns.

He was a founding member of the Southern Presbytery of Pernambuco in 1927, being the only

American missionary alongside seven national pastors. Received the honorary degree of

Doctor of Divinity (DD) from Washington University and Lee. After almost fifty

years of service, the couple retired in 1939. In the following years, 15 November

created in his honor the Agricultural Club WM Thompson. His son Franklin

Thompson, married to Ruth Furtado Gueiros (daughter of Rev. Antônio Gueiros), resided

Virginia. When she learned of the worsening in-laws of her in-laws, Ruth

Brazil with her children in December 1950, followed by her husband in April 1951.

Kate died in 1953 and Rev. Thompson died on March 8, 1955, at the age of 90.

age. Franklin was a professor at the College November 15. His sister Lili lived in the

Virginia with his family.

Bibliography:

• Lessa, Annaes , 351.

• Ferreira, History of IPB , I: 302-304, 454s; II: 104s, 110, 112, 136, 210, 217, 252, 327s.

• A General Catalog of Union Theological Seminary in Virginia, 1807-1924 .

• Cortez, Presbyterianism in Northern Brazil .

• Evangelical North (11-08-1928).

• "Historical Summary", Memories of 15 (Garanhuns, 1944), 5. Presbyterian Archive.

• JM Wanderley, "Rev. Dr. William M. Thompson, " North Evangelical (April 1955),

1s, 4.

• Bear, Mission to Brazil , 46s, 54, 63, 67, 78.

• Domingos Borges de Padua. History of the Presbyterian Church of São Luís: 1886-1986 .

• Serra, History of the Presbyterian Church of Caxias , 23s.

• Piglet, Testimony of Faith , passim.

• Silvandro Cordeiro Fonseca. Centennial of the IP of Garanhuns: 1900-2000 .

​

Rev. James Dick

Missionary in Recife and Fortaleza

James Dick was a native of Scotland, where he was born on April 21, 1861. He was raised as

Presbyterian, but later joined the Baptist church. He studied at the East London Institute,

of Dr. Grattan Guiness, focused on the preparation of missionaries. He arrived in the Northeast of

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Brazil in 1890, accompanied by his wife, Annie Dick, as a missionary of the organization

congregational "Help for Brazil". He initially assisted the Rev. James Fanstone (1851-

1937), pastor of the Pernambuco Church in Recife. This missionary was the father of Dr. James

Fanstone (1890-1987), founder of the Evangelical Hospital Goiano, in Anápolis.

Returning to the presbyterian church, Dick joined in 1891 to the Mission of Nashville, Church

Presbyterian of the South. The Presbytery of Pernambuco, meeting in Recife on August 15

of 1891 and chaired by Rev. DeLacey Wardlaw, received him as a member. The presbytery

appointed him the Rio Grande do Norte, where there was no regular job, but he ended up going

to Ceará, in order to assist Rev. DeLacey Wardlaw. On a visit to Quixadá, he had to

interrupt the sermon by virtue of attacks by opponents.

Rev. Dick died in Fortaleza on April 21, 1892, on the same day that

31 years of age, victimized by the smallpox epidemic that had also harmed the

missionary Carrie Cunningham the previous year. Rev. Dick's widow returned to the

Scotland, homeland of both.

Bibliography:

• Lessa, Annaes , 363, 416.

• Ferreira, History of IPB , I: 302, 365s, 453.

• The Missionary (February 1892), 60-63; (June 1892), 213.

• James Fanstone. Missionary Adventure in Brazil: The Amazing Story of the Anapolis

Hospital . Heathfield, Sussex, England: Errey's Printers, 1972.

​

Rev. Dr. James Joseph Harrell

Missionary in Fortaleza

Dr. Harrell was a native of Lumberton, North Carolina, where he was born on June 3

of 1857. He studied medicine at the University of North Carolina. I was a doctor when

joined the Union Theological Seminary in 1887 and was a colleague of future Revs.

William M. Thompson and George E. Henderlite. He was ordained by the Orange Presbytery in

May 1890.

He arrived in the Brazilian northeast in early 1891, accompanied by his wife Maggie McIver,

going the couple to settle in Fortaleza. However, they have not been able to adapt to the

had to retire a few months later. Harrell did not even attend the meeting of the

Presbytery of Pernambuco in August of that year. He returned to work in the ministry in his

country, where he pastored many churches: Philadelphia and Robinson, in the Presbytery of Mecklenburg

(1891-1898); Williams Memorial Church, in the same presbytery (1899-1904); Westminster

Retreat and Fair Play, South Carolina (1904-1908); Woodruff and Center Point, Carolina

of the South (1908-1910); Bethesda, South Carolina (1910-1912); McColl, in the Presbytery of

Pee Dee (1912-1920); and Bessemer City and Long Creek, in the Kings Mount Presbytery. O

Rev. Harrell died on December 28, 1925.

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Bibliography:

• Lessa, Annaes , 363s.

• Ferreira, History of IPB , I: 302.

• A General Catalog of Union Theological Seminary in Virginia, 1807-1924 .

• Bear, Mission to Brazil , 224

​

Rev. David Gibson Armstrong

Missionary in Campinas and Lavras

David G. Armstrong Jr. was born in Salem, Virginia, on February 3, 1868. He was

at Roanoke College, in the same state, in 1885. He worked as a teacher and engineer

the Union Theological Seminary (Hampden-Sydney), where

graduated in 1891. He was licensed by the Montgomery Presbytery in the first semester and

ordered in September of 1891.

He arrived in Brazil the same year, accompanied by his wife, Harriette Taylor Armstrong,

a native of South Carolina, whom she had married in Charleston on July 8.

They worked initially in Campinas, for a short time. In November of 1892, in

As a result of the yellow fever epidemic in that city, the missionaries moved

Lavras. Armstrong led the group of nine people who headed south to Minas: the couple

Armstrong, teachers Charlotte Kemper, Sallie H. Chambers and Eliza Moore Reed, and

four students, one of whom is the future Rev. José Ozias Gonçalves. Harriette, known

among Brazilians like Henriqueta, became director of the boarding school of the girls brought

of Campinas.

On a trip through Minas Gerais, in the company of colporteur Francisco Augusto

Deslandes, Rev. Armstrong arrived in Pimenta, between Formiga and Piumhi, and

he arranged to hold a conference. The local priest instigated the people, who stoned the

missionary and interrupted the meeting. Armstrong was greatly injured and the authorities

submitted to examination of body of crime. He still managed to hold a conference

very crowded.

After examining him in his convictions, the Presbytery of Rio de Janeiro

transfer of the Montgomery Presbytery on January 13, 1894. By virtue of

his wife's health problems, Rev. Armstrong retired

third session of the Synod in 1894. Returning to the United States,

their pastoral work. In 1895 he served for three months the first Scottish Presbyterian

Charleston, South Carolina. He also pastored the Presbyterian Churches of Albany (1895-

1897) and Inman Park, in Atlanta (1897-1901), both in Georgia. He died on the 23rd of

August, 1901.

Harriette Armstrong returned to Brazil in 1907 with the purpose of continuing the work that the

his companion had interrupted because of her. He worked with the East Mission in two

periods, 1907-1925 and 1936-1947. Missionary of exceptional ability, she was an organist,

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regent of choirs, music teacher and director of boarding schools, standing out for its

kindness and his tireless evangelistic and spiritual zeal. In 1913, she and Ruth Bosworth

opened a parochial school in the small town of Bom Sucesso, which in 1921 was

transferred to Campo Belo. In 1925, when Harriette had to fend for trouble

her name was given to the school (Harriette Armstrong Evangelical School). Your

successor was the missionary Susan Cockrell. Later the East Mission transferred the "College

Armstrong "to IPB; the school belongs to the West Presbytery of Mines since 2002. At the end of

their careers, Harriette and Ruth, the two inseparable companions,

Ant, initially assisting the Rev. John Marion (Mario) Sydenstricker, both of whom

retired in 1947. Sick and weak, Harriette returned to the United States,

where he died in 1948.

Bibliography:

• Lessa, Annaes , 364, 462, 469, 629.

• Ferreira, History of IPB , I: 487, 489.

• A General Catalog of Union Theological Seminary in Virginia, 1807-1924 .

• Bear, Mission to Brazil , 23, 26, 106, 108, 119, 137.

• Gammon, Thus Shines the Light , 58, 66, 110.

​

Eliza Moore Reed

Missionary and educator in the South and Northeast

Eliza Reed was a native of Pleasant Hill, Missouri, where she was born in 1857. For

thirteen years old was one of the main teachers of the State Institute for the Deaf and Dumb,

in Fulton, in your state. She was appointed a missionary by the Missions Committee of the

South (CPSU) on July 13, 1891, leaving for Brazil in September. Has worked

initially at the International College in Campinas. By the end of the following year,

accompanied the four classmates and the four students who moved to Lavras in

epidemic of yellow fever in Campinas. Colleagues were Rev. David G.

Armstrong, his wife Harriette and missionaries Charlotte Kemper and Sallie Chambers. THE

The trip was made by train for five days, with the last six kilometers being

traveling on horseback, going in a ox cart. Eliza and Sallie taught in the new

school, whose classes began on February 1, 1893.

In 1894, Eliza transferred to the Northern Mission of Brazil, with which she would work until

1926. Initially, he lived in Recife, where he collaborated with missionary Winona Evans

in a school that had begun in 1894. The following year, when Winona married

with an English missionary, Rev. Henry John McCall, Eliza was at the head of the school. At the

At the end of 1895, she visited Garanhuns, a town where Presbyterian work was

your first steps. Initially, in 1894, Rev. McCall had worked there, going to

Garanhuns seeking improvements for their health. Shortly thereafter, he was replaced by

Rev. George W. Butler, who had previously worked in São Luís and Recife. In November of

In 1895, Eliza was in that city and witnessed the tremendous persecutions

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against the Protestants. She sent several letters about these episodes to the newspaper

The Missionary . In 1896, he returned to the United States for health reasons.

In January of 1897, the American College in Natal was officially installed. Your

founder had been Mrs. Katherine Hall Porter, wife of the local pastor, Rev. William

Calvin Porter, and the first teacher was the missionary Rebecca Morrisette. When this

married an elder of the Church of Natal, going to reside in the interior, Eliza, who had already

returned to Brazil, assumed the direction of the school, in August of 1899. Under his skilful

American School became the best school in the city, having attracted

of many illustrious families. Despite strong opposition, it provided excellent services

for several years, ending its activities in 1907.

In 1904, the Missions Committee of Nashville decided to open a college in Recife and to there

transferred Eliza Reed. The American College of Pernambuco was founded by the

August 1 of that year, starting his activities with eighteen students. Eliza invited

to help her at the Recife Evangelical School, some former students who had excelled in the

Christmas College. Among them was Cecília Rodrigues (1885-1968), who later married

with Rev. Cícero Siqueira (1894-1963) and was the national secretary of women's and

a great educator in Alto Jequitibá, east of Minas Gerais. The other initial students were Olga

Nóbrega, Maria Carolina, Jacinto de Melo, Noemi Marinho, Otoniel Marinho, Helcias

Marino, Judite Andrade, Samuel Andrade, George Henderlite, Langdon Henderlite, Maria

de Souza Leão, Angelita de Souza Leão, Diogenes de Souza Leão, Augusto Costa, Corina

Carneiro, Leonilda Amaral and Agnes Cooper. Cecília Siqueira and Maurício Wanderley, another

disciple of Eliza, wrote poems exalting the qualities of the teacher.

In 1905 Eliza enthusiastically announced the opening of the second school year, on 30

January, with 24 students, including Brazilian, English and Dutch. There were

Catholic and Evangelical families: Presbyterian, Episcopal, Baptist and Congregational. An

epidemic caused serious seizures in 1906. Eliza said that Sidonia de Carvalho

and Cecília Rodrigues were excellent helpers and everything was on course for the better.

In addition to the devotional services each morning, they diligently studied the biblical lessons

through The Earnest Worker. The teacher taught the lessons to the students-

Brazilian teachers and was delighted to see how they read and translated English well.

When she was ill, Eliza had to go to the United States, and the school was in the hands

of Brazilian girls. In 1906 the missionary Margaret Moore Douglas arrived,

later took over. It was discussed in the Mission in 1911 whether it would not be

school of Recife with Garanhuns, since the age of Miss Reed did not allow her to

continue there. It was then that Margaret Douglas set out to assume the direction, position that

would occupy until 1940, consolidating that institution. Over the years, work

Eliza Reed became famous in Recife and eventually her name was

given to the school: American College Eliza M. Reed. Years later, when a

seat for the school (1920), a new name was given to the institution in memory of the

mother of the meritorious American - Evangelical College Agnes Erskine -, this name

which remains to this day. Of the many girls graduated from school, some have become

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wives of pastors, others worked as teachers in several places in the Northeast

or excelled in different activities.

In 1913, Eliza went to the United States on extended vacation. When

returned to Pernambuco in 1916, went to live in Garanhuns, dedicating himself to teaching and

production of literature. He taught in two Sunday schools, one in the morning and the other at

afternoon, and wrote Sunday school lessons for children and teens. Collaborated with

Rev. George Henderlite in the education of future pastors in both Garanhuns and

then in Recife. Another important contribution of this missionary was the organization and

development of women's work in the Pernambuco Presbytery. To that end,

churches, as well as wrote, translated or adapted numerous

pamphlets concerning this work and distributed them among the assisting societies. Eliza

M. Reed suddenly passed away on May 12, 1926, in Recife, after more than thirty

years of service in Brazil.

Bibliography:

• Lessa, Annaes , 439.

• Ferreira, History of IPB , I: 465, 489, 550, 553; II: 106-108, 137, 250, 274, 362.

• Clara Gammon, Thus Shines the Light .

• Ximenes, "The White-haired Missionary."

• Evangelical College Agnes Erskine - Fiftieth Anniversary (Recife, 1954). Archive

Presbyterian.

• Bear, Mission to Brazil , 23, 26, 50s, 71s.

• Siqueira, Ambassador and Outsider , 89-100

​

Rev. Alexander Henry

Missionary in Nova Friburgo and Lavras

Alexander Henry was born on April 8, 1865. He graduated from the Christian University in

Kansas, in 1885. He then studied theology at Union Theological Seminary in

Virginia, and at the Chicago Presbyterian Seminary (McCormick). He was ordained in 1890

by the West Lexington Presbytery and married on October 8 of the same year with

Wilhelmina Berryman. He served in Roslyn and Chalum, Washington (1889);

Midway, Kentucky (1890-1891), and Franklin, Kentucky (1891). Worked as a missionary

in Beattyville, Kentucky, from 1891 to 1893.

The missionary arrived in Brazil with his wife in July 1893. It began in Nova

Friburgo and later worked in Lavras and São João Del Rei, with the couple

Grillbortzer, returning to his country in 1895. He remained short time in Brazil,

with virtually no information about their work in the sources.

After returning to the United States, Rev. Henry pastored the churches of Crittenden and

Lebanon, Kentucky (1895-1897). He was dismissed from the ministry at his request

1898. From the first marriage, he had four children: Catherine Clifton, Frank Berryman,

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Emma Yeaman and Robert Alexander. He contracted second marriage with Betty H. Ratcliffe in

June 6, 1913 and passed away with almost 87 years on February 29, 1952.

Bibliography:

• Lessa, Annaes , 439, 493.

• Bear, Mission to Brazil , 126, 222.

• Ministerial Directory, PCUS (1861-1967) , 241.

• General Catalog, Presbyterian Theological Seminary, Chicago (Chicago, 1939)

​

Rev. George Adam Grillbortzer

Missionary in the south of Minas Gerais

George A. Grillbortzer was a native of Alexandria, Virginia, where he was born on the 4th of

December 1859. Later his surname was changed to Grille. He was John's son.

Adam Grillbortzer and Dorothy Roth. George was clerk, reporter, telephone inspector, and

secretary of the Young Men's Christian Association. He studied at the Presbyterian University of

Southwest, in Clarksville, Tennessee, where he graduated in 1890. He then joined the

Union Theological Seminary in Virginia, graduating in 1893. He was

May 1892 by the Cherokee Presbytery and ordained on April 14, 1893 by the

East Hanover Presbytery. On May 16, she married Hannah Frances Moran at the

Loudoun County, Virginia.

Rev. Grillbortzer arrived in Brazil with his wife in 1893. He worked in Lavras and São

João Del Rei. The couple returned to the United States in 1896 due to health problems.

Information about his work in Brazil is scarce.

In his country, the Rev. Grillbortzer pastored a large number of churches, namely:

Springfield and Patterson's Creek, in the Presbytery of Winchester (1895-1902), Indianola,

Mississippi (1902-1903), Bealeton and Lichtfield, Virginia (1903-1904), Leesville (1904-

1905), Iuka in Mississippi (1905-1906), Jackson in Louisiana (1906-1910), Valley

Creek and Center Ridge in the Tusca Presbytery (1911-1912), Roanoke, Alabama (1912-

1913), Madison, Alabama (1913-1919), Dawson and Pleasant Hill, in the Presbytery of

Macon (1919-1923). Due to health problems, he moved to Washington,

District of Columbia, in 1924, retiring in 1934. He passed away in that city on

September 1945.

With the first wife, who died on November 7, 1907, Rev. Grillborzter had five

children: George Jr., Clinton, Lucy, David and John. On September 17, 1913, she married

second nuptials with Helen Annie Kingsbery, in Quitman, Georgia. Married by

third time on November 15, 1922, in Georgetown, South Carolina, with Annie

Manigault Lucas.

Bibliography:

â–ª Lessa, Annaes , 439, 520.

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â–ª Bear, Mission to Brazil , 222.

â–ª Ministerial Directory, PCUS (1861-1950) , 263

​

​

Rev. George Edward Henderlite

Missionary in Paraíba and Pernambuco, pioneer of the Northern Seminary

George E. Henderlite was born in Marion, Smyth County, Virginia, on June 1

of 1863. He was the son of George W. Henderlite and Rachel A. Killinger. Of the five children of

couple, four were Presbyterian ministers and the daughter married a Lutheran pastor. At

adolescence, George attended Marion's school, spent his vacations in the country fishing,

hunt or work on a farm. With the death of the father in 1882, the young man came to face

life more seriously. In the following years he worked in a pharmacy and then in

an engineering battalion. In the middle of time, it became a revival

and joined the Presbyterian Church. In 1884 he joined King College in Bristol,

Tennessee, where he swept the floors and lit fireplaces to pay for his studies. Was a colleague of

studies of two other future missionaries in Brazil: Samuel R. Gammon and Edmund A.

Tilly (Methodist).

After graduating from high school in 1887, he joined the Union Theological Seminary,

graduating in 1890. He spent that summer in the mountains of North

the Rev. John Rockwell Smith family company, which solidified the conviction that

was being called for missionary work abroad. It was licensed by

Abingdon Presbytery in 1890 and ordained by the Presbytery of Winchester on May 1

of 1891, working in the Church of Woodstock, in his native state, by three happy years

(1890-1893). He was appointed a missionary on March 3, 1893, and on June 1 he was married

with Mattie Robins Moseley, a native of Buckingham, Virginia, daughter of the priest

Langdon C. Moseley. Later George wrote: "The Lord has given me as a wife a

very pious and selfless woman. " Following to New York, the couple left for Brazil

on August 1, arriving in the same month. Henderlite was received by the Presbytery of

Pernambuco in July 1894, by transfer of the Presbytery of Winchester.

After studying Portuguese in Recife, he moved to the capital of Paraíba on 14

October 1894, where he replaced Rev. Belmiro de Araújo César, who was transferred to

São Luís do Maranhão. He worked not only in João Pessoa, but in the interior of the state.

During this period, one of the beneficiaries was the young Cecilia Rodrigues (1886-

1968), from the small town of Lucena, to whom he referred in his studies. She and her parents were

received by profession of faith and baptism in 1897. After studying at Garanhuns and Natal and

in Recife and Garanhuns, Cecília came to marry Rev. Cícero Siqueira and was

a notable female labor leader in Brazil. In Paraíba, Henderlite began to exercise

his other vocation, initiating the instruction of future pastors Manoel Francisco do

Nascimento Machado, Martinho de Oliveira and Manoel Alfredo Guimarães.

On February 3, 1896, Henderlite accompanied the Rev. William Calvin Porter in

organization of the Presbyterian Church of Natal. In that year, the Church of João Pessoa,

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organized by the Rev. John R. Smith in 1884, had sixty-four members

and had already gone through several venues. In the pastorate of Henderlite, it was bought

the old theater Santa Cruz, where the Presbytery of Pernambuco met in 1897. Demolished

the theater in 1899, in the same place was constructed the temple, that was consecrated in the night of 17

June 1900, on the occasion of a new meeting of the presbytery. More

of 600 people and occupied the pulpit Rev. Martinho de Oliveira. There were small nuclei of

believers in Lucena, Mandarau, Cachetu, Engenho do Tabu, Santa Rita, Usina São João,

Barra de Santa Rosa, Souza and Pombal, some of them led by evangelists. In the end of

stay of Henderlite, were collaborating in that field, for a short time, the Revs. Manoel

Machado and João Francisco da Cruz. The first joined the independent movement and

second, after brief pastorates, went on to legal career. Henderlite worked in the

Paraíba until 1901.

Returning to Pernambuco, he was the continuator of the work of the Rev. John R. Smith in preparation

young people to the ministry. Going to Garanhuns, he collaborated with the Rev. Martinho de

Oliveira, the founder of the Seminary of the North, for whom he had great admiration,

after his death in 1903. He assumed the pastorate of the Church of Garanhuns and the

incipient theological school, of which he was the mainstay for a long time. Theologian, exegete,

Master of the Scriptures, Henderlite has educated generations of ministers. There was a time when all

the northern workers were his former students. Among his first disciples were

Antônio Almeida, João Marques da Mota Sobrinho, Antônio Gueiros and Alfredo Ferreira. O

missionary rented a house for his family, where, assisted by his wife, he

few students as interns. He and the students visited the many points of preaching

in the interior, which gave young people experience in the practice of preaching.

Henderlite reported in 1905 that students were doing the best course possible within the

circumstances. Everyone had to master the Sketches of Theology , by Archibald Alexander

Hodge, and knew almost by heart the little book The Gospel Taught by Calvin ("The

Gospel as Taught by Calvin "), Rev. RC Reed (1851-1925), professor of the Seminary

Theological of Columbia. Taking "Sketches of Church History" as a synthesis and

completed the entire course imposed on them. They analyzed half of the

books of the Bible, gathering the best material of commentaries in English. An unfolding

of the Henderlite school was the College November 15, an attached course founded by him

with the collaboration of his wife Mattie, the Rev. Jerônimo Gueiros, Cecília Rodrigues and

Soriano Furtado. The classes began in the first days of April, 1908. With this

faculty simultaneously and parallel courses of humanities and

theology.

From 1908 to 1911, he collaborated with Henderlite in the educational work at Garanhuns a former student,

the Rev. Jerônimo Gueiros and, from 1910, the Rev. William M. Thompson. In this period,

after many discussions, the seminary was held by the Presbytery of Pernambuco,

who elected a board for it in 1911. In the first half of 1912, Henderlite

was in Campinas as substitute professor, teaching New Testament Exegesis.

Over the years, other students in the Northeast were Benjamim Marinho, José

Martins, Natanael Cortez, Cícero Siqueira and Antônio Teixeira Gueiros. Thompson gave

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notions of physics, chemistry, and science; Cecilia taught Portuguese, Eliza Reed taught English

and Henderlite ministered all theological matters. During all this time, the seminar

also received encouragement and inspiration from Rev. Dr. George Butler, who died in

1919.

The seminary ran in Garanhuns until 1920, when it was transferred to Recife. Was

a sad occasion for Garanhuns, for the church and for the College November 15 the day in

that the Henderlite couple left Antioquia Pernambucana. Dr. Henderlite and his former student,

Rev. Antônio Almeida, arranged for the transfer to the capital, where it would be

to form a larger and more efficient faculty. Rev. Almeida was sent to

Richmond, Virginia, to take a specialization course at Union Theological Seminary,

studying Hebrew, a subject he taught at the seminary until 1947. In 1921, the

institution was renamed Evangelical Seminary of the North, for having the cooperation of the

congregations. In 1924, it was officially recognized by the General Assembly of the Church

Presbyterian of Brazil, meeting in Recife.

After thirty years in Brazil, Rev. Henderlite retired in September 1923,

returning to your country. He worked for a year as a national missionary in Comanche,

in Texas. He completed his ministry pastoring the churches of Jamestown, Davis Memorial

and Appomattox, at the West Hanover Presbytery in Virginia. Leaving active ministry

in 1931, he settled in Farmville, where he died on February 11, 1946 and

his wife in 1948. Published comments on Romans, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, 1

John and Revelation, as well as brochures on the mode of baptism, the baptism of children and

other subjects, all of which he used in his classes. He liked to take his theology from the

own Bible. He was a pre-millennial and formed disciples. One of his works in this area was O

Premillennialism taught in the Gospel according to Matthew . Received from his alma mater, King

College, the title of Doctor of Divinity (DD). The Henderlite couple had three children and two

daughters: George Edward Jr. (who died young), Robert Edward, Langdon Moseley, Rachel

K. Wilson and Martha E. Plunkett.

In 1931, his son Langdon Moseley Henderlite came to work in Pernambuco. Langdon

was born June 4, 1898 in Marion, Virginia. Bachelor's degree at King College in

1920 and at the Evangelical Seminary of the North in 1923. He also studied at the Union Seminary,

in Virginia, in 1924. It was licensed on April 17 and ordered on September 24, 1924

by the Winchester Presbytery. He married on June 17, 1924 with Courtney Edmond

Frischkorn (deceased in 1951), with which she had three children. He pastored churches in Gormania,

in West Virginia, Blaine and Baynard (1924-1926); Ocean View, Norfolk, Virginia

(1926-1931). He received his PhD in Divinity from King College in 1942. He was

installation of the Presbyterian Mission of the Amazon, in 1950. On June 15,

1953, married in second nuptials, in Recife, with the missionary Mary Virginia Smith,

who arrived in Brazil in 1948 and served until 1983. Rev. Langdon died on 11

January 1970.

Bibliography:

â–ª Lessa, Annaes , 439, 466s.

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71

â–ª Ferreira, History of IPB , I: 421, 446-48, 460-62, 559; II: 99s, 108-111, 115, 188s, 274,

362, 410, 429.

â–ª "Record of Missionaries of the Presbyterian Church in the United States (Southern)",

Presbyterian Historical Society (Montreat, North Carolina), 224.

â–ª George E. Henderlite. Premillennialism Taught in the Gospel According to Matthew . 2nd ed.

corrected. Recife, 1921.

â–ª George E. Henderlite. Notes on the Epistles of St. Paul to the Romans and

Galatians . Recife: North Brazil Presbyterian Mission, 1954.

â–ª "Death of Rev. George E. Henderlite, DD", Christian Observer (Louisville, Kentucky,

27-02-1946), 11.

â–ª "Rev. Dr. George E. Henderlite, " The Puritan (May 25, 1946), 5, 7.

â–ª "Rev. George Edward Henderlite, " Minutes of the West Hanover Presbytery (10-15-

1946), 15.

â–ª Bear, Mission to Brazil , 63, 224.

â–ª Ministerial Directory, PCUS (1861-1967) , 239.

â–ª "Rev. Langdon Henderlite ", Brazil Presbyterian (June 1970), 6.

â–ª Siqueira, Ambassador and Outsider , 83-88

​

Rev. Carlyle Ramsey Womeldorf

Missionary in Maranhão and Pará

Carlyle Womeldorf was born on August 11, 1864 near Timber Ridge, in

near Lexington, Rockbridge County, in the Virginia Valley. Some sources tell you

they erroneously give other names such as "Charles" and "Calvin". He was one of the twelve children of

William Tolbert Womeldorf and Catherine H. Shaner, both of Germanic descent. O

father was a farmer and an unbelieving businessman (he died in 1894), but his mother

was characterized by his piety. From the age of seven to sixteen, Carlyle did her studies

primary and secondary schools in public schools, but from seventeen to twenty-three

worked on the farm with his father. He then studied for a year in a

his city at Washington and Lee University (1888-1891) and at the Theological Seminary

Union, in Hampden-Sydney, where he graduated in 1894. He felt the desire to be a missionary

very early in life, long before he became a professed Christian. It was accepted by the

Missions on March 12, 1894 and ordered by the Lexington Presbytery on May 14.

The next day she married Ada Florence Kennon in Lexington. Worked briefly

missionary of his presbytery in Alpena, Horton, Job and Harman, in the

mountains of West Virginia.

He was appointed a missionary by the Nashville Missions Committee on March 12, 1894, and

he left for Brazil on June 13, 1895. He arrived the following month in company with the

wife, and lived in Maranhão until March 1903. In that state there were already two

Presbyterian workers, William M. Thompson and Belmiro de Araújo César. Rev.

Thompson had arrived in St. Louis in 1890 to replace the pioneer George Butler, who

would go to Recife. After the arrival of the Womeldorf couple, Thompson concentrated his

efforts in the city of Caxias and other points of the interior. Rev. Belmiro César had

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transferred to the capital of Maranhão in December 1893, in order to pastor the church

local.

In October of 1895, Womeldorf wrote of São Luís counting on the good impressions taken

with the cordial reception of the Maranhão believers, as well as the meeting of the Presbytery of

Pernambuco, held there shortly after his arrival. The new missionary made

interior of the state and opened works in São Bento and Anil. On one occasion he made a

mission trip to Ceará, going through Camocim to Sobral and Ipu. Also visited the

city ​​of Teresina, capital of Piauí. During this period, he devoted himself to literary activities,

producing leaflets, a 32-page hymnal, and newspaper articles. Your thoughts,

however, they were facing Belém and the Amazon Valley. In 1900, following a holiday

for the United States, presented his plans to the Nashville Missions Committee.

Womeldorf had been assigned to reside in Pará in 1896. He even visited

Bethlehem and to carry out the first pastoral acts, but its transfer took place only a few

years later. In 1901, returning to Brazil, he was invited by the small congregation

from that city for a visit. The members of the congregation were mostly

Presbyterians who had come from Rio de Janeiro and several states in the Northeast.

The small group led Pedro Araújo Costa, who wrote to the then Presbytery of

Pernambuco requesting pastoral assistance for the small but prosperous nucleus of

believers. The missionary went there and baptized twelve people. The following year, it was twice the

Belém and received another 24 members. He also went to Manaus, where there was a

small group of 22 believers. Through their visit, another 22 were added to the

community.

From March 1903 until April 1905, Womeldorf resided in the capital of Pará, whose church was

organized by him and the Rev. William Thompson on November 9, 1904, with seventy

and three adult members and thirty children. Womeldorf was inducted into the pastorate and

election and ordination of two priests and two deacons. The organizing committee

named by the Presbytery of Pernambuco was composed by Revs. William Thompson and

Belmiro César, but apparently the latter could not attend. In his later years

reports, Womeldorf did not hide the difficulties he faced. The disease

wife, the rigors of climate, the epidemic of smallpox, the penetration of the movement

independent, the impossibility of finding national workers to help them, all

conspiring against the new church. His eldest son suggested that because of the weather,

every year in Bethlehem, they had to spend five in the United States. Womeldorf

He added, however, that believers were spiritual, eager to learn, and

evangelization.

Due to his wife's health problems, Rev. Womeldorf retired from Brazil in 1905,

after ten years in the Amazon, returning to reside again in Lexington, Virginia.

In the following years, the Church of Bethlehem came under the care of the Revs. William Thompson,

Langdon Henderlite and João Marques da Mota Sobrinho. Womeldorf would like to have returned

to Brazil in accordance with its expressed desire, but the Committee of Missions did not

health reasons. Sponsored by national and foreign missions committees,

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pastored for many years a Mexican church in El Paso, Texas (1907-1920). THE

followed, founded a church for Mexicans in Houston, in the same state (1921-1928).

Retired, he returned to his city, initially residing in the former property of the

family near Timber Ridge and then on the outskirts of Lexington, where he died at 91

years on December 6, 1955. He was buried at Stonewall Jackson Cemetery. The couple

Womeldorf had five sons, Eugene, Leslie, Archie, Carlyle and Garland.

the first three were born in Brazil. Archie or Airlie died in Brazil.

Bibliography:

â–ª Lessa, Annaes , 485.

â–ª Ferreira, History of IPB , I: 304, 453-56; II: 104s.

â–ª "Record of Missionaries of the Presbyterian Church in the United States (Southern)",

Presbyterian Historical Society (Montreat, North Carolina), 245.

â–ª CR Womeldorf, "A Good Year at Pará", The Missionary (April 1905), 167.

â–ª WM Thompson, "Pará", The Missionary (April 1905), 164.

â–ª Evangelical North (11-08-1928), 16-17.

â–ª Ministerial Directory, PCUS (1861-1950) , 750.

â–ª "Rev. Carlyle R. Womeldorf, " Christian Observer (28-03-1956), 22.

â–ª "Memorial to Rev. Carlyle Ramsey Womeldorf", Minutes of the Lexington Presbytery

(May 24, 1956), 15.

â–ª Bear, Mission to Brazil , 47, 49, 54, 224.

â–ª Solomon Azulay. Presbyterian Church of Bethlehem: Remembrance of its 90 years . Belém,

1994

​

Rev. Charles Read Morton

Missionary in the Triângulo Mineiro and in Casa Branca

Charles Morton was born on May 20, 1865 in Compostella, Charlotte County,

in Virginia. He studied at the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, and at the Seminary

Theological Union, annexed to the Hampden-Sydney College, in the same state, where it was formed

in 1894, having been a colleague of the Rev. Carlyle R. Womeldorf. It was ordained by the Presbytery

of Roanoke in June 1894. He arrived in Brazil in August 1895, accompanied by

young wife of twenty-one, Mary Thompson Morton. They initially worked in

Lavras. In December 1895, they went to Araguari, a field that had been herded by the

Rev. Frank Cowan, who died in 1894. In that city there was a school run by the widow

missionary, Kate Bias Cowan, who later went to Santa Luzia de Goiás (now

Luziânia).

Morton traveled extensively through the Minas Triangle, receiving many people for

professions in various places. It revived the itinerant evangelistic tradition of the pioneer

John Boyle and was the first to preach in Patos de Minas, Carmo do Paranaíba, Arapuá and Rio

Paranaíba, besides several points in Goiás. In one of his preaching in the Córrego da

Onça, near Bagagem (South Star), got to know a man called David de

Melo, who had been reading the Bible and had been evangelized by a Rev. Boyle parishioner.

Morton went to the house of David, spent three days reading and explaining the Scriptures, and

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communion of the host's church, his wife Maria Isabel and the three daughters of the

presence of neighbors invited to the occasion. David faced many difficulties in

parental resistance, which helped to influence his

married, Manoel de Melo, who had also been reading the Bible and came to convert, having

set in a country estate near Mount Carmel. The couple was greeted by

profession of faith by the Rev. Morton on July 15, 1898 and Manoel became a mainstay

of the gospel in that region.

Later, the other five Melo brothers also converted with their families,

contributing to the emergence of Presbyterian churches in Douradoquara, Água Limpa,

Monte Carmelo, Abbey of the Dourados and Perdizes. Maria de Melo Chaves, the most

old woman of Manoel de Melo, tells this inspiring story in the book Bandeirantes da Fé ,

published in 1947. His brother Zaqueu de Melo, born in Monte Carmelo in 1914, was

Presbyterian pastor, state deputy and professor for many years in the city of Londrina,

Paraná, where he founded in 1945 the Philadelphia Institute, current University Center Philadelphia

(UNIFIL), linked to the Presbyterian Church of Londrina.

With his health shaken, Morton's wife went to Fredericksburg, Virginia, in 1898,

passing away a few days after arriving and leaving a little girl. After the wife's death,

Morton spent a year in Richmond, doing postgraduate studies at the Seminary

Union, and returned to Brazil. In 1900, he married Lucy Hall, daughter

of a couple of American immigrants residing in Vila Americana. Lucy was born in

Brazil and studied with the missionaries in Campinas and Lavras. Four of her sisters

also married missionaries and a cousin, Katherine, was the wife of Rev. William

Calvin Porter. The Morton couple had a daughter, Elizabeth Margaret Morton, and a son who

was born on June 19, 1903, after the death of his father, and received his name.

From Araguari, Morton moved to White House, State of São Paulo, in 1901.

He was affected by yellow fever and died in an isolation hospital on 5 April.

1903. He was the last of the missionaries who had been victimized by this disease,

by George W. Thompson, John W. Dabney, Edward Lane and Edgar M. Pinkerton. Morton

was supported by the Presbyterian Church of Durham, North Carolina, as its pastor

missionary. Lucy Morton worked for many years with the Mission West in Araguari,

Barretos and other places (1903-1908, 1924-1930). On September 25, 1907, the Revista

of the National Missions reported that Lucy had donated to the Church of Araguari a harmonium

which she herself played in the services.

According to some authors, the death of the missionary was surrounded by a certain mystery. When

Morton was affected by yellow fever, the police chief, the enemy of evangelicals,

determined his removal to the Holy House, where he died shortly thereafter. Rev. James

R. Woodson reported that, many years after Morton's death, the news broke that

that an old black man confessed to having given him a poison remedy,

the 3rd.

Bibliography:

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75

â–ª Lessa, Annaes , 485, 644s, 653, 660s.

â–ª Ferreira, History of IPB , I: 506-508; II: 34, 366.

â–ª Charlotte Kemper, "Rev. CR Morton, " The Missionary (June 1903), 256s.

â–ª A General Catalog of Union Theological Seminary in Virginia, 1807-1924 .

â–ª Keys, Bandeirantes da Fé, 27-31, 61-65, 69s, 187. See Hahn, Protestant Cult in the

Brazil , 254-258.

â–ª Bear, Mission to Brazil , 27s.

â–ª Silva e Silva, Presbyterian Church of Araguari , 52-55.

â–ª Ferreira, Little History of the West Mission , 40s

​

Rev. Dr. Horace Selden Allyn

Missionary and doctor in the south of Minas Gerais

Horace S. Allyn was born on March 4, 1859 in Nankin, Wayne County, near

of Detroit, in the State of Michigan. He graduated in medicine from the University of Michigan,

in Ann Arbor, in 1881. Beginning his medical career, he resided in several localities of the

State of Florida. He married Emma Rebecca Carter in 1890, on his second nuptials.

Georgia, setting up his residence and clinic in Gainesville, in that state. Feeling the

Missionary vocation, he entered Columbia Theological Seminary, where he graduated in

1893. After his ordination, he pastored the Church of Harmony Grove, where he remained until

beginning of 1896.

The couple arrived in Brazil in January 1896, going to live for several months in Araguari,

where Allyn, as a physician, assisted a sick missionary, possibly the Rev.

Charles Morton. In this city, he was obliged to practice medicine because of the

you have encountered. From there he went to São João Del Rei, being the first

presbyterian worker to work in this city, where he lived for five years. Participated in the

meeting of the Presbyterian Synod in 1897, in which he was one of only five missionaries

the Smith Movement, about the priority of evangelization

education. Although he felt called to evangelistic work as

preacher, was again forced to practice medicine in view of the lack of resources

doctors. In 1902, he participated alongside the Revs. Álvaro Reis, José Ozias Gonçalves and Alva

Hardie of the organization of the Churches of São João Nepomuceno (05-11) and São João Del Rei

(07-11).

In addition to being a pastor and physician, Allyn was also a printer, having a lot of practice in this field.

activity. He was the founder, in São João Del Rei, of the first publishing agency of the

church, the Presbyterian House Publishing House, forwarding the publication of many useful works. Was

editor of the Southern Brazil Mission newspaper Púlpito Evangélico , transformed into O

Presbyterian in 1901 and published monthly by the Synodal Commission of Publications.

The following year, Allyn transferred her publishing company to Rio de Janeiro and continued to publish

The Presbyterian . In 1903, still in Rio, worked as editor of the International Lessons

for Sunday School. At that time, he contracted yellow fever, at serious risk of

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life. In order to better serve the needy populations, during their first vacation, in

In 1904, he completed a specialization course at Atlanta Medical College.

In 1905, at the request of the Rev. Samuel R. Gammon, Allyn took up residence in

Lavras, where he and his wife took the direction of one of the boarding

Evangelical Institute, now the Gammon Institute, of which he was one of the professors, teaching

physical and natural sciences. He continued to publish The Presbyterian . At that time of his

ministry, decided to dedicate himself entirely to the work of evangelization, as a preacher and

doctor. He was then entrusted with the mission field of St. John of the King, where he had

his first pastorate in Brazil.

Poorly understood in his Christian vocation as a missionary and physician, since he did not

poor for their services, some doctors from Lavras tried to prevent him from

his profession, on the grounds that he was a graduate of foreign schools and was not yet

licensed by a national school. In 1907, Allyn went to Rio de Janeiro, where

undergone examinations before an official commission of medical professors, in

company of five foreign colleagues, being the only one to be approved. Returning to Lavras,

was the target of an enthusiastic popular demonstration. Allyn became a famous physician and

esteemed by all, and his double ministry was performed with extraordinary dedication and

always remembered with deep recognition. He was director of Santa Casa de Lavras. Owner

Emma was an experienced midwife and an excellent assistant to her husband in his clinic.

Dr. Allyn was the first moderator of the Southern Mines Presbytery, and was elected

meeting was held on March 12, 1910. In 1916,

Valença, would be elected moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Brazil. Was

still a board member of the Presbyterian Seminary. As a preacher of the gospel,

visited several localities and suffered persecutions, one of which almost took his life. O

Bom Sucesso, where the Allyn couple helped the missionary Ruth See, experimented with

strong opposition in 1918. A bomb exploded in the house of the school, fortunately in an hour in

that neither students nor teachers were present.

In the years 1919 and 1920, Rev. Allyn visited several locations in Rio Grande do Norte and

Pernambuco, preaching the gospel. Returning south in late 1920, he chose

Varginha to be the center of his missionary activities, beginning the work

presbyterian in that city. The Varginha Church would be organized by the Revs. Augustus

Lee Davis and Frank Fisher Baker on November 3, 1929. In 1921, with the nod

East Mission and in response to persistent requests from local families, Dr. Allyn founded

American Evangelical School, later called the Allyn Evangelical School. The couple

had the collaboration of Mrs. Scintilla Exel Pitta, daughter of the second marriage of D. Palmira

Rodrigues and wife of José Pitta, brother of Rev. Paschoal Luiz Pitta. Posteriorly

the educators Edith Foster and Alice Genevieve (Genoveva) arrived to help them,

Marchant. A few years later, Dr. Allyn moved to Caxambu, where he created the Retirement

Evangelical Church of Caxambu, a home for evangelical workers who needed

medical treatments and climate favorable for the cure of certain diseases. Unfortunately,

compelling reasons to close this social institution, returning to Varginha.

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Due to his precarious state of health, Dr. Allyn spent long periods in the

United States, needing to undergo several operations and prolonged treatments. In

1925, went once again to his country, where, quite ill, he was retired. Years

then, longing for Brazil, the missionary and his wife, made the return trip,

stopping in Recife for a few months, visiting a son who resided there. Dr. Allyn

spent the last phase of his life in the capital of Pernambuco, where he became seriously ill.

He died at the Centennial Hospital on October 4, 1931, at the age of 72,

being buried in the Cemetery of the English. In 1948, his remains were transferred to the

to São Paulo, where they rest next to those of his dedicated wife, who died on 3

September 1946. His daughter Gladys (deceased in 1914) was Dr.'s first wife.

Benjamin Harris Hunnicutt, one of the presidents of Mackenzie. Another daughter, Irene (deceased

in 1981), married the Rev. Dr. Frank Fisher Baker (who died in 1979), who directed by

many years the Gammon Institute (1930-1954) and was professor in the Seminary of Campinas. O

son of Dr. Allyn, Lyman Robert Allyn, was an employee of the City Bank and superintendent of

Pan-Air.

Bibliography:

â–ª Lessa, Annaes , 508, 605, 621.

â–ª Ferreira, History of IPB , I: 411, 421, 487s, 497; II: 203, 311, 364s.

â–ª "Rev. Dr. Horacio S. Allyn, " The Puritan (14-11-1931), 3.

â–ª "D. Emma Allyn, " The Puritan (25-10-1946), 2.

â–ª Keys, Bandeirantes da Fé , 110s.

â–ª Bear, Mission to Brazil , 223.

â–ª Allyn Evangelical School Brochure.

â–ª Gammon, Thus Shines the Light, 72.

â–ª "Varginha IP Bulletin" (29-11-1953), Ministers Folder, Presbyterian Archive.

â–ª José Bernardes de Figueiredo, Varginha Presbyterian Church: Seventy Years of

Blessings (1929-1999 )

​

Rev. Dr. Reginald Price Baird

Pastor in Fortaleza and in the interior of Ceará

Reginald Baird was born on February 2, 1857 near Yorkville (now York), in the

South Carolina. He was the third child of Rev. James Robinson Baird and Eliza Price Baird,

of the same state. He was baptized by the well-known theologian and professor of

Columbia Rev. James Henley Thornwell (1812-1862), who was a friend of his father's. O

Rev. James Baird resided in Santa Barbara, Province of São Paulo, from 1868 to 1878,

working with the Rev. William C. Emerson among the emigrant American settlers

of the War of the Secession. Reginald studied at the International College of Campinas and São

Paul, and professed the faith in the Presbyterian Church of St. Paul on April 4, 1886.

He married on September 30, 1887 with Mary Lucille Bankston, born in 1872 and

in the Church of St. Paul on January 13, 1884. The marriage was officiated by the

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Rev. Edward Lane. Lucille was the daughter of Frank M. and Sarah Ellis Bankston of Brookhaven,

Mississipi, emigrated to Brazil in 1867. Lucille had two sisters, Mallie and Lilian.

Reginald went to the United States, where he studied theology, graduating from the Seminary

Columbia Theological Society, in South Carolina, in 1892. In the same year, he was

and ordered September 30 by the Cherokee Presbytery. For four

years, shepherded the Churches of Acworth, Mars Hill and Smyrna, Georgia (1892-1896). He is

the wife were appointed missionaries by the Foreign Missions Committee on 10

December of 1894. They went as missionaries to Ceará in July 1896, in order to

assisting the Rev. DeLacey Wardlaw and his wife, who were not in good health. Before

permanently to the Northeast, it seems that they were in Santa Bárbara, State of

São Paulo, and took Lucille's sister, Lilian Bankston, who was also

teacher, and Charles, a nephew of Reginald. When they arrived in Recife, Charles

died of a yellow fever, and Lilian died of the same disease in Ceará. Just after

of his arrival in Fortaleza, the missionary was affected by smallpox, reestablishing

then.

Rev. Baird preached in many places in the interior of the state, including Quixadá, where,

despite threats, received a whole family by profession of faith. It was also in

Senator Pompeu, where he organized a congregation with about 40 members

most of them from the Varela and Cortez families, who had been evangelized in

Mossoró by Rev. Wardlaw. Baird left the congregation in the care of the worker

Raimundo Ferreira da Silva, a young man from the Fortaleza Church who had taken a class of

Bible and had already served in the Congregation of Baturité. In 1897, the couple Wardlaw

he left the mission after eighteen years of fruitful work and the entire responsibility of the

field fell on the Rev. Baird. In his pastorate was inaugurated the temple of Fortaleza,

built by the efforts of the presbyter Dr. Albino de Faria. The cornerstone was

launched on October 12, 1898. At that time, Baird received by profession of faith and

baptism Mr. Joaquim Cândido de Sena, paternal grandfather of the future Rev. Alcides Nogueira.

Sena resided on the "Winner" farm, in the municipality of Cachoeira, in central Ceará, and

was converted by reading the Bible and visiting a distant relative, a member of the

Church of Fortaleza.

After four years of intense work, the missionary's health was shaken, and in September

of 1900 he had to return to the United States. After a brief rest, he attended the

College of Medicine and Surgery, in Atlanta, graduating in 1902. Having declined

several attractive invitations in his country, wanted to continue his work in Brazil,

returning to Ceará in June of that year. Although you have never qualified

formally to practice medicine in Brazil, the new profession was very useful for its

missionary activities. The work was growing rapidly and new fields were being

open. Baird was untiring as a preacher and physician and obtained many fruits in his

despite the opposition.

Around 1906, Baird wanted to pay a visit to Humaita, where there was a small group of

believers. He was stopped by friends who feared for his life. Events have

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wisdom of this attitude, for on the day it was expected there an armed mob awaited the

arrival of the train. The evangelist Raimundo Ferreira da Silva had moved to Humaitá

and there had done a good evangelistic work, despite tenacious opposition. This evangelist was

of Dr. Baird's influence on the small-town

he had needed the missionary's medical services. Baird always supported Raymond,

encouraging him and instructing him through letters and giving him some financial assistance. After all,

Baird went to Humaitá in December 1906, accompanied by two believers from Fortaleza and one

of Baturité. It was welcomed by believers and visited by local authorities. Like this

even the opponents threw some stones. Seventeen people professed the faith and

there was a collection in favor of the national missions.

Rev. Baird attended the Synod meeting in 1903, in which he declared

many years, having always preached in the shops, without challenge, the mediation of Christ. Said

that every good man is a Mason, because the institution is the essence of the basic principles

of love, charity and fraternity. According to him, the apostles and Jesus Christ themselves had

principles. Freemasonry was widespread among the American Southerners - in the

Campo Cemetery, in Santa Bárbara, there are many tombs with Masonic symbols.

Baird was a good speaker, endowed with a strong voice that dominated and pleased the audience.

His friends described him as an efficient, godly and cultivated pastor, gifted with a

a kind and hospitable character, and a dedicated father and husband. It enjoyed a very good concept in

society of Ceará.

In March 1907, the active missionary was suffering from a serious illness and,

with great difficulty, arrived in the United States in September. His sheep in Brazil

they greatly felt their departure and prayed greatly for their recovery. Family set

residence in Fredericksburg, Va., and Baird improved enough to

several trips by the south divulging the cause of the foreign missions. On the evening of 9

March, 1909, when he was traveling to make some lectures at the invitation of the

Executive Director of the Florida Synod, died suddenly on the train in the town of Jesup,

Georgia, at 52 years of age. He was buried in Fredericksburg on the 13th. The Baird couple

had only one daughter, Geraldine P. Barnes.

Bibliography:

• Lessa, Annaes , 172, 257s, 509s, 669.

• Ferreira, History of IPB , I: 453, 577; II: 103.

• The Missionary (April 1907), Calvin Porter Collection.

• Ministerial Directory, PCUS / PCUSA (1898).

• Christian Observer , Louisville, Kentucky (17-03-1909), 1.

• "Rev. Reginald Price Baird, MD, " Christian Observer (06-30-1909), 15.

• Bear, Mission to Brazil , 47s, 224.

• Jones, Rest Soldiers , 183, 235, 242, 328.

• Ribeiro, Evangelical Church and Brazilian Republic , 155-159.

​

Rev. Alva Hardie

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Missionary in São Paulo and Minas Gerais

Rev. Alva Hardie was the last Presbyterian missionary to arrive in Brazil in the 19th century.

He was a native of Alpine, Alabama, where he was born on September 26, 1873. His parents

were Alva Finley Hardie and Elizabeth Darby Mallory. When Alva was two years old,

family moved to Dallas, Texas, where he did primary and secondary education and

then worked in the trade. Feeling the ministerial vocation, he attended Austin College,

in Sherman, where he obtained his baccalaureate in letters (BA) in 1898, and studied

theology at Southwest Presbyterian University in Clarksville, Tennessee,

graduating in May 1900. He was ordained by the Dallas Presbytery on July 3,

1900 and soon afterwards embarked in New York to Brazil, arriving in Rio de

August 27 of the same year.

He initially worked in the East Mission area while learning the language. It was in

Lavras, Minas Gerais, for a period of one year. She went to take care of the field of São João Del

King on September 26, 1901, associating for over a year with Rev. Baldomero

Garcia in the evangelization of that region. Retired from Rev. Baldomero, Hardie continued

for another four years in São João Del Rei. At that time, priests sent boys

to stone the house of worship; the leader of these boys was the future Rev. Paschoal Luiz Pitta.

Hardie married on May 14, 1902 with Kate Eugenia Hall, born in 1879, daughter

of the couple Charles and Mary Hall, American immigrants residing in Vila Americana,

Sao Paulo. Kate, who was the cousin of Katherine Ives Hall, the wife of Rev. William Calvin

Porter had been a faculty member of the American College of Natal for two years. At the

end of that year, Hardie participated with other colleagues from the organization of the Churches of Saint

João Nepomuceno (05-11-1902) and São João Del Rei (07-11-1902). It was

Presbytery of Mines in 1904.

In 1905, the Western Mission decided to reopen the International College in Campinas and

the Rev. Hardie as a director, a position he held for two years. At the end of that year, he

was one of the signatories of the proposed division of the Southern Mission, which occurred the following year,

arising the Western Mission and the Eastern Mission. Was the intermediary in the sale of properties

from the International College to the Presbyterian Church of Brazil, to host the Seminar

Presbyterian. The Seminar needs to leave São Paulo and the Assembly is meeting.

General of the Presbyterian Church in that capital, Rev. Hardie, on behalf of the

Foreign Missions of Nashville, sold the farmhouse and the three furnished buildings to the

Presbyterian Synod for the small amount of fifteen thousand reis. Finished the deal, Hardie

closed the college and helped set up the seminar in Campinas. The reopening of classes

occurred on February 1, 1907, with the presence of the directors Revs. Hardie,

Laudelino de Oliveira Lima and Herculano de Gouvêa and the students Aníbal Nora, Alberto

Zanon, João Pereira Garcia and Samuel Barbosa. In the same year, Hardie left for

United States on vacation.

When he returned in 1908, the Presbytery of Minas decided to open work in Descalvado,

and sent Rev. Hardie to take care of this field, which also included

the cities of Limeira, Araras, Leme and Porto Ferreira. He built temples in

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Descalvado, Limeira and Araras. The prosperity generated by coffee attracted many people to

that region. In 1913, seeing the need for a newspaper dedicated exclusively to the

gospel propaganda, founded The Evangelist , which he maintained for almost all of

of his missionary activity (there was a lapse of a few years). The newspaper even had a

of 12,000 copies, and is distributed free of charge throughout Brazil. Even

other places where he was pastor, the Rev. Hardie wrote it, sending it to Descalvado, where the

Mr. Sebastião Lacerda printed it in a typography bought for this purpose and distributed it.

In 1924, Rev. Hardie went on vacation to the United States and received the honorary degree

of Doctor of Divinity (DD) of his alma mater , Austin College.

At the end of 1924, Dr. Hardie moved to Patrocínio, in the Triângulo Mineiro, in the

the company of his wife Kate and his sons Elizabeth Helen and Charles, starting the

of his long ministry in Brazil. He had already visited this city in 1923,

company of colleagues Robert Daffin and Edward Epes Lane. This field

Presbytery of Mines, having been pastored by Rev. Alberto Zanon, into the hands of

Mission West. In Patrocínio, the missionary acquired a house well located in the center of

city, having next to a deposit that was adapted to be the room of worship. The temple was

inaugurated four years later in 1929. At the time there were only a few small groups of

believers in Patrocínio, Carmo do Paranaíba, Patos de Minas and Estrela do Sul. Hardie

greatly expanded the work, often amid great opposition and bitter

persecution. Once, while running the service in Rio Paranaíba, a bomb exploded

on the roof, shaking the whole building. People were very frightened and began to

but the missionary calmed the group and quietly continued the service.

Rev. Hardie reactivated the churches of Paracatu and Estrela do Sul, which had almost

extinguished for lack of assistance, and opened works in Patos de Minas, João Pinheiro,

Carmo do Paranaíba, Rio Paranaíba, Arapuá, Ibiá, Araxá, Monte Carmelo, Douradoquara and

other locations. He traveled throughout the region riding the mule "America" ​​and later on board

of a Ford T model. He used the "magic lantern" very successfully, a great novelty in

time, a slide projector that attracted many people to the preaching of the gospel.

With the arrival of Rev. James R. Woodson in 1926, the camp was divided between the two

workers. Hardie and Woodson paved the way for the great educational

held in Patrocínio and extends to the present.

Initially, in February 1926, a course was set up to prepare evangelists

laity and Sunday school teachers. Then, in 1928, the Patrocínio Colégio appeared.

Finally, in 1933, Rev. Edward E. Lane founded the Biblical Institute that today takes its

name. At Patrocínio Colégio, the missionaries had the collaboration of the teacher Maria

of Melo, future author of the book Bandeirantes da Fé , who came to marry another

collaborator of the school, Professor Carlos Chaves. Carlos was brother of the well-known Rev.

Oscar Chaves (1912-1991), ordained in 1943, who pastored the Presbyterian

Santo André, in São Paulo, from 1952 to 1986.

After seven years of fruitful ministry in Patrocínio, Alva Hardie, after a year of

vacation in the United States, settled in Uberlândia for a period of equal duration

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and great results (1932 to 1939). He built a spacious temple and laid the foundations of

local Presbyterian church, organized on August 14, 1946, which would in turn give

many other churches. There were congregations in Santa Rita, Monte Alegre, Ituiutaba,

Tupaciguara and Prata. The last period of his ministry in Brazil was spent in Araxá, where

built another temple and greatly developed the evangelical work. Over the

his ministry, Rev. Hardie built more than twenty Presbyterian temples. Alva Hardie

was endowed with a strong and attractive personality. He made his decisions in a

positive and firm, and lived a methodical and disciplined life. His devoted wife led the

with order and serenity. There were certain times for meals, for teaching children,

to visit the believers and interested people and for all the activities of the day.

Dr. Hardie had a cheerful spirit and preached the gospel with great enthusiasm. The

his sermons, full of good illustrations, were remembered for many years by his

listeners. He loved the Brazilian people with his heart and was greatly esteemed. During many

years as a member of the old Presbytery of Minas Gerais at the insistence of his

national authorities. He was the only missionary to be part of that presbytery. In many photos of the

At the time, he wore a white suit, standing out from Brazilian colleagues wearing

dark. The national church manifested its recognition by electing the moderator of the

General Assembly in 1922, in Rio de Janeiro. He was the last American to

Function. He was treasurer of the "West Brazil Mission" for many years and showed

management of mission properties. Hardie was the missionary who served for

mission to Brazil. He has left many spiritual heirs who have

church and society to the present. One of many examples is that of D. Ita Edi Ribeiro

Coelho, who was baptized by the missionary on May 17, 1925, seven days

Carmo do Paranaíba. She is the wife of the priest Abílio da Silva Coelho, who

Presbyterian Church of Brazil.

After 45 years of service in Brazil, Rev. Hardie retired in 1945 and returned to

his home country, moving to Daytona Beach, Florida. He was received by the Presbytery of

St. Johns on April 18 and the following year gave pastoral assistance to the Edison Chapel in

Miami. He used to spend the summer in Montreat, North Carolina, where he

missionaries who came on vacation from Brazil and the new missionaries who

they went to the field. He often exclaimed, "How I would like to be in Brazil preaching

the Gospel!". I always wrote to missionaries and friends in Brazil,

intimate contact with work. The valiant worker died on October 17, 1955 in the

home of her daughter in Miami. Dona Kate Hall Hardie wrote the book On Eagles' Wings:

Brazilian Mission, 1900-1945 (On Wings of Eagles: Mission in Brazil, 1900-1945),

based on the Spouse's Journal and published in 1964. The Hardie couple had four children, two

men and two women: Lucita Hall, Hugh Melvin, Elizabeth Helen and Charles Alva. Lucita

was named after his aunt Lucy Hall, wife of Rev. Charles Morton.

Bibliography:

• Lessa, Annaes , 600.

• Ferreira, History of IPB , I: 488, 550; II: 76, 116, 132, 154, 201, 247-49, 290, 356, 366,

370.

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• Alva Hardie. Report of the Spiritual and Financial Movement of the Missionary Field .

1930.

• "Rev. Alva Hardie, " The Puritan (28-02-1931), 3.

• RD Daffin, "Rev. Dr. Alva Hardie, " The Puritan (10-01-1956), 3.

• "Dr. Alva Hardie, " The Puritan (10 and 25-02-1956), 2.

• "Dr. Alva Hardie ", typed manuscript, Eduardo Lane Bible Institute.

• Ministerial Directory, PCUS (1861-1950) , 279.

• Chaves, Bandeirantes da Fé , 137-146.

• Bear, Mission to Brazil , 223.

• Divino José de Oliveira. Sponsorship . Goiânia, 1983.

• Hahn, Protestant Cult in Brazil , 268-271.

• Ferreira, Little History of the West Mission , 44-48

​

Ruth Bosworth See

Notable educator and evangelist in several cities of Minas Gerais

Ruth See was born on October 12, 1873 in Fort Defiance, County of Augusta,

beautiful valley of Virginia (northwest of the state, Staunton being the main city of the county).

She was the firstborn of eight siblings. His father was an elder and for many years was secretary

of the council of the historic Church Augusta Stone, where still young Ruth professed the faith

in Christ. His first studies were done at home, under the guidance of his parents and

educated pastors, good books and competent housekeepers. One of these, Patsy Bolling, was

missionary for many years in Korea with her husband, William D. Reynolds. Ruth

studied at the Augusta Women's Seminary, later Mary Baldwin College. Next,

attended a school of administration and the Training School of the General Assembly.

At Mary Baldwin College, her close friends belonged to missionary families:

Pauline and Nettie DuBose, whose parents worked in China, as well as Margaret (Mildred

Welch) and Sarah, daughters of Rev. Edward Lane.

After graduation, Ruth taught as a housekeeper in private residences, including

James Bell's home in Longdale, Allegheny County. One of his sons was Nelson

Bell, who became a missionary doctor in China. While teaching at the Bells' house,

Ruth was appointed a missionary to Brazil on June 6, 1899. She also taught for

a year at the Thornwell Orphanage, led by Dr. Jacobs, who offered him this placement

"As a preparatory course for missionary work". The experience involved much more

what to teach She cared for children of different ages, night and day. Years later she

concluded that his work at the orphanage, a twenty-four hour work, was his

better preparation.

Ruth left New York on August 5, 1900. She came to Brazil at the same time

in which the Rev. Alva Hardie, being sent by the Committee of Foreign Missions of the Church

Presbyterian of the South, and devoted his whole life to teaching. In Lavras, he became assistant to the

missionary Margaret Henry Youell and after her death in 1905, succeeded her as

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director of the Carlota Kemper College, the girls' school. In this role, he

friendship and admiration of several generations of young Brazilians. One of her many students

was Professor Ignez Cavazza, who at the end of 1912 married Rev. Jorge Thompson

Goulart. In 1907, Ruth went to the United States and returned the following year in company

missionary Harriette Taylor Armstrong, widow of Rev. David Gibson Armstrong, who

had been absent from Brazil for fourteen years. From this occasion the two educators

they worked together.

At the beginning of the 20th century, circumstances were difficult - resources were limited,

work was heavy and life was primitive. The coffee was ground in the pestle, the lard came from the

salt, and sugar were refined in the school itself. The light was supplied by

candles. Once, when cleaning a suit stained with candle wax, Ruth commented:

"Fortunately we will not need candles in the sky." The mattresses were canvas bags filled with

straw of corn. On vacation, the bags were emptied, the straw was boiled and dried in the sun and

the mattresses were washed and refilled. Much of this work was done by the

Ruth herself, as well as washing the windows and mopping the floor. Sometimes she ran out of coffee.

in the morning to read the Bible to Aunt Anna, an elderly servant, or to take care of some

interest of the school. Exhausted by nightfall, Ruth would retreat after dinner, sleep until midnight,

night, and then worked for two or three hours until the nocturnal insects would settle down.

At six in the morning he was already on his feet, in full activity.

In 1913, sensing the need for a school in another region, Ruth and Harriette

a school for girls in Bonsucesso, about 30 km from Lavras, in a house

offered by the mayor. They assisted the couple Dr. Horace and Emma Allyn, who resided in

City. Despite the persecutions - and perhaps helped by them - the school prospered.

One night, in 1918, a loud explosion frightened the children, but Ruth

reassured A bomb had burst on the roof, fortunately at a time when

there were no students or teachers on the premises. There were demonstrations against those responsible

and the journalist, Mr. Castanheira, made a speech asking the Americans to

did not consider that attack as of the people of Bom Sucesso. It was necessary that a

keep the door of the house every night. On another occasion, a bomb was

found in the basement with the partially burned wick. These attacks served to

to win the support of some people who had hitherto been antagonistic.

After seven years of activity (1913-1920), a series of earthquakes reduced

population in such a way that the school had to be transferred. By this time a church had

been organized with 50 members.

Several cities asked for the school and Campo Belo, located between Lavras and Formiga,

being chosen. The school started its activities in May 1921 and by the end of the year

had enrolled 40 boys and 49 girls, twelve of whom were internal. Over

of the time, the educators bought a property and implemented a work

lasting. The school has become the largest and most important primary school in the

Mission East of Brazil. Due to health problems, Harriette had to depart in 1925

and the residents of Campo Belo asked that their name be given to the institution (Escola

Evangelical Harriette Armstrong). Around 1930, Ruth was invited to open a

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school in Nepomuceno, a school that was inaugurated on December 8, 1931. A group of

Christian men of the city (Colonel José Custódio da Veiga, Jonas Veiga and Joaquim Garcia)

built a building for this purpose and gave the school the name "Ruth B. See." After five

fruitful years there, it was time for the missionary to take her holidays at home, and

she concluded that the city's evangelicals were in a position to assume the leadership of the

school. From that time Ruth concentrated her energies on other modalities of

service. The evangelical school of Nepomuceno closed its activities in 1945 and reopened

in 2001 with the same name - Ruth See Presbyterian School.

In 1938, after the well-deserved vacation, Ruth moved to Formiga and went to work

that she had never neglected, assisting the couple John Marion and Myrtle

Sydenstricker. She had again the company of her friend Harriette, who had returned to

working for the mission in 1936. For nearly fifteen years, Ruth was the mainstay of the church

local Presbyterian. When the Sydenstrickers were transferred to Dourados in 1942,

she took care of the spiritual needs of the congregation, and Harriette developed the work

female. When necessary, Ruth did not hesitate to do the janitorial job. Taught

English, earning many of his students for the gospel. One of his

textbooks favorite was The Christian Observer (The Christian Observer), and her many

religious articles with his students. In the last period of his life,

was also a copywriter of the popular evangelical propaganda newspaper The Evangelist , a

founded by Rev. Alva Hardie who had great circulation for many years. Ruth

retired in Formiga on June 1, 1947 (Harriette retired in the same year),

but it was a nominal retirement only, for his days were filled with valor

service.

In 1953, at the invitation of the Western Mission of Brazil, Ruth moved to the city of Patrocínio,

in the Triângulo Mineiro, where she lived alone in a small rented house,

with his life full of activities - English classes, visits and literature production. For seven

years, cooperated with great dedication with the Presbyterian church of that city. Had

ease of writing in both prose and verse. There were many hymns that translated

to Portuguese, as well as those that she herself composed. In 1941 he had translated the

known hymn "The First Christmas" ( Presbyterian Hymnal New Song , nº 231). In

Sunday afternoons, he taught the catechism to the children in his house. It also promoted a

study of the catechism for the whole church.

Despite the decline in vision and other problems, Dona Ruth continued to work with O

Evangelist . After some painful surgeries, she could no longer take care of herself.

He spent his last two weeks at Rev. James Woodson's house, surrounded by

of a good doctor, two nurses, and all his

Sponsorship, especially Miss Frances Hesser. He passed away on a Sunday afternoon, 26

June 1960, at 87 years of age and 60 years of missionary service in Brazil. The service

was presided over by Rev. Saulo de Castro Ferreira, assisted by Rev. Woodson.

When she died, the missionary had not returned to her homeland for twenty-two years.

He identified himself fully with the Brazilian people. Clara Gammon wrote: "The girls who

she educated at her own expense and to whom she gave a motherly love; the boys and young men

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to which he guided a life of Christian service; little children who liked to go to their

home to visit her; the elderly and the needy to whom he has given practical assistance, as well as

Good News of the Savior ... These and many others will rise and call you well-

adventuring "(Prov. 31:28).

Ruth did not marry, but left many daughters in the faith. He created several young women, among them Nazareth

Pimenta, who was a professor at the Erasmo Braga School and at the Eduardo Lane Bible Institute, and

Francisca Leão Souza, wife of an evangelist in Goiás. He left a brother, Rev. Dr.

Robert Gamble See, born August 15, 1878, who worked for some years as

missionary in Brazil, as well as a sister and some nephews, all in the United States.

After studying at Hampden-Sydney College and Union Seminary, Robert See arrived

to Brazil in mid-1903 to replace the late Rev. Charles Morton. Fixed

residence in São José do Rio Pardo, from where he visited Casa Branca, Mococa, Cajuru and

some points in the south of Minas, such as São Bartolomeu and Cape Verde. He married in 1905

with missionary Louise Spear of Maryland. He traveled extensively in the Minas Triangle,

visiting Duas Pontes, Mata dos Salgados, Carmo do Paranaíba, Lagoa Formosa, Areado,

Patos de Minas and other places. In Araguari, he witnessed the profession of faith in

ministers Galdino Moreira and Jorge Thompson Goulart. The couple also worked in

Lavras. Health brought them back to the United States in 1907.

Bibliography:

• Ferreira, History of IPB , I: 500; II: 77, 203, 248, 364.

• Jaime Woodson, "D. Ruth See ", Brazil Presbyterian (September 1960), 7.

• Keys, Bandeirantes da Fé , 72s.

• Bear, Mission to Brazil , 27, 106, 108, 119, 133, 137.

• Clara GM Gammon, "Miss Ruth Bosworth See: 1873-1960", In Memory of

Missionaries of the Presbyterian Church, US, Who Have Entered into Rest in the

Years 1960-1961 , Vol. VI (Nashville: Board of World Missions, 1962), 35-37.

• Silva e Silva, Presbyterian Church of Araguari , 58-60, 66s

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