Scudder family of missionaries in India

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Drawing of a bespectacled, serious-looking John Scudder Sr.
John Scudder Sr.

Members of the Scudder family have worked as

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First generation

John Scudder Sr., born in Freehold Township, New Jersey, on September 3, 1793, was India's first medical missionary. He graduated from Princeton University in 1811 and the New York College of Physicians and Surgeons, and practiced medicine in New York City.[citation needed]

Scudder became committed to serving as a medical missionary of the

Panditeripo, Jaffna District. Scudder served there for nineteen years as a clergyman and physician, establishing a hospital at which he was the chief physician; he was especially successful in treating cholera and yellow fever, and founded several native schools and churches. He was India's first American medical missionary, beginning more than 1,100 combined years of missionary service there by 42 members of five generations of the family.[3] Scudder and his wife, Harriet, had six surviving sons and two daughters; all became medical missionaries and worked in South India.[4]

In 1836, Scudder and another clergyman began a mission in

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David Coit Scudder, born on October 27, 1835, in

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David, influenced in boyhood to go to India by the work of John Scudder Sr., arrived in Madras on June 26, 1861. He was in charge of the large mission in

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The Clancy and Scudder Scholarship, founded with a legacy of $300, was transferred by Mrs. Washburn to the Pasumalai institution. In January 1885, the mission accepted it as the Clancy Scholarship. Four hundred dollars in memory of David Coit Scudder from David's brother, Horace, was added in June of that year. The ₹1,500 scholarship continued until 1906.[9]

Second generation

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In 1856, Madurai joined the other American Tamil missions in appointing Henry their representative to a Madras convention to plan a new Tamil version of the Bible. He prepared religious books and tracts in Sanskrit, Tamil, and Telugu. Henry's publications include Liturgy of the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church (Madras, 1862); The Bazaar Book, or the Vernacular Teacher's Companion (1865); Sweet Savors of Divine Truth (an 1868 catechism), and "Spiritual Teaching" (1870). All are in Tamil.[citation needed]

In 1864, his health failing in India, he returned to the United States and performed pastoral work for nearly 20 years. Henry was pastor of the Howard Presbyterian Church in San Francisco from 1865 to 1871, the Central Congregational Church in Brooklyn from 1872 to 1882, and the Plymouth Congregational Church in Chicago from 1882 to 1887; he resigned to resume missionary work in Japan until 1889.[citation needed]

William Scudder (born c. 1826) served in India for twenty-two years and was then a pastor for eleven years in the United States. When he was sixty years old he went back to India for nine years, and died in 1895.[11] Jared Waterbury Scudder, born in Panditeripo in 1830, graduated from Western Reserve College in 1850 and the New Brunswick Theological Seminary in 1855. He was ordained a missionary to India for the Dutch Reformed Church, and joined the Arcot Mission in 1855. He published Tamil translations of Henry M. Scudder's Spiritual Teaching (Madras, 1870), Bazaar Book (1870), and History of the Arcot Mission. (1872). Jared was a member of the committee to revise the Tamil translation of the Bible.[citation needed]

Silas Downer Scudder (born in Ceylon on November 6, 1833) graduated from Rutgers University in 1856, studied medicine, and was licensed to practice in New York City. Asked by the Arcot Mission and his brothers to begin medical work in Ranipet, in 1860 he went to India as a medical missionary and settled in Arcot. Silas founded a dispensary and hospital which were supported by English and native residents. With a large native outdoor practice, some of his patients were high-caste Hindu women who had been reluctant to see an American doctor.[citation needed]

Ranipet Hospital opened on March 17, 1866. Due to its high medical standard, the Madras government closed its own dispensary and turned over its resources to Silas. All treatment and medicines were free of charge. In 1872, John Scudder II took over the Ranipet Hospital and its evangelistic work from his elder brother, Silas.[10][citation needed] After thirteen years he returned to New York because of illness, and died in Brooklyn on December 10, 1877. William Waterbury Scudder, born in 1835 in Panditeripo, joined the Arcot Mission in 1852, retired in 1894, and was buried in Kodaikanal in 1900.[12]

Third generation

Formal photo of a smiling Ida S. Scudder
A young Ida S. Scudder

In 1877, Henry Martyn Scudder began a maternity clinic in Ranipet. Three years later, he resigned from the Arcot Mission and left for the United States.[10][citation needed]

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After seeing famine, poverty and disease in India as a girl, Ida intended to marry and live in the U.S. following her education at a Massachusetts

Madras, and treated 5,000 patients in two years.[citation needed
]

A seated Ida Scudder and Mahatma Gandhi, with other men
Ida with Mahatma Gandhi, 1928

Ida opened a medical school for women in Vellore 1918. Although skeptics said that she would be lucky to get three applicants, she had 151 the first year. Although the Reformed Church in America was originally the school's main funder, when Ida agreed to make it coeducational it obtained the support of 40 missions. Of its 242 students in 2005, 95 were men.[15][citation needed]

In 1953, at age 82, Ida received Hobart and William Smith Colleges' Hobart and William Smith Colleges#Elizabeth Blackwell Award as one of 1952's five outstanding women doctors.[16] She died in 1960, at age 90, in Kodaikanal.[17][18]

A commemorative stamp was issued on August 12, 2000, as part of the Christian Medical College Vellore centennial. Its first-day cover depicts Ida caring for pregnant women.[19]

Fourth generation

A young white woman with short hair, wearing a rounded collar shirt and a sweater with a deep-v neckline
Ida B. Scudder, from the 1925 yearbook of Mount Holyoke College

Ida Belle Scudder was born in 1900, and graduated from Mount Holyoke College in 1925. She trained in

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Marilyn Scudder (born in 1939) graduated from Kodaikanal International School in 1956 and Hope College in 1960. She received an M.D. degree from the University of Michigan in 1965, and was a medical missionary in Tanzania for 35 years. Marilyn's work in Tanzania began in 1970, when she was head of the eye department at a hospital in Mvuni. She returned to Minnesota in 1971 for further study before joining the eye department of a medical center in Moshi, Tanzania in 1973, where she became the department head in 1979. Marilyn was sponsored by

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Grainy photo of Galen Scudder
Galen Fisher Scudder in Kodaikanal, 1925

In 1920, Galen Fisher Scudder (a graduate of

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References

  1. ^ "A Thousand Years in Thy Sight:The Story of the Scudder Missionaries in India", Scudder Association, retrieved 7/19/2007, not seen Scudder Missionaries in India Archived 2006-07-02 at the Wayback Machine
  2. ^ Heideman Eugene P. (2001) From Mission to Church: The Reformed Church in American Mission to India (Historical Series of the Reformed Church in America), Wm. B. Eerdmans publishing Co., Grand Rapids, Michigan, retrieved 7/11/2007 excerpts
  3. ^ Waterbury, Jared Bell (1870) Memoir of the Rev. John Scudder, M.D.: Thirty-six Years Missionary in India, Harper & Brothers, Franklin Square, New York, retrieved 7/19/2007 full text
  4. ^ full text Edward Tanjore Corwin, A Manual of the Reformed Church in America (formerly Ref. Prot. Dutch Church), 1628-1902
  5. ^ Memoir of the Rev. John Scudder, M.D., 36 years Missionary in India, ed. J.B. Waterbury, u.o Rev. John Scudder, M.D.
  6. ^ John Scudder Family, Vol. I John Scudder Family Archived July 19, 2006, at the Wayback Machine
  7. ^ a b c full text David Coit Scudder, ed. Horace Elisha Scudder, Life and Letters of David Coit Scudder: Missionary in Southern India
  8. ^ Dr. Scudder's Tales for Little Readers, About the Heathen by Dr. John Scudder (1849) full text
  9. ^ Kennedy Dane (1996) The Magic Mountains: Hill Stations and the British Raj, University of California Press, Berkeley retrieved 7/19/2007 Scudder, p. 128
  10. ^ a b c d Ranipet Reflections, Scudder Memorial Hospital, 2010, archived from the original on 2011-07-28, retrieved 2011-02-14
  11. ^ Johnston Julia H. (1913) Fleming H. Revell Company, London and Edinburgh, retrieved 9/8/2007 Fifty Missionary Heroes
  12. ^ Narayanan P.R. Krishna (May, 1994) Relics of the raj - British cemeteries in India, Contemporary Review, retrieved 7/19/2007 British cemeteries in India
  13. ^ Legacy and Challenge: The Story of Dr. Ida B. Scudder, published by the Scudder Association Legacy and Challenge Archived 2006-07-02 at the Wayback Machine
  14. ^ "Ida S. Scudder". Christian Medical College & Hospital, Vellore. Archived from the original on 2007-06-23. Retrieved March 5, 2020.
  15. ^ Christian Medical College (2005)Ida S. Scudder Archived 2007-06-23 at the Wayback Machine
  16. ^ Time Magazine (Feb. 16, 1953) A Family Tradition
  17. ^ biographical information on ISS and the Scudder family, see the inventory for Ida Sophia Scudder, MC 205, Scudder, Ida Sophia, 1870-1960. Papers, 1843-1976 (inclusive), 1888-1960 (bulk) (84-M159) Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America, Radcliffe College, February 1985 Ida Scudder papers
  18. ^ Notable American Women, The Modern Period (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1984).
  19. ^ Financial Express (September 12, 2000)Theme stamps mark this year's Independence Day[permanent dead link]
  20. ^ Brouwer, Ruth Compton Modern Women Modernizing Men: The Changing Missions of Three Professional Women in Asia and Africa, 1902 - 1969, retrieved 7/19/2007 abstracts
  21. ^ CMC Newsline, Vol. No.43.No. 11, September 04, 2006 Dr. Ida B. Scudder Essay Competition Archived 2007-09-27 at the Wayback Machine
  22. ^ Georgia Jennifer (1994)-Legacy and Challenge – The Story of Dr. Ida B. Scudder biography of Ida B. Scudder Archived 2006-09-01 at the Wayback Machine
  23. ^ a b Missionary doctor Marilyn Scudder dies, 2005-06-03, retrieved 2011-02-15
  24. ^ Hope College Alumnae Magazine (August 2005)p. 22 Dr. Marilyn Scudder
  25. ^ Dr. Scudder retires, June 4, 1954, the Hindu Dr. Scudder retires
  26. ^ RCA Profile in Mission for Lewis and Nancy Scudder[permanent dead link]

External links

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