Part of the American History & Genealogy Project

Mary Reed 1885 ~ 1943

Mary Reed

Born in Crooked Tree, Noble County, Ohio, at the age of sixteen years, she entered the missionary field, offering her service to the Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church. This was accepted, and she was sent to India to the Cincinnati Branch.

On her arrival in India, she was sent to the work in Cawnpore. After four years of successful labor in this field, she was sent to the girls' boarding school in Gonda, but here her health completely broke down, and she was obliged to return home.

While convalescing; she noticed a peculiar spot on her cheek, and insisted on having medical books brought to her wherein she could study up her case, and became convinced that she was a victim of leprosy.

She insisted on returning to India, and that her mother should not be told of her fatal malady. She hastened to the mission among the lepers in India. At Chandag, she was put in charge of one of the leper asylums, and here she has worked diligently and faithfully among these outcasts, receiving treatment herself. The life she lives among these poor isolated creatures emphasizes the sweet faith she teaches.

Women of America

Source: The Part Taken by Women in American History, By Mrs. John A. Logan, Published by The Perry-Nalle Publishing Company, Wilmington, Delaware, 1912.