Ida Sophia Scutter was born in 1870 to Dr. John Scudder Jr. and his wife Sophia in Shelton, Nebraska. Many sources report she was born in India, but in a transcript of an interview with her she states that she was actually born here in the US. When she was six years old her family moved to Oklahoma, and she graduated from high school there. Northfield Seminary She graduated at the top of her class in Oklahoma, and her father was suspicious of the quality of education being provided. The family moved east, and Ida was supposed to Northfield Seminary in Massachusetts. However, this was during the time of a terrible flu epidemic that was moving across the US, and she became ill and missed a good portion of the first year. She spent three years at this school, which was founded by none other than D.L. Moody. The primary emphasis of this school was to prepare young ladies for missionary work, and to provide education and employable skills to underprivileged women. To this day, tuition costs can be covered in part by performing by working for the school. Medical Education Next, Ida headed to Mount Holyoke. It was there, in her senior year, that she decided to become a medical doctor. After graduation, Ida headed to the Women's Medical College in Pennsylvania where she planned on specializing in pediatrics. She did her internship at Albany Medical College, but was in need of money. To earn some much needed cash, she went to work for the Children's Community in New Haven. Answering a Need Ida's grandfather was the first medical missionary ever to go out from the United States, and most of her aunts and uncles were active in missionary work. If Ida went into missions, she would actually be the fourth generation of missionaries from the Scudder family. She was even named after her aunt, Dr. Ida Scudder, who was a medical missionary in India. However, Ida did not want to be a missionary. But, while working in New Haven, she found out that there as a urgent need in Vellore, India regarding her mother's health... and that happened to be where her medical doctor aunt happened to be, also. Ida headed off to Vellore to help for a while, temporarily putting her medical education on hold. She did not intend to, as she said, "become one of THOSE Scudders." She spent five years there before returning to the United States to finish her education. TO BE CONTINUED .... Sources Historic American Landscapes Survey, Northfield Seminary for Young Ladies Oral History of Dr. Ida Scudder Boston University History of Missiology, Biographies: Ida Sophia Scudder and The Legacy of Ida S. Scudder  Dr. Ida Scudder Source: BSU History of Missiology Digital Archives
I have picked my missionary for this week's talk -- Dr. Ida Scudder, born in 1870. Ida was a American medical missionary to India, working regularly with dangerous diseases such as leprosy and bubonic plague. Her grandfather was Dr. John Scudder, America's first medical missionary. Medical missions, however, was not initially in Ida's plans.
I started researching Ida using Google, and found some interesting resources. To my utter delight, I found out that a church in Greenwich, CT (see Sources below) has a transcription of an interview with Ida about her life. I also found some other interesting resources I provided links to below, if anyone might be interested. Among them is a YouTube video where you can hear her voice, apparently toward the end of her life. As I continue my research on her, I will share what I find out. Now for just preview of what this sweet looking young lady accomplished: a college for nurses that developed into a graduate school of nursing associated with Madras University, a school to train women doctors (and later, men also), and a hospital that grew into one of India's largest medical centers. She died at the age of 90 in Vellore, India -- where she had done so much of her work. Sources
BSU's History of Missiology: Ida Scudder
National Institute of Health's Changing the Face of Medicine: Dr. Ida Sophia Scudder Vellore Christian Medical College Foundation: History Weill Cornell Medical College: India Christian Medical College First Congregational Church of Greenwich, CT: Oral History of Ida Scudder YouTube: Ida Scudder's Voice
I was trying to decide on the next missionary I would be covering for my talk this coming Sunday at a local retirement center, and decided to type a particular name into Google to see what would come up. To my delight, I accidentally ran upon a resource I wasn't aware of! It is Boston University's School of Theology History of Missiology page. They have an online missionary biography resource indexed by last name, and very easy to navigate. They also have digital resources related to African Christian biography, an archive of Russian Methodism, and a photo archive related to African initiated churches. I decided to test out the biography resource by typing in Mary Slessor's name, and found a very nice four page article from the International Bulletin of Missionary Research in the form of an embedded Scribd document.
A bit more research turned upThe University of Southern California digital archive of missionary images. To test it out, I once again typed in Mary Slessor's name, and to my delight discovered 20 photos, including one image of Mary's saintly mother and a picture of Mary I had not discovered before.
So, if you enjoy reading about missionaries or researching their lives, there are a variety of online resources available. I will be posting some more resources over the next few days as I select new missionary to research.
This is my first blog post as I start getting a website set up for myself. I've been busy working on some interesting projects through UpWork, and at the same time preparing a talk on the evangelist Rodney "Gipsy" Smith that I will be presenting tomorrow at a local retirement home. If you are interested, my source material for this talk is primarily coming from his autobiography, which is available absolutely free in HTML format from www.BibleBelievers.com.
One of the things I love about the Internet is the wealth of old books that you can know access for free. One excellent source is the Wesley Center Online Holiness Classics Library hosted by Northwest Nazarene University. They have hundreds of books available in pdf format for free. I also love the Christian Classics Ethereal Library, which has come in handy for me in the past. Logos Bible Software is currently scanning in thousands of books, and during the beta period access is free. I have owned Logos packages before, and their materials are always of the highest quality. I encourage anyone reading this to check it out. Well, that's it for now. Thanks for visiting! |
AuthorSara McCaslin is an engineer, a computer scientist, and a freelance writer. Archives
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