Mary Eddy Kidder (January 31, 1834 – June 25, 1910) was an American missionary and educator in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. She established Ferris Women's Seminary (later

Ferris University is a private women's college in Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan. It is a part of Ferris Jogakuin ( 学校法人フェリス女学院). The predecessor of the school was founded by American Presbyterian missionaries in 1870 with the assistance of Jam ...

), the first Christian women's college in Japan. She was born into a devoutly

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family in Wardsboro, Vermont, United States, and was educated there. She taught at the Wardsboro Academy run by the Dutch Reformed Church of America. In 1869, she became a missionary and travelled with

Samuel Robbins Brown Rev. Samuel Robbins Brown D.D. (June 16, 1810 – June 20, 1880) was an American missionary to China and Japan with the Reformed Church in America. Birth and education Brown was born in East Windsor, Connecticut. He graduated from Yale College i ...

to Japan. She was hired by the Japanese government to teach English. In 1870, she founded a small school in Yokohama. Five years later, with the assistance of churches in the United States, a school and student residence were constructed; the school was named after

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. Besides the English language, history, geography, mathematics and Christian religious instruction, students were also taught sewing, knitting, embroidery,

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, Japanese history and Confucian philosophy. Alumni included

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. In 1881, she retired as administrator of the school and moved to Tokyo, where she continued to do missionary work. From 1888 to 1902, she worked in Morioka. She also contributed to the monthly Christian publication ''Yorokobi no Otozure''. Kidder and her husband also worked at missionary work in

Kōchi Kochi is a city in Kerala, India. Kochi or Kōchi may also refer to: People * Kochi people, a predominantly Pashtun nomadic people of Afghanistan * , a Japanese surname: ** Arata Kochi (born 1948 or 1949), Japanese physician and World Health Org ...

, Nagano and Hokkaido. In 1873, she married Edward Rothesay Miller, a Presbyterian missionary who afterwards converted to the Reformed Church. She died in Tokyo at the age of 76.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kidder, Mary Eddy 1834 births 1910 deaths Heads of schools in Japan American Protestant missionaries Protestant missionaries in Japan People from Wardsboro, Vermont Female Christian missionaries American expatriates in Japan University and college founders Women founders