Mary Stone (May 1, 1873 – 30 December 1954), also known as Shi Meiyu (), was a doctor of medicine graduated from the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

. She founded Danforth Memorial Hospital in Kiukiang (now called the Women and Children's Hospital of

Jiujiang Jiujiang (), formerly transliterated Kiukiang or Kew Keang, is a prefecture-level city located on the southern shores of the Yangtze River in northwest Jiangxi Province, People's Republic of China. It is the second-largest prefecture-level city ...

Life

Born to a Chinese Christian family in Kiukiang (now called

) on May 1, 1873, Stone's father was a

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's b ...

pastor and mother was the principal of a Methodist school for girls. She attended Rulison-Fish Memorial School (now called Jiujiang Tongwen Middle School), established by American missionary Gertrude Howe, in Jiujiang for ten years. Inspired by the American medical missionary Dr. Kate Bushnell, her father hoped to train her as a medical doctor. In 1892, she was brought to

Ann Arbor Anne, alternatively spelled Ann, is a form of the Latin female given name Anna (name), Anna. This in turn is a representation of the Hebrew Hannah (given name), Hannah, which means 'favour' or 'grace'. Related names include Annie (given name), ...

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

by Gertrude Howe, together with

Ida Kahn Ida Kahn (; December 6, 1873—November 9, 1931), born Kang Cheng (), was a Chinese medical doctor who, along with Mary Stone, operated dispensaries and hospitals in China from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century. Kahn was most k ...

(Kang Cheng), for professional training in the west, where she and Kahn became "not only the first Asians to earn degrees at the University of Michigan, but they were also among the first Chinese women ever to become Western-trained physicians" in 1896. In the Fall of 1896, she and Ida Kahn returned to Kiukiang as medical missionaries of the Women's Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Two years later, with donations from Dr. I. N. Danforth of

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, they established Elizabeth Skelton Danforth Hospital in Jiujiang, named after Dr. Danforth's wife, which later became the Jiujiang Women and Children's Hospital. Between 1918 and 1919, she received the

Rockefeller Foundation The Rockefeller Foundation is an American private foundation and philanthropic medical research and arts funding organization based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The second-oldest major philanthropic institution in America, after the Carneg ...

scholarship to do postgraduate work at

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hem ...

, where her sister, Phebe Stone, was a medicine graduate. During her time in Hopkins, Phebe was in charge of the Elizabeth Skelton Danforth Hospital. Stone was not only well known as a medical professional, but also for her Christian missionary work. Between 1920 and 1937, she was involved in starting multiple hospitals, schools and churches in China. In particular, she partnered with Phebe and the former American Methodist Episcopal missionary Jennie V. Hughes and established the

Bethel Mission in Shanghai The Bethel Mission in Shanghai () was an independent evangelistic institution established by Shi Meiyu (also known as Mary Stone), Phebe Stone, and Jennie V. Hughes in 1920. It would eventually include primary and secondary schools, a hospital ...

in 1920, which would later be the basis for

Andrew Gih Andrew Gih or Ji Zhiwen ( zh, t=計志文, s=计志文, first=t, w=Chi Chih-wên, p=Jì Zhìwén; January 10, 1901 – February 13, 1985) was a Chinese Protestant evangelist who cofounded the Bethel Worldwide Evangelistic Band in 1931 and found ...

's Bethel Worldwide Evangelistic Band. She is also a member of the China Continuation Committee of the National Missionary Conference after the

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

World Missionary Conference The 1910 World Missionary Conference, or the Edinburgh Missionary Conference, was held on 14 to 23 June 1910. Some have seen it as both the culmination of nineteenth-century Protestant Christian missions and the formal beginning of the modern Prot ...

of 1910. She returned to

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, where she later died on December 30, 1954, in

Pasadena Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial district. Its ...

at the age of 81.

Life

References

Further reading