The Woman's Home Missionary Society was founded in 1880 after 50 women church members met in the

Methodist Episcopal Church The Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC) was the oldest and largest Methodist denomination in the United States from its founding in 1784 until 1939. It was also the first religious denomination in the US to organize itself nationally. In 1939, th ...

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ; colloquially nicknamed Cincy) is a city in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Settled in 1788, the city is located on the northern side of the confluence of the Licking River (Kentucky), Licking and Ohio Ri ...

"to confer together concerning the organization of a society having for its purpose the amelioration of the conditions of the freed-women of the South." The Society was initially was formed to aid women in the South and the West, Mormon women, and missionaries throughout the country.Woman's Home Missionary Society Records, 1910-1913. The Society intended to send Christian women to "destitute" and "degraded" homes and neighborhoods where they would endeavor to "impart such instruction as can enlighten the minds, reform the habits, and purify the lives of the occupants." The women asked First Lady

Lucy Hayes Lucy Ware Hayes (née Webb; August 28, 1831 – June 25, 1889) was the wife of President Rutherford B. Hayes and served as first lady of the United States from 1877 to 1881. Hayes was the first First Lady to have a college degree. She was als ...

, a committed Methodist, to become the president of the new organization. However, when asked by women's rights activist Susan B. Anthony to send delegates from the Society to a meeting of the International Council of Women, Hayes declined. In 1882, the Society began opening day schools in the south for black children. In 1884, the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church officially recognized the missionary society. The Society acquired Thayer Home in

Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

, a model home which had been established to train young black women in household management. There was hostility between the Woman's Home Missionary Society and the

Woman's Foreign Missionary Society Woman's Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church (acronym WFMS of the MEC) was one of three Methodism, Methodist organizations in the United States focused on women's foreign missionary services; the two others were the WFMS of ...

, founded in 1869, as it was feared money would be diverted from one to the other. In Indiana, the society raised funds for the establishment of Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis from 1907-1908, and in 1912, they established an Italian Mission in the same city. The Society joined with the Women's Missionary Society of the Pacific Coast in 1893 and by 1901, about 500 women and girls had been helped. That year they opened the "Oriental Home for Chinese Women and Girls" at 912 Washington Street in

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

Chinatown Chinatown ( zh, t=唐人街) is the catch-all name for an ethnic enclave of Chinese people located outside Greater China, most often in an urban setting. Areas known as "Chinatown" exist throughout the world, including Europe, Asia, Africa, O ...

, a two-story concrete building with 22 rooms. Unfortunately, this building, along with most of San Francisco Chinatown, was destroyed by the 1906 earthquake and fire.

Notable people

* Clara H. Sully Carhart (1843-1913), Canadian-born American educator and reformer

References

{{Reflist * Pacific Society for the Suppression of Vice Annual Report (1900) * The San Francisco Examiner January 10, 1903 Chinese-American history History of San Francisco History of women in California 1893 establishments in California Chinese-American culture in San Francisco Chinatown, San Francisco