Mary Deyo
A white woman with curly dark hair in an updo, wearing a high-collared dark dress or blouse.
Mary Deyo, from a 1901 publication.
BornJanuary 8, 1858
Gardiner, New York
DiedDecember 15, 1932
Gardiner, New York
OccupationAmerican missionary in Japan

Mary Deyo (January 8, 1858 – December 15, 1932) was an American teacher and Christian missionary in Yokohama, Ueda, and Morioka in Japan, from 1888 to 1905.

Early life

Deyo was born in Gardiner, New York, the daughter of Jonathan Deyo and Maria Lefevre Deyo. She trained as a teacher at the normal school in New Paltz, graduating in 1887.[1][2]

Career

Deyo taught primary school in Livingston, New York from 1884 to 1886, and taught briefly at the normal school in New Paltz. She was a teacher at Ferris Seminary, a girls' school in Yokohama, from 1888 to 1894, and worked as an evangelist in Ueda after 1895.[2][3] She also worked with fellow American missionary Mary Leila Winn in Morioka from 1903 to 1905.[4][5][6] Her work was supported by the Women's Board of Foreign Missions of the Reformed Church in America, and by the King's Daughters, a churchwomen's organization. She taught English and literature classes, introduced physical education classes at Ferris Seminary,[7] and was vice-president of the Yokohama Literary Society. She spoke at a missionary conventions in Philadelphia, Brooklyn, and Poughkeepsie in 1901,[8][9][10] and retired from Japan in 1905.[1]

Personal life

Deyo died in 1932, in New Paltz, aged 75 years. Her papers, including correspondence from her years in Yokohama, are in the collection of Huguenot Historical Society and the Elting Memorial Library in New Paltz.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c Roth, Eric. "Mary Deyo Papers (ca. 1850 - 1932)". Historic Huguenot Street. Retrieved 2020-11-19.
  2. ^ a b House, Renee S.; Coakley, John (1999). Patterns and Portraits: Women in the History of the Reformed Church in America. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. p. 128. ISBN 978-0-8028-4705-8.
  3. ^ Miller, E. Rothesay (1901). Sketch of the North Japan Mission. Board of Foreign Missions, R.C.A. pp. 29, 41–42.
  4. ^ Directory of Protestant Missionaries in China, Japan and Corea. "Daily Press" Office. 1903. p. 40.
  5. ^ Loomis, Rev. H. (February 1905). "Christian Work Among Japanese Soldiers". The Chinese Recorder. 36: 63.
  6. ^ Cobb, Henry Nitchie (1893). Far Hence: A Budget of Letters from Our Mission Fields in Asia. Woman's Board of Foreign Missions, R.C.A. p. 213.
  7. ^ Terazawa, Yuki (2018-04-13). Knowledge, Power, and Women's Reproductive Health in Japan, 1690–1945. Springer. p. 180. ISBN 978-3-319-73084-4.
  8. ^ "A Prosperous Missionary Society". The Plain Speaker. 1901-02-28. p. 1. Retrieved 2020-11-19 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ^ "Missionary Conference". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. 1901-02-22. p. 9. Retrieved 2020-11-19 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. ^ "Missionary Convention". Poughkeepsie Eagle-News. 1901-04-26. p. 5. Retrieved 2020-11-19 – via Newspapers.com.

External links

More
Categories