Annie Newman had been born in Livingston, Sumter County, Alabama on December 25, 1856. She was only eleven when she arrived in Brazil, and thus learned the language well. Later, Ransom would write with admiration of Annie's ability to speak as educated Brazilians spoke. It was actually Annie Newman who first began translating Methodist literature into Portuguese. She translated some of the first hymns into Portuguese. She also translated Bishop McTyeire's Catechism on Church Government and the Wesleyan Catechism, No. 3 into Portuguese. Although John Ransom is the name most often associated with the beginning of Methodist publishing in Portuguese, for instance with the Compendia da Igreja Metodista (1878), it was actually Annie Newman who did the earliest writing. 

Annie Newman was such a gifted student and teacher that upon graduation she was sought after by several Brazilian schools. She accepted a position teaching at the Colegio Rangel Pestana, which was an elite women's school in Sao Paulo serving some of the outstanding families of the province. One of the students at this school was Prudente de Moraes' daughter, and it was while she was teaching at this school that the Barros brothers approached Junius Newman about opening a school in Piracicaba. Ransom later related the story in the following way: "It was then [1878] that Collegio Newman in Piracicaba began to be talked of. The citizens of the place knew of Miss Annie Newman through their daughters who had been at Colegio Pestana, and they urged the matter. With some reluctance, she acceded to her father's plans .... In July 1879, the Collegio Newman was opened."

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Annie Newman opened the school in Piracicaba with the help of her sister, Mary Newman, three regular assistants, and a temporary art teacher. Her father, as we remember, had hoped from his first years in Niteroi to open a school and had urged Annie ahead with the project. In order to support the project he actually moved his family to Piracicaba in 1879. Ransom had also urged the project and had directed an appeal to the first annual meeting of the Woman's Board of Foreign Missions (then, the General Executive Association of the Woman's Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South) meeting in Louisville on May 16-17, 1879, which, in response, had promised $500 toward "Miss Newman's school. "  The next year, the Woman's Missionary Society appropriated $1,000 for "school purposes" in Brazil. 

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However, Annie Newman had not been anxious to open the school in Piracicaba, but as Ransom related, "with some reluctance, acceded to her father's plans." Ransom did not explain the reason for Newman's reluctance, but one can speculate that it had to do with her desire to get married, because on December 25, 1879, she married J. J. Ransom and took on "the work that would be hers as the wife of a Methodist missionary."29

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Ransom had re-started Methodist work in Rio de Janeiro in January 1878, and soon after their marriage Annie Ayers Ransom left Piracicaba and moved to Rio de Janeiro with her husband. By that time, the end of 1879, the Catete Methodist Church in Rio was well established with both Portuguese and English services and a strong Sunday School. Ransom had started satellite congregations in Santana and Niteroi. Preaching was on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and twice on Sundays. Ransom had also begun to publish Methodist materials in Portuguese, had organized a library with 200 volumes, and planned to open a school. Annie became a full partner in all of the work.

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As I stated, it is my opinion that Annie Ayres Newman Ransom was a key to solidifying Methodism and Methodist education in Brazil. Her connections, of course, with the Barros brothers were important. Also, the models of education that she brought together from the Colegio Internacional and the Colegio Pestana were significant, for they set the pattern of Methodist education in Brazil. But just as significant was her death. She died tragically just a few months after her wedding, in July 1880. John J. Ransom had contracted yellow fever for the second time in March 1880, and after nursing him back to health, Annie too contracted the disease and died. Ransom was heartbroken and returned to the United States to recover. Much seemed lost as the Newman school in Piracicaba had been forced to close without Annie and as the school in Rio might not start without her. But Ransom was a gifted speaker, and as he traveled throughout the south of the United States and spoke of needs and opportunities for the gospel in Brazil, Ransom personalized his appeal by narrating the story of his wife.