Rev. George Edward Henderlite

Missionary in Paraíba and Pernambuco, pioneer of the Northern Seminary

George E. Henderlite was born in Marion, Smyth County, Virginia, on June 1

of 1863. He was the son of George W. Henderlite and Rachel A. Killinger. Of the five children of

couple, four were Presbyterian ministers and the daughter married a Lutheran pastor. At

adolescence, George attended Marion's school, spent his vacations in the country fishing,

hunt or work on a farm. With the death of the father in 1882, the young man came to face

life more seriously. In the following years he worked in a pharmacy and then in

an engineering battalion. In the middle of time, it became a revival

and joined the Presbyterian Church. In 1884 he joined King College in Bristol,

Tennessee, where he swept the floors and lit fireplaces to pay for his studies. Was a colleague of

studies of two other future missionaries in Brazil: Samuel R. Gammon and Edmund A.

Tilly (Methodist).

After graduating from high school in 1887, he joined the Union Theological Seminary,

graduating in 1890. He spent that summer in the mountains of North

the Rev. John Rockwell Smith family company, which solidified the conviction that

was being called for missionary work abroad. It was licensed by

Abingdon Presbytery in 1890 and ordained by the Presbytery of Winchester on May 1

of 1891, working in the Church of Woodstock, in his native state, by three happy years

(1890-1893). He was appointed a missionary on March 3, 1893, and on June 1 he was married

with Mattie Robins Moseley, a native of Buckingham, Virginia, daughter of the priest

Langdon C. Moseley. Later George wrote: "The Lord has given me as a wife a

very pious and selfless woman. " Following to New York, the couple left for Brazil

on August 1, arriving in the same month. Henderlite was received by the Presbytery of

Pernambuco in July 1894, by transfer of the Presbytery of Winchester.

After studying Portuguese in Recife, he moved to the capital of Paraíba on 14

October 1894, where he replaced Rev. Belmiro de Araújo César, who was transferred to

São Luís do Maranhão. He worked not only in João Pessoa, but in the interior of the state.

During this period, one of the beneficiaries was the young Cecilia Rodrigues (1886-

1968), from the small town of Lucena, to whom he referred in his studies. She and her parents were

received by profession of faith and baptism in 1897. After studying at Garanhuns and Natal and

in Recife and Garanhuns, Cecília came to marry Rev. Cícero Siqueira and was

a notable female labor leader in Brazil. In Paraíba, Henderlite began to exercise

his other vocation, initiating the instruction of future pastors Manoel Francisco do

Nascimento Machado, Martinho de Oliveira and Manoel Alfredo Guimarães.

On February 3, 1896, Henderlite accompanied the Rev. William Calvin Porter in

organization of the Presbyterian Church of Natal. In that year, the Church of João Pessoa,

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organized by the Rev. John R. Smith in 1884, had sixty-four members

and had already gone through several venues. In the pastorate of Henderlite, it was bought

the old theater Santa Cruz, where the Presbytery of Pernambuco met in 1897. Demolished

the theater in 1899, in the same place was constructed the temple, that was consecrated in the night of 17

June 1900, on the occasion of a new meeting of the presbytery. More

of 600 people and occupied the pulpit Rev. Martinho de Oliveira. There were small nuclei of

believers in Lucena, Mandarau, Cachetu, Engenho do Tabu, Santa Rita, Usina São João,

Barra de Santa Rosa, Souza and Pombal, some of them led by evangelists. In the end of

stay of Henderlite, were collaborating in that field, for a short time, the Revs. Manoel

Machado and João Francisco da Cruz. The first joined the independent movement and

second, after brief pastorates, went on to legal career. Henderlite worked in the

Paraíba until 1901.

Returning to Pernambuco, he was the continuator of the work of the Rev. John R. Smith in preparation

young people to the ministry. Going to Garanhuns, he collaborated with the Rev. Martinho de

Oliveira, the founder of the Seminary of the North, for whom he had great admiration,

after his death in 1903. He assumed the pastorate of the Church of Garanhuns and the

incipient theological school, of which he was the mainstay for a long time. Theologian, exegete,

Master of the Scriptures, Henderlite has educated generations of ministers. There was a time when all

the northern workers were his former students. Among his first disciples were

Antônio Almeida, João Marques da Mota Sobrinho, Antônio Gueiros and Alfredo Ferreira. O

missionary rented a house for his family, where, assisted by his wife, he

few students as interns. He and the students visited the many points of preaching

in the interior, which gave young people experience in the practice of preaching.

Henderlite reported in 1905 that students were doing the best course possible within the

circumstances. Everyone had to master the Sketches of Theology , by Archibald Alexander

Hodge, and knew almost by heart the little book The Gospel Taught by Calvin ("The

Gospel as Taught by Calvin "), Rev. RC Reed (1851-1925), professor of the Seminary

Theological of Columbia. Taking "Sketches of Church History" as a synthesis and

completed the entire course imposed on them. They analyzed half of the

books of the Bible, gathering the best material of commentaries in English. An unfolding

of the Henderlite school was the College November 15, an attached course founded by him

with the collaboration of his wife Mattie, the Rev. Jerônimo Gueiros, Cecília Rodrigues and

Soriano Furtado. The classes began in the first days of April, 1908. With this

faculty simultaneously and parallel courses of humanities and

theology.

From 1908 to 1911, he collaborated with Henderlite in the educational work at Garanhuns a former student,

the Rev. Jerônimo Gueiros and, from 1910, the Rev. William M. Thompson. In this period,

after many discussions, the seminary was held by the Presbytery of Pernambuco,

who elected a board for it in 1911. In the first half of 1912, Henderlite

was in Campinas as substitute professor, teaching New Testament Exegesis.

Over the years, other students in the Northeast were Benjamim Marinho, José

Martins, Natanael Cortez, Cícero Siqueira and Antônio Teixeira Gueiros. Thompson gave

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notions of physics, chemistry, and science; Cecilia taught Portuguese, Eliza Reed taught English

and Henderlite ministered all theological matters. During all this time, the seminar

also received encouragement and inspiration from Rev. Dr. George Butler, who died in

1919.

The seminary ran in Garanhuns until 1920, when it was transferred to Recife. Was

a sad occasion for Garanhuns, for the church and for the College November 15 the day in

that the Henderlite couple left Antioquia Pernambucana. Dr. Henderlite and his former student,

Rev. Antônio Almeida, arranged for the transfer to the capital, where it would be

to form a larger and more efficient faculty. Rev. Almeida was sent to

Richmond, Virginia, to take a specialization course at Union Theological Seminary,

studying Hebrew, a subject he taught at the seminary until 1947. In 1921, the

institution was renamed Evangelical Seminary of the North, for having the cooperation of the

congregations. In 1924, it was officially recognized by the General Assembly of the Church

Presbyterian of Brazil, meeting in Recife.

After thirty years in Brazil, Rev. Henderlite retired in September 1923,

returning to your country. He worked for a year as a national missionary in Comanche,

in Texas. He completed his ministry pastoring the churches of Jamestown, Davis Memorial

and Appomattox, at the West Hanover Presbytery in Virginia. Leaving active ministry

in 1931, he settled in Farmville, where he died on February 11, 1946 and

his wife in 1948. Published comments on Romans, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, 1

John and Revelation, as well as brochures on the mode of baptism, the baptism of children and

other subjects, all of which he used in his classes. He liked to take his theology from the

own Bible. He was a pre-millennial and formed disciples. One of his works in this area was O

Premillennialism taught in the Gospel according to Matthew . Received from his alma mater, King

College, the title of Doctor of Divinity (DD). The Henderlite couple had three children and two

daughters: George Edward Jr. (who died young), Robert Edward, Langdon Moseley, Rachel

K. Wilson and Martha E. Plunkett.

In 1931, his son Langdon Moseley Henderlite came to work in Pernambuco. Langdon

was born June 4, 1898 in Marion, Virginia. Bachelor's degree at King College in

1920 and at the Evangelical Seminary of the North in 1923. He also studied at the Union Seminary,

in Virginia, in 1924. It was licensed on April 17 and ordered on September 24, 1924

by the Winchester Presbytery. He married on June 17, 1924 with Courtney Edmond

Frischkorn (deceased in 1951), with which she had three children. He pastored churches in Gormania,

in West Virginia, Blaine and Baynard (1924-1926); Ocean View, Norfolk, Virginia

(1926-1931). He received his PhD in Divinity from King College in 1942. He was

installation of the Presbyterian Mission of the Amazon, in 1950. On June 15,

1953, married in second nuptials, in Recife, with the missionary Mary Virginia Smith,

who arrived in Brazil in 1948 and served until 1983. Rev. Langdon died on 11

January 1970.

Bibliography:

▪ Lessa, Annaes , 439, 466s.

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▪ Ferreira, History of IPB , I: 421, 446-48, 460-62, 559; II: 99s, 108-111, 115, 188s, 274,

362, 410, 429.

▪ "Record of Missionaries of the Presbyterian Church in the United States (Southern)",

Presbyterian Historical Society (Montreat, North Carolina), 224.

▪ George E. Henderlite. Premillennialism Taught in the Gospel According to Matthew . 2nd ed.

corrected. Recife, 1921.

▪ George E. Henderlite. Notes on the Epistles of St. Paul to the Romans and

Galatians . Recife: North Brazil Presbyterian Mission, 1954.

▪ "Death of Rev. George E. Henderlite, DD", Christian Observer (Louisville, Kentucky,

27-02-1946), 11.

▪ "Rev. Dr. George E. Henderlite, " The Puritan (May 25, 1946), 5, 7.

▪ "Rev. George Edward Henderlite, " Minutes of the West Hanover Presbytery (10-15-

1946), 15.

▪ Bear, Mission to Brazil , 63, 224.

▪ Ministerial Directory, PCUS (1861-1967) , 239.

▪ "Rev. Langdon Henderlite ", Brazil Presbyterian (June 1970), 6.

▪ Siqueira, Ambassador and Outsider , 83-88

​

Rev. Carlyle Ramsey Womeldorf

Missionary in Maranhão and Pará

Carlyle Womeldorf was born on August 11, 1864 near Timber Ridge, in

near Lexington, Rockbridge County, in the Virginia Valley. Some sources tell you

they erroneously give other names such as "Charles" and "Calvin". He was one of the twelve children of

William Tolbert Womeldorf and Catherine H. Shaner, both of Germanic descent. O

father was a farmer and an unbelieving businessman (he died in 1894), but his mother

was characterized by his piety. From the age of seven to sixteen, Carlyle did her studies

primary and secondary schools in public schools, but from seventeen to twenty-three

worked on the farm with his father. He then studied for a year in a

his city at Washington and Lee University (1888-1891) and at the Theological Seminary

Union, in Hampden-Sydney, where he graduated in 1894. He felt the desire to be a missionary

very early in life, long before he became a professed Christian. It was accepted by the

Missions on March 12, 1894 and ordered by the Lexington Presbytery on May 14.

The next day she married Ada Florence Kennon in Lexington. Worked briefly

missionary of his presbytery in Alpena, Horton, Job and Harman, in the

mountains of West Virginia.

He was appointed a missionary by the Nashville Missions Committee on March 12, 1894, and

he left for Brazil on June 13, 1895. He arrived the following month in company with the

wife, and lived in Maranhão until March 1903. In that state there were already two

Presbyterian workers, William M. Thompson and Belmiro de Araújo César. Rev.

Thompson had arrived in St. Louis in 1890 to replace the pioneer George Butler, who

would go to Recife. After the arrival of the Womeldorf couple, Thompson concentrated his

efforts in the city of Caxias and other points of the interior. Rev. Belmiro César had

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transferred to the capital of Maranhão in December 1893, in order to pastor the church

local.

In October of 1895, Womeldorf wrote of São Luís counting on the good impressions taken

with the cordial reception of the Maranhão believers, as well as the meeting of the Presbytery of

Pernambuco, held there shortly after his arrival. The new missionary made

interior of the state and opened works in São Bento and Anil. On one occasion he made a

mission trip to Ceará, going through Camocim to Sobral and Ipu. Also visited the

city ​​of Teresina, capital of Piauí. During this period, he devoted himself to literary activities,

producing leaflets, a 32-page hymnal, and newspaper articles. Your thoughts,

however, they were facing Belém and the Amazon Valley. In 1900, following a holiday

for the United States, presented his plans to the Nashville Missions Committee.

Womeldorf had been assigned to reside in Pará in 1896. He even visited

Bethlehem and to carry out the first pastoral acts, but its transfer took place only a few

years later. In 1901, returning to Brazil, he was invited by the small congregation

from that city for a visit. The members of the congregation were mostly

Presbyterians who had come from Rio de Janeiro and several states in the Northeast.

The small group led Pedro Araújo Costa, who wrote to the then Presbytery of

Pernambuco requesting pastoral assistance for the small but prosperous nucleus of

believers. The missionary went there and baptized twelve people. The following year, it was twice the

Belém and received another 24 members. He also went to Manaus, where there was a

small group of 22 believers. Through their visit, another 22 were added to the

community.

From March 1903 until April 1905, Womeldorf resided in the capital of Pará, whose church was

organized by him and the Rev. William Thompson on November 9, 1904, with seventy

and three adult members and thirty children. Womeldorf was inducted into the pastorate and

election and ordination of two priests and two deacons. The organizing committee

named by the Presbytery of Pernambuco was composed by Revs. William Thompson and

Belmiro César, but apparently the latter could not attend. In his later years

reports, Womeldorf did not hide the difficulties he faced. The disease

wife, the rigors of climate, the epidemic of smallpox, the penetration of the movement

independent, the impossibility of finding national workers to help them, all

conspiring against the new church. His eldest son suggested that because of the weather,

every year in Bethlehem, they had to spend five in the United States. Womeldorf

He added, however, that believers were spiritual, eager to learn, and

evangelization.

Due to his wife's health problems, Rev. Womeldorf retired from Brazil in 1905,

after ten years in the Amazon, returning to reside again in Lexington, Virginia.

In the following years, the Church of Bethlehem came under the care of the Revs. William Thompson,

Langdon Henderlite and João Marques da Mota Sobrinho. Womeldorf would like to have returned

to Brazil in accordance with its expressed desire, but the Committee of Missions did not

health reasons. Sponsored by national and foreign missions committees,

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pastored for many years a Mexican church in El Paso, Texas (1907-1920). THE

followed, founded a church for Mexicans in Houston, in the same state (1921-1928).

Retired, he returned to his city, initially residing in the former property of the

family near Timber Ridge and then on the outskirts of Lexington, where he died at 91

years on December 6, 1955. He was buried at Stonewall Jackson Cemetery. The couple

Womeldorf had five sons, Eugene, Leslie, Archie, Carlyle and Garland.

the first three were born in Brazil. Archie or Airlie died in Brazil.

Bibliography:

▪ Lessa, Annaes , 485.

▪ Ferreira, History of IPB , I: 304, 453-56; II: 104s.

▪ "Record of Missionaries of the Presbyterian Church in the United States (Southern)",

Presbyterian Historical Society (Montreat, North Carolina), 245.

▪ CR Womeldorf, "A Good Year at Pará", The Missionary (April 1905), 167.

▪ WM Thompson, "Pará", The Missionary (April 1905), 164.

▪ Evangelical North (11-08-1928), 16-17.

▪ Ministerial Directory, PCUS (1861-1950) , 750.

▪ "Rev. Carlyle R. Womeldorf, " Christian Observer (28-03-1956), 22.

▪ "Memorial to Rev. Carlyle Ramsey Womeldorf", Minutes of the Lexington Presbytery

(May 24, 1956), 15.

▪ Bear, Mission to Brazil , 47, 49, 54, 224.

▪ Solomon Azulay. Presbyterian Church of Bethlehem: Remembrance of its 90 years . Belém,

1994

​

Rev. Charles Read Morton

Missionary in the Triângulo Mineiro and in Casa Branca

Charles Morton was born on May 20, 1865 in Compostella, Charlotte County,

in Virginia. He studied at the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, and at the Seminary

Theological Union, annexed to the Hampden-Sydney College, in the same state, where it was formed

in 1894, having been a colleague of the Rev. Carlyle R. Womeldorf. It was ordained by the Presbytery

of Roanoke in June 1894. He arrived in Brazil in August 1895, accompanied by

young wife of twenty-one, Mary Thompson Morton. They initially worked in

Lavras. In December 1895, they went to Araguari, a field that had been herded by the

Rev. Frank Cowan, who died in 1894. In that city there was a school run by the widow

missionary, Kate Bias Cowan, who later went to Santa Luzia de Goiás (now

Luziânia).

Morton traveled extensively through the Minas Triangle, receiving many people for

professions in various places. It revived the itinerant evangelistic tradition of the pioneer

John Boyle and was the first to preach in Patos de Minas, Carmo do Paranaíba, Arapuá and Rio

Paranaíba, besides several points in Goiás. In one of his preaching in the Córrego da

Onça, near Bagagem (South Star), got to know a man called David de

Melo, who had been reading the Bible and had been evangelized by a Rev. Boyle parishioner.

Morton went to the house of David, spent three days reading and explaining the Scriptures, and

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communion of the host's church, his wife Maria Isabel and the three daughters of the

presence of neighbors invited to the occasion. David faced many difficulties in

parental resistance, which helped to influence his

married, Manoel de Melo, who had also been reading the Bible and came to convert, having

set in a country estate near Mount Carmel. The couple was greeted by

profession of faith by the Rev. Morton on July 15, 1898 and Manoel became a mainstay

of the gospel in that region.

Later, the other five Melo brothers also converted with their families,

contributing to the emergence of Presbyterian churches in Douradoquara, Água Limpa,

Monte Carmelo, Abbey of the Dourados and Perdizes. Maria de Melo Chaves, the most

old woman of Manoel de Melo, tells this inspiring story in the book Bandeirantes da Fé ,

published in 1947. His brother Zaqueu de Melo, born in Monte Carmelo in 1914, was

Presbyterian pastor, state deputy and professor for many years in the city of Londrina,

Paraná, where he founded in 1945 the Philadelphia Institute, current University Center Philadelphia

(UNIFIL), linked to the Presbyterian Church of Londrina.

With his health shaken, Morton's wife went to Fredericksburg, Virginia, in 1898,

passing away a few days after arriving and leaving a little girl. After the wife's death,

Morton spent a year in Richmond, doing postgraduate studies at the Seminary

Union, and returned to Brazil. In 1900, he married Lucy Hall, daughter

of a couple of American immigrants residing in Vila Americana. Lucy was born in

Brazil and studied with the missionaries in Campinas and Lavras. Four of her sisters

also married missionaries and a cousin, Katherine, was the wife of Rev. William

Calvin Porter. The Morton couple had a daughter, Elizabeth Margaret Morton, and a son who

was born on June 19, 1903, after the death of his father, and received his name.

From Araguari, Morton moved to White House, State of São Paulo, in 1901.

He was affected by yellow fever and died in an isolation hospital on 5 April.

1903. He was the last of the missionaries who had been victimized by this disease,

by George W. Thompson, John W. Dabney, Edward Lane and Edgar M. Pinkerton. Morton

was supported by the Presbyterian Church of Durham, North Carolina, as its pastor

missionary. Lucy Morton worked for many years with the Mission West in Araguari,

Barretos and other places (1903-1908, 1924-1930). On September 25, 1907, the Revista

of the National Missions reported that Lucy had donated to the Church of Araguari a harmonium

which she herself played in the services.

According to some authors, the death of the missionary was surrounded by a certain mystery. When

Morton was affected by yellow fever, the police chief, the enemy of evangelicals,

determined his removal to the Holy House, where he died shortly thereafter. Rev. James

R. Woodson reported that, many years after Morton's death, the news broke that

that an old black man confessed to having given him a poison remedy,

the 3rd.

Bibliography:

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▪ Lessa, Annaes , 485, 644s, 653, 660s.

▪ Ferreira, History of IPB , I: 506-508; II: 34, 366.

▪ Charlotte Kemper, "Rev. CR Morton, " The Missionary (June 1903), 256s.

▪ A General Catalog of Union Theological Seminary in Virginia, 1807-1924 .

▪ Keys, Bandeirantes da Fé, 27-31, 61-65, 69s, 187. See Hahn, Protestant Cult in the

Brazil , 254-258.

▪ Bear, Mission to Brazil , 27s.

▪ Silva e Silva, Presbyterian Church of Araguari , 52-55.

▪ Ferreira, Little History of the West Mission , 40s

​

Rev. Dr. Horace Selden Allyn

Missionary and doctor in the south of Minas Gerais

Horace S. Allyn was born on March 4, 1859 in Nankin, Wayne County, near

of Detroit, in the State of Michigan. He graduated in medicine from the University of Michigan,

in Ann Arbor, in 1881. Beginning his medical career, he resided in several localities of the

State of Florida. He married Emma Rebecca Carter in 1890, on his second nuptials.

Georgia, setting up his residence and clinic in Gainesville, in that state. Feeling the

Missionary vocation, he entered Columbia Theological Seminary, where he graduated in

1893. After his ordination, he pastored the Church of Harmony Grove, where he remained until

beginning of 1896.

The couple arrived in Brazil in January 1896, going to live for several months in Araguari,

where Allyn, as a physician, assisted a sick missionary, possibly the Rev.

Charles Morton. In this city, he was obliged to practice medicine because of the

you have encountered. From there he went to São João Del Rei, being the first

presbyterian worker to work in this city, where he lived for five years. Participated in the

meeting of the Presbyterian Synod in 1897, in which he was one of only five missionaries

the Smith Movement, about the priority of evangelization

education. Although he felt called to evangelistic work as

preacher, was again forced to practice medicine in view of the lack of resources

doctors. In 1902, he participated alongside the Revs. Álvaro Reis, José Ozias Gonçalves and Alva

Hardie of the organization of the Churches of São João Nepomuceno (05-11) and São João Del Rei

(07-11).

In addition to being a pastor and physician, Allyn was also a printer, having a lot of practice in this field.

activity. He was the founder, in São João Del Rei, of the first publishing agency of the

church, the Presbyterian House Publishing House, forwarding the publication of many useful works. Was

editor of the Southern Brazil Mission newspaper Púlpito Evangélico , transformed into O

Presbyterian in 1901 and published monthly by the Synodal Commission of Publications.

The following year, Allyn transferred her publishing company to Rio de Janeiro and continued to publish

The Presbyterian . In 1903, still in Rio, worked as editor of the International Lessons

for Sunday School. At that time, he contracted yellow fever, at serious risk of

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life. In order to better serve the needy populations, during their first vacation, in

In 1904, he completed a specialization course at Atlanta Medical College.

In 1905, at the request of the Rev. Samuel R. Gammon, Allyn took up residence in

Lavras, where he and his wife took the direction of one of the boarding

Evangelical Institute, now the Gammon Institute, of which he was one of the professors, teaching

physical and natural sciences. He continued to publish The Presbyterian . At that time of his

ministry, decided to dedicate himself entirely to the work of evangelization, as a preacher and

doctor. He was then entrusted with the mission field of St. John of the King, where he had

his first pastorate in Brazil.

Poorly understood in his Christian vocation as a missionary and physician, since he did not

poor for their services, some doctors from Lavras tried to prevent him from

his profession, on the grounds that he was a graduate of foreign schools and was not yet

licensed by a national school. In 1907, Allyn went to Rio de Janeiro, where

undergone examinations before an official commission of medical professors, in

company of five foreign colleagues, being the only one to be approved. Returning to Lavras,

was the target of an enthusiastic popular demonstration. Allyn became a famous physician and

esteemed by all, and his double ministry was performed with extraordinary dedication and

always remembered with deep recognition. He was director of Santa Casa de Lavras. Owner

Emma was an experienced midwife and an excellent assistant to her husband in his clinic.

Dr. Allyn was the first moderator of the Southern Mines Presbytery, and was elected

meeting was held on March 12, 1910. In 1916,

Valença, would be elected moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Brazil. Was

still a board member of the Presbyterian Seminary. As a preacher of the gospel,

visited several localities and suffered persecutions, one of which almost took his life. O

Bom Sucesso, where the Allyn couple helped the missionary Ruth See, experimented with

strong opposition in 1918. A bomb exploded in the house of the school, fortunately in an hour in

that neither students nor teachers were present.

In the years 1919 and 1920, Rev. Allyn visited several locations in Rio Grande do Norte and

Pernambuco, preaching the gospel. Returning south in late 1920, he chose

Varginha to be the center of his missionary activities, beginning the work

presbyterian in that city. The Varginha Church would be organized by the Revs. Augustus

Lee Davis and Frank Fisher Baker on November 3, 1929. In 1921, with the nod

East Mission and in response to persistent requests from local families, Dr. Allyn founded

American Evangelical School, later called the Allyn Evangelical School. The couple

had the collaboration of Mrs. Scintilla Exel Pitta, daughter of the second marriage of D. Palmira

Rodrigues and wife of José Pitta, brother of Rev. Paschoal Luiz Pitta. Posteriorly

the educators Edith Foster and Alice Genevieve (Genoveva) arrived to help them,

Marchant. A few years later, Dr. Allyn moved to Caxambu, where he created the Retirement

Evangelical Church of Caxambu, a home for evangelical workers who needed

medical treatments and climate favorable for the cure of certain diseases. Unfortunately,

compelling reasons to close this social institution, returning to Varginha.

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Due to his precarious state of health, Dr. Allyn spent long periods in the

United States, needing to undergo several operations and prolonged treatments. In

1925, went once again to his country, where, quite ill, he was retired. Years

then, longing for Brazil, the missionary and his wife, made the return trip,

stopping in Recife for a few months, visiting a son who resided there. Dr. Allyn

spent the last phase of his life in the capital of Pernambuco, where he became seriously ill.

He died at the Centennial Hospital on October 4, 1931, at the age of 72,

being buried in the Cemetery of the English. In 1948, his remains were transferred to the

to São Paulo, where they rest next to those of his dedicated wife, who died on 3

September 1946. His daughter Gladys (deceased in 1914) was Dr.'s first wife.

Benjamin Harris Hunnicutt, one of the presidents of Mackenzie. Another daughter, Irene (deceased

in 1981), married the Rev. Dr. Frank Fisher Baker (who died in 1979), who directed by

many years the Gammon Institute (1930-1954) and was professor in the Seminary of Campinas. O

son of Dr. Allyn, Lyman Robert Allyn, was an employee of the City Bank and superintendent of

Pan-Air.

Bibliography:

▪ Lessa, Annaes , 508, 605, 621.

▪ Ferreira, History of IPB , I: 411, 421, 487s, 497; II: 203, 311, 364s.

▪ "Rev. Dr. Horacio S. Allyn, " The Puritan (14-11-1931), 3.

▪ "D. Emma Allyn, " The Puritan (25-10-1946), 2.

▪ Keys, Bandeirantes da Fé , 110s.

▪ Bear, Mission to Brazil , 223.

▪ Allyn Evangelical School Brochure.

▪ Gammon, Thus Shines the Light, 72.

▪ "Varginha IP Bulletin" (29-11-1953), Ministers Folder, Presbyterian Archive.

▪ José Bernardes de Figueiredo, Varginha Presbyterian Church: Seventy Years of

Blessings (1929-1999 )

​

Rev. Dr. Reginald Price Baird

Pastor in Fortaleza and in the interior of Ceará

Reginald Baird was born on February 2, 1857 near Yorkville (now York), in the

South Carolina. He was the third child of Rev. James Robinson Baird and Eliza Price Baird,

of the same state. He was baptized by the well-known theologian and professor of

Columbia Rev. James Henley Thornwell (1812-1862), who was a friend of his father's. O

Rev. James Baird resided in Santa Barbara, Province of São Paulo, from 1868 to 1878,

working with the Rev. William C. Emerson among the emigrant American settlers

of the War of the Secession. Reginald studied at the International College of Campinas and São

Paul, and professed the faith in the Presbyterian Church of St. Paul on April 4, 1886.

He married on September 30, 1887 with Mary Lucille Bankston, born in 1872 and

in the Church of St. Paul on January 13, 1884. The marriage was officiated by the

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Rev. Edward Lane. Lucille was the daughter of Frank M. and Sarah Ellis Bankston of Brookhaven,

Mississipi, emigrated to Brazil in 1867. Lucille had two sisters, Mallie and Lilian.

Reginald went to the United States, where he studied theology, graduating from the Seminary

Columbia Theological Society, in South Carolina, in 1892. In the same year, he was

and ordered September 30 by the Cherokee Presbytery. For four

years, shepherded the Churches of Acworth, Mars Hill and Smyrna, Georgia (1892-1896). He is

the wife were appointed missionaries by the Foreign Missions Committee on 10

December of 1894. They went as missionaries to Ceará in July 1896, in order to

assisting the Rev. DeLacey Wardlaw and his wife, who were not in good health. Before

permanently to the Northeast, it seems that they were in Santa Bárbara, State of

São Paulo, and took Lucille's sister, Lilian Bankston, who was also

teacher, and Charles, a nephew of Reginald. When they arrived in Recife, Charles

died of a yellow fever, and Lilian died of the same disease in Ceará. Just after

of his arrival in Fortaleza, the missionary was affected by smallpox, reestablishing

then.

Rev. Baird preached in many places in the interior of the state, including Quixadá, where,

despite threats, received a whole family by profession of faith. It was also in

Senator Pompeu, where he organized a congregation with about 40 members

most of them from the Varela and Cortez families, who had been evangelized in

Mossoró by Rev. Wardlaw. Baird left the congregation in the care of the worker

Raimundo Ferreira da Silva, a young man from the Fortaleza Church who had taken a class of

Bible and had already served in the Congregation of Baturité. In 1897, the couple Wardlaw

he left the mission after eighteen years of fruitful work and the entire responsibility of the

field fell on the Rev. Baird. In his pastorate was inaugurated the temple of Fortaleza,

built by the efforts of the presbyter Dr. Albino de Faria. The cornerstone was

launched on October 12, 1898. At that time, Baird received by profession of faith and

baptism Mr. Joaquim Cândido de Sena, paternal grandfather of the future Rev. Alcides Nogueira.

Sena resided on the "Winner" farm, in the municipality of Cachoeira, in central Ceará, and

was converted by reading the Bible and visiting a distant relative, a member of the

Church of Fortaleza.

After four years of intense work, the missionary's health was shaken, and in September

of 1900 he had to return to the United States. After a brief rest, he attended the

College of Medicine and Surgery, in Atlanta, graduating in 1902. Having declined

several attractive invitations in his country, wanted to continue his work in Brazil,

returning to Ceará in June of that year. Although you have never qualified

formally to practice medicine in Brazil, the new profession was very useful for its

missionary activities. The work was growing rapidly and new fields were being

open. Baird was untiring as a preacher and physician and obtained many fruits in his

despite the opposition.

Around 1906, Baird wanted to pay a visit to Humaita, where there was a small group of

believers. He was stopped by friends who feared for his life. Events have

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wisdom of this attitude, for on the day it was expected there an armed mob awaited the

arrival of the train. The evangelist Raimundo Ferreira da Silva had moved to Humaitá

and there had done a good evangelistic work, despite tenacious opposition. This evangelist was

of Dr. Baird's influence on the small-town

he had needed the missionary's medical services. Baird always supported Raymond,

encouraging him and instructing him through letters and giving him some financial assistance. After all,

Baird went to Humaitá in December 1906, accompanied by two believers from Fortaleza and one

of Baturité. It was welcomed by believers and visited by local authorities. Like this

even the opponents threw some stones. Seventeen people professed the faith and

there was a collection in favor of the national missions.

Rev. Baird attended the Synod meeting in 1903, in which he declared

many years, having always preached in the shops, without challenge, the mediation of Christ. Said

that every good man is a Mason, because the institution is the essence of the basic principles

of love, charity and fraternity. According to him, the apostles and Jesus Christ themselves had

principles. Freemasonry was widespread among the American Southerners - in the

Campo Cemetery, in Santa Bárbara, there are many tombs with Masonic symbols.

Baird was a good speaker, endowed with a strong voice that dominated and pleased the audience.

His friends described him as an efficient, godly and cultivated pastor, gifted with a

a kind and hospitable character, and a dedicated father and husband. It enjoyed a very good concept in

society of Ceará.

In March 1907, the active missionary was suffering from a serious illness and,

with great difficulty, arrived in the United States in September. His sheep in Brazil

they greatly felt their departure and prayed greatly for their recovery. Family set

residence in Fredericksburg, Va., and Baird improved enough to

several trips by the south divulging the cause of the foreign missions. On the evening of 9

March, 1909, when he was traveling to make some lectures at the invitation of the

Executive Director of the Florida Synod, died suddenly on the train in the town of Jesup,

Georgia, at 52 years of age. He was buried in Fredericksburg on the 13th. The Baird couple

had only one daughter, Geraldine P. Barnes.

Bibliography:

• Lessa, Annaes , 172, 257s, 509s, 669.

• Ferreira, History of IPB , I: 453, 577; II: 103.

• The Missionary (April 1907), Calvin Porter Collection.

• Ministerial Directory, PCUS / PCUSA (1898).

• Christian Observer , Louisville, Kentucky (17-03-1909), 1.

• "Rev. Reginald Price Baird, MD, " Christian Observer (06-30-1909), 15.

• Bear, Mission to Brazil , 47s, 224.

• Jones, Rest Soldiers , 183, 235, 242, 328.

• Ribeiro, Evangelical Church and Brazilian Republic , 155-159.

​

Rev. Alva Hardie

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Missionary in São Paulo and Minas Gerais

Rev. Alva Hardie was the last Presbyterian missionary to arrive in Brazil in the 19th century.

He was a native of Alpine, Alabama, where he was born on September 26, 1873. His parents

were Alva Finley Hardie and Elizabeth Darby Mallory. When Alva was two years old,

family moved to Dallas, Texas, where he did primary and secondary education and

then worked in the trade. Feeling the ministerial vocation, he attended Austin College,

in Sherman, where he obtained his baccalaureate in letters (BA) in 1898, and studied

theology at Southwest Presbyterian University in Clarksville, Tennessee,

graduating in May 1900. He was ordained by the Dallas Presbytery on July 3,

1900 and soon afterwards embarked in New York to Brazil, arriving in Rio de

August 27 of the same year.

He initially worked in the East Mission area while learning the language. It was in

Lavras, Minas Gerais, for a period of one year. She went to take care of the field of São João Del

King on September 26, 1901, associating for over a year with Rev. Baldomero

Garcia in the evangelization of that region. Retired from Rev. Baldomero, Hardie continued

for another four years in São João Del Rei. At that time, priests sent boys

to stone the house of worship; the leader of these boys was the future Rev. Paschoal Luiz Pitta.

Hardie married on May 14, 1902 with Kate Eugenia Hall, born in 1879, daughter

of the couple Charles and Mary Hall, American immigrants residing in Vila Americana,

Sao Paulo. Kate, who was the cousin of Katherine Ives Hall, the wife of Rev. William Calvin

Porter had been a faculty member of the American College of Natal for two years. At the

end of that year, Hardie participated with other colleagues from the organization of the Churches of Saint

João Nepomuceno (05-11-1902) and São João Del Rei (07-11-1902). It was

Presbytery of Mines in 1904.

In 1905, the Western Mission decided to reopen the International College in Campinas and

the Rev. Hardie as a director, a position he held for two years. At the end of that year, he

was one of the signatories of the proposed division of the Southern Mission, which occurred the following year,

arising the Western Mission and the Eastern Mission. Was the intermediary in the sale of properties

from the International College to the Presbyterian Church of Brazil, to host the Seminar

Presbyterian. The Seminar needs to leave São Paulo and the Assembly is meeting.

General of the Presbyterian Church in that capital, Rev. Hardie, on behalf of the

Foreign Missions of Nashville, sold the farmhouse and the three furnished buildings to the

Presbyterian Synod for the small amount of fifteen thousand reis. Finished the deal, Hardie

closed the college and helped set up the seminar in Campinas. The reopening of classes

occurred on February 1, 1907, with the presence of the directors Revs. Hardie,

Laudelino de Oliveira Lima and Herculano de Gouvêa and the students Aníbal Nora, Alberto

Zanon, João Pereira Garcia and Samuel Barbosa. In the same year, Hardie left for

United States on vacation.

When he returned in 1908, the Presbytery of Minas decided to open work in Descalvado,

and sent Rev. Hardie to take care of this field, which also included

the cities of Limeira, Araras, Leme and Porto Ferreira. He built temples in

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Descalvado, Limeira and Araras. The prosperity generated by coffee attracted many people to

that region. In 1913, seeing the need for a newspaper dedicated exclusively to the

gospel propaganda, founded The Evangelist , which he maintained for almost all of

of his missionary activity (there was a lapse of a few years). The newspaper even had a

of 12,000 copies, and is distributed free of charge throughout Brazil. Even

other places where he was pastor, the Rev. Hardie wrote it, sending it to Descalvado, where the

Mr. Sebastião Lacerda printed it in a typography bought for this purpose and distributed it.

In 1924, Rev. Hardie went on vacation to the United States and received the honorary degree

of Doctor of Divinity (DD) of his alma mater , Austin College.

At the end of 1924, Dr. Hardie moved to Patrocínio, in the Triângulo Mineiro, in the

the company of his wife Kate and his sons Elizabeth Helen and Charles, starting the

of his long ministry in Brazil. He had already visited this city in 1923,

company of colleagues Robert Daffin and Edward Epes Lane. This field

Presbytery of Mines, having been pastored by Rev. Alberto Zanon, into the hands of

Mission West. In Patrocínio, the missionary acquired a house well located in the center of

city, having next to a deposit that was adapted to be the room of worship. The temple was

inaugurated four years later in 1929. At the time there were only a few small groups of

believers in Patrocínio, Carmo do Paranaíba, Patos de Minas and Estrela do Sul. Hardie

greatly expanded the work, often amid great opposition and bitter

persecution. Once, while running the service in Rio Paranaíba, a bomb exploded

on the roof, shaking the whole building. People were very frightened and began to

but the missionary calmed the group and quietly continued the service.

Rev. Hardie reactivated the churches of Paracatu and Estrela do Sul, which had almost

extinguished for lack of assistance, and opened works in Patos de Minas, João Pinheiro,

Carmo do Paranaíba, Rio Paranaíba, Arapuá, Ibiá, Araxá, Monte Carmelo, Douradoquara and

other locations. He traveled throughout the region riding the mule "America" ​​and later on board

of a Ford T model. He used the "magic lantern" very successfully, a great novelty in

time, a slide projector that attracted many people to the preaching of the gospel.

With the arrival of Rev. James R. Woodson in 1926, the camp was divided between the two

workers. Hardie and Woodson paved the way for the great educational

held in Patrocínio and extends to the present.

Initially, in February 1926, a course was set up to prepare evangelists

laity and Sunday school teachers. Then, in 1928, the Patrocínio Colégio appeared.

Finally, in 1933, Rev. Edward E. Lane founded the Biblical Institute that today takes its

name. At Patrocínio Colégio, the missionaries had the collaboration of the teacher Maria

of Melo, future author of the book Bandeirantes da Fé , who came to marry another

collaborator of the school, Professor Carlos Chaves. Carlos was brother of the well-known Rev.

Oscar Chaves (1912-1991), ordained in 1943, who pastored the Presbyterian

Santo André, in São Paulo, from 1952 to 1986.

After seven years of fruitful ministry in Patrocínio, Alva Hardie, after a year of

vacation in the United States, settled in Uberlândia for a period of equal duration

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and great results (1932 to 1939). He built a spacious temple and laid the foundations of

local Presbyterian church, organized on August 14, 1946, which would in turn give

many other churches. There were congregations in Santa Rita, Monte Alegre, Ituiutaba,

Tupaciguara and Prata. The last period of his ministry in Brazil was spent in Araxá, where

built another temple and greatly developed the evangelical work. Over the

his ministry, Rev. Hardie built more than twenty Presbyterian temples. Alva Hardie

was endowed with a strong and attractive personality. He made his decisions in a

positive and firm, and lived a methodical and disciplined life. His devoted wife led the

with order and serenity. There were certain times for meals, for teaching children,

to visit the believers and interested people and for all the activities of the day.

Dr. Hardie had a cheerful spirit and preached the gospel with great enthusiasm. The

his sermons, full of good illustrations, were remembered for many years by his

listeners. He loved the Brazilian people with his heart and was greatly esteemed. During many

years as a member of the old Presbytery of Minas Gerais at the insistence of his

national authorities. He was the only missionary to be part of that presbytery. In many photos of the

At the time, he wore a white suit, standing out from Brazilian colleagues wearing

dark. The national church manifested its recognition by electing the moderator of the

General Assembly in 1922, in Rio de Janeiro. He was the last American to

Function. He was treasurer of the "West Brazil Mission" for many years and showed

management of mission properties. Hardie was the missionary who served for

mission to Brazil. He has left many spiritual heirs who have

church and society to the present. One of many examples is that of D. Ita Edi Ribeiro

Coelho, who was baptized by the missionary on May 17, 1925, seven days

Carmo do Paranaíba. She is the wife of the priest Abílio da Silva Coelho, who

Presbyterian Church of Brazil.

After 45 years of service in Brazil, Rev. Hardie retired in 1945 and returned to

his home country, moving to Daytona Beach, Florida. He was received by the Presbytery of

St. Johns on April 18 and the following year gave pastoral assistance to the Edison Chapel in

Miami. He used to spend the summer in Montreat, North Carolina, where he

missionaries who came on vacation from Brazil and the new missionaries who

they went to the field. He often exclaimed, "How I would like to be in Brazil preaching

the Gospel!". I always wrote to missionaries and friends in Brazil,

intimate contact with work. The valiant worker died on October 17, 1955 in the

home of her daughter in Miami. Dona Kate Hall Hardie wrote the book On Eagles' Wings:

Brazilian Mission, 1900-1945 (On Wings of Eagles: Mission in Brazil, 1900-1945),

based on the Spouse's Journal and published in 1964. The Hardie couple had four children, two

men and two women: Lucita Hall, Hugh Melvin, Elizabeth Helen and Charles Alva. Lucita

was named after his aunt Lucy Hall, wife of Rev. Charles Morton.

Bibliography:

• Lessa, Annaes , 600.

• Ferreira, History of IPB , I: 488, 550; II: 76, 116, 132, 154, 201, 247-49, 290, 356, 366,

370.

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• Alva Hardie. Report of the Spiritual and Financial Movement of the Missionary Field .

1930.

• "Rev. Alva Hardie, " The Puritan (28-02-1931), 3.

• RD Daffin, "Rev. Dr. Alva Hardie, " The Puritan (10-01-1956), 3.

• "Dr. Alva Hardie, " The Puritan (10 and 25-02-1956), 2.

• "Dr. Alva Hardie ", typed manuscript, Eduardo Lane Bible Institute.

• Ministerial Directory, PCUS (1861-1950) , 279.

• Chaves, Bandeirantes da Fé , 137-146.

• Bear, Mission to Brazil , 223.

• Divino José de Oliveira. Sponsorship . Goiânia, 1983.

• Hahn, Protestant Cult in Brazil , 268-271.

• Ferreira, Little History of the West Mission , 44-48

​

Ruth Bosworth See

Notable educator and evangelist in several cities of Minas Gerais

Ruth See was born on October 12, 1873 in Fort Defiance, County of Augusta,

beautiful valley of Virginia (northwest of the state, Staunton being the main city of the county).

She was the firstborn of eight siblings. His father was an elder and for many years was secretary

of the council of the historic Church Augusta Stone, where still young Ruth professed the faith

in Christ. His first studies were done at home, under the guidance of his parents and

educated pastors, good books and competent housekeepers. One of these, Patsy Bolling, was

missionary for many years in Korea with her husband, William D. Reynolds. Ruth

studied at the Augusta Women's Seminary, later Mary Baldwin College. Next,

attended a school of administration and the Training School of the General Assembly.

At Mary Baldwin College, her close friends belonged to missionary families:

Pauline and Nettie DuBose, whose parents worked in China, as well as Margaret (Mildred

Welch) and Sarah, daughters of Rev. Edward Lane.

After graduation, Ruth taught as a housekeeper in private residences, including

James Bell's home in Longdale, Allegheny County. One of his sons was Nelson

Bell, who became a missionary doctor in China. While teaching at the Bells' house,

Ruth was appointed a missionary to Brazil on June 6, 1899. She also taught for

a year at the Thornwell Orphanage, led by Dr. Jacobs, who offered him this placement

"As a preparatory course for missionary work". The experience involved much more

what to teach She cared for children of different ages, night and day. Years later she

concluded that his work at the orphanage, a twenty-four hour work, was his

better preparation.

Ruth left New York on August 5, 1900. She came to Brazil at the same time

in which the Rev. Alva Hardie, being sent by the Committee of Foreign Missions of the Church

Presbyterian of the South, and devoted his whole life to teaching. In Lavras, he became assistant to the

missionary Margaret Henry Youell and after her death in 1905, succeeded her as

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director of the Carlota Kemper College, the girls' school. In this role, he

friendship and admiration of several generations of young Brazilians. One of her many students

was Professor Ignez Cavazza, who at the end of 1912 married Rev. Jorge Thompson

Goulart. In 1907, Ruth went to the United States and returned the following year in company

missionary Harriette Taylor Armstrong, widow of Rev. David Gibson Armstrong, who

had been absent from Brazil for fourteen years. From this occasion the two educators

they worked together.

At the beginning of the 20th century, circumstances were difficult - resources were limited,

work was heavy and life was primitive. The coffee was ground in the pestle, the lard came from the

salt, and sugar were refined in the school itself. The light was supplied by

candles. Once, when cleaning a suit stained with candle wax, Ruth commented:

"Fortunately we will not need candles in the sky." The mattresses were canvas bags filled with

straw of corn. On vacation, the bags were emptied, the straw was boiled and dried in the sun and

the mattresses were washed and refilled. Much of this work was done by the

Ruth herself, as well as washing the windows and mopping the floor. Sometimes she ran out of coffee.

in the morning to read the Bible to Aunt Anna, an elderly servant, or to take care of some

interest of the school. Exhausted by nightfall, Ruth would retreat after dinner, sleep until midnight,

night, and then worked for two or three hours until the nocturnal insects would settle down.

At six in the morning he was already on his feet, in full activity.

In 1913, sensing the need for a school in another region, Ruth and Harriette

a school for girls in Bonsucesso, about 30 km from Lavras, in a house

offered by the mayor. They assisted the couple Dr. Horace and Emma Allyn, who resided in

City. Despite the persecutions - and perhaps helped by them - the school prospered.

One night, in 1918, a loud explosion frightened the children, but Ruth

reassured A bomb had burst on the roof, fortunately at a time when

there were no students or teachers on the premises. There were demonstrations against those responsible

and the journalist, Mr. Castanheira, made a speech asking the Americans to

did not consider that attack as of the people of Bom Sucesso. It was necessary that a

keep the door of the house every night. On another occasion, a bomb was

found in the basement with the partially burned wick. These attacks served to

to win the support of some people who had hitherto been antagonistic.

After seven years of activity (1913-1920), a series of earthquakes reduced

population in such a way that the school had to be transferred. By this time a church had

been organized with 50 members.

Several cities asked for the school and Campo Belo, located between Lavras and Formiga,

being chosen. The school started its activities in May 1921 and by the end of the year

had enrolled 40 boys and 49 girls, twelve of whom were internal. Over

of the time, the educators bought a property and implemented a work

lasting. The school has become the largest and most important primary school in the

Mission East of Brazil. Due to health problems, Harriette had to depart in 1925

and the residents of Campo Belo asked that their name be given to the institution (Escola

Evangelical Harriette Armstrong). Around 1930, Ruth was invited to open a

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school in Nepomuceno, a school that was inaugurated on December 8, 1931. A group of

Christian men of the city (Colonel José Custódio da Veiga, Jonas Veiga and Joaquim Garcia)

built a building for this purpose and gave the school the name "Ruth B. See." After five

fruitful years there, it was time for the missionary to take her holidays at home, and

she concluded that the city's evangelicals were in a position to assume the leadership of the

school. From that time Ruth concentrated her energies on other modalities of

service. The evangelical school of Nepomuceno closed its activities in 1945 and reopened

in 2001 with the same name - Ruth See Presbyterian School.

In 1938, after the well-deserved vacation, Ruth moved to Formiga and went to work

that she had never neglected, assisting the couple John Marion and Myrtle

Sydenstricker. She had again the company of her friend Harriette, who had returned to

working for the mission in 1936. For nearly fifteen years, Ruth was the mainstay of the church

local Presbyterian. When the Sydenstrickers were transferred to Dourados in 1942,

she took care of the spiritual needs of the congregation, and Harriette developed the work

female. When necessary, Ruth did not hesitate to do the janitorial job. Taught

English, earning many of his students for the gospel. One of his

textbooks favorite was The Christian Observer (The Christian Observer), and her many

religious articles with his students. In the last period of his life,

was also a copywriter of the popular evangelical propaganda newspaper The Evangelist , a

founded by Rev. Alva Hardie who had great circulation for many years. Ruth

retired in Formiga on June 1, 1947 (Harriette retired in the same year),

but it was a nominal retirement only, for his days were filled with valor

service.

In 1953, at the invitation of the Western Mission of Brazil, Ruth moved to the city of Patrocínio,

in the Triângulo Mineiro, where she lived alone in a small rented house,

with his life full of activities - English classes, visits and literature production. For seven

years, cooperated with great dedication with the Presbyterian church of that city. Had

ease of writing in both prose and verse. There were many hymns that translated

to Portuguese, as well as those that she herself composed. In 1941 he had translated the

known hymn "The First Christmas" ( Presbyterian Hymnal New Song , nº 231). In

Sunday afternoons, he taught the catechism to the children in his house. It also promoted a

study of the catechism for the whole church.

Despite the decline in vision and other problems, Dona Ruth continued to work with O

Evangelist . After some painful surgeries, she could no longer take care of herself.

He spent his last two weeks at Rev. James Woodson's house, surrounded by

of a good doctor, two nurses, and all his

Sponsorship, especially Miss Frances Hesser. He passed away on a Sunday afternoon, 26

June 1960, at 87 years of age and 60 years of missionary service in Brazil. The service

was presided over by Rev. Saulo de Castro Ferreira, assisted by Rev. Woodson.

When she died, the missionary had not returned to her homeland for twenty-two years.

He identified himself fully with the Brazilian people. Clara Gammon wrote: "The girls who

she educated at her own expense and to whom she gave a motherly love; the boys and young men

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to which he guided a life of Christian service; little children who liked to go to their

home to visit her; the elderly and the needy to whom he has given practical assistance, as well as

Good News of the Savior ... These and many others will rise and call you well-

adventuring "(Prov. 31:28).

Ruth did not marry, but left many daughters in the faith. He created several young women, among them Nazareth

Pimenta, who was a professor at the Erasmo Braga School and at the Eduardo Lane Bible Institute, and

Francisca Leão Souza, wife of an evangelist in Goiás. He left a brother, Rev. Dr.

Robert Gamble See, born August 15, 1878, who worked for some years as

missionary in Brazil, as well as a sister and some nephews, all in the United States.

After studying at Hampden-Sydney College and Union Seminary, Robert See arrived

to Brazil in mid-1903 to replace the late Rev. Charles Morton. Fixed

residence in São José do Rio Pardo, from where he visited Casa Branca, Mococa, Cajuru and

some points in the south of Minas, such as São Bartolomeu and Cape Verde. He married in 1905

with missionary Louise Spear of Maryland. He traveled extensively in the Minas Triangle,

visiting Duas Pontes, Mata dos Salgados, Carmo do Paranaíba, Lagoa Formosa, Areado,

Patos de Minas and other places. In Araguari, he witnessed the profession of faith in

ministers Galdino Moreira and Jorge Thompson Goulart. The couple also worked in

Lavras. Health brought them back to the United States in 1907.

Bibliography:

• Ferreira, History of IPB , I: 500; II: 77, 203, 248, 364.

• Jaime Woodson, "D. Ruth See ", Brazil Presbyterian (September 1960), 7.

• Keys, Bandeirantes da Fé , 72s.

• Bear, Mission to Brazil , 27, 106, 108, 119, 133, 137.

• Clara GM Gammon, "Miss Ruth Bosworth See: 1873-1960", In Memory of

Missionaries of the Presbyterian Church, US, Who Have Entered into Rest in the

Years 1960-1961 , Vol. VI (Nashville: Board of World Missions, 1962), 35-37.

• Silva e Silva, Presbyterian Church of Araguari , 58-60, 66s