Woman's Foreign Missionary Society

Woman's Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church in America was a 19th-century Protestant woman's missionary organization. It was founded in the Tremont Street Methodist Episcopal Church, in March 1869 founded in Boston, Massachusetts. The society was incorporated under the laws of the State of New York in 1884. Its earliest periodical was entitled, The Heathen Woman's Friend, with other publications established later on.

The Woman's Foreign Missionary Society organized in the Tremont Street Methodist Episcopal Church, Boston, in March day 1869 by eight women who responded to a call sent to 30 churches. The eight founders were, Mrs. Lewis Flanders; Mrs. Thomas Kingsbury; Mrs. William B. Merrill; Lois Lee Parker; Mrs. Thomas A. Rich; Mrs. H.J. Stoddard; and Mrs. P.T. Taylor. A window in the Tremont Street Church commemorates the event and preserves their names. The first public meeting of the society was held in the Bromfield Street Methodist Episcopal Church, May 26, 1869. The speaking was quickly followed by decisive action. At a business meeting held by the women at the close of the public occasion, it was voted to raise money to send as a missionary to India, Isabella Thoburn, sister of Bishop James Mills Thoburn. An appeal for a medical woman soon followed. As a result of prompt and efficient measures to procure funds, the services of Isabella Thoburn and of Clara Swain, M.D., were secured. These two women sailed from New York City for India, via England, on November 3, 1869, reaching their destination early in January, 1870. They were cordially received, and soon entered upon a their work, Thoburn organizing schools and superintending the work of Bible readers, and Swain's medical ability gaining for her admission to many places that were closed to others. This society sent to India, China, Korea, and Japan the first woman medical missionary ever received in those countries. By 1903, its 34th year, it had 265 missionaries carrying on its work in India, China, Japan, Korea, Africa, Bulgaria, Italy, South America, Mexico, and the Philippines, by means of women's colleges, high schools, seminaries, hospitals, dispensaries, day schools, and "settlement work".

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