Heroes of the Faith — Sarah Platt Doremus, founder of the Woman’s Union Missionary Society

Sarah Platt Doremus (1802–1877) was an American philanthropist and founding president of the Woman’s Union Missionary Society.

The daughter of businessman Elias Haines and his wife Mary Ogden, Sarah was born Aug. 3, 1802, in New York City. At the age of 10, she joined her Presbyterian mother in praying for the conversion of the world.

Sarah married Thomas Doremus in 1821 and became a member of the Dutch Reformed Church. Her husband was a successful merchant whose wealth was used for her missions and charitable work. Sara and Thomas had eight daughters and one son and adopted several children.

Relief mission

In 1828, Doremus and seven other women organized a relief mission to the Greeks who were under Turkish control. They sent missionary Jonas King to Greece with supplies. Seven years later she promoted the Swiss Baptist work in the Grand Ligne Mission in Canada and was made president of the mission in 1860.

She started visiting New York City prisons in 1840 and established Sabbath services. She also started the Home for Women Discharged from Prison, the  New York House and School of Industry for Poor Women, the Nursery and Child’s Hospital, the New York Woman’s Hospital and the Presbyterian Home for Aged Women.

The first meeting to consider organizing the Woman’s Union Missionary Society was on Jan. 9, 1861, in New York City. The speaker was Ellen Mason, wife of Francis Mason, Baptist missionary to Burma (now Myanmar). She spoke of the need to send out single women as missionaries.

Ecumenical effort

Encouraged by Mason, Doremus and her group of women founded the first American nondenominational women’s missionary society, whose purpose was to send single women as missionaries to Asia. Doremus became its founding president, and her home was the organization’s first headquarters. Her home also served as the base for missionaries preparing to travel overseas as well as the rest home for those returning because of bad health.

Harriette Brittan, the first missionary sent by WUMS, went to India. Within 20 years, the society supported more than 100 women missionaries of various denominations in Burma, India, China, Syria, Greece and Japan.

In addition to her work with the WUMS, Doremus collected supplies for Irish Potato Famine victims in 1869. A year before her death, she helped establish schools for Italian immigrants in New York.

Called the Mother of Missions, Doremus died Jan. 23, 1877. Her funeral was at South Reformed Church in Brooklyn. She is buried at Green-Wood Cemetery there.