This is a year of celebration for Baptist women — remembering how God has led in missions support and endeavors since the 1800s. This year not only marks the 125th anniversary of Woman’s Missionary Union (WMU) but also is the 100th birthday celebration for Girls in Action, WMU’s thriving organization for girls, first begun in 1913 as Girls’ Auxiliary. It’s a yearlong anniversary — celebrating our remarkable pioneer women and the legacy they have passed to us. Let us step into the story of WMU and see how it all started.
The official organization began in 1888, but the first steps really began in a wheelchair in Boston, Mass., in 1800. Little Polly (Mary) Webb was struck with a severe fever when only 5 and never took another step, spending her life confined to a wheelchair. But her heart soared. When the tiny 21-year-old heard a missionary sermon from her pastor, it led her to make the Great Commission her personal directive. Webb organized the first “mite” society for missions, bringing women together to pray and to support missions. She remained group leader for an incredible 56 years and spread the message, writing thousands of letters across the country as she urged women: “Dear sisters, let us arise.” Then Ann and Adoniram Judson became Baptists’ first foreign missionaries, which galvanized Webb’s society and the other scattered groups of women.
‘Lights our missions fire’
It wasn’t “women’s rights” that motivated these trailblazers; it was a call to serve God. And 200 years later, that is still what “lights our missions fire.” Far from Boston, on the tiny island of Edisto near Charleston, S.C., beautiful young Hephzibah Jenkins Townsend accepted Christ and was baptized in 1807 by Richard Furman. Furman was destined to become the founding president of the Triennial Convention, America’s first organized Baptist body, organizing for the purpose of fulfilling Christ’s command to go into all the world. The daughter of wealth and privilege, Hephzibah took as her avowal of faith from the day of her salvation: “I am a sinner, saved by grace.” That adorns her tombstone nearly 200 years later. She learned from Furman that Webb had organized a “mite” society to pray for missionaries and support missions. Learning was tantamount to acting for Hephzibah.
After the wealthy young heiress married at age 15, by law her husband, Daniel, controlled her fortune. Because Daniel was not willing for money to be expended for Baptist causes, Hephzibah had to think of another way to provide support. And she was nothing if not enterprising. Hephzibah and her trusted and skilled servant friend Maum Bella took workers to a remote part of the plantation and built sturdy tabby ovens. And there they baked “Baptist gingerbread.”
Every Saturday, the gingerbread and other succulent baked goods from the tabby ovens were taken to Charleston and sold. Next Hephzibah gathered together women of like heart on Edisto and nearby Wadmalow Islands, and The Wadmalow-Edisto Female Mite Society was born. By 1811 the fledgling society was making contributions to missions across the world and to the Catawba Indians. And word of Hephzibah and her society spread throughout South Carolina and the region, with small bands of women organizing to give and to pray.
Then in 1835, 17-year-old Henrietta Hall in Virginia married Lewis Shuck. Two weeks later, the newlyweds set sail for missions work in China. The young mother of five died at age 27 in Hong Kong but left the imprint of her remarkable dedication and skills on a people far away that continues into the 21st century. Women across the South were inspired by Hall’s dedication and service. They prayed and gave with renewed zeal.
‘Female missionary societies’
State by state, the missions message spread among women throughout the South, and hundreds of “female missionary societies” began springing up. Alabama is a good case in point. The early societies didn’t leave minutes and records, but at least four of the 17 known women’s organizations in the state were represented by men from their churches when the Alabama Baptist State Convention was formed in 1823. Of particular interest was the presence of Nancy Lea, the mother with the missionary heart from Marion, at the state convention’s organizational meeting. One of Lea’s daughters helped found the first women’s missionary society in Texas. Her other daughter, Margaret, also moved to Texas and began societies — and her husband, Sam Houston, became governor of Texas.
Marion figures prominently in Alabama’s early missions history. Judson College in Marion organized its first missionary society in 1840 and soon named it the Ann Hasseltine Society, a forerunner of Young Women’s Auxiliaries (YWAs) across the nation in years to come.
Alabama’s first foreign missionary was Eliza Sexton, a 21-year-old teacher at Judson, who married Lewis Shuck in 1846 following the death of Henrietta in Hong Kong in 1844. Once married, Eliza and Lewis went to Shanghai to do pioneer missions work. Alabama’s next foreign missionary, Martha Foster Crawford, is the portrait of a woman who both encountered and overcame a remarkable number of obstacles, both in her marriage to T.P. Crawford and in groundbreaking work in China. She was present at the 1883 informal meeting of Baptist women in Waco, Texas, and electrified the crowd of women as she told what God was doing in China. A number who heard her that day vowed that “her face lit up like an angel’s.” She pleaded with the women to organize to support the work of their missionaries. Reports said that one pastor, knowing that men “were not welcome there, for women would not speak in front of men,” got to the venue very early that day and laid down on a far back pew where he would remain unnoticed yet could hear the message.
‘Bought us with a price’
Less well-known but equally remarkable women were those like Sarah Ann Chambers, leader of an early Alabama society. The Civil War had been devastating to the work of the societies. After the war, the pieces had to be put back together, along with the shattered economy and the pain of defeat. Sarah Ann reminded other women, “He who ‘bought us with a price’ surely has something for us to do.” Strangely enough, women’s missionary societies faced a climate of hostility in their own churches, as many church leaders looked on them as competitors rather than partners. In fact, just as women were making great plans to join other states in forming national WMU, the Alabama Baptist State Convention arbitrarily abolished Alabama Baptist WMU’s Central Committee in 1888. Delay did not mean defeat, however, and in less than two years the committee was reinstated and Alabama joined her sister states as part of WMU.
A stellar friend and champion of WMU through the years has been The Alabama Baptist, staunch supporter and advocate for the work of women in missions. Amanda Tupper Hamilton, Alabama WMU’s first president, had a wonderful Baptist “pedigree.” Her father was none other than Henry Tupper, head of the Foreign Mission Board (now the International Mission Board), and her mother a sister of James Boyce, founder and first president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Hamilton wrote a weekly column of missionary news for The Alabama Baptist, and it was used extensively by women for their programs long before the days of a WMU magazine.
Little-known names have made incomparable contributions to the formation of the world’s largest missionary organization for women. Countless women in small churches across the land were never known, but they are written in the heavenly record as part of the army of women who banded together to share the gospel with the world.
Ann Baker Graves, of Baltimore, mother of Baptists’ first missionary doctor to China, Rosewell Graves, was really the “mother” of WMU. She organized women to pray and to give to missions efforts. She also encouraged them to spread the message of Mite boxes to collect funds for missions. When the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) met in Baltimore in 1868, she encouraged the pastors’ wives to get together informally and pray for missions. And thus it began.
Another leading light in helping shape and mold those early meetings was Sally Rochester Ford, of Kentucky, wife of an influential Baptist editor and a skilled writer in her own right. Sally was beautiful, poised, terrific on a platform and presided at most of those early years of informal meetings, setting a classic example of how a woman can preside and lead.
Yet another profound influence toward organization came from a famous Baptist name: Lottie Moon of China. That tireless and articulate letter writer constantly urged Baptist women to organize, gain strength from unity and together support their missionaries in praying and giving. She, as much as any one person, is responsible for what became WMU.
Sharing the Good News
Just consider those early leaders and what they faced — indifference or downright hostility from many men in leadership, diffidence and timorousness from many fellow women who desperately wanted to help but didn’t know how. There wasn’t total opposition from the men in the churches, however; there were many missions-hearted pastors who recognized the potential of women committed to missions support and who encouraged and assisted them in organizing. WMU will forever give thanks for the great Luther Rice, who saw from the very beginning the power of women dedicated to sharing the gospel. And there was Baptist statesman Richard Furman, whose heart focused on sharing the Good News and who encouraged women to do the same. Henry Tupper, as head of the Foreign Mission Board, constantly championed and encouraged women in their missions endeavors. Henry became a special friend and encourager to Lottie.
History reveals that the hand of God was truly at work in the formation of WMU, auxiliary to the SBC. W.O. Carver, the grand old man of missions and professor of missions at Southern Seminary, declared in later years that the idea of auxiliary status was nothing less than the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, preserving as it did WMU’s right to work alongside the convention but to remain autonomous in its decision-making.
May 14, 1888, would have been an amazing day to visit — with the onlookers, some 150 of them, and the 32 delegates from the states boldly taking a vote to say, “Yes, we will step out on faith and organize in order to share the gospel with a needy world.” Annie Armstrong and her sister, Alice, had been working quietly for years to formulate a plan that would work, and those 32 visionary delegates selected Annie to be their first “executive” secretary and Mattie McIntosh as their first president. And from that seminal day, WMU went from strength to strength, often misunderstood, sometimes even slighted and ignored, but always persevering — sharing the gospel with a world in need. The fact that WMU has survived these 125 years is a ringing testament to the soundness and faith of those founding mothers, building on the foundation laid for them all the way back to 1800.
Growth was consistent. Leadership remained consistent and capable. The remarkable Fannie E.S. Heck — who edited the first magazine and wrote the first hymn and the first history — led for an astounding 15 years as national president.
WMU officially adopted “Sunbeams” for children in 1896, and Sunbeams lives on today as Mission Friends. In 1907, Young Women’s Auxiliary was formed, followed the next year by Royal Ambassadors (RAs) for boys. Then in 1913, Girls’ Auxiliaries were officially organized. Those Girls Auxiliaries began as ages 9–16; then in 1970 they became Girls in Action (GAs), ages 6–11, and Acteens, ages 12–16. They have gone on to become one of the strongest of all youth groups, boasting more than 50,000 members and now celebrating an exciting 100 years of organization. There are great-grandmothers now enjoying seeing their ever-so-great granddaughters working on their GA Journeys. Just put those girls to a task and they make history, like GAs did in 2007 when they set out to raise money for Goats in Croatia as a means of evangelizing in that nation. The initial goal was $5,000, and in five months, GAs (with help from Children in Action and Sunday School children) raised nearly $350,000.
It wasn’t just youth groups that were growing in WMU; every aspect of the organization was continuing to develop and expand. In 1912, Baptist women entered a new era as they elected Kathleen Mallory, the 33-year-old “Sweetheart of Alabama,” as their new executive secretary. Beautiful, gracious and committed heart and soul to the task, Kathleen became the longest-serving director ever, guiding WMU for a remarkable 36 years. There was nothing easy about that period; it included massive tensions in race relations, the worst depression America has ever suffered and a massive global war. With Kathleen in leadership, WMU emerged after World War II stronger and larger than ever.
And it was due in great part to the amazing acumen of this tiny dynamo at its helm that both the Foreign Mission Board and the Home Mission Board (now North American Mission Board) survived the Great Depression without the devastation of total bankruptcy. Case in point: in 1932, WMU offerings made up 70 percent of the Foreign Mission Board’s income. By 1934, when WMU membership made up just 13.3 percent of total SBC membership, this small minority was supporting the majority of the work of missions. The motto adopted was “A Debtless Denomination by 1945.” WMU rose to the occasion and selected Alabama state president Alma Worrill Wright to head their stewardship committee for 10 years. Alma became the Stewardship “General,” and thanks to WMU the convention became debt-free in 1943 — two years ahead of schedule.
Kathleen retired at 69, leaving behind a thriving organization on the cusp of a new era. And WMU entered the period of the greatest growth in its history, choosing Alma Hunt as its new executive director. Alma Hunt became the face of WMU for more than two decades; this fashionable young woman who first refused to consider accepting the post, declaring, “But I can’t speak,” was also its voice. She became one of the most outstanding orators among women in Baptist history.
As a child in Roanoke, Va., her beloved pastor’s wife was her leader. When she messed up her presentation before her peers, Mrs. Vines would command her, “Now Alma, just sit down and get back up and start over.” Sure enough, this “never give up” philosophy became part of Alma Hunt’s character and stood her in good stead many years later in tense and often fractious meetings with forceful SBC leaders.
She led WMU to its largest membership in history, reaching 1 million members by 1951. As she led WMU in the 1950s and ’60s, Alma Hunt made sure they stayed on the cutting edge of missions advance. She kept the organization firmly to its missions purpose, forever striving to increase its effectiveness. And, just as had every leader of WMU, she faced again and again the question of auxiliary vs. agency. It has been WMU’s blessing to be able to serve as an auxiliary in the true helping sense of the word, never flagging in its undergirding of all denominational efforts to focus on missions.
Massive denominational changes began taking place, and they naturally affected WMU. Alma Hunt’s successor, Carolyn Weatherford, guided the organization through difficult waters and treacherous shoals of factional disagreements and divisions. Carolyn constantly encouraged WMU leaders not to “become involved in squabbles” but to stay focused on missions.
She was followed by Dellanna O’Brien, a former international missionary and a keen visionary. Dellanna led WMU in establishing two highly successful entities: the WMU Foundation, to ensure WMU’s future in missions education and support, and Christian Women’s Job Corps, which gives women a hand up in learning job skills and finding hope in Christ.
Wanda Lee followed Dellanna as executive director and has had her share of challenges as well but has led with steady purpose and finely tuned skills. Wanda is one of the primary reasons WMU has been able to maintain its identity in the midst of swirling denominational issues.
And now WMU comes to its 125th birthday. Methods have changed — technology has brought massive shifts in the ways we communicate and relate — but WMU’s constant purpose has never shifted from its primary focus: missions. The rest of the story is just waiting to be told. We are the ones who will be making that story — and passing on this legacy to our children and their children.
EDITOR’S NOTE — Rosalie Hunt is recording secretary for national WMU. She is a retired missionary, Judson College biographer and former Alabama WMU president.
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