Anne Luther Bagby

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Anne Luther Bagby
Born20 March 1859  OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
Kansas City   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
Died22 December 1942  OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg (aged 83)
Recife   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
Occupation Missionary   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
Spouse(s)William Buck Bagby  OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg

Anne Luther Bagby (March 20, 1859- December 22, 1942) was an American Baptist missionary from Texas. She was the first woman from the Texas Baptists to become a foreign missionary. [1] She also served as a leader of the Texas Baptists when she was not doing missionary work in Brazil. [2] Overall, Bagby worked as a missionary for sixty-one years. [3] Six of her nine children also became missionaries. [4]

Contents

Biography

Bagby came to Texas from Kentucky with her parents who came to work at what was formerly known as Baylor Female College (now University of Mary Hardin-Baylor). [5] Crossing the country, she was baptized in the Mississippi River when she was eleven. [6] Her father, John Luther, became the president of Baylor Female College. [7] Bagby felt that she had a "calling to become a missionary at age 19". [5] Some accounts, however, state that Bagby felt the calling to be a missionary by age 12. [8] Bagby graduated from the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor in 1879 [9] and became a teacher. [6] She met her husband, William Buck Bagby at a missions conference. [5] In 1880, she and William Buck were married. [10] Also in 1880, Anne Bagby helped to organize the first Woman's Missionary Union in Texas. [11]

Bagby and her husband, William Bagdy, went to Brazil as missionaries in 1881. [12] Bagby, who had always wanted to be a missionary, had convinced her husband to go. [10] [13] Anne Bagby and her husband may have also both been influenced to do their missionary work in Brazil through their correspondence with Alexander Travis Hawthorn who had lived in Brazil. [14] [15] The Bagbys started out preaching in the colony of Santa Barbara (in Brazil) which was a settlement established by ex-Confederates attempting to start a "new Southern aristocracy." [12] Trouble in Santa Barbara convinced the Bagbys to move the mission to Salvador Bahia. [12]

In 1882, she and her husband, along with Zachery and Kate Taylor, created the first Baptist church for Brazilians in Salvador Bahia. [16] The church was formally organized in October 1882 and consisted of five members, the missionaries themselves and a local priest, Senior Teixeira, who had been converted. [17] Bagby and Kate Taylor wanted to create Bible classes and other programs, but waited. [6] During their time in Salvador Bahia, William Bagby was arrested during a baptism ceremony and imprisoned. [6] When Anne Bagby found out, she insisted that she be imprisoned along with him, and was. Eventually they were both released. [6]

Later, the mission went to Rio de Janeiro in 1891. [18] However, the bulk of the group's successes were in São Paulo City, where Anne Bagby created a flagship school for girls. [12] Bagby felt that starting a school would afford her a "comparable, if not superior, influence" to preaching, which was exclusive to men at the time. [13] The school was taken over by Bagby in 1901. [11] Bagby was involved in the training of teachers for the school, which was twice the size of any other Protestant school in Brazil at the time. [8] By 1913, the school had 175 students. [6] In 1919, Bagby traveled to Houston in order to attend the annual session for the Women's Missionary Union. [19]

Bagby's husband died of pneumonia in 1939. [8] Anne Bagby died in Brazil on December 22, 1942. [8] Two books have been published about their lives and missionary work. The first was written by Helen Bagby, The Bagbys of Brazil (1954 OCLC   3462810) and a second was published more recently by Daniel B. Lancaster, The Bagbys of Brazil: The Life and Work of William Buck and Anne Luther Bagby (1998 ISBN   978-1-571-68251-2). Kathryn Thompson Presley, reviewing Lancaster's book for The Southwestern Historical Quarterly , called his book "refreshingly honest" and carefully detailed. [15]

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References

  1. ↑ O'Dell Bullock, Karen (15 June 2010). "Texas Woman's Missionary Union". Handbook of Texas Online. Texas State Historical Association. Retrieved 12 December 2015.
  2. ↑ McBeth, Harry Leon (1998). Texas Baptists: A Sesquicentennial History. Dallas, Texas: Baptistway Press. p. 158. ISBN   9781571689122.
  3. ↑ Benowitz, June Melby (1998). Encyclopedia of American Women and Religion. ABC-CLIO. p. 21. ISBN   9780874368871.
  4. ↑ Nettles, Thomas J. (2008). "Baptists and the Great Commission". In Klauber, Martin; Manetsch, Scott M. (eds.). The Great Commission: Evangelicals and the History of World Missions. Nashville, Tennessee: B&H Publishing Group. p. 106. ISBN   9780805443004.
  5. 1 2 3 Franze, Kirby (6 March 2012). "Windows Show Significance of Faith". The Bells. University of Mary Hardin-Baylor. Retrieved 12 December 2015.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Heck, Fannie Exile Scudder (1913). In Royal Service: The Mission Work of Southern Baptist Women. Richmond, Virginia: Foreign Mission Board Southern Baptist Convention. pp. 282–288.
  7. ↑ Goodrich, Terry (13 February 2011). "Baylor's Baptist Center Designed to Preserve, Celebrate Heritage". The Baptist Standard. Retrieved 12 December 2015.
  8. 1 2 3 4 Carey, Petra. "The Bagbys: Missionaries From Texas to South America". Treasures for the Texas Collection. Baylor. Retrieved 12 December 2015.
  9. ↑ Baker, June (1 February 1951). "Many Graduates of MH-B Are 'Firsts' in Their Fields" . Belton Journal and Bell County Democrat. Retrieved 12 December 2015– via Newspaper Archives.
  10. 1 2 Pitts, William L. (12 June 2010). "Bagby, William Buck". Handbook of Texas Online. Texas State Historical Association. Retrieved 12 December 2015.
  11. 1 2 Mobley, Kendal P. (2007). Lindley, Susan Hill; Stebner, Eleanor J. (eds.). The Westminster Handbook to Women in American Religious History. Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press. p. 10. ISBN   9780664224547.
  12. 1 2 3 4 Scott, Lois (13 June 1999). "Bringing the Baptist Cause to Brazilians Was Not an Easy Task". The Victoria Advocate. Retrieved 12 December 2015– via Google News.
  13. 1 2 Premack, Laura (2007). 'The Holy Rollers Are Invading Our Territory': Southern Baptist Missionaries and the Early Years of Pentecostalism in Brazil, 1910-1935 (Thesis). Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. pp. 53–54. ISBN   9780549125181.
  14. ↑ Price, Donal Edward (1998). The Growth of Brazilian Baptist Churches in Metropolitan Sao Paulo: 1981-1990 (PDF) (Thesis). University of South Africa.
  15. 1 2 Presley, Kathryn Thompson (July 2000). "The Bagbys of Brazil: The Life and Work of William Buck Bagby and Anne Luther Bagby, Southern Baptist Missionaries". The Southwestern Historical Quarterly. Texas State Historical Association. 104 (1): 136–137. JSTOR   30241693.
  16. ↑ Johnson, Robert E. (2010). A Global Introduction to Baptist Churches. New York: Cambridge University Press. pp. 216–217. ISBN   9780521701709.
  17. ↑ Gammon, Samuel R. (1910). The Evangelical Invasion of Brazil: A Half Century of Evangelical Missions in the Land of the Southern Cross. Richmond, Virginia: Presbyterian Committee of Publication. pp.  130. mrs. bagby .
  18. ↑ Smith, Eugene R., ed. (1891). The Gospel in All Lands. New York: Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church. p. 179.
  19. ↑ Early Jr., Joseph (2004). A Texas Baptist History Sourcebook: A Companion to McBeth's Texas Baptists. Denton, Texas: University of North Texas Press. p. 251. ISBN   9781574414172.
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