Anne Luther Bagby | |
---|---|
Born | 20 March 1859
Kansas City |
Died | 22 December 1942
(aged 83) Recife |
Occupation | Missionary |
Spouse(s) | William Buck Bagby |
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]
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 T. 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]
mrs. bagby .