Martha Sheldon
Martha A. Sheldon (May 22, 1860 — October 10, 1912) was an American medical missionary in India, Nepal, and Tibet.
Early life
[edit]Martha Alma Sheldon was born in Excelsior, Minnesota, the daughter of Charles B. Sheldon and Mary Keziah Prentice Sheldon. Her father was a Congregational minister. She graduated first in her class from the University of Minnesota in 1883, where she was also active in skating, rowing, and swimming. She earned a medical degree in Boston, Massachusetts.[1][2]
Career
[edit]Sheldon became a "missionary-deaconess" of the Methodist Episcopal Church[3] in 1889, to serve in Darjeeling. After six years, she and Annie Budden moved to a mission post in the Pithoragarh district, near the India-Nepal border (in present-day Nepal). There she served from 1895 to 1912, most of those years with Eva C. M. Browne.[4] The couple ran a small farm with vegetables, fruits, and cows. She learned the spoken Bhotiya language, devised a written version to record it, and composed translations of Christian texts for local use. She and Browne began a kindergarten, organized schools for girls and women, opened a clinic, built a church, and hosted visiting missionaries.[5]
Sheldon and Browne traveled to Tibet in 1900-1902. In Tibet they offered medical care, helped start a Christian church, learned Tibetan and translated some texts into written Tibetan. "Again medical work opened the way for me to spend two weeks in Tibet. I was called to Lake Manasarowar to operate for cataract upon women living near the monastery," she wrote in a published letter. "It was a great joy to be in golden Tibet again."[1] In one incident, the women disguised themselves as Bhotiya women to visit Taklakot, and held religious meetings, before officials asked them to leave.[6]
On furlough in the United States in 1905, Sheldon addressed the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society meetings, from Redlands, California to Marlboro, Massachusetts.[7][8]
Personal life
[edit]Sheldon died at Darchula in 1912, aged 72 years. Her partner Eva C. M. Browne wrote a biography of Sheldon.[9] A biographical pamphlet was published by the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church.[4]
References
[edit]- ^ a b Lilly Ryder Gracey, "Missionary Life in the Himalayas" The Missionary Review of the World (April 1913): 273-277.
- ^ "Miss Martha A. Sheldon" Twenty-first Annual Report of the North-west India Conference of the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society (1913): xxxix.
- ^ Dana Lee Robert, American Women in Mission: A Social History of Their Thought and Practice (Mercer University Press 1996): 158. ISBN 9780865545496
- ^ a b Frances J. Baker, Dr. Martha Sheldon and her siege of Tibet (Boston: Methodist Episcopal Church, Woman's Foreign Missionary Society, und.).
- ^ S. Knowles, "Kumaon District" Annual Report (1898): 180-181.
- ^ "In the Face of Danger" Detroit Free Press (May 22, 1904): 37. via Newspapers.com
- ^ "Missionary Society Meets at Redlands" Los Angeles Herald (May 11, 1905): 4. via Newspapers.com
- ^ "Address by Boston Woman" Boston Globe (October 20, 1905): 8. via Newspapers.com
- ^ Eva C. M. Browne, Life of Dr. Martha A. Sheldon: Missionary to Bhot, India (und.).
