Anne Luther 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 became missionaries as well.[4]

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 baptizedin 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 Buck, 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 Buck 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]

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. 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. (subscription required (help)).
  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.
  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. (subscription required (help)).
  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. p. 130.
  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.

External links

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