Anna Seward Pruitt - Early Years and Children

Early Years and Children

To honor the example of a beloved cousin who had died in mission work in China, Anna Seward decided to travel there as a Presbyterian missionary and settled in Huangxian in North China, where she met Cicero Washington Pruitt. They married on February 16, 1888, and had five children: Ida (1888–1985), John (1890–1912), Ashley (1892–1898), Virginia (died in infancy, 1894), Robert (1897–1961), and Dudley McConnell "Mac" (1902–1967). The death of Ashley and Virginia inspired Southern Baptists to send money to start a hospital in Huang Xian. The famous missionary Lottie Moon apparently babysat the children on some occasions. Ida was one of the few Westerners that remained influential in Chinese Aid and Development throughout much of the century even after the communist take over. While stationed in Huangxian, the children attended school at the Chefoo School operated by the China Inland Mission. Anna Seward began a missionary school for boys, and by 1904 C.W. Pruitt had organized the Baptist Theological Seminary for Central China.

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Famous quotes containing the words early years, early, years and/or children:

    If there is a price to pay for the privilege of spending the early years of child rearing in the driver’s seat, it is our reluctance, our inability, to tolerate being demoted to the backseat. Spurred by our success in programming our children during the preschool years, we may find it difficult to forgo in later states the level of control that once afforded us so much satisfaction.
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    I could be, I discovered, by turns stern, loving, wise, silly, youthful, aged, racial, universal, indulgent, strict, with a remarkably easy and often cunning detachment ... various ways that an adult, spurred by guilt, by annoyance, by condescension, by loneliness, deals with the prerogatives of power and love.
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