Doremus, Sarah Platt [Haines] (1802-1877)

Founder of the Woman’s Union Missionary Society

Doremus was the wife of a New York City merchant and mother of nine children. She became a member of the Dutch Reformed Church when she married, and continued her Presbyterian family’s tradition of mission interest and charitable activity. In 1828 she organized a ladies’ relief society to alleviate the suffering of Greek women. She helped to found and lead the Women’s Prison Association and the New York House and School of Industry. She founded the Nursery and Child’s Hospital, the Presbyterian Home for Aged Women, and the Woman’s Hospital in New York City. She also distributed tracts, collected medical supplies, and raised funds for worthy causes.

Doremus became interested in foreign missions as a child. In 1834, when David Abeel, first Dutch Reformed missionary from the United States, returned from five years in China, she arranged for him to speak to women in New York on the necessity of women organizing themselves to send missionaries. However, Rufus Anderson of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions opposed the idea of a women’s organization and the women deferred to his authority. But in 1861, after hearing a missionary from Burma tell of the needs of women, Doremus became founding president of the Woman’s Union Missionary Society (WUMS), the first American non-denominational women’s missionary society, whose object was to send single women as teachers and missionaries to Asia. From its headquarters, at her home, she directed its activities until her death. Throughout her life, Doremus assisted missionaries of many denominations by providing hospitality, outfits, money, correspondence, and support. Besides the WUMS, she raised money for schools in Hawaii and in 1835 organized a mission society to support Swiss Baptist work in Canada. An ecumenist at heart, she made the first financial contribution for Methodist women’s work in North India.

Dana L. Robert, “Doremus, Sarah Platt (Haines),” in Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions, ed. Gerald H. Anderson (New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 1998), 183-4.

This article is reprinted from Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions, Macmillan Reference USA, copyright © 1998 Gerald H. Anderson, by permission of Macmillan Reference USA, New York, NY. All rights reserved.

Bibliography

Primary

The archives of the Woman’s Union Missionary Society are located at the Billy Graham Center in Wheaton, Illinois.

Meeting minutes, annual reports, clippings, studies, and related documents, 1868-1954, of the New York House and School of Industry (West 16th street in New York City) are located at the New York Historical Society archives.

Woman’s Hospital. First Anniversary of the Woman’s Hospital: Held at Clinton Hall, Astor Place, New York, February 9th, 1856. New York: Committee Appointed to Memorialize the State Legislature and Municipal Authorities of the City of New York, 1856.

Secondary

Chamberlain, Mary Eleanor Anable. Fifty Years in Foreign Fields, China, Japan, India, Arabia: A History of Five Decades of the Woman’s Board of Foreign Missions, Reformed Church in America. New York: n.p., 1925.

Deen, Edith. Great Women of the Christian Faith. New York: Harper, 1959.

Doremus, [Miss] Sarah D. Woman’s Mission to Woman: Help Those Women. New York: Woman’s Printing House, 1870.

“Doremus, Sarah Platt, philanthropist.” In American Cyclopedia of American Biography. Vol. 6. Clifton, NJ: J. T. White, [1893- ].

Good, James I. Women of the Reformed Church. Philadelphia, PA: Sunday School Board of the Reformed Church in the United States, 1901.

Gracey, Annie Ryder. Eminent Missionary Women. New York: Eaton & Mains, 1898.

Hardesty, Nancy. Great Women of Faith: The Strength and Influence of Christian Women. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1980.

Herringshaw, Thomas William. “Doremus, Sarah Platt.” In Herringshaw’s National Library of American Biography. Vol. 2. n.p.: American Publishers’ Company, [1909-14].

Howard-Smith, Mrs. J. Sketch of Mrs. Thomas C. Doremus. New York: n.p., 1877. Reprinted from Missionary Link.

Kansfield, Mary L. Letters to Hazel: Ministry within the Woman’s Board of Foreign Missions of the Reformed Church in America. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Pub., 2004.

McGregor, Deborah Kuhn. From Midwives to Medicine: The Birth of American Gynecology. Piscataway, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1998. See especially 89-93 for biography of Sarah Doremus.

Memorial Service of the Late Mrs. Thomas C. Doremus: The Beloved and Lamented President of the Woman’s Union Missionary Society. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, [1877].

The Missionary Link for the Woman’s Union Missionary Society of America for Heathen Lands 9 no. 2 (March 1877): 2-29. This issue was dedicated entirely to Sarah Doremus and contained a review of her life.

Montgomery, Helen Barrett. Western Women in Eastern Lands. New York: Macmillan, 1910, pp. 161-66.

Ratmeyer, Una. Hands, Hearts, and Voices, Women Who Followed God’s Call. New York: Reformed Church Press, 1995, pp. 2-3.

Robert, Dana L. American Women in Mission: A Social History of Their Thought and Practice. Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 1997.

Rogers, E. P. and Woman’s Union Missionary Society. A Humble Tribute of Pastoral Affection: Pronounced in the South Reformed Church, Thursday, February 1, 1877, in Memory of Mrs. Thomas C. Doremus. n.p.: n.p., 1877. Includes memorial service held by Woman’s Union Missionary Society and other memorials.

Links

“January 22, 1877: ‘Mother of Missions’ Doremus Died From A Spill.” Christian History Timeline. With sketched portrait and biography.

Portrait

Accessed June 14, 2011 at the Christian History Timeline online.