There are branches in thirty-two States and Canada; 160 clubs are federated with 12,000 members.
The Needlework Guild Of America was organized April, 1885, to collect new garments and distribute them to hospitals, homes and other charities, and to extend its usefulness by the organization of branches. It has distributed to hospitals, homes and other charities in the United States about 2,500,000 new garments. This includes the results of two or three special collections for national disasters. It has 308 branches in this country.
RELIGIOUS:
The Woman’s Foreign Ninety Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church was organized March 23, 1869. Its object is to engage and unite the efforts of Christian women in sending missionaries to the women in foreign mission fields of the church and in supporting them and the native Christian teachers, and all forms of work carried on by the society. It has collected and disbursed $5,454,700; sent to foreign fields 365 missionaries, and established a great educational work for women throughout the Orient. The first woman’s college in Asia, at Lucknow, India, was founded by this society. It sent the first fully equipped medical woman to the mission fields of the East, and built the first hospitals for women in India, China and Korea. Nineteen hospitals and dispensaries are supported by the society, and 246 missionaries in Africa, Burmah, Bulgaria, China, India, Italy, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, South America and the Philippines, while twenty-four medical women are now in the field. There are 18,000 girls and women in its various schools.
The society has eleven branches, covering the whole United States, 5,410 auxiliaries, and 171,765 members. Mrs. Cyrus D. Foss is president.
The Woman’s Home Missionary Society of the M. E. Church was organized July 10, 1880, to enlist and organize the efforts of Christian women in behalf of the needy and destitute women and children of all sections of the United States, without distinction of race, and to co-operate with the other societies and agencies of the church in educational and missionary work. The total receipts from July, 1880, to July, 1900, were $2,782,773; total value of property, $736,152. This property consists of twenty industrial homes and schools, six mission homes, two immigrant homes, three children’s homes, six centers of city mission work, five deaconess and missionary training schools, twenty-eight deaconess homes, four rest homes for deaconesses and missionaries.
The Society has eighty-nine conferences, 2,500 auxiliary societies, 59,000 adult members and 13,500 children. The Deaconess Department was established in 1888. There are now (1901) 1,160 deaconesses with $1,600,000 invested in real estate connected with their work. Mrs. Clinton D. Fisk is president.
