Individual Details

Birth

Personal Record filled out by Amanda McGinnes Goheen on 7 Jul 1913

Marriage

Memo on reverse side of Biographical Record of Joseph M. Goheen, written 10 Apr 1894.
My 1st wife- Nannie B. died at Kolhapur of Consumption Jan 17th 1878. A little boy born to her died a few moments after his birth, Sept 25th 1876. I was married to Amanda B. McGinnes May 1st 1879 who has shared the joys and sorrows of mission life with me up to this time. Our oldest daughter Elsie aged 20 months was taken from us Dec 9th 1883,

Census

Amanda M. Goheen household, age 63, widow, has had 6 children and 5 are living, Born in PA, son Richard C age 24, born India, Joseph M age 30 born India, Frances A daughter age 19, born India. Next to the Livingstone Home for Children of Missionaries of the Presbyterian Church, USA.

Death

Funeral services for the late Mrs Amanda McGinnis Goheen, widow of the late J. Milliken Goheen, who passed away at Woodville, Pa on Monday were held yesterday afternoon in the Graysville church in Spruce Creek Valley and interment made in the church cemetery.
Amanda Goheen, who was for 43 years in the missionary field in India was well known to a large circle of friends in this vicinity.
She spent the larger part of her life in the mission field of India retiring just a few years ago and since residing at Woodville.
Surviving are the following children: Mrs G W Avison of Williamsport, Robert and John both in the mission field in India, Joseph of New York city and Richard of Illinois. One sister, Miss Alice McGinnis of Wooster, Ohio also survives

Burial

Inscription - Amanda M. Goheen Feb 25, 1847 June 16, 1924 In thy presence is fullness of joy PS 16.11

Note

We Remember Her

Mrs. Joseph M. Goheen passed away on June 16th last, in America. This Mission joins in sincerest sympathy with the bereaved children.
Though she left India two years ago, the benediction of her loving spirit is still with us, and those of us who knew her count ourselves the richer.
It seems fitting that this number of the WESTERN INDIA NOTES should be dedicated to Mr. and Mrs. Goheen. It is well that those of us who are of the later generation should recall the deeds and revere the virtues of these who have gone before, and pray that we may learn to follow them as they followed the Master.

Mrs. Joseph Milliken Goheen : An Appreciation

On June 16th, 1924, there passed away from earth one of the sweetest and noblest souls that ever dwelt in mortal flesh.
Amanda McGinnes came to India as a young missionary-bright, gifted and talented?in 1876. A few years later, as Mrs. J. M. Goheen, she became one of the pioneers, one of the formers and framers of public opinion in the Western India Mission.
Kolhapur needed' her. Her home was a model for Indian women to copy. Her children were just like other children, but father's word was law, and no one took liberties with Mr. Goheen.
As the children one by one had to leave the home?nest (and in those clays it was at far too early an age) Mrs. Goheen took to her heart all the young people of the Mission, and in mothering them was comforted for her very own, who were far away.
The Goheen home was one of whole?hearted hospitality. Any guest who came went away richer and happier for the brief sojourn with these choice spirits. From the first minute to the last, you felt you were cared for. Nil?. Goheen personally insist meet every guest at tile station (after tile railroad lead pushed oil from Poona, and Kolhapur boasted a station of its own), and each departing visitor? was sped on his way having learned, if he did not know it before, that " Prayer and provender hinder no man's journey." The Lord's Day was a day kept. sacred to God, and to service for humanity.
Mrs. Goheen gathered tile nucleus of tile present " Esther Patton " School in Kolhapur; she acted as its Principal for a time; she encouraged girls' schools in the city, often visited tile Palace Schools, and was deeply interested in all educational work. When she saw the lamentable condition of young widows in India, she longed to gather them where they could lie protected while earning their support, and also be taught, to be living stones in the temple of tile Lord. Through a friend iii India, named Alice, and a favorite sister of her own by ? that name, together with gifts from friends at home she was able to build a small hostel, where childless widows and motherless bairns found love and cheer rind food anal clothing. Mending and making, patching rind teaching, all went on in " Alice Home.'' The little orphans ran with open arms to the gentle "Mother," who played games with them, sang with them, and took them, when naughty, into the " little room " to Help them to be good.
This friend of all was never too busy to receive calls from the ladies of the Maharaja's family, or to call upon them. Her presence was solicited in times .of joy or sorrow. When the son of the late Maharaja was dying, it was she who held the hand of the Queen?Mother, and gave her sympathy in full measure to her and to the young widow of sixteen years.
Mrs. Goheen's Scotch forebears had endowed her with a monumental faith, while her French and Irish ancestors were responsible for her vivacity, finesse and ready wit. Her eyes could twinkle with merriment or fill with quick tears, as she shared the joy or grief of her friends. These charming gifts made her a delightful companion and sweetened every situation. If a conversation at table began to get on the shoals, or showed signs of personality, she would get us all laughing by saying, " Now, let's talk of Mahabelshwar potatoes," and the situation was saved. Poetry she loved, and repeated choice bits with us who shared her tastes. One of her sons has the same flair, as his lines to his mother prove.
The reply of one who was asked to name her chief characteristic was, " Oh! the unbounded love she had for everyone in the world She believed in a second chance for the boy who had failed to make good, and she was ready to lift up and carry in the arms of her buoyant faith those who lead lost theirs. She seemed to have been given God's gift of helpfulness, so that wherever she went, a flower of joy or courage bloomed where she had passed. She loved flowers as she loved children, and they always flourished for her. The gardeners in the public gardens were all her friends, and delighted to receive hints on flower?culture from her or to show her a new plant.
Only once in all her Indian life did " Mother " Goheen get her own consent to make a journey of any distance outside her Mission. She and Father Goheen went to General Assembly at Allahabad. It has been often told how Mother Goheen's judicious and tactful way of describing the work of women, who were all voters in our Mission, decided the North India missionaries to give the vote to the women of their Mission.
One supreme characteristic was Mrs. Goheen's never?failing patience. Someone wrote of her: "I was impressed, again and again, with the response this beautiful spirit of hers received, not only from the women in Alice Home, but from all with whom she worked. One day she and I were walking along a street in Panhala, and a Marathi woman came out of her house, and threw her arms around Mrs. Goheen saying, ' You are our mother.' That same summer, as we would go for walks and come back at dusk, from all over the hill would come voices calling, ` Goodnight, Mother.' I remember one clay, when site was visiting in Sangli, the Indian preacher said to her, ' I wish you could come with me to our villages. If our people could just see your face they would be Blessed.'
" What precious memories come to each cue of [is as we think of her unnumbered kindnesses to those of us who knew her. One Mississippi girl fondly remembers her wedding clay, just after her arrival in the Mission, when lather Goheen gave her away and Mother Goheen did all that an own mother could have done for a loved daughter to make the day perfect for her."

Mr. Goheen had the charge of a large and needy village district. Those villagers as they came to him for advice, and for spiritual and material help, were all as children to Mother Goheen. She knew the name and age of each child and the needs of each mother. They were blessed, indeed, who shared the largesse of her love.
Father Goheen was known as "The soul of punctuality," always on time, never forgot an engagement. If Goheen Sheb said he would be at a village at nine in the morning, he was there at nine, not eleven, or ten. He was a generous giver, not only of alms but of himself. One Indian pastor received front hint a good, long ministerial coat. To wear it on great occasions was Saheb pride and joy, and he said to the writer one day, " Goheen Saheb not only gave it me, but he put it on me himself, and patted my shoulders with his own loving hands." The graciousness of the giving enriched the gift, and warmed the heart of the man of God.
After Miss Ellen Parsons lead visited in their home, she wrote, " It is a beautiful thing to have created in Kolhapur such an atmosphere as Mr. raid Mrs. Goheen have created."
Mr. Goheen literally gave his life for India. Worn and jaded, in looks older than his own father, he returned to the States after the stress of the famine that lead sapped his strength, and he died in 1907.
Mrs. Goheen remained at home with her unmarried children till 1913, when she returned to he again the " Mother " of the Mission and to complete her long term of service, almost forty years on the field.
In 1922, when the Mission approved tire request of Mrs. Goheen to be permitted to retire in America, the following resolution was adopted: "The members of the Western India Mission wish to express their appreciation of the long years of unstinted service rendered by Mrs. J. Milliken Goheen Her presence among us was always as the sweet fragrance of a favourite flower. Although for the greater part of her life she was a member of Kolhapur Station, her interest was Mission?wide. 'A sympathetic 'Mother' to missionaries and Indians alike, a gracious hostess, and a wise counsellor, of her it might be said that she opened her mouth with wisdom, and in her tongue was the law of kindness."
Her death occurred in Pittsburgh and she was laid to rest in her loved Huntingdon County, in the Cemetery of the Graysville Church, Spruce Creek Valley, Pennsylvania, beside her husband.
"Her children arise up mid call her blessed