Individual Details
Elizabeth Louise "Miss Betty" Hughes
(9 Jun 1863 - 2 Nov 1949)
"L. Elizabeth (Betty) never married. She is at present (1943), at Clarksdale, Mississippi, in the home of her niece, Linnie (Burt) Hopkins. When twenty-four years of age, she went to China as a missionary for 14 years, from 1887 to 1900. After returning to America, (on her second furlough) in 1901, the Mission Board employed her in various ways, (as Field Worker, visiting, Conferences, City Missionary and Pastor's Assistant.) The state of her health, required her to discontinue active work in 1921. She is now listed as "Retired Worker" of the Mission Board."
Betty Hughes, 1943
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From the Daleville United Methodist Church History -
A Brief Sketch of the Life of MISS LOUISA ELIZABETH HUGHES "Miss Betty" Missionary to China - 1887-1900
Mrs. Oswald Williams (Mae Limerick Williams) researched the life of Miss Hughes for the anniversary. Mrs. Craig Sheely, the niece of Miss Betty Hughes, was most generous in sharing an account of her life from which this is taken.
Louise Elizabeth Hughes, the daughter of Charles Edward and Pauline Craig Hughes, was born in Lauderdale County, Mississippi, June 9, 1863. She attended Cooper Institute. It was there, during one of the annual two week revivals for which classes were suspended, that she gave her life to Christ as a missionary at age nineteen.
Earlier she had read the works of Mrs. J.W. Lambuth, mother of Bishop Walter Lambuth, and had decided that she, a girl from a small village in Mississippi, should also go as Mary McClellan Lambuth had gone in early womanhood to help the shut-in women of the far off land of China.
This conviction continued and at age twenty-one, arrangements were made to study in one of the schools of the Mississippi Conference, East Mississippi Female College, in Meridian, Mississippi. She received her diploma there in 1886.
Her missionary certificate was issued in June, 1887 and on September 21, 1887, she sailed for China on the ship City of Peking. There she was schooled in language study at the Clapton Boarding School, the school founded by Mrs. J.W. Lambuth, whose work had first caused her interest in the mission field. She was the first missionary to go out under the Mississippi conference Foreign Missionary Society.
She came home on furlough in 1891 and 92 and then was given other school work in Shanghai at McTyeise School and other day schools in Shanghai. Later she went to Sung-kiang, to the Hayes-Wilkins Bible School.
In 1900, the Boxer trouble sent all the interior missionaries to the coast, and there they helped care for the Chinese children from orphanages, elderly Chinese Christians, missionaries from danger spots and others. Late in 1900, she was advised by Bishop Wilson, in China for the Annual Conference of the Mission, to take another furlough immediately. She spent Christmas day, 1900 on board the ship "Gaelic" midway between Japan and Honolulu.
Her mother's and her own ill health kept Miss Betty from returning to the foreign mission field. While in China, she had suffered from typhoid, malaria, dengue, "la grippe", and a nervous breakdown. Miss Betty nursed her mother until Mrs. Hughes died in 1910. She then returned to mission service in the home field serving as a city missionary in Albany, Georgia until 1921 when ill health again sent her home.
She lived in Meridian, Mississippi for a number of years. She died November 3, 1949 and is buried in the Hughes Cemetery, located approximately one mile west of Highway 39 south of Daleville community.
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"I was lucky enough to meet Aunt Betty when I was a little boy and she was very old living in a shabby boarding house in Meridian, Miss. She was truly a sweet and saintly woman who everyone loved and revered. Every time my sisters or brother or I would have a birthday while growing up in Chicago, a card would come from Aunt Betty in Mississippi, and, as poor as she was, she always put a dollar bill in it. I was told that she also gave money to poor blacks. I would love to know how she traveled to China from Mississippi when she was a young woman and exactly when. I understand she was there during the Boxer Rebellion and that her students hid her in a trunk so she wouldn't be killed. She told me during the visit to her boarding house that one night in China she heard rustlings outside her bedroom and the sounds of something coming closer and closer until suddenly the door flew open and the house cat walked in. "
(excerpt from email from J W Hurst, July 26, 1999)
"I also remember a great aunt named Betty, who was a missionary in China. After she came home, I saw her once when I went to Jackson to see Mama and the rest of the family. She taught me a few Chinese words and of course I have forgotten them. But she insisted they be pronounced in the sing song style of the Chinese. She was over there so long she was prolific in their language. She told me of a time she had to move all her children she taught to a new and secret location to keep some mercenaries from finding them and killing them all. She said the hardest part of the long journey by foot, was trying to keep the younger children quiet when there were some enemies in the area, and she was so afraid for their safety. She was a very interesting person to talk to. I wish I cold have been around her more, and I also wish I had written down some of the things she said about her stay in China." Aline Prouty Vaughn
Betty Hughes, 1943
-----------------------
From the Daleville United Methodist Church History -
A Brief Sketch of the Life of MISS LOUISA ELIZABETH HUGHES "Miss Betty" Missionary to China - 1887-1900
Mrs. Oswald Williams (Mae Limerick Williams) researched the life of Miss Hughes for the anniversary. Mrs. Craig Sheely, the niece of Miss Betty Hughes, was most generous in sharing an account of her life from which this is taken.
Louise Elizabeth Hughes, the daughter of Charles Edward and Pauline Craig Hughes, was born in Lauderdale County, Mississippi, June 9, 1863. She attended Cooper Institute. It was there, during one of the annual two week revivals for which classes were suspended, that she gave her life to Christ as a missionary at age nineteen.
Earlier she had read the works of Mrs. J.W. Lambuth, mother of Bishop Walter Lambuth, and had decided that she, a girl from a small village in Mississippi, should also go as Mary McClellan Lambuth had gone in early womanhood to help the shut-in women of the far off land of China.
This conviction continued and at age twenty-one, arrangements were made to study in one of the schools of the Mississippi Conference, East Mississippi Female College, in Meridian, Mississippi. She received her diploma there in 1886.
Her missionary certificate was issued in June, 1887 and on September 21, 1887, she sailed for China on the ship City of Peking. There she was schooled in language study at the Clapton Boarding School, the school founded by Mrs. J.W. Lambuth, whose work had first caused her interest in the mission field. She was the first missionary to go out under the Mississippi conference Foreign Missionary Society.
She came home on furlough in 1891 and 92 and then was given other school work in Shanghai at McTyeise School and other day schools in Shanghai. Later she went to Sung-kiang, to the Hayes-Wilkins Bible School.
In 1900, the Boxer trouble sent all the interior missionaries to the coast, and there they helped care for the Chinese children from orphanages, elderly Chinese Christians, missionaries from danger spots and others. Late in 1900, she was advised by Bishop Wilson, in China for the Annual Conference of the Mission, to take another furlough immediately. She spent Christmas day, 1900 on board the ship "Gaelic" midway between Japan and Honolulu.
Her mother's and her own ill health kept Miss Betty from returning to the foreign mission field. While in China, she had suffered from typhoid, malaria, dengue, "la grippe", and a nervous breakdown. Miss Betty nursed her mother until Mrs. Hughes died in 1910. She then returned to mission service in the home field serving as a city missionary in Albany, Georgia until 1921 when ill health again sent her home.
She lived in Meridian, Mississippi for a number of years. She died November 3, 1949 and is buried in the Hughes Cemetery, located approximately one mile west of Highway 39 south of Daleville community.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"I was lucky enough to meet Aunt Betty when I was a little boy and she was very old living in a shabby boarding house in Meridian, Miss. She was truly a sweet and saintly woman who everyone loved and revered. Every time my sisters or brother or I would have a birthday while growing up in Chicago, a card would come from Aunt Betty in Mississippi, and, as poor as she was, she always put a dollar bill in it. I was told that she also gave money to poor blacks. I would love to know how she traveled to China from Mississippi when she was a young woman and exactly when. I understand she was there during the Boxer Rebellion and that her students hid her in a trunk so she wouldn't be killed. She told me during the visit to her boarding house that one night in China she heard rustlings outside her bedroom and the sounds of something coming closer and closer until suddenly the door flew open and the house cat walked in. "
(excerpt from email from J W Hurst, July 26, 1999)
"I also remember a great aunt named Betty, who was a missionary in China. After she came home, I saw her once when I went to Jackson to see Mama and the rest of the family. She taught me a few Chinese words and of course I have forgotten them. But she insisted they be pronounced in the sing song style of the Chinese. She was over there so long she was prolific in their language. She told me of a time she had to move all her children she taught to a new and secret location to keep some mercenaries from finding them and killing them all. She said the hardest part of the long journey by foot, was trying to keep the younger children quiet when there were some enemies in the area, and she was so afraid for their safety. She was a very interesting person to talk to. I wish I cold have been around her more, and I also wish I had written down some of the things she said about her stay in China." Aline Prouty Vaughn
Events
| Birth | 9 Jun 1863 | Daleville, Lauderdale, Mississippi, United States |  | ||
| Census | 11 May 1910 | Lauderdale, Mississippi, United States |  | | |
| Census | 4 Apr 1930 | Beat 3, Daleville, Lauderdale, Mississippi, United States | | | |
| Census | 1940 | Beat 3, Lauderdale, Mississippi, United States | | ||
| Death | 2 Nov 1949 | Daleville, Lauderdale, Mississippi, United States | | ||
| Burial | Hughes Family Cemetery, Daleville, Lauderdale, Mississippi, United States | |
Families
| Father | Charles Edward Hughes (1821 - 1888) |
| Mother | Pauline Craig (1826 - 1910) |
| Sibling | Mary Jane Hughes (1847 - 1929) |
| Sibling | Martha M. "Mattie" Hughes (1850 - 1937) |
| Sibling | William James "Will" Hughes (1852 - 1905) |
| Sibling | John Craig Hughes (1855 - 1878) |
| Sibling | Sarah Matilda "Sallie" Hughes (1858 - 1940) |
| Sibling | Everette "Evie" Hughes (1861 - 1862) |
| Sibling | Emma Florence Hughes (1866 - 1872) |
| Sibling | Charles Edward Hughes Jr. (1870 - 1954) |
Notes
Census
With her mother and JW Prouty's family. See census notes under JW Prouty.Census
SD 9, Meridain and DeKalb Rd.22, 22 Prouty, Sallie M. Head, Own, 1000, FW, 71, Wd, MS, SC, NC, Manager Farm
Irene Daughter, FW, 30, single, MS, OH, MS, Practical Nurse, General Nursing, W No 4
C. Martin, Grandson, MW, 4, single, Washington DC, MS, MS
Hughes, Elizabeth, Sister, FW, 66, single, MS, SC, NC, none
Census
Irine Pruty Head F 41 Mississippi, widowed, cook. lunch roomMartin Pruty Son M 14 Mississippi, single, new worker
Elizabeth Hughes Aunt F 76 Mississippi, single
Endnotes
1. , "Hughes Family Cemetery," database, Find A Grave (http://www.findagrave.com : accessed 8 October 2011), Hughes.
2. US Federal Population Census, 1910, Mississippi, Lauderdale Co. (read Dec 26, 2001 by Nancy Prouty).
3. U.S. Census images. Heritage Quest Online. Subscription database through the Sonoma County Public Library. (ProQuest LLC, 2009.), 1930 > Mississippi Series: T626 Roll: 1153 Page: 126.
4. , "Hughes Family Cemetery," database, Find A Grave (http://www.findagrave.com : accessed 8 October 2011), Hughes.
5. , "Hughes Family Cemetery," database, Find A Grave (http://www.findagrave.com : accessed 8 October 2011), Hughes.