Mary F. Scranton

Mary F. Scranton was a Methodist Episcopal Church missionary. She was the first Womans Foreign Missionary Society representative to Korea and the founder of the Ewha Girls School under Emperor Gojong. Today, the Ewha Girls School is the Ewha Womans University, one of the most prestigious womens schools in Asia. Scranton also founded the Tal Syeng Day School for Women in Seoul and the Training School for Bible Women.

Mary Fletcher was born on born December 9, 1832 in Belchertown, Massachusetts. Her father was Rev. Erastus Benton, a Methodist Episcopal minister. She married William T. Scranton they had a son named William B. Scranton. After the death of her husband, she moved to Ohio, where her son lived. There, she became active in the Euclid Avenue Methodist Church and in the Womans Foreign Missionary Society . When Scrantons son Dr. William B. Scranton was appointed to the Methodist Medical Mission in Korea in 1884, the WFMS asked Scranton to become the first female missionary in Korea.

Source: Wikipedia