The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1930, Page 156

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156

THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

of them have for Christ’s sake sacrificed careers
which might have been great and honored in their
own countries and gone forth to offer their health
and strength for the betterment of their fellow-men.
The missionaries’ simple lives, their sympathy with
the poor, their self-sacrifice, must force the admira-
tion of every unprejudiced and just person.

F.J.L.

+ Anna S. Kugler, M. D. }

With the passing of Anna S. Kugler, M. D., first
American woman medical missionary to India, and
founder of the Guntur Hospital, Guntur, India, the
United Lutheran Church in America mourns the
loss of one of its most valued and best-beloved
servants.

Dr. Kugler was born in Ardmore, a suburb of
Philadelphia, Pa., on April 18, 1856. She was a
graduate of the Women’s Medical College of Phila-
delphia. She served in India for forty-seven years,
with only occasional furloughs. She died on the
mission-field on July 26 of pernicious anemia.

Dr. Kugler first sailed for India on August 25,
1883, when even male medical missionaries were
scarce. Her first patient was a Brahmin widow, on
whom she operated for cataract. During 1884 she
treated 2%6 patients in her own home and 185 in
their homes. After years of waiting and pleading
on the part of Dr. Kugler, the mission rented several
houses in Guntur for use as dispensaries. A mis-
sion-dispensary building was completed and occu-
pied in 1893, and four years later a fine hospital
plant was erected, of which she became superinten-
dent. She built and developed Guntur Hospital,
one of the largest and finest mission-hospitals in
South India, an institution which provides medical
aid annually for tens of thousands of native women
and children of all classes.

In 1904 Dr. Kugler received from the Viceroy
of India the silver Kaiser-i-Hind medal in recog-
_ nition of her service to the people of that country.
Some years later she was again honored by the gov-
ernment when a bar was added to the medal. The
mame and work of Dr. Kugler are well known
throughout all India. Prominent and influential

leaders in that land, even though not Christians,
generously supported her undertakings.

She was a member of the Association of Medical
_ Women in India, an organization composed of med-
_ ical missionaries and other physicians, and was ac-

Women and the Tuberculosis Sanitarium near
Guntur.

Although she had reached the age of seventy-one,
one year beyond the retirement age, Dr. Kugler at
her own earnest request and by special dispensation
of the Board of Foreign Missions of the United Lu-
theran Church in 1927 was granted permission to
return as superintendent of Guntur Hospital.

When on the anniversary of Armistice Day,
1927, Dr. Kugler sailed from New York for the
last time, she left the following message for her
friends and loyal admirers throughout the country:
“As on this Armistice Day we are reminded of the
millions who gave their lives to bring about the
peace of the nations, let us not forget the One who
became incarnate that He, as the Prince of Peace,
might reveal God to the nations. And so as I sail
away from America once more to do my bit in this
far-away India, I appeal to the Church and say,
‘Come over and help us.’”

In 1928 Dr. Kugler wrote The Story of the
Guntur Mission Hospital, a volume vividly descrip-
tive of her life-work. — News Bulletin, U. L. C.

Items of Missionary Interest.
(By the Eprror.)

Unpromising Beginnings. — One of the most
flourishing Lutheran churches in Brooklyn was be-
gun in a vacant saloon, and in New York City a
mission was begun in a cheap dance-hall. Our early
missionaries in Western States would at times per-
suade the proprietors of saloons and gambling hells
to grant them the use of their places of business
for divine services.

The Irony of Fate. — In Cambridge, Mass., the
University Lutheran Church has acquired the club
house of the Harvard Liberal Club and hopes that
a church dedicated to the preaching of Christ Cruci-
fied will soon occupy the space where now stands a
building in which Christ and the Gospel were re-
viled. — In Long Beach, Long Island, the Lutheran
St. John’s Church has acquired “Idle Hour,” a no-
torious, but very beautiful gambling house. Since
its purchase the building has been renovated and
reconstructed. The large ball-room has been trans-
formed into a chapel. The living-quarters of the
pastor are on the second floor.

- Lydia Woerner, M. D., pioneer medical mis-
sionary at Rajahmundry, India, and founder of the
United Lutheran Church Mission Hospital at that