Members of the Scudder family have worked as medical missionaries in South India and the Middle East for five generations."A Thousand Years in Thy Sight: The Story of the Scudder Missionaries in India", Scudder Association, retrieved 7/19/2007, not seen Scudder Missionaries in India
First generation John Scudder Sr., born in Freehold Township, New Jersey, on September 3, 1793, was India's first medical missionary. He graduated from Princeton University in 1811 and the New York College of Physicians and Surgeons, and practiced medicine in New York City.
Scudder became committed to serving as a medical missionary of the American Board, and later of the Dutch Reformed Board.Heideman Eugene P. (2001) From Mission to Church: The Reformed Church in American Mission to India (Historical Series of the Reformed Church in America), Wm. B. Eerdmans publishing Co., Grand Rapids, Michigan, retrieved 7/11/2007 excerpts He went to Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) in 1819, and founded Asia's first Western medical mission in Panditeripo, Jaffna District. Scudder served there for nineteen years as a clergyman and physician, establishing a hospital at which he was the chief physician; he was especially successful in treating cholera and yellow fever, and founded several native schools and churches.
In 1836, Scudder and another clergyman began a mission in Madras to establish a printing press to publish the New Testament and tracts in the Tamil language. Settling in Chintadrepettah, he returned to the United States from 1842 to 1846. Scudder returned to India in 1847, spending two years providing medical aid in Madurai. He returned to his Madras mission in 1849, where he worked until his death on January 13, 1855.Memoir of the Rev. John Scudder, M.D., 36 years Missionary in India, ed. J.B. Waterbury, u.o Rev. John Scudder, M.D.
He was India's first American medical missionary, beginning more than 1,100 combined years of missionary service there by 42 members of five generations of the family.Waterbury, Jared Bell (1870) Memoir of the Rev. John Scudder, M.D.: Thirty-six Years Missionary in India, Harper & Brothers, Franklin Square, New York, retrieved 7/19/2007 full text Scudder and his wife, Harriet Waterbury, had six surviving sons and two daughters; all became medical missionaries and worked in South India.Edward Tanjore Corwin, A Manual of the Reformed Church in America (formerly Ref. Prot. Dutch Church), 1628-1902 (full text)
Second generation Henry Martyn Scudder (1822–1895) was born in Panditeripo, Ceylon, and was John Scudder's oldest child. He graduated from the University of the City of New York in 1840, and Union Theological Seminary in 1843. The following year, Henry went to Madurai as a missionary. He went to Madras in 1846, organizing schools and churches in Madras, Arcot, Vellore, Coonoor and Ootacamund (Udhagamandalam). In 1850, Henry founded a mission at Arcot for the board of the Dutch Reformed Church; the following year, he opened the Wallajapet dispensary. Henry practiced medicine, and moved the dispensary to Ranipet in 1853 because of its better location. The dispensary closed the following year due to his illness, and he went to the hills to recuperate.
In 1856, Madurai joined the other American Tamil missions in appointing Henry their representative to a Madras convention to plan a new Tamil version of the Bible. He prepared religious books and tracts in Sanskrit, Tamil, and Telugu. Henry's publications include Liturgy of the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church (Madras, 1862), Sweet Savors of Divine Truth (an 1868 catechism), and Spiritual Teaching (1870). He also wrote The Bazaar Book in Tamil and The Catholics and the Public Schools.
In 1864, his health failing in India, he returned to the United States and performed pastoral work for nearly 20 years. Henry was pastor of the Howard Presbyterian Church in San Francisco from 1865 to 1871, the Central Congregational Church in Brooklyn from 1872 to 1882, and the Plymouth Congregational Church in Chicago from 1882 to 1887; he resigned to resume missionary work in Japan until 1889.
William Scudder (born ) served in India for twenty-two years and was then a pastor for eleven years in the United States. When he was sixty years old he went back to India for nine years, and died in 1895.Johnston Julia H. (1913) Fleming H. Revell Company, London and Edinburgh, retrieved 9/8/2007 Fifty Missionary Heroes
Jared Waterbury Scudder, born in Panditeripo in 1830, graduated from Western Reserve College in 1850 and the New Brunswick Theological Seminary in 1855. He was ordained a missionary to India for the Dutch Reformed Church, and joined the Arcot Mission in 1855. He published Tamil translations of Henry M. Scudder's Spiritual Teaching (Madras, 1870), Bazaar Book (1870), and History of the Arcot Mission. (1872). Jared was a member of the committee to revise the Tamil translation of the Bible.
Silas Downer Scudder (born in Ceylon on November 6, 1833) graduated from Rutgers University in 1856, studied medicine, and was licensed to practice in New York City. Asked by the Arcot Mission and his brothers to begin medical work in Ranipet, in 1860 he went to India as a medical missionary and settled in Arcot. Silas founded a dispensary and hospital which were supported by English and native residents. With a large native outdoor practice, some of his patients were high-caste Hindu women who had been reluctant to see an American doctor.
Ranipet Hospital opened on March 17, 1866. Due to its high medical standard, the Madras government closed its own dispensary and turned over its resources to Silas. All treatment and medicines were free of charge. In 1872, John Scudder II took over the Ranipet Hospital and its evangelistic work from his elder brother, Silas. After thirteen years he returned to New York because of illness, and died in Brooklyn on December 10, 1877.
John and Harriet’s sons John Junior, Ezekiel and Joseph were all Christian preachers. Their son Samuel died just after graduating college.
Third generation
Ida S. Scudder (December 9, 1870 – May 24, 1960) dedicated her life to Indian women and the fight against plague, cholera and leprosy.Legacy and Challenge: The Story of Dr. Ida B. Scudder, published by the Scudder Association Legacy and Challenge In 1918, she founded the Christian Medical College & Hospital, Vellore. Hear Dr. Ida Scudder tell her own story
After seeing famine, poverty and disease in India as a girl, Ida intended to marry and live in the U.S. following her education at a Massachusetts seminary. In her early 20s, however, she returned to India to help her ailing mother at her mission bungalow in Tindivanam. Ida received an M.D. degree from Cornell University in 1899, returning to India with a $10,000 gift from a Manhattan banker. She founded a small clinic for women in Vellore, from Madras, and treated 5,000 patients in two years.
Ida opened a medical school for women in Vellore 1918. Although skeptics said that she would be lucky to get three applicants, she had 151 the first year. Although the Reformed Church in America was originally the school's main funder, when Ida agreed to make it coeducational it obtained the support of 40 missions. Of its 242 students in 2005, 95 were men.Christian Medical College (2005)Ida S. Scudder
In 1953, at age 82, Ida received Hobart and William Smith Colleges' Elizabeth Blackwell Award as one of 1952's five outstanding women doctors.Time Magazine (Feb. 16, 1953) A Family Tradition She died in 1960, at age 90, in Kodaikanal.biographical information on ISS and the Scudder family, see the inventory for Ida Sophia Scudder, MC 205, Scudder, Ida Sophia, 1870-1960. Papers, 1843-1976 (inclusive), 1888-1960 (bulk) (84-M159) Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America, Radcliffe College, February 1985 Notable American Women, The Modern Period (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1984).
A commemorative stamp was issued on August 12, 2000, as part of the Christian Medical College Vellore centennial. Its first-day cover depicts Ida caring for pregnant women.
Ida’s brother John Scudder and sister Ethel Scudder were also involved in medical work.
Lewis R. Scudder was a grandson of John Scudder Snr and served in India with the Dutch Reformed Church in America.
Henry Martyn Scudder Junior began a maternity clinic in Ranipet in 1877. Three years later, he resigned from the Arcot Mission and left for the United States. He was later found guilty of murdering his mother-in-law Elizabeth Dunton.
Fourth generation
Ida Belle Scudder was born in 1900, and graduated from Mount Holyoke College in 1925. She trained in radiology before moving to Vellore for more than 30 years of service at the Christian Medical Colleges (CMC) and Hospital, founded by her aunt Ida S. Scudder. Ida B. founded the hospital's diagnostic radiology and radiotherapy departments, and was influential in CMC's transition to coeducation and its affiliation with the University of Madras for the first two years of its M.B. and B.Ss. courses for female students. She campaigned in the U.S. from 1941 to 1945 for funding for the coeducational program.Brouwer, Ruth Compton Modern Women Modernizing Men: The Changing Missions of Three Professional Women in Asia and Africa, 1902 - 1969, retrieved 7/19/2007 abstracts The Dr. Ida B. Scudder Radiation Therapy Block at CMC was dedicated in 1991, and she died in 1995. An Ida B. Scudder essay competition was begun to perpetuate her ideals.CMC Newsline, Vol. No.43.No. 11, September 04, 2006 Dr. Ida B. Scudder Essay Competition Georgia Jennifer (1994) - Legacy and Challenge - The Story of Dr. Ida B. Scudder biography of Ida B. Scudder
Marilyn Scudder (born in 1939) graduated from Kodaikanal International School in 1956 and Hope College in 1960. She received an M.D. degree from the University of Michigan in 1965, and was a medical missionary in Tanzania for 35 years. Marilyn's work in Tanzania began in 1970, when she was head of the eye department at a hospital in Mvuni. She returned to Minnesota in 1971 for further study before joining the eye department of a medical center in Moshi, Tanzania in 1973, where she became the department head in 1979. Marilyn was sponsored by Christian Blind Mission. The eye team went on medical safaris by vehicle and small plane to 30 mission and government hospitals throughout Tanzania. Scudder retired from surgery in 2001, and went to live and work with the Capuchin Sisters of Maua on the western slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro near the village of Sanya Juu. She continued training nurses and conducting eye clinics there. She received an Outstanding Humanitarian Service Award from the American Academy of Ophthalmology on October 22, 2004, and the George Tani Humanitarian Service Award from the Minnesota Academy of Ophthalmology on December 10, 2004. Hope College presented Marilyn with a Distinguished Alumni Award on May 7, 1988, and profiled her in a story in the August 1985 issue of News from Hope College which had previously appeared in the Kodaikanal International School's alumni publication. Scudder was diagnosed with primary amyloidosis in 2002, and died on May 16, 2005, in Dar es Salaam.Hope College Alumnae Magazine (August 2005), p. 22 Dr. Marilyn Scudder
The Marilyn Scudder Scholarship was set up in her memory.