Short Name: | Lucy Rider Meyer |
Full Name: | Meyer, Lucy Rider, 1849-1922 |
Birth Year: | 1849 |
Death Year: | 1922 |
Lucy Jane Rider Meyer MD USA 1849-1922. Born at New Haven, VT, she became an author, social worker, teacher, and physician. She attended the New Hampton Literary Institution (a college prep school) and the Upham Theological Seminary. She also went to Oberlin College, graduating in 1872 with her degree in literary studies. In 1873 she entered the Women’s Medical College of PA, but withdrew after two years. She intended to become a Methodist medical missionary, but changed her mind after her then-fiance died in 1875. She did not get her medical degree until 1887, when she obtained it from the Women’s Medical College of Chicago. In 1884 she taught Bible at the Dwight L Moody Young Ladies Seminary, Northfield, MA. In 1885 she met and married a Chicago Methodist pastor and businessman, Rv Josiah Shelley Meyer (1849-1926), also Assistant Secretary for the YMCA in Chicago. He had great business acumen. She called him “Papa”.. he called her “Jennie”. They had a son, Shelly. Lucy became an educator, serving as principal of the Troy Conference Academy in Poultney, VT. After studying chemistry at M.I.T. (1877-78), she became a professor of chemistry for two years at McKendree Coillege in Lebanon, IL (1879-81). She did not wish to continue teaching chemistry. She was a good illustrator and later wrote an introductory book for children about chemistry, titled ‘The fairy land of chemistry’ (1887). From 1881-1884 she served as field secretary fror the IL State Sunday School Association and attended the 1880 World Sunday School Convention in London, England. She felt that people wanting to become religious teachers needed better training. In 1885 she and her husband opened the ‘Chicago Training School for City, Home, and Foreign Missions’. She was its first principal (1885-1917) and her husband its first superintendent. The school trained young women, offering a broad curriculum of Bible study, theology, church history, economics, sociology, and basic medical training. There was some adversity to the school by outsiders, thinking a women’s place was in the home. She is credited with reviving the office of the female deacon (or deaconess) in the U.S. Methodist Episcopal Church. In faith, she was liberal, while he was more conservative, believing the Bible should be taught literally. He did most of that teaching at the school, insisting on its interpretation as written. In 1887 Meyer began preparing some women students of her school to become deacons, with a mission of working in tenement communities. She set up the Methodist Deaconess Home and appointed her former student, Isabella Thoburn, as the first house mother and superintendent, even designing a uniform for the new women deacons. In 1888 the Methodist Episcopal Church recognized the office of deaconess. A similar school was set up in Boston, MA in 1889, with another following in Toronto, Canada in 1894. They took vacations, but she preferred a wilderness environment and he did not, so they had one wilderness vacation property and later another retreat in MI, closer to Chicago, to compromise on both travel distance and environment. She edited a periodical called ‘The message’ and later changed its name to ‘The deaconess advocate’, (1884-1914). In 1889 she published a history of the female diaconate: ‘Deaconesses: Biblical, early church, European, American’. In 1908 she founded the Methodist Deaconess Association. She and her husband resigned from the Chicago Training School in 1917, having graduated over 5000 students, but thinking they could not continue with the school as their opinions for its operation were becoming more and more divergent. They moved to CA for a year and enjoyed their retirement, she suffering from several debilitating maladies, but got much of her strength back as a result. They returned to Chicago and tried to help their school in various ways for the next couple of years. Her health eventually worsened and she died. He returned to the west coast, but never really got over losing his wife. The school later merged with the Garrett Biblical Institute in Evanston, IL. She is credited with initiating 40 institutions/homes for unfortunates. She died in Chicago. She published five works.
John Perry
Tunes by Lucy Rider Meyer (32) | As | Instances | Incipit |
---|---|---|---|
RHODES (Anonymous) | L. J. R. (Arranger) | 1 | 55555 13354 32555 |
[Give all you can, dear friend] | Lucy Rider Meyer (Composer) | 2 | 13451 36543 13172 |
[I will follow, follow Jesus every day] | Lucy Rider Meyer (Composer) | 2 | 34565 43132 12345 |
[Oh, sometimes my love sees Jesus with the thorns upon His brow] | Lucy Rider Meyer (Composer) | 2 | 44477 77667 11127 |
[Breathe on me, breath of God] (Meyer) | Lucy Rider Meyer (Composer) | 2 | 34312 14543 23211 |
[When fierce the winds are blowing, and dark the clouds over head] | Lucy Rider Meyer (Composer) | 2 | 13234 55566 46555 |
[Delay not, delay not, O sinner draw near] (Meyer) | Lucy J. Rider (Composer) | 2 | 12333 45567 17211 |
[I think the little birds that sing] | Lucy Rider Meyer (Composer) | 2 | 55176 76576 51332 |
[Goodbye, goodbye, and God bless you!] | Lucy Rider Meyer (Composer) | 2 | 13332 16535 56543 |
[I was lost but Jesus sought me] | Lucy Rider Meyer (Composer) | 2 | 17123 65433 33321 |
[Mellow chimes are stealing] | Lucy Jane Rider Meyer (Composer) | 2 | 55665 13543 4653 |
[Another day for Jesus] | Lucy Rider Meyer (Composer) | 2 | 13565 45313 51217 |
[How tedious and tasteless the hours] (Myer) | Lucy Rider Meyer (Composer) | 2 | 12333 43465 31233 |
[Day by day, the glorious sun] | Miss Lucy J. Rider (Composer) | 2 | 56716 65533 22221 |
[Pool lil' brack sheep that strayed away] | Lucy Rider Meyer (Composer) | 3 | 32156 71111 23333 |
[Anything Thou sendest me] | Lucy J. Rider (Composer) | 3 | 51312 16561 51251 |
MEYER (Lucy Rider) | Lucy Jane Rider Meyer (Composer) | 3 | 55555 66576 65323 |
[O watchah, what you see ovah yondah] | Lucy Rider Meyer (Composer) | 3 | 33223 21165 55152 |
[Who is this, a stranger, lying] | Lucy Rider Meyer (Composer) | 3 | 53333 33276 55671 |
[Why wilt thou not relent?] | Lucy J. Rider (Composer) | 3 | 56567 12123 56567 |
[Lord, I believe the soul that to Thy keeping] | Lucy Rider Meyer (Composer) | 3 | 51233 33231 51222 |
[Welcome day of glad reunion!] | Lucy J. Rider (Composer) | 3 | 53653 12143 65323 |
[Beautiful morning! Day of hope] (Meyer) | Lucy Jane Rider Meyer (Composer) | 4 | 32153 51321 23213 |
[Jesus only! Let the vision] | Lucy J. Rider (Composer) | 4 | 51312 17653 51315 |
[O matchless, marvelous grace of God!] | Lucy J. Rider Meyer (Composer) | 5 | 55654 33211 46532 |
[Speak just a word for your Master and your Lord] | Lucy Rider Meyer (Composer) | 5 | 53451 21776 77712 |
[My scholars all for Jesus] | Lucy Rider Meyer (Composer) | 6 | 13565 31724 31543 |
[We are children of a King] (Meyer) | Lucy J. Rider (Composer) | 10 | 55112 23442 55355 |
[I've a dear Savior, ready to listen] | Lucy J. Rider (Composer) | 10 | 55565 55515 55525 |
[The Lord bless thee and keep thee] (Meyer) | Lucy Rider Meyer (Composer) | 21 | 51123 43111 11234 |
[Ho! everyone that is thirsty in spirit] | Lucy J. Rider (Composer) | 27 | 33332 11765 13333 |
[He was not willing that any should perish] (Meyer) | Lucy Jane Rider Meyer, 1849-1922 (Composer) | 31 | 33333 34443 15555 |