Beulah Woolston

Beulah Woolston (1828–1886) was a pioneering American missionary teacher in China. She was born in New Jersey and, together with her sister Sarah Hayes Woolston, dedicated more than two decades to educational work in Fuzhou, China. Through their affiliation with the Ladies' China Society, the sisters founded and supervised a boarding school for girls, established teacher training programs, and opened additional day schools in the region. They were also active in literary work, preparing and translating textbooks and editing a Chinese-language children's newspaper. Over the course of their careers, they helped train many Chinese women and girls, and became the first missionaries sent out by the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Woolston returned to the U.S. for health reasons in the 1880s and died there in 1886.

Early life and education Beulah Woolston was born near Vincentown, New Jersey, on August 3, 1828. She was raised in a Christian home, and was converted and united with the church when about fifteen years old. After receiving preliminary education in Vincentown, she went with Miss Sarah H. Woolston, her sister and her life associate in home and work, to the Wesleyan Female College, at Wilmington, Delaware, where she was graduated with honor from both English and classical departments.

Career She afterward taught for some years in the college, before responding to the call for missionary teachers in the China Mission. The sisters sailed for China, along with Phebe Potter (who soon married Erastus Wentworth), October 4, 1858. After a voyage of 147 days around the Cape of Good Hope, they landed at Shanghai, February 27, 1859, and reached Fuzhou, March 19. Their special work was to organize and superintend a boarding school for Chinese girls under the auspices of the China Female Missionary Society of Baltimore. The sisters were sent out by the parent board, American Methodist Episcopal Mission, but their school was supported by the Ladies' China Missionary Society of Baltimore (founded in 1848).

In 1873, the sisters were affiliated with the Baltimore Female Academy.

Later life In December, 1883, both sisters were ill, and returned to the U.S. for the last time. At times, Beulah seemed to improve. On October 24, 1886, she grew much worse, and died, at Mount Holly, New Jersey.

Awards and honors The first instance of conferring Honorary Degrees by Wesleyan Female College, occurred on June 29, 1870, when the degree of Magistrix Artium was bestowed upon Annie Ryder Gracey (missionary teacher, India), Beulah Woolston (missionary teacher, Waugh Mission Seminary in China), and Sarah Hayes Woolston (missionary teacher, Waugh Mission Seminary in China), former graduates of Wesleyan Female College.

Selected works "Chinese Gods", Heathen Woman's Friend, 1875 "Feet Binding", 1877