Laura Haygood

Laura Askew Haygood (October 14, 1845 – April 29, 1900) was an American educator and missionary from Georgia. A sister of Atticus Greene Haygood, she founded a school in Atlanta and served as a missionary in China.

Early life Haygood was born in Watkinsville, Georgia on October 14, 1845, to Greene Berry Haygood and Martha Ann Askew. She was the younger sister of Atticus Greene Haygood, who would later become a bishop in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South (MECS). In 1852, her family moved to Atlanta, where she was homeschooled by her mother. She would later enroll at Wesleyan College at the age of 16, graduating two years later with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1864. Shortly thereafter, she opened her own high school for girls in Atlanta, which ultimately merged with Girls High School. Haygood served as the principal and an educator at Girls following its merger in 1877. In 1882, Haygood established the Trinity Home Mission to assist in training women to help the poor in Atlanta.

In 1884, Haygood was sent to China as a missionary by the Woman's Board of Missions of the MECS. While in Shanghai, she helped found the McTyeire School in 1892, which is now Shanghai No. 3 Girls' High School. Placed on medical furlough between 1894 and 1896, Haygood would afterwards return to China to serve as director of the Woman's Board. In 2000, she was inducted into the Georgia Women of Achievement.