Edna Sarah Cole
An older white woman with grey hair dressed to the nape, wearing eyeglasses and a high-collared white dress
Edna Sarah Cole, from her 1919 passport application
BornJanuary 1, 1855
Trenton, Illinois, U.S.
DiedNovember 23, 1950 (age 95)
St. Joseph, Missouri, U.S.
Occupation(s)Presbyterian missionary, educator, school principal

Edna Sarah Cole (January 1, 1855 – November 23, 1950) was an American Presbyterian missionary who worked in Siam (Thailand) from the late 19th through early 20th centuries. She was principal of the Wang Lang Girls' School in Bangkok, the precursor to Wattana Wittaya Girls Academy.

Margaret Landon consulted Cole's letters home to her sister in the United States in her research for writing Anna and the King of Siam.

Early life

Cole was born in Trenton, Illinois, the daughter of Joseph S. Cole and Sarah Fairbanks Cole. She trained as a teacher in St. Louis, and attended the Western Female Seminary in Oxford, Ohio.[1]

Career

Cole became a Presbyterian missionary under the auspices of the Board of Foreign Missions in 1875, and sailed for southeast Asia that year.[2] She was principal of girls' school at the Chiang Mai Mission Station from 1878 to 1883.[3][4] She worked with her old classmate, Mary Margaretta Campbell, at Chiang Mai,[5][6] until Campbell died by drowning in 1881.[7] After a furlough in the United States in 1883 and 1884,[2] she returned to work in Bangkok, where she taught and was principal at the Harriet M. House School,[8] known as the Wang Lang Girls' School, beginning in 1885.[9] She took a leave of absence in India in 1899, "made necessary by seven years of work so severe and exhausting that few could have borne the strain".[10] In 1892, and in 1904 and 1905, she lectured about her work in the United States.[11][12]

Cole was an energetic head of the school; she launched a student magazine in 1892, wrote plays,[13] worked on writing a "new geography of Siam",[14] invested in land and modern buildings to expand the school, and renamed the school as the Wattana Wittaya Academy, a name that projected ideas of progress and prosperity.[15][16] Cole retired in 1923,[1] but stayed in Bangkok for several years afterwards, and was an honored attendee at an event marking the centenary of Protestant missions in Siam in 1929.[17]

Cole was an early and active member of the Siam Society.[18] Her students included Sangwan Talaphat—the future Princess Mother Srinagarindra—who studied English with Cole before pursuing further education in the United States and meeting Prince Mahidol Adulyadej. Novelist and fellow missionary Margaret Landon knew Cole well,[19] and consulted Cole's letters home to her sister in the United States in her research for writing Anna and the King of Siam.[20]

Personal life and legacy

Cole returned to the United States permanently in 1930,[21] and died in 1950, in St. Joseph, Missouri, at the age of 95.[1][22] In 1975, Wattana Wittaya Academy marked its centennial and honored Edna S. Cole as one of the school's leaders.[23] In 2005, a commemorative book about Cole was published in Thai, to mark the 150th anniversary of her birth. The secondary students of Wattana Wittaya Academy created art for an exhibit, “In Remembrance of the Achievements of Miss. Edna Sara Cole”, displayed at the school in 2022.[24] The school also has a building named in her memory.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Edna Sarah Cole". DSEAC: Dictionary of Southeast Asian Christianity. Retrieved 2022-12-07.
  2. 1 2 "Siam and Laos, by Various Authors". Project Gutenberg. 1884. Retrieved 2022-12-07.
  3. ↑ Curtis, Lillian Johnson (1903). The Laos of North Siam (PDF). The Westminster Press. pp. 285–286.
  4. ↑ "Provision for Thirst in Siam". Woman's Work for Woman. 19: 99. May 1904.
  5. ↑ McGilvary, Daniel (1912). A Half Century Among the Siamese and the Lao. Fleming H. Revell Company. p. 177.
  6. ↑ Swanson, Herbert R. (1988). "A New Generation: Missionary Education and Changes in Women's Roles in Traditional Northern Thai Society". Sojourn: Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia. 3 (2): 191–195. doi:10.1355/SJ3-2D. ISSN 0217-9520. JSTOR 41057109.
  7. ↑ Moore, A. Y. (1900). Sketches of Indiana Missionary Women of the Presbyterian Church (PDF). Women's Synodical Society of Indiana. pp. 17–18.
  8. ↑ Bradt, Charles Edwin; King, William Robert (1912). Around the World: Studies and Stories of Presbyterian Foreign Missions. Missionary Press Company (Incorporated). pp. 161–163.
  9. ↑ "Missions in Siam". Report of the Board of Home Missions. 95: 175. 1897.
  10. ↑ "Current Work in Siam". The Assembly Herald. 2: 566. May 1900.
  11. ↑ "Women's Mission Work". Evening World-Herald. 1892-04-07. p. 1. Retrieved 2022-12-08 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. ↑ "Returned Missionary Brings Tidings of Sacramento Girl in the Far-Off Realm of Siam". The Sacramento Bee. 1904-05-19. p. 7. Retrieved 2022-12-08 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. ↑ "Galatea at Wattana Wittaya". Women and Missions. 2: 312. November 1925.
  14. ↑ Strobridge, William F. Mrs. Hamilton King's Bangkok Diary, 1911 (PDF). pp. 95–96.
  15. ↑ "Along the Road: From Wanglang School to Wattana Wittaya Academy". Wattana Wittaya Academy. Retrieved 2022-12-07.
  16. ↑ Posrithong, Natanaree (2018-10-30). "The Modernisation of Female Education and the Emergence of Class Conflict between Literate Groups of Women in Siam, 1870-1910". In Jolliffe, Pia Maria; Bruce, Thomas Richard (eds.). Southeast Asian Education in Modern History: Schools, Manipulation, and Contest. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-351-66467-7.
  17. ↑ "Local Missionary Honored at Centenary Celebration". St. Joseph Gazette. 1929-04-28. p. 23. Retrieved 2022-12-08 – via Newspapers.com.
  18. ↑ "About us". The Siam Society Under Royal Patronage. Retrieved 2022-12-07.
  19. ↑ Landon, Kenneth (1903-1993) (1939-01-01), "Kenneth on When He Met One of Anna Leonowens's Friends", Digital Exhibits from Wheaton College, retrieved 2022-12-07{{citation}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  20. ↑ Malone, David (February 2, 2009). "The Best Laid Plans". ReCollections. Retrieved 2022-12-07.
  21. ↑ "Manuscript Translated; Siamese Prince Gives Meaning of Ancient Writing Belonging to C. H. Thompson". Plattsburg Leader. 1930-06-06. p. 8. Retrieved 2022-12-08 – via Newspapers.com.
  22. ↑ "Miss Edna S. Cole". The New York Times. November 25, 1950. p. 11.
  23. ↑ McDonald, Edwin R. (1975-02-09). "Edna Cole Still Fondly Remembered in Thailand". St. Joseph News-Press. p. 13. Retrieved 2022-12-08 – via Newspapers.com.
  24. ↑ "An art exhibition "In Remembrance of the Achievements of Miss. Edna Sara Cole"". Wattana Wattaya Academy. Retrieved 2022-12-07.
  • Natanaree Posrithong, "Voices and Roles of Competing Groups of Elite Women in Siam's Political and Social Transitions, 1868-1942" (PhD dissertation, Australian National University, 2015).
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