Contributed by Kathleen Haynes      Contact Myrtle Bridges     September 22, 2008

Morganton, NC
Friday, 16 March 1923 

Miss Sue V. Tate
c/o Mrs. N. W. Ray
Green Street
Fayetteville, NC			

Dear Sue,
	
We did not hear from you this morning, but of course no news is good news. It poured rain all 
night and this morning it is hot and sultry and … … while we have a down pour. Irene decided 
before she left that they would not come in this week end. Ophie doesn't want to come every week, 
[because] it makes extra expense for her; once a month is often enough. She and I don't think 
anything but a Ford could get near the foot of the mountains today. 

I was amused when you asked where the money in your circle* comes from for that is what everybody 
is asking, except one. I was surprised that you did not have more. I had been told several missionaries 
were supported in Circle #1. I wonder who is doing it? 

Bess Hunt not once to go to Florida, yet hopes to get off next week. Be sure and find out when 
the peach trees are at their best. The Gregorys, Duncans, Claude Oates, Mary Phonso and Annie 
Leslie went to Asheville Monday to hear *Maude Royden. They are enthusiastic over her.

I hope you can get my stockings. I will forward two letters which came this morning. Must write 
tomorrow as of course there will be no delivery on Sunday. Dr. Walter Moore will be in Hickory 
Sunday. I don't know why, but Mrs. Ingold tried to tell me who he was and she had almost as much 
idea as Lorna (?) would. 
                   With love for you and Lala*** 
                   Aff. Wilhelmina

*Presbyterian womens' groups or 'circles' meet usually once a month to help people in need. The missionaries quite
often are recipients of their help.
**Agnes Maude Royden (23 Nov. 1876 - 30 July 1956) was a preacher and suffragist. She was born at Mossley Hill,
Liverpool, the dau. of Sir Thomas Bland Royden, 1st Baronet, of Frankby Hall, Birkenhead. She was educated at
Cheltenham Ladies' College, and Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, and afterwards for some years did settlement work in
Liverpool. Miss Royden became well known as a speaker on social and religious subjects, and in 1917 became assistant
preacher at the City Temple in London, being thus the first woman to occupy this office. After World War I, Royden's
interest shifted to the role of women in the Church. In 1929 she began the official campaign for the ordination of
women when she founded the Society for the Ministry of Women. The first woman to become Doctor of Divinity in 1931,
Royden made several world-wide preaching tours from the 1920s to the 1940s. In 1939, she renounced pacifism believing
Nazism to be a greater evil than war. In 1944, she married the recently widowed Reverend Hudson Shaw whom she had loved
for more than forty years. Source: Wikipedia
***A Morganton newspaper clipping (no date) included in this envelope reads: Miss Sue Tate left last week for Fayetteville
on account of the illness of Mrs. N. W. Ray. Mrs. Ray underwent an operation last Thurs. and her many friends here will be
glad to know that she is getting along nicely. Bridges


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