- MRS. W. S. LADD IS CALLED BY DEATH
Life Consecrated to Charity Is Ended
PIONEER WOMAN 82 YEARS OLD
Her Contributions to Foreign Missions a Fortune
CAME TO PORTLAND IN '54
She Presided Over Woman's North Pacific Presbyterian Board of Missions for Two Decades.
Funeral Services Tomorrow
With the death of Mrs. Caroline Ames Ladd, widow of the late William S. Ladd, at her residence, 293 Sixth street, at 3 o'clock yesterday afternoon, a life consecrated to Christian service and an inspiration to all who knew her, was ended. Mrs. Ladd was 82 years, 7 months and 5 days old and death resulted from causes incident to old age.
An Oregon pioneer of 1854, Mrs. Ladd throughout her life was prominently identified with church work and the attendant activities. Her generous contributions to religious and charitable institutions were not restricted to her home town or state but the foreign mission fields were remembered in the benevolent acts of this noble woman. The contributions of Mrs. Ladd to foreign missions alone amounted to several thousand dollars annually.
Mrs. Ladd was an active and devoted member of the Presbyterian Church. She supported the church and its auxiliary societies with liberal subscriptions, but it was in the cause of missions to which she was strongly committed, and in the furtherance of which she gave a great deal of her time. The aggregate of her contributions to missions represents more than a comfortable fortune.
When the Women's North Pacific Presbyterian Board of Missions was organized 21 years ago last May, Mrs. Ladd was elected president, a position to which she was re-elected annually until and including last April, when the 21st annual meeting of the board was held in the Third Presbyterian Church in this city. The North Pacific Board is one of six organizations in the United States through which the missionary efforts of the Presbyterian Church are directed. Under the official management of the board for this section of the country, gifts for missions increased from $1200 for the first year to over $16,000 in 1908 and 1909, according to the reports submitted at the last annual meeting.
Rose for Every Year
Faithful and punctual was Mrs. Ladd in attending all of the meetings of the board, including the annual meetings. In April a year ago the 20th anniversary of the organization of the North Pacific Board was celebrated. At this meeting Mrs. Ladd was presented by the board with a bouquet of 81 beautiful roses, a joint birthday and anniversary gift, in honor her 81st birthday. Although 82 years old, Mrs. Ladd last April attended the annual meeting of the board and presided at the sessions.
Purse Always Open
Earnest but unpretending, Mrs. Ladd never permitted a deficit to exist in the funds with which the North Pacific Board promoted the cause of missions. "Many times at the annual meetings of the board, when it developed that the available funds were inadequate to carry on the work for the ensuing year, have I seen Mrs. Ladd quietly write out a check of sufficient size to meet the threatened deficit and unnoticed, hand it to the treasurer," said one of Mrs. Ladd's co-workers yesterday.
In addition to being a liberal contributor to the general missionary fund of the board, Mrs. Ladd for a number of years personally contributed the necessary funds with which four missionaries were employed among the heathen in Corea. Only a few years ago with her own money, Mrs. Ladd built a hospital at Pyeng Yang, Corea, and recently employed a special trained nurse who was sent to the trans-Pacific missionary field on one of the vessels which sailed from San Francisco only a few weeks ago.
Came Here in 1854
Caroline Ames Elliott was born at Canterbury, N. H., March 18, 1827. Sailing around the Horn early in the 50s, she was married to William S. Ladd in San Francisco, October 17, 1854. They came at once to Oregon, reaching Portland November 6, the same year. Mr. Ladd died January 6, 1893, and the widow is survived by the following children; William M., Charles E., J. Wesley and Mrs. Helen Ladd Corbett, all of Portland, and Mrs. Frederic B. Pratt, of Brooklyn, N. Y.
Funeral services will be conducted from the First Presbyterian Church at 1 o'clock tomorrow afternoon. Rev. William Hiram Foulkes officiating. Burial will take place in Riverview Cemetery and the services at the grave will be private.
Mr. Ladd died January 6, 1893, at the age of 66 years. He was a pioneer of 1851 and was 25 years of age when he came to the state. Of active, powerful and resourceful personality, no other individual character more fully apprehended and embodied the possibilities of the Oregon that was to be than did Mr. Ladd. Possessing these qualities, coupled with exceptional ability successfully to organize and control, he became wealthy, a result he attributed largely to the encouragement and co-operation of his faithful helpmate, who also was one of the state's builders.
Rev. William Hiram Foulkes, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, of which Mrs. Ladd was a lifelong member, last night paid the following tribute to the deceased;
"Any word that I might say concerning the Christian life and character of the late Mrs. W. S. Ladd would fall short of the mark. The beautiful simplicity of her faith, coupled with the gracious un-ostentation of her works will ever be an inspiration to those who knew her. Intense loyalty to the church and in particular its great missionary concerns, characterized her life. Though well past the allotted age, she was unusually keen and forceful in the grasp of affairs. We are all inexpressibly shocked by the tidings of her death, yet we feel that it is only the glorious sunset of a wonderful day. Her labors surely follow with her."
"I was associated with Mrs. Ladd in missionary and church work ever since I came to Portland in 1886, and learned to love and esteem her more than I can express," said Mrs. H. C. Campbell, who for several years was associated with Mrs. Ladd as corresponding secretary of the North Pacific Board of Missions. "As president of the North Pacific Board, her rulings, while firm, were always most gracious, kind and reasonable. She was an example to us all in patience, charity and punctuality. She was always the first to give sympathetic response to whatever call that came and her generosity was proverbial. Hundreds of women engaged in missionary work all over the Pacific Northwest loved and revered her. Her beautiful life has been one of the greatest inspirations I have ever known."
Associates adored Her
"We loved Mrs. Ladd next to our own mother," said Mrs. C. R. Templeton who, for many years, was associated with Mrs. Ladd in missionary work. "We adored her. The news of her death came to me with almost the shock that would attend the death of a member of my own family. Mrs. Ladd always showed a thoroughly Christian spirit and a beautiful disposition. She always was active in church work and was a liberal contributor to missions."
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1827 - 1909 (82 years)
