Mehitable Perley Baker
Mehitable Perley Baker (1812-1890) was elected the first president of the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society in 1869. To highlight the intimate connection between the WFMS movement and Boston University, Dr. Robert states that Mrs. Baker was the wife of Bishop Osmon C. Baker (erroneously noted as Osmon T. Baker on the window), a Professor and head of both Newbury Biblical Institute in Vermont and the Methodist General Biblical Institute in Concord, New Hampshire. Both schools were predecessor institutions to Boston University. Dr. Robert notes that Mehitable taught at the Newbury Seminary herself.
Little is known about Mrs. Bishop Osmon Baker. We now know that her first name was Mehitable. She taught alongside Bishop Osmon Baker at Newbury Biblical Institute. She was a bright woman who expressed progressive views about the work her husband did as a minister, professor, dean of the Methodist General Biblical Institute in Concord, NH, and Bishop of the General Conference in 1852. Her letters can be found in the Boston University School of Theology Archives in the Bishop Osman Baker Collection.
Dr. Robert speaks to Mehitable’s impact,
“Mrs. Mehitable Baker, wife of the dean of the Methodist General Biblical Institute, was elected first president of the New England Branch of the WFMS. The women adopted a branch system i.e. decentralized branches that collaborated to send missionaries. She taught at the Newbury Biblical Institute, the predecessor institution to the Methodist General Biblical Institute, among other claims to fame.”.