McBeth, Susan Law (1830–1893)

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McBeth, Susan Law (1830–1893)

American missionary. Born 1830 in Doune, Scotland; died May 26, 1893, in Mount Idaho, Idaho; dau. of Alexander McBeth (stonemason) and Mary (Henderson) McBeth.

Invited by Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions to do missionary work with Choctaw Indians (1858); with outbreak of Civil War having interrupted mission, taught at Fairfield University in Iowa; became 1 of 1st women agents for relief organization US Christian Commission (1863); helped establish and served as presiding head of home for working girls in St. Louis, MO (1866–73); returned to missionary work, this time with Nez Percé Indians in Idaho; took over job of preparing Indian men for ministry in Kamiah, Idaho, after death of Henry Harmon Spalding (1874); compiled but did not complete dictionary of Nez Percé language; taught at school for women established by sister and fellow missionary Kate McBeth.

See also Kate C. McBeth, The Nez Percés since Lewis and Clark (Revell, 1908); Allen Conrad Morrill, Out of the Blanket: The Story of Sue and Kate McBeth, Missionaries to the Nez Percés (U. Press of Idaho, 1978).

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