Building a Publishing Empire: The Annie Armstrong Era of WMU, SBC: Annie Armstrong once mused that if she had been a man, she would have been successful at business.

Holcomb, Carol Crawford

"I believe I have some ability in this line," she stated. (1) Fannie Heck observed that Armstrong was "energetic, resourceful, persevering, trained in the management of large affairs, of masterly mind and a born leader." This was high praise indeed since there was no love lost between the two women. Heck said herself, "This is not idle flattery." (2) Armstrong was the financial and organizational "mastermind" behind Woman's Missionary Union (WMU). Since women of her generation had virtually no access to business careers, Armstrong applied her considerable talent to the "business" of WMU. (3) She was the quintessential missionary professional. She utilized accounting, marketing, promotion, advertising, publishing, and mass communication (she wrote thousands of letters by hand) to raise money and awareness for foreign and home missions. Baptist women contributed $45,765 to missions in 1888. In 1913 they gave $300,848. And in 1920, offerings to Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) mission causes generated by WMU totaled $2,418,924. The tracks for this growth--from $30,000 to nearly $2.5 million--were laid by Annie Armstrong. (4)

Annie Armstrong was born in Baltimore on July 11, 1850, and spent most of her life in a brick row house at 1423 McCulloh Street. Her father, James Dunn Armstrong, a successful tobacconist and philanthropist, died shortly after she was born. The care of Annie and her two older sisters fell to their mother, Mary Elizabeth Armstrong. Mary Armstrong reared her children in a household imbued with missionary zeal. She was among the Baltimore women who responded to the call from Ann Graves to organize for missions, and was present at the first meeting of Southern Baptist women in Baltimore in 1868. Mary devoted her days to missionary meetings, Bible studies, and prayer circles. The Armstrong women attended Seventh Street Baptist Church in Baltimore. Dr. Richard Fuller served as their pastor. His persuasive sermons and thoughtful manner slowly won over the youngest Armstrong. He baptized Annie in December of 1870 when she was 19 years old. After her conversion, Armstrong enthusiastically joined her mother in mission work and social ministry. (5)

Armstrong never married. Instead she spent her life zealously advancing the cause of Christian missions and benevolence work. She is considered the founder of the Ladies Bay View Mission for poor women, founding member and twenty-four-year president of the Woman's Home Mission Society of Maryland, Corresponding Secretary and chief architect of the Maryland Baptist Mission Rooms, Corresponding Secretary of the Woman's Missionary Union, 1888-1906, and Manager of Aged Men and Aged Women's Homes of Baltimore for twenty years. Her vision can be credited for mission and social work for immigrants in Baltimore, at least two missions and an orphanage for African Americans in Baltimore, ministry to Native American tribes in the Southwest, schools in Appalachia, and numerous fundraising strategies for the denomination. Armstrong resigned as corresponding secretary of WMU in 1906 in the wake of a disagreement over the Woman's Missionary Training School and focused all of her energies on her church and social service ministries in Baltimore. (6) She never accepted another denominational post. In her 1913 history of WMU, Fannie Heck wrote that the Union owed its early growth to Annie Armstrong "more than any one person." (7)

A Publishing Empire

In the nineteenth century, Protestant women's missionary organizations financed much of their work with publications. Armstrong established a Baptist publishing house before WMU was formally organized. In 1887 she persuaded Maryland Baptists to underwrite the Baltimore Mission Rooms, where she and a small staff of volunteers produced a flood of leaflets, pamphlets, and other missionary literature. This missionary publishing enterprise proved to be one of Armstrong's most important contributions to WMU culture. In Baltimore, Maryland, in the summer of 1886, Annie Armstrong lamented to her sister that Baptists needed more missionary literature. The Foreign Mission Board had only five leaflets describing its mission activities, and the Home Board had none. Armstrong enlisted "enterprising ministers" in Baltimore to underwrite a printing venture. The Baltimore Baptist Association voted in 1886 to establish a "place where books and periodicals may be found" to be directed by Annie Armstrong. Henry Wharton, editor of the Baltimore Baptist, offered space for the small library above his office on Fayette Avenue rent-free and installed a new staircase to keep the women's petticoats from showing as they climbed the old ladder to the upper room. The Baltimore Association agreed to pay the printing and postage costs. The Maryland women's home and missionary societies committed to furnish the room and staff the library. In essence, the men of Baltimore provided the women with a publishing house and a female voice to the convention. In March of 1887 the Maryland Baptist Mission Rooms were officially opened. (8)

In that first year the Mission Rooms "poured out a very flood of free literature," including mission leaflets, "brick cards" for Cuban chapels, missionary prayer cards, Christmas programs, and envelopes for a Christmas offering. In all, the Mission Rooms published nearly 120,000 items in 1887. (9) When WMU organized in 1888, the Baltimore Mission Rooms became the headquarters for the mission work of Southern Baptist women. From this location Annie Armstrong directed the work of the Union, published volumes of missionary literature, wrote thousands of letters, and launched hugely successful fundraising campaigns. In April of 1888 Armstrong reported 86 Annual Subscriptions at 30 cents; 315 packages mailed; 452 orders filled; 60,000 leaflets sold; and 1,000 envelopes prepared for the 1888 SBC meeting in Richmond. (10) Much of this literature was provided to Baptists around the country free of charge. On the tenth anniversary of WMU, Armstrong reported that the Maryland Mission Rooms had published a total of 109 leaflets and pamphlets, distributed 1,384,903 of these items, and prepared 616,055 Christmas envelopes for the annual Christmas offering during their first ten years. (11)

Not only did she record every item she published or mailed, but Armstrong also made judicious use of the resources available to her. For example, at the first executive committee meeting, the committee expressed the desire to publish a distinctive women's paper. Armstrong encouraged the members to utilize the existing denominational mission journals, Our Home Field and Foreign Mission Journal, because she said Baptist women would only subscribe to a few journals. Before the meeting Armstrong had contacted the editors of those papers and secured permission to create a separate column for women's missionary work. Alice Armstrong agreed to edit the women's column in the Foreign Mission Journal and eventually, Annie became the editor of the column in Our Home Field. In addition to not wanting to flood the market, the corresponding secretary of WMU was fiercely loyal to the boards of the SBC and she carefully avoided competition with their efforts. WMU did not launch its own periodical until 1906, after Armstrong left office. (12) Edith Campbell Crane, Armstrong's successor, reported $2,494 in periodical sales in 1906. This amount grew with each passing year. In 1920, WMU reported receipts totaling nearly $15,000 in this category. By the end of World War II, literature sales had become the bread and butter of the WMU operating budget. (13)

Annie Armstrong not only flooded the South with missionary literature, but also with thousands of personal letters. Alice Armstrong reported that her sister wrote 600 letters in her first year as corresponding secretary and 2,700 in her third year. (14) In a ten-year summary of her work, Annie Armstrong reported having written 77,447 letters and manuscripts along with 3,402 postals--so on average she mailed more than 8,000 letters a year and roughly 674 letters per month. The Secretaries of the Southern Baptist boards received the majority of Armstrong's correspondence. In these letters she outlined her fundraising plans, made suggestions to increase revenues, proposed articles and features for their periodicals, supplied photographs and drawings, brainstormed new missionary outreach methods, suggested resolutions to be introduced at the Southern Baptist Convention, solicited salaries for female missionaries, submitted budget reports, demanded detailed accounts of expenditures, and discussed a myriad of other business matters. In a typical week, Armstrong wrote each of the three Secretaries daily-letters that were often more than ten pages long. (15) Meanwhile, she penned a steady stream of correspondence to both home and foreign missionaries. On a trip out west in 1902, she encountered a missionary and "was surprised" when he told her "that he had one hundred letters from me." She thought he was exaggerating, but then, she realized she had been writing him for ten years. (16)

A Financial Empire

Under Armstrong's leadership, WMU employed the fundraising strategy that other Protestant women had pioneered with great success--mites from millions. As Susan M. Yohn explained, in her study of the business methods of Protestant women's societies, the financial strength of women's organizations rested upon the "small donations of millions." (17) Helen Montgomery observed in 1910 that women tended to focus on small gifts from large numbers of donors-drawing on biblical examples such as Ruth who gathered small portions of wheat behind the harvesters or the widow who gave her last mite. While the men sought out large donors, women cultivated humble, consistent givers. "The women started in as humble gleaners to pick up such scattering sheaves as their brethren might have left," Montgomery explained. The women asked for pennies, and "astonished the world with their success." (18) Baptist women imitated their Protestant sisters and adopted the strategy of "mites" with equally astonishing results.

The Baptist Mission Rooms distributed small boxes for women to place on their mantels as a reminder to give sacrificially. In her ten-year summary, Armstrong noted that her office had distributed nearly 100,000 mite barrels and boxes. (19) I. T. Tichenor encouraged her to see the United States as a "base of supply" to win the world for Christ, and she developed a business plan to tap that resource. Like other Protestant women's missionary agencies, WMU emphasized "systematic" giving over the amount of the donation. Armstrong insisted that Baptist women should practice "systematic, proportionate giving" out of gratitude to God, "because we have freely received." (20)

To solicit and administer these large sums of money, Protestant women developed "very highly specialized, subdivided, yet exceedingly simple organizations." The officers could reach from "headquarters to the remotest auxiliary, with appeal and information." (21) Annie Armstrong served as WMU's chief administrator and financial strategist. She directed a team of leaders in Baltimore who networked closely with women on the state level, who in turn worked tirelessly to rally local churches and associations to support programs outlined by headquarters. One of the first programs launched by the Maryland Mission Rooms was the Cuban Brick Card. Armstrong designed cards in the Maryland Mission Rooms in 1887 to help fund the building of new churches in Havana. Each card gave the name of a church with specific details about its history and the need for a building, along with a picture of a pastor or missionary involved with the church. WMU adopted the Brick Card initiative after 1888. Armstrong sent each of the State Central Committees samples of the cards and asked them to take orders for the cards from their local societies. The societies would receive the literature free of charge since the boards of the SBC paid for printing and postage while the women who designed and mailed them "donated" their time. From 1888 to 1898, WMU distributed nearly 140,000 chapel and brick cards. (22)

Also in 1887, after reading a letter from Southern Baptist missionary Lottie Moon, Armstrong proposed two additional initiatives to the Foreign Mission Board for China. In order to raise funds to send two women to China so that Moon could return to the States for a much-needed rest, Armstrong suggested instituting a week of prayer for foreign missions and a Christmas offering. "Armstrong wrote the 1,206 letters to the southern societies by hand to request the women give to the Christmas offering." Alice Armstrong credits these two projects with bringing in nearly $10,000 more than the previous year. The week of prayer for foreign missions followed by an offering during the Christmas season became permanent fixtures on the Southern Baptist calendar. In 1918, at Annie Armstrong's suggestion, the offering became officially known as the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. (23) Through these early efforts Armstrong successfully raised thousands of dollars, highlighted the ministries of a woman, and financed the salaries of two more single women.

In 1899 Armstrong launched another fundraising program called "Star Cards." Similar to contemporary baseball cards, these introduced Baptists to missionaries around the world. "The picture of a missionary will be framed in the star," Armstrong explained. "Around it, in the points of the star, will be one hundred small stars which will register gifts." One of the first two cards featured Marie Buhlmaier, a missionary to immigrants in Baltimore whose position and salary had been negotiated with the Home Mission Board by Annie Armstrong. (24) The other card highlighted the work of Rev. Peyton Stephens, a children's "Sunbeam" worker. The next three cards focused on three women: Mrs. N. Maynard, Willie Kelly, and Claudia White. The cards "are, as you see, very dainty and pretty," boasted Armstrong. "It is hoped that they will 'take' with our young people." (25) Through these cards she again accomplished several objectives: she raised money for missions, involved more young women in the work, and celebrated the role of Baptist women in missions. Armstrong rarely missed an opportunity to underscore the contributions of women.

Armstrong's considerable gifts also included financial planning. When a WMU member came to her wishing to give $4,000 to the Foreign Mission Board, $4,000 to the Home Mission Board, and $1,000 to the Sunday School Board, she helped facilitate what she called the "Annuity Plan." The money was given through Armstrong, and the boards agreed to pay the interest on the gift to the donor as long as she lived. Upon her death, the capital remained with the boards. As she explained, "By the Annuity Plan the donor makes a simple transfer to the board; is relieved of all expense of taxes, insurance, repairs, etc.; avoids legal complications after death, and receives during life a regular income from the board to which the gift has been made." (26) This initiative in particular demonstrated her aptitude for financial management.

WMU headquarters kept careful records on all mission gifts. Armstrong insisted that a monetary value be placed on all the "gifts in kind" that Baptist women provided and was adamant that these amounts be counted as part of the WMU contributions on official financial reports to the convention. The boxes that Baptist women sent to missionaries on the frontier represented the bulk of "in kind" gifts. In 1901, when the Home Mission Board (led by T. P. Bell) attempted to end the practice of placing a value on the boxes, Armstrong lobbied fiercely against this plan. She appealed to the other two boards, suggesting that the resolution was designed to hurt women's work and would threaten their financial receipts. "You may not know there is pending before the Home Board a resolution not to place a money value on boxes sent to Frontier missionaries," she explained. "You will recognize that this is part of the result of Dr. Bell's antagonism to WMU methods." (27) The 1913 WMU financial report to the SBC estimated the monetary value of the boxes shipped to the frontier over the previous twenty-five years at $471,000 with the total amount of gifts--including gifts in kind--at $2,908,748. Apparently, Armstrong won. (28)

Armstrong carefully documented every dime that society members contributed to the boards of the Southern Baptist Convention and was a fanatic about careful reporting and deadlines. She hounded the leaders of the state Central Committees to turn in their reports promptly and fumed if they were late. On April 21, 1899, she wrote a letter to J. M. Frost of the Sunday School Board complaining about the state leaders:

   It is extremely aggravating though, to find how thoroughly wanting
   in promptness many persons are. About three weeks ago I wrote to
   every Central Committee asking them to be prepared to send their
   reports by April 20th and giving them minute directions how said
   reports should be prepared ... This morning, April 21st, I am about
   to send off four telegrams for four state reports that have not yet
   come to hand. (29)

When she said April 20th, she meant April 20th. She expected not only the women, but also the Secretaries of the boards to provide her with detailed, accurate, and prompt reports. She also expected immediate responses to her letters and payment for services in full when the bill was submitted. "I now enclose bill for [Marie Buhlmaier's travel expenses] which amounts to $25.55," she wrote to I. T. Tichenor. "As this money has been advanced, I will be glad to have it returned as soon as convenient." To R. J. Willingham she wrote, "May I now ask that you kindly let me have as soon as possible the amount received by the Foreign Mission Board since February 7th?" (30) She felt delays were discourteous. "I will assume the responsibility of extending the time for your manuscript to July 20th," she wrote to A. J. Barton. "Be kind enough not to let anything prevent its coming by that date." (31) She valued thoroughness, promptness, and careful record keeping not only as a courtesy, but also because she approached her work as a professional and expected this from others.

Armstrong's management style reflected the trend of other Protestant women's societies in adapting the practices of the for-profit corporate world to the work of missions. The everyday tasks of WMU took her far beyond the domestic sphere into the increasingly complicated world of business. She supervised secretaries, stenographers, and office girls-including firing them with no hesitation if their work fell below her standards. She managed the payroll and contracted with printers, photographers, and artists to produce leaflets and other publications. The Mission Rooms budget required a thorough knowledge of financial procedures and interaction with the banking industry. And as previously noted, Armstrong had more than a fair grasp of the intricacies of managing large estates when women wanted to give to missions.

The one point of departure that Armstrong made with the rising professionalism of religious work in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century was her refusal to accept a salary for her labor. She was intransigent on the matter, though the mission boards urged her to accept payment. Even when she experienced personal financial hardship, she refused remuneration. Her own family members argued with her about the wisdom of refusing a salary.

   Eugene Levering insisted that I was not looking at things at all in
   the right light; that I had no scriptural grounds for the attitude
   which ! had taken in regard to women's work, namely, no salaried
   officers. He said that the Bible plainly taught the workman is
   worthy of his hire and that those who preach the Gospel shall live
   by the Gospel. That the work that I am doing is parallel to the
   work of a missionary and that the Bible recognizes no difference
   between the man and a woman.

She was not convinced. "So much for Mr. Levering's way of looking at things," she quipped. "[F]or nearly fifteen years I have tried to teach the principle of women giving their work without remuneration, and for me to accept a salary would be inconsistent with these teachings." Consistency, to Armstrong, was sublime. But, it was more than stubbornness. She believed that if WMU workers accepted payment, it would increase WMU's operating budget at the expense of missionaries on the field. "[I]t would open the door for State officers to expect payment for their services ... thereby involving much expense." Furthermore, she understood that accepting a salary would make her more beholden to the boards and jeopardize her freedom. "I know I am peculiarly sensitive to criticism and I have felt that as I was not a salaried officer, I was in a measure independent." (32) Her devotion to missions, thrift, and love of freedom governed her resistance in the matter.

In spite of her opposition to becoming a salaried worker, Annie Armstrong clearly understood the value of her labor. She viewed her work as a "donation" to missions and would probably have listed it as an "in kind" gift if the boards would have allowed it. She gently reminded the Corresponding Secretaries of their good fortune when given the opportunity. "I have decided to disregard the very earnest protest of some that I should not do so much work for the Sunday School Board," she confided to J. M. Frost in 1901, "as your board was perfectly able to pay for having that work done by others, which I have been doing for years, and supply the manuscript as usual." (33) Although she was absolutely correct in all of her reasoning, the freedom to donate their labors to the cause of missions was simply not an option for most women. It was not practical. She won the battle and never accepted a salary personally, but she lost the war. After her retirement, the office of the chief executive officer of WMU became a salaried position.

Armstrong listened to local women and implemented their ideas if she felt they were promising. Nevertheless, under her guidance WMU operated from the top down. This management style is illustrated by a comment Blanche White made in her history of Maryland WMU: "Miss Armstrong suggested that societies over the South plan their monthly programs in accordance with the topics listed on the cards sent from the Baltimore headquarters office." (34) Hence, Armstrong urged every society to adopt uniform programs, which she designed. Local women sent reports to their State Central Committees who sent them to Baltimore. Local women read editorials, pamphlets, and missionary news generated from Baltimore. Local women gave money through campaigns designed in Baltimore and, in so doing, felt they were part of the larger world. Baptist women believed God called them to look beyond local concerns and to join their southern sisters in a global mission. Although local societies of Baptist women maintained their autonomy and generally chose to implement only those programs that appealed to them, they still accepted the leadership of a national organization. As a result, WMU helped to loosen the ties of localism, providing southern women with a broader perspective and paving the way for a stronger denominational structure in the twentieth century.

Public Relations

Annie Armstrong was the point of contact between WMU and the boards and agencies of the convention for eighteen years. The force of her personality shaped the relationship between Baptist women and the male leadership during that time. Even though she affirmed the idea that women should maintain a "separate sphere," she firmly believed that women should control their sphere with an iron fist. Armstrong became such a formidable presence within the Southern Baptist Convention that some called her "Miss Strongarm" rather than Miss Armstrong. (35) She was a determined, driven, persistent, tireless workaholic. Because she felt that it was perfectly within her role as a woman to represent the interests of WMU in furthering the progress of the Gospel, Armstrong bluntly expressed her opinion to the Secretaries of the Foreign, Home, and Sunday School Boards. Her letters were filled with detailed instructions and proposals. Sometimes she offered her opinions as suggestions, but on many occasions she was relentless and uncompromising. J. M. Frost once suggested that she mail a fundraising letter directly to the superintendents of the Sunday Schools from Baltimore on WMU letterhead. "No, no, no!" she responded, continuing her position with these words:

   While I am perfectly willing to do the work for the three boards as
   I offered, I am by no means willing to make the appeal to the
   Sunday Schools. I have already had to bear too much unkind
   criticism for me to be willing to do anything which I consider
   unnecessary and which persons could criticize. (36)

"Which I consider unnecessary" was the key phrase. Armstrong had clear ideas about what ought to be done for the management of the Mission Rooms and for missions in general that for her, took precedence over any social mores. She either ignored, or was entirely unaware, that Victorian gender ideologies might have prevented her from giving orders to the male leadership of the convention. She admitted that she should probably couch her sentiments in more subtle phrases. "I, perhaps, do not weigh my words as carefully as I should when writing to the Secretary of the Boards," Armstrong confessed. However, she expected them to be able to handle whatever she had to say: "I have an idea they know me well enough to appreciate that I would not say or do anything contrary to their wishes, unless I thought it was absolutely necessary, and when this is the case, they will be kind enough to allow me to exercise the right of private judgment without getting annoyed; in other words, we agree to disagree at times." (37)

She would not dare contradict their wishes--unless she thought it was necessary. When this was the case, she expected them to be "kind enough" to acquiesce.

Armstrong respected intelligence and was openly contemptuous of those who failed to make good decisions. In 1904 Armstrong wrote to Frost telling him of the invitation the Baltimore Minister's Conference had extended to the Southern Baptist Convention to meet in their city in 1906. However, the city was still recovering from a devastating fire and the church the men chose was logistically problematic. "The delegates attending the convention would have to go probably a mile or more to find hotels, as there are none in that section of the city. Well, well, well," she mused, "I suppose it shows enterprise, but indeed it seems to me it shows precious little common sense." She attributed the poor decision making to their State Secretary who can, she said, "plan large things," but obviously lacked the sense to implement those plans. (38)

As a quintessential over-achiever, she refused to leave the work of the Mission Rooms unattended, even when she was ill. She confided in J. M Frost more often than the other Secretaries. "I appreciate the force of what you have said in regard to my taking a rest for the sake of the work," she told Frost, "but it is perfectly out of my power to do so. Many and varied duties anchor me just where I am." (39) The following year she expressed the same unrelenting attitude toward her work:

   I have not seen a physician, nor am I willing to consult one, for I
   am perfectly well aware what his advice, if not orders, would be
   and these I cannot follow. When I did at last consent to let my
   family send for a physician during the attack of the Grip I had
   last winter (I refused to see one until I felt I was largely over
   said attack as I knew he would not let me keep on directing the
   work at the Mission Rooms and dictating letters while I was
   suffering so much with my head) he told me that I must during the
   course of the next six months take great care of myself, etc., etc.

But her stubborn dedication to her work was more than duty. "Work to me," she asserted, "as you probably know, is a perfect delight." (40) On a typical day she woke early in the morning to attend her "domestic responsibilities," arrived at the Mission Rooms by 9:00 a.m. and remained there until 6:00 p.m. She confessed that it was difficult for her to sympathize with those who did not attack their work with such enthusiasm. Armstrong's insistence upon perfection made it particularly difficult to keep stenographers and domestic help. "Our domestic machinery has not of late been moving on smoothly--I have had to change servants," she wrote to A. J. Barton. In 1899 she reported to the Secretary of the Foreign Mission Board: "our stenographer is to leave, I am sorry to have to make a change, but I do not think it would have been right to have increased her salary," as was requested. In 1902 she noted: "I have notified the stenographer I would dispense with her services. She is so careless that I can no longer put up with her mistakes." (41)

Armstrong did not "suffer fools gladly"; neither did she overlook a slight. She had a nasty temper when she was crossed, and her apologies more often served to justify her position rather than express remorse. If she felt that the WMU had not received the deference the women deserved, she could be extremely terse. Her initial dealings with the secretary of the Foreign Mission Board, W. J. Willingham, were anything but smooth. When he accepted the role near the end of 1893, he sent her a letter suggesting that he visit Baltimore to have a "free, easy talk" about the work of WMU and the Mission Rooms. However, he did not visit as soon as she had planned and when he finally did make his way to Baltimore, the meeting was rushed and interrupted. On January 19, 1894, Armstrong wrote Willingham a blistering letter-often referring to him and to herself in the third person. She used the opportunity to remind him of the financial importance of WMU. "I did offer to come to Richmond if it was impossible for you to come to Baltimore, but it does seem a little strange that it is necessary for me to do this when the Cor. Sec. of the Foreign Board can take long trips to various State Associations, occupying days, when the money receipts from those States may be only a few thousand dollars and certainly not requiring the immense amount of work to secure same as is necessary to obtain the offerings made by Woman's Mission Societies." She insisted that he must come to Baltimore in order to confer with her, the Con Sec. of WMU, unless he did not think their work was important enough for the trip.

   I would now close by asking if you think I have been unreasonable
   in requesting that the Secretary of the Foreign Board should come
   to Baltimore at this time and remain sufficiently long to
   familiarize himself with the work being done for foreign missions
   by the W. M.U. and the Mission Rooms, and to let those who have
   these branches of the work in hand have the satisfaction of knowing
   his wishes so mistakes may not occur ... Should Dr. Willingham
   think that other work is more important and he cannot in justice to
   it spare the time to come to Baltimore, if he will let me know I
   will then consider if it would be well for me to leave the work at
   the Mission Rooms long enough to come to Richmond. (42)

He wrote her an equally blunt response that infuriated her even further. He told her he had given her "more time than any other one person, not in this office, since I have begun the work." She was outraged. "I do not consider that Dr. Willingham has given me one fraction of a second of his time since he has been Cor. Sec. of the Foreign Board," she fumed in response. "He has taken the time necessary to write ... 25 letters, 5 postals, and send one telegram, and have two hurried conversations with her." In that same amount of time (about four months), she continued, "I have had to send out 11,997 letters and 659 postals (this does not include the correspondence from the Mission Rooms)." She concluded with the remark that this had all been done "to advance the cause of foreign missions," and "it certainly does not place Dr. Willingham under any personal obligation." She let it be known clearly that "this work in which we are engaged, I do not regard as Dr. Willingham's work or the work of the Woman's Missionary Union. It is to me God's work." Annie Armstrong worked for God, not anyone else. (43)

The Corresponding Secretary of the Home Mission Board also received abrupt letters from Armstrong. In 1899 I. T. Tichenor solicited opinions from leading Baptists concerning the work of the Home Mission Board--suggestions for improvements or change. He made the critical mistake of not asking Annie Armstrong for her opinion directly, but instead asked her to send her suggestions to a "Mr. Dunson." She refused. "It is quite evident that the Board does not desire any expression of opinion on that subject from the Corresponding Secretary, W.M.U.," she wrote, even though the WMU had given one third of the receipts of the Home Mission Board the previous year. She went on to say she was surprised that he had not bothered to contact her, but instead contacted a State Secretary who was not doing "one tithe" the work of the WMU. So, he obviously did not really value her opinion on the subject. (44)

Even her closest associates felt the sting of her temper from time to time. In 1900 Armstrong extended an invitation for J. M. Frost to stay with her family on a visit to Baltimore. He replied that he wanted to "establish other centers of acquaintance" while he was in the area. In other words, he wanted to stay somewhere else. Armstrong wrote him on October 8 and said, "I shall never again embarrass you by extending an invitation to our home," then went on with her business letter. Apparently, he wrote her back chastising her for her nasty response. "While I cannot truthfully withdraw one thing that I said with the letter," she replied, "yet I now see that I ought to have had more regard to your and Dr. Van Ness' feelings ... I can now ask that you will excuse me for writing as I did on October 8th." (45) She must have offended Frost earlier in the year because in February she wrote: "It occurred to me as I read your letter of February 10th ... that you felt a little hurt after receiving the one which I wrote you February 8th. I hope this was not the case, but if it was and you deem an apology necessary, please consider that it is offered." (46)

Although she seemed unaware that her apologies were half-hearted, she knew she had trouble controlling her temper. "My own temper has been in quite an explosive state of late," she wrote to A. J. Barton, "and I have had so much difficulty in preventing others from discovering it." (47) Apparently the secret was already out. T. P. Bell had written to J. M. Frost in December of 1897, mystified about what he might have done to offend her. "As to the matter between Miss Annie and myself, I am in perfect ignorance of any cause of offense that she could have had against me." He went on to explain to Frost that he had "at her request" spent an entire afternoon "revising a manuscript" of a speech he had given. Then, he made all the changes she asked him to make, even when he did not think they were necessary changes. Nevertheless, "she just simply cooled, quit writing to me ... I am not going to bother about the matter, but let it work itself out. She gets in those fits occasionally and then gets out of them." (48) This was a gross miscalculation on his part. Armstrong did not easily change her mind about anything.

The letter reveals more important information than the news that Armstrong was mad at T. R Bell. His letter illustrates how he responded to her requests. He did exactly what she told him to do. This seems to be the way the Secretaries of the Board generally responded to Armstrong. They followed her instructions. Frost even joked that he was "following in her wake." She devised new programs, literature, features, and columns in their publications. She identified women who wished to be missionaries and located areas that needed mission work. When missionaries wrote to her, she listened to their requests--particularly those of the women--and made every effort to supply their needs. More importantly, Armstrong could deliver the funds to implement the programs she believed in. For example, when she heard that a women's circle in a church in Norfolk had pledged to raise $375.00 for Lottie Moon's school in China, Armstrong led the WMU to "secure the money needed for all the schools in foreign countries." She wrote A. J. Willingham that "I am quite sure the plan will work well and I hope to be able to get the $14,000.00 needed for the school work largely from sources that heretofore gave very little, if anything, to Foreign Missions." (49) She did not say what those sources were, but Armstrong had already demonstrated her ability to locate untapped sources of revenue. It was this uncanny ability and her keen mind in general that earned her the respect of the male leadership and compelled them to do her bidding.

Armstrong resigned from WMU in 1906 over the last in a series of conflicts with WMU president Fannie E. S. Heck. Armstrong and Heck clashed over numerous issues, mostly because of their equally strong personalities. Both wished to control the programs and plans of WMU, and neither cared to compromise. It seems that Heck was one of the few people who attempted to weaken Armstrong's hold on the Union. Heck managed to irritate the Corresponding Secretary early on by failing to respond to her letters and turning in reports after Armstrong's deadlines. Reading between the lines, it is easy to see that Fannie Heck did not think her job as president entailed rubber stamping Armstrong's agendas or demurely taking orders.

In May of 1898 Fannie Heck requested that Armstrong send her the Executive Committee agendas in advance of the monthly meetings so that she could respond to issues in writing. Since Heck lived in Raleigh and could not attend each meeting in Baltimore, she felt this was a fair request. Armstrong wrote her back with a quote from the WMU constitution stating that in the absence of the President, "the Vice-President of the State where the committee is located shall take her place." In other words, if she could not come to the meetings personally, they would carry on without her. Armstrong had no intention of allowing the President of WMU to shape the course of the Executive Committee meetings. Both women appealed to the Cor. Sec. of the Mission Boards for advice. Heck asked R. J. Willingham to reason with Armstrong. "Do you think," inquired Heck, "knowing her as you do, that this would have any effect other than to cause her to overawe the committee with a threat to resign the care of the whole work if her will is disputed, a threat she has used in time past on one or more occasion?" (50)

Ultimately, Armstrong called for a judge to interpret the constitution and arbitrate the dispute. The judge sided with Armstrong on the technical interpretation of the by-law, but urged her to supply the agendas out of Christian courtesy. As a compromise, Armstrong sent Heck the Executive Committee meeting minutes each month. Heck ignored her. "Not once during the course of the year has Miss Heck made the slightest acknowledgement of receiving the 'Minutes,'" Armstrong complained to I. T. Tichenor. Heck refused to respond to letters or conduct any business with Armstrong. The relationship became so strained that Armstrong finally declared "if Miss Heck will not resign, I must." (51) Fannie Heck did resign the office of President of WMU in 1899 in response to pressure from Armstrong.

In 1906 Annie Armstrong lost a battle with Fannie Heck and other WMU leaders over the establishment of a woman's missionary training school. Armstrong opposed it while many supported the establishment of such a school in Louisville, Kentucky. The Corresponding Secretary felt betrayed because the women had engaged in what she perceived as "political wire pulling" in their efforts to garner support for the school on the state level without her knowledge. When it became clear that Fannie Heck would be re-elected president, it was the last straw. Annie Armstrong resigned as Corresponding Secretary of WMU in 1906 and never again held a WMU office--nationally nor locally. (52)

In her last months in office, Armstrong worked more feverishly than before to leave things in good order. In addition to the routine work of the Mission Rooms, she endeavored to complete several key projects. One long-awaited dream was realized with the opening of the Margaret Home for the children of missionaries in Greenville, South Carolina. Because of the difficulty in securing an education for their children on certain mission fields, the Margaret Home provided a safe place for children to attend high school and college in the United States. Armstrong also introduced an "apportionment plan" using quotas for state committees--an idea that had been used with some success by Methodist women. (53) Two final capital campaigns occupied her last hours in office. First, she launched plans to fulfill a request of the Foreign Mission Board for $3,000 to add a new ward to a Baptist hospital in China. Second, she redoubled her efforts to discharge an earlier WMU commitment of $20,000 for the Tichenor Memorial Church Building and Loan Fund. (54)

During Armstrong's tenure WMU developed from a gathering of 32 delegates in 1888 to an entity representing thousands of Southern Baptist women from more than 20,000 churches. When her tenure was completed she handed over the reins of an organization with 4,387 state women's societies; 1,500 Sunbeam Bands for Children; and 618 Young Women's Auxiliaries. From 1888 to 1906, annual mission receipts more than doubled and the WMU operating revenue grew from $400 to $8,187. (55) WMU had become a finetuned network of women, with strong avenues of communication, capable of raising large sums of money in relatively short periods of time.

In addition to a tightly organized corporate structure, Annie Armstrong left another legacy to WMU. She consistently celebrated the contributions of women and insisted that women could be powerful if they worked together. One of her favorite mottos for WMU was "in union is strength." Armstrong reminded the Union that before women's mission societies were formed, women's abilities were largely "undeveloped." Yet because of WMU, "numbers of thoughtful women can now testify to a new estimate of life and its responsibilities; a better understanding of all Christian service, and closer fellowship with Christ." (56) Armstrong believed that the work of Christian service involved the development of women's talents. She called "thoughtful" women to take the Gospel more seriously, and she believed this would require them to take responsibility for their own lives and to take themselves more seriously. It might be tempting to dismiss Armstrong's appeal for women to mobilize and use their power as merely a means to her missionary ends--since she never publicly endorsed suffrage or made any appeals for the rights of women in general. But that assessment misses something of Annie Armstrong's character and the depth of her religious belief. Annie Armstrong was convinced that women had been conscripted into "Royal Service" for the most important work she could imagine. The core of her conviction was that God called women--to think, to work, to plan, to organize, to raise money, and to go to the ends of the earth on his behalf.

(1) Elizabeth Marshall Evans, Annie Armstrong (Birmingham, AL: Woman's Missionary Union, 1963), 8.

(2) Fannie Exile Scudder Heck, In Royal Service (Richmond, VA: Foreign Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convenion, 1913), 139-40.

(3) See Susan M. Yohn, "'Let Christian Women Set the Example in Their Own Gifts': The 'Business' of Protestant Women's Organizations," in Women and Twentieth-Century Protestantism, Margaret Lamberts Bendroth and Virginia Lieson Brereton, eds. (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2002): 213-35.

(4) Catherine Allen, A Century to Celebrate: History of Woman's Missionary Union (Birmingham, AL: Woman's Missionary Union, 1987), 482-87 passim. Allen provides a chart of WMU contributions in the back of her centennial history of WMU. I have included the box contribution amounts in my totals.

(5) Evans, Annie Armstrong, 9-10.

(6) Shannon Baker, "Following in the Footsteps of Annie Armstrong in Baltimore," Baptist Life: News journal of the Baptist Convention of Maryland/Delaware (March 2006): 1, 6; Harriett S. Levering, "A Sketch of Miss Annie," The Window of Y.W.A. (March 1935): 9-10, 32.

(7) Heck, Service, 139-40.

(8) Blanche Sydnor White, Our Heritage: History of Woman's Missionary Union, Auxiliary to the Maryland Baptist Union Association 1742-1958 (Baltimore: Woman's Missionary Union of Maryland, 1959), 37. See also Loyd Allen, You Are a Great People: Maryland/Delaware Baptists, 1742-1998 (Franklin, TN: Providence House Publishers, 2000), 139-40.

(9) Heck, Service, 141.

(10) White, Our Heritage, 37.

(11) Alice Armstrong, "WMU, SBC 1888-1898," 12. Pamphlet in Annie Armstrong Box 2 Women's Missionary Union Archives (WMUA), Birmingham, Alabama.

(12) Evans, Annie Armstrong.

(13) In 1985, periodical sales constituted 62% of WMU's 8.6 million dollar budget. In 2005, WMU reported a combined income of periodical subscriptions and literatures sales of more than 9.7 million dollars--80% of the organization's revenue for that year. See Allen, Century, 498-505.

(14) Alice Armstrong, "WMU, Auxiliary to SBC, 1888-1898," 7. Pamphlet in Annie Armstrong Box 2, WMUA.

(15) Keith Harper edited and compiled many of Armstrong's letters in Rescue the Perishing: Selected Correspondence of Annie Armstrong (Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 2004).

(16) Annie Armstrong to R. M. Inlow (January 15, 1903), in Harper, Rescue, 120.

(17) Yohn' "The Business of Protestant Women's Organizations," 214-15. Elizabeth Marshall Evans made the suggestion that I. T. Tichenor influenced Armstrong in this way. Evans, Annie Armstrong, 177.

(18) Helen Barrett Montgomery, Western Women in Eastern Lands (McMillan, 1910), 38.

(19) Alice Armstrong, "WMU, SBC, 1888-1898," 12.

(20) Annie Armstrong, "Women as Helpers in God's Kingdom," 12. Annie Armstrong Papers, Woman's Missionary Union Archives, Birmingham, Alabama.

(21) Montgomery, Western Women, 38.

(22) Alice Armstrong, "WMU, SBC, 1888-1898," 12.

(23) White, Our Heritage, 45.

(24) Annie Armstrong to I.T. Tichenor (June 24, 1899) in Harper, Rescue, 104.

(25) Annie Armstrong to I. T. Tichenor (September 7, 1899) in Harper, Rescue,109.

(26) Annie Armstrong, "Women as Helpers," 9.

(27) Annie Armstrong to J. M Frost (July 1, 1901) in Harper, Rescue, 79.

(28) SBC Annual Report, "WMU Report," (1913), 65.

(29) Annie Armstrong to J. M. Frost (April 21, 1899) in Harper, Rescue, 28.

(30) Annie Armstrong to I. T. Tichenor (June 24, 1899) in Harper, Rescue, 105; Annie Armstrong to R. J. Willingham (March 7, 1899) in Harper, Rescue, 25.

(31) Annie Armstrong to A. J. Barton (1899) in Harper, Rescue, 60.

(32) Annie Armstrong to E. E. Bomar (November 17, 1902) in Harper, Rescue, 13-15.

(33) Annie Armstrong to J. M. Frost (1901) in Harper, Rescue, 24.

(34) White, Our Heritage, 47.

(35) Allen, Century, 181.

(36) Annie Armstrong to J. M. Frost (December 30, 1903) in Harper, Rescue, 9.

(37) Annie Armstrong to J. M. Frost (February 14, 1900) in Harper, Rescue, 63.

(38) Annie Armstrong to J. M. Frost (April 13, 1904) in Harper, Rescue, 260.

(39) Annie Armstrong to J. M. Frost (September 1, 1898) in Harper, Rescue, 55.

(40) Annie Armstrong to J. M. Frost (April 21, 1899) in Harper, Rescue, 29.

(41) Annie Armstrong to A. J. Barton (September 3, 1898): Armstrong to R. J. Willingham (Jan. 24, 1899); Armstrong to R. J. Willingham (July 5, 1902) in Harper, Rescue, 57, 59, 69.

(42) Annie Armstrong to R. J. Willingham (January 19, 1894), WMU Archives, Birmingham, Alabama.

(43) Annie Armstrong to R. J. Willingham (January 27, 1894), WMU Archives, Birmingham, Alabama.

(44) Annie Armstrong to I. T. Tichenor (May 31, 1899) in Harper, Rescue, 238-39.

(45) Annie Armstrong to J. M. Frost (October 8, 1900); Armstrong to Frost (October 9?, 1900); in Harper, Rescue, 61-62.

(46) Annie Armstrong to J. M. Frost (February 14, 1900) in Harper, Rescue, 63.

(47) Annie Armstrong to A. J. Barton (1899) in Harper, Rescue, 60.

(48) T. P. Bell to J. M. Frost (December 23, 1897) in Harper, Rescue, 64.

(49) Annie Armstrong to R. J. Willingham (November 10, 1903) in Harper, Rescue, 113.

(50) Fannie Heck to R. J. Willingham (May 25, 1898) in Harper, Rescue, 187.

(51) Annie Armstrong to I. T. Tichenor (April 8, 1899) in Harper, Rescue, 195; Armstrong to R. J. Willingham (February 7, 1899) in Harper, Rescue, 202.

(52) Annie Armstrong to R. J. Willingham (April 26, 1905), WMU Archives, Birmingham, Alabama. One of her biographers argued that she withdrew from WMU entirely because

she believed her presence created conflict. She was criticized harshly in Baptist papers during her last term in office. The WMU executive board rushed to her defense adding to the furor. Armstrong concluded that "it will cause friction should I take part in the work at any point." Evans, Annie Armstrong, 179.

(53) Evans, Annie Armstrong, 176.

(54) Ibid.

(55) SBC Annual Report of 1913; Catherine Allen compiled comprehensive financial charts for the centennial history of WMU, Century, 482-506.

(56) Annie Armstrong, Women as Helpers in God's Kingdom (1900), 11. WMU Archives, Birmingham, Alabama.

Carol Crawford Holcomb is associate professor of church history and Baptist studies at University of Mary Hardin-Baylor, Belton, Texas.