Twenty Years Among the Mexicans, A Narrative of Missionary Labor
Cincinnati: Chase & Hall, 1875. Second edition. 8vo. 214 pp. Bound in original brown publisher's cloth, title in gilt on spine and front cover. Corners slightly bumped, shelf-wear. Textblock slightly tanned; front endleaf excised; cloth turn-in on lower cover slightly lifting. Bookplate of Dorothy and Clinton Josey. Good. Item #3910
¶ SECOND, MOST COMPLETE EDITION of this little-known account of Presbyterian missionary life in Texas and Mexico, written by a New England woman, likely the first Protestant woman missionary in Latin America.
¶ Melinda Rankin (1811-1888) opens her narrative with a move to Huntsville, TX in 1850 where she subsequently worked at the Huntsville Female Academy. Although laws in Mexico at the time forbade the introduction of any form of Protestantism into the country, Rankin traveled there in 1852 and established the first Protestant mission in Northern Mexico. She later traveled to and lived in Brownsville, TX where she developed a school for Mexican children, then to Monterrey, Mexico shortly after the end of the American Civil War. She established a second school in Monterrey, partnering with local congregations to evangelize the mestizo population in the vicinity. She later returned to the United States due to health problems. All in all, Rankin helped to establish fourteen different congregations, all of which were eventually incorporated into the Presbyterian Church. This narrative describes not just Rankin's missionary labors, but also many dramatic events in Texas and Mexico including revolutionary turmoil, the American Civil War, and her capture by the notorious military leader, rancher and outlaw, Juan Cortina.
¶ Although not stated on the title-page, this is the second edition with additional material following p. 199, namely an important account of "another violent outbreak of persecution against Protestantism in Mexico" (pp. 201-214).
¶ From the Dorothy Sloan Collection of Women in the West.
¶ Decker 4:480; Howes 64n; Ramos 3965; Sabin 67885. Howes erroneously states that this is a reprint of Rankin's Texas book published in 1850; it is, in fact, a separate book.
Price: $100.00