e-mail to escribe: http://www.escribe.com/genealogy/slauter/m135.html
I would like to acknowledge with gratitude, the help given by the
Free Methodists, especially Ms. Fortner, who is in charge of the
archives in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Orrie Emma Wood, also called Kitty, was the daughter of the Rev.
Levi Wood of Lockport, New York. She married my grandfather's
brother. Very little was known about the strange American lady
who had joined the family. The only clue was that she was a Free
Methodist. With the help of an Internet search engine, I traced
the Free Methodist headquarters and was referred to Ms. Fortner.
She was kind enough to send me so much information about Kitty
that I was able to compile a little biography about her. It was
a sad but fascinating story. This is a brief account of it.
Kitty was born and educated in Lockport, New York. Her father,
the Rev. Levi Wood, was one of the pioneers of the Free Methodist
church. Kitty sailed to the East with a group of 30 missionaries
in 1867. On her arrival in Ceylon, in order to communicate better
with the people, she decided to study Tamil, and her tutor was
Gate Mudaliar K.C. Barr Kumarakulasinghe, who held a high position
in the office of the governor, Sir West Ridgeway. They fell in
love and married and had three children. Unfortunately K.C.B. died
at the early age of 46, when he contracted a severe illness in the
Maldive Islands on an administrative trip with the governor.
Wishing to educate the children in the United States, Kitty
decided to return home to New York, but tragedy overtook her. Two
of her children died of diphtheria on the long voyage back and
were buried at sea. The youngest died on arrival in New York. To
add to her sorrows, Kitty's father, too, had died before she got
home. The grief-stricken Kitty returned to Ceylon and started an
orphanage and school in partnership with the Rev. Arthur Paynter.
Kitty died in Ceylon in 1926, and is buried there. I had the good
fortune to visit her grave and the orphanage last year.
Richard J. Kanagasundaram <rgkanagasundaram@xtra.co.nz>
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