Uplifting Faith Stories of Young Women: Ida Scudder

Ida Sophia Scudder was born in Ranipet, India in 1870 to a family with a legacy of medical missionaries. Her parents were missionaries in India, and Ida witnessed the devastating truth of poverty and famine in her childhood. And she couldn't do anything about it.

Ida swore never to set foot in India's rusty brown soil ever again and returned to America with her family, where she dreamed of marrying and settling down. Her father and mother soon returned to India and she was left with her uncle and aunt in Chicago.

Soon after she left for Northfield Seminary, where she enjoyed several years of friends and mischief. I'm never going back, she thought to herself as he father described the 100-degree weather and hours of work.

That all changed in 1890 when a telegram arrived. Come immediately. Your mother ill and needs you.

Ida set sail for India with her brother and arrived in September. Her life soon fell into a routine of helping her father in the medical clinic, organizing supplies, and enjoying time with her mother, who soon recovered from her illness. Ida dreaded the moment when she would have to tell her mother she was returning home soon. That would soon change.

Ida sat up late at night, the candlelight flickering in the darkness, writing a letter to her friend Annie. As the pen scritch-scratched across the page, she heard a faint cough outside of the door. She pulled open the door and was greeted by a Brahman man(a member of the highest castle among Indian Hindus).

"Please," he pleaded, "my wife is giving birth, but it is not going well. Please come and help her, or she may die!"

Ida tried to soothe him. "Come, I will take you to my father, the doctor. He will help her."

The man shook his head. "No man can see her. If you will not come, all is lost. Thank you for your time."

With that, he walked off despairingly. Ida closed the door to her room, angered. What kind of selfishness didn't allow a woman to live? This was everything she hated about India all over again.

She returned to her writing, wiping back an angry tear, when she heard a knock at the door. A Muslim man repeated the exact situation. Not a moment after she closed the door for the second time, another Hindu man arrived, begging for her help. Once again he shook his head and said that only a woman could see his wife.

Ida didn't sleep a wink that night, and the morning brought the news that all three women had died in childbirth.

Ida resolved that something could be done, and, returning to America, she enrolled in Cornell University Medical School and graduated from the first class allowing women.​

In 1902, thanks to generous donations, fervent prayer, and dedicated effort, the Mary Schell Memorial Hospital was opened. Ida was known throughout the country as a compassionate doctor who would treat anyone, regardless of money or religion.

She went on to found a nursing school and medical school for women (and later men) in Vellore, an almost unheard-of thing at the time.

Ida went to live with the Lord in 1960.

Ida Scudder was an incredible woman who persevered through everything, trusting God and never giving it up. She is a wonderful example of how God guides our lives and works everything out for good.

“First ponder then dare." ~Ida Scudder