This cover was sent to Dr. Julia Lore, American Mission, Moradabad, N.W.P., India and the blue on blue paper One Shilling laureate of Victoria was cancelled with a duplex of MELBOURNE/ 1K/ DC 30/ 74 with VICTORIA as the obliterator (Figure 1).
The reverse had two transit marks, the first a circular cancel of IM/ BOMBAY/ 26 JA, the second an octagonal cancel for ALLAHABAD/ 28 JAN, and a third was a circular reception cancel for MOORADABAD/ JA 30 (Figure 2).
The internet was a poor source of information on her for the only clues for her identity were found at the Auburn Methodist Church Members Record Summary 1875-1885, as follows: ‘Lore, Julia A. Married Mr. McGrew, a missionary in India’.
An inquiry at the Journal of the American Medical Association provided additional information: ‘Lore McGrew, Anna Julia graduated in 1873 from the University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, Dept. of Medicine and Surgery with an MD degree’.
A request for information on Anna Julia Lore at the Bentley Historical Library, The University of Michigan provided considerably more information which had been collected by the Office of Alumni Records on deceased University alumni. She was born on 17 June 1849 in Buenos Aires, Brazil and she did receive her MD degree in 1873, and in 1874 up to 1883 she was a medical missionary in India, under the auspices of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
She married the Reverend George Harrison McGrew (place uncertain, in India) and he had studied at the Drew Theological Seminary, Madison New Jersey in 1876. They had 3 children, one of whom provided her documentation was a son, Dallas D.L. McGrew. After returning to America she lived in Cleveland, Ohio and her husband was the rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Cleveland.
She gave up her medical work after she returned to America from India. She lived for several years in New York, as well later in Washington D.C., where she died on 5 February 1942, aged 92 years and was buried at Kingwood Cemetery, West Virginia. The only other piece of information about her was on a form stamped ‘MILITARY’, where she was described as a Member of the Committee of Women Physicians, the National Council of Defense, October 1918.
The Methodist Church in India is one of the mainline churches in India to-day. Methodist work in India started with the arrival of the first missionaries from the American Methodist Episcopal Church. The Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States was formed in 1819, and from 1832 it started sending missionaries abroad. John P. Durbin was a pioneer in his vision of starting Methodist missions in India. The General Conference gave its approval to launch missionary work in India in 1852, and in 1856 sent its first missionaries to India, Dr. And Mrs. William Butler. The Butlers began their missionary work in 2 areas, Lucknow and the Bareilly district which included, Moradabad. The position of Moradabad in the State of Uttar Pradesh is seen in Figure 3.
I wish to acknowledge the assistance of Marie Cunningham at the Bentley Library, University of Michigan.
Addendum 1: Cheryl Oestreicher, Drew University Archives, Madison NJ supplied the following information on George Harrison McGrew on July 5, 2007 and I will quote her verbatim:
Was born May 19, 1946, at Kingswood, Va.; was converted at the age of seventeen; A.B., Wesleyan University, 1870; A.M., Wesleyan University, 1873; LL.B., Harvard Law School, 1873; B.D., Drew Theological Seminary, 1876; D.D., —–; entered the North India Conference, 1876; appointments: ’76, ’77, Moradabad, India; ’78, ’79, Bareilly, India; ’80-’85, Cawnpore, India; ’86, transferred to the New York East Conference; ’89-’91; St. Paul’s, New York City; ’92, Supernumerary; ’92, entered the Protestant Episcopal Church; ’93-’95, missionary in connection with St. Bartholomew’s, New York City; address, 209 East Forty-second Street, New York; published: 1882, “Systematic Theology” in Hindustani; 1885, second edition of the same; member of the Revision Committee of the Hindi New Testament (1884, Matthew; 1885, Mark; later, Romans); 1891 (with R.S. MacArthur, C.S. Robinson, and others), “Why I Am what I Am”; married Miss Julia Lore, M.D., Moradabad, India, Sept. 11, 1876. The bolding is mine, for these areas are of special interest.
Addendum 2: I am indebted to Kevin Newburg (Assistant Reference Archivist, General Commission on Archives and History, Madison, New Jersey) for the wonderful undated picture of a young Julia Lore seen in Figure 4.