Cora E. Simpson

Cora Simpson was born near Oberlin, Kansas, the daughter of George Mathew Simpson and Rhoda Rosina Simpson.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/38342390/cora_e_simpson_1907/|title=Guide Rock|date=November 21, 1907|work=Omaha Daily Bee|access-date=November 2, 2019|page=3|via=Newspapers.com}} She trained as a nurse at the Nebraska Deaconess Hospital in Omaha,{{Cite journal|date=July 1906|title=Omaha, Neb.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r3IXAQAAIAAJ&q=Cora+E.+Simpson&pg=PA46|journal=The Trained Nurse and Hospital Review|volume=37|pages=45–46}} with further training in Chicago, and courses in public health nursing at Simmons College in Boston.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6Mh1DQAAQBAJ&q=Cora+Eliza+Simpson&pg=PA73|title=Redemption and Revolution: American and Chinese New Women in the Early Twentieth Century|last=Sasaki|first=Motoe|date=2016-10-18|publisher=Cornell University Press|isbn=9781501706813|pages=73–77}}

Her youngest sister, Mabel Ellen Simpson, followed her into nursing and missionary work in Asia. Mabel Simpson spent thirteen years as a Methodist nurse in India before she married in 1939.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/38343724/mabel_e_simpson_1933/|title=Methodist Mission Convention Opens|date=October 13, 1933|work=The Lincoln Star|access-date=November 2, 2019|page=15|via=Newspapers.com}}

Simpson joined the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church,{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XzfxnlfFPMMC&q=Cora+E.+Simpson&pg=PA253|title=Terror in Minnie Vautrin's Nanjing: Diaries and Correspondence, 1937-38|last=Vautrin|first=Minnie|date=2008|publisher=University of Illinois Press|isbn=9780252033322|pages=253, note 11}} and was a missionary in China from 1907 until 1944.{{Cite web|url=http://www.workingnurse.com/articles/Cora-Simpson-Missionary-Nurse-in-China|title=Cora Simpson: Missionary Nurse in China|last=Hanink|first=Elizabeth|website=Working Nurse|access-date=2019-11-02}} She founded and ran the Florence Nightingale School of Nursing in Fuzhou.{{Cite journal|last=Jamme|first=Anna C.|date=May 1923|title=Nursing Education in China|journal=The American Journal of Nursing|volume=23|issue=8|pages=666–675|doi=10.2307/3406837|jstor=3406837}} and was superintendent at the Magaw Memorial Hospital and Nurses' Home.{{Cite news|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EafNAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Cora+E.+Simpson%22&pg=PA37|title=God Has Us On His Heart|last=Simpson|first=Cora E.|date=October 1923|work=Woman's Missionary Friend|page= |access-date=November 2, 2019|pages=353–354}}{{Cite journal|last=Yuhong|first=Jiang|date=2017-01-10|title=Shaping modern nursing development in China before 1949|journal=International Journal of Nursing Sciences|series=Development and Inheritance|volume=4|issue=1|pages=19–23|doi=10.1016/j.ijnss.2016.12.009|issn=2352-0132|pmc=6626073|pmid=31406712}} "When I came to China I was told that China did not need and was not ready for nurses," she wrote in 1913. "After a day in the hospital and a few visits out into the homes, I decided there were few things that China did need as much as nurses."{{Cite journal|last=Simpson|first=Cora E.|date=December 1913|title=Does China Need Nurses?|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Xf1LAQAAMAAJ&q=Cora+E.+Simpson+nurse+China&pg=PA191|journal=The American Journal of Nursing|volume=14|pages=191–194}} In 1911, 1917-1918 and 1926-1927, she spent time on furlough, speaking about her work at churches and to other community groups.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/38342204/cora_e_simpson_1911/|title=Untitled news item|date=May 11, 1911|work=The Red Cloud Chief|access-date=November 2, 2019|page=1|via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/38342034/cora_e_simpson_1917/|title=Missionary|date=April 11, 1917|work=The Bedford Daily Democrat|access-date=November 2, 2019|page=2|via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/38341685/cora_e_simpson_1918/|title=Missionary Speaks|date=February 22, 1918|work=The South Bend Tribune|access-date=November 2, 2019|page=16|via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/38343523/cora_e_simpson_1926/|title=Nurses to Hear Noted Speakers at Conference|date=October 2, 1926|work=The Capital Times|access-date=November 2, 2019|page=9|via=Newspapers.com}}

Simpson was a co-founder{{Cite journal|last=Watt|first=John|date=2004|title=Breaking into Public Service: The Development of Nursing in Modern China, 1870-1949|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FrHSCgAAQBAJ&q=Simpson+nurses+China&pg=PA67|journal=Nursing History Review|volume=12|pages=69–71|doi=10.1891/1062-8061.12.1.67|isbn=9780826114655|s2cid=28773716|url-access=subscription}}{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/outlinesnursing01goodgoog|quote=Simpson nurses China.|title=Outlines of Nursing History|last=Goodnow|first=Minnie|date=1916|publisher=Saunders|pages=[https://archive.org/details/outlinesnursing01goodgoog/page/n270 258]|language=en}} and, later, general secretary of the Nurses' Association of China (N. A. C.).{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aHJfmWjTiBUC&q=Cora+E.+Simpson&pg=PA114|title=Healing Henan: Canadian Nurses at the North China Mission, 1888-1947|last=Grypma|first=Sonya|date=2008|publisher=UBC Press|isbn=9780774858212|pages=113–114}}{{Cite journal|last=Lin|first=Evelyn|date=January 1938|title=Nursing in China|journal=The American Journal of Nursing|volume=38|issue=1|pages=1–8|doi=10.2307/3413602|jstor=3413602}} She represented the association at international nursing conferences in Finland in 1925{{Cite journal|date=May 1924|title=Personal Mention|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EafNAAAAMAAJ&q=Cora+E.+Simpson&pg=RA1-PA168|journal=Woman's Missionary Friend|volume=38|pages=168}} and in France in 1933. She wrote about her early experiences in China in a memoir, A Joy Ride Through China for the N. A. C. (1926).{{Cite book|title=A joy ride through China for the N.A.C.|last=Simpson|first=Cora E|date=1926|publisher=Kwang Hsueh Pub. House|location=Shanghai|language=en|oclc=34951971}} In 1947, she was named N. A. C.'s general secretary emeritus, in honor of her lifetime of service.

Simpson returned to the United States in 1945, and settled in Michigan.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/38344405/cora_e_simpson_1945/|title=Miss Simpson Will Address Religion Rally|date=April 21, 1945|work=Detroit Free Press|access-date=November 2, 2019|page=7|via=Newspapers.com}} She lectured about her time in China in her later years,{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/38343054/cora_e_simpson_1945/|title=Lecture on China|date=May 19, 1945|work=The Escanaba Daily Press|access-date=November 2, 2019|page=9|via=Newspapers.com}} and died in 1960, in Chelsea, Michigan, aged 80 years. She is remembered by nursing historians as "a key contributor to modern nursing in China".

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Category:1880 births

Category:1960 deaths

Category:American Christian missionaries

Category:American nurses

Category:American women nurses

Category:People from Oberlin, Kansas

Category:Woman's Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church