Isabella Ruth Eakin Dodd, from her 1923 passport application
Born
Isabella Ruth Eakin
June 26, 1861
Rose Point, Pennsylvania
Died
July 4, 1937 (age 76)
Johnstown, Pennsylvania
Other names
Belle Eakin Dodd
Occupation(s)
Presbyterian missionary, translator, writer
Spouse
William Clifton Dodd
Relatives
John Anderson Eakin (brother)
Isabella Ruth Eakin Dodd (June 26, 1861 – July 4, 1937) was an
American Presbyterian missionary in fields located in present-day Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and China.
Eakin began as a Presbyterian missionary in North Siam (now Laos, Myanmar, and Thailand) in 1887, following her older brother
John Anderson Eakin [
th],[2] her older sister Elizabeth, and other relatives in their similar work in the region.[3] With her husband, Dodd opened a mission at
Lamphun near
Chiang Mai in 1891, from 1904 to 1907 ran a mission in
Kengtung,[4] and in 1917 opened a mission station in
Yunnan Province,[5] considered "the most remote station of the Presbyterian mission".[1]
Isabella Ruth Eakin Dodd and William Clifton Dodd, from a 1917 publication
Dodd wrote several articles about her work for American periodicals, especially Woman's Work.[6][7][8] She finished the book that she began with her husband, The Tai Race: Elder Brother of the Chinese (1923),[9] and translated the
Gospel of Matthew into a
Tai dialect. She retired from the mission field in 1928.[1]
The Tai Race: Elder Brother of the Chinese (1923, with William Clifton Dodd)[9]
Personal life
Eakin married fellow missionary
William Clifton Dodd [
Wikidata] in 1889. They adopted a daughter, Leila Marie, in 1898. Her husband died in 1919, and she died in 1937, at the age of 76, in
Johnstown, Pennsylvania.[1] She was remembered as a notable former member when Clintonville Presbyterian Church held its centennial in 1941.[3]