Arabella Anderson was the daughter of James McL. and Arabella
Moreland Anderson, who emigrated from Belfast about 1847. They
settled at Waterford, New York, and promptly identified themselves
with the Presbyterian Church. They brought an infant son with them;
another son and three daughters were born to them in their new
home. Arabella was the eldest daughter, having been born Nov. 26,
1848. After elementary instruction in the local school she spent
a year in a nearby academy. At the age of twelve she united with
the Church. Her desire to become a foreign missionary was largely
the fruit of home influence. Both parents were devoted to the
cause of missions. Her father never forgot to intercede for the
work at family prayers. Her mother had been quickened in zeal for
the work in youth by hearing a missionary to Russia; and it was
her hope that her first born son might become a missionary, though
circumstances prevented this.
In the summer of 1872 Mrs. S. R. House was at her old home in
Waterford planning to return to Siam for the new enterprise which
had been entrusted to her by the “Troy Branch.” The pastor of the
local church, Rev. R. P. H. Vail, preached a missionary sermon
making a strong appeal for a volunteer to accompany Mrs. House as a
missionary-teacher. This came to the heart of Miss Anderson as the
Master’s call for enlistment in the work she had long contemplated.
After counsel with her mother she offered her services to Mrs.
House and was accepted. Two months later, in September, the two
sailed for Siam, reaching Bangkok late in the autumn. It was two
years before the new boarding school for girls could be housed. In
the meantime Miss Anderson took charge of the younger children in
the day school of the mission.
After the girls’ school was under way, by a happy inspiration
Miss Anderson hit upon an idea that brought the new school to the
attention of the young King Chulalongkorn. The sewing class was
sewing patches to make a quilt cover. It occurred to her that a
specimen of their product brought to the attention of the king
might demonstrate to him the practical character of their school.
Accordingly she had the girls make a quilt from pieces of silk she
had brought from China, with the intention of presenting this to
the king on his birthday. Arrangements having been made through
the Foreign Office, Dr. and Mrs. House, Miss Anderson and Miss
Grimstead (another assistant) were received by the king. After an
address of congratulations they presented the silk quilt to him.
His Majesty expressed his pleasure at the compliment, and his
gratification at having such a specimen of the work being done by
the girls of the school. Droll as this incident may seem now—the
formal reception at royal court and the presentation, to such an
august personage, of a patch-work quilt made by girls of a sewing
class—yet the demonstration made a favourable impression upon
the progressive ruler and won his sympathetic interest in the
educational work for girls newly undertaken by the mission.
After learning the language Miss Anderson translated several of Dr.
Richard Newton’s addresses for the young, under the title _Bible
Blessings_. Mrs. House and Miss Anderson went to Canton in 1875
for recuperation. There Miss Anderson met Rev. Henry V. Noyes, a
missionary under the Presbyterian Board. The acquaintance led to an
engagement, and the two were married at Bangkok, Jan. 29, 1876.
Two years were spent in America in work for the Chinese on the
Pacific Coast, and then the couple returned to China, where Mrs.
Noyes co-operated with her husband, especially conducting Bible
schools for women.
After the death of her husband, in 1914, she continued to labour
in China in a non-official capacity until 1922, when she returned
to America, having served in the foreign mission work fifty years.
One son, Richard V. Noyes, died as he was about to enter upon a
missionary career; the other son, Rev. Wm. D. Noyes, was for some
years a missionary in China under the Presbyterian Board. A sister
of Mrs. Noyes, Sarah Jean (1854-1902), graduated in 1875 from the
Women’s Medical College of New York and in 1877 sailed for China
as a medical missionary under the Presbyterian Board. Ill health
compelled her to resign two years later. Afterwards she married
Mr. Richard C. Brown and resided in England, where she rendered
valuable services for the cause of temperance.