Rida Jourolmon

A Woman Who Did Not Scare Easily
Rida was a teacher at the Girls High School in Knoxville, Tennessee, and according to one report she was on her way to New York for a visit.^{1 2} She was a passenger on the Pullman sleeper named “Toboco” and escaped from the wreck uninjured.³ Rida’s terrifying night on the rails did not deter her from future travels. She continued her work as a teacher until a trip to China in 1901 set her on a path to missionary work. She had taken the trip for health reasons, but she had worked so well with the Presbyterian mission in Jiangyin that they requested that she be appointed as a regular missionary to the region. The appointment came in 1904, and she served the Jiangyin community from 1905 to 1927.⁴

Rida died in Montreat, North Carolina, three years after she retired from her work as a missionary. She never married.⁵

Do you have more information about Rida Jourolmon? If you think she might have been an ancestor of yours, or if you have some additional information that you would like to share, I’d love to hear from you. Thanks!

Sources

1. E.W. Crozier, Knoxville City Directory, 1889, p. 222.
2. “Railroad Wreck”, The Knoxville Journal (Knoxville, TN), July 3, 1889, Volume V, Number 114: p.1.
3. Fourteenth Annual Report of The Railroad Commissioner of the State of Virginia, J.H. O’Bannon Superintendent of Public Printing, Richmond, VA, 1890: p. xlv. http://books.google.com/books?id=CFopAAAAYAAJ
4. Presbyterian Heritage Center, “Biographies — PCUS Missionaries to China 1900 – 1920 — Presbyterian Heritage Center”, PHCMontreat.org, http://www.phcmontreat.org/bios/Bios-Missionaries-China-1900-1920-PCUS.htm, (accessed May 29, 2012).
5. “North Carolina, Deaths, 1906-1930,” index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/F3ZB-K92 : accessed 27 Sep 2012), Rida Jourolmon, 22 Nov 1930.