(1862-26 June 1928), physician and missionary. (Minnie Fraser, Dr Fraser, Mrs F. W. Stait, Minnie Grant Fraser Stait, Dr Stait, Dr M. Grant Stait, Minnie Grant Stait; name Minnie rather than Wilhelmina normally found) Born at St. Thomas. Ont. Parents: Rev. John Fraser and his wife Charlotte Augusta MacKie. Wilhelmina Fraser came to GC with her parents when she was about 16 years old. Her father was the minister at the Gordon Church, St. Elmo, 1878-1887. During these 10 years, whether she was a full-time resident or a student returning from time to time, St. Elmo must have been “home.” She is remembered as having actively shared in the work of the Gordon Church. Also, her husband noted in a biog. tribute that she had personally known the individuals of that place described in fiction by Ralph Connor. Wilhelmina Fraser attended high school at Kincardine.
In 1886, she entered Queen’s University, Kingston, and in April 1890 she graduated from Queen’s University with a medical degree. Minnie Fraser certainly was one of the first GC women to get a medical degree. This was at a time when many people still regarded medicine as an unsuitable study for a woman. Even though she doubtless intended throughout to be a missionary, the decision to seek a medical degree indicates considerable broadness of mind in both Minnie and her father. She was formally designated later in 1890 to serve in India as a missionary. (DTL Standard Freeholder 22 Oct. 1949 based on newspaper 24 Oct. 1890) As a missionary, she served under the Canadian Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions. Her local Canadian sponsor was St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, Kingston. The place of her service as a Canadian missionary was Mhow, Indore State, Central India. At the time of her father’s death in 1893 she was described as “an eminent medical missionary of the Presbyterian Church in India.” (his obituary)
Dr Fraser was married in 1896 to Frederick William Stait (1867-1952). He was born in Gloucester, Eng., and had first gone to Central India as a schoolmaster. He had been at one time an Anglican, but became a Baptist. Mrs Stait, the former Dr Fraser, also became a Baptist, probably at the time of her husband’s ordination. After theological training at Newton, Mass.,1895-1897, he was ordained to the ministry at Newton Centre, Mass., May 1897. After their marriage, Mr and Mrs Stait were appointed as missionaries to India by the American Baptist Missionary Union, their specific designation being to the Telugus, in South India. At first, the Staits’ location was Podili, but afterwards they were transferred to Udayagiri, in a very isolated area on the western side of the Nellore district. There, later the Etta Waterbury Memorial Hospital at Udayagiri was built with American funds–a hospital considered one of the most advanced in its disadvantaged geographical location. In Udayagiri, for the final thirty years or so of her life, Dr Stait laboured at hospital work and religious instruction. In at least her later years in India, she suffered from malaria.
Intellectually extremely active, she was a careful student of the botany of her district. Her husband noted that she knew both the scientific names and the Telugu names of practically all the trees and shrubs in the jungle of her district (her father had also been a student of botany). She was a careful, informed student of butterflies and moths, and often raised butterflies from eggs to adults, observing their development before releasing them into the wild. Her work as an entomologist is said to have been known to professional entomologists in India and England, and a vague report, which it has not been possible to clarify, describes her as the co-author of a book on butterflies and moths.
She died after some months of illness at Coonoor, India, and is buried in the Tiger Hill Cemetery, Coonoor. (children: none recorded) A portrait published in the memorial pamphlet by her husband shows a powerful, bespectacled, almost grotesque face, with signs of shyness and humour. It must be one of the most striking representations to survive of any Glengarrian of her generation. In the King’s New Year’s honours, 1925, she was awarded the Kaisar-i-Hind Medal, one of the prestigious decorations of British India. Thus the letters K. I. H. were added to those for her Queen’s degree: M. D., C. M.
During her missionary years, she is said to have been known as a gifted speaker in America and Britain. However, no evidence has come to hand of her revisiting GC during her years as a missionary, except for the following. It is remembered that when Dr Fraser spoke in Kenyon Presbyterian Church, Dunvegan, probably during a furlough in her Presbyterian years of service, the elders refused to allow her to use the pulpit. Presumably they were remembering St. Paul’s statement against woman speaking in the church (I Corinthians 14:34). In later years, the fact that she had left Presbyterianism for the Baptist faith perhaps produced difficulties in her continuing her GC contacts. Or it may be that we just do not have evidence of return visits which actually existed. But whatever the circumstances, it would appear that she was lost sight of by the north GC public which might otherwise have been expected to follow her career. All the same, there was a reminder, if it was needed, in 1924 when the Rev. G. Watt Smith wrote that she was “now in India” with her husband who was in “the Baptist Missions.” Altogether, it is hard not to suspect that she was, in truth, a most remarkable woman, and has not had her due as a member of her high-achieving generation of Glengarrians. A poem by her (“The Little Brook” by Minnie F., of Athol Manse), presumably from the period of her father’s Gordon Church pastorate, was reprinted in the Manor Chatter of April 1994 from an undated clipping.
The Rev. Daniel MacCallum, also of St. Elmo, had among his three missionary children a daughter who was a medical doctor.
Information and documents kindly made available by the American Baptist Historical Society, Valley Forge. Penn. Included are tributes and biographical sketches and a 17-page pamphlet by her husband: In Loving Memory of Minnie The Beloved Wife of Rev. Fredrick Willliam Stait (illustr., no date or publisher stated, printing by the Diocesan Press, Madras) * Queen's University Archives, student records * Ruth Compton Brouwer, New Women for God: Canadian Presbyterian Women and India Missions, 1876-1914 (1990) * MacMillan, Kirk, 196, 461 * Rev. G. Watt Smith, as in notes to life of Rev. John Fraser * MacMillan, Kenyon Presbyterian Church, 100 * The Natural History Museum (London) and the Smithsonian Institution have kindly answered questions about natural history collections and publications