Anna Maria Ward was born in Bloomfield, New Jersey, to devout Presbyterian parents. She received her early education in Morristown, New Jersey, and evinced religious zeal from her early youth. Soon growing interested in the Foreign Missions, she left Bloomington soon after her marriage to the Rev. John H. Ward in September 1837. She and her husband arrived in Philadelphia and left that city for Newcastle on the steamboat Wilmington on 4th October. From Newcastle they boarded the ship Edward for Madeira, arriving at the island on 1st December 1837. The third and final leg of her journey began on 5th December 1837 and ended when the ship docked at Calcutta on 6th April 1838. Mrs Morrison kept a journal during these months at sea and wrote letters to family and friends. From these we gather evidence of her acquaintance with a "Hindoo" on board ship whom she desired earnestly to convert, her conviction in the Missionary project, and her bouts of illness and recovery. Three weeks after arriving in Calcutta, she again suffered the “dreadful pain in the head” and the convulsions that she had experienced on the sea voyage. She died on 28th April after a violent attack of Asiatic cholera lasting for 12 hours. A letter from her husband on 4th May 1838 describes her last hours. For a biography of Anna Maria Morrison, see Memoirs of Mrs. A. M. Morrison of the North India Mission, by Rev. E. J. Richards: http://tinyurl.com/nbf7zt2
Shalmi Barman
