For the information about women in leadership in the South-American Division we are indebted to information in the book Women in Leadership In the beginnings of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in South America by Silvia C. Scholtus
Mary Thurston was part of the generation of Adventist youth that decided to spread the beliefs of the Adventist church serving as missionaries away from their home countries, in this case, the United States. This in itself shows she was a woman willing to suffer hardships, privations, and to work intensively in spreading the gospel because of her love for God and her neighbors.
Mary Vesta Thurston was born October 23, 1860, in Plainfield, Wisconsin. She accepted the Adventist faith as a young girl and gave her heart to God for the great task life had in store for her. Her first work was as a teacher in public schools. Later on, she attended Battle Creek College. After graduating, she held different positions of responsibility.
Mary started her first experience working as a secretary for the Tract Society of the Conference where her father was the president. During those years Mary learned everything related to the distribution of materials and correspondence. This was a good preparation for the work she would be doing in South America.
Mary married Frank Westphal on May 11, 1887. Frank was a minister and Mary worked at his side in different places in the United States. Between 1980 and 1893 two of her children were born: Carl Edgar and Helen.
In 1894, Mary and her husband were invited as missionaries to South America to start their work in Argentina, where they arrived at La Plata, in July, 1894. They were received by a colporteur who was in charge of the distribution of Adventist books in that zone, who had arrived the year before. Mary accompanied her husband with effort and dedication in the tasks that had to be performed to accomplish the mission.
On arriving in Buenos Aires, Mary settled down with other missionary families, while her husband Frank went out on his first exploratory trip throughout the territory of the mission. During her husband’s absence, Mary faced the sickness and death of her small daughter Helen, which took place two weeks before Frank returned from his trip to Brazil in 1895.[i] Little Helen got measles, and then scarlet fever. A missionary from another denomination, with his wife, accompanied Mary to the cemetery in Chacarita, where Helen was put to rest in the place designated for foreigners.[ii]
In 1896, Mary devoted her time to writing from Buenos Aires to inform the world field about the activities developing in South America. Particularly, she recounted the occasion when her husband organized a Week of Prayer, to which the missionaries from the South American Mission gathered in Buenos Aires. All the missionaries came together and brought news about how God had blessed their work. Several people were baptized. The missionaries returned encouraged to their work. Almost all of them were self-supporting missionaries who sold books because there was not enough money for them to receive a regular salary.[iii]
Frank Westphal commented about the work of his wife in those years:
“How much I owed to my faithful wife in those difficult days! While I acted as a field worker and superintendent of the work on the East Coast, she, in addition to her home duties and the care of the children, served as secretary of the Sabbath School department and of the Tract society and Treasurer of the whole field. My work caused me to be away from home frequently, sometimes for months together, and she remained alone in Buenos Aires, carrying single-handed all the home cares and burdens as well as her secretarial work, yet not once did she call me home from my work. Several times she also went with me on my trips.”[iv]
In Crespo, there was a center of the work that had sprung up among the Russo-German settlers of Entre Ríos. Later the Westphal family settled there for a time. At first, they lived in a one-roomed adobe hut, with mother earth for a floor. Afterward, Brother Lust kindly built them a two-roomed house, the larger room serving for meetings. Meetings were also held in homes and Mary taught the children who had never been to a school.
In 1899 Mary gave birth to her son Earl in Argentina. During most of the time she lived in South America, she held the position of Sabbath School secretary of the Union. From 1901 to 1904 the family returned to the US and Ruth Evangeline was born in 1903. Then they were invited to continue their work in Chile, where their youngest daughter, Grace Hazel, was born in 1905.[v]
Mary was appointed in charge of the Sabbath School department and of attending to the correspondence with isolated members in this new field.[vi] In 1907 she appears with the elected officials for the Chile Mission. Her task was to continue as Sabbath School secretary, today’s equivalent to someone in charge of a department of a Union or Conference of the SDA church.[vii] With this responsibility, she periodically wrote articles in which she presented the reports from her field, showed the importance of the Sabbath School, promoted their functioning, the way to give offerings in Sabbath School, and why they were needed.[viii]
In 1909, during the annual meetings of the Chile Conference, she was asked again to continue in charge of the Sabbath School department of that mission.[ix] At that time she was preparing materials with practical examples on how to teach children the Sabbath School lessons. This she presented at the first Sabbath School convention in September 1909 at the school in Pua, in the South of Chile.[x] Because of the good job she did, she was asked to continue leading the department during the following years.[xi]
In 1913 Mary traveled with her husband to the General Conference Session in the US. With the outbreak of the war in 1914 the world was disrupted and Mary was appointed in charge of the Home Missionary department when it started its activities. One of her responsibilities was to receive letters with news about the progress of the Chile field and to publish reports.[xii] In 1915 and 1916 she was again appointed in charge of the Sabbath School and Home Missionary departments and she received a missionary license.[xiii]
Her interest in promoting education added to her responsibilities, and she worked closely with the founding of a church and church school in Pitruffquén.
Mary worked as assistant to the school’s principal. She had to take care of the students, be in charge of the accounting management of the institution, and do other tasks for the smooth running of the school. In 1918 Mary continued as church school principal.
The many tasks that Mary performed entailed heavy responsibilities in the church and caused her health problems.[xiv] Because of her health, they returned to the US in 1921. She passed away on October 27, 1931 in Glendale, California.
Mary was a dedicated wife and mother, a capable administrator, an educator with initiative. She related with special warmth to those around her and won their affections for the mission. She developed different skills to help in the challenges of spreading the Adventist beliefs in various places. The gifts God gave her as an educator and administrator gave fruit in the growth of the Adventist church on South American soil. Among her contributions, stand out her ideas to improve the Sabbth School, her faithfulness in church administration, and her initiative during the beginning of the educational work in Argentina and Chile
Condensed from Chapter 4 of the book Women in Leadership In the beginnings of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in South America by Silvia C. Scholtus
[i] Helen Westphal, second daughter of Frank and Mary Westphal, was born in New London, Wisconsin, United States, on December 7, 1893 and died June 15, 1895, in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Civil Registry of the Capital, Ninth Section, Argentine Republic. Number 953. Death occurred at 0:30 am June 15, 1895, at the home in Australia Street (without number). The witness was John Mc Carthy, of English nationality and 28 years of age.
[ii] Westphal, Pioneering in the Neglected Continent, 39-40.
[iii] Ibid. 42
[iv] Ibid, 41-43.
[v] Carl Edgar Westphal is buried in Libertador San Martín, in the local cemetery, row 18, grave 17; Helen and Earl are in the British Cemetery of Chacarita, Buenos Aires City, Argentina, Lane 37, 2 C grave 12 A. Earl died the day he was born, 14/06/1899. Ruth and Grace graduated as nurses from Glendale Sanitarium. Some of the information was kindly supplied by professor Eugenio Di Dionisio and is part of the biography he wrote of Frank Westphal. This biography is available at EGW Research Center, Universidad Adventista del Plata, Argentina. See, also, “Obituaries”, Pacific Union Recorder 31, No. 17 (November 26, 1931): 6-7; J. W. Rich, “Westphal”, Review and Herald 108, No. 51 (December 17, 1931):22
[vi] E. W. Thomann, “Acuerdos y recomendaciones [Agreements and Recomendations]”, La Revista Adventista 5, No. 2 (February 1905, supplement): 3
[vii] F. H. Westphal, “Chile”, La Revista Adventista 7, No. 7 (July 1907): 4.
[viii] María T. Westphal, “Las escuelas sabáticas [Sabbath Schools]”, La Revista Adventista 7, No. 8 (August 1907): 2-4; María T. Westphal, “¿Cuánto podemos hacer? [How much can we do?]”, La Revista Adventista 7, No. 8 (August 1907): 4.
[ix] Carlos E. Krieghoff, “Chile: la conferencia anual chilena [Chile: the Annual Chilean Conference]”, La Revista Adventista 9, No. 4 (April 1909): 13.
[x] E. W. Thomann, “Convención de escuelas sabáticas [Sabbath School Covention]”, La Revista Adventista 9, No. 11 (November 1909): 12.
[xi] Carlos E. Krieghoff, “Reunion annual de la Conferencia Chilena, 15 de marzo al 4 de abril, 1910: En Gorbea, sur de Chile”, La Revista Adventista 10, No. 6 (June 1910)
[xii] F.H. Westphal, “La obra en Chile“, La Revista Adventista 15, No. 1 (January 1915)
[xiii] Victor E. Thomann, “La novena reunion reneral de la Conferencia Chilena”, La Revista Adventista 16, No. 5 (May 1916)
[xiv] F.H. Westphal,”Sustentation Fund Application,” (Service record, Los Angeles, August 27, 1930.