Anna Davies Pardington 1875-1950

FOR REMEMBRANCE

ANNA DAVIES PARDINGTON was born in Cleveland, Ohio, April 7th, 1875, the oldest child of Caleb and Rebecca C. Davies. She died at the home of her son, Arthur David, in Arlington, Va., on Dec. 31, 1950.
  Growing up in an atmosphere of warm Christian faith and practice, she early manifested unflagging zeal for the Christian life. After receiving two or three years of schooling from her mother, she entered a small private school at eight and the public school at ten years of age. At fourteen she entered Westtown Boarding School, a Friend's school near Philadelphia, returning to high school in Cleveland the following year.
  About this time her pronounced Christian life crystallized in a desire to enter Christian work, and she enrolled in the Missionary Training Institute of the Christian and Missionary Alliance then in New York City. The next year, as a girl of twenty, she spent in Alexander, North Carolina, ministering to the mountain people. Life there was rugged for so young a woman, but she met the challenge bravely.
The following year Anna returned to the Training Institute where she met Dr. George Palmer Pardington, a member of the Institute faculty. They became engaged and were married on June 30, 1897. The Institute had been moved that year to its present hillside home in Nyack, N. Y., and it was there that Dr. and Mrs. Pardington spent the next eighteen years together in the all-absorbing task of working with young people, training them for Christian service, and in helping to formulate the expanding program of the school.
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  Following Dr. Pardington's death in 1915 Mrs. Pardington served the Institute in various capacities for several years, and then moved South with her three sons. She was school principal in Scottdale, Georgia from 1926 to 1931 and then became visiting teacher for the public schools of DeKalb County, Georgia. In both positions her influence extended beyond the schools into the homes and the churches. The County Patent Teachers Association Council chose her as their president. Because of her energy and ability and affectionate interest in people she was once named by the Decatur Press as one of the three most useful women in the county. Whatever she did was done whole-heartedly as unto the Lord. In the last years before retirement in 1944 she performed her duties under the handicap of physical weakness and pain. From then on to the end of her life she endured much severe suffering.
  Funeral services were held in Washington, D. C. on January second, 1951, and on the following day at the Christian and Missionary alliance Training Institute at Nyack, N. Y. There, brief addresses were given by her old students of more than forty years ago, Dr. A. C. Snead, the Rev. Kiel Garrison and Dr. Thomas Moseley. They spoke of her loyalty to the Lord and his work, and to her family and friends; of her zeal which caused her to carry on, often beyond her strength, not considering her own personal interests; of her hospitality, making her home a place where students and others could come for good cheer and inspiration; and of her sense of humor which enabled her to understand people, especially young people. She loved her pupils, not only as pupils but also as friends, and followed them with prayerful interest as they went their various ways throughout the world. From the early days of the Missionary Training Institute she shared Dr. Pardington's ambition to raise the academic standard so that they could confer recognized degrees upon their graduates. She lived to see this ideal which she had prayed and planned and worked for become a reality and to see the enrollment increased from 200 to 585 students.
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  Dr. Moseley read the following communication from Dr. H. M. Shuman, the president of the Christian and Missionary Alliance: "It was with a deep sense of loss that we learned of the home-going of Mrs. Anna Pardington. Her name, together with that of her husband, has been associated with the early work of Dr. Simpson, and especially with the Missionary Training Institute. The influence of her life and ministry at the Institute, and also later in her work in the Southland has been far-reaching. She was honored and loved by many whose lives have been enriched through her service. Personally and on behalf of our Society I extend sincere sympathy to her family and relatives." Rev. J. A. McMillan and Rev. H. M. Freligh also took part in the funeral services.
  Mrs. Pardington was the mother of the late Edward Davies Pardington, of Arthur David Pardington of Alexandria, Va., and of the Rev. George Palmer Pardington of Houma, La. Her six grandchildren include Angela Davies Pardington, Sara Pardington Hedrick, Edward Davies Pardington, Jr., and Susan French Pardington; the children of the late Edward Davies Pardington and Mrs. Pardington; and also George Palmer Pardington III and William England Pardington, sons of the Rev. and Mrs. George Palmer Pardington. She is survived also by three brothers and a sister: H. Bonar Davies of Boulder Colo., the Rev. John P. Davies of Alexandria, Va., Miss Florence Davies of Detroit, Mich., and Caleb Davies Jr. of Pittsburgh, Pa. and Tokyo, Japan.

MDL notes: Cassandra Rigbie (Mrs. John Corse), Anna Lucretia (Davies) Pardington's 2nd-Great grandmother had helped to found Westtown School. Her lineage being 1. Anna Lucretia Davies (Mrs. George Palmer Pardington), 2. Rebecca Corse French (Mrs. Caleb Davies), 3. Elizabeth Morris Corse (Mrs. Albert French), 4. James Rigby and Rebecca (Morris) Corse, 5. Cassandra Rigbie (Mrs. John Corse).