This memorial is a cenotaph. He was originally buried in South Africa, but as noted below he was subsequently reinterred in South India.

Rev. Dr. John Scudder, Sr. (September 3, 1793 - January 13, 1855), M.D., D.D., founded the first Western Medical Mission in Asia at Ceylon and later became the first American medical missionary in India.

Scudder was born in Freehold, New Jersey, on September 3, 1793, the son of Joseph Scudder (1762-1843) (a lawyer) and Maria Louise Johnston (1769-1858). He graduated from Princeton University in 1811, and the New York College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1813. He practiced medicine successfully in New York City.

John Scudder married Harriet Waterbury on January 15, 1816.

One day, while visiting a patient, he saw on a table the pamphlet Conversion of the World, or the Claims of the 600,000,000 and the Ability and Duty of the Churches Respecting Them. As he read it, he became convinced that he was called to be a missionary in response to the command to go into all the world to preach the gospel and heal the sick. He then became thoroughly committed to serving God through medical missions of the American Board, later of the Dutch Reformed Board.

He went to Ceylon in 1819 and founded the first Western Medical Mission in Asia at Panditeripo in Jaffna District as part of the American Ceylon Mission. He served there for nineteen years in the dual capacity of clergyman and physician. His most important service was the establishment of a large hospital, of which he was physician in chief. He was especially successful in the treatment of cholera and yellow fever. He also founded several native schools and churches.

He later became the first American medical missionary in India, beginning more than 1,100 combined years of missionary service there by 42 members of 4 generations of the Scudders in India. He was a tireless distributor of religious tracts in India.

One of his first experiences in coming to Madura was meeting a woman who had been converted by reading a tract he had given her fifteen years before when he was still a member of the Jaffna Mission in Ceylon. The tract was "The Loss of the Soul."

According to his Journal entries written during his stay in Madura, "The Blind Way" was the tract he distributed all the time. He published "Letters from the East" (Boston, 1833); "Appeal to Youth in Behalf of the Heathen" (1846) ; "Letters to Pious Young Men" (1846); "Provision for Passing over Jordan" (New York, 1852), and many tracts and papers that were published in the "Missionary Herald." He also gave away Almanacs.

In 1836 John Scudder and Rev. Winslow started a mission at Madras for the purpose of establishing a printing press to issue the Scriptures and tracts in the Tamil language. John Scudder established his residence at Chintadrepettah (Chintadripet). He was in the United States in 1842-1846 and returned to India in 1847 where he spent two years in Madura giving medical aid to the Mission at the special request of the Board though not appointed as a member of it.

In 1849 Scudder returned to his mission in Madras, where he laboured till his death. He took a visit for the benefit of his health to Wynberg, Cape of Good Hope, Africa where he died on January 13, 1855. He and his wife Harriet had six surviving sons and two daughters who all became medical missionaries and worked in South India.

Children:

MARIA CATHERINE SCUDDER, b. January 29, 1817, Calcutta, West Bengal, India; d. October 25, 1819, Calcutta, West Bengal, India.

BABY GIRL SCUDDER, b. 1820, Ceylon; d. 1820.

WILLIAM BRAINARD SCUDDER, b. March 14, 1821, Panditeripo, Haffa, Ceylon; d. March 17, 1821.

HENRY MARTYN SCUDDER, b. February 05, 1822, Panditeripo, Ceylon, India; d. June 04, 1895, Chicago, Cook, Illinois,.

WILLIAM WATERBURY I SCUDDER, b. September 1823, Ceylon; d. 1895.

JOSEPH SCUDDER, b. January 14, 1826, Ceylon; d. November 21, 1876, Red Hook, Kings, New York; m. (1) SARAH ANN CHAMBERLAIN, 1849; m. (2) RACHEL ANN DEWITT, 1855.

SAMUEL DOWNER SCUDDER, b. May 20, 1827, Ceylon; d. 1849, New Brunswick, Middlesex, New Jersey.

EZEKIEL CARMAN SCUDDER, b. October 20, 1828, Panditeripo, Ceylon, India; d. January 31, 1896, San Antonio, TX.

JARED WATERBURY SCUDDER, b. February 08, 1830, Kotagiri, India; d. October 17, 1910.

HARRIET SCUDDER, b. September 03, 1831, Panditeripo, Northern illness in London, and it was hoped the voyage would prove Ceylon, Sri Lanka; d. 1871; m. WILLIAM HENRY STANES. William had had a serious beneficial to his health. He, too, liked the Nilgiri hills and decided to continue his brother's work. He married Harriet Scudder, an Aunt of the late Dr. Ida Scudder of Velore, and a daughter of Dr. John Scudder, founder of the Arcot (60 miles west of Madras) Mission of the Reform Church of America. William and Harriet made their home in Runnymede House, Coonoor.

SILAS DOWNER SCUDDER, b. November 06, 1833, Panditeripo, Ceylon; d. 1877, Brooklyn, New York.

JOHN SCUDDER II, b. October 29, 1835, Chavagacherry, Ceylon; d. 23 May 1900, Kodaikanal, Tamil Nadu, India.

DOREMUS SCUDDER.

LOUISA SCUDDER, b, April 26, 1837, Madras, Tamil Nadu, India; d. April 4, 1918, Charlestown, Ireland; m. Harry Baker Sweet.

Thanks to Cemetery Hopper (46953331) for providing the following:

Published in the Piscataquis (ME) Observer on 19 Apr 1855 p3:

"DEATH OF REV. DR. SCUDDER---The Rev. John Scudder, M. D., for thirty-five years missionary of the American Board in India, died at Wynberg, near Cape Town, Africa, on the 13th of January last, of apoplexy. Dr. Scudder was minister of the Dutch Reformed Church, and his station was Madras; but for a few months he had been residing at the Cape for the benefit of his health."

Thanks to Julian P Donahue (49949452) for providing the following:

As I created a record for the American Mission Cemetery and its occupants in Kodaikanal, Tamil Nadu, India (where John & Harriet's son John Scudder II is buried, Memorial ID 160379356), I engaged in correspondence with Laura Fisher Kaiser ([email protected]), who knows a lot about the Scudders in India. Here is what she wrote to me on 21 July 2020):

"John [II, Memorial ID: 160379356] was the youngest son of the Rev. Dr. John Scudder (1793-1855), whose grave is now in front of Scudder Memorial Hospital in Ranipet [a suburb of Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India]. He died in Wynburgh, South Africa and was buried there. But "later" his remains were removed to a cemetery in Royapuram, Madras [in northern Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India], and reinterred beside those of his wife, Harriet Waterbury Scudder (Aug 14, 1795-Nov 18, 1849). In 1933, the Government of Madras granted permission for both graves to be opened and the remains transported to Ranipet [Tamil Nadu, India--in southern Chennai]. However, one of his great grandsons recorded that there was very little in John's grave except "a few buttons, heads of rusty nails, and the right of calsis," which I think might be a heel bone? I just now read that in the "Scudder Memorial Hospital Ranipet: Centenary Report, 10th December 1966," which I bought on eBay years ago. Apparently that is all that is buried beneath the big monument in front of the hospital-- little did I know when I visited the site last year, lol."

There is a Nov. 2018 image of the Scudder Memorial Hospital, with the monument (and graves) of the Scudders visible, on Google Maps at: . If you click on the name of the photographer, Selwyn Ernest, you scroll down you can see all of his photos of the hospital. The photos may be copyrighted, but I could not find any way to contact the photographer--even though there is a "share" button which I used to copy the link to the photo.

Since you manage the Memorials for both John Sr. and his wife, I won't post this same information on her Memorial.

If you seek further information on the Scudders I suggest that you communicate directly with Laura Kaiser, since my interest was pretty much focused on the people buried in Kodaikanal and their relatives.

Best wishes,
Julian P. Donahue