Dr. Mary West Niles (1854 – 1933) was born in Watertown, Wisconsin to Rev. William Allen Niles and Mary Elizabeth Niles. Dr Niles played an important role in the Canton Medical Missionary Society as the first woman missionary physician at the Canton Hospital. She was a pioneer physician to open school for the Blind in China, the Mingxin School (1889-1932), and in translating the English Braille system into the Cantonese /Chinese language by learning it herself first.