EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN THE SECOND HALF OF 1800; IDA GAGE P/7

                                                       Read Part One HERE

In this story I will focus on a woman named Ida Gage. She lived from 1849 - 1921. Ida is one of the many forgotten Free Methodist women evangelists of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. However, while Ida might have been overlooked in the larger denominational histories, her legacy lives on through her speech at the 1890 General Conference and the debate on ordaining women. 

In 1890, Ida was not a licensed evangelist, she was just a member of the denomination who had previous experience preaching in Michigan, and was responding to a call to serve within the Free Methodist denomination. By 1892, she was "on supply," meaning she was travelling and preaching for the Ohio Free Methodist Conference. By 1893, she was a licensed evangelist who travelled around the northern part of Ohio. She spent several years in Bowling Green, Ohio, preaching and also preached as far south as Mansfield, Ohio. 

While her denomination refused to give her the status of an ordained elder, Ida was not deterred. She didn't give up hope in her faith or her denomination and she continued to pursue her call to ministry. 

Read Part Eight HERE

 

 

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN THE SECOND HALF OF 1800; DR SARAH ANNE GRANT P/6

                                                                                    Read Part One HERE                

In this story I will focus on a woman named Sarah Anne Grant. She lived from 1845 - 1916 and served as an evangelist in Northern Indiana, Iowa and Oklahoma for the Free Methodist Church. While she appears as a licensed evangelist for the Northern Indiana Conference in 1890 and 1801, her ministry in Iowa and Oklahoma appears to have been more informal.

In 1911, Sarah again appears as a licensed evangelist in the Southern California Conference. And in 1912 - 1913, she serves as the pastor of the Methodist church in San Diego, which was a rough place to minister in. At that time Sarah was active working with women in the red-lights districts. Some of the male tourists, who had visited the red-light districts ended up coming to her church when they heard the gospel and were converted.

Sarah's time as pastor of the San Diego church came during a time in the denomination where countless women were pursuing evangelists' licenses and serving in ministry. In 1910, 81% of all licensed evangelists were women, which was an almost 50% increase from five years ago in 1905 when only 33% were women. By 1910, women evangelists who were appointed to a church, like Sarah was, and served in the post for two years, could also be appointed as ministerial delegates to the quarterly and annual conferences. Previously, they had only been allowed to serve as lay delegates. The designation of "ministerial delegate" was just another acknowledgement of their important work within the denomination. However, it is ironic that women could be appointed to the same delegate position as ordained male elders but were still not allowed to become one.

Read Part Seven HERE

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN THE SECOND HALF OF 1800; ANNA ELIZABETH DICKINSON P/5

Read Part One HERE

In this story I continue to focus on a woman named Anna Elizabeth Dickinson. She lived from 1842 - 1932. During the 1863 United States Senate Elections, with the deepening of the Civil War, Mary campaigned for several candidates. She spoke eloquently and powerfully in support of the Republicans' anti-slavery platform.

 When Mary spoke at the Cooper Institute in New York City, more than 5,000 people attended the event. It was reported that she "could hold her audience spellbound for as much as two hours." Mary earned a standing ovation in 1864 for an impassioned speech on the floor of the United States House of Representatives. In attendance were President Abraham Lincoln and civic and military leaders. Invited by Republican leaders, she was the first woman to speak to Congress.

After the Civil War, she remained one of the nation's most celebrated speakers for nearly a decade, making a speech every other day on everage.She spoke about reconstruction, African - American rights, women's rights and other issues. As another means of support, she began writing. In her writings she addressed technical training for workers, better treatment of prisoners, assistance for the poor and compulsory education for all children.

Mary lived out the final years  of her life quietly in New York and died in 1932.

Read Part Six HERE

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN THE SECOND HALF OF 1800; ANNA ELIZABETH DICKINSON P/4

Read Part One HERE

In this story I will focus on a woman named Anna Elizabeth Dickinson. She lived from 1842 - 1932. Her parents were John and Mary Edmundson Dickinson and lived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They were Quakers. Mary was educated at the Friends Select School of Philadelphia as well as the Westtown School. At age 14, she converted to the Methodist Church, and remained active in the church throughout her life.

In 1857, at the age of fifteen, Mary went to work as a copyist. In 1859 and 1860, she was a teacher in Berks County, Pennsylvia. And in May 1861, she obtained a clerkship for the United States Mint; she was one of the Mint's first female employees.

In 1857, she began to give public speeches on abolition, reconstruction, women's rights and temperance. Her success led the way for future women speakers. In her first public speech, she addressed a man who derided women at a Progressive Friends Meeting. In 1861, she spoke in Philadelphia at the Friends of Progres meeting at Clarkson Hall about "The Rights And Wrongs Of Women" and she addressed the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society in the fall of that year. Lucretia Mott arranged for a lecture tour, sponsored by the Massachusets Anti-Slavery Society for Mary, who quickly became a popular speaker. The series of speeches helped lead the Emancipation Movement.

Read Part Five HERE

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN THE SECOND HALF OF 1800; SUSIE KING TAYLOR P/3

                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Read Part One HERE

In this post I will continue to focus on a woman named Susie King Taylor. She lived from 1848 - 1912. Though Susie opened a number of schools, she had to eventually close all of them after chartered schools for African-Americans were established and she could no longer make a living through teaching. She then became a domestic servant to Mr and Mrs Green, a wealthy white family.

During the Reconstruction era, Susie became a civil rights activist after witnessing much discrimination in the South. She would travel once again to Boston in 1874 and entered into service for the Thomas Smith family in the Boston Highlands. After the death of Mrs Smith, Susie next served Mrs Gorham Gray until her marriage to Russell L. Taylor.

Susie devoted much of the rest of her life to work with the Women's Relief Corps, a national organisation for Female Civil War Veterans, where she held many positions, including guard, secretary and treasurer.

Susie died in 1912.

Read Part Four HERE

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN THE SECOND HALF OF 1800; SUSIE KING TAYLOR P/2

                                                  Read Part One HERE

In this story I will continue to focus on a woman named Susie King Taylor. She lived from 1848 - 1912. As the Civil War began, Susie was sent back to the country to her mother. She, along with her uncle and his family, fled to St Catherine's Island to seek protection from the Union Fleet. 

After two weeks, they were all transferred to St Simon's Island. While on the gunboat during the transfer, she was questioned by the commander of the boat, inquiring where she was from. Susie informed him that she was from Savannah. He then asked her if she could read and write. When he learned that she could he handed her a notebook and asked her to write her name and where she was from. 

After being on St Simon's Island for three days, Commodore Goldsborough visited Susie and asked her to create a school for children on the island. She agreed to do so, provided she be given the necessary books for study.She received the books from the North and began her first school.

Susie married Sergeant Edward King and they returned to Savannah after the Civil War. While there she opened a school for African-American children (whom she called the "children of freedom.") and an adult night school. Sadly, her husband died soon afterwards.

Read Part Three HERE

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN THE SECOND HALF OF 1800; SUSIE KING TAYLOR P/1

 

In this post I will share a story of a woman named Susie King Taylor. She lived from 1848 - 1912. Susie Taylor, born Susan Ann Baker was the first of nine children born to Raymond and Hagar Ann Reed Baker. She was born into slavery on a plantation owned by Valentine Creest on the Isle of Wight in Liberty County, Georgia. 

When Susie was about seven years old, her grandmother Dolly Reed was allowed by the plantation owner to take Susie to go live with her in Savannah, Georgia. Susie's grandmother sent her to be educated through what was known as an "underground education." Under Georgia law, it was illegal for enslaved peopled to be educated. Susie was taught by a friend of her grandmother, a woman known as Mrs Woodhouse. She was a free woman of colour who lived a half mile away from Susie's grandmother's house. Mrs Woodhouse had the students enter one at a time with their books covered to keep from drawing too much attention by the police or the local white population. 

Susie attended school with about 25 to 30 children for another two years, after which she would find instruction from another free woman of colour, Mrs Mathilda Beasley, who would continue to educate Susie until May 1860. Mrs Beasly then told Susie's grandmother that she had taught Susie all that she knew but that someone else would have to be found to continue Susie's education. Susie was then educated by the son of their landlord, a boy named James Blouis, until he entered the Civil War.

In 1862, Susie was given the opportunity to obtain her own freedom.

Read Part Two HERE

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN 1600; ANNE WILLIAMS DUTTON P/6

                                                                                  Read Part One HERE

In this post I will continue to focus on Evangelical women born in 1600, this time focusing on a woman named Anne Williams Dutton. She lived from 1692 - 1765. Anne was born in Northampton, England. Along with her parents, she attended the Independent Church at Catle Hill in Northampton where she experienced conversion. In her late teens Anne began to attend an open-membership Baptist Church, pastored by John Moore, where she was baptised.

In 1714, Anne married a Mr Cattell and they moved to London. While there, she worshipped with the Calvinistic Baptist Church that met at the premises on Wood Street, Cripplegate. When her husband died in 1720, she moved back to Northampton. The following year she married Benjamin Dutton, a Baptist preacher, who in 1732 became the pastor of the Baptist Congregation in Great Hansdon, Huntingdonshire.

Benjamin perished at sea in 1747. By that time Anne had begun to write. As for the isssue whether she could write as a woman, she maintained that she wrote not for fame, but only for the glory of God, and the good of souls.

To those who might accuse her of violating 1 Timothy 2:12, she answered that her books were not intended to be read in a public setting of worship, which the text was designed to address. Rather, the instruction that each of her books gave was private, for they were to be read  by believers in their own private houses. Her public use of her pen for God's glory broke the convention of her days and inspired other women to do the same.

 Anne died in 1765.

P.S. This is my last story in the series on Evangelical women in 1600. In my next post I will return to sharing stories on Evangelical womn in 1800.                                                          

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN 1600; ELIZBETH BATHURST P/5

                                                                                  Read Part One HERE                                                                                                           

In this post I will continue to focus on Evangelical women born in 1600, this time focusing on a woman named Elizabeth Bathurst. She lived from 1655 - 1685. She was born in London, England. Her father was Charles Bathurst and her step-mother Grace Bathurst. She attended a Presbyterian Church but in 1678 two prominent Friends visited the Bathurst home where religious seekers were often welcomed. As a consequence of that visit, she became a Quaker. 

During the 1680's, Elizabeth travelled in the minstry, often with her father,  enduring persecution and time in jail. She was imprisoned at least once in the Marshalsa prison.

Elizabeth was recognised during her lifetime by the Quaker community as a gifted writer. George Whitehead, who discussed her major work with her before its publication in 1683, commented on her "excellent gift, both of understanding, life and utterance." She has been described by historian Sarah Apetrei as "by far the most theologically sophisticated" of the numerous women leaders among early Quakers.

One of her writings was "The sayings of Women... in several places of the Scriptures" presenting a theological defence of women's authority to preach and teach.

Elzabeth died in 1685.

Read Part Six HERE