EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN THE FIRST HALF OF 1800; MARY SLESSOR P/76

 

In this post I will continue to share the story of an evangelical woman who lived in the first half of 1800 named Mary Slessor. She lived from 1848 - 1915. Mary eventually applied to the Foreign Mission Board of the United Presbyterian Church. In 1876, she travelled to West Africa. While there she was assigned to the Calabar region in the land of the Efik people. As a missionary, she went to other tribes as well, spreading the word of Jesus. Mary was the driving force behind the establishment of the Hope Waddell Training Institute in Calabar, which provided practical vocational training to Efiks.

It was the belief in the area that the birth of twins was considered a particularly evil curse.Consequently, the natives often abandoned these babies in clay pots to die. Mary adopted every child she found abandoned and had them live with her at the Mission House.

In 1892, Mary became vice-consul in Okoying, where she had been living since 1888, presiding over the native court. Unfortunately, she suffered intermittent fevers from the malaria she contracted during her early years in Calabar. These fevers eventually weakened her to the point that she could no longer walk long distances in the rain forest but had to be pushed along in a handcart. In early January 1915, she suffered a particularly sever fever. As a consequence, Mary died on 13 January 1915.

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN THE FIRST HALF OF 1800; MARY SLESSOR P/75

 In this story I will focus on another evangelical woman who lived in the first half of 1800. Her name is Mary Slessor. She lived from 1848 - 1915. Mary was born in Gilcomston, Aberdeen, Scotland. Her parents were Robert and Mary Slessor. Her father was a shoemaker by trade. However, unable to keep up shoemaking, he took a job as a labourer in a mill. Her mother was a skilled weaver and went to work in the mills.

At the age of eleven, Mary began work as a "half-timer" in the Baxter Brothers' Mill, meaning she spent half of her day at a school provided by the mill owners and the other half working for the company.

Her mother was a devout Presbyterian. Mary herself developed an interest in religion, and when a mission was instituted in Quarry Pend, she wanted to teach. Mary started her mission at the age of 27, upon hearing that David Livingstone, the famous missionary and explorer had died. She decided then that she wanted to follow in his footsteps. 

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN THE FIRST HALF OF 1800; LOTTIE MOON P/74

                                                                                                                                                                           

In this post I will continue to share the story of a woman named Lottie Moon. She lived from 1840 - 1912. In 1873, Lottie set sail for China, a country her sister would soon leave but where Lottie would spend nearly 40 years. 

In China, Lottie taught in girls' schools, evangelised in towns and villages and opened a mission station in the country's exterior - an unusual role for a single woman. Over time she adopted Chinese dress and grew to love the people of China.

Lottie wrote hundreds of letters to Southern Baptists, urging them to support international missions. She wrote, "Could a Christian woman possibly desire higher honour than to be permitted to go from house to house and tell of a Saviour to those who have never heard his name?" Later she urged, "Oh! That my words could be as a trumpet call, stirring the hearts of my brothers and sisters to pray, to labour, to give themselves to this people."

Lottie's efforts led to the formation of the Woman's Missionary Union and the establishment of what became known as the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. 

Lottie died in 1912, having given her all for Christ. She remains the most famous Southern Baptist missionary of all time. 

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN THE FIRST HALF OF 1800; LOTTIE MOON P/73

 

In this story and in the next one I will go back to evangelical women who lived in the first half of 1800 because I believe these two women deserve to have their stories told. The first woman is named Lottie Moon. She lived from 1840 - 1912. Lottie was born in Virginia, where she grew up on Viewmont Plantation, not far from Monticello. 

From a wealthy family, Lottie enjoyed the advantages of an outstanding education and became one of the first women in the South to complete coursework for a master's degree. She knew seven different languages and sometimes read the New Testament in its original Greek.

The death of  Lottie's father and the Civil War hurt the fortunes of the Moon family and Lottie began working as a teacher. As a young woman, she also committed her life to Christ. When the Southern Baptist Foreign Mission Board appointed her younger sister Edmonia as a missionary to China, Lottie took note. Now that the board had begun sending you single women overseas, Lottie wanted to be part of this group. 

 

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN THE SECOND HALF OF 1800; LILIAN TRASHER P/72

 

In this post I will continue sharing the story of a woman named Lillian Trasher. She lived from 1887 - 1961. Lilian went to Egypt where she worked with a missionary couple. While in that country she found herself responsible for an infant whose mother had died. With no one else to care for the child she determined to do it herself and believe God for provision. 

Lilian's ministry gained the respect of the Egyptian people and political leaders, so that she was able to survive political and social changes. Now known as the Lillian Trasher Orphanage, by the end of her life the ministry cared for and educated more than 1200 children.

By February 2019, the "Church of God Evangel" reported that Lillian's monthly expenses were $260 to care for 80 children. Readers of the "Evangel" regularly sent financial support and letters of encouragement, and her expressions of gratitude frequently appeared in the publication. With a growing orphanage, however, she had to seek support from many sources. 

With most of her support coming from outside of the Church of God, Lillian applied for an appointment as an Assemblies of God missionary in 1919. Her last correspondence printed in the "Church of God Evangel" appeared a year earlier. She graciously thanked general overseer Tomlinson for an offering with a commendation that he had "always been so faithful in sending to us." With the orphanage having grown to 90 children, she requested that the overseer reminds the Church of God people to pray for her ministry. Her letter concluded, "It is a comfort for us to know that those at home are praying for us."

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN THE SECOND HALF OF 1800; LILIAN TRASHER 1887 P/71

 

Today I will continue my series on Evangelical women who lived in the second half of 1800. In this story I will focus on a woman named Lilian Trasher. She lived from 1881 - 1961. 

Lilian was one of many Pentecostal missionaries called to take the gospel to the ends of the earth before there were organised Pentecostal mission boards to raise financial support and send them.

Lilian was baptised with the Holy Spirt and came into the Church of God through a 1909 revival in Dahlenega, Georgia, where she was actively involved with the local congregation. 

For a time she assisted Church of God minister Sam C. Perry in evangelistic work, and she also served at the Elhanan Training Institute and Orphanage operated by Sam's sister, Mattie Perry in Marion, North Carolina. By at least 1914 Trasher was a credentialed Evangelist in the Church of God.

 

 

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN THE SECOND HALF OF 1800; CLARA BELLE DRISDALE WILLIAMS P/70

  

In this post I will continue my story on Clara Bell Drisdale Williams. She lived from 1885 - 1994. In 1924, the Williams family left Texas and moved to Las Cruces, New Mexico where they homesteaded 640 acres of land. Clara continued her education by taking extension and correspondence courses from the University of Chicago. However, in 1928 she enrolled at the New Mexico College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts (now New Mexico State University). While Clara was a student she was segregated from other students because of her race and often had to listen to lectures outside of classrooms and take notes while standing.

In 1937, at age 51, Clara became the first African American to graduate from New Mexico State University. She received a bachelor of arts in English, but was not allowed to participate in her class's graduation. Despite her humiliation, Clara continued her education at the university by taking twelve hours of graduate work. 

After graduation, Clara taught at the Booker T. Washington School in the racially segregated Las Cruces school system for twenty-seven years before retiring and moving to Chicago in 1951.

In 1980, 43 years after she graduated, Clara received an honorary law degree along with an apology from school officials for the racist treatment she endured while a student at New Mexico State University.

Clara died in 1994, at the age of 108. 

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN THE SECOND HALF OF 1800; CLARA BELLE DRISDALE WILLIAMS P/69

  

Today I will continue my series on Evangelical woman who lived in the second half of 1800.In this story I will focus on a woman named Clara Belle Drisdale Williams. She lived from 1885 - 1994. Clara was born to sharecroppers Isaac and Carrie Melinda Moppins Drisdale in LaGrange, Texas.

Clara was first educated in a one-room country school house near LaGrange but in 1901 she entered Prairie View Normal and Independent College (now Prairie View Agricultural and Mechanical University), in Prairie View, Texas. She graduated from the Institution with a certificate in domestic arts, as its valedictorian in 1905. After graduation, she was the head of the Institution's sewing department before moving to El Paso, Texas.

In 1917, Clara married Jasper Williams, a pharmacist in El Paso. Together they ran a drugstore and became parents of three sons, Jasper, James and Charles.

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN THE SECOND HALF OF 1800; JULIA HUTCHINS P/68

In this story I will focus on a woman named Julia Hutchins. She holds a special place in the history of the Azusa Street Revival, for she was the African-American pastor who invited William Seymour to come from Houston to Los Angeles to serve as pastor of the Santa Fe Street Holiness Mission. It was she who locked Seymour out of the church because of his teaching on the baptism in the Holy Spirit. 

Thankfully, however, her story does not end there. She soon repented of this action and became a whole- hearted supporter of Seymour and his teaching that tongues is “ the biblical evidence” of one’s being baptised in the Holy Spirit.

At the Azusa Street Mission Julia was herself baptised in the Holy Spirit and re-affirmed an earlier call to go to Africa as a missionary. Within five months of the beginning of the revival she and her husband, along with their young niece Leila McKinney, left the mission to go as missionaries to Liberia on the West African Coast. They were accompanied by G.W. Batman and Lucy Farrow.

Upon leaving Azusa Street Julia and her colleagues preached their way across the heartland of America to the East Coast. From there they proceeded by ship to Liverpool, England. From Liverpool they sailed to Monrovia, Liberia. All along the way the missionaries faithfully spread the message of Pentecost. 

We know little of Julia’s ministry in Liberia nor how long she stayed; however, we do know that she was one of the first Pentecostal missionaries to set foot on the African Continent. Like many early Pentecostal women, her story simply fades into history. We can assume that when Julia returned to the U.S.A. she continued to minister in the Spirit until her death.

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN THE SECOND HALF OF 1800; EMMA COTTON P/67

In this post I will focus on a woman named Emma Cotton. She lived from 1877 - 1952. Emma was of Creole descent and was born in the State of Louisiana. 

She first appeared in history during the Azusa Street Revival. She was the founder of the Azusa Temple as well as other Pentecostal churches across the United States, Her preaching and involvement in the Pentecostal circuit, as well as her friendship with famous evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson paved the way for women in leadership in the 1900s.

Emma was inspired by “the great awakening of the Spirit.” At the revival she stated that she was healed of weak lungs and cancer that was found in her nose. 

Emma soon met her husband Henry C. Cotton, who worked as a railway cook on a run between Los Angelos and San Antonio. While Henry was away on work, Emma was available to participate in evangelistic work around California. Emma and her husband returned to Louisiana for a period before she was appointed Assistant State Mother of California for her church. Returning to California, Emma held a variety of church services all across the state. She held divine healing services at the Pentecostal Assembly in San Jose in 1916 followed by the establishment of multiple Pentecostal churches in Bakersfield, Fresno, and Oakland.

By 1920, Emma had stepped down from her role as Church Mother to become a full-time pastor for her own church, the Azusa Temple, in Los Angeles. Together, Emma and her husband co-pastored the church through the denomination The Church Of God In Christ (COGIC) but remained independent as a church due to COGIC’s decision to not ordain women. Today, the church is known as Crouch Memorial Church, named after  one of Emma’s proteges, Samual Crouch. To this day the church is an active congregation affiliated with COGIC.

By April 1939, Emma had edited and published a paper called “The Inside Story of the Outpouring of the Holy Spirit - Azusa Street- April 1906.” This paper included details of her eyewitness accounts of events surrounding the Azusa Street Revival as well as an emphasis on the role of women in the church. While many accounts focus on the prominence of men in leadership, Emma wrote about the importance of Lucy Farrow and Julia Hutchins in the success of the revival.

Emma’s bout of cancer returned in 1950 after nearly half a century of reprieve. She died in 1952.

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN THE SECOND HALF OF 1800; MARY JANE MCLEOD BETHUNE P/66

 

In this post I will continue my story on a woman named Mary Jane McLeod Bethune. She lived from 1875 - 1955. As a champion of racial and gender equality, Mary founded many organisations. For instance, in 1924, she was elected president of the National Association of Coloured Women's Clubs.

In 1935, she became the founding president of the National Council of Negro Women in New York City, bringing together representatives of 28 different organisations to work to improve the lives of Black women and their communities.

A friend of Eleanor Roosevelt, Mary became the highest ranking African American women in government when President Franklin Rooseveld named her director of Negro Affairs of the National Youth Administration in 1936. She remained in that position until 1944.She was also a leader of the president's unofficial "Black cabinet."

In 1940, she became vice-president of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured Persons, a position she held for the rest of her life.

Aditionally, Mary was a businesswoman who co-owned a Daytona, Florida resort and co-founded the Central Life Insurance Company of Tampa. 

Mary died in 1955.

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN THE SECOND HALF OF 1800; MARY JANE MCLEOD BETHUNE P/65

  

In this story I will continue to focus on a woman named Mary Jane McLeod Bethune. She lived from 1875 - 1955. Mary married Albertus Bethune is 1898. They moved to Savannah, Georgia,where she did social work until they moved to Florida. A visiting Presbybeterian minister, Coyden Harold Uggams, persuaded the couple to relocate to Palatka, Florida, to run a mission school. They moved in 1899. Mary ran the mission school and began an outreach to prisoners. However, Albertus left the family in 1908 and relocated to South Carolina.

Mary then moved to Daytona where, in 1904, she rented a small house for $11 per month. She made benches and desks from discarded crates and acquired other items through charity. She then started the Educational and Industrial Training School for Negro Girls. She initially had six students - five gitls and her son.However, within one year, she was teaching 30 girls at the school. After two years of operation, 250 girls were enrolled.

In 1923, Daytona School merged with the co-educational Cookman Institute, run by the Methodist Church. The Institute was the first Black College in Florida. Mary became the president at a time when Black women rarely headed colleges,

 

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN THE SECOND HALF OF 1800; MARY JANE MCLEOD BETHUNE P/64

 

In this story I will focus on a woman named Mary McLeod Bethune. She lived from 1875 - 1955. Her parents were Sam McLeod and Patsy McIntosh. They were former slaves. Mary noticed racial inequality as a child, observing that the Black community had access to less wealth and opportunity. She remembered particularly visiting the home of the Wilson family that had enslaved her mother - where she explored a play house while her mother worked. Mary picked up a book and one of the Wilson girls admonished her with "Put down that book, you can't read." Mary later cited the incident as contributing to her desire for literacy and education.

In 1886, Mary began attending Mayesville's one-room Black schoolhouse, Trinity Mission School, which was run by the Presbyterian Board of Missions of Freedmen. The school was five miles from her home, and she walked there and back. 

She attended Scotia Seminary (now Barber- Scotia College) from 1888 - 1894. And she attended Dwight L.Moody's Inistitute for Home and Foreign Missions in Chicago (now the Moody Bible Inistitute) from 1894 - 1895, hoping to become a missionary to Africa. Told by the Presbyterian mission board where she applied to become a missionary, that Black missionaries were not needed, she planned to teach as education was a prime goal among African Americans.

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN THE SECOND HALF OF 1800; LUCY TURNER SMITH P/63

In this post I will focus on a woman named Lucy Turner Smith. She lived from 1875- 1952. Lucy was born in Woodstock, Georgia. She was one of six children and was raised by her mother alone. 

Lucy married William Smith in 1896, and together they had nine children. The family moved to Athens, Georgia, in 1908. Shortly thereafter, her husband left, and Lucy began to earn a living by taking in sewing. She moved to Atlanta, and then to Chicago, where she arrived in 1910. Her husband rejoined the family in Chicago.

Lucy had joined the Baptist Church when she was twelve years old. In Chicago she discovered Pentecostalism, and by 1912 was attending Stone Church, a Pentecostal Assembly. She believed she had a gift for faith healing, and in 1916, she started prayer meetings in her home with two other women. As the meetings grew, Lucy established the Langley Avenue All Nations Pentecostal Church in 1920. At first the church did not have a permanent building but was modelled as a “tent meeting.” In the mid-twenties, Lucy decided to build a new church building on Langley Avenue, and construction was completed in December 1926. This would be the first church in Chicago ever established by a woman pastor.

In addition to her faith healing ministry, Lucy was a dynamic preacher. She developed an active community outreach program, feeding thousands during the Great Depression. She also developed a robust gospel music ministry. All Nations was one of the first African American churches to broadcast worship services on the radio. 

Lucy sold the Langley Avenue church building in 1938, and built a new church building. At the height of its popularity, All Nations had a membership of 3,000. By the end of her ministry Lucy estimated that she had prayed for more than 200,000 people, during her weekly faith healing sessions.

Lucy died in 1952. Over 60,000 people attended her funeral. 

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN THE SECOND HALF OF 1800; FLORENCE CRAWFORD P/62

In this post I will share the story of a woman named Florence Crawford. She lived from 1872 - 1936. The following is her personal story.

I was brought up in a home of unbelief. I never knew what it was to hear my mother pray and I never laid my hand on a Bible until I was a grown woman, but God looked down into my heart and saw that I wanted something real.

One night as I was dancing in a ballroom I heard a voice speak out of Heaven and say:”Daughter, give Me thine heart.” I did not know it was the Voice of God so I went on dancing. Again the Voice spoke. It seemed my feet became heavy and the place was no longer beautiful to me. Again the Voice spoke much louder, “Daughter, give Me thine heart.” The music died away and I left the ballroom; and for three days and nights I prayed and wept, wrestling against the powers of atheism and darkness. The enemy would tell me there was no God, and that the Bible was a myth. I could hardly eat or sleep, and it seemed there was no hope for me, but I thought: “Why did God speak out of Heaven if there were no hope?” Again the Voice spoke much louder,”Daughter, give Me thine heart.”

At last I remembered a woman who was a Christian, and I went to her home. When she opened the door and looked at my face, she said, “You want God.” I said, “I want Him more than anything else in the world.” Right there I fell on my knees, and as she prayed for me, God came into my heart.

Oh, the rest, the peace, the quietness that flooded my soul was wonderful! As I wept for joy, I said, “I must go and tell the others.” I went to the home where some friends were waiting for me to join them in a card game. They had cards on the table and were ready to play but I told them, “No cards for me; I have found Jesus!” They saw the light of another world on my face, and the cards were put away.

What a change God made in my heart! Everything I had loved that was of the world was taken out of my heart; but, oh, how I loved lost souls. Often I wept as I saw those who looked sad, and many times I would stop and tell them the story of Jesus.

How I thank God when I heard of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. He led me to a little mission. It was not a fine hall, but just an old barn-like building with an old board laid on two chairs for an altar. The floor was carpeted with sawdust; the walls and beams blackened by smoke. I looked around to see if anyone saw me go in, but I would not have cared if the whole world saw me go out. I had found a people who had the experience I wanted. The first “Hallelujah ” I heard echoed down in my soul. When I went out of there that day, the only thing I wondered was: Can I ever get it?

From Monday till Friday I sought God and read my Bible at every possible moment between my duties. That Friday afternoon at the mission, the preacher stopped and said, “Somebody in this place wants something from God.” As I sat in my chair, the power of God shook my being, and rivers of divine love flooded my soul. My tongue began to praise God in another language.

I had many afflictions of my body but I had never thought to pray for my healing. However, one day I prayed that God would heal my lungs and He did. Furthermore, as a young girl I had been thrown from a carriage and as a result had to wear a brace with straps and a metal plate. One night the prayer of faith was offered for me, and God instantly healed me. I walked twenty -three blocks that night and had no pain. From that day to this, I have never had a tinge of pain from that problem.

Florence led the Apostolic Faith work from 1907 until her passing on June 20, 1936.

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN THE SECOND HALF OF 1800: OTELIA MARIA CARRINGTON CUNNINGHAM P/61

                                                                                                                                                                         

In this post I will continue to focus on a woman named Otelia Maria Carrington Cunningham. She lived from 1867 -1934. As Otelia travelled the state for her job, she also spoke about suffrage to local groups and attended suffrage meetings and convention at the state as well as the national level. She was also a delegate at the 1920 Democratic Convention in San Francisco - one if not the first woman delegate from North Carolina.

In a letter to the editor of the Raleigh News and Observer after Tennessee ratified the 19th amendment, Otelia wrote: "If it is right for women to be breadwinners and taxpayers, it surely can be no disgrace for women to know something about their movement and the laws under which they live." Her speeches and quotes were written up in newspapers.

Otelia was president of the women's church group of Holy Trinity Episcopal in Greensboro and in her 60s went to Duke University to study French.

Otelia died in 1934.

 

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN THE SECOND HALF OF 1800; OTOLIA MARIA CARRINGTON CUNNINGHAM P/60

                                                                                                                                                                               

In this story I will focus on a woman named Otelia Maria Carrington Cunningham. She lived from 1867 1934. Otelia was born in Virginia to privilege and married a wealthy North Carolina tobacco farmer, but experienced hardship in 1910 when her husband's tobacoo business went bankrupt.

Otelia then got a job and sought to make other women's lives better by fighting to give them a voice regarding their own lives and their own future. She believed if women could contribute to society - support the war effort, hold jobs, raise children - they had a right to vote.This despite the fact that in the South women were generally thought to be too ladylike and genteel to have the vote.

Otelia was president of the North Carolina Equal Suffrage Association in 1917 and 1918 when the women's sufrage movement had decided to focus on supporting the war effort. She worked for the state, speaking to schools and other organisations about fire safety. 

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN THE SECOND HALF OF 1800; MAY ELEANOR FRAY P/ 59

In this story I will focus on a woman named May Elenanor Edick Frey. She lived from 1865 - 1954. Her father was a bricklayer, her mother was a suffragette. She possessed a gift for story telling and eventually became a reporter.

While covering the story of a revival, she met her future husband Peter Isaiah Frey. He shared the story about how he was delivered from alcoholism after experiencing salvation in Christ. The next night May herself experienced an encounter with God whilst she was writing notes for her story. She sensed an urgency to make a decision for Christ so she surrendered her life to Christ that night and never turned back. 

In the beginning she doubted the validity of women preachers because she never experienced seeing one, but people kept asking her to "take a night" of the campaign. Even through her self-doubts, others saw her gifts, talents and abilities. Those around her took notice and nudged her onward to lead. A group of local pastors within the Baptist Denomination of the Northern states (now American Baptists) urged her to become fully ordained. They met her for about two and a half hours to interview her and unanimously told her they wanted to ordain her as a pastor. With much humility, she accepted and was confirmed as the first ordained woman in the Northern Baptist Convention in 1905.

May was first exposed to Pentecostalism through a friend who called in someone to pray over her when she was dying from tuberculosis. Before the pastor finished praying, she scared her nurses and everyone around her by getting up and walking around. She reported that she was completely and miraculously healed. Though she was an ordained pastor in the American Baptist Denomination, a second Pentecostal experience at the age of 54, led her to seek ordination with the Assemblies of God.

May led a remarkable life because she served selflessly. She pastored, was a chaplain-nurse, travelled overseas for missions work, was a world-famous evangelist and became an accomplished writer.

May died in 1954.

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN THE SECOND HALF OF 1800: EVANGELINE BOOTH P/58

                                                                                                                                                                         

In this post I will continue to focus on a woman named Evangeline Booth. She lived from 1865 - 1950. Evangeline's only political involvement was to throw the weight of the Salvation Army behind the movement for prohibition and against the later movement for repeal.

On April 10, 1923, Evangeline officially adopted the United States as her homeland when she became a naturalised citizen. 

Her reign as Commander of the American Salvation Army came to an end in 1934 when she was elected as the organisation's International Commander-in-Chief. For five years she led the Salvation Army's work in eighty countries.

Evangeline retired in 1939. In 1950, she died at the age of 84 in Hartsdale, New York.

 

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN THE SECOND HALF OF 1800; EVANGELINE BOOTH P/57

                                                                                                                                                                               

In this post I will continue to focus on a woman named Evangeline Booth. She lived from 1865 - 1950. Under Evangeline's leadership, the American Salvation Army expanded its already far-reaching social services. 

She established hospitals for unwed mothers, soup kitchens, emergency shelters, services for the unemployed, homes for the aging adults, and prison work. Evangeline Residences were opened to provide homes for working women.

After the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, disaster relief became part of the Salvation Army's services. The disasters services expanded during World War I to include the Army's famous canteens featuring "doughnuts for doughboys". For the Salvation Army's work during the war, Evangeline was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal in 1919.

 

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN THE SECOND HALF OF 1800; EVANGELINE BOOTH P/56

                                                                                                                                                                         

In this post I will focus on a woman named Evangeline Booth. She lived from 1865 - 1950. Evangeline was the daughter of William and Catherine Booth, the founders of the Salvation Army. She was educated at home and grew up doing the work of the Salvation Army, assuming a position of responsibility in the Marylbone district of London at the age of 17. Known for both her musical talent and her striking personal appearance, Evangeline soon received the byname "White Angel of the Slums."

In 1889, at the age of 23, Evangeline was given charge of the Salvation Army's International Training College in Clapton, London and put in charge of all Salvation Army forces in the home counties (London and the surrounding area).

Following this, Evangeline became the Commander of the Army's forces in Canada. Because of a family tragedy, her time in Canada only amounted to a few years. In 1903, Evangeline's sister, Emma Booth-Tucker, who along with her husband commanded the American Salvation Army, was killed in a train-acccident. Emma's husband tried to carry on by himself, but was not able to do so. In 1904, Evangeline was appointed to replace him. She served as the Commander of the United States forces for the next thirty years.

 

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN THE SECOND HALF OF 1800; MARY LEE CAGLE P/55

                                                                                                                                                                           

In this story I will continue to focus on a woman named Mary Lee Cagle. She lived from 1864 - 1955. Mary and her husband organised many new churches and were widely recognised as district leaders. Mary was the lead pastor when Lubbock First Church of the Nazarene was founded in 1909. She was also instrumental in founding Abilene First Church. She is referred to as "The Mother of Holiness in West Texas."

Mary and her husband, furthermore, conducted revivals and organise churches in New Mexico, Arizona and Wyoming.She organised at least 28 congregations. She served in the elected position of District Evangelist for the New Mexico and Abilene Districts and always chaired one or more district committees. Through 1928, she was always elected a ministerial delegate to her denomination's General Assembly: she was usually the first clergy person elected to the delegation.

She preached her final sermon on her 90th birthday, blind and supported by aids on either side. Mary died in 1955.

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN THE SECOND HALF OF 1800; MARY LEE WASSON CAGLE P/54

In this post I will continue my story of a woman named Mary Lee Wasson Cagle. She lived from 1864 - 1955.The survival and expansion of the denomination New Testament Church in Christ depended largely on three women: Mary Lee Harris, Donnie Mitchum and Elliott J. Sheeks. Donnie and Elliott were both wives of local businessmen. Together, the three women organised new churches in Tenessee and Arkansas. 

In 1895, Mary also organised the first congregation in Texas near Abilene. In 1899, she and Elliott were ordained as ministers at the first denominational council held in Milan. As pastor, evangelist and superintendent, she oversaw a growing network of congregations.In 1900, she married H.C Cagle.

In 1902, Mary convened the first annual meeting of the Texas Council of the New Testament Church in Christ; her continuing influence in the Eastern Council (the Tennessee and Arkansas churches) helped tie the group's two branches together. In 1904, she helped create the Holiness Church of Christ (HCC) by leading her organisation into union with the Independent Holiness Church, which had churches in east Texas and the Oklahoma Territory. In 1908, the HCC merged with holiness denominations from the east and west coasts to form the present-day Church of the Nazarene.

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN THE SECOND HALF OF 1800; MARY LEE WASSON CAGLE P/53

                                                                                                                                                                           

In this story I will focus on a woman named Mary Lee Wasson Cagle. She lived from 1864 - 1955. Her parents were John and Nancy Wasson. She was born near Moulton, Lawrence County. Her family was Methodist. As a child, Mary desired to become a missionary but her mother discouraged it.

In 1891, she married Robert Lee Harris, a Texas revivalist. He was a preacher in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Mary travelled with her husband to the major southern cities and learned the art of being an evangelist from him.

Mary's husband left the Methodist church and in Milan, Tennessee, launched a new holiness denomination known as the New Testament Church of Christ. He died a few months later.

Wishing everyone a blessed Easter

 

                                                

                                               WISHING  EVERYONE A BLESSED EASTER

                                                 CHRIST IS RISEN! HE IS RISEN INDEED!

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN THE SECOND HALF OF 1800; JULIA WARD HOWE P/52

                                                                                                                                                                                            

In this post I will focus on a woman named Julia Ward Howe. She was born in 1861. For years Julia yearned to take a more active part in public affairs but her husband, noted Boston reformer Samuel Gridly Howe, insisted that she restrict herself to running their home.

During the Civil War in 1861, Julia unwittingly became a minor celebrity by writing the "Battle Hymn of the Republic." This poem, set to the music of "John Brown's Body," became the North's unofficial wartime anthem.

After the war, Julia broke the contraints imposed by her husband. She became a beloved figure in the growing women's suffrage movement, all the while raising six children. 

In 1870, she founded "Woman's Journal," a weekly suffragist magazine that ran until 1931. Then she was elected president of the Association of the Advancement of Women.                                                                                                                                                                                 

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN THE SECOND HALF OF 1800; PANDITA RAMABAI SARASVATI P/51

 

In this post I will continue to share the story of a woman named Pandita Ramabai Sarasvati. She lived from 1858 - 1922. In 1889, she was the first woman to address the 2000 delegates of the National Social Congress in Bombay. A powerful orator, audiences in India and America always gave her resounding applause and standing ovations.

In 1896, during a severe famine in her homeland, Ramabai toured the villages of Maharashtra with a caravan of bullock carts and rescued thousands of outcast children, child widows, orphans, and other destitute women. She housed them in the shelter that she opened called Mukti Mission.

By 1900, there were 1,500 residents and over a hundred cattle in the Mukti Mission and Pandita helped establish a Church at Mukti. The Pandita Ramabai Mukti Mission is still active today, providing housing, education, vocal training etc. for many needy groups including widows, orphans and the blind.

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN THE SECOND HALF OF 1800; PANDITA RAMABAI SARASVATI P/50

                                                                                                                                                                                          

In this post I will share the story of a woman named Pandita Ramabai Sarasvati. She lived from 1858 - 1922 and was born in India. Her father, a Sanskrit scholar, taught her Sanskrit. Sadly, both her parents died in a great famine when Pandita was sixteen.

Because of her prowess as a Sanskrit scholar, Ramabai was honoured by the University of Calcutta as the first woman to receive the titles Pandita and Sarasvati.

In 1880, Ramabai married a Bengali lawyer. However, her husband died in 1882. After her husband's death, Ramambai founded an organisation to promote women's education and to deliver girls form the oppression of child marriage.

In 1883, Ramabai travelled to England to start medical training. During her stay she converted to Christianity. In 1886, Pandita travelled to the US to attend the graduation of the first female Indian doctor. She stayed for two years and during that time translated textbooks and gave lectures throughout the US and Canada.

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN THE SECOND HALF OF 1800: KATHERINE BUSHNELL P/49

                                                                                                                                                                              

In this post I will continue to focus on a woman named Katherine Bushnell. She lived from 1855 - 1946. In 1908, Katherine began to write a bible study "God's Word to Women" based on the fact that she had become inspired to study Biblical tranlations during her time in China. At that time she had noticed with indignation that the Chines Bible had changed Paul's fellows from women to men, and after that had vowed to devote a portion of her life solely to a "meticulous examination of male bias that had corrupted the English text."

In her bible study, she works through every biblical portion interpreted to mean that women are inferior to men. This includes the topics of women not being allowed to preach, require subordination to their husbands, polygamy, and head coverings. 

Katherine believed that mistranslations were responsible for the social and spiritual subjugation of women. She writes:"If women must suffer domestic, legislative and ecclesiastical disabilities because Eve sinned, then must the Church harbour the appalling doctrine that Christ did not atone for all sin, because so long as the Church maintains these disabilities, the inevitable conclusion in the average mind will be the same as Tertullian's - God's verdict on the (female) sex still holds good and the sex's guilt must still hold also."

Katherine died in 1946.

 

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN THE SECOND HALF OF 1800; KATHERINE BUSHNELL P/47

                                                                                                                                                                        

In this story I will focus on a woman named Katherine Bushnell. She lived from 1855 - 1946.I Katherine was born in Evanston, Illinois. Her roots in Christianity were well established from the beginning.

Katherine showed the desire to further her education from an early age and attended Women's Northwestern College (Northwestern University) from 1873 - 1874. She next studied medicine at Chicago Women's Medical College, where she specialised in nerve disorders.

Katherine initially planned on entering postgraduate study but was persuaded by her home church to go to China as a medical missionary in 1879. She served as a medical doctor in Kiukiang, China from 1879 - 1882. However, in 1882, she fell ill and was forced to return home.

Having a break

 Hi everyone,

I am having a short break from posting. I will post again in a week or so.

Blessings,

Loes

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN THE SECOND HALF OF 1800: ANNA ADAMS GORDON P/46

Read Part One HERE

In this story I will continue to focus on a woman named Anna Adams Gordon. She lived from 1853 - 1931. Anna and Frances Willard remained close friends until Frances's death in 1898, at which time Lillian M.N. Stevens became president of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, with Anne as vice-president.

Anna also turned the attention of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union to other causes, including Americanisation of immigrants, child welfare, and the condition of women in industry.

Anna also became president of the World League Against Alcoholism, and vice-chairman of the Commission of Nineteen on the National Constitutional Prohibition Amendment.

Anna was, furthermore, deeply involved in the temperance work with the National Council of Women, the International Sunday-School Association, the World's Woman's Christian Temperance Union, the National Legislative Council etc. 

Anna died in 1931.

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN THE SECOND HALF OF 1800; ANNA ADAMS GORDON P/45

                                                           Read Part One HERE                                                                                    

In this story I will focus on a woman named Anna Adams Gordon. She lived from 1853 - 1931. Her parents were James M. Gordon and Mary Clarkson Gordon, both Christian abolitionists. They lived in Boston, Massachusetts. When she was three, her family moved to Auburndale.

Anna went on to attend Boston High School, Lasell Seminary and Mount Holyoke College. She spent a year abroad in San Sebastian with a sister, Alice Gordon Gulick, who had started a school for girls there in 1871. 

In 1877, Anne met Frances E. Willard at a Dwight L. Moody revival meeting, in the building where Frances was holding temperance meetings. The two became close friends with Anne continuing to play organ for Frances' meetings. Anne eventually moved into Frances' residence as her personal secretary. 

Anne subsequently followed her employer on her travels through the United States, Canada and Europe. spending a year in England.

Read Part Forty-Six HERE

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN THE SECOND HALF OF 1800; MARY CHURCH TERRELL P/44

                                                                  Read Post One HERE

In this post I will continue to share the story of a woman named Mary Church Terrell. She lived from 1863 - 1954. Mary also actively embraced women's suffrage, which she saw as essential to elevating the status of black women and, consequently, the entire race. She actively campaigned for black women's suffrage. 

Mary fought for women's suffrage and civil rights because she realised that she belonged "to the only group in this country that has two such huge obstacles to surmount...both sex and race."

In 1909, Mary was among the founders and charter members of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People. Following the passage of the 19th amendment, Mary focused on broader civil rights. In 1940, she published her autobiography, "A Coloured Woman in a White World," outlining her experiences with discrimination.In 1948, Mary became the first black member of the American Association of University Women, after winning an anti-discrimination lawsuit. 

Mary died in 1854.

Read Part Forty-Five HERE

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN THE SECOND HALF OF 1800; MARY CHURCH TERRELL P/43

 

                                                                  Read Part One HERE

In this  post I will continue to focus on a woman named Mary Church Terell, She lived from 1863 - 1954. Mary's activism was sparked in 1892, when an old friend, Thomas Moss, was lynched in Mephis by whites because his business competed with theirs. 

Mary joined Ida B. Wells-Barnett in anti-lynching campaigns, but Mary's life work focused on the notion of racial uplift, the belief that blacks would help end racial discrimination by advancing themselves and other members of the race through education, work and community activism.

Mary's words - "Lifting as we climb," became the motto of the National Association of Coloured Women, the group she helped found in 1896. She was president from 1896 - 1901. As president, Mary campaigned tirelessly among black organisations and mainstream white organisations, writing and speaking extensively.

Read Post Forty-Four HERE

 

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN THE SECOND HALF OF 1800; MARY CHURCH TERRELL P/42

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     Read Part One HERE

In this post I will focus on a woman named Mary Church Terrell. She lived from 1863 - 1954. Her parents were former slaves. Her father, Robert Reed Church, was a successful businessman. Her mother Louisa Ayres Church, owned a hair salon.

The affluence and belief in the importance of education by Mary's parents enabled her to attend the Antioch College Laboratory School in Ohio, and later Oberlin College, where she earned both Bachelor's and Master's degrees.

Mary spent two years teaching at Wilberforce College before moving to Washington D.C., in 1887 to teach at the M Street Coloured High School. There she met and maried Heberton Terrell, in 1891.

Read Part Forty-Three HERE

 

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN THE SECOND HALF OF 1800; EMMA BLANCHE ADAMS STAMP P/41

                                                                 Read Part One HERE

In this post I will continue to focus on a woman named Emma Blanche Adams Stamp. She lived from 1863 - 1945. Emma and her husband continued to co-lead revivals. In 1912 they held revivals in Iowa and Wisconsin. Emma's husband clearly saw Emma as an equal who was also serving as a conference evangelist even though she could not officially have that title because women could not become elders.

While Emma and her husband saw themselves as partners in ministry, the denominational narrative does not remember them as such. In Emma's April 20, 1945, obit in "The Free Methodist" she is remembered as "standing by her husband as he laboured as a pastor, district elder and general conference evangelist." This re-casting of Emma's ministry was not uncommon as after the defeat of women's ordination in 1894 there was a noticeable shift within the male leadership as they attemped to appear supportive of women in ministry but still restricted them from ordination as elders.

Instead of directly opposing women preachers, the conversation shifted to applauding women who served in more nurturing roles such as the deaconess order establised in 1907. However, the ordination of women was affirmed in 1911. 

Read Part Forty-Two HERE

                                                                                                                                                              

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN THE SECOND HALF OF 1800; EMMA BLANCHE ADAMS STAMP P/40

                                                                 Read Part One HERE

In this post I will continue to share the story of a woman named Emma Blanche Adams Stamp. She lived from 1863 - 1945. As revivialists, Blanche and her husband travelled widely. In an August 30, 1902, report from Gallatin Tennessee, Emma provides a snapshot of their revivals. Assisting J.M. Keen and W. Mayfield, who were district elders, they pitched a large tent in the centre of Gallatin where Emma notes "the Lord began to send the crowds." After Tenessee, Emma and her husband moved on to hold revivals in Louisiana and Missippi for two months where Emma said the location was "the most needy field I ever was in, and I believe God will come and answer the prayers for the salvation of many people."

In an April 16, 1911 report Emma recalls a visit to Manhatten, Kansas, where she was "preaching the gospel of peace." A sixty-seven year old Roman Catholic woman came to hear her and while she was "very deaf" and had not been in church for forty years, she seemed keen on hearing Emma preach. 

According to Emma, she heard every word of the sermon and came with a broken heart to the altar and prayed earnestly though all was dark and the manner of the altar service was new and strange to her. It was truly sad to look upon her face. She would frequently stop and say, "Sister Stamp, I hope I am forgiven, but oh I want to know it." Again and again she would repeat the words, "I hope I am saved, but I want to know it." At last she exclaimed, "Oh sister Stamp, I know it! I know it!" Think of a woman sixty-seven years of age, and never happy in her life! O wonderful gospel.Having now a thirst for the Word of life, she bought a bible and is now daily drinking at the foundation of the stream that makes glad the city of God.

Read Part Forty-One HERE

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN THE SECOND HALF OF 1800; EMMA BLANCHE ADAMS STAMP P/39

                                                                 Read Part One HERE

In this post I will share the story of a woman named Emma Blanche Adams Stamp. She lived from 1863 - 1945. Emma was born in Pennsylvania, USA. Her parents were Matthew and Emma Adams. She married Christopher Stamp in 1882. After their marriage they entered ministry in the Free Methodist Church together.

From 1894 - 1898 Blanche is listed as a conference evangelist for the Pittsburg Conference. While her license was from the Pittsburg Conference she resided in Chicago when she was not on the road holding revival services with her husband.

In 1898, apart from working as an evangelist in the Colorado Conference, she is also appointed to the Husted Circuit. This was not a tiny town appointment; the Colorado Conference had given an important regional railway town to a female evangelist.

In 1899 she is again listed in the Pittsburg Conference and living in Chicago. Emma and her husband are very likely travelling and preaching. Then in 1900 she is listed by the conference as the appointed pastor at Latrob, Pennsylvania, a vibrant railroad town.

Read Part Forty HERE

 

 

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN THE SECOND HALF OF 1800; HELEN BARRETT MONTGOMERY P/38

                                                           Read Part One HERE                                                                                                                

In this post I will continue to focus on a woman named Helen Bsrrett Montgomery. She lived from 1861 - 1934. The Women's Educational and Industrial Union, of wich Helen was president for many years, founded a legal aid office, set up public playgrounds, established a "Noon Rest" house where working girls could eat, and opened stations for mothers to obtain milk.

Helen also became known in the city for her advocacy of education. She was the first woman to be elected to the Rochester School Board, as well as to any public office in Rochester, 20 years before women had the right to vote. She served a total of ten years as a member of the Board.

Helen was the first woman to translate the New Testament into English from Greek and have it published by a professional publishing house. It was published in 1924 as The Centenary Translation, issued by the American Baptist Society. This version has been reprinted as The New Testament in Modern English and labeled Montgomery New Testament.

Helen died in 1934. 

Read Part Thirty-Nine HERE                                                                                                                                                                              

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN THE SECOND HALF OF 1800; HELEN BARRETT MONTGOMERY P/37

                                                            Read Part One HERE                                                                                                             

In this story I will continue to focus on a woman named Helen Barrett Montgomery. She lived from 1861 - 1934. Helen's involvement and leadership in church circles and the city's women movement led her to serve as a delegate to annual meetings of the Northern Baptist Convention, the association of Northern Baptist churches where she helped to decide policy.        

In 1921, Helen was the first woman to be elected president of the Northern Baptist Convention. She strongly believed that women had an active role to play in the church and society.

Helen worked as well on social reforms, especially those to benefit women. In 1893, she joined Susan B. Anthony in forming a new chapter of the Women's Educational and Industrial Union in Rochester, which served poor women and children in the city. She served as its president from 1893 - 1911. 

Read Part Thirty-Eight HERE                                                                                                                                                                                       

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN THE SECOND HALF OF 1800; HELEN BARRETT MONTGOMERY P/36

                                                            Read Part One HERE                                                                                                              

In this post I will focus on a woman named Helen Barrett Montgomery. She lived from 1861 - 1934. Her parents  were Amos Judson Barrett and Emily Barrows Barrett. Helen was born in Kingsville, Ohio. USA. Her parents moved to Rochester, New York, when she was a child so that her father could attend the Rochester Theological Seminary. After his graduation he became pastor of Lake Avenue Baptist Church in the city.

Helen studied at Wellesly College, where she graduated with a teacher certification in 1884. She taught in Rochester and afterwards at the Wellesley Preparatory School in Philadelphia. In 1887, Helen married William A. Montgomery.

Helen stayed on at  Lake Avenue Baptist Church, the church her father was the pastor of until his death. In 1892 the congregation licensed her to preach. She organised and taught a women's Bible class at the church, which she led for 44 years in the midst of her other activities.

Read Part Thirty-Seven HERE