# Woman of the Century/Lorenza Haynes

​LORENZA HAYNES. HAYNES, Misa Lorenza, minister, born in Waltham, Mass., 15th April, 1820. She is a direct descendant on the paternal side of Walter Haynes, who came from England with his family in 1658. The next year he bought of Cato, an Indian, for the sum of five pounds, a tract of land, now the town of Sudbury, near Boston. Lorenza is of the seventh generation, all of whom, including her father's family, except herself, were born in Sudbury. The maternal side is descended from the Scotch. From childhood Lorenza showed an unusual interest in books, and, born in a town which had a library and an annual course of lectures, she became a constant reader and student. Miss Haynes passed through the grades of the public schools, and then attended the Waltham Academy of Louis Smith. She taught one of the public schools in her native town for nearly two years, but love of study was so strong that she went for a time to the old academy in Leicester, Mass. Afterward she taught a public school for six years in the city of Lowell, and there made the acquaintance of Margaret Foley, a cameo cutter. Then began a friendship which continued for nearly thirty years and ended only at the death of Miss Foley, who had become an eminent sculptor in Rome. Miss Haynes afterwards held the position of lady principal in the Academy in Chester, N. H. She subsequently established a young ladies' seminary in Rochester, N. Y. After four years of intense labor she was compelled to return to her home for rest and restoration. Passing through many years of invalidism, she then accepted the position of librarian of the public library which Waltham was to establish, having entire charge of the cataloguing and work of organizing the library. After six-and-a-half years of service, she resigned her office in order to enter the Universalist Theological school of St. Lawrence University. Canton, N. Y. Frequently, while librarian, she has been upon the platform as a lecturer. For a year before leaving the library she read and studied under the direction of Rev. ​Olympia Brown, who wished her at once to take charge of a parish which was open to her. Miss Haynes was not willing to enter the work less equipped theologically than young men graduates. Two months before her course of study was finished in Canton, she received a call from the Universalist Church in Hallowell, Maine, to become its pastor when she left Canton. She had never preached before the society. She accepted the call, and was there ordained on 10th February, 1875. She officiated as chaplain in the House of Representatives and also in the Senate, in Augusta, Maine. This was the first instance of a woman acting in that capacity in that State. She was chaplain for two terms in the National Soldiers' Home near Augusta, the first woman who had filled that place, and had an invitation for a third term, when she resigned her pastorate in Hallowell for one in Marlborough, Mass. While preaching in the latter place she was invited by Post 43, Grand Army of the Republic, to make some remarks in the exercises of Memorial Day, 1876. The following year she was unanimously invited to deliver the oration of the day. It was the first time a woman in Massachusetts had filled that position. Miss Haynes has been settled over parishes in Fairfield, Me., Rockport, Mass., and Skowhegan, Me. She has often found her labors exceedingly arduous, especially during Maine winters, preaching sometimes in two or three places the same day. She has ridden ten and twelve miles in an open sleigh, with the mercury below zero, to officiate at a funeral She left her parish in Fairfield, Me., in 1883, for a European tour. She has been from its organization a member and first vice-president of the Woman's Ministerial Conference. Miss Haynes has been a worker in various reformatory societies. She has always been a woman suffragist. She has often spoken upon platforms and before legislative committees in the State Houses of Massachusetts and Maine. Greatly to the regret of her society as of herself, in 1S89, she was obliged to leave her last pastorate, which was in Skowhegan, Me., on account of overworked eyes. Having previously bought herself a home in Waltham, but a few rods from the family homestead, where her only sister resides, she became the occupant of her cottage in July. 1889, where she now resides.