Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1883-02-24
AN UNMARRIED WOMAN PREACHER.

u6ar VIC LOINU u bQ0 OGuHrb6s
AN UNMARRIED WOMAN PREACHER.
The Successful Passionate of Miss ARna OIL
Ger in a Brooklyn Methodist Church.
New York Sun,
Miss Anna Oliver has almost completed
her fourth year in the pulpit of the Will
Ioughby Avenue Methodist church in
Brooklyn, and having demonstrated that a
young woman can be a successful pastor,
she and her friends think it is about time
the Methodist bishops received her into the
church work. She says that she has no
other ambition than to do pastoral
work. Bred as strict Episcopalian,
she had overcome the scruples of her
family after she became an evangelist.
Not to disgrace them as some of her rela-
tives feared she might, she declined to use
the family name Of Snowden, to which she
was entitled, and sdopted instead the name
she had become accustomed to under an
aunt's tutelage, that of Anna Oliver. Hard
work has told upon her. Opposition from
Methodist preachers has rendered her life
more than ordinarily serious, and she ap-
pears now to be demure young lady Of
quakerish tastes, who, though frail IN body,
is abundant in energy.
The church which she purchased from
the Williamsburg Savings bank for $14,-
900 was about to be turned into a livery
stable or beer garden when she got 1t.
She held the title in her own name for
some time, giving her bond for $4,000,
but she subsequently conveyed the proper
ty to trustees. 1t was found that If the
property was decided in the customary way
the conference might repudiate the Meth
odism that tolerated a young woman aS pas
tor, and appropriate the church. Miss
Oliver began to run the church on strict
business principles, making her own sala-
ry the last payment due, and requiring
all bills to be settled month
ly. Each months proportion of
interest on the mortgage has been uni
formly deposited in the savings bank, SO
that at the end of six months the full
amount is always on hand. She deter
mined to make her enterprise unique in
it's economy. She figured out that $2,250
would meet all the expenses. her own sala-
ry included, and when the revenue fell
short she gave to the church what was due
her.
She set her face resolutely against
church fairs, festivals, oyster suppers,
necktie sociables, leap year entertain
ments. charades, tableauX, cantatas, wax
work shows, or any other projects that
would turn the church into a play-house
an eat ng saloon, or baZar. She, however,
favored lectures, concerts, spelling bees, his
torical examinations, debates, and read
ing room, and manages to get little rev.
enue from letting the church rooms for a
school, for she contends that if the intelli
gence Of the community is promoted the
cause of religion is advanced She does
not understand what is meant by the con-
slant cry of so many churches, "For the
benefit of the church,
When Miss Oliver completed the usual
Methodist pastoral term of three years last
April. she resigned, saying that she was a
Methodist and believed in itinerancy, but
the trustees declined to present the mat
ter to the church, and the official board,
which has seven female members, unani-
mously re-extended a call to FER.
She had worked herself down in health, but
she accepted on conditions which gave her
some relief. She has had her study in the
church, has had room on Willoughby
| avenue, and has been able-boarder at
another place. Now it is proposed to
| erect a cottage alongside the church for
her home, She hit upon way by which
she could erect a house, if she had land
| owned by herself, and accordingly she made
a proposition to the church that if its mem
bers would raise $1,000 at once she would
accept it for salary due and to come,
would pay it on the $4,000 mortgage, Sc
cure the release of the building lot along
side the church, and put up home for
herself. This ingenious plan, which went
| to the solution of a question that had
troubled many men in the church, was re-
sponded to at once, and Miss Oliver has
fled plans for cottage she is going to
build in the spring.
''She's got a head like Jay Gould for
business said one of her friends yester-
| day. ''She has chung to her tenets Of econ
oEy, and the result is that last year the
receipts of the church amounted to
| $4,769.99, being an increase of $1,219.52
over the year before. The interest on the
debt has been reduced 1920, and the $1,000
above referred to reduces the debt to $12,-
| 600. This sum Miss Oliver is extremely
anxious to raise. Acting under the advice
Vi OtuetS, Il ear dSO SIG iosuOu Oh oPPOell,
offering to send her picture to all sub
| scribers. The returns amounted to only
| S137, but she thinks this is due to the fact
that the appeal did not get into the hands
of sufficient number of persons, as only a
small number of the 5000 printed were
distributed. we still believe she says,
that there is $4,000 for US in Brooklyn
and New York, if we can only get the ap-
peal to the people with some one to stand
by and take the money Miss Oliver
planned to send an inexpensive engraving
| to the subscribers, but one of her admirers
had steel engraving of her portrait made
at his own expense, and fine picture is
the result
| One of the church members says that
the difficulty most encountered is feeling
among men that women are after all only
second-rate creatures, and he tells the
story of man who had become back
slider from Methodism, and was recon
verted by Miss Oliver after some men
| had failed to revive his religion. He be-
came a member of the church, and often
spoke in meeting of the girl-pastor's Won
derful work, but when the obstacles to sue
/ oil ho RI