St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-07-26
After Twenty-Five Years
There Are 720 Of Them En-
gagged in Preaching.
A Faint Recollection Of the
Rev. Olympia Brown
Willis.
Rev. Antoinette Brown Black
well Probably the First
One Ordained.
Julia Ward Howe, Anna H.
Shaw, Ada G. B0Wles and
Other German Writers.


the lazy weather of yesterday put into
a reminiscent mood, ''the first time l
ever saw woman in the pulpit" says
the Chicago Tribune. 1--WE all turned
our heads as she entered the church,
and have vivid mental picture of her
tail, slim figure, in black silk, with a
severe white necktie, as she walked.
without looking to the right or left, past
our pew. 1 was so little that, hearing
her spoken of as Rev. Olympia Brown,
l associated her at once, and have con-
tinued in a vague way to associate her
ever since, with the Olympia that is on
Puget sound. / said she was the first
woman preacher L ever saw; she has re-
manned the only one. After quarter
of a century there are still very few
women among the ministers.
And yet the records seem to have 720
names. Three hundred and fifty of
these belong to the Friends. OF the
churches which have begun to ordain
women the Universalist is at the head
of the list; it has thirty-siX women reg
ularly in the ministry and eleven others
licensed to preach. The Unitarians
have sixteen ordained women and a
large number who preach more or less
regularly. The CODgregationaliStS have
six or eight ordained women.
Olympia Brown. or, as she has since
become, Rev. Olympia Brown Willie.
was notify any means the first woman
ordained in this country. that distinc-
ton being possessed by Rev. An
toinette Brown Blackwell, who en-
tered the theological class of Oberlin Col
lege somewhere about 1877. She says
her first sermon was preached in a
schoolhouse i'll Henrietta, o., on Sun
day afternoon, and she found the peo-
pie. ''if a little more alert than usual,
especially at first, quite as attentive and
orderly as any sober-minded cOngrega-
tion." At the time Mrs. Blackwell was
ordained, some thirty-eight years ago,
she was pastor of the church of South
Butler and Savannah in Ohio, which
accordingly departed from precedent in
a manner somewhat revolutionary.
Olympia Brown has probably the long
est record of service of any woman
minister, as, although not ordained until
1863, she has been in the pulpit ever
since, while Mrs. Blackwell has retired
from pastoral duty.
Rev. Phebe A. Hanaford is probably
as widely known as any woman minis
ter. Being asked for "reminiscences of
twenty years in the pulpit, she writes:
at was IN the fall of 1866, while was
editing the magazine called the Ladies'
Repository, then published IN Boston,
that a gentleman rushed up to me one
day in a railway station and told me hat
Olympia Brown begged ME to go in her
stead to preach next day IN South Can
ton, Mass. | had spoken once or twice
in, Tame God
had not thought of becoming a preacher.
Still, went, and afterwards Miss Brown
opened the way for me so that Ireceived
a call to take parish ~in bingham. L
was ordained there as UniversaliSt
minister in February. 1868"
Mrs. Hanaford has held paStOrateS in
Waltham, Mass, in New Haven, in Jer-
sey City, where her salary for three
years was 81, 500 a year,, and again in
New Haven. She has many stories to
tell of the man who smoked at the min
isters' Monday meeting to drive her out
through her distaste for tobacco, and of
kind words spoken and help given as
well. She has preached four sermons
on one Sunday in four different towns,
riding twenty-eight miles in a carriage
to do it. She has performed the mar
rage ceremony nearly forty times and
cut senate.
Julia Ward Howe, though not known
chiefly in that capacity, is a preacher of
much ability, and Otficiates in the pull
pit occasionally. 1t was through her
efforts that the Woman'S Ministerial
conference, of which she is president.
was organized in 1882. Its present Off
GERS are Rev. Mary II. Graves, CORES
spending secretary; Rev. AdaC. B0wles,
recording secretary, and Rev. Louise s.
Baker and Rev. Mary t. Whitney, eX
ecutive committee.
The ordination in 1884 of Rev. Louise
S. Baker, whose work in the orthodox
Congregational church in Nantucket
has been very successful, presented this
popularity, that two of the four dea-
cons officiating were women.
Rev. Anna IL. Shaw, who has made
national reputation as a speaker, is
graduate of the Theological School of
Boston university, where, it may be set
down not in malice, she was generally
known as ''that Miss Shaw with the
hat" owing to some peculiaritieS of
headgear. The Methodist church re-
fused to ordain her, tho ugh it has many
women as lay preachers, and she ap-
piled accordingly to the Protestant
MethodiStS, who received her, but have
never since ordained a second woman.
Rev. Ada G.. BoWleS is probably most
widely known in the East among women
now active in the Universalist ministry;
in the West Rev. Florence KOllOck, for
twelve years pastor of a prosperous
church in Chicago, has been uncOm-
monty successful. In Sioux City, To-,
Mary A. Stafford and ElinOr Z. Gordon
have worked together and built up two
or three strong Unitarian churches.
Rev. Mia f. Upper, Rev. Carrie j.
Bartlett and Rev. Ida G. Hultin of DeS
Moines, are among the more conspicu-
Gus of Western preachers.
The Baptist church, except the Free
Will Baptist division, has taken no steps
looking to the admission of women to
its ministry. The resbyterian church
has been very conServ alive i'll the mat
ter, but in 1889 at synod of the Re-
formed Presbyterians, it was voted
that the ordination Of a woman is in
harmony with the New Testament.
The Protestant Episcopal church has
women as lay readers, deaconesses aud
members of siSterhoods. The recent
opening of the Hartford Theological
seminary (CongregationaD and the fact
that last year Oberlin college, which
grad uated Antoinette B. Blackwell
fort " years ago, printed her name for
the first time in its list of graduates in
its triennial catalogue, are regarded by
some people who believe in the minis
try of women as noteworthy signs of