The morning call., 1891-09-11

The Number That Are Now Engaged In
Preachiu g-Olympia Brown Willis.
81 remember" said a woman yesterday,
"the first time 1 ever saw a woman in the
pulpit. We all turned our heads as she en-
tered the church, and have vivid mental
picture OF her tall, slim figure in black silk,
with a severe white necktie, as she walked,
with out looking to the right or left past our
pew. | was so little that, hearing her
spoken of as the Rev. Olympia Brown, ! as
sCciated her at once, and have continued in
a vague way to associate her ever since,
with the Olympia that Is on Puget Sound.
l said she was the first woman preacher l
ever saw. She has remained the only one
a tier a 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
UnlverSalst is at the head OF the list. 1t
has thirty-SiX women regularly IN the min
iStry and eleven others licensed to preach.
The UnitaranS have sixteen ordained
women and a large number who preach
more or less regularly The Congre6a-
tiuualists have six or eight ordained women.
Olympia Brown, or. as she has since be-
come, the Rev. Olympia Brown Willis, was
not the first woman to be ordained IN this
country, that distinction being possessed by
tie Rev. AntOinette Brown Black well, who
entered the theological class OF Oberiin Col
lege somewhere about 1917. She says
HER FIRST SERMON
Was preached in a sch0ol-house in Hen
rietta, Ohio, on a Sunday afternoon, and
she found the people, ''if little more alert
than usual, especially at inst, quite as at
tentive and orderly as any sober-mlnded
congregation" At the time Mrs. Blackwell
was ordained, some thirty-eight years ago,
she was pastor of the church at South But
Ter and Savannah, in Ohio, which accord
iugly departed from precedent IN manner
somewhat revolutionary. olympia Brown
has probably the longest record OF service
Of any woman minister, as, although not or
daIned until 1863, she has been in the pulpit
ever since, while Mrs. Blackwell has retired
from pastoral duty.
Rev. PL9be A. Hanaford is probably as
widely known as any woman minister. Be
ing asked for "reminiscences OF twenty. years
In the pulpit, she writes: " 1t was IN the fail
of 1866, while ] was editing the magazine
called the Ladies Repository, then published
in Boston, that gentleman rushed up to me
one day in railway station and tod me
that Olympia Brown begged me to go IN her
stead to preach next day in South Canton,
Mass l had spoken once or twice In little
house out on Cape COD, but had not thought
of becoming preacher Still | went, and
afterward Miss Brown opened the way for
me so that | received call to take parish
in bingham. | was ordained there as
UniyersaliSl minister in February, 1865
MRS. HANAFORD
Has held pastorates in Waltham, Mass, in
New Haven, in Jersey City (where her sal
aTy was for three years $500 a year., and
again in New Haven. She has many stories
to tell OF the man who smoked at the minis
tiers Monday meeting TO drive her out
through her distaste of 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-elght
miles in a carriage TO do 1t. She has per-
formed tue marriage ceremony nearly forty
times, and has acted as chaplain OF the Con-
uecticut Sen te.
Julia Ward Howe is preacher OF ability,
and officates in the pulpit occasionally. IL
was through her efforts that the WOmen's
Ministerial Conference, of which she IS
President, was organized IN 1882 Its off
GERS are the Rev. Mary Fl. Graves, Core
spending Secretary; the Rev. Ada c.
Bnwles, Recording Secretary. and the Rev.
Louise S. Baker and the Rev. Mary L.
Whitney, Executive Committee.
The ordination In 1884 Of the Rev. Louise
s. Baker, whose work in the orthodox Con-
gregational Church in Nantucket has been
very successful presented this popularity,
that two Of the four deacons officiating were
women.
The Rev. Anna q. Shaw. who has made
a national reputation as 81 esker, Is
graduate Of the Theological School Of Bos-
ton University, where, 1t may be set down
r. not in malice, she was generally known as
THAT Miss Shaw with the hat" owing to
some ppculiarities of headgeaT. The Meth
odist Church refused to ordain her, though
1t has many
WOMEN AS LAY PREACHERS,
And she applied accordingly to the Protest
ant Methodists, who received her, but have
never since ordained a second woman.
The Rev Ada c. Bowles is probably the
most widely known in the East among
women now active in the Universalist
ministry; in the West, the Rev. Florence
Kollock, for twelve years pastor OF very
prosperous church in Chicago, has been up
commonly successful. In Sioux City, Ind,
Mary A. Stafford and Elinor L. Gordon have
worked together and built up two or three
strong Unitarian churches. The Rev. Mia
f. Upper, the Rev. Carrie j. Bartlett and
the Rev. Ida c. Hultin of Des MONIES are
among the more conspicuous Of Western
preachers.
The Baptist Church, except the Free VIII
Baptist division, has taken no steps looking
10 the admission of women to IFS ministry.
The Presbyterian Church has been very
conservative in the matter, but in 1889, at a
synod of the Reformed Presbyterlans, 1t was
voted that the ordination OF woman is in
harmony with tho New Testament. The
Protestant Episcopal Church has women as
Law readers, deaconesses and members OF
sisteThOOds. The recent opening oil the
Hartford Theological Seminary (Congrega-
tionaD. and the fact that last year Oberlln
College, which graduated Antolnette b.
Blackwell forty years ago, printed her name
for the first time in its list OF graduates ID
It's triennial catalogue, are regarded by some
people who believe in the ministry OF women
as noteworthy signs of the times.
COOPERATIVE woMANHoOD.