The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1919-07-13
CHAPTER :.

| 1HeFe was at this time a movement OT
foot TO license women 10 preach in tho
with whom Anna was acquainted. urged
| her teacher, Miss Lucy Foot to be the
| pioneer. She did not wish to preach but
to teach, so directed the attention OF the
| minister to Anna. The minister invited
her to preach the quarterly sermon. she
says:
Miss Foot could only advise me to put
the matter before the Lord, to wrestle
! and pray; and thereafter. for hours at a
| time. she worked and prayed with me,
alternately urging, pleading. instructing.
| Orr last session was n dramatic one.
which took up the entire night. With
all my heart ! wanted to preach. and /
believed that L had now at last l had
my CALL
She preached the sermon. and the next
day her brother in law had the following
notice inserted in newspaper: "A young
cir, named Anna Shaw, seventeen years
old preached at Ashton yesterday. Her
real friends deprecate the course she is
pursuing. This was a misstatement of
her brother-in-law, she was at that
time twenty-three years of age.
Her preaching caused an estrangement
with her family. but that year she
preached thirty-six times, and the follow
Ing spring her name was presented at the
annual Methodist Conference as a candi-
date for license to preach. The
preachers voted in the affirmative. She
and her sister Mary had always been
eery close. but the warmth of her Sis
ter's love had become a memory and she
was also estranged from her parents.
When she was most dishearted and dis
couraged, Mary A. Livermore, then at
the height of her career. went to Grand
Rapids. She encouraged the ardent young
girl: My Dear" she said. ''if you want
TO preach. go and preach. Don't let
.T~ -ke1s1, 49,.
PIE say, don't let them stop you"
friend standing by said: "Oh, Mrs
l-ivermore, we are all trying to stop her.
Her people are wretched over the whole
thing. And don't you see how i'll she
is? She has one foot in the grave and the
other almost there" Mrs. Livermore
turned upon her long and deeply
thoughtful look. Yes" she said at last
Il see she hal But it is better that she
should die doing the thing she wants to
do than that she should die because she
can't do it"
In Autumn 1873 she entered Albion
College, Albion, Michigan. she was a
this time twenty-five years of age. When
she entered college she had exactly eigh-
teen dollars. Albion was a co-education-
al institution. At tho t,uinquennial re-
union it had always been customary for
tn men to elect the orator from one OF
their classmen. The girls, headed by
the school, and Anna was elected to de-
liver the grafton, the highest honor in the
gift of the school. One of her friends
wrote to her family of her honors and
her father bought her the material for
a dress, her mother and Mary paying for
the making of the gown. which was a
white alpaca, trimmed in white satin.
She says: ITO my family the Grafton was
the redeeming episode of my early ca
reer. For the moment ii almost made
them forget my crime OF preaching.
Her original fund of eighteen dollars
had been added to with proceeds from lee
lures on temperance AS licensed
preacher. she had no fees to pay. but her
beard cost her four dollars a week.
Christmas brought her "a gift from
friends of ninety-two dollars, and that,
with what she could earn. carried her
drought her first college year.
The following spring she went East to
visit her brother and was invited to
preach in the village church. Every Sun
day that summer she preached. In the
Autumn she preached at big meeting
which all the ministers of all the sur
churches attended. When she
gave out her text, she made a mistake in
quoting Scripture. and asked Can the
Ethiopian change his spots or the leopard
his skim" However. she went on with
he- sermon without other mIshap, and Mt
tn" end OF the summer was presented
dTed dollars, by various churches a
which she had preached, and returned to
college with a glad heart
From that time DR. Shaw says that life
was less complex. With temperance work |
and preaching in the country school |
houses and churches. she paid her college |
and with financial difficulties !
less perplexing. her health steadily i'm
proved.
When Anna returned to Albion College |
IN the Autumn of 1875 she says. II
brought a problem with me which tor
rnented my waking hours and chartered
on my pillow at night. Should / devote |
to the completion of my college course, |
Or instead go at once to the Boston Uni |
versity, enter upon my theological studies, |
take my degree. and about my Fa-
Tiers business?'
She was now twenty-seven years old, !
and had been a licensed preacher for /
three years. Her reputation in tire !
Northwest was growing. and she felt
that she could earn enough to pay the /
expenses of a fun college course. On !
The other hand. Boston was a new world. /
where opportunities might pe limited
world which she must practically pen
llIess.
The clear common sense inherited
rom her mother. told her which way wis
iom lay. but something else possibly an
from her visionary father.
made her pack up at the end OF three
months, waive all sage reflections. and
start for Boston where she entered the
theological school of the university Feb
uary, 1876.
Her class at the theological school was
of forty-two young men and
herself. The young men of the class who
we're licensed preachers were given free
accommodations in the uormitory, an
heir board. a club formed for their |
assistance. cost each of them only one II
ollar and a quarter a week. Instead of
he privileges of the dorm1tory. she was
flowed two dollars a week to gay the
ert of a room outside the college, and
ed herself according to her income She
tired a little attic room in fremont
treet, its only light, a sky-light. with