Lydia Sexton

Lydia Sexton (1799 - 1894) of the United Brethren Church was the first woman in any predecessor of the UMC to be licensed to preach when her application was approved by the Illinois Annual Conference in 1851.

She was born in New Jersey where her father was a Baptist minister but spent most of her adult life in the Midwest where she was widowed twice before marrying Joseph Sexton in 1829. Soon afterward she joined the UBC, eventually becoming a traveling evangelist throughout the region. At age 70 she also became the first female chaplain of the Kansas State Prison, developing a class system with nearly 100 members.

In her autobiography published in 1882 she wrote "I never preached at a place without having the satisfaction to learn that they desired me to return. I mention this only as a matter of encouragement to some of my sisters who feel that they have a call to the ministry. Do your whole duty, and look to God for help."

She is also the great-great-great aunt of current North Texas Conference East District Superintendent Vic Casad. Read Dr. Casad's reflections on his aunt here http://www.northtexasumc.org/…/message-from-vic-casad-febru…

Clementina Butler

Rev. William and Clementina Butler became two of the first missionaries of the Methodist Episcopal Church when they were sent to India in 1856. They arrived shortly before the Sapoy Mutiny and were forced into hiding for eight months. When they returned to their post in Bareilly their first priority was to found a home for the children orphaned during the fighting.

When the Butlers returned to Boston in 1864, Mrs. Butler raising money and support for their mission work. When another missionary couple returned in 1864 she was joined in her efforts by Lois Parker, they began recruiting women's groups for help in their work, forming foreign missionary societies first in the Congregational Church in 1868 and in the MEC the following year.

It was Mrs. Butler and Mrs. Parker who called for the meeting at Tremont Street MEC on March 23, 1869 where the Women's Foreign Missionary Society was begun. She was an officer for many years and her daughter, also named Clementina, continued her work by writing and publishing material for mission education.

The orphanage the Butlers founded is still a GBGM-supported organization! Read more about it here http://www.umcmission.org/…/Search-for-Pro…/Projects/3021561

Helenor Davisson

On August 24, 1866 Helenor Alter Davisson was ordained a deacon in the Methodist Protestant Church, making her the the first Methodist woman to be ordained, sixteen years before Anna Howard Shaw of the Methodist Episcopal Church. (When the MPC split off from the MEC in 1828 it did not retain the ban on female clergy, although it was reinstated in 1871.)

She was born in Pennsylvania on January 24, 1823 to Rev. John Alter and Charity VanAusdall Alter. The family moved westward to Jasper County, Indiana in 1835, and her mother died two years later leaving 14-year-old Helenor to raise her seven younger siblings and run the family sawmill. A church history in Remington, Indiana lists her and her father as circuit riders in the 1840s, and they also founded a church at Alder's Grove, a group of walnut trees behind their home.

This and one other church building, as well as their home and their graves were dedicated in 2014 as the Helenor Alter Davisson Cluster of United Methodist Sites. Read more about the dedication and Rev. Davisson's life here http://gcsrw.org/Portals/4/helenor%20davisson.pdf

Lucy Webb Hayes

The Woman's Home Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church was founded in 1880 when Jennie Hartzell traveled from New Orleans to Cincinnati to ask the General Conference to send missionaries and teachers to her area. She was referred to church women of the area and met with fifty of them at Trinity Church "to confer together concerning the organization of a society having for its purpose the amelioration of the conditions of the freed-women of the South." The purpose of the group was expanded to address needs of the entire population, and First Lady Lucy Webb Hayes was chosen as the first president of the WHMS.

Although at first she considered her role to be a figurehead because of her prominence, she quickly became involved during the last year of her husband's term of office and continued to serve the society until her death in 1889. She used her experience gained from trips to the South and the West to identify problems to be addressed, as well as seeing the need to serve the increasing immigrant population. She was especially aware of the need to provide services for women, saying "America is the cradle of the future for all the world. Elevate woman, and you lift up the home; exalt the home and you lift up the nation." Equally important, she was able to use her diplomatic skills learned as a Washington hostess to prevent friction between the Home and Foreign Missionary Societies in competition over funding.

Both President and Mrs. Hayes were life-long Methodists and even though she became known as "Lemonade Lucy" it was actually his decision not to serve alcohol at state functions in the White House. They attended Foundry MEC while in Washington and held Sunday evening services for the Cabinet and Congress, during which she led the singing. She also started the custom of the Easter Egg Roll on the White House lawn.

This is an excellent article on Mrs. Hayes by her biographer, Emily Apt Geer:http://www.rbhayes.org/…/Hayes_Historical_Journal/womens_ho…

Susanna Wesley

Welcome to Women's History Month! Who better to start with than Susanna Wesley about whom biographer Susan Pellow said, “…although she never preached a sermon or published a book or founded a church, (she) is known as the Mother of Methodism. Why? Because two of her sons, John Wesley and Charles Wesley, as children consciously or unconsciously will, applied the example and teachings and circumstances of their home life.”

She was born on January 20, 1669, the last of 25 children born to Dr. Samuel Annesley and Mary White Annesley. Her father was a dissenting clergyman who had left the Church of England, and Samuel Wesley. whom she married in 1888 shortly after Wesley's ordination, was the son of one of his colleagues. Samuel, like Susanna, had left his father's church for the Anglican church. In 1696 he was sent to the Epworth charge where he remained most of his career.

The couple had 19 children although only ten lived past infancy. She taught all the children herself, beginning with learning the alphabet on the day after their fifth birthday and progressing through Latin and Greek.

She also took charge of the children's spiritual training, and when Samuel was on an extended stay in London she disapproved of the substitute pastor he had chosen preaching only on repayment of debt and began having Sunday afternoon services at home which the children, singing hymns and reading a sermon written by her husband or her father. Others began attending the services until there were about 200 people present and very few at the morning service. Samuel asked her to stop having the services, saying it was scandalous, but she refused to do so.

Politically she was a supporter of King James I, and also refused to say "Amen" when Samuel prayed for William of Orange during family prayers. The couple separated about a year over this but reconciled in 1702 when Queen Anne ascended to the throne.

Although none of her writing was published during her lifetime, she wrote many commentaries and meditations for her own use and was an avid correspondent. Eight quotes are given here http://www.azquotes.com/author/25221-Susanna_Wesley

Immigration, 130 Years Ago

With immigration issues being in the forefront of today's news, the United Methodist News Service has shared this story of what Methodist women did in 1915 to welcome strangers at Ellis Island.

Alma Mathews

"Beginning around 1885, the Women's Home Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church in New York City (predecessor of today's United Methodist Women) identified a serious problem. Immigrant women, often traveling alone or with children in tow, arrived on American shores to join their husbands, brothers, fathers or other relatives who had come to the U.S. ahead of them. 

"Alone, they had to navigate the challenges and complexities of the immigration system and the dangerous docks of New York.  Alone — except for Helen Mathews; her husband, James; their daughter, Alma, and another person who found a small house to rent in lower Manhattan where they began a new ministry. 

"Two managed the house while the other two combed the docks seeking single women disembarking the ships. Without regard to language barriers or concerns for their own safety, they approached these women and their families and guided them through the immigration process. They offered them free lodging at the house — now called the Immigrant Girls’ Home. They helped them on the next stage of their journey, getting them to the train station or helping them to connect with family in New York or beyond...."

Read more here