“Of churches I think there were but two. The Methodists had a small frame building on the side of the hill in rear of where the Ogden House now stands. The Rev. Mr. Shinn was the pastor. The Congregationalists worshipped in a log building on Broadway, west of Atkins’ drugstore. The Rev. George Rice owned this property at that time. He lived with his family in one log house, and held services in the one adjoining. This latter was fitted up for a church with a row of seats around the wall made of slabs with the flat side turned up and sticks put up through the holes bored in the floor for legs. The pulpit was a dry-goods box turned up on end with the open side next the preacher. The congregation was not large and was made up of people from several denominations, many of whom were new arrivals in the city.
“EARLY CHURCH WORK.
“One morning soon after we were settled in our new home, I had a call from the Rev. Mr. Rice, of the Congregational church, inviting me to attend a meeting of the sewing society at his house in the afternoon. I went and found there about half-a-dozen ladles. This was the annual meeting, and officers were to be elected for the ensuing year. This church had commenced the erection of a new edifice on a lot donated by S. S. Bayliss, on Main and Pearl Streets, opposite the park. It was of brick and the walls already up, but they had no money to go further. The object of the ladies was to raise money for flooring and seating the new church, and they evidently wanted to infuse new spirit and aid into their society. I was consequently chosen their president, and Mrs. Sophia Douglass who was also a newcomer was elected first director—thus putting their affairs into the hands of two Episcopalians. Inasmuch as there was no church of our own here and we were attendants upon the Rev. Mr. Rice’s instructions, we took hold of the work with a will and the following winter carried through a very successful fair by which we raised money enough to put the new church in shape.
“DEFENDS WOMAN’S RIGHTS.
“Thanksgiving evening, 1855, by invitation of the Rev. Mr. Rice, I gave a temperance lecture from the pulpit of the new church and a little later, about the last of November, one on ‘Woman’s Enfranchisement’ at the Methodist church, by invitation of the Men’s Literary and Debating Society; and again, by invitation of the same society and the Rev. Mr. Rice, Jan. 18, 1856, I spoke on ‘Female Education’ at the Congregational church. During the following years I gave several lectures on some phase of the woman question.
“At the close of my lecture on ‘Woman Suffrage’ in the Methodist church, in November, 1855, I was approached by Gen. William Larimer, then of Omaha, but recently of Pittsburg, Pa., and a member of the first Nebraska legislature, with a request that I go to Omaha and repeat my lecture before the legislature. A few days later I received a formal invitation from the legislature, signed by twenty-five of its members, to give them a lecture on woman suffrage or such phase of the woman question as I might select.
“Jan. 8, 1856, I made my appearance in the House of Representatives of Nebraska, having accepted the invitation to appear before that body. I was escorted to the platform by Gen. Larimer, who made way for me through a great crowd who had congregated to hear me. Indeed, it was a packed house, men standing up between those who were sitting on benches around the room, and leaning against the wall, and the platform was so packed up to the very desk that I hardly had elbow-room. Gen. Larimer introduced me amidst silence so profound that one could almost hear a pin drop, and I was listened to with the most absorbed interest to the end. Then came great applause and a request that I give the lecture for publication. This latter I declined doing. Omaha was hardly large enough and was without daily papers and, besides, I felt that I might wish to make further use of the lecture and publishing it would prevent its again being brought out.
“THE NEBRASKA LEGISLATURE INTERESTED.
“The papers gave very flattering notices of the lecture, and it caused a great deal of excitement among the members of the legislature; those opposed to the principles it discussed showing opposition, while its friends, who were in the majority, were loud in extolling it. The result of the lecture was the bringing in of a bill in favor of woman suffrage some days later, which passed the lower house, and was read twice by the senate, and only failed of a passage because the session came to an end before it could be reached for a third reading—the last hours being consumed by the wrangling of the members over the fixing of county boundaries and the location of city sites. Men talked to kill time till the last hour expired and the session adjourned sine die. A number of important bills were not reached, the woman-suffrage bill among them. I was assured by Gov. Richardson and others that the bill would undoubtedly have passed had a little more time been allowed them. The session was one of only forty days and it was near its close when the bill was introduced. Other matters engrossed the attention and the speaker’s gavel stopped all further discussion of matters in dispute.