[155]. Rev. Antoinette Brown Blackwell, the first woman ordained in this country.
Mrs. Blackwell writes: “At the time of my ordination I was pastor of the church of ‘South Butler and Savannah,’ New York State. The church called a council to ordain me and install me as the regular minister. It was an orthodox society in good and regular standing among other Congregational churches, and the ordination was quite according to precedent; though doubtless the Congregational body as a whole never would have ordained a woman either then, thirty-seven years ago, nor yet to-day.”—Ed. note.
[156]. Rev. Louise S. Baker, pastor of the Orthodox Congregational Church, in Nantucket, Mass., was ordained by the deacons of that church in 1884, two of the four deacons being women.
[157]. Report of the Dedication of the Mary J. Drexel Home and Mother-house of Deaconesses, December 6, 1888. In 1887 Mrs. Lucy Rider Meyer, M.D., connected with the Chicago Training School, with a few women to assist, gave the first impulse to the Deaconess movement in the Methodist Episcopal Church, which has resulted in the establishment of Mother-houses in Chicago, New York, Boston and other large cities. The church, seeing the measureless opportunities offered by such an institution, has wisely been prompt to adopt it, and this will doubtless encourage the adoption of the order by other denominations.
[158]. The Grace House Training School for Deaconesses was opened for the admission of candidates October (1890), in New York, adjoining Grace Church. The General Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church in October, 1889, provided that every candidate for the office of Deaconess, before she is set apart, shall have had “an adequate preparation for her work, both technical and religious, which preparation shall cover the period of two years.” The Grace House Training School is provided to furnish this preparation.—Ed.
[159]. Rev. Olympia Brown Willis.
[160]. “Biography of Distinguished Women,” Sarah J. Hale.
[161]. Dr. Kempin writes: The Law School for women was a private undertaking, but founded with the aim to connect it with an already existing institution after having proven its vitality. With the help of the Women’s Legal Education Society, an incorporated body of women interested in the higher education of their sex, the Law School succeeded in connecting itself with the University of the City of New York. In response to a request of the Women’s Legal Education Society the doors of the Law Department of the University were thrown open to women on the same terms as to men, and a lectureship created to which I was selected as a lecturer on the same footing as other lecturers in the Law Department and especially to instruct classes of non-matriculating students who desire a knowledge of law for practical guidance and general culture.—Ed.
[162]. Harvard chartered 1650; Yale, 1701; Columbia, 1754; William and Mary, 1693.—Ed.
[163]. See chapter on The Work of Antislavery Women.—Ed.