Document Type
Article
Publication Date
Spring 2023
Publication Version
Version of Record
Abstract
On a Sunday morning in July 1873, worshippers gathered for church in Brother Cheatham’s grove in Utica, Winona County, Minnesota, in the heart of America’s western frontier. Conducting the service was Ruth Matilda Rowell, an Advent Christian pastor. Assisting her was Minerva Ursula Cobb, an ordained minister in the Freewill Baptist church. The participation of two female ministers that day rendered the occasion notable. Both women were experienced preachers, with Rowell’s ministry in Minnesota dating back to the mid-1850s and Cobb’s to her arrival in 1864, with prior ministry in the state of Wisconsin. By exploring the vocational paths of these two women as they followed an urgent sense of call, we deepen our perspective on women’s public ministry in America, particularly the often overlooked roles of women in the westward spread of evangelicalism in the nineteenth century.
Publication Title
Women's History Today
Volume
3
Issue
6
First Page
14
Last Page
23
Publisher
Women's History Network
Rights
Copyright © The Journal
Recommended Citation
Lindell, Lisa R., "‘The Harvest is So Great and the Laborers are So Few’: The Public Ministry of Two Evangelical Women Preachers in Nineteenth-Century Minnesota" (2023). Hilton M. Briggs Library Faculty Publications. 57.
https://openprairie.sdstate.edu/library_pubs/57
Included in
History of Religion Commons, Social History Commons, United States History Commons, Women's History Commons, Women's Studies Commons
Comments
Posted with permission.