One last "F" - a Foremother...

F is also for foremother...

Ellen Brown Hickox Stewart
b. 1792, Middlefield, Ostego County, NY
d. 1883, Cherokee County, KS

Author of
Life of Mrs. Ellen Stewart,
Together with Biographical Sketches of Other Individuals.
Also, a Discussion with Two Clergymen,
and Arguments in Favor of Woman's Rights;
Together with Letters on Different Subjects.

~Written By Herself.~

Beebe & Elkins, Printers, Akron, Ohio, 1858.

I had the rare privilege of thoroughly LOVING my most recent research paper. "Loving" and "research paper" don't usually go hand-in-hand! However, my mom tipped me off to an amazing woman, Ellen Stewart, who was my thrice-great-grandmother. I'm in the final stages of editing a research paper on her for my Church History class.

I have included just a snippet of her writings here... I hope to actually do more with her published memoirs. She was a woman ahead of her time. I am SO grateful for all of the foremothers in our pastoring heritage!

Deb

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“St. Paul said, the gospel he preached was not after man, for he neither received of man, neither was he taught it but by the Holy Ghost, and if the same Holy Ghost teaches the same gospel to females, and teaches them that they must preach it, who is Paul, or any other man, that they shall say they shall not? The Lord by His spirit inspired the prophet Joel to say, that in the last days he would pour out his spirit upon his servants and upon his hand-maids, and they should prophesy. Now, could they prophesy without speaking? …Again, if God has bestowed gifts for one calling, has any man a right to force us to choose another? And if He intended no female should preach, why has He bestowed on some the ability to do it?”
(Life of Ellen Stewart, p.18.)


“A female must encounter, on all sides, an inveterate prejudice, founded on a misconstruction of the scriptures.” (pp. 63-64).

“This very idea, that [men and women] are not equal, has been the source of oppression of woman by man. If they counted them their equals, one code of laws would have answered for both. …They have deprived her of the right of a voice in choosing lawmakers, or in the laws by which she is governed. They compel her to pay taxes without representation, and have enacted many other laws, equally if not more oppressive. Our nation has declared that all men are born free and equal. And is not this declaration irrespective of sex, color of condition; and does not the right of free speech belong to women, as well as men?” (p. 187).