eacher and a graduate of the Boston Theological School, I
could not, until I had been regularly ordained, meet all the functions
of my office. I could perform the marriage service, but I could not
baptize. I could bury the dead, but I could not take members into my
church. That had to be done by the presiding elder or by some other
minister. I could not administer the sacraments. So at the New England
Spring Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, held in Boston in
1880, I formally applied for ordination. At the same time application
was made by another woman--Miss Anna Oliver--and as a preliminary
step we were both examined by the Conference board, and were formally
reported by that board as fitted for ordination. Our names were
therefore presented at the Conference, over which Bishop Andrews
presided, and he immediately refused to accept them. Miss Oliver and
I were sitting together in the gallery of the church when the bishop
announced his decision, and, while it staggered us, it did not really
surprise us. We had been warned of this gentleman's deep-seated
prejudice against women in the ministry.

After the services were over Miss Oliver and I called on him and asked
him what we should do. He told us calmly that there was nothing for
us to do but to get out of the Church. We reminded him of our years of
study and probation, and that I had been for two years in charge of two
churches. He set his thin lips and replied that there was no place
for women in the ministry, and, as he then evidently considered the
interview ended, we left him with heavy hearts. While we were walking
slowly away, Miss Oliver confided to me that she did not intend to leave
the Church. Instead, she told me, she would stay in and fight the matter
of her ordination to a finish. I, however, felt differently. I had done
considerable fighting during the past two years, and my heart and soul
were weary. I said: "I shall get out, I am no better and no stronger
than a man, and it is all a man can do to fight the world, the flesh,
and the devil, without fighting his Church as well. I do not intend to
fight my Church. But I am called to preach the gospel; and if I cannot
preach it in my own Church, I will certainly preach it in some other
Church!"

As if in response to this outburst, a young minister named Mark Trafton
soon called to see me. He had been present at our Conference, he had
seen my Church refuse to ordain me, and he had come to sugge